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6-2020

The Influence of Social Media on Murder

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THE INFLUNECE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MURDER

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

California State University,

San Bernardino

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

in

Social Sciences and Globalization

by

Brandy Nichole Jones

June 2020
 THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MURDER

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

California State University,

San Bernardino

by

Brandy Nichole Jones

June 2020

Approved by:

Dr. King-To Yeung, Committee Chair, Social Sciences

Dr. Kevin Grisham, Committee Member, Social Sciences and Globalization

This research contains information on how much or if at all social media

influences murder. Social media has such a big impact on the lives of many

around the world, it is almost impossible to avoid. There is research on how

social media effects brain processes and may even cause addiction. And there is

research on why people commit murder, but there is little to no research on the

role social media can play in some murders. Social media is almost like an

alternate universe where people can pretend to be the people they want to be in

real life, they filter and add what they want others to see. Not to mention they are

able to say and do whatever they want to do because they are not held

responsible for their words and actions.

The problem comes when people take what happens on social media and

bring it into the real world. They take the actions and the words and give them

power. In some results in suicide, crime, and in these cases murder. Murder is

done from one human beings’ action to another; therefore, it is important to

mention that social media cannot be responsible in someone’s death due to

actions of others. However, it can play a role in why they decided to take their

actions on step further.

In the cases found below there is reason to believe that if social media did

not exist these murders would not have taken place. These murders were

committed out of the heat of the moment, anger, and jealousy, all brought on my

actions on social media from one person to the next. If social media did not exist

iii
these actions would not have taken place and both parties could be alive today.

Social media allows people to not take responsibility for the words and actions.

This research shows how much these words and actions can affect people

around the world.

iv
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This process of writing a thesis has been very eye opening, and taught me

that with the support of those around you, you can do anything you put your mind

to, no matter how hard, or how long it takes you to get there. I could not do it

without of the support of my family, my friends, and my peers. Thank you all for

listening to me over the past two years and encouraging me to push myself to

complete this research. It would not be what it is today without the help and

support of you all.

I would firstly like to acknowledge and thank Cristina Sedano, thank you

for being such a great peer and an amazing friend. If it was not for you I do not

know how I would have completed this program, every question I had you had an

answer, every battle I faced you were right there with me. Thank you especially

for all your guidance writing this thesis, you had helped me more than you know.

Thank You

v
 DEDICATION

To my parents, Kathy, and Anthony Jones.

Thank you for everything. Thank you for every first day of school walking

me to my class up until my last year in my master’s program. Thank you for

always pushing me to do my best, for supporting me and believing in me even

when I did not always believe in myself. Thank you for teaching me lessons that

could not be learned from a textbook. You showed me how to be strong when

things get tough, to fight even when no one is fighting with you, and most

importantly to never give up. Even through hardships of your own, you always

supported me as a first-generation college graduate, and made sure that I had

everything I needed to succeed, and it means the world to me. You both were

there for me when I was struggling to understand concepts and you are both

here with me to celebrate the completion of this degree. It is as much my degree

as it is yours. I love and admire you both so much and will forever be grateful for

you. You helped me prove that you do not have to have all the money in the

world to succeed. I promise to make you proud.

But no, I am still not applying to any Doctoral programs, sorry mom…

Lots of Love
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... v

LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................ix

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... x

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1

Statement of Purpose ................................................................................ 1

Definitions .................................................................................................. 5

What is Social Media....................................................................... 5

Live Stream ..................................................................................... 6

Communication ............................................................................... 7

Murder ............................................................................................. 8

Social Media Addiction .................................................................... 8

CyberStalking .................................................................................. 9

Antisocial Personality Disorder...................................................... 10

Limitations to Research ................................................................. 11

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 12

Introduction .............................................................................................. 12

Cognitive Capacity and Incentives of Murder........................................... 13

Media Violence.............................................................................. 15

Lack of Parental Guidance ............................................................ 18

Online Social Networking Addiction .............................................. 18

Social Media Causes Jealousy ..................................................... 23

vi
 Emotive Capacity and Murder ....................................................... 25

Interpersonal Relationship Changes ............................................. 28

CHAPTER THREE: METHODS ......................................................................... 30

Data Collection Methods .......................................................................... 30

Case Selection .............................................................................. 30

Research Procedures .............................................................................. 32

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS ............................................................................ 38

Introduction .............................................................................................. 38

Hypothesis ............................................................................................... 38

General Patterns ...................................................................................... 39

Rumors, Postings, and Jokes ....................................................... 40

Urgency and Need ........................................................................ 46

Conflict and Jealousy .................................................................... 49

Attention Getting and Risk Taking ................................................. 52

Social Media Changes People’s Social Relationships .................. 58

Social Media is Neutral Platform ................................................... 60

Summary of Results................................................................................. 63

Relationship Between Murderer and Murdered ....................................... 67

Social Media and Murder in Other Countries ........................................... 69

England ......................................................................................... 69

India .............................................................................................. 70

Mexico ........................................................................................... 73

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION........................................................................ 75

vii
 Introduction .............................................................................................. 75

Research Question .................................................................................. 76

Limitations................................................................................................ 78

Future Research ...................................................................................... 80

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 83

viii
 LIST OF TABLES

Table One. Comparison of Social Media and Murders. ..................................... 37

ix
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure One. Age and Gender of Victim and Suspect. ........................................ 40

Figure Two. Murders by Race. .......................................................................... 64

Figure Three. How the Murder was Committed. ................................................ 65

Figure Four. Relationships................................................................................. 66

Figure Five. Social Media Invovlement. .............................................................. 67

x
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Statement of Purpose

Social Media is everywhere, it is continuously growing and evolving as

time goes on, as well as the ways it is impacting society in both positive and

negative aspects. But Then Again, what exactly is social media? Social media is

a phrase that society uses to describe communication applications such as

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, and many more others. The thought of

a social media post, comment, reply, or even a like, can result in the loss of a life

is implausible to many. While social media does not cause someone to be

murdered or even physically hurt another human-being, it does give those with

the intent or possible intent, easier access to their victims. Think about it, there

are over 2,234 million Facebook users, 1.900 million YouTube users, 291 million

Snap Chat accounts, 355 million Twitter users, just to name the top few, the

likelihood of social media being used for the worse is more likely with the more

users it attracts (Smith, 2018).

There has been a lot of recent research on media and the effect it has on

people, especially the youth in the population. Social media has brought a lot of

benefits to communities around the world, but with positives impacts, there

comes the negative ones too. Researchers recognize that while social media

does help connect people who might not have connected in person, it also

increases the disconnect people are experiencing in real life. Media influences

1
youth in negative ways that society is not recognizing, it effects not only the way

youth communicate, but also how they interact with each other. The personal

aspect is being taken out of the scenario and allows people to feel like they can

say and do anything they want without fear of repercussion.

There has also been countless research conducted on murder and why

people commit it. Researchers have gone into depth about the statistics of who is

more likely to commit what type of murder and why. They have created the

different categories of murder and the effects it has on those around it. Not to

mention, research on how to prevent future murders from happening and building

up neighborhoods to decrease the amount of murder that happens in lower

income neighborhoods.

However, there is a lack of research on the combination of the two. There

is little to no research conducted on the role or influence social media has on

murder. This correlation starts from the lack of connection people have because

they are missing the face to face interaction, causing a depersonalization of

contact with one another. This is then making it consciously easier to have less

emotional push back when thinking about committing a crime and can sometimes

lead to one person murdering another. Social media not only takes the

personalization out of human connection, but it also creates a path for predators

to find their victims easier. Social media tends to share your location and other

information with others without the person even knowing, this making them more

susceptible to becoming a victim. One of the other problems there is with social

2
media is it creates the need for attention, and it creates the idea that any

attention is better than no attention. This then leads to the need to be noticed in

any way possible, they crave their fifteen minutes of fame, even if it means

murdering another human.

While it is hard to say social media is responsible for the murders that

occurred, they can be seen as responsible for creating outlets that allow

strangers to meet, murders that are being posted on their websites, and murders

that occur due to content on their websites. It is hard not see the involvement and

the increase of not only hate crimes, but lives lost since the creation of social

media in the past ten years. Would these murders have occurred if social media

did not exist? In some cases it can be argued that these murders could have

happened anyhow, however there are some cases where these people would

have never met if it were not for social media or the internet therefore the murder

could not have occurred. There is little to no limitations to what can happen

online, and people can literally get away with murder. Researchers see that

social media is creating more antisocial behavior, which is also a link to

personality traits that are possessed by murders.

To research this topic, one must understand social media and murder and

the effects it has on people as separate entities. Then there is the combination of

the two which leads to a dangerous environment that anyone can fall into. There

is research conducted on social media and the effect it has on the human mind

and human behavior and there is also research conducted on murder and why

3
people commit it. The problem with this is they are separate projects. It is hard to

trace social media and prevent the murder. Not to mention, there is no current

way for social media to prevent these occurrences from happening and even

taking the posts down right away is nearly impossible unless someone reports it.

The other problem with social media is there is so much freedom and it is

worldwide, there is no way to trace and track those who are committing these

crimes without the help of the public, but by that time there have already been

hundreds and thousands of views and the need for attention has been met.

Which then therefore in the mind of the murderer, it was worth the risk. The real

questions are does social media play a role or influence rage based or emotion

driven murder? Does it give society the ability, the access, the incentive to take

the next step and kill? How does social media affect one’s ability to make rational

decisions?

The purpose for this research is to bring light to the fact that these two

worlds are intertwined more than society is recognizing. Social media does play a

role in murders that occur not only in The United States but also around the

world. Media has been hiding and not being recognized for the role they play in

society when it comes to crimes including murder. The goal is to show that there

is a need for more research on the subject to help reduce the amount of lives lost

due to this trend and need for attention, lack of control, and lack of remorse from

one’ peers. With this research social media could play a more active role in

4
protecting their users from these tragic endings and can come together with the

criminal justice system to create a more secure safe network for all their users.

Definitions

What is Social Media

To begin with social medias are websites or apps that allow people to

interact with each other that is not in person. Many social media apps allow one

to create a profile with pictures and information that the users choose to upload.

They allow individuals to create a persona that they want the world to see. After

the profile is created, they start searching for friends, followers, groups,

hashtags, and many other things to get in contact with others. People on these

platforms can choose to follow certain subjects, people, and vice versa (Nations,

2019). Once they choose who they are connecting with a newsfeed is created. In

this feed there is information that others post for their followers to read. Anyone

can find any information about any topic due to the parameters of social media.

There are no limits, people can make their profiles private or public, but once the

information is posted it is nearly impossible to get it back (Nations, 2019).

Social media sites give their users a lot of flexibility when it comes to

setting up their profiles and what they can put on them. There are different ways

to organize their user settings, friends, and followers, and manage the

information they see in their news feeds. With that comes to notifications when

something new is posted. There are settings where one can receive a notification

5
if someone, they follow posts a new picture or tweet (Nations, 2019). There is

also the ability to see if the people who they are sending pictures and information

to are taking screenshots of their information. However, there is no way to tell

what others are saving and updating about another person. This can lead to

cyber stalking and bullying. It just gets even more intense with the abilities to

rate, review, and vote on anything and everything on most of these apps. This

then increases jealousy and the fear of missing out (Nations, 2019).

While Social Media was created to help people stay connected with

friends and family, it has also made it possible for businesses to expand their

business across state and even country lines; it keeps people up to date on

trends; and it can also be used for many different crimes. The internet and social

media are dangerous places, especially for those who are unexpected of the

hazards. The first social media outlet created was in 1997 called Six Degree

(Hendricks, 2019), and from there the birth of social media began.

