I was actually nearly kidnapped as a child in the 90s and have tried to contact investigators with tips previously to cases I believe are related - …m.wikipedia.org/…/Disappearance_of_Morgan_Nick
Afaik, they never followed up on my lead and at the time I was unable to contact her mother and idk if it’s ethical really for me to contact the family vs investigators. My experience with contacting investigators with leads is that it’s pointless. Especially for a huge case like Maxwell, the tips get lost in the noise.
I will say public analysis of crimes tends to be done well. I’m not talking about reddit and the Boston bomber. I’m talking about the Don’t Fuck With Cats people, and the people in Portland who forced PPB to investigate a serial killer after 5 women showed up dead - they initially said no, it’s unrelated, and then caught Jesse Calhoun. I’m talking about the retired investigators and volunteers who work missing persons/jane doe cases in their spare time in dedicated forums to help identify dead people (I used to volunteer for these programs until my dreams were haunted with dead faces).
It helps a LOT to get public awareness if you want police to do their jobs.