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When murder hits the blogosphere
Personal sites suddenly very public in aftermath of Pennsylvania killing
 Polaris file One of the Internet profiles maintained by Kara Borden, the 14-year-old whose parents were allegedly shot by her boyfriend. When the case hit the news, the teens' blogs became the focus of attention. |
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NEW YORK - Early one morning a few weeks ago, Kara Borden, a 14-year-old from Lititz, Pa., logged onto MySpace. The young, bubbly, blond-haired, brown-eyed homeschooled high school freshman had a profile on the popular networking site.
Her page was brightly colored with pink-lined black boxes listing her friends and hobbies, a rainbow striped white background and a picture of her in a pink top, smiling with lips closed to hide her braces. She listed her interests as soccer, talking on the phone, the beach and partying. "Books are gay," she wrote. She lied about her age, listing it as 17.
A few hours later she allegedly stood by as her boyfriend, David Ludwig, 18, shot and killed her parents.
David was on MySpace, too.
Kara's parents were killed on Nov. 13. Just after noon the next day, police tracked the two teens down in Indiana, capturing them after a high speed chase.
But before that, as the story of the double murder and the two missing teens hit the news, hundreds of curious, savvy Web surfers found Kara and David's MySpace profiles and Xanga blogs. It didn't take long for reporters to begin doing the same thing. A photo used by numerous news Web sites was also from the MySpace profile of Kara's best friend. MSNBC was first to report the teens' interests found listed online.
Next to Kara's profile picture was a quote. "...Cause I need you and I miss you," ostensibly from Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles." A reference to David? Or just a favorite song? Strangers commenting on Kara's MySpace blog perused every little detail.
David's MySpace profile, last visited by him on Nov. 12, offered little to suggest a day later he'd murder two people. Like many other users, he listed his religion, Christian, and his job, product specialist at a Circuit City store. He doesn't smoke, he wrote, but does drink.
Messages left by his friends include one asking if he's "going to help the smiths move on the 12th." Kara leaves a message, happy that he's signed up for MySpace, and asks him to leave a comment on her page. "<3Kara<3", she signs off.
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In a Oct. 24 blog entry, David writes about going to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie, and about visiting a college with his parents:
"I did get to go and see Were-Rabbit (the new Wallace and Gromit movie) with a bunch of friends ... I enjoyed the movie even if a bunch of ppl didn't ... lol it did have some crude humor ... but some of it was reeeally funny! lol *wicked grin*
"So yes and now today I shall be doing school and tomorrow I'm going to visit stupid York Tech school complemints [sic] of my loverly parents lol But yes now I must run and do school so ya'll have a good day. God bless!!"
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John Harrell / AP file David Ludwig, seen on his way back to Pennsylvania on Nov. 15, after being arrested in Indiana. |
Kara's blog talked about soccer, bands she liked, and getting baptized. Her messages to David on MySpace were brief, harmless, seemingly frivolous. She disagreed with his statement that he's a bit overweight. "Very skinny babe ... get that through your little head!! heh otay ttyl."
"How is school and crap?," she asked a mutual friend of her and David's. "Mine is really boring..sigh...oh well ttyl."
Then came the murder.
While public access to Kara's and David's blogs was eventually restricted, it was already too late. Voyeuristic Web users flooded the sites with disturbing messages offering their take on events.
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