Live Streaming

There is now more than ever more flexibility when it comes to self-

broadcasting or live streaming on all these apps so others can see what one is

doing right in that moment. The problem is that people who are using the live

streaming function have more control of it than the actual social media site

(Glance, 2017). There is no delay in streaming and there is no stopping it when

something goes wrong, because there has yet to be a monitor on it on any social

media platform. Live streaming is exactly what in sounds like, streaming from

6
one’s phone to their followers or the world, live, in real time, what they see their

followers see right in that moment. While there are some pros to it, there was no

caution when it came to the cons. The pros are it is better for businesses it is

easy to use and allowed people to get the word out right away. (Glance, 2017)

Communication

When social media was created, it was safe to assume that it was for the

good of all people. It was made to grow businesses, stay in touch with friends

and family and many other things, no one assumed that evil would play a role in

it as well. Social media entertains people while also providing people the

information they need to know about what is going on in the world and life around

them. They also can see trends and what is new and up in coming and at the

same time they are able to better network with one another to find the jobs they

are looking for (Netivist, 2015). Not to mention companies and non-profits are

able to be seen better with little effort. Social media allows people to come

together whenever they want. However, that is not always a good thing.

Social media allows people to talk to each other without ever seeing the

other person. This then increases cyber bullying and even can lead to stalking.

There is so much information about oneself on social media that it makes them

an easy target (Netivist, 2015). People can spend hours and hours online, they

become obsessive and self-absorbed, even addicted to it. Then there is the fact

that many apps and sites do not have the greatest privacy or security for its

users. It allows groups to form such as terrorist or radicals where criminal activity

7
is created. Social networking has changed how people live their lives, but it is not

all for the good. There is little to no control on what an individual can do to

prevent their privacy from being hacked (Netivist, 2015).

Murder

Then there is murder, which is under common law, the unlawful killing of

another human being, it could be the single most serious criminal offense.

Depending on the circumstances, one can be sentenced for years, life, or even to

death. However, there is various definitions of what murder is, it can vary from

jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Besides common law there is the term malice, which

means the murderer did not plan to murder its victim or otherwise known as

recklessness (Legal Definitions, 2020). The definition of murder has evolved over

the past few centuries, but in the United States it comes down to four different

types, intentional murder, a killing that resulted from the intent to do bodily injury,

killing that resulted from a depraved heart or recklessness, and murder

committed by an accomplice during the commission of, attempt of, or flight from a

certain felony (Legal Definitions, 2020). Murder occurs daily throughout the

world and there has been plenty of research conducted on why people kill

people, however murder still occurs all the time.

Social Media Addiction

Social media addiction is the constant checking and scrolling through

multiple social media outlets. It has become increasingly popular over the past

few years. Psychologists estimate that about five to ten percent of Americans

8
meet the criteria for social media addiction. It is categorized as a behavioral

addiction because one is becoming concerned about social media and have a

feeling that is uncontrollable to check it. They use it so often it impairs other

important things in their lives. Just like any other substance abuse user, you

could not tell by just looking at them, but their mood changes based on their

addiction, salience, tolerance, and withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse

occurs just like any other addict (Hilliard, 2020).

The reason why people become addicted to social media is because of

the dopamine inducing social environments that is created by social media.

Social media can be compared to gambling and drugs where the user will use

and take or give as much as they can to keep their “high”. Studies have shown

when people receive likes and retweets, a chemical reaction is triggered just like

it is in drugs like cocaine. This makes a person crave for the likes and retweets

causing the addiction (Hilliard 2020).

Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is described as an invasion of online privacy and it is a crime.

While it does not have to include physical contact, it is not any less dangerous than

in person stalking. Cyberstalking involves the use of technology to make someone

afraid or worried about their safety. This is when one threatens another or invades

their privacy repeatedly overtime. Cyberstalking is rare among strangers; it is more

common to happen by someone they know (Hunduja, 2020). It is also difficult to

prove because one does not know until it has become a problem.

9
 By this point in time, people start victim blaming, and telling them they

should have asked for help sooner. “If the person is sharing all this information

about themselves and others, are they giving people permission or access to their

lives whenever and wherever they are is it not on them to resolve the problem”,

that is the common view of the outsider. However, that does not account for all

the information that is being shared about the individual without them even

knowing it. Then who is to blame, social media, the internets, the phone creator?

One example of this would be geotagging, which is the geographical tag that is

applied to social media posts including pictures, status updates, tweets, and

everything else people have access to when they post something (WCSAP,2020).

For most smartphones this is already enabled, and people do not have to turn it

on for it to be un use. To prevent one’s location from being shared they must turn

the feature off themselves.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial personality disorder which is also known as sociopathy, is a

mental disorder where the person has a consistent record of showing no regard

for what is right and wrong, they ignore others rights and feelings, and does not

show any care for humanity. People diagnosed with this personality disorder tend

to manipulate others, be callous, or indifferent towards others. They show no

remorse or guilt for their behaviors. Antisocial Personality Disorder can be linked

to addictions such as drugs and alcohol (DSM-5,2015).

10
 Limitations in Research

There are some biases and limitations that can be found in this research

study. To begin with, the sample cases, there are few cases where the women

murders the man which can show a bias against women murders. Not to mention

there is little representation of the LGBTQ community in this study, there is only

one case known to be a part of the community, which then could suggest a bias

against LGBTQ. Not to mention the access to more cases might have been

limited due to the popularity in the media, the cases that were selected where

broadcasted in more than one social media outlet, therefore eliminates those

cases that only involved a single outlet. To add onto the media only broadcasts

what they believe the people want to see, therefore some races, ethnicities,

genders, and those of different sexual orientation than the viewers might not

have been represented as well.

The cases are in the majority heterosexual and they are either Black or

White, with little representation of Hispanic, Latino, Asian, or Indian descent. It is

also important to mention that there is a limited amount of murder from women to

men it is either men to men, women to women, or men to women. This does not

mean that women to men murders do not exist or do not have a social media

influence, there was just little coverage in this case study. Overall, the cases in

the majority were from the United States but do not represent all populations in

the United States.

11
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This literature review contains numerous amounts of research on not only

social media but murder as well. This review begins with describing the

incentives to murder even without social media involvement. With the

understanding on why people murder it will give a better understanding as to why

those who murdered online did what they did. There are many occasions and

reasons on why people commit murder, such as time and place, cognitive

capability, emotions, and psychological disorders. Other reasons include that

lack of guidance and participation one’s guardians have in their life, the less time

children spend with adults, the more time they spend on the internet.

The literature review continues to describe the effect social media has on

society. Some of the negative effects include social media addiction, the effect

social media has on the developing brain, the creation of antisocial disorders,

and finally the change in interpersonal relationships. Social media is shown to be

a powerful tool in societies and is forever changing the future of technology and

social relations.

Finally, there is the combination of the two. There is too much access to

violent crimes on the internet including murder, that is becoming normalized in

the minds of children and young adult. The more normalized it becomes, the

more likely they are going to partake in the activities. In today’s world there are

12
more video games, videos, and language use that suggest that violence is okay,

and it is all present through social media.

The Cognitive Capacity and the Incentives of Murder

There are many reasons why people murder some including jealous,

possessiveness, impulsive temper, juvenile delinquency, and anger. Then there

is childhood trauma, brain trauma, hormone imbalance, alcohol induced, and

social inequalities, just to name a few (Daly and Wilson, 2009). In more recent

years there is the idea that there is more murder occurring because of the

modern weapon creations and the easy accesses people have to it. There is less

face to face interactions and a higher rate of weapon usage when it comes to

how people deal with their problems (Daly and Wilson, 2009). Researchers have

also found that the amount of violence on television has increased over the years

and has led to the normalization of violent acts which can eventually turn into the

normalization of murder (Daly and Wilson, 2009).

To begin with there is multiple different type of offenders. Firstly, the

passive offenders, people that believe that they are always being taken

advantage of which causes them to build up anger and hold it in until they burst

and act irrationally and sometimes without even realizing what they did was

wrong (Minter, 2013). Then there is the traumatized type which is believed to

always be on the offense and never really trusting anyone, they do not accept

criticism well and upholding grudges against others. They are set in their ways.

Finally, the most common, the narcissistic type that is seeking for attention and

13
will continue to reach for it until they receive it on a constant bases (Minter,

2013).

While many people are able to control their thoughts and prevent them

from becoming actions or at least are able to channel their anger and frustration

into nondestructive outlets; some people struggle with it and their thoughts

become violent impulses and even lead up to murder (Greenemeirer, 2011). The

question many researchers are asking is what turns anger into actions?

Everyone is born with cognitive control, or otherwise known as self-control. But

the human brain makes it easy for humans to be influenced by others. For

example, by watching a violent movie or video, one is more likely to act out

violently opposed to those who did not watch the violence. While this is not the

case for all, it is very common because there is a problem with a balance of

power between one’s control mechanisms (Greenemeirer, 2011).

Finally, it is important to note the mirror effect that is shown in many social

settings whether social media or murder is involved. People mirror people they

admire or want to be like, no one is completely themselves one hundred percent

of the time. This is related to murder and social media because the media gives

people the outlet to display themselves for others to mirror, and many murders

that occur, are often mirrored or otherwise known as copy cats (Meindl, Ivy,

2017).

Looking at mass shootings for example, there was the Columbine High

School that ended in a mass murder, with a target of students and staff. They not

14
only shot and killed but there was also a two bomb attempts. Since then there

have been many bomb attempts on populated areas, and even more mass

shootings in schools and concerts. These mass shootings and bombs are

recreating Columbine because people who already displayed violent behavior

and or psychological issues, saw how much media attention these two received

for their act. They are in textbooks and are well known for their mass murder and

it gave the incentive to others who were looking for this same time of crime

(Meindl, Ivy, 2017).

If social media did not promote these mass shooters and their life stories,

there would be a lack of mirroring because the results did not end in the way they

had hoped. People mirror the behaviors that get them the attention they are

seeking. If the news did not release their names if social media did not let these

mass shootings go viral, they did not play them on every news channel for weeks

on end, if it was not plastered all of every social media platform, the chances of

recurrence may be slimmer than it currently is (Meindl, Ivy, 2017).

Media Violence

On average as a society 73 percent of people are on Instagram daily, 90

percent are on Facebook, 54 percent on Snap Chat, and 95 percent on YouTube

(Hendricks, 2019). With this much social media usage daily, people are more

than likely to have some negatively effects, especially psychologically. Research

conducted on the subject found there is a connection between social media

usage and psychiatric disorders that include depression, anxiety, internet

15
addiction, and low self-esteem to name a few (Pantic, 2014). In the late 90s there

was research conducted that found that the internet negatively affects social

relationships. This is because there is a decline in communication among friends

and family members as well as the reduction in communication in the user’s

social circle. This then leads to feelings of depression and loneliness, which can

lead to a slower social development amongst children (Subrahmanyam K, Kraut

RE, Greenfield PM, et al., 2000).

With the invention of social media children and adolescents are spending

more time in front of computer screens which in return leads to the lessening of

interpersonal skills and it also effects how people interact with one another.

Along with depression, social media brings out low self-esteem which takes

along eating disorders, addiction, and many other mental illnesses. The possible

connection between low self-esteem and social media is that social media

platforms are all about self- presentation, the reason why people uses it. Social

media encourages people to promote themselves in unhealthy ways to get likes

and views, then leads to narcissistic behavior among the poster and depression

among the viewers (Mehdizadeh S., 2010) In a study conducted at NYU, 100

students who use Facebook, self-reported narcissistic personalities. They also

found those who have low self-esteem are more involved online in terms of

having more self-involving content on their social media profiles (Mehdizadeh S.,

2010).

16
 Researchers knew that there was an increase in violence, even before

one of the first documented mass shootings. MTV and the American

Psychological Association (APA) came together to create a campaign to end

youth violence. While this campaign took place over 20 years ago, there is still a

major problem when it comes to murder and violence in the United States and

across the world. In the United States the availability to guns is like no other

country, it has some of the most liberal gun laws in the world (Holmes, 2020).

Then there is the availability of information on explosive on the internet. The

internet allows anyone and everyone to gain information from their homes on

their computers without anyone knowing (Holmes, 2020).

Not to mention with the rise in divorce rates in more recent years leads to

children having less supervision and leaves them without role models to resolve

conflict (Holmes, 2020). All that and the mixture of violence on the television,

music videos, and social media leads to children and teens seeing violence at a

higher level of intensity. This leads to children and young adults thinking that the

violence is normal and increases the amount of it happening each day (Holmes,

2020).

