This past weekend a woman lent her friend $20 so that she could purchase baby formula and diapers for her child. Shortly after doing so, she discovered that the friend used the money for some other purpose — so she called her out about it on Facebook.
Her message was the beginning of a long and public argument which ended in a deadly stabbing.
The New York Times reports that things went rapidly downhill from the very first Facebook message following the $20 loan and an accusation that the money was used improperly:
At 5:44 p.m. on Sunday, one of them, Kamisha Richards, 22, wrote that this would be “the last time u will con me into giving u money.” Ten minutes later, the other, Kayla Henriques, 18, replied, “Dnt try to expose me mama but I’m not tha type to thug it ova facebook see u wen u get frm wrk.”
The war of words escalated over Facebook. In capital letters, at 8:52 p.m., Ms. Richards said that she would have the last laugh. Ms. Henriques replied within seconds: “We will see.”
They exchanged more messages, until about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.
About 24 hours after the last messages were exchanged on Facebook, Richards was found dead in real life. The young woman was killed inside Henriques' apartment by being stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife.
Thanks to the rather public series of Facebook messages before the death as well as witnesses inside the apartment, Henriques was quickly arrested and charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Authorities don't believe that Facebook was to blame for the incident, but they do think that the "Internet postings added pieces to investigators’ knowledge."
Curiously enough, at one point after time Henriques was in police custody, the messages which "chronicled the women’s fight suddenly disappeared" from Henriques' page and a solemn final message showed up:
I can’t be leave this happen I’m sorry I send my condolences to her family RiP kamisha.
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- Horrible Facebook app breaks up relationships
- 'Sister Internet' kicked out of convent for Facebook use
- 1 million Facebook friends buy this woman a jerk
Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She may be obsessed withTwitter, but still loves to be liked on Facebook.
