IT’S late at night and a friend request from a stranger pops up on your feed – it seems harmless enough, but by accepting it you might have signed your own death warrant.
Welcome to the sinister age of the ‘Facebook Killer’, a modern breed of monster forged by the dawn of social media, who, according to top criminologists, can take six chilling ‘forms’ – and put any one of us at risk.
Peter Chapman was jailed for life for the kidnap, rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall[/caption]
Murdered teenager Salum Kombo, whose friend was upset by online comments[/caption]
Over the decades, social media killers have dominated headlines, but experts explain they can wear many masks – ranging from ‘Tinder Swindler’-style con artists to jilted lovers embarrassed by their personal lives being exposed online.
In what is considered one of the first social media killings, a 17-year-old girl was lured into a meeting by an adult sex offender posing as a teenager who then kidnapped and murdered her.
Another saw a lorry driver murder his estranged wife with a meat cleaver after she changed her online status to single, while one featured a mum cryptically apologise on Facebook before killing her children.
Criminology expert David Wilson – author of A History of Modern Britain in 20 Murders – says the so-called Facebook murderers are driven mostly by a need to “perform” – and “online disinhibition” means they’re willing to push their act to breaking point.
Alongside Professor of Criminology Dr Elizabeth Yardley, he has uncovered six types of such beasts: reactor, informer, antagonist, fantasist, predator and imposter, which they expand on below.
Here, we reveal some of the most shocking cases of Facebook killers – and the disturbing psychology that drove them towards death and destruction.
Lured to death by catfish
In modern times, it’s terrifyingly easy to set up a convincing fake presence online.
Just five years after Facebook was launched, a man created a fake profile to lure in a student and kill her.
Homeless drifter Peter Chapman, 32, kidnapped and murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall in 2009.
The trainee nursery nurse was last seen alive leaving her home in Darlington, County Durham, telling her parents she was staying with a friend. Her body was found dumped in a ditch a day later, 12 miles away.
Six types of Facebook killer
Reactor
Who sees something that enrages them on Facebook, and they react violently
Informer
Uses Facebook to confess a murder, or to tell people they intend to kill
Antagonist
Engages in arguments online that escalate to confrontations in real life
Fantasist
The line between what is real and what is fake becomes blurred
Predator
Creates a fake persona online
Imposter
Posts pretending to be their victim to maintain the illusion they are still alive
Teenager Ashleigh Hall was lured into a meeting with her killer on Facebook[/caption]
She had around 400 friends on Facebook, all of whom she knew.
But she was one of 173 people to accept a friend request from a “good-looking bare-chested 17-year-old boy going by the name of Peter Cartwright”.
They began to chat online and she went to meet him in person – but he turned out to be convicted sex offender Chapman.
He had spent months creating fake profiles hoping to lure in a victim, making contact with 2,981 girls aged between 13 and 31.
Days before he murdered Ashleigh, Chapman tried to tempt another girl, 15, into his car in Hartlepool after using the same Facebook trick.
Chapman – an example of a Predator killer – was arrested and sentenced to 35 years in jail.
Killed over an online insult
One year later, a teenager was jailed for murder after he stabbed a young boy in retaliation for insulting him on Facebook.
The unnamed teen, then aged 15, stabbed his former friend Salum Kombo, 18, in Bromley-by-Bow, east London, to death over a “loss of face” after trading insults online.
The boy – an example of an Antagonist killer – stabbed Salum in the chest for what the judge called a “pathetic” reason – that the older teen had called him a “p***y”.
The argument stemmed from the attacker not being invited to a party, it was reported at the time.
The boy was locked up for 14 years, and the judge said the dispute was a “silly argument” and the attacker had an “over-sensitivity about his own dignity and status”.
‘Sorry for what I’m going to do’
In 2011, a mum killed her three children after driving into the Hudson River in America.
Just half an hour before the tragedy, she made a haunting post on Facebook.
Lashanda Armstrong, 25, wrote: “I’m sorry everyone forgive me please for what I’m gonna do… This is it!!!”
Her four kids — Lashaun, 10, Landon, five, Lance, two, and 11-month-old Lainaina — were all in the minivan at the time.
Lashaun was the only survivor, climbing through an open window and swimming to shore.
Lashunda is an example of an Informer in the six types of Facebook killer – asking for forgiveness online before driving into the river.
LaShanda Armstrong drove a minivan into the Hudson River with herself and her four children inside[/caption]
Armstrong killed Landon Pierre, five, Lance Pierre, two, and 11-month-old Laianna Pierre[/caption]
Flowers float in the Hudson River where the tragedy took place[/caption]
Murdered over a status change
In 2008, lorry driver Wayne Forrester was left “humiliated and devastated” after his wife Emma changed her relationship status to single.
They had been married for 15 years but just four days after he moved out of their home near Croydon, south London, he felt blindsided by the status change.
He rang her parents complaining that the post made him “look like a fool”.
Forrester drove to their marital home armed with a kitchen knife and a meat cleaver and murdered Emma as she lay in bed.
Fuelled by cocaine and booze, he stabbed her repeatedly in the head, neck and arms.
When cops arrived, he walked out holding a carton of juice and he confessed, telling officers: “My wife is in there. I’ve killed her.”
Forrester – an example of a Reactor Facebook Killer – was locked up for 14 years.
Origins of the dating app killer
David says this type of behaviour can be seen in murderers dating back to before the digital age.
He pointed to the infamous Brides in the Bath murders where the killer used fake identities to marry and drown three women.
David told The Sun: “We had the Tinder Swindler, the Brides in the Bath murderer, he was effectively a Tinder Swindler.
“He was pretending to be somebody that he wasn’t as a way of attracting partners, female partners, and then he killed them.”
George Joseph Smith was hanged for the murder of three women in what became known as the Brides in the Bath Murders[/caption]
Alice Reavil, one of the bigamous wives of the Brides in the Bath murderer[/caption]
Alice Burnham was killed by Smith in Blackpool in December 1913[/caption]
This was in 1914, when newly married Margaret Lofty was found drowned in her bath the day after her wedding to John Lloyd.
But the year before, a nearly identical case saw Alice Burnham drowned in her bath – discovered by her husband George Smith, who cops noted didn’t seem that distressed by her demise.
And the year before her death, Beatrice “Bessie” Mundy was tragically discovered drowned in a bath by her husband.
All three deaths had no signs of violence and were designated as sad accidents.
Eventually, cops realised all three husbands were in fact the same man – George Joseph Smith.
He was arrested in 1915 and a jury found him guilty within 20 minutes. He was sentenced to death.
Smith could be termed as a Predator killer, despite committing the crimes before the internet even existed.
David told The Sun: “We have these repeated iterations of the same or similar phenomenon.
“There will always be some people who will want to use their power to control other people.
“In terms of social media, what we’re finding criminologically is that, bizarrely, there is a performative element of it.
“One of the things I’ve drawn attention to publicly is I’m always amazed by the number of offenders who film themselves committing crime, which of course doesn’t make any sense, does it?
“Because you’re like, oh, well, there’s the evidence to convict you.”
Out now: A History of Modern Britain in 20 Murders is published by Sphere, Hardback, Audio and eBook £25 and David discusses it on his upcoming book tour.
Criminology expert David Wilson spoke to The Sun[/caption]