To refer to the columbine high school massacre that was suggestively

related to the Matrix, The Basketball Diaries, or even Marilyn Manson music. Two

teenage boys walked into the high school with semi-automatic handguns and

shot guns. They ended up killing 13 people and injuring many and then turned

the guns on themselves. With no real answers, the only link investigators could

17
come up with is the boys were attached to violent media. They mimicked films

such as the Matrix with their long trench coats and the type of weaponry that was

chosen. While there is no evidence that suggests that they watched these films,

there was evidence though that they did enjoy listening to Marilyn Manson, and

their internet usage and interest computer games makes it easier to link the

violent media content to this attack ( Boyle, 2005).

Lack of Parental Guidance

There is the notion of the absence of moral compass has increased the

amount of violence that occurs throughout society. Church seems to be a thing of

the past, while it used to be obligatory now it is an option, and many believe that

there is a lack of moral values being taught in society today. While they still exist,

it is not to the scale that it used to be in the early 20th century (Holmes, 2020).

Not to mention, the breakdowns of neighborhoods and communities. In the

earlier days everyone knew their neighbors and spent times socializing with

them. There was more group activities and exercise compared to now where

there are more individual activities and online activity (Holmes, 2020). With all

this change it is only inevitable that there is going to be an increase in crime and

violence among young adults. There is a lack of guidance, accountability, and

stability among youth.

Online Social Networking Addiction

Addiction is a loaded word with the definition of “being imprisoned to a

habit or object that is psychologically or physically habit forming” (Dictionary.com,

18
2020). Social media however is becoming more and more addictive especially to

teens and those who are in their early 20’s. While this new research and it is still

being debated, many researchers believe that social media is a new type of

addiction and around five to ten percent of Americans meet the criteria for

addiction (Hilliard, 2020). Researchers have found the root to the cause of social

media addiction; it starts with the dopamine filled social environment and social

media is the host. It has the same effect as gambling and drugs have one

people, social media makes it to where the consumers crave it and keep coming

back for more (Hilliard, 2020). Researchers suggest the social media addiction is

just like any other addiction, signs include mood modification, salience, tolerance

change, and withdrawal symptoms and finally relapse (Hilliard, 2020).

On the other hand, it is important to mention, researchers have found that

social media outlets such as Facebook have also improved self-esteem.

Gonzales and Hancock included groups of student participants subjected to three

different situations: exposure to a mirror, exposure to one’s own Facebook

profile, and a control setting (Gonzales AL, Hancock JT., 2011). The researchers

used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to measure the self- esteem of the

participants. They found that there was a positive effect of Facebook on self-

esteem supporting the Hyper-Personal Model where a selective self-presentation

positively impacts impressions of the self (Gonzales AL, Hancock JT., 2011).

There is also the “objective self-awareness theory which suggests that anything

that causes stimulus to oneself to become the object instead of the subject of the

19
consciousness will lead to a diminished impression of the self “(Gonzales AL,

Hancock JT., 2011) The stimulus is suggesting at looking at oneself in the mirror,

hearing one’s own voice, writing one’s own vitae, or anything where the attention

is being brought on oneself “(Gonzales AL, Hancock JT., 2011). More research

conducted found that it is very likely that a Facebook users’ check their own page

more than once a day, they are trying to look at themselves through the view of

others by viewing their own biographies, pictures, posts, and so on. This can be

either a reduction or a boost to one’s self-esteem over time and in a short period

(Gonzales AL, Hancock JT., 2011).

In 2012 the Andreessen et al. developed the Facebook Addiction Scale, a

scoring system originally based on a total of 18 items. It is testing things such as

salience, any mood changes, amount of tolerance, any withdrawal, conflict, and

relapse (Andreessen CS, Torsheim T, Brunborg GS, et al., 2012). Using this

scale and a questionnaire, researchers experimented with 423 university

students. The test showed a high trustworthiness and proved to be relevant to

the student population (Andreessen CS, Torsheim T, Brunborg GS, et al., 2012).

In the same year the Griffiths voiced concerns that the phrase “Facebook

addiction” may be not be the right term because there is so much more to

Facebook then just social networking, there are games, businesses, and so

many other things that are done through the app (Griffiths MD, 2012). However,

in many researchers’ opinions it is an important addition to the study of addiction

20
because many users are still attached or addicted to the use of social media, no

matter what the reason is.

Social media effects more than social status, it also effects the brain.

Being addicted to social media can be both physical and psychological, A study

at Harvard University found that the same parts of the brain light up when a

person is on social media as it does when they are consuming an addictive

substance. When a person experiences something rewarding or uses a

substance that is addicting a reaction is created in the dopamine producing areas

of the brain. In brief, the brain receives a reward when someone is addicted to a

chemical or in this case social media or receives a message, a like, or a

comment on social media which is causing positive reinforcement (Hilliard,

2020).

Social media provides the brain endless amount of rewards throughout the

day, it is hard to control or prevent from happening. The brain soon rewires itself

to believe that likes, comments, messages are positive affirmations and continue

to crave them. Another factor to this addiction is the reward part of the brain is

most active when a person is speaking about themselves. It is estimated that

individuals talk about themselves 30 to 40 percent of the time, however on social

media it is almost all about themselves, showing off accomplishments, trips,

bodies, anything to get them more attention and that brings the percentage up to

80 percent (Hilliard, 2020). When people lack the affirmation, they seek then they

21
start losing the high of the reward and will do anything to get it back, including

murder if it brings them enough attention.

However, the question is can social media addiction are medically

diagnosed? For it to be diagnosed

The Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases and

Health Problems (ICD-10) defined several specific criteria for dependence

syndrome such as a strong desire or sense of compulsion, difficulties in

controlling consumption behavior, physiological withdrawal state after

reduction or cessation, evidence of tolerance, and so on (World Health

Organization, 2014). A diagnosis can only be made if three or more of the

criteria are present during the previous year (World Health Organization,

2014). Could be quite difficult to distinguish SNS addiction from Internet

addiction, which is a much more general disorder (Block JJ, 2008).

Many researchers compare to cigarettes, but social media addiction is

harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol due to the social pressures around it,

even though it is not recognized in the Diagnostic Manual for Mental Health

Disorders (DSM-5). Social media is increasing and changing rapidly it is hard to

keep up with it, never mind study it. However, scientists in the Netherlands have

invented their own scale to identify possible addiction. Another researcher in the

UK at the Nottingham Trent University analyzed 43 studies and concluded that

social media addiction needs to be professionally treated. They found that the

22
extreme usage of social media was linked to relationship problems, worse

academic achievement, and less participation in offline interactions can create

social media addiction. This then can have an impact on one’s self-esteem.

There are more and more people trying to conform into what social media wants

them to be then actually being themselves, this leads to body dysmorphia,

Photoshop, catfishing, and so much more. Women especially are feeling

inadequate and fall into depression because of social media (Block JJ. 2008).

Social Media Causes Jealousy

The fact that most everyone is on social media, it is hard not to think that

those who are not online are not suspicious, especially when it comes to young

adults and their relationships. Many like to over share online and expose every

detail of their lives to strangers and the “Randoms” of the social media world.

Social media influence in relationships has raised jealousy among people.

Jealousy is best defined as one being envious of another’s accomplishments or

ownership (Persch Ja, 2009). With social media these feeling skyrockets

because people can investigate not only their partners but those their partners

interact with. They can investigate everything including locations, likes, contacts,

careers, schools, infidelity, pretty much anything one can possibly know about a

person is online (Persch Ja, 2009).

Researchers have found that Facebook causes jealousy and the

negativity of it creates strains on relationships. Perch suggests that Facebook is

responsible because one is exposing them to the world, and nothing is hidden

23
anymore (Persch Ja, 2009). While this is not true for all those who use social

media, those who have low self-esteem and trust issues are more likely to

experience jealousy compared to those who are confident with themselves and

trust within their relationship (Persch Ja, 2009). Also, those who are in committed

relationships are less likely to experience jealousy compared to those who are

uncommitted to each other (Aylor B, Dainton M., 2001).

Sheets et al. states that there are four types of jealousy evoking situations

which are when a partner shows interests in another person, when another

shows interests in one’s partner, when one’s partner talks about or interacts with

prior relational partners, and ambiguous scenes involving the partner. (Sheets

VL, et al, 1997). Facebook creates an easier path because one is interacting with

more people then they normally would in real life, there are more opportunities to

cheat, lie, and hurt their partner than there is in society. This is causing partners

to constantly question each other and their relations with others.

In this research they had 308 participants that ranged from the age of 17 to

24. 50.5% of them were in committed relationships, 8.3% were causally dating one

or more people, 3.7% were in an open relationship, 0.7% were married, 0.3%

divorced or separated, and 33.6% were not dating anyone. Researchers used the

Facebook Jealousy scale that was created to evaluate the experience of jealousy

in the specific contact of Facebook. The questions that were used were “How likely

are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of

the opposite sex?” and “How likely are you to monitor your partner’s activities on

24
Facebook?” (Buss D, Larsen R, Westen D, Semmelroth J, 1992). They found that

about 75 percent of participants were likely to add someone who they either had a

relationship with or sexual relations with on Facebook, and 79 percent reported

that their partners had done the same. Almost all of them reported that their partner

has friends on Facebook that they do not know (Buss D, Larsen R, Westen D,

Semmelroth J, 1992).

Through this research they found four patterns among the participants.

Firstly, the accessibility of information including statements about increase amount

of information available through Facebook about the relationship one’s partner has

with another person, then there is relationship jealousy which is the link between

Facebook participants own or their partner has experienced jealousy. The third

theme that was noticed was that Facebook was an addiction, indicating that the

participants had a hard time limiting the amount of time they were spending online

and checking for updates. And the final one is the lack of “content; this is about the

ambiguous nature of Facebook and the fact that it can potentially create negative

consequences such as jealousy. (Muise, Amy, 2009).

Emotive Capacity and Murder

According to BBC Future there are a lot of negative impacts that come

along with the positives of social media. One of those being the level of stress it

creates on a person’s life. People are using social media to tell the world

everything that is going on in their life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. They

include personal problems, political views, and many other stressors people face

25
daily. In a study conducted in 2015 by the Pew Research center in Washington

DC, they researched if social media causes more stress than it relieves. They

took 1800 people and found that women reported to be more stressed than the

men. They found that Twitter is one of the main causes of the stress; they stated

that the more time they spent on Twitter the more stressed they felt.

Another research that was conducted in 2014 in Austria they found that

people’s moods are lower after using Facebook for only 20 minutes compared to

those who just browsed the internet. In a study conducted at the University of

California researchers addressed the emotional content of over 100 million

Facebook users between the years of 2009 to 2012 (Guy, 2018). They found that

the weather influenced peoples’ emotions by one percent. For example, if it were

raining, one percent of people would post something negative, if it were sunny,

one percent of people would post something positive. Researchers investigated

cities where it is constantly raining and found that one negative post influenced

about 1.3 people in drier cities to post something negative. However, those who

posted positive posts, they had a positive influence towards others by 1.75

persons, this shows that positivity is more influential than negative posts (Guy,

2018).

Anxiety is another topic when people are looking at social media.

Researchers have looked at the general idea of anxiety provoked by social

media and it has created worry, trouble sleeping, and hard time concertation. A

research study conducted by Computers and Human Behavior found that those

26
who use seven or more social media networks were three times more likely to

have higher levels of general anxiety than those who use zero to two social

media networks. This shows that the more people use social media the more

likely they will have general anxiety (Guy, 2018).

Another popular topic that comes with social media is depression. There

are multiple studies connecting depression with social media usage. Two studies

that involved more than 700 students were able to see that there were

depressive symptoms such as the feeling of worthlessness and hopelessness

were linked to online interactions with their peers (Guy, 2018). Those who had

more negative interactions felt more depressive symptoms. In another relative

study involving 1700 people found that there was a threefold effect, social media,

depression, and anxiety, and the more these people used these networks the

worse their anxiety and depression got. The reasons for this are because people

are hiding behind the screen. They are cyber-bullying and having a distorted view

of other people’s lives, they see what others want them to see. This makes them

think that they are falling behind, not good enough, rich enough, smart enough,

creating feelings of missing out, anxiety, and finally depression (Guy, 2018).

With all of this and the combination of addiction, jealousy, anger, and the

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), teens and young adults are still developing their

brains. During this time, the brain is still in the pruning stage which is the process

in which your brain decides which information is important to keep in long term

memory and what information is okay to forget about. The brain does this so it

27
can make room for more efficient connections and prepare the brain for

adulthood. Many researchers found that the areas that are being pruned at this

time are the areas that involve controlling one’s emotions, impulses, and high-

level reasoning and decision making (Guy, 2018). These are the same areas in

the brain that are most associated with criminal behavior and on top of that, they

are often weak during teenage years. Which means that teens do not always

think of the consequence of their actions before they commit to them. This then

explains the high crime rate among teens and why in many states, depending on

the crime, they are tried in a juvenile court and not charged as an adult (Guy,

2018).

Interpersonal Relationship Changes

Researchers from the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

created a study to see how much social media has an influence on relationships.

In their study they link together 34 pairs of people who have never met before

and had them have a ten-minute conversation about an interesting event that

had happened to them recently. They all sat private booths with each other and

had a phone on top of their table. Those who had the phone in eyeshot had more

trouble recalling the interaction they just had, and it was less meaningful. This is

also true with romantic relationships, in Canada at the University of Guelph they

surveyed 300 people from the age of 17 to 24 in 2009 about any jealously they

felt when on Facebook. Women spent more time on Facebook then men in this

study and often felt more jealousy when doing so. The researchers were able to

28
conclude they felt the Facebook environment created these feelings of jealously

and enhanced concerns about the quality of the relationships at hand.

Social media can also create feelings of envy. In a study including 600

adults, about a third of them said social media made them feel negative emotions

including emotions of frustration which lead to envy. This is all because people

can compare their lives with others who post on social media. They see that

some people are living more extravagant lives and better lives than they are

which sparks feelings of envy amongst friends. Then those who see these posts

respond back with their own posts and it causes a spiral between people which

leads to those adding more and more to their profile, things that made them

jealous in the first place.

Social media also changes people’s social relationships. They no longer

feel the need to interact in person anymore; everything is through social media

and the mobile phones. In a study published in the American Journal of

Preventive Medicine in 2018, researchers surveyed 7000 19 to 32-year old’s and

found that those who spend majority of their time on social media were twice as

likely to report feelings of social isolation. This includes the feeling of not being

able to find a sense of social belonging, or engagement with others. Face to face

interactions are being replaced with online interactions and slowly they are

starting to disappear.

29
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODS

The methods for this research were to use a content analysis to find if

there was a correlation between social media and murder. There were many

news articles that were read and many that were selected but not all that was

read were used. In this section one will find the methods that were used to collect

the data used throughout this research paper as well as the research procedures

that were followed to complete this research. This includes the approach that

was used, how the sample was chosen, the limitations to the procedures chosen,

and what would have been done differently if the researcher were to start over.

Data Collection Methods

Case Selection

For this research there was 24 murder cases that were selected to

represent the population of the United States between the years 2009 and 2019.

The 24 cases are a representation of murders that had social media involvement

in the last 10 years. This time frame was significant because it measures the

start of when social media took off on the internet to the most current time. These

cases occurred in the United States or were American citizens at the time of their

death. There were two cases that did not have a location attached to the names,

however after researching more into their whereabouts it was concluded that the

likelihood of them living in America was more than likely. Then there were a few

cases found outside the United States that were used as a comparison to the

30
United States to see if social media influenced murders occur more in the United

States or if it was a worldwide problem. These cases included countries such as

England, Mexico, and India. In total including the ones from other countries there

is 30 cases for this study. All these cases included murder of at least one human

being, and they all included the use of social media before or during the murder.

When looking at the use of social media, the cases that were selected are the

ones that involve both the murder and the murderer using social media as either

a way of communication, meeting, or display of the murder.

There were many types of news articles that were used for this research.

Ones representing the nation such as ABC and NBC news coverage, ones the

represented the state, and ones that represented the city that the murder

occurred in. In the selection of which news articles to use, there was a matter of

which resource gave the most information on the suspect, victim, social media

involvement, and the murder itself. There were some cases were multiple news

sources were used to complete story. For each case there was a comparison of

at least two news articles to confirm all information was correct and there was no

outlying information.

To prevent research bias there were multiple articles involved to make

sure that the cases were described in the most factual and informative way.

There were articles used that held social media accountable for the murder, and

some articles believed there was little social media involvement and they had no

influence on the actions of an individual. This is important because it is showing

31
an unbiased representation of facts by allowing the audience to see the

researcher did follow the parameters that were set and did not filter the results.

However, there is a bias on what the search engine is choosing to show, for

example the most popular cases consumed the search for the first few pages of

the search. Cases that would get more attention and were more popular are

represented on the first 10 pages while the rest of the unpopular cases are left

for last in the search engine results. This can be viewed as a poor representation

of societies in the United States.

Research Procedures

These cases were found in a few different ways, first the researcher used

Google Scholar, using the terms “social media murder in United States” and

“Murder on social media in United States” to search. After finding some cases

and information on the topic it was important to go through each link, and read

the abstract, from there it made it easier to see which cases matched the search

requirements —United States case, last 10 years, each case required names,

dates, location, and type of social media that was used in order to be involved in

the study. Another source that was used was Lexus Nexus search engine; the

same keywords that were used in google scholar were used in this search. This

gave the option to filter down to each date, where it occurred and any other

information that was needed. Going through the cases the researcher only

selected those that matched the listed requirements. This however disqualified a

32
lot of cases because there was either missing information about the participants

or the locations were not listed making it difficult to see if they met the

parameters.

Finally, there was the use of news articles that were located online by

searching for social media’s involvement in murder. Some of these social media

outlets such as the Sun and local and global news sites were used. Some

included ABC and NBC while others were the Chicago press. In this case the

information was verified on at least one other news media outlets, or by a search

for the case on Lexus Nexus to verify the information was represented correctly.

This is how the researcher found 24 cases throughout the United States and six

news outlets describing murders and social media involvement out of the

country.

Researcher was also able to use these social media outlets to follow up

on the comments, posts, pictures, and so on that was submitted by both those

who are murdered and the murderer. This was beneficial because than there was

the ability to collaborate the two subjects, find the relationship between the two

parties, and connect social media and murder. While not all social media profiles

were active, it gave the reader the opportunity to understand the events leading

up to the murder. There was the use of Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and

Facebook to check their profiles and see the posts that lead up to each murder

was necessary however in some cases they had been taken down or the parties

involved a minor and for their protection their name was not shared in

33
documents. Not to mention website like Myspace which is older and not as active

made it difficult to find the users. Also, the date of occurrence in some cases

were 10 years ago, so going back through all the social media posts proved to be

difficult and in some cases.

These 24 sample cases represent the population of all US murders in the

past 10 years that involves social media and murder. This research procedure is

unbiased because there are cases that did not have a direct link to social media,

and they were still included in this study. If the case mentioned any social media

involvement, included murder, and was conducted in the past 10 years it made it

into the sample. This made it easier to eliminate most biases and stick to the

parameters that were set.

It is also important to note that while there was not a known research bias

there could be an unknown bias from these online news companies. It is hard to

say that certain economic status, races, religions were not represented well in

the sample. This could lead to a research bias of choosing certain races,

religions, or quirks about the study.

If there was time to do it over it was would be important to have a bigger

sample size to represent the United States. While 24 cases are a good start,

there needs to be more confirmed cases to make an inform decision on the

research. If it were to be redone, it would be important to make sure to do

interviews with victims family and suspect and family in order to figure if there is a

34
class and race divide and if some people are more likely to get reported on than

others.

There was a breakdown of each case into specific categories for each the

victim and the suspect. These categories included names, race, gender, age,

social media platform used in link to death, location, previous crimes,

psychological diagnoses, previous relationship with each other, the year it

happened, the conviction, time given, how they were killed, why they were killed,

how many people were involved, whether or not it took place in a group setting,

and if there was any previous verbal abuse. This is important to the research

procedures because it allows readers to see if there is a certain group of people

that experiences this type of murder more than others.

If there were anything else done to prevent bias, there could have been

the use of court cases and police case files to prevent social media bias. The

government documents would just include the facts therefore they would be more

reliable on the subject. However, they were not used because in many cases it

was difficult to find or they were sealed. Also, in the in some cases that were

found turned out to be vague on what social media outlets were used and what

was said or done on these outlets. These cases were more about the murder

itself and how it was done, not so much of what caused it.

After collecting all the information possible, the researcher was able to

create a table to compare all the different information for each case. In this table

it included information for the victim such as age at death, race, gender, social

35
media usage, and for the suspect their name, age, race, location of the murder,

social media usage, psychological disorders if anywhere diagnosed, amount of

victims, whether they committed this crime in a public place or not, whether they

broadcasted it or not, how they killed their victim, and the overall reason for the

killings. This helped to see if there was a pattern in any way between races, age

groups, locations, certain platforms, reasons on why they are killing others.

36
 ID Name of Victim Age of VictimGender of Victim Name of Suspect Age of Suspect Race Conviction Year Location Realtion Social Media How Why Multaiple Murders Group Settings Verbal
Knew before Social Medi Abuseogial Disorders Reported
Psychol
1 Jerrold Parker 18 M->M Javhonn Frazier 19 B-B Unknown Indiana Rival twit er shot rage y n y y n
2 Caroline Wimmer 26 F->F Calvin Lawson 28 B-W 25 to life 2009 New York acquaintance MySpace Strangled rumor y n n y n
3 Jack Luibel 18 M->M Talas Bond 18 B-W unknown 2019 Tennesse None texting app shot catfished n n y y n
4 Hughstan 49 M->M Hughstan Schlicker 15 W-W 20y 2008 Arizona father MySpace shot grounded y n n n y
5 Kwame Dancy 22 M->M Jameg Blake 22 B-B 21y 2010 New York friend twit er shot rage y n y y n
6 Endia Martin 14 F->F Donnell Flora & Neice 14 2014y Il inos
NeiB-Bce -> 5y Uncle -> 100 Rival FB shot Argument y n y y n
7 Prentis Robinson 55 M->M Douglar Cleveland Colson 60 B-B 100y 2014 North Carolina None FB shot Post n n y n n
8 Sarah Rose Ludemann 18 F->F Rachel Wade 19 W-W 27y 2009 Florida Rival Text Stabbed Argument n n y y n
9 Rannita Wil iams 27 M->F Johnathan Robinson 36 B-B 1y probation 2018 Lousianna Girlfriend FB Shot FB Addiction y n n y n
10 Bianca Devins 17 M->F Brandon Clark 21 W-W Unknown 2019 New York Girlfriend Instagram Stabbed obession n n y n n
11 Shawntae Garrison 23 F->F Tianna Thomas 19 B-B Unknown 2019 Philadelphia None Instagram Stabbed Post n n y y n
12 Robert Godwin 79 M->M Steve Stephans 37 B-B dead 2017 Ohio None FB Shot rage n y y n n

37
13 Steve Stephan 37 M->M steve Stephans Ohio Self FB Shot rage
14 Emma Neiderbrock 16 M->F Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey I I 20 W-W life 2009 Virgina MySpace Friend MySpace Hammered rage n y n n y
15 Melanie Wells 18 M->F Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey I I W-W life 2009 Virgina MySpace Friend MySpace Hammered rage n
16 Pastor Mark Neiderbrock 50 M->M Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey I I W-W life 2009 Virgina Parent of Emma none Hammered rage n
Table One. Comparison of Social Media and Murders

17 Dr. Debra Kelley 53 M->F Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey I I W-W life 2009 Virgina Parent of Emma none Hammered rage n
18 Kayla VanWert 16 F->F Cathleen Boyer 16 W-B Unknown 2016 Pennsylvania Rival FB Stabbed Argument n n y y n
19 Nicole Lovell 13 M -> F David Eisenhauser 18 W-W 50 years 2016 Virgina Relationship kik texting app Stabbed catfished n n n n n
20 Jun Lin 33 M->M Luca Magnotta 32 W-A Life 2012 CaliMet forniOnl ons gList Stabbed Attention n
a ine for Sexual RelatiCrai n n n y
21 Unknown NA NA Sean Vasquez 20 M 200 years 2017 California None FB Shot Attention n y y n n
22 Dawone Cook 18 M ->M Dylan Hemphil 19 3B-B 2018 Il inos
years probation and $2000 friend Instagram shot Attention y n n n n
23 Lucy McHugh 13 M-> F Stephen Nicholson 25 W-W 33y 2019 NA Relationship texting app Stabbed rage n n y y y
24 Graciela Holker 45 M->F Jeffery Langford 24 W-W Stil in trial 2019 Utah Mother Son FB Shot/StabbedAt ention y n n y y
25 Jesus Maldonado unknown M->M Fbyan Rojas 19 M-M Stil in trial 2019 California None FB Shot post n n y y n
26 Jermaine Groupall 15 Adam Benzahi a Haye-Elliot B-B 12-22 years 2018 NA
M/F->M, Samuel Oliver-Rowland, Junior Simpson, Saski17-21 None FB Stabbed Gang n y y n n
 CHAPTER FOUR

