Social Media Monsters: Internet Killers (True Crimes Collection RJPP Book 16)

by RJ Parker

  After his death, several of Brady’s friends spoke with the media. One of them was twenty-three-year-old Brittany Zemaitis. She claimed that Brady had sunk into a deep depression after his fiancée broke of their engagement. He allegedly spoke about suicide and once told her that he was a dangerous person. She said he had once told her wished he could live in an era where he could kill people with his bare hands.

  Brady’s former roommate also spoke with the media after the brutal slayings. Rachel Morris claimed she wasn’t surprised by his actions. She claimed his depression had begun to escalate and she knew he was having bad dreams and writing dark poetry. She moved out of the home in 2012 when he warned her he was having dark thoughts about killing her. Rachel told the media she urged Brady to speak to a mental health professional and he told her he believed he was suffering from schizophrenia but he was terrified of losing his job. “I think in the end,” she said, “the fears and the thoughts that he was having won—and Brady didn’t.”

  At the time of this writing, investigators were comparing notes with other police departments in Michigan and working to determine if Brady Oestrike might be connected with any other crimes, including that of the disappearance of Jessica Heeringa, a night clerk at an Exxon gas station in Grand Rapids who mysteriously disappeared on April 26, 2013.

  Chapter 34: How Law Enforcement Uses Social Media to Hunt Criminals

  While this book has mainly focused on the negative aspects of social media, there is a positive side that we haven’t yet discussed. There is no doubt, whatsoever, that law enforcement agencies are using social media to solve various crimes in the world.

  It has been known that criminals are using the social networks regularly to boast about their crimes. They interact with their friends about how they plotted their crimes. Some have gone so far as to upload images and videos incriminating themselves, not realizing that the police would actually see them. What they don’t realize is that in many cases, a Facebook friend in the same community could actually be a paid confidential informant. RJ Parker once said in an interview, “man is a social animal and perhaps a criminal man is more so.” Criminals who cannot hold back from online bragging are a big blessing to both the police department and prosecutors all over the world.

  The Center for Social Media at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) reported that police departments first ventured out into the social networking channels by tapping into MySpace around 2005, which then spread to Facebook and grew from there.

  Private investigators attached to credit bureaus have also become socially sophisticated after using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to prove frauds after confirming the identities of suspects. Sometimes their efforts are as plain as checking photographs but they can even identify people by the way they post their status updates—they can often determine whether people are natives of the region or from other states or countries by checking the grammar and colloquial language they use on social media.

  How has social media become a helpful instrument in tracking criminals?

  Every one of us leaves some kind of clues concerning our lives all over the social media channels, just like fingerprints. Social media has changed the ways business is conducted on a professional range from Facebook to Twitter and from LinkedIn to MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube. Officers of law enforcement agencies have been able to find unique methods to use the social networking channels to hire informants and to solve crimes. Social networking has proven to be the ideal partner in preventing and solving crimes. This also includes blogs, blog comments, chat rooms, forums, and news article comments. Big Brother is watching them all for particular key words in a very sophisticated program that is shared internationally.

  Today, with the help of social media, many investigation agencies are able to gain new insights into how crimes were committed in their communities, counties, and states. There is no denying the fact that Facebook and Twitter are definitely helping these agencies to catch criminals. Police are now in a position to get tipped off from friends of the suspects once a particular suspect starts posting or boasting about his or her deviant behavior on these sites. The detectives are also gathering evidence from videos, pictures, and comments that are being posted by suspects and their friends on sites like YouTube. The ability to gain insight into the mentality of a possible suspect is increased when detectives monitor his or her posts and is especially easy when they set up a fake account to befriend the suspect. When such posts are available online, they are prone to be scrutinized and police officials can gain valuable intelligence on the suspected perpetrators, pre- and post-crime.

  Interesting cases that validate the use of social media in catching criminals

  - The New York City Police arrested a man last year on charges of murder after uncovering some incriminating posts on Facebook. This was the case of Melvin Colon, who faced murder charges and was also booked for crimes related to narcotics and illegal weapons. He was a suspect as a notorious New York City gang member. He posted some pictures on Facebook’s public domain, flashing signs representing his gang and made many incriminating remarks in Facebook posts, hinting to violent crimes he had committed in the past. He also gave threats to various people among other posts. The Fourth Amendment application was debated hotly in this particular case of Colon. His lawyers claimed that all of Colon’s posts on Facebook were under the full protection of the Fourth Amendment. This Amendment protects the effects and the homes of people from seizures and searches that can be deemed unreasonable. But a federal judge overruled his attorneys’ argument stating that Colon had forfeited his privacy and his expectation of it when he shared the posts on Facebook with his friends.

