Study Reveals 6 Types Of ‘Facebook Murderers’

Cynthia Udoka Osokogu (Photo source: Jaguda.com)

Two years ago when the daughter of retired military officer, Cynthia Udoka Osokogu was found dead in a Lagos hotel, Nigeria woke to a new reality: murder by killers met through Facebook. Subsequent investigation discovered that Cynthia was murdered by friends she met via Facebook. The friends were alleged to have picked her up, and robbed her of all her money and belongings and then strangled her. The murderers were caught when they answered Cynthia’s phone which they had taken from her and the call was traced to FESTAC, and enabled the police and family to find her body in the morgue which also led them to the hotel. They were identified as university students and confessed to killing 5 others in a similar pattern.

Now a Birmingham City University team has studied the phenomenon of Facebook murderers. 
RT.com reports in the latest study on the impact of social networking on criminal behavior, researchers have identified six types of killers who turn to Facebook to track and lure their prey or otherwise used the social networking site in their crimes.

A Birmingham City University team, led by Dr. Elizabeth Yardley and Professor David Wilson from the Centre of Applied Criminology, in their study published in Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, investigated 48 cases of “Facebook murder” from around the world between 2008 and 2013.

The research used cases of homicide in which Facebook was a significant factor in the murder.

“We had been coming across references to 'Facebook Murder' in the media over the past few years but there had been no research in this area. We wanted to see whether homicides in which Facebook was reported to have been involved were any different to other homicides and found that on the whole they are not – victims knew their killers in most cases, and the crimes echoed what we already know about this type of crime,” Dr. Yardley said.

Reuters/Dado Ruvic

The team then analyzed the results to identify six different types of murderers who use the social networking giant for their malicious intentions. The types were split into reactor, informer, antagonist, fantasist, predator and imposter.

The Reactor tops the list with 27 percent and constitutes a case where the perpetrator sees a piece of news on Facebook and reacts to it by “attacking the victim face-to-face.” Researchers point to the case of Wayne Forrester as a typical example of reactionary lethal force. In 2008, Forrester, 34, drank alcohol and got high on cocaine before hacking his wife to death with a meat cleaver in a rage over her Facebook entry where she changed her marital status to “single”. In October, 2008, Forrester was jailed for a minimum of 14 years in UK prison.

The Informer warns others on Facebook that he or she intends to kill the victim or has already killed the victim. Such category, with 22.9 percent of the cases, use Facebook to demonstrate their “control” over the victim. Will Cornick, 16, who was sentenced for at least 20 years on Monday for stabbing his Spanish teacher fits this type of behavior, researchers believe.

“He fits that pattern of people who will let everybody know what it is they intend to do,” Prof. Wilson said about the teenager who for more than four months had been telling Facebook friends about his wishes to murder the 61-year old Ann Maguire from Leeds.

The Antagonist with 16.7 percent of the cases is usually involved in “hostile exchanges on Facebook that escalate into face-to-face fatal violence.” Fear of a potential encounter with their adversaries leads such people to arm themselves. In 2010, a 15-year-old boy who fatally stabbed a former friend, Salum Kombo, over traded insults on Facebook, was jailed for at least 14 years.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

Fantasists abuse social media to indulge in a fantasy which could lead to a homicide. Some 12.5 percent of Facebook murders fit this profile, as they vent their fantasies on the social network and “the line between fantasy and reality” becomes “increasingly blurred” for them. Mark Twitchell, is the iconic figure in this category. The 35-year old Canadian was convicted in 2011 for killing John Brian Altinger. In his defense the murderer said that he was inspired by the Dexter Morgan character in the Dexter television series.

Predator, with 12.5 percent of Facebook murders, describes someone who uses a fake profile to lure a victim into a trap. In 2010, Peter Chapman, known as the "Facebook killer” received 35 years for the murder of a 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall who he lured to her death.

And finally the Imposter with 8.3 percent of the examined homicides, “posts in the name of someone else” to create the illusion that the victim is still alive or pretends to be another person to “gain access to and monitor the victim's profile,” the authors say. The case of Andrew Lindo stands as the primary example. In 2010 he killed his partner Marie Stewart before sending messages from Facebook claiming she had left for the Canary Islands.

While the police are still coming to terms with the new study, Facebook said Tuesday the US government has increased requests to gain access to user information by 24 percent in the first half of 2014 over the second half of last year. The social network mammoth announced 34,946 requests for data made by the authorities.
“We're aggressively pursuing an appeal to a higher court to invalidate these sweeping warrants and to force the government to return the data it has seized,” the company said in a company blog post on Tuesday.