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People often share the most private details of their lives, from their political views to pictures of their kids, on Facebook and other social media platforms. And those status updates, comments, pictures, and other shared details often get individuals in trouble with the law.
As we’ve mentioned in an earlier post, law enforcement uses social media not only to interact with members of the community (through police department Facebook pages, for example) but also to track down suspects and find evidence.
The most recent example of this practice involves the shocking case of a Florida man who confessed to murdering his wife via a status update on Facebook.
The man posted, “I’m going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people you will see me in the news,” along with a picture of his wife’s body.
In his post, he asked for understanding and accused his wife of abusing him.
The post elicited shock and disgust from the Facebook friends of the man, several of whom commented on the post. Others shared the photo, which remained online for five hours before Facebook employees disabled the man’s page and his wife’s page.
According to CNN, the man drove to the police station and turned himself in, and said that “[he] and his wife argued. He pulled a gun on her. She threatened to leave him. He put the gun away and followed her. She unloaded a volley of punches on him. He fetched the gun again. She pulled a knife. He wrestled it out of her hands. She punched him again. Then he shot her ‘multiple times.’”
After visiting his address, police found his wife’s body as well as the couple’s ten-year-old daughter, who was unharmed.
The man has been charged with first-degree murder.
