Say you traced these coins to 50 different addresses. And then, for example, say that those addresses lay dormant for 3 months. And then 45 of those addresses send bitcoins somewhere on the same day. That would imply that the coins are under the control of a single owner.
I agree it is difficult and beyond the scope of just writing a simple script.
This seems like the best way to go about it. Use statistical analysis to find similarities between wallets involved in transactions stemming from the root. When you can give a qualitative "Here's where these coins are going", you can start to identify the culprit. Since there doesn't seem to be a legal framework to prosecute such theft anyway, I'd really just want to find them to congratulate them. Sorry to anybody who lost their coins :(
Say you traced these coins to 50 different addresses. And then, for example, say that those addresses lay dormant for 3 months. And then 45 of those addresses send bitcoins somewhere on the same day. That would imply that the coins are under the control of a single owner.
I agree it is difficult and beyond the scope of just writing a simple script.