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Vigilante Facebook Group Misidentifies Philadelphia Murderer

by Amar Toor on December 22, 2010 at 10:50 AM

sketch of kensington strangler suspectPhiladelphia police have spent the last month looking for a man accused of being involved in at least three murders and several sexual assaults. Last night, it appeared that the hunt had finally come to an end, when a group of community members gathered outside the home of 24-year-old Triz Jefferies, who was identified as the so-called 'Kensington Strangler' by a group of vigilantes organized through Facebook. As it turns out, though, they got the wrong guy.

Jefferies, for whatever reason, had become the target of the investigation, after community members began circulating flyers, text messages, and Facebook posts identifying him as the killer. Amateur crime fighters even created a Facebook group, titled 'Catch the Kensington Strangler, before he catches someone you love.' The group featured Jefferies's picture, and attracted over 8,000 members. Police became aware of the group on Monday, and took down the page, on the grounds that Jefferies wasn't a suspect. But that didn't stop the mob from pursuing him.

With the man's address published all over the social network, many people began gathering outside his home. Fearful that someone was "trying to mess with me," Jefferies called police, and asked them to take him to the special victims unit. There, he was interviewed, and took a DNA test, which cleared his name. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey confirmed his innocence at a press conference yesterday. "He is not a suspect, he is not connected with this," Ramsey said.

Officials are now searching for the people who spread these false accusations, but they're confident that this won't be the last time social networking spawns unfounded persecution. "Everybody has to be very leery of photos of a wanted person on Facebook," Lt. Ray Evers told ABC News. "Because of social networking and how big this fan page is growing ... if somebody shared it with their friends, the multiplier effect ... it's pretty damning." Evers added that even seemingly official suspect photos can't be trusted without police confirmation. "There's really no vetting process, you can put any photo out on Facebook," he explained. "The only one that should be giving out a photo is the police."

Tags: crime, facebook, KensingtonStrangler, law, murder, philadelphia, police, SocialNetworking, suspect, top, vigilante, VigilanteJustice

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