FINDINGS

Introduction

This section includes information on the hypothesis of the research as well

as what was found, such as the cases that were discovered and the results of

those cases. For each of the cases there is a summary at the end explaining if

social media played a large enough role in the murder to be held partially

reliable. Each case will have a synopsis of what occurred before each murder

and what lead the person to kill another human being, and what happened after

the murder. After the cases are connected to social media and the literature

research mentioned above, there is the summary of the results found. This will

include all factors such as race, age, gender, and so on. This is important to

include because it can speak to the representation of the United States that is at

risk because of social media. Finally, there will be the comparison of social media

in other countries to the United States. There are cases listed from other

countries on how social media influenced murder in their countries. This will help

correlate that social media is a growing problem that needs to be recognized and

held accountable for the lack of control on these platforms.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that there is a connection between social media and

murder. In some cases, social media is the link between the murderer and the

murdered. Social media did in fact impact the lives of these individuals one way

38
or another and has shown the true dangers of media. The researcher believed

that she would find many cases that were easily correlated to social media and

the murders that occurred. Not to mention the research thought she would be

able to represent each state of the United States however that would be too

many states to research and would have too large of a sample. The hypothesis is

that social media is growing and so will murder rates.

General Patterns
When it comes to relational patterns there are some that exist in this data

set. In a broader sense there was the patten of the “copycat”. People were

recreating things they saw in other media post or from their peers to receive the

same attention the person prior received. For example, the constant live

streaming murders, it started with one and then others saw how fast they could

get recognized and how many views they could get, that they decided to do the

same. Another example would be the murders that included showing off guns

and money online and accidents happening such as the gun going off.

Majority of these cases are due to fights over a relationship or another

person who posted something about their relationship, online. This was creating

a lot of rage and anger between the two parties. The relation of these involved

posting on social media about another person or hate speech about the victim or

someone breaking up with the other over the media. If they were not arguing

over a boy or a relationship, then there was a fight between friends. The common

39
factor is that the words that are posted online for others to see are very effective

towards another person. They cause unnecessary negative emotions which lead

to bad decisions. It is important to mention there is no correlation between states

or locations according to this data set, they are well spread out across the

country. Finally, another relational pattern is that most of the suspects are male

and most of the victims are female due to cases of multiple victims.

'Age of Victim' by 'Gender of Victim' and

F->F

M->F

M->M

0 10 20 30 40 50
Age of Victim

Total

Figure One. Age and Gender of Victim and Suspect

Rumors, Postings, and Jokes

Rumors, postings, and jokes that occur on social media seem to be taken

very seriously and can end up in murder. Just as it did for eighteen-year-old

40
Jerrold Parker, who died due to multiple gunshot wounds because of a tweet.

Investigators on the cases stated that society today is in the information age

where the harassed can never escape the harassers due to social media being

the direct line between the two (Rodriguez, 2016). In this case the tweet stated “If

anyone got a problem with us, we could solve that right now. Hit my line.” This

came from an account that Leggett had, and it was a retweet of what Javhonn

Frazier, Parker’s friend had tweeted originally (Rodriguez, 2016). He accused a

man by the name of Kalen of not being able to rap (Rodriguez, 2016). After the

retweet Frazier tweeted Leggett for his number and Leggett responded with it,

Frazier then proceeded to text Leggett that he just needed the number and would

hit him up after he got off. Then Leggett texted back, “bet”. After a while, the two

decided to fight later that day. With one last text stating they were outside,

witnesses stated they saw Leggett shoot Parker, Frazier picked up his friend and

laid him on a car while he ran to get help, but it was too late (Rodriguez, 2016). A

young man died because of a social media posting about a friend’s rap skills, this

shows that social media is a danger to all, and it can help aid murder.

If social media did not exist or was not a large part of these young men’s

lives, this murder would most likely not have happened. The teenagers in this

case were hiding behind the screen and saying whatever they wanted to one

another until one could not control their rage and acted out of character and

murdered the other. When people are online, they have less accountability for

what they say and in many times are anonymous in what they are saying. Which

41
means that they feel freer to say and do whatever they want (Mando, 2008). If it

were not for social media this boost of testosterone and anger would more than

likely not have occurred.

Another case where social media be a neutral platform would be in the

case of Prentis Robinson, a 55-year-old man who was shot one block away from

the police department, while he was on Facebook Live. Robinson was walking

home from the police department after reporting a stolen phone. He was known

for Facebook Living his everyday events in his neighborhood such as drug deals

which often made people upset. One of his neighbors said this was bound to

happen because people would get angry and at some point, they will snap. The

suspect was 65-year-old Douglas Cleveland Colson, who was seen walking

towards Robinson when he was shot. Robinson shouted to the man that he was

on live, and that is when he was shot. The police could not find any evidence of

motive or why he decided to kill Robinson that day.

This case involves a man who was continuously sharing on social media

about illegal things that were going on in his neighborhood. He knew he was

upsetting people and knew that it was probably not a good idea since his

cellphone was already stollen, but he continued to do so. Colson could have

possibly been one of the people Robinson previously recording and he had

enough and decided to kill the man.

Overall, this murder would not have taken place if it were not for social

media because Robinson was posting it for everyone to see. Social media made

42
him believe that what he was doing was right and gave him the power and the

right to record everything. The man was murdered because he was constantly

filming people who did not want to be filmed and in this case he filmed the wrong

person whose emotion were intensified by the actions of Robinson’s which

caused him to break and murder him.

A case of a Texan man was shot to death because of a meme that was

posted to make fun of a local gang on the internet. Jesus Maldonado was making

fun of a gang on the internet, angering them, and challenging them to a fight.

However, when they showed up, gang member Fabyan Rojas had a gun and

shot him to death. The 19-year-old had a large criminal history, so it was not

surprising to police when they arrested him for murder. He would constantly post

videos of lighting rabbits on fire and letting them run around the backyard

squealing for help while he and other laughed in the background (ABC30, 2019).

Due to his criminal past it is not unbelievable that he committed murder

because he was already in trouble with the law and killing animals (ABC30,

2019). This man does show psychopathic tendencies however this was not

brought on by social media because he was not posting these videos for likes he

was posting it for torture and would have done it anyway. However, in the case of

this murder, yes, he would have probably murdered someone eventually, but it

would not have necessarily been Jesus. Jesus was murdered because of a

meme he had made about the gang and they made plans to meet up on social

media, so in this case social media is an influence on his death. It allowed Rojas

43
to post the videos of animal cruelty and did not take it down or monitor his activity

online. Social media could have deactivated his account, or filtered his

messages, this could have been prevented.

In another case, Shawntae Garrison and her sister were stabbed multiple

times, killing Shawntae and leaving her sister in critical condition over an alleged

Instagram post where one group of girls was making fun of another gang. They

met up for a fight and ultimately died for it. The Instagram post has not been

released, but witnesses on scene confirmed that this is what started the fight

between the two groups (Tanno, 2019).

Just like the other case it is hard to say that this murder would not have

happened if social media was not involved. Social media did play a role in this

murder because the meeting of the two gangs took place online, however if the

girls were involved in a gang, it makes it more likely that this murder would have

still happened.

In a similar case, an 18-year-old mom was stabbed to death by a former

best friend who was 16 at the time, over a fight about a boy on Facebook. The

argument was over the Kayla child’s father and who was going to get his

attention. Kayla was stabbed in the neck and chest by Cathleen Boyer because

according to witnesses Kayla was winning the fight. She died because of an

argument about DeJesus who was arrested hours before Kayla’s death for

beating her and dragging her by her hair. After Cathleen murdered her best

44
friend, she went to Facebook to write that she was wrong and was going to turn

herself in, no remorse (True Case Files, 2019).

This case used social media as a platform to fight while the two knew

each other before hand, they never jumped to murder or fighting before. Social

media did have a correlation with this murder; however, it is hard to say that this

murder would not have occurred if social media was not involved. These three

have a history of getting angry and abusing each other, it is possible that they

would have ended up murdering one another eventually, it was a matter of time,

just like some other cases that were found. However, in this scenario it happened

to start because of a social media posting.

In a research study conducted in 2016, the researchers found out how

much influence social media has on the spread of rumors, jokes, and

conversations, and how quickly things progress through the internet. The internet

is made up of one large community that anyone can access and see anything

anyone has every posted. With all this information it makes it clear to see how

things can be changed and blown out of portions just like to case above. Society

gets information so fast through social media, sometimes even before it hits the

mainstream media, it is difficult to keep everything under wraps when it has been

exposed to this environment (Dizikes, 2018).

The given definition for rumor is a “circulating story of questionable

veracity, which is apparently credible but hard to verify, and produces sufficient

skepticism and/or anxiety so as to motivate finding out the actual truth” ( Dizikes,

45
2018). Rumors have changed over the years, now they can happen online

without ever meeting the person. Just like when it comes to news stories there is

different versions and then the truth of what really happened.

Urgency and Need

Social media can become a necessity for many people, they cannot go a

day without checking it and if they do, they experience withdrawal from it. Just as

Hughstan Schlicker experienced. He was obsessed with social media and would

spend most of his day online talking to people he had met online. One afternoon

he told the virtual friends on Myspace that he did not feel like living anymore, he

was frustrated and started threatening suicide. At that point, his friends called the

police to warn them about his threats and when the police brought it to his

mother’s attention, she did nothing (Walsh, 2009). She stated that she knows her

son and he would not do such a thing and promised to lock up all the guns in the

house. His father on the other hand was a little bit more concerned with these

threats and decided to take away all social media and internet from his son. This

made him furious, to the point where he pointed a gun to his father’s back and

killed him. He stated, “it felt like someone stabbed me” when his father took away

his internet access “it went straight through and no matter how hard I pulled, I

couldn’t pull the knife.” (Walsh, 2009)

It is accurate to state that Hughstan suffered from social media addiction

and when his fix was not getting fulfilled, he did what he felt was necessary to get

his fix back. Social media was controlling his life and by his father suddenly taken

46
it away ensued anger and hatred. His dopamine levels were not being reached

so there was no relief or joy reached and he needed it just like someone craves a

cigarette or alcohol (Walsh, 2009). Therefore, one can conclude that if social

media did not exist, he would not have had an addiction to it and would not have

killed his father to get it back. While it might have been possible for him to

become addicted to another substance and committed the murder of his father if

his father took it away, this was not the case.

In another case that took place in Utah, a man named Jeffery Antonio

Langford killed his mother and turned to Facebook live as an alibi. He stated that

his mother killed herself and he was just filming because he wanted to prove

himself innocent in the video, he stated “I saw my mother shoot herself in the

face.” (Darrah, Nicole, Oct 28). After being asked why he did not call 911 instead

of making three videos featuring her dead body, he stated he did not want her to

kill him. In the second video he claimed that he would not be going to jail and in

the third on he stated that his mother deserves to be sent off on the same day

that his father died (Darrah, Nicole, Oct, 28). However later police found that it

was not possible for her to kill herself with that gun, it was staged, and he

murdered her. In the case of this murder he panicked after he shot her and

thought he would be safe because of social media. He had the idea that it was

just as good as a person and he was in an urgent need for an alibi (Darrah,

Nicole, Oct 28). While this did not work out for Jeffery, his mothers’ lifeless body

47
is now posted all over social media with no way of getting it down (Darrah,

Nicole, Oct 28).

