I was at some relatives'' home this spring and noticed their teen age daughter on the computer for hours, I think on AOL instant messenger. Although they were in the house and around, they really had no idea what she was up to on the ''net. I was curious and she let me watch as she chatted with a number of different people who she told me were students from her school, but their abbreviations made it very tough for me to follow what was going on (of course I didn''t figure out what "BTT" meant for 3 months). The parents thought I was kind of paranoid ''cause I mentioned that just ''cause they were home didn''t mean they were supervising the girl & that the net isn''t like TV, you have to ask what''s going on and keep an eye on them while on the computer. They thought I was kind of getting carried away, but this article brought that to mind again.

[url]http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1029230304179082.xml[/url]

Net romance ends in knifing, beating, fire
August 13, 2002
By Jim O''Hara and Jim Read
Staff writers
A nine-month Internet romance between two Central New York teenagers turned deadly over the weekend when the pair met for the first time at the girl''s town of Fabius home, court papers said.
"I just snapped," Spencer Lee King, 17, of Palermo, Oswego County, told state police in a statement. He admits to stabbing and beating Nonie "Annie" Drummond, 14, to death and then setting her home at 825 Shackham Road ablaze to cover up the crime. Drummond''s mother and grandfather were out of town for the weekend.


After the killing, King told police, he hitched a ride with two law enforcement officers back home. It''s unclear what agency the officers were from.
King of Lot 10, Sundown Mobile Home Park, 38 Sundown Road, Palermo, said he grew angry because he found out as they talked throughout Saturday night and early Sunday that Drummond had lied to him about herself in their previous conversations, according to his statement. So he helped her cover her eyes with a bandanna about 5:30 a.m. Sunday, telling her, "I have a surprise for you," his statement said. He did not specify what angered him.
Then he tipped her head back and began stabbing Drummond in the throat with an 8- to 10-inch carving knife that he got from the kitchen and hid in the pocket of his cargo pants, his statement said. Drummond fell off a stool and began fighting, King told police in the statement, so King began stabbing her all over her body more times than he could count.
A brutal beating
King told police that when he realized Drummond was still alive, he beat her repeatedly with her TV set, a fan, a kitchen chair and a leg that had broken off the stool, according to his statement.
After cleaning himself, he tossed the smashed TV and a bloody towel in the bushes, discarded the leg of the stool in some weeds and threw the knife in a small pond, court papers said. He then found a bill in the house, which he lighted from the stove and used to set the house ablaze, according to his statement.
King told police that he had thrown a blue blanket over the body and set it ablaze with the flaming envelope.
King, a Mexico High School dropout, was charged Monday morning with second-degree murder and third-degree arson, both felonies, in the death. Onondaga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Stephen Dougherty said King was arraigned before LaFayette Justice Malcolm Knapp and jailed without bail.
It''s the 22nd homicide this year in the four-county region of Onondaga, Cayuga, Oswego and Madison counties.
''Beyond senseless''
"To say this was senseless just isn''t enough. What''s beyond senseless?" Dougherty asked. "This is mind-boggling."
The murder charge accuses King of intentionally killing Drummond by stabbing her and beating her repeatedly. The arson charge accuses him of torching her home after Drummond apparently was dead. King cannot be charged with first-degree murder because he is younger than the minimum age of 18 years, Dougherty said at a news conference with state police Monday.
Drummond''s badly burned body was found inside the house shortly after firefighters arrived to fight the blaze, reported by a passer-by at about 7 a.m. Sunday. State police were called at 7:11 a.m., said Lt. Erwin Brandl, who led the state police investigation.
Maj. Thomas P. Kelly Jr., commander of state police Troop D, said investigators will use DNA testing to positively establish her identity. Drummond, who would have been a freshman at Fabius-Pompey Middle-Senior High School this fall, died of multiple injuries caused by a bladed weapon and heavy objects sometime Saturday or Sunday, said Dr. Paul Gosink of the Onondaga County Medical Examiner''s Office.
Drummond''s grandfather, Richard Drummond, 72, returned from a camping trip Sunday to find the house burned down and his daughter, Mary Drummond, 40, and his granddaughter missing. According to King''s statement, Nonie Drummond invited him to come for a visit because her mother had been away for several weeks and her grandfather was going to be away over the weekend. He got a ride to Fabius.
Kelly said a murder weapon hasn''t been recovered.
Chat room meeting
Brandl said investigators learned about King after speaking to Richard Drummond, who told investigators about the teens'' relationship. According to King''s statement, the teens met in an Internet chat room and had exchanged telephone calls.
King was apprehended near his home at about 10 p.m. Sunday and was charged at 2 a.m. Monday, Brandl said. Kelly said state police have seized King''s computer to see if he had been in contact with other women. Brandl said they know of no other criminal cases involving the teen.
During Monday''s news conference, both Kelly and Dougherty cautioned parents to know who their children talk to on the telephone and on the Internet.
"I don''t know how many warnings you can put out there," Dougherty said.
"The Internet clearly played a role in this," Kelly said. "It''s incumbent on parents to know who your children are talking to on the computer."
Kelly said state police investigators are looking into King''s claim that he got a ride home from law enforcement officers.
Found in front of store
Devin Dougherty, 17, a clerk at Anna''s Country Store in Fabius, said that when he arrived at work about 9:45 a.m. Sunday, he saw a young man with long, unkempt blond hair sitting at a picnic table in front of the store.
The man wore camouflage pants and had a jacket tied around one of his hands, Dougherty said. Dougherty and his boss, whom he didn''t identify, watched the man for a while and noticed the man appeared to be in a kind of a daze.

Dougherty and his boss went outside to talk to the man, who said he was from Fulton, didn''''t know where he was and had been "living in the woods," Dougherty said.
His boss went back inside and called police, Dougherty said.
Dougherty didn''''t know what police agency responded, but a car arrived within minutes and picked up the man a couple of doors down from the store, he said.
Neighbors stunned
King arrived home about 7 p.m. Sunday, said Elizabeth DeBiew, who lives next door to the mobile home where King lives. She said four people moved into the trailer about a month ago, and in the past few weeks, three or four more appeared to be staying there.
"I hadn''''t seen him in a couple of days, and now I guess I know why," said DeBiew, a resident of the park for seven years. "My God, you just never know, do you?"
DeBiew said some residents of the park have been complaining to each other about noise from the trailer where King lives.
"You know, I''''ve just had this weird feeling about them since they moved in," she said. "I can''''t really explain it. ... There was just something that didn''''t seem right, something that made me uncomfortable."
Staff writers Suzanne Ellis, Sarah Layden and Jim McKeever contributed to this report.

Killer was on the phone with the girl over 10 hours at a time?
[url]http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-0/102931660634690.xml[/url]

Police unknowingly gave alleged killer a ride after the murder.

[url]http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-3/101197231925812139.xml[/url]

Um, SECOND degree murder??? [V]

I grew up not far from there...  My first thought was who the hell leaves a 14 year old girl alone for a weekend?