posted on Dec, 4 2003 @ 10:22 AM
First Grout had been aparently killed,then Yeti,Shuttlebutt,and Edgar.All their deaths had been announced in exactly the same way.Using the victims
account someone,presumably the murderer, had posted in large capitals "I AM NOW DEAD!!" along with a link to the murder story from a local news
source.Until Edgar's death staff members had dismissed it as a nuisance trend that had developed within the community and had trashed the topics.It
was not unusual for members deaths to be announced only to find that the said member had had a little too much to drink that night or that a family
member or friend had logged in when the member was away and decided to play a joke but Edgar had been a respected member for almost two years and had
many friends on the board.Some even had his telephone number and one friend had called him only to find out the sad truth that he was indeed
dead,killed in a drive by shooting the day before.
Staff members had discussed the issue very briefly and a senior member of Admin had called the FBI.Whether it was because the board was a Conspiracy
Site or some other reason the FBI didn't appear to take much notice at that point but when Razorlips posted up the same message along with another
link,this time to a shooting of a young man near Washington,someone from the FBI must have contacted the investigating officers because within two
days,possibly the amount of time it took to check the victims computer for a link to the board,law enforcement types were swarming all over the board
asking personal questions that for obvious reasons under the circumstances nobody wanted to answer.
Nothing on the internet remains a secret for very long and board views and membership applications started to rise sharply.Every new member waiting
for the next murder and convinced that a connection between the victims could be found producing clues to the identity of the murderer.
When Rabbit was killed a little over 700 people viewed the accompanying message within 20 minutes of it being posted.Rabbit's death also signalled
a new phase in the whole sorry episode.Rabbit was the first female poster to be killed,the first victim outside of the USA,as she was from Canada,and
the first time the story hit the national news broadcasters.
The board was being overwhelmed by people who were treating the site as an on-line version of Cludo.Older members were continually harrassed by this
new influx and a growing number were leaving the board.Another ghastly consequence of this new "popularity" was the number of hoaxes which started
to appear.The board even had it's first suicide announced by some sad,lonely man who thought his death would go unnoticed unless he announced it in
the same manner as the previous murders.
It was under these cicumstances that the decision was taken to deny access to all those that had joined the board since Razorlips' death.A few
media and law enforcement types were allowed in but until it was all sorted there would be no new members though guests could still view.
Sorry.Hold on.I'll finish this later.Someones just come to the door.
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[Edited on 4-12-2003 by John bull 1]