J. A. Hitchcock - True Crime Online: Shocking Stories of Scamming, Stalking, Murder, and Mayhem

Many thanks to the Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Police Department, especially retired Chief Lou Ferland, Police Chief Steve Dubois, and Sgt. Tom Grella. I signed up for their Citizen Police Academy and ended up learning so much about how law enforcement works, including fingerprinting, how mug shots are taken, the booking process, specialty teams like the K-9 units and local SWAT (called SERT), and beer goggles. I also attended various demonstrations and made many new friends. We visited other police departments in the area and even paid a visit to the Rockingham County Jail, which reinforced in me to never, ever commit a crime. Lou, Steve, and Toms patience with my seemingly endless questions for this book will never be forgotten!

Thanks to Jim Christy of the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center for his help. I had to get a mug shot in person in Maryland, and he didnt hesitate to do that for me.

Thank yous go out to all of the police departments and people who allowed me to use their stories and photos for this book. I couldnt have done it without any of you!

A shout out to fellow writers Kate Flora and Margaret Press, who pointed me in the right direction when it came to getting all of the mug shots I needed.

Thank you to my editor, Barbara Brynko, for keeping me sane.

And a final thank you to my husband, Chris, who knew if he saw me typing madly to leave me alone, even if it meant that dinner would be late. He was my shoulder to cry on when I got frustrated, and he gamely listened to me when I told him about an interesting story I found online (at least I thought it was interesting). I married the best man ever!

Jayne A. Hitchcock is an internationally recognized cybercrime expert. She volunteers her time to work with the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, the National Center for Victims of Crime, and numerous law enforcement agencies worldwide. As a valued resource to these agencies in solving internet-related crimes, she has also worked with legislators to draft and to pass many U.S. internet laws.

She also conducts law enforcement training seminars for local, county, state, military, and federal law enforcement agencies. Her speaking engagements on cybercrime and cyber safety include presentations at elementary, middle, and high schools, universities, and colleges. She also lectures at libraries, conferences, and corporations, while traveling extensively for presentations and workshops in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and at Sookmyung Womens University in Seoul, South Korea. She has been interviewed on several television shows including Americas Most Wanted, 48 Hours, Primetime, and Good Morning America, as well as local, national, and international newscasts, and in Cosmopolitan and TIME magazines. She was named a Champion For Change by Lifetime Television in 2004.

In addition to serving on the editorial board of the International Journal of Cyber Crimes and Criminal Justice, she writes for several magazines. She is also a member of Operations Security Professionals Society, Sisters in Crime, Inc. (national and New England divisions), National Rifle Association (lifetime member), the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, and the Third Marine Division Association (lifetime member).

As president of two all-volunteer organizations, Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA) at www.haltabuse.org and the Kids/Teens Division (WHOA-KTD) at www.haltabusektd.org, Jayne continues her mission to educate adults and children about safety online. This is her 10th book; four are related to internet crime and six are about Okinawa and Iwo Jima, Japan.

When the phone rang, Helen Remsburg picked up the receiver and answered with her usual cheery Hello!

The voice on the other end sounded desperate. You have to come! Its Amy.

It took a few seconds for Helen to recognize the voice. It was John Bednar, her daughters boss.

Helen, please come. Amy. Amy. Oh my God. Hurry, Helen!

Helen hung up the phone and quickly called her husband, Tim Remsburg, who worked close by to Bednars orthodontics practice. Hearing the panic in his wifes voice, Tim ran to his car, jumped in, and headed to Bednars office. On the way, he heard sirens and saw the flashing lights of several police cars and an ambulance barreling down the street toward him. Instinctively, he made a U-turn and followed the caravan, which stopped at the emergency entrance to the hospital.

Tim parked and ran into the hospital, but security ushered him into a waiting room where he sat alone for what seemed like a lifetime. A nurse finally came in and asked him whether his stepdaughter wore toe rings. Sure she did, he said, and asked when he could see Amy.

The nurse paused for a moment. Im sorry, Mr. Remsburg. Amy is dead.

Tim fell to his knees; he couldnt breathe. He staggered to the emergency room entrance as Helen drove up. She opened the car door and looked at Tim. She knew immediately that her daughter was dead.

Helen and Tim found the police in the emergency room and wanted answers. The police shared the details they knew: Amy Boyer had been shot by Liam Youens, a young man about their daughters age. Apparently, Youens had pulled up to Amys car in the parking lot near Bednars office, called out her name, then shot her several times in the face and arms with a Glock 9mm semiautomatic before turning the gun on himself. Youens was pronounced dead at the scene.

Helen and Tim had never heard their daughter mention Youens, although both of them had attended Nashua High School at the same time in Nashua, New Hampshire, a few years earlier. When the Nashua police went to visit Youenss parents that night, they found a connection of sorts between the two. They confiscated Youenss computer and discovered two online diaries, on Tripod.com and GeoCities.com, dating back at least 2 years. The police began to cobble together a tale of obsession and murder.

Youens first saw Amy during a church youth group meeting when they were both in eighth grade. He wrote in his online journal that he simply fell in love with Amy but watched her from afar, never letting her know how he felt. By the 10th grade, he waited until she passed him in the hall and just stood and stared. His was a growing obsession, as the following excerpts from his websites make clear.

Whenever I was around Amy, I knew she was thinking of me. She would act as though she didnt notice me, whether or not I was staring at her (I actually didnt do it all the time, much less later in the year). To pretend that you dont notice someone uses twice as much concentration on that person than if you just ignored them. She even went as far as to brush by me in the lunch room, I even tried to avoid it, but she would have none of that. A normal person would have kept right, but because, She had no idea I was there (yah-right) she stayed in the center of the hall.

On one of his websites, Youens later wrote:

Oh great, now Im really depressed, hmmm looks like its suicide for me. Car accident? Wrists? A few days later I think, hey, why dont I kill her too? was the basic plan for the next half decade, I work fast dont I?

On December 12, 1997, Youens wrote the following post on the alt.suicide.holiday discussion group about slitting his wrists: