This isn't 4chan...

I'm sure there's good and bad, like any large community. I was referring specifically to the semi-regular vigilante justice acts like this: http://gawker.com/5622237/how-4chan-brought-the-evil-british-cat-lady-to-justice

I saw the following article about this today:

"The internet vigilantes: Anonymous outs man, 32, 'who drove girl, 15, to suicide by spreading topless photos of her'"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218532/Amanda-Todd-Anonymous-names-man-drove-teen-kill-spreading-nude-pictures.html

There are good people in law enforcement who are capable of conducting an investigation of this sort. What's more they have powers to gather ISP logs and other information with a warrant to discover the identity of the culprit.

This is a sad tale but taking upon yourself (or expecting it from another) to investigate this type of incident may be counter-productive and potentially harmful. If evidence is tampered with e.g. unauthorised access to a mail account then the proper judicial process can be put at risk. Legal questions such as what laws have been broken arise and there's often not a good, tested answer at this time.

I share your feelings but this is not a road I suggest we go down. The only exception to this would be in the case of investigative journalism or a privately contracted investigator. Both should be aware of the law and how to conduct an investigation with a view to handing it over to law enforcement if need be.