Is MySpace A Piece In The Kelsey Smith Murder Puzzle?

Did Edwin R. Hall actually know Kelsey Smith? Or, did he find her through MySpace? Or, was she a random victim? It seems that Edwin has a MySpace account (corrected link)-- stating he lives in Overland Park (although his address at the time of arrest was officially Olathe, KS.). His profile has been deleted, so we can't learn anything else from it. Other bloggers have said that Hall's wife, Aletha, was linked to his MySpace page. There is also information saying the Halls have a four year old son. I sure hope the link to the MySpace page is bogus.

Kelsey Smith also had a MySpace page -- stating she lived in Overland Park. Could Edwin have been stalking Kelsey via MySpace? It is a possibility. One thing that is kinda creepy is that Hall's MySpace account shows he logged in sometime yesterday -- shortly before he was arrested for aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder. FWIW, Kelsey did not have Edwin Hall listed as a "friend" on MySpace. I'm not trying to make a connection where one is not present, BUT the question of MySpace is one the needs to be answered.

I'm sure we'll learn more in the coming hours and days, but questions are large and beg to be answered. The biggest question looming in my mind is WHY? Why abduct and murder a vibrant young lady who just graduated high school and was about to set off for college and adult life? Why?!? Weren't your video games enough? Weren't movies like Hostel and Saw and Hannibal enough? Didn't the Internet satisfy your bloodlust?

Now, some defense attorney will set out to go far beyond the mandate of lawyers to make sure their clients get a fair trial. That attorney will try to wiggle and squirm and circumvent his way around the facts in an attempt to get Mr. Hall acquitted. ARGH! It makes me furious just to think about the whole ordeal -- especially for Greg and Missy Smith.

See the video of Edwin Hall's arraignment here, courtesy of scaredmonkeys.com.

My prayers go out to them, along with Stevie, Cody, Zack and Kelsey's boyfriend John Biersmith. They will all live the tragedy of Kelsey kidnapping and murder many times over.

Prosecutors Want MySpace Sex Offenders Exposed

Article from ABCNews.au

Top prosecutors in eight US states have asked MySpace to expose convicted sex offenders who have posted their profiles on the youth-oriented social networking website. The state attorneys-general have sent the News Corporation-owned website a letter saying: "We are gravely concerned that sexual predators are using MySpace to lure children into face-to-face encounters".

Prosecutors inked the missive after getting word that an investigative company hired by MySpace in December of 2006 has ferreted out thousands of convicted sex offenders with profile web pages. "Perhaps thousands more sexual predators - not registered or using fictitious names - are lurking on your website," stated the letter signed by the attorneys-general. "We remain concerned about the design of your site, the failure to require parental permission, and the lack of safeguards necessary to protect our children."

They gave MySpace until May 29, 2007 to reveal the names and addresses of registered sex offenders found at the website and to explain what its doing to remove their profile pages and help police uncover wrongdoing. MySpace says it is in the initial stage of checking its membership roster with a Sentinel Tech Holding company database of registered sex offenders and removing profile pages of those that match. "We agree with the attorneys-general that keeping bad people out of good places on the Internet is a challenge and a priority," MySpace security chief Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement. "It requires a commitment to develop new technologies and build tight collaborations between companies, law enforcement and policy makers."

MySpace this month launched software that identifies known sex offenders and deletes their accounts. MySpace is lobbying for a US federal law requiring convicted sex offenders to register their email addresses to make it easier to screen them from membership websites used by young people. US law requires people convicted of sex crimes to register their addresses with local police after they are released from custody.

Partial List of Victims from Virginia Tech Massacre

Update: 8:50 a.m. (Revised 2:54pm)
The following is a partial list of victims killed by a gunman on the campus of Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007:

• Maxine Turner, Vienna, Va., Senior, Chemical Engineering
• Henry Lee, Roanoke, Va., Freshman, Computer Engineering
• Matt La Porte, Dumont, N.J., Freshman, University Studies [picture below]
• Jamie Bishop, Instructor, Foreign Languages and Literatures (German)
• G.V. Loganathan, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Juan Ortiz, Graduate Student, Civil Engineering
• Jarrett Lane, Narrows, Va., Senior, Civil Engineering
• Ryan Clark, Columbia County, Ga., Senior, Biology, English, Psychology (West AJ)
• Leslie Sherman, Sophomore, History and International Studies
• Caitlin Hammaren, Sophomore, International Studies and French
• Liviu Librescu, Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics
• Kevin Granata, Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics
• Reema Samaha, Centreville, Va., Freshman
• Emily Hilscher, Woodville, Va., Freshman, Animal & Poultry Sciences, Equine Science (West AJ) [picture below]
Ross Alameddine, Student, Saugus, Mass.
Daniel Cueva, Student, Peru, International Relations
Mary Read, Student, Annandale, Va. [picture at top]

I have included links to the MySpace pages of some of the victims. CNN has more pictures and short bios of a few of the victims.

Emily Hilscher was apparently the first person shot. She was not killed instantly, but died a short time later. It is presumed that she was either the girlfriend of the shooter OR a love-interest of his.

Sources:
FOX News
CNN
MySpace
DelawareOnline

Prowling for Predators on MySpace

Blogma reports:
Police in Suffolk County, N.Y., recently caught a registered sex offender trolling for underage boys on MySpace, thanks to some code written by former hacker and current Wired editor Kevin Poulsen. Poulsen wrote an automated script that scanned the social networking site for predators, using data taken from the web site of the Department of Justice's National Sex Offender Registry. Poulsen claims to have so far, including found 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles; 497 who have been registered for sex crimes against children. MySpace has come under fire for not doing enough to protect children; the company recently announced a safety campaign to help children wise up online. Bloggers wondered if robot cops could be the answer to at least some of the company's problems.
Guardian Technology Blog -- "Of course, there's nothing illegal about a convicted criminal having a MySpace profile, but previously the site has said it can't keep control over its members. And the fact that offending registers in other countries - such as Britain - aren't available in the same way as those in the US, means it's hardly out of the bounds of imagination to expect that the number of sex offenders active on the site is much greater."