It took eleven days, and it was not detective work. It was one email, to the local reporter whose social-media account the screenshots had first appeared on in October of 2021 — a woman named Priya Raman, who had since moved to a paper in Denver, and who wrote back within four hours.

Mr. Brennan — I’ve been half-expecting this email for two years, which probably tells you something.

I can’t give you the source under any circumstances; that’s not negotiable and I hope you understand it isn’t personal. What I can tell you is three things, and I’ll stand behind all of them.

(1) The screenshots came to me directly from someone inside your family, unsolicited, at 11:11 p.m. on the night of the incident.

(2) The photograph of your daughter was in the images I received. It was in the thread, so it came with them. I did not publish it. I want to be clear that a great many outlets did.

(3) Whoever sent them was not confused about what they were doing. There was a message with them. It was three sentences long and it named the outlets they’d already gone to.