This case shows urgency and the need for social media to attempt to

cover up a murder. In Jeffery’s case he saw social media as a way out, while

social media might not have been the reason, he committed the murder, it was

the way he decided to cover it up. The need of social media to cover up the

murder was apparent in this case, even though it did not work out for him, in his

head it was necessary to get rid of his mother. There is nothing written on

whether it was premeditated and he planned on posting it to get out of the

murder, if this was the case then social media could be responsible for the

murder, however if it was just a last minute thought after the murder, then social

media was just a convenient cover up (Darrah, Nicole, Oct, 28).

Then there is the well-known case of Robert Godwin and Steve Stephens,

the Facebook live murder. This Facebook live was an unfortunate cry for help

from Steve Stephens, he was in a low place in his life where he had lost

everything, he had to gambling debt. He turned to social media for a cry for help,

he begged them to convince him to stop from committing murder, he stated that

his life was going so wrong that he could murder someone (Solon, 2018). On the

Easter Day Godwin was shot in the head after pleading for his life because

Stephens life was not where he wanted it. After Stephens murdered Godwin, he

proceeded to upload the video to his profile for everyone to see. It was shared

48
millions of times and viewed by even more. It took two hours for Facebook to

take it down (Solon, 2018).

This is an example of Urgency and need because Stephen’s believed that

it was his only way to get the help he needed. He was looking to his followers

and reaching out as one last cry for help and no one did anything, no one called

the police or tried to stop the murder from happening (Solon, 2018). It is not clear

the complete motive of Stephens for choosing a random target such as 74-year-

old Robert Godwin, because after police caught up to him, he killed himself. This

murder might not have taken place if it was not for social media because there is

reason to believe that if social media did not exist he would not have killed

anyone because he would not have felt the pressure to follow through with his

words that were broadcasted all over social media (Solon, 2018). Social media

brings a lot of social pressures to the surface, and if he did not follow through, to

him, it might seem as if people were going to judge him for it, even if that was not

the case in real life.

Conflict and Jealousy

Conflict and jealousy are a big problem that arises in social media. One

example of where jealousy went too far is with Caroline Wimmer. She was

strangled by her ex-boyfriend, a convicted felon because she told his current

girlfriend on Myspace that he was a cad. He strangled her to death with a hair

dryer cord all because she told his girlfriend on Myspace that he was unfaithful

with her (Gendar, 2009).

49
 However, it is hard to say in this case whether or not social media had

escalated the situation because Wimmer could have very well have had told his

girlfriend in person about his unfaithfulness, and it was not the first time he was

charged with assaulting a woman. In 2006 he was arrested for punching and

choking his live-in girlfriend at the time and the mother of his two kids, then he

later hit her with a metal hammer. In this case he was never convicted, and the

case was sealed. This woman was astonished at his arrest for murder (Gendar,

2009). This then make it plausible that he was eventually going to kill someone

whether social media played a role in it or not. He had prior history of abuse,

anything could have set him off to make him hurt or murder another person, it

was just a matter of time before it happened again. On the other hand, social

media could have influenced this murder because it was never mentioned why

he killed her. It is plausible that he killed her out of rage of being embarrassed on

a social platform.

In another case a 14-year-old girl was murdered over a conflict about a

boy that all started on Facebook. In 2014 a Chicago teen was fatally shot by

another 14-year-old girl in a street fight. Edina Martin was walking home from

school with a friend when the unnamed (due to being a minor) 14-year-old came

up to her and shot her in the back and shot another person in the arm. This fight

started on Facebook, the two girls who went to the same school and according to

family they were close friends. The two friends were arguing over a boy and the

unnamed teen let her anger take over (ABC, 2014). Her Uncle who was

50
paralyzed due to being shot, supplied her with the loaded gun to go handle her

business. He was also charged with his niece. Classmate Kimberly Taylor stated,

“She wasn’t a bad kid, I mean, everybody gets suspended. She was not bad.

When I heard that, I was sad for her. It hurts my heart to see her life is away. She

throws her life away.” (ABC, 2014).

Many that witnessed the murder and the victim’s family stated that

Chicago is not a place for a child to grow up. Just hearing from classmates one

can tell that it was not a safe environment, “… everyone gets suspended…”. The

family moved from one city to another to give their daughter a safer environment

to grow up in. The girls were friends at the time, and while they had media

conflicts, they also had in person conflicts. Therefore, the odds of this murder

happening without social media is more likely. Nevertheless there is research

that states that teenage and young adults brains are still developing and with the

influence of social media they are in less control of their emotions leaving them to

make choices that they would not normally make. This is making is plausible that

the influence of social media did impact the outcome of this fight.

In a third case a teenager was killed due to an unknown to the families,

love triangle. Rachel Wade was murdered by Sarah Ludemann because they

were both involved with, the same man named Joshua Camacho (CBS News,

2010). She stabbed Wade to death in such a violent matter that the knife blade

was bent. There was months and months of taunting and threatening towards

one another on social media. The comments included, "Please tell me Sarah why

51
you would be a dumb-a** c**t and put a brand-new picture of you and Josh at the

beach on your Myspace. Seriously, I told you to watch your f***ing back and not

to f***ing chill with him. I'm guaranteeing you that I'm going to f***ing murder you,

I'm letting you know that now," (CBS News, 2010).

While social media did add to the drama and the buildup of anger between

the two, it was not the ultimate cause because they still had many in person

altercations, including many that involved police. The girls did not only threaten

each other on social media but also threaten each other in person. This murder

was bound to happen with little or no preventative action taken. However social

media allowed the confrontation to escalate and it could be possible that if the

girls did not start the fights on social media there would not have been as much

rage and anger and it could have been possible this murder would not have

occurred. Nevertheless, if social media were to filter and monitor these

interactions, there could have been more involvement from the police and social

media could have saved a life.

Attention Getting and Risk Taking

Attention getting and risk taking are one of the more popular types of

murders and accidental deaths when it comes to this study. They see any

attention as good in attention or there are the consequences of trying to receive

attention. Even if it means risking a life or even taking a life.

Many people have heard about Eric Clinton Kirk Newman or otherwise

known as Luka Magnotta, “The Cat Killer”. There was a Netflix documentary

52
conducted about him and his murders, not to mention many news articles and

interviews done with the man himself. A little about Magnotta, he was born in

Ontario Canada on July of 1982 to parents Anna Yourkin and Donald Newman.

He grew up in a family of five, but in 1994 that all changed, his father was

diagnosed with Schizophrenia which lead to his parents’ divorce and him moving

in a living with his grandmother. His mother was not shy of illness either, while

never diagnosed; he described her as OCD and having tendencies to lock him

and his siblings out of the house and killed their rabbit because of the mess it

would make. In his young childhood, his mother, grandmother, and siblings

would call him a “faggot” on normal bases. This then led to him living a life in the

sex industry and an obsession with becoming famous (CBC News, 2012).

In 2005 he started his criminal career, where he impersonated women to

apply for credit cards and purchased over 10,000 dollars’ worth of goods. After

this incident he changed his name to Luka Magnotta. He then began to make

many profiles online over many years; he would make false claims about himself

on these fake accounts to get attention (CBC News, 2012). As social media

began to rise, so did his desire to be famous. One of the most interesting claims

he made was that he was in a relationship with a well-known Canadian convicted

murder, which he would dispute on his real accounts. After his capture, the police

found that he had over 70 Facebook pages, 20 websites under different names,

and countless YouTube accounts (CBC News, 2012).

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 Throughout 2007 -2008, he attends many auditions for reality shows but

never makes a break television. In these auditions he states, “Some people say

that I am devastatingly good looking.” This shows his personality (CBC News,

2012). Finally, in 2010 he posted the kitten killing video which got many people’s

attentions. He posted right before Christmas a video of a man which was later

found to be him, putting kittens in a sealed bag, and sucking the air out with a

vacuum, killing them. This video took off, people were looking everywhere for this

man and was not going to let it go until they got him. To Luka, this is all he

wanted, he wanted people to know who he was, and he used social media to get

people to pay attention to him (CBC News, 2012).

This then leads up to his murder of Lin Jun in 2012; he was an

undergraduate student who met Luka online on Craigslist. After agreeing to meet

with Luka there was no sign of the young undergrad from friends or coworkers.

Then Luka posted a video of the murder on YouTube. The video shows Luka

stabbing Lin Jun repeatedly with an ice pick (CBC News, 2012).

It is easy to believe that if all these people on social media would have just

left the kitten video alone, would he have moved up to kill a person. They knew

that he was obsessed with social media and making a name for himself, whether

it was a good or a bad one. His obsession with himself is what got him caught, he

went to an internet café to watch the video and see how many likes and

comments he had received (CBC News, 2012).

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 In the end Luka’s obsession with not only himself but his social media, led

to a death of another man, if there had not been social media involvement,

chances are this man would still be alive. He was not killed out of hate or

passion; he was a stranger who trusted the wrong person with an addiction to

social media (CBC News, 2012).

While this is a very interesting and specific case, it is not the first to occur,

but it is one of the first to get so much media attention and police involvement.

Unfortunately for his victim it was too little too late. This shows one type of

attention seeking behavior that is brought out because of social media, that

otherwise would not exist if it were for the creation of media. Having people track

him down after the cat killing videos was just what he wanted. It gave him

attention that he has been craving for years (CBC News, 2012). He wanted to be

famous, he wanted to be a model, and an actor and when those did not work out,

he took alternate measures. By killing the cats, he became famous, so he

thought that if he upgraded from animals to people, he would become even more

famous. He made up story lines along the way to get people to continue to follow

him. He thought it through, and he knew what to do to get people to continue to

follow and trace him. In the end social media got him the “famous” that he

wanted and it also got him caught because he could not help but check on his

social media in an internet café to see how many people were still talking about

him ( CBC News, 2012). This murder without a doubt would only have happen

because of social media. He did this all for social media followings and for people

55
to know his name. In prison he stated that he was happy because people knew

who he was.

Another one which society hears about often is accidental deaths. And

now more often than not it is happening on social media. For example, looking at

cases such as Dylan Hemphill and Dawone Cook where a friend was murdered

on Instagram live by accident. Instagram and Facebook have created ways

where a person can live stream their activities and other can watch and

comment, which is exactly what these two 18-year olds were doing. In the

beginning of 2018 these two men were in one of their Detroit homes living

streaming and playing with a rifle with a bayonet and showing off their money to

their viewers, when suddenly Dawone accidently shot his best friend in the head,

Dylan died instantly( Mollie Cahillane, 2018).

While Dawone only received three years’ probation for his actions, he will

have to live with the fact that he killed his best friend, all because they were

seeking media attention from their followers. This happens way to often to too

many young adults, as a society they get wrapped up in their views and their

popularity that they are not paying attention and people die because of it. This

death would not have occurred if it were not for social media, there would have

been nothing to showcase on or to flaunt on. There social media addiction and

the need to be accepted are causing murders to occur and there needs to be

more of a focus on this type of murder.

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 A third case that relates to the prior two would be the case of Rannita

Williams, who was murdered by her ex on Facebook live. When he was arrested,

he told officers that he should be charged with first degree murder because he

has plan to murder her it was not by chance. When he was asked what

happened he told police that he made her go on Facebook live and apologize to

his girlfriend (Zoellner, 2018). In the video Rannita is seen apologizing very

nervously with her ex Jonathan behind her. He told her that he was going to

make her famous because of this video. He then proceeded to shoot her in the

legs and continued shooting at her and the police when they arrived on scene

(Zoellner, 2018).

In his interview he stated that he shot at police because he wanted to die

as well but he ran out of bullets. He was upset with Rannita for a comment she

made on social media that was not shared and wanted her to pay for it. He was

also irritated and heard saying, “Everyone wants to be famous, let’s be famous

today.” (Zoellner, 2018) This statement goes to show that social media played a

big role in both of their lives, and it was important enough to him to make her

apologize on Facebook live. He also hinted at her need to be famous by making

the statement “… Let’s be famous today.” He was aware of what he was doing in

his actions and was not affected by any psychological disorders. He stated that

he wanted to be charged with first degree because he knew what he was doing

and he had planned it (Zoellner, 2018). Overall, this murder would not have

occurred if it were not for social media because he wanted two things out of this

57
murder, an apology to his girlfriend, and to become social media famous. In the

end he received both his demands and he is okay with spending the rest of his

life in prison.