  - Another interesting example of social media being used to gather public data could be found in Cincinnati where the police took apart a street gang and booked more than seventy people six years ago. The investigation was a nine-month operation and it used social media in the identification of the local gang’s key members. The police generated a database of valuable information derived from social networks and by collaborating with Cincinnati’s Institute of Crime Science. It took its existing departmental and phone records and used software to analyze the data to establish a link between the suspects.

  - In 2008, Ronnie Tienda Junior of Texas was charged with a murder that was gang related. This was largely possible because of some incriminating words and pictures that he had posted on the public domain pages of MySpace.

  - Facebook made it clear to CNN that they have made no provisions for a law enforcement agency or a federal investigator to gain a backdoor access to their network. If the police want private information from Facebook, they will have to go through official channels to retrieve it. Every social network like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or MySpace has a policy on how it will divulge information when it is requested. A subpoena may be required based on the kind of information that is requested and also on the period for which that data has been hosted on the network. For example, in 2006, when the police suspected a Minnesota man named Darrin Anderson of communicating with underage girls using a fake Facebook account, they had to produce a search warrant for that particular profile. Facebook then handed over data of almost two and a half years from that profile which included more than eight hundred chat dialogues, mainly with girls who were under eighteen years of age. This profile on Facebook was later presented as evidence in court. The accused pleaded guilty to the charges of intent to illicit conduct of a sexual nature and he was sentenced to twelve years in prison.

  - This is an exceptional case of tracking down a criminal. A British man was involved in the theft of jewelry worth $130,000. He fled the country after stealing those jewels. He returned back to the United Kingdom on vacation many months later under an assumed identity. He made one elementary error; he posted pictures of some of the jewelry that he had stolen on Facebook. The police officials, while closely watching social media for details on this suspect, managed to identify the photos of
the stolen jewelry and tracked him down.

  - Sometimes, the methods adopted by the law enforcement agencies do not stop at mere monitoring; they would even go as far as interacting with suspects. Police officers in Brooklyn set a trap and snared a gang of young people known as ‘Brower Boys Gang.’ The police officers added the members of these gangs as their friends on Facebook and were accepted. They followed all the crimes of the gang members as a result of their bragging on Facebook. Some of the gang members even hinted at their plans to commit burglary in their status update. They were trailed by the police, arrested, and jailed.

  - In 2011, the Vancouver Police Department relied heavily on Twitter when riots broke out during the Stanley Cup finals. The Police Department posted tweets that were light in nature at the start of the series in a big community outreach attempt and these tweets were quite well received by their followers. The social media officer relied on Hoot Suite to gauge the public sentiment. When the riots broke out, the police department in Vancouver did not stop continuing with the tweets and they even used a trending hashtag, #canucksriot, to track the chaos. The Police Department gained so much popularity that their followers grew by almost 2,000 percent as people began to seek out information from them. After the riots, the Vancouver Police Department continued to use social media sites to make it easy for the residents to give tips about any illegal or unwarranted behavior. The quality of responses they received was tremendous. Never before in the history of the Vancouver city administration did the Police Department receive this type of response. Local journalists and residents submitted strong evidence of suspects who incited and triggered the riots. The public not only submitted photos to the Police Department, but they sent many tweets supporting the police.

  Fake accounts are not allowed. But media sites are bending the rules.

  Many law enforcement agency personnel have violated policies on Facebook and Twitter and created fake profiles in order to get friendly with suspects. Many police department officials are looking at vast public information on all these media platforms and forums. They are also creating fake identities online to become friends with suspects to view all the information on their timelines. Authorities are also requesting private information directly from the social media channels by means of warrants and subpoenas. They occasionally make emergency requests for user information where they feel that there is a danger.

  Police personnel all over the world have started using sites like Facebook to help victims identify the perpetrators of crime and suspects... basically an online mug shot book. Some police have started adopting a controversial approach for getting information out of the social network channels by going undercover and opening fake profiles so that they can sneak up and befriend the suspects. A report has revealed that almost ten percent of Facebook profiles are not genuine. These types of profiles may be violating the rules of the social network channels but they cannot be deemed wholly illegal. Evidence that is gathered by the police or law enforcement agencies in this way can be upheld in a court of law. The LexisNexis survey revealed that most officials of law enforcement agencies had no problems when opening accounts with fake profiles for the purpose of investigation. Most officials feel opening fake accounts is completely ethical if the purpose is to hunt criminals.

