Grieving in the age of social media

CINCINNATI - All the praying wouldn't keep Larry Anderson alive, no matter how hard or how often his mother, Mizzan Anderson, prayed.  Larry Anderson was shot dead in Evanston, Ohio, on Dec. 7, 2009.

Anderson immediately took her grief online. She started a Facebook page and posted funeral information. Friends tweeted.  She even turned to Facebook when she was looking for her son's killer.

And it worked. All of it.

She grieved with friends, even strangers online. And tips lead to the arrest of her son's killer, Walter Johnson.

"That's what I was looking for, answers," Anderson said.  "Why?  Why?  Why?  So I was posting stuff all the time"

Anderson is part of a trend. Go online now and you will find page after page on social networks dedicated to those who were murdered in Connecticut. Some pages are started by strangers who want to help and say what's on their mind.

" I think about these mothers who are just now on that journey burying their kids," Anderson said. "The funeral service it's all big, everything is happening now, but when the cameras are gone and all the lights and all the actions, that's when your pain really starts."

Funeral homes are now starting to understand the power of social media.  Some offer "cyber packages" where they will create a Facebook and Twitter page for you and host a virtual funeral for those who can not attend.