I've got a formula I'm looking for-

Weird news stories from after 9/11 but before 2015 that were obsessed over by the media and broadcast far and wide.

Especially stories which have obviously false details at their heart, and extraneous numbers that get repeated ad nauseum from source to source.

Ideas I've had so far-

1. The disappearance of Gov. Mark Sandford- the SC governor disappeared for 6 days before being found in Argentina. I remember a lot of public speculation at the time that he was connected to sex rings:

https://gawker.com/5301923/the-mark-sanford-disappearance-gets-even-weirder

2. The Tuam babies- a crazy story from 2014 where an orphanage in Ireland supposed buried 800 babies in a septic tank over the course of a few decades. This was the first "fake news" I was ever aware of- before Trump popularized the term- because it is literally impossible. How big is a septic tank? How did they get the body parts to flush? Were the nuns renting backhoes and digging it up all the time?

It was proven false almost immediately, but in Googling I found a NYT article from Jan. 21st of this year still referencing it as factual. Whatever this is communicating is still relevant in the U.S. at least.

There have to be a million suggestions- let 'em rip! I'm ready to research!