The Online Profile of a Serial Killer - Part 1

In the summer of 2015, the 44 Division of the Toronto Police Service discovered the charred bodies of Mindy Luu-Wei, Dane Ogden, and Igoo Deganawida, each within the same thirty kilometer radius in Toronto, Ontario. The only evidence offering an explanation for the three deaths was found within a detailed Internet blog written by an unknown individual.

The following content was taken from the blog -- www.manyandnoone.com

Posted on June 26, 2015

For the last few months, I was Johann Clerger from Toronto. I stole my eight profile pics from some guy in Australia named Pete Kirkegaard. 'Likes' filled my page like a list of attributes -- Stanley Kubrick, Molson Beer, Marvel Comics, the Foo Fighters...

My 'About Me' blurb read:

What's up, this is Johann. Born on July 5 and raised in good ol' Muskoka, Ontario. I'm tall like 6'0 with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Some girls say I look like Heath Ledger lol (RIP). I'm a typical Muskoka boy I like to snowmobile, dirtbike, go muddin but I'm NOT a hick lol =P

I'm 'In a relationship' with Adia Babaloyi from Montreal. In all of Adia's pics, her head is poised slightly to her right, showing off the left side of her boy-cut. In older pics, her hair looped passed her shoulders. Last winter, I sent her an unsolicited message and we've been chatting ever since. Our conversation thread started like this:

-- February 8, 2015--

1:48am

Johann Clerger

Are you THE Adia from the song? =P

3:05pm

Adia Babaloyi

You found me lol

3:22pm

Johann Clerger

Adia I'm empty since you left me...

4:52pm

Adia Babaloyi

I totally understand!! Lol

5:11pm

Johann Clerger

Can I add you as a friend for a second so I can see your page?

-- February 9, 2015--

10:38am

Johann Clerger

Wow, I see you like UFC and hip hop? Will you marry me now?

11:30am

Adia Babaloyi

Not today...maybe tomorrow??!

11:32am

Johann Clerger

Sorry, I'm marrying someone else tomorrow. How about next weekend?

11:36am

Adia Babaloyi

NO! If you don't want to marry me tomorrow then NO NO lol

11:37am

Johann Clerger

Ok fine, tomorrow it is. Yay! I'm engaged! =P

Banter carried on for months, but the flirting evolved into deeper conversations, and eventually into chatting sessions lasting entire nights. Her infatuation for Johann grew, and today she crossed a line that I knew was inevitable. This morning, she wrote:

-- June 26, 2015--

10:38am

Adia Babaloyi

I'm going to Toronto next month. Will you take me out for hip hop karaoke?

1:40pm

Adia Babaloyi

Hello??

1:58pm

Adia Babaloyi

Are you there?

The time at the bottom of my laptop screen showed 10:59pm -- her last message sent hours before.

With my hand resting almost weightlessly on the touchpad of my laptop, I scrolled up through the thousands of short messages we had sent each other throughout the months. I fiddled with the brass Zippo in my fingers, flicking it open then closed, open then closed. The whiff of lighter fluid lingered in the air. I sucked a final drag from my cigarette, dropped the butt into an empty wine bottle by my feet, and I made the conscious decision never to be Johann again.

The police sirens from outside invaded my condo apartment. Johann, who justified me, who gave me the satisfaction of being someone, was gone from me, freed from the prison of my mind to live forever online in a way that my flesh and blood could never do. I dragged my finger tip across the touchpad, logged out of Facebook, and the bitter taste of my unreality returned to me. All those city sounds - motors revving, dump trucks backing up, people yelling - were back again.

I raised another cigarette to my mouth, almost mechanically, and exhaled stale smoke that pushed a long dusty cob web strand hanging aimlessly from the living room ceiling. My condo apartment was small and almost bare of furniture. Ahead of me was the kitchen. Beside the kitchen stretched a narrow hallway leading to two bedrooms and a tiny washroom.

For a long time, there was no name for my sort of addiction. Now, they're calling it "catfishing", a term taken from the MTV documentary "Catfish". According to UrbanDictionary.com, the definition of catfish is:

1. catfish

Someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.

2516 up votes, 1428 down votes

Over the years I've created so many profiles that I don't remember all of them. There was Alex Durant, a graffiti artist with a rebellious spirit -- Chap Rosen, a passionate musician who played the guitar, banjo and ukulele -- Maury, a paramedic -- Geoff, a web developer. I recognized myself more in these profiles and less in myself -- if it's true that I'm somebody at all.

Each profile had a girlfriend. The girlfriends varied, from skinny to pudgy, from chatty to shy, from young to mature. Most of them lived outside Canada, but one was from Montreal and another from Calgary.

My foot fell numb. I stood up and stretched, tippy toeing and wiggling my toes until feeling came back. Sitting down, I leaned closer to the laptop on the coffee table, and fought the temptation to fill myself with another name -- another profile. I didn't know how else to connect with anyone, I thought. I had no real friends or relationships in the outside world, not including my doctor of course, or the clerk at the corner store where I buy smokes. I'm not sure if my creative director at the ad agency counts as a real relationship. Our working relationship has existed exclusively online for the past decade. Even as she moved from agency to agency, her email addresses changed but our method of exchanging creative briefs and ad copy electronically stayed the same. She sometimes emailed me with news that I won some advertising award, sending me printable tickets to a ceremony I would never attend.

Listening to the thumping of my neighbor's footsteps above, I tried in vain to remember the last time I left the apartment and into the world where things happen.

I turned off the laptop. As the screen faded into black, I saw my reflection in it, and there was no one behind my face. There was just a slight coldness - a feeling of emptiness. That feeling was the only real indication I existed, and I needed more.

Comments:

Itchie says...

u r not alone : )

06/26/15, 11:50 PM

Continue reading in Part 2

NOTE TO READERS: Welcome to the mystery of the murder of Mindy Luu-Wei from Toronto, Canada. If the story intrigues you, don't forget to UPVOTE and FOLLOW @iantuason for daily updates on the case. Together, we can find the bastard who killed her.

#mystery #murder #justiceformindy