Template:Did you know nominations/Lois Riess

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: rejected by reviewer, closed by Cielquiparle talk 10:44, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

Lois Riess

(

)

... ~~that Lois Riess killed a woman named Pamela Hutchinson and assumed her identity without undergoing surgery?~~

that Lois Riess became the subject of true-crime documentaries after befriending a woman whom she resembled before killing her and assuming her identity? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Afrowriter (talk • contribs) 07:24, 5 February 2025 (UTC)

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43835840

Reviewed:
Comment: This is my first DYK submission, and I’m not entirely sure how the process works. However, after doing some reading, I decided to give it a try.

Created by Afrowriter (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Afro 📢Talk! 05:05, 30 January 2025 (UTC).

While the hook is a convicted murderer, I'm still not sure if the hook would meet WP:DYKBLP. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 09:25, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't think it's undue to have a murder hook about someone known entirely for her murders. "named Pamela Sellers Hutchinson" needs trimming though.--Laun chba ller 19:24, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

What Launchballer said. Gatoclass (talk) 05:49, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

The hook isn't all that great regardless. How about something like:

ALT1: * ... that Lois Riess became the subject of true-crime documentaries after befriending a woman whom she resembled before killing her and assuming her identity? Gatoclass (talk) 00:12, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

Hi, sorry. but this looks abandoned.Afro 📢Talk! 09:39, 22 February 2025 (UTC).

Somebody needed to verify ALT1 - thanks, Gatoclass (talk) 08:33, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Hi, sorry. What is the latest update on this? It seems to have been abandoned.Afro 📢Talk! 11:39, 11 February 2025 (UTC).

I'm a bit confused about the status of this DYK nom too. @Afrowriter: I can't verify ALT1, as the citation given in this version of the article ([1]) does not verify that she has been the subject of multiple true crime docs. I have removed the sentence in question. TBH, I don't see why ALT0 couldn't run, it's much more interesting. Tenpop421 (talk) 21:45, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

What needs to happen is that someone needs to give this a full review.--Laun chba ller 11:39, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Article is new enough (submitted on day of GA); long enough (6k+ characters). Lots of sources – mostly newspaper articles, but also TV news websites, magazine articles, the state attorney's office website, and a realtor website. Tone is factual and neutral. QPQ is not required as this is the nominator's first. (Welcome!) Unfortunately I don't think the mugshot of the person qualifies as Public Domain or Fair Use, as it's not a photograph taken by the United States federal government agency (e.g., FBI); it was taken by a local PD (South Padre Island Police Department). So it needs to be removed. I am tweaking ALT1 slightly to address the concern raised above that the article and sources only discuss 1 documentary (the HBO one), not multiple documentaries (plural).

ALT1a: ... that Lois Riess became the subject of a true-crime documentary after befriending a woman whom she resembled, killing her, and assuming her identity?

Also simplified the structure of the sentence as there was both an "after" and a "before" in it. Anyway, @Afrowriter: Please remove the mugshot and we should be good to go. Cielquiparle (talk) 05:48, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

@Afrowriter and 750h+: I have gone ahead and removed the local police department mugshot and tagged the photo for speedy deletion. (Another editor had already flagged that the image did not qualify as a photograph taken by the United States federal government, but tried to justify continuing use of the photo based on the claim that the subject is deceased. However, this article is a biography of a living person and thus is subject to WP:BLP rules.) Once the photo is deleted, we can mark this article as "passed" for DYK purposes. Cielquiparle (talk) 11:17, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

My edit has been reverted by Marchjuly who says that long-term incarcerated individuals are treated the same as deceased and thus do not have the same protections as BLPs. I was not familiar with this guideline so I am leaving this for another DYK reviewer to review and approve. Cielquiparle (talk) 11:57, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

Just a quick comment on the above since I was pinged above: I think the image is OK from a non-free content use policy standpoint, but whether it shouldn't be used in the article for other (i.e. encyclopedic) reasons is probably something to resolve through article talk page discussion. One thing to understand, though, is that non-free content can only be used in the article namespace per WP:NFCC#9, which means it can't be displayed on the main page or any other pages related to this DYK nomination. If someone tried to do that, a bot would remove the file (perhaps quite quickly). -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:03, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

@Afrowriter: I'm concerned about the consistency between the text of this article with the in-line citations. I'm not clear from the GA review whether a spot-check was done, but doing one on the current version: citation 12 does not say anything about escalating gambling debts and financial troubles; citation 6 does not say that Bloomington Prairie was their hometown, but in fact says the opposite (their hometown was Rochester); citation 21 does not verify that her case was featured on programs such as America’s Most Wanted. This is not to mention the above hook, which was cited to a source that did not back up the hook fact! The article is also bizarrely phrased in places (she was "described" as a grandmother?). I will take this to WP:GAR. Tenpop421 (talk) 16:20, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

@Tenpop421: I have revised the article by removing awkward phrasing, adding citations to support the claims, and correcting the misinformation regarding America’s Most Wanted. basically i have fixed all the issues highlighted...Afro 📢Talk! 7:47, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

@Afrowriter: I just spot checked another sentence (footnote 19) and found that the claim was that "Riess pleaded guilty" whereas the article said "Riess was charged", and nothing about any plea. It seems like maybe the article was written and then footnotes were added after the fact rather haphazardly. It seems pretty clear this article should not have passed GA and is not ready to be featured on the main page at this time, and is beyond easy fixes. For future, please note that each footnote should be citing a source that verifies the specific claim made in the immediately preceding sentence. Cielquiparle (talk) 10:42, 6 March 2025 (UTC)