Social Media Changes People’s Social Relationships

Social media has a bigger impact on human life than people give it credit

for. People allow it to change the way they think and act to the point that it

changes people’s social relationships with one another. Just in the case of

friends Jameg Blake and Kwame Dancy, one friend killed another over a twitter

argument. Best friends who lived on the same block of houses in New York, got

into a heated argument on Twitter over a girl. The two exchanged insults on

Twitter, while onlookers and so-called friends joined in and add more insults to

the fire. Hours before the murder occurred, Blake tweeted “N…. s is looking for u

don’t think I won’t give up ya address for a price betta chill asap!” (Fenney, 2010)

Not too long later Blake shows up at Dancy house and shoots him with a

shotgun. Then two days after the murder, Blake tweets “R.I.P. Kwame.” (Feeney,

2010)

Friends and family were astonished that a tweet or a couple of tweets

could lead to Dancy’s death. This shows that the anger was created by social

media and motive was created on social media. This murder would not have

happened without the use of social media. These teenagers were consumed by

social media and what their peers thought of them. As previous studies

mentioned above these teens were feeling peer pressure, and the lack of

58
responsibility that is commonly found among people who have social media

disputes.

Another case that speaks to social media changes social relationships

would be the case of Syko Sam who was a horrorcore rapper who murdered his

online ex-girlfriend Emma, her parents, and her best friend that was spending the

night. This is an interesting case because Sam and Emma had met online and

never met in person until the day before the murders. The twenty-year-old met

Emma on Myspace and they bonded over their mutual like for horrorcore rap.

They lived on opposite side if the country, but Sam travelled from California to

Virginia to see her and go to a concert with her. While Emma’s friend and mother

joined her to the concert, they thought that she was just going through a phase

and this was not a permanent part of her life (Martinez, 2009).

Unfortunately, they would never know because the next day Sam killed

Emma, her parents, and her friend. Police questioned Sam but there was never a

reason for motive. They found by going through his social media and his songs

that there was a change from his social media interactions to his in-person

interactions with Emma. While his music was all about murder and death, his

interactions with Emma were the opposite, they spoke every day up until her

death (Martinez, 2009). When Emma’s friend’s mom would call the house to

check on her daughter because she had not heard from her Sam would tell her

that she was at the movies, or with friends, until she had the police do a well-

59
being check. That is when all four bodies were found bludgeon to death and

deeply decomposed.

This is a representation of his music and his anger towards society.

However, it did not explain why he killed his girlfriend and her family (Martinez,

2009). Police had some thoughts that it was because her parents did not like

him, and they lived a straight and narrow path as a pastor and a professor

(Martinez, 2009).

Overall, these murders occurred because there was limited guidance

when it came to social media and too much freedom among young adults. Not to

mention since both these young adults were homeschooled and were not well

socialized with the world, they depended on social media as their outlet to others

(Martinez, 2009). This then changed how they interacted with people in person

causing them to be awkward and made fun of by peers. In the end the lack of in

person interactions with peers and an increase use of social media could be

responsible for these murders.

Social Media is a Neutral Platform

A social media influencer was murder by her boyfriend, Brandon Clark,

due to the use of social media. Bianca Devens was her name and she was killed

because her boyfriend did not like how much time she spent on social media. He

had slit her throat and posted it on Instagram where then he proceeded to write

“sorry” as the caption for the picture. Even though they had met online, and he

knew what she did for a living, he did not like the attention she was receiving and

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ended up murdering her and trying to commit suicide himself. He then posted

pictures of himself with blood gushing from his throat. And then he took a picture

of himself lying across his dead girlfriend’s body (O’Neill, 2019).

After being taken to the hospital, Brandon survived and was charged with

second degree murder for the murder of Instagram and tik tok famous Devens.

They couple met online on a dating app and had only been in a relationship for

about two months when they decided to go to a concert in Queens. People were

calling the police with concern for Brandon the morning of because he changed

his bio to “10/06/1997 – 7/14/19, Just know that I feel no pain now.” (O’Neill,

2019)

Without a doubt social media influenced this murder, they met online and

while they did have an in-person relationship, Devan’s was murder because of

her love for her followers and her addiction to social media. This is something

that Brandon could not handle anymore and ended up killing her for, he was

jealous of her followers because of how much attention she would give to them

instead of him. He was also addicted to social media because he felt it to be

necessary for him to post her murder and her body on social media with the

caption of sorry. This is him in a tragic moment, and his first thought was to post

to social media. Social media did play a huge role in this murder, and it most

likely would not have occurred if it were not for social media.

Another case where social media was used as a neutral platform is with

18-year-old Tennessee boy was lured to his death by a connection on Snap

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Chat. Jack Luibel was murdered in a driveway of a house that was located right

next to a church because he thought he was meeting a girl, while instead he was

met by two men who robbed and shot him. Jack knew something was wrong

because he texted his cousin that the house looked “sketchy” and if he did not

hear from him in 30 minutes to call the police, which is exactly what the cousin

did. The two men approached Jack and Jack tried to fight him off, they ended up

killing him over one hundred dollars and an ID (Broach, 2019).

This murder would not have happened if it were not for the use of social

media. Without social media the two men would not have been able to catfish

Jack into thinking that he was meeting a girl and they would have never been

able to rob him and shoot him. Snap Chat gave the men a neutral playing field in

which one group took advantage of another and in the end, someone was

murdered. Since the conversations took place on snapchat where the messages

disappear right after opening them, there was no way to tell who sent it and

where it was sent from. This case represents the dangers of social media usage.

A final case where social media was used as a neutral platform for murder

would be the case of Nicole Lovell who was 13 years old when she died. She

thought she was communicating with a friend on the texting app Kik when

instead he turned out to be the person who murdered her. She became a victim

to catfishing and a fake profile. She had been messaging with an 18-year-old

named David Eisenhauser a freshman at Virginia tech and became intimate with

him. At first David denied this interaction but after questioning he admitted to

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killing Nicole, but he did not act alone. Fellow Virginia Tech peer Natalie Keepers

helped plan the murder and hid the body with him (Van Sant, 2016).

Overall, this young girl died because of an interaction she had online

through a texting app that was fabricated. She thought this man really liked her

and wanted to be with her, when simply that was not the case, the app allowed

them to connect and find each other. If the app did not exist neither would have

this relationship and Nicole would still be alive. Kik influenced this murder

because there is a lack of boundaries and guidelines supplied by the app.

In conclusion there has been a lot of connections between social media

and murder. In this case study one can conclude that people on social media

have an untouchable mindset that was described earlier in this research. People

tend to forget the consequences that follow their actions when they are online.

This case study shows that there were a lot of unnecessary deaths due to

overuse of social media outlets to handle disagreements and share personal

feelings.

Summary of Results

There is a lot of information that can be found in this study, from race,

gender, and reasons why, to how and who committed these murders. To begin

with there was the finding that more men are committing these murders than

women in this case study. And while there were women who murdered, there

were few and they murdered other women instead of men. Men murdered more

men but also murder several women as well. When it comes to race more black

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people murdered others in total and more white people killed white people

compared to black people killed fellow black people, there was one Mexican who

killed another Mexican and one white person killing an Asian. There were only

two cases where a black man killed a white man and one case of a white women

killing a black woman. With one can conclude that in most cases people in this

case study were killing within their race.

Figure Two. Murder by Race

There was also evidence that showed that majority of these deaths were

caused by rage of something that was posted online, and few were in other

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categories such as catfished, gang, attention, and jealousy. There was another

interesting finding that majority of these cases, the victim was either shot or

stabbed which promotes the thought that there is little control over who and how

someone gets their hands on a gun or a knife. The social media usage was

majority Facebook with a close second of Kik or another form of texting app such

as WhatsApp. This shows that the more popular the app the more murders occur

on it. The age range was between 19 and 36 with one outlier of 60, majority of

them being in late teens early twenties, which is when the brain is still

developing, and they are most vulnerable. Majority did not have prior crimes or

psychological disorders, yet half experienced verbal abuse with no known police

reports. Another interesting finding was that less than half of them knew each

other prior to social media.

Figure Three. How the Murder was Committed

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Figure Four. Relationships

Most importantly, this research found that social media does play a role in

murder, or these murders would not have occurred if social media did not exist.

In this study there was 26 confirmed deaths and out of the 26 deaths, only two

were undetermined if the murder still would have occurred with or without social

media presents and six where the likelihood of occurrence without social media

presents would have still occurred. That leaves 18 cases where someone was

murdered because of the influence of social media, that could have been

prevented if social media took extra precautions with their users and their

content. That being said at least in these 18 cases, social media is partially

66
responsible for the deaths of these individuals and more research should be

conducted on the topic.

Figure Five. Social Media Involvement

Relationship Between the Murderer and the Murdered

In this research study there are many different types of relationships

between the murder and the murdered. After looking at the case studies found

for this research one can see that majority of the people had a previous

relationship with their victims before murdering them. Many were friends, lovers,

acquaintances, who knew each other before the murder occurred, but the

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murdered occurred because of something that took place online. There were the

cases of couples who showed jealousy of another person or jealousy about the

time a person spends on social media, creating a stain on their relationship. The

same strain that can occur when on is working too much and not spending

enough time with their partner.

There were four cases found where they did not know each other. The first

one was a male who thought he was meeting up with a girl he was speaking with

online, but it turned out to be another male and his friend catfishing him, robbing

him, and ultimately murdering him. Another interaction was where two males met

online and one was murdered by the other because they wanted internet fame,

there was no interest in each other, or feelings involved, it was all for the

attention of others. Then there was the Facebook Live Murderer who killed his

victim because he was there are the wrong time and he had a lot of anger.

Finally, there was a case where a male met a female online whose parents did

not want them to interact because they met online. Therefore, the male got angry

with the girl’s parents because they were preventing the relationship, so he went

to their house and murdered the entire family.

The rest of these cases each one of them knew each other and let their

aggression get the best of them. Many of them were young adults or teens

whose brains were still maturing therefore they were not completely in control of

their feelings and aggressions. This is notably true in the case of the young man

who murdered his father because he took away his social media privileges. He

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let his anger towards his father get the best of him and ended up killing his father

for it. This can be the same for the friends who got into an argument on social

media which lead to them meeting in person and one killing the other. There is a

pattern of people who knew each other previously to social media murdering

each other.

Social Media and Murder in Other Countries

There is social media all around the world including countries that are

considered third world such as Africa and India but do the murder rates follow the

same as they do in the United States. Social media plays a big impact on those

who are developing their countries, it is a way to contact people from other

countries, connect, and bring them and their money to their counties. This is

great for the tourism industry and will hopefully create a more stable income for

these people. In more recent years there has been an increase in smart phone

users and owners, the question is should they be concerned about what social

media has brought to the developed countries such as the United States and the

Unite Kingdom?

England

There have been cases going back to the early 90s on how much media

violence effects the state of mind of the youth. It has such an effect that it has

even led to murder. In February 1993 in England, a two-year-old boy names

James Bulger was kidnapped from a mall and later murdered by two ten-year-old

boys. In their trail Justice Morland added the idea that the exposure to violent

69
videos could be related to the crime. In the trial there was a blurry security video

that had been the center of the case. In the video one can see James being led

out if the mall by the two other boys. However, there was no verification that

these two boys had seen any violent videos, therefore they could not confirm why

these boys led the innocent two-year-old to his death.

Another case that occurred in London would be the case of Jermaine

Goupall who was with a group of friends while being chased by another group of

boys that ranged from that age 17 to 22. The four were a part of a gang that was

in a rivalry with another gang that night (BBC, 2018). There had been multiple

music videos from each gang posted online taunting one another until they finally

decided to meet in the streets to fight. Unfortunately, Goupall just happened to be

out that night and he was killed in the process of this fight. They thought he was

a part of the other gang when he was not. This murder started with the internet

because they were posting online about each other to get under each other’s

skin. However, while social media did escalate the situation (BBC, 2018). The

odds of this happening are still very likely because it was between two gangs,

and gang violence is a serious problem that in many cases end in death.

India

There is a massive problem with social media in India. There is a constant

miscommunication among its users throughout the country which is leading to

many unnecessary deaths. India uses an app called WhatsApp to communicate

with not only each other but as their main source of news. While to many this

70
may be unreliable, this is the only source they have. They have experienced a lot

of wrongful death because of the rumors spread on this app and the app has

done little to fix the issue at hand.

One of the most recent deaths was that of 65-year-old woman named

Rukmani who was killed by a mob attack. She was on her way to the temple with

her family when they had a bad feeling and decided to turn back and head home

instead. On their way back they were attacked by a mob, their car was

destroyed, her family was beaten to the point of permanent injury, and she was

murdered (Goel, Raj, Ravichandran, 2018). This happened because they were

mistaken for child abductors or as they call it in India, child lifters. They were

stripped of their clothes and beaten with iron rods, sticks, punched and kicked.

They were left for dead by the mob with all their belongings stollen. This family is

left with permanent scars both physical and mental from this attack. The app that

is owned by Facebook did nothing about this murder and did not take

responsibility for the murder (Goel, Raj, Ravichandran, 2018). The mob was

never arrested or charged. They got away with murder.

This was far from the first case of murder in India. In 2018 in the month of

May, there were two cases of lynching reported. The first one was a man who

was trampled to death and hung from a bridge for everyone to see. He was

falsely accused of child lifting and they crowd did not stop to question him or

listen to what he had to say, they used him as a message to all the child lifters

out there, that they will be caught and they will be murdered for their actions

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(Dutta, 2018). The other case that was reported in May of 2018, was that of a 60-

year-old woman whose name was not provided. She was lynched for giving

children foreign chocolate. She purchased some chocolate as a treat to hand out

to the children and she was murdered for it. She was also thought to be a child

lifter, and this was her ploy to get the children to come with her. While she also

tried to explain her actions, they did not give her any chances and lynched her as

well (Dutta, 2018).

In the same month, in a different district in India another man that was 26

years old was lynched by another mob for the same suspicion. May 28 th a mob of

over 500 people lynched someone who identified as transgender because the

mob was suspicious of the involvement with a child lifting gang (Dutta, 2018).

The next month, June 8th, four more men were killed, all in different districts,

June 13th a man was tied to a pole and beaten to death. June 19 th another man

beaten and then lynched because there was a rumor on the app that he was to

blame for a cow slaughter which did not occur. This lynching just like the ones

before it, went viral on WhatsApp (Dutta, 2018). People were happy that there

was something being done about these child lifters and they are getting their

revenge. However, they were unaware that every single one of these lynching’s

were wrongful deaths of innocent people who were made to seem to be bad. The

police in India admitted that they believed the increase of lynching’s were due to

the app and there was little to nothing being done about it (Dutta, 2018).

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 WhatsApp did act by limiting how many times a message could be shared

and how many forwards a person has a day. However this is the very least they

could have done, this has not slowed down the amount of rumors that are being

spread across the country through this app, it is not slowing down or preventing

the amount of murders that are occurring on a daily bases (Dutta, 2018).

Mexico

In Mexico they are having the same problem with social media as the

Untied Stated and India. There is a spread of rumors and lies that is travelling

throughout the country due to social media. In 2018 there were two men that

were murdered in broad daylight because of rumors spread on WhatsApp. The

rumor stated there were a lot of child kidnappers entering the country and they

should be on the lookout for any suspicious activity. The message continued to

state that these men were organ harvesting to sell on the black market, and

leaving this child for dead (BBC, 2018). As soon as this message was forwarded

throughout the country, people began to panic. The community members did not

stop to question anyone or the message itself. Two men were soon arrested on

suspicion of child kidnapping, however there was no evidence to hold them, so

they were soon released to the public (BBC, 2018). The public did not want to

take any chances, they believed the message and they were going to make sure

the two men did not get away with their accused crimes. As soon as they hit the

town they were surrounded by a mob of citizens and beaten to the ground, set on

73
fire, and burned to death. Then their bodies were left there for two hours before

anyone reported it or their bodies were removed (BBC, 2018).

Soon after the community found out that this was a hoax, a lie, and they

murdered two innocent men. Just like in India, WhatsApp that was founded by

Facebook, is one of the most popular ways of communication in Mexico and it is

once again filled with lies and fake stories of child abductors and many other

serious crimes. The people of Mexico use this app just like the people of India to

get their daily news and they have been subjected to the wave of lynching’s that

are targeting up and coming countries across the world (BBC, 2018).

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 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

Introduction

Currently many people do not think twice about social media. They do not

filter their thoughts, their posts, the friends they add, who they know, and do not

even bother with privacy settings. This research can make people think twice

about their actions online and make their social media environment safer and a

positive one. Throughout this paper it is discussed how social media not only

effects social relationships but it also creates addictive behaviors for some, it

allows young adults who’s brains are not developed make in depth decisions,

creates antisocial behavior, and allows people to make emotional or rage based

decisions based off of what they see on social media.

To begin with social media has been researched on how it effects its

users. They have found that it does change how people interact with each other

and it can create psychological damage among youth and young adults.

Researchers have found that many of the users on social media are still in their

teens or early twenties, the stages where the brain is still developing. This makes

them more likely to make rage and emotional based decisions which could end

up being deadly. However, it is important to recognize that social media did not

make these individuals commit murder, they made that choice. It is however in

some cases the reason they commit murder or suicide because of the content

that can be posted on these platforms. People who are not emotionally stable

75
may feel inclined to take it off the internet and bring it into real life. However, this

is not social media telling them to do so, this is just social media providing them

the platform to get from step to step.

There are many reasons that could be added onto why someone commits

murder, some people need more than one reason to commit murder, some are

by accident, some are just people trying to prove themselves to others. In

conclusion, social media is not sole responsible for any deaths, they are just a

factor into why people are being murdered.

This research did have limitations in how much information could be

collects about individuals, but it did allow room to suggest for future research.

Some of that research can be how social media glorifies death in any way

possible. The more views the more likely people are going to use their platforms.

Even if it means someone’s death is being played on repeat for millions to see,

they are a sacrifice to social media’s end game of being the best and getting the

most interactions and views. In the end there needs to be a mentality change

when it comes to the creators of social media. There needs to be less about

views and likes and more about uniting societies instead of creating a divide

between them, like we are seeing today. Social media is a powerful tool that is

being used for the worst and there needs to be a stop to it.

Research Question

"Does social media play a role in murder? Does it give society the ability,

the access, the incentive to take the next step and kill? How does social media

76
affect one’s ability to make rational decisions?" There are many reasons as to

why this research is important. There is a lack of understanding on how social

media works, the purposes, and the usage which is leading to crimes such as

murder becoming more common. There is also a lack of knowledge on the power

social media has over a person. With this research, society can see how

impactful or uneventful social media is in society and what steps are being taken

to correct it.

This research shows the public how important it is to hold social media

accountable for the actions they are allowing to take place. With this research is

can open the doors into further investigations on how social media plays a role in

murder. Obviously, social media is not committing the murder, but they are

providing the platform to make the transition from nonmurderer to murder by not

having the users be accountable and not watching dangerous behaviors occur.

Overall social media is responsible for the content they allow on their sites

whether it is positive or negative. They take credit for the positive but when is the

time to take care of the negative? Social media allows strangers to connect and

allows murders to be sensationalized on their platforms, and nothing is being

done to prevent it. There is a significance to this research which could open eyes

to show how social media effects social environments and norms for the worse.

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 Limitations

There were many limitations to this research. Due to the time restraint,

there was not enough time to dig deep into each case and see where and when

the interactions started. If there was time to go into each case and go back to

each social media profile and trace the social media interactions between the

murderer and the murdered there might have been more information that could

have been presented on the relationship between the two, if there was a feud

how long it was going on for, was it egged on by peers or was it one on one, and

many other details that could have been prevalent to the case studies. On top of

that there was limited information on each case, they were conscience which

lead to looking into multiple references to get the full story, with that being said

there could be pieces missing in each case and it would not be known.

Another limitation was the resources on the subject, there is not a lot of

research, if any, on the role social media plays in murder. There is an abundant

of research on social media and the effects it can have on people and there is

research on murder and what could cause someone to murder. However, there

was no previous research on the two combine and how it effects society. This

made it difficult to link the two. While it was possible to suggest that certain

actions on social media caused certain reactions in the brain that lead to physical

altercations, there is no hard evidence.

There was no access to the murderer or the families, if interviews were to

be granted, there would be a lot more insight on the thoughts and emotions that

78
were involved in social media. This could be beneficial to some of the cases

where it was hard to find the link or the link was suggested instead of concrete. It

would also allow for the full story to be told, and not from a third party reporting

the occurrences. Interviewing those who are responsible for the crime could give

researchers a better grasp on the “why” and would allow them to suggest or

diagnose the murders. Interviewing would be the best route to take for future

research.

There were also limitations such as what was reported the most and what

was accessible, for example, murders that happened on social media but in

childhood, the names were not stated for their protection. This made it harder to

trace and find the full story of the murder and limited the cases to those who

were of adult age in their state or were charged as an adult. There was the limit

of what was public information, not all cases were deemed public which made it

difficult to get any information on. Not to mention, there were plenty of cases that

took some time to find because they were hidden by the media or did not receive

enough attention from the public to be in the top 500 searches. This narrowed

down how many the researcher was able to find that fit the research criteria.

Finally, there is the limitation of foreign cases, it was difficult to find much

information on the cases that were outside of the United States, this could have

been for many reasons. There were few resources that allowed information about

each foreign case and the details were vague. If there were to be more

information released on the matter, then there would have been a better compare

79
of countries to see if this were more of a United States of America problem or an

overall problem. While the cases showed that it is a worldwide problem, more

documentation would have been beneficial.

Future Research

There is a lot of future research that can be conducted on the subject of

social media and murder, but more importantly there is plenty of research that is

needed to link how social media plays a role in murder, causing murders to

happen that would not normally have taken place. This study for the most part

looked at cases in the United States and touched on cases outside the United

States to compare. Future research needs to be more involved in how social

media plays a role in foreign countries and their murder rates. There is a small

amount of information on why these murders are taking place therefore it makes

it harder to provide a solution for their endings. As mentioned before there are

plenty of occurrences around the world, but there is very little being done about.

Not to mention there needs to be more research conducted on how social media

effects brain development and what psychological disorders are created by social

media. There is a root problem social media is causing and there needs to be a

solution developed to solve it.

There is more than murder happening on social media, there are suicides

and an increase in white collar crime. With further research there can be

understanding and the creation of laws to prevent what is causing these suicides

80
and crimes. This research was only conducted on social media, there are plenty

of other media platforms that are causing harm to society such as day time talk

shows, for example Jerry Springer, that are causing people to feel targeted and

angry which could lead to murder. There could be future research on how media

plays a role in crimes. People like to follow those around them, if they see it on

television, chances are they will recreate it if they feel like the original person

received attention for it. Which is what makes shows like Jerry Springer so

popular. People are getting their 5 minutes of fame for acting irrational and

creating violence.

Not to mention since people do like to follow the people who are before

them, some future research in how media plays a role in mass murders would be

an interesting outlook. Recently there have been more documentaries on how

mass murders are popularized by the media and how murders are more likely to

become copycats if they see that what those before them got them the attention

they are seeking. If we reduced the amount of media or what is shown on the

media would that prevent or decrease the amount of murders including mass

murders. Or instead of demolishing the coverage completely, could eliminating

the facts about who committed the mass murders help reduce the amount due to

the lack of fame they are receiving?

Is murder sensationalized? Currently there is a rise in protests and race

wars, can this play a factor into murder and if so how? We are noticing a rise in

social media coverage of people of color being murdered by police, is this

81
actually accurate or is it due to social media sensationalizing off these innocent

lives being taken? This research would open a lot of doors into research about

race and culture and if there is more to the story than what social media is

portraying.

Are countries without social media experiencing less crime and murder or

are these crimes inevitable? Overall this research on how social media plays a

role on murders in the United States is just the tip of the iceberg, there is so

much more research that could be added onto this topic and can lead to a

change in how media is portrayed today. After all this information is gathered it

could be presented to the creators and owners of News broadcasts, television

shows, and social media outlets, to demonstrate the dangers they are allowing

on their broadcasts without knowing.

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