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YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Facebook "defriending" led to double murder, police say

    By Tim Ghianni | Reuters – Fri, Feb 10, 2012

    NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - A Tennessee couple who "defriended" a woman on Facebook were murdered in their home by the jilted woman's father and another man, police said on Thursday.

    "It's the worst thing I've ever seen," Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said, adding he had never seen anything like it in his 27 years in law enforcement in the area. "We've had murders, but nothing like this. This is just senseless."

    Marvin Potter (l) and Jamie Curd (r) were charged with the murders of Billy Clay Payne and Billie Jean Haywort …

    He said Billy Clay Payne, Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth were killed last month after they deleted Jenelle Potter, the daughter of one of the suspects, from their "friends" list. Both were shot in the head and the man had his throat cut.

    The couple's 8-month-old baby was in the mother's arms, unharmed, when the bodies were found.

    Marvin Enoch "Buddy" Potter Jr., 60, and Jamie Lynn Curd, 38, were each charged on Wednesday in Mountain City in northeastern Tennessee with two counts of first-degree murder. The men were arrested on Tuesday.

    The case was not the first involving violence linked to Facebook. Last year in Iowa, a woman was arrested on accusations of setting fire to a friend's garage after she was defriended on the social network site, local media reported.

    In Texas, a man was accused of hitting his wife after she failed to "like" a Facebook post he wrote about the anniversary of his mother's death, according to media reports.

    In the Tennessee case, Reece said a couple of harassment cases had been filed against Jenelle Potter in court over "someone blocking her or taking her off."

    "Once you've crossed her, you've crossed her father too," Reece said, adding that Jenelle Potter, in her late 20s or early 30s, stays home with her parents and was constantly on Facebook.

    Her father, "Buddy" Potter, will return to court next week for a bond hearing after he hires an attorney. Curd, also a second cousin of one of the victims, was appointed an attorney and bond was set at $750,000 for each murder count. His preliminary hearing will be in March.

    No charges have been filed against Jenelle Potter, the sheriff said. She could not reached for comment.

    Curd's attorney, R.O. Smith, an assistant public defender, said it was "safe to say there's more to it than the Facebook problem, it appears."

    "I wish I could provide more of what went on, but there's needless to say a lot of rumors swirling around and nothing substantiated on the rumors," Smith said.

    (Reporting By Tim Ghianni; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Cynthia Johnston)
     
    • Phil
      Phil  •  Birmingham, England  •  3 months ago
      She couldn't be reached for comment? Look her up and contact her on Facebook, surely?
      • C
        C 3 months ago
        haha
      • David
        David 3 months ago
        David likes this
      • ray
        ray 3 months ago
        You should be a detective.
    • Dean
      Dean  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Surprising that people wouldn't want to be 'friends' with these kind of people????
      • Anon
        Anon 3 months ago
        People generally find their own level, they say.
    • Kittikatt6
      Kittikatt6  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Well there you go, beware of those who think that clicking a box on a computer equals friendship. Real friends in the real world can cope with the occasional snub without resorting to murdering you. Or I sincerely hope so, if not I am in abig trouble.
      • TrickyVicki
        TrickyVicki 3 months ago
        Totally agree!
      • James
        James 3 months ago
        Well, Kittikatt, I once had a so-called "friend" who, I found out, plotted to have me beaten up and my house vandalised simply for ignoring, just once,one of his pestering text messages. Computers, mobile phones etc, are ok, its just the cretins and inadequates who have to spoil everything. And for those old enough to remember CB radio in the 1980's, it was the lump heads who spoiled that, too.
      • TG
        TG 3 months ago
        When I was a kid, there were no TV's, computers and mobile phones. Hardly anyone (apart from the better off) had cars and if you wanted to go anywhere you walked, cycled, got on a bus or train. You actually stood next to strangers in a bus queue and spoke to them passing the time of day. But now thats all gone! Thanks to our own personal tin boxes (cars) to travel in, the TV, computers, mobile phone texting and computer games, we have lost the skill of personal interaction and actually speaking and communicating with eash other face to face! This is the root cause of many of our social problems!
    • Simon
      Simon  •  Chennai, India  •  3 months ago
      ...facebook for the young and twitter for the old - socializing in the virtual world - sometimes creating more mischief than in the real world - a strange world is being created.
      • Snuggles
        