What are the legal ramifications for setting up a hoax treasure hunt where people die

[ruthabeau57]

Im not saying that it was all a hoax but I'm curious if it were, would there be legal ramifications? If a lawsuit does happen, would it force the one that found the treasure to reveal his identity? At least to a judge or a private jury?

 

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[MidMoTreasure]

I don't think so. The difficulty is proving causation - that is, the hoaxer caused the death of the person. If someone goes out looking for treasure and gets themselves killed by falling, dehydration, snake bite, banditos, etc, it is hard to claim that the hoaxer legally caused it. The hoaxer didn't force the person to go out in to some hostile environment. The person made the choice to go out in search of riches based on the declaration of one person.

Now, compare this to the folks who are criminally and civilly liable for encouraging people to kill themselves. Those folks knowingly egg on a person into danger and the law says they can be held accountable. If the hoaxer knows of a danger and encourages hapless treasure hunters to go to the danger, then I can see the case for criminal or civil liability.

An example would be if there is a hidden pit-o-death that is nearly impossible to see and a hoaxer knows about it. The hoaxer tells people he buried lots of fat loot and gives the approximate location as the area where hoaxer knows the pit-o-death is. Hoaxer tells people to go there now because the first to find the super cool treasure cache will be wealthy beyond their wildest dreams and be able to move out of their parent's basement, get a car made within the last decade, and maybe even know the tender touch of a woman. Hoaxer knows or should know that people will respond to his encouragement by going into the very dangerous area and will likely die by falling in the pit-o-death. Hoaxer would probably be criminally and civilly liable for the deaths and injuries of the folks who perish in search of his pretend horde.