Squire cites Lucy’s case, which he tackled early in his career, as the inspiration for his long-term dedication.
He found it especially disturbing that Lucy was about the same age as his own daughter, and new photos of her being assaulted, seemingly in her bedroom, were constantly appearing.
Squire and his team could see, from the type of light sockets and electrical outlets visible in the images, that Lucy was in North America. But that was about it.
They contacted Facebook, which at the time dominated the social media landscape, asking for help scouring uploaded family photos – to see if Lucy was in any of them. But Facebook, despite having facial recognition technology, said it “did not have the tools” to help.
So Squire and his colleagues analysed everything they could see in Lucy’s room: the bedspread, her outfits, her stuffed toys. Looking for any element which might help.
And then they had a minor breakthrough. The team discovered that a sofa seen in some of the images was only sold regionally, not nationally, and therefore had a more limited customer base.
But that still amounted to about 40,000 people.
“At that point in the investigation, we’re [still] looking at 29 states here in the US. I mean, you’re talking about tens of thousands of addresses, and that’s a very, very daunting task,” says Squire.