internet murder news from all over

[substitute]

So, yeah, they found the body of the 17-year-old girl who got murdered in VA. And they have a person of interest whom she met on the Internets. And they both have LJs and myspaces, and he has a deviantart gallery with lots of creepy-ass pictures of young-looking girls, and her LJ name is "jailbait" backwards, and it's really fucking depressing

Comments

[ranai]

I'd seen Taylor Behl's myspace and I knew that the had to be investigating it and any other accounts she had, and it made me wonder if HE was online... she has some nice, semi-professional shots of herself in her pics. When I heard the suspect was a photographer I was all junior detective like, "MAYBE IT'S HIM"

and holy fuck did you see his deviantart pieces with skulls superimposed onto chicks' faces?

...ew.

[zarriq]

I don't know what they expect to accomplish commenting on a dead girl's journal.

yeah, seriously

[substitute]

I guess to the people who actually knew her it's the equivalent of the teenaged thing where they put the little death shrine where the car rolled with flowers etc.

For the others it's clearly some kind of narcissistic Internet griefwankery. Surprise!

somewhat related

[potatohead]

I have both a myspace account and an LJ (lol, no really?!)... I've always thought that myspace was so much sketchier than LJ. I know they both have the potential to be totally creepville, but myspace just seems like an excuse for creepy men to prey on high school girls. With LJ at least you get to read people's entries to get to know them, or what they are portraying anyway. And while it's easy to make up a fake identity on LJ, it's a lot harder to keep it up than it is to send a one sentence picture comment or whatever to a little girl on myspace.

Some of my [not-internet inclined] friends make fun of me for keeping a LJ, but I've always defended it... comparing it to a modern day comparison to the pen pals we had in elementary school. Then something like this happens and it makes me sick. I don't really know where I'm going with this, other than that people need to stop being so trusting of people they barely know.

Re: somewhat related

[substitute]

I've always thought that myspace was so much sketchier than LJ.

Oh definitely. Myspace is about pictures, and LJ is about words. In particular Myspace is for teenagers and very young adults, and it functions essentially as a free dating service. I have no objection to the eye candy, but it's got to be a great place to be a predator. Just pick the most vulnerable young people -- exhibitionists, lost kids, abuse victims -- and off you go.

I actually do communicate with some people via Myspace and I like some of the music promotion uses of it. But it's mostly about sexual tension.

Re: somewhat related

[potatohead]

i just added you on myspace. we are obviously soulmates as we have the same david hasselhoff picture.

one note

[salome_st_john]

They didn't actually meet online - according to the news stories, they met when she visited the campus before going to school there. Which doesn't make it any less creepy, depressing, or whatever, and I don't know why I'm being so pedantic and making this point. Except maybe to say that you can meet weird, creepy, bad motherfuckers anywhere and shitty things happen with or without Myspace, LJ, or whatever. It's just those things give the rest of us a chance to peek in on those nutters without having to wait for the book.