  In cases of emergencies where there is a credible and violent threat, authorities will not think twice about gaining instant access to any suspect’s social network information. They will file for an emergency request. Recently, an anonymous post on Twitter led to unearthing a chain of tweets that talked about the threat of opening fire in a New York theater that was sponsoring a Broadway Show by Mike Tyson. One of the tweets talked about how a person had made a hit list out of the 600 people lined up for the show and bragged about how he could convert the event into a mass murder. Police detectives gave an emergency request to Twitter to come out with the full identity and details of the user. Twitter rejected that request on the grounds that it did not present sufficient evidence of an immediate threat. The police finally brought a subpoena and Twitter was forced to comply with the emergency request and hand over the required information.

  Most popular social media channels used by law enforcement agencies

  A recent survey was conducted involving 1,200 law enforcement personnel on local, state, and federal levels in the United States that had used social media platforms as techniques to solve crimes. During the survey, four out of every five officers confirmed using social media to gather information and intelligence during their investigations. The majority of them acknowledged that social media had helped them solve their crimes much faster than ever before. This survey, organized by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, found that Facebook is the most widely used channel by law enforcement agencies. YouTube came next in popularity. Officials are using Facebook for leveraging and is just one many methods they use to gather evidence in solving crimes.

  But not every criminal suspect will make it easy for law enforcement to track down his or her activities; yet, police strategies have evolved since the earlier days of Facebook. The methods adopted by private and public investigators have become more sophisticated in the last few years. Facebook has become one of the most fruitful sources for gathering criminal evidence. After Facebook began in 2005, it took some time for investigators and police officials to recognize the potential it possessed. College students mainly used Facebook in its early years. The police officials and campus authorities utilized Facebook to gather evidence towards violations of the alcohol policy at various colleges. Law enforcement officials started using Facebook for serious crimes in 2008 when the Cincinnati Police Department worked in unison with the University of Cincinnati to isolate vital gang members using Facebook posts. This was the first major case of police officers using social network channels to gather evidence against criminals.

  Finding people through social media

  Social media is not only used to help solve crimes but it is also used to find missing persons or people who may be in danger or in distress. User posts on social media sites give helpful insight into the mental state and intentions of missing people and possible suspects, leading to intelligent deductions. Through social media, officers of law enforcement agencies gather important clues on the whereabouts of people who may have simply run away from home or information on those people who are in distress and where they could be headed. Police are able to determine a fair idea about their plans by going through the posts, comments, likes, and lists of friends. Followers on Twitter could be asked to report on any kind of tips or warnings on crimes, suspected criminals who are on the loose, or missing persons.

  Social networking and community outreach

  A major step in solving crimes is taken when trust is established in a community. Police officials can achieve this objective by generating an online presence of their own. Outlets of social media are able to take policing of communities to a higher level by offering cheap and fast ways to gather crucial information to the concerned citizens and investigators. Social media channels help project the police departments with a humanized angle by showing that the officers of these law enforcement agencies are community members too. This type of media has become an efficient vehicle for law enforcement agencies to bring to light the accomplishments of their officers and make relevant announcements concerning campaigns or other important messages about safety practices in the community.

  Police are also prioritizing their public outreach and recruitment efforts with the help of social media. Today, there are Twitter accounts and Facebook pages for individual departments and the police officials use such forums to transmit important information to the people following them. For example, during the flooding in Queensland, Australia in 2011, the Facebook pages of the Police Department became a major source of regular updates, news, and warnings. The Department’s Twitter feeds also became the primary source of communication for people on the go.

  Using social media in hiring decisions


  To establish trust in a community and to solve crimes, law enforcement agencies need a team of the right kind of people to work for them. They have to complete a comprehensive and extensive background check on all job applicants. MySpace and Facebook allow this type of background investigation to gain important insight into the character references of law enforcement candidates. With the help of networking sites like LinkedIn for professionals, officers and law enforcement agencies are able to obtain information from all over the world. This has encouraged review of the techniques employed by officers and has helped spread innovative ideas in law enforcement agencies. If you are considering a career in law enforcement, your actions today on social media may reflect whether you are hired or not.

  Monitoring social media could cross boundaries

  While hunting on Facebook has led to arrests, there have also been cases where some peaceful protesters and demonstrators have courted arrest because of their social media involvement and nosiness of the law enforcement agencies. For example, during the protests that were linked with Occupy Wall Street, a judge in New York City ruled that public tweets would not be considered in the same category as that of private speech and the court ordered Twitter to divulge all the deleted tweets from the accounts of some of the suspect protesters to be used as evidence in prosecuting them. There is always a possibility of police officials overstepping their boundaries of remaining undercover in various sting operations when they encroach on the entrapment terrain. While using social media, some officers could resort to blatant set-ups and they may also be cleared by the courts when adding suspects as friends. The ethical question comes to the forefront when some law enforcement officials actually initiate some criminal conversations and trap the suspects only to rush through their cases. The police may have the upper hand in such discourses and may justify them as grounds for defense in entrapment cases.