THE image of Carlee Soto terrified and crying into her phone is a permanent reminder of the horror of the Sandy Hook massacre.

Soto is pictured with one hand on her phone and the other on her heart. She is trying desperately to gather information about her sister, Vicki, a teacher at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.

For Ms Soto, the fear was real. Vicki didn’t make it out of her classroom. She was among the six staff and 20 students shot and killed on December 14, 2012, when a crazed Adam Lanza stormed the school and opened fire.

Despite that image and despite overwhelming evidence, a small but vocal percentage of the American population has called Carlee Soto a liar, a “crisis actor” and a pawn in the Obama Administration’s staged school shooting.

media_camera Carlee Soto uses a phone to get information about her sister, Vicki Soto, a teacher at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown on Friday, December 14, 2012. Picture: Jessica Hill/AP

The Sandy Hook “truthers” took their theories a step further this week when they tracked Ms Soto down, threatened her family and posted her address online. As she grieves her sister’s loss three years on, she’s faced with fear all over again.

On a memorial page dedicated to Vicki Soto, her family described how they were “scared to go home” after users on photo sharing site Instagram shared their home address.

“We don’t normally like to post these kind of things, but this just needs to be put out there in hopes someone will help us,” the family wrote on Facebook.

“Carlee and her husband are scared to go home. These accounts on Instagram have posted their home address and sent threatening messages. There are close to 20 accounts that keep reposting this information.

media_camera Carlee Soto testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013. Picture: Susan Walsh/AP

“We have asked the police for help, we have asked Instagram for help and now we are asking for your help. Do you know someone at Instagram that can help us?”

The family shared a number of messages sent to them. In one message, user @divinely_awakened_ wrote to Carlee’s husband Brent: “They’re coming after you. They know who you and your wife are. They know where you live.”

In another message, user @anon_perkeletic shared the family’s details with a message accusing Ms Soto of being an actor.

“The whole world is wondering about this girl who pops up on every major attack around the world. She has been on every media around the world crying her eyes. It was time to finally put an end to it and reveal everything about her. She has been exposed. Make her viral.”

media_camera Vicki Soto died protecting her students at Sandy Hook, but conspiracy theorists have another idea about what happened. Picture courtesy ABCNews.com

Conspiracy theorists labelled Carlee Soto as a “fraudster” soon after the massacre. They targeted her on social media and on truther websites.

NoDisInfo.com, a website which aims to “provide information that isn’t twisted”, wrote in 2013 that Ms Soto “is a false identity” and “all that comes out of the mouth of this individual is terminal lies”.

The long list of Sandy Hook conspiracy theories all hinge on one theory in particular: that President Barack Obama created a hoax attack to demand stronger gun control measures.

Ms Soto is not the only victim targeted by the Newtown truthers. The family of Emilie Parker, a six-year-old girl who was shot and killed on that Friday morning, have also been labelled liars.

Online, there are dozens of videos about the young blonde girl’s family being fake.

Salon pointed out recently that if you Google Emilie Parker, the very first result is a post mocking her father for crying at a press conference after the shooting. A YouTube video takes that a step further.

For Ms Soto’s family, dealing with conspiracy theorists has become a normal part of their grieving process. But this week, with the anniversary of the massacre approaching, they were forced to fight back.

“This is very scary to our family and as 12/14 approaches we are even more scared that this will escalate into physical violence. We have been through enough and each day is harder than the one before. This just makes it all very stressful for us during an already difficult time.”

Originally published as Conspiracy theorists turn feral