EXCLUSIVE: The Cornell 7 Lawsuit Served the Wrong Person. Now Heâs the Target of an Internet Mob.
Mom of the mistakenly identified Matthew Ingalls begs vigilantes to leave them alone. âMy familyâs been terrorized, threatened, and harassed.â
@FrannieBlock reports for
@TheFP
At 8 p.m. on Saturday night, Victoria Ingalls heard a banging sound at her front door.
There was a man standing outside her house in upstate New York. âIs Matthew Ingalls your son?â he asked.
Victoriaâs son is an active duty sergeant in the Marine Corps. âMy heart went in my throat,â she told me. She assumed she was about to hear the news that every military family dreads.
Instead, the man handed her an envelope with a 101-page lawsuit inside, accusing her son of being among seven Cornell university students who allegedly raped and sexually abused a female student, identified as Jane Doe, over the course of seven hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
But Victoriaâs son, 23, never attended Cornell. The court, the family soon figured out, had served the wrong Matthew Ingalls and had added the Ingallsâ home address to the official docket.
Online vigilantes targeting the alleged perpetrators of the alleged gang rape didnât know that. They began searching Matthew Ingallsâ name as soon as the lawsuit was filed, and when they found details about Sergeant Ingalls and his family, they started posting the familyâs details, including their phone numbers, on the internet.
In one post on X, an individual posted her sonâs address with the caption: âThis is definitely NOT Matthew Ingallsâ new phone number and address!. . . . Posting this for public awareness so people know to NOT reach out.â In another post, Victoria said she came across posts with her sonâs name on them, with pictures of woodchippers and captions like âwe canât get caught if they canât find bodies.â
Victoriaâs daughter, 26, received a text message with a photo of the Cornell student Matthew Ingalls and a screenshot of a Google Earth image of her brotherâs house. Her mother said she had no idea what it meant at the time, but she now understands it to be a clear threat. Then, Victoria said, the texts became more extreme: âDo the world a favor and go kill yourself,â read one. âGet fucked in the ass to death bitchâ and âKill yourself,â read others.
âMy familyâs been terrorized, threatened, and harassed,â Victoria told me. âI am just amazed at the way people behave. I canât believe that people will just look someone up on the internet, take a phone number, and start texting someone or calling someone and saying the vile things theyâre saying. You donât even know if you have the right person. Youâre creating more victims.â