Saturday, February 12, 2005
Bloggers kills Blogger over not using spell check
Springfield, Or Feb. 12, 2005 (AP.)
Cyberspace is reeling today after reports of the murder/suicide of two bloggers. Officials say The murder took place just after 4 am Thursday night in a small town south of Eugene Oregon.
Police are still inveragating the events and very little information has been released, but what is known is that a Caucasian male was found dead on the floor of his home office. The body was found by his roommate who claims that his mouse was wrap around his neck and his face was laying face down. Police belive that he was chocked by the mouse and then beaten with his keyboard which was found laying next to him. The victim has been indenitifed as Ivan Staggerson,24, a web designer and part-time ebay auctioneer. Staggerson, also ran a popular blog site and was known across the web.
Police were wrapping up this biazzre death when not more then two hours later they were called to the scene of a second death, that of another Caucasian male. This man was also found with his computer mouse wrap around his neck, but was believe to have died for a bullet wound to the head. Police had first beleive that this also was a murder until a sucide note was found. The note was not written on paper, but on the blog site of Staggerson. The male known to friends as Tech was born Derek Douglas. Douglas, also 24. He lived in the attic of his parents, Barbara and Ray Douglas. "He was unemployed and spent most of his day on the net" friend of the family say. The Douglas' had heard the gun shot early Friday morning and called the police, believing their was a shooting down the street. Policet found nothing until another call reported hearing the shot from the Douglas' house.
The police entered the attic to find Derek face down on his desk, dead. The computer had been destroyed and the room was a mess. Police were flooded with emails and phone calls stating that the note was on Staggerson's site. The note has now been take down from the site, but sources say it included key evidence to the murder and to the possible motive.
Even though the note was taken down on the original blog site, the note and it contents are generating numerous hits across the blog world. David Laypeck, of Wire Magazine believes this is the first in what could be a string of blog related violence and deaths. "This is only news to Americans, in Japan and Europe, this kind of thing is happen daily. Blogs are not just a Fad, there are becoming a institution."
Just this week more people have lost their jobs due to comments made on personal blogs. In Japan, there is a real problem with people using the internet or blogs to plan group suicide. In Germany last year a man was arrested after killing and eating a man that he found over the internet.
Laypeck believes "This Tech was not just a random psycho, he had a big time blog site and so did the murder victim. It is rumored that the murder might have been over the non use of spell check. Tech was really adamant about Bloggers taking themselves seriously. He was known to send blog sites two to three page rants about the little things.... He was not very liked in the blog world."
Police have not connected the two deaths but have placed Tech as their lead suspect. Police are asking all who might have visited the blogs in the past week to contact them with any info that might help understand what happened.
Cyberspace is reeling today after reports of the murder/suicide of two bloggers. Officials say The murder took place just after 4 am Thursday night in a small town south of Eugene Oregon.
Police are still inveragating the events and very little information has been released, but what is known is that a Caucasian male was found dead on the floor of his home office. The body was found by his roommate who claims that his mouse was wrap around his neck and his face was laying face down. Police belive that he was chocked by the mouse and then beaten with his keyboard which was found laying next to him. The victim has been indenitifed as Ivan Staggerson,24, a web designer and part-time ebay auctioneer. Staggerson, also ran a popular blog site and was known across the web.
Police were wrapping up this biazzre death when not more then two hours later they were called to the scene of a second death, that of another Caucasian male. This man was also found with his computer mouse wrap around his neck, but was believe to have died for a bullet wound to the head. Police had first beleive that this also was a murder until a sucide note was found. The note was not written on paper, but on the blog site of Staggerson. The male known to friends as Tech was born Derek Douglas. Douglas, also 24. He lived in the attic of his parents, Barbara and Ray Douglas. "He was unemployed and spent most of his day on the net" friend of the family say. The Douglas' had heard the gun shot early Friday morning and called the police, believing their was a shooting down the street. Policet found nothing until another call reported hearing the shot from the Douglas' house.
The police entered the attic to find Derek face down on his desk, dead. The computer had been destroyed and the room was a mess. Police were flooded with emails and phone calls stating that the note was on Staggerson's site. The note has now been take down from the site, but sources say it included key evidence to the murder and to the possible motive.
Even though the note was taken down on the original blog site, the note and it contents are generating numerous hits across the blog world. David Laypeck, of Wire Magazine believes this is the first in what could be a string of blog related violence and deaths. "This is only news to Americans, in Japan and Europe, this kind of thing is happen daily. Blogs are not just a Fad, there are becoming a institution."
Just this week more people have lost their jobs due to comments made on personal blogs. In Japan, there is a real problem with people using the internet or blogs to plan group suicide. In Germany last year a man was arrested after killing and eating a man that he found over the internet.
Laypeck believes "This Tech was not just a random psycho, he had a big time blog site and so did the murder victim. It is rumored that the murder might have been over the non use of spell check. Tech was really adamant about Bloggers taking themselves seriously. He was known to send blog sites two to three page rants about the little things.... He was not very liked in the blog world."
Police have not connected the two deaths but have placed Tech as their lead suspect. Police are asking all who might have visited the blogs in the past week to contact them with any info that might help understand what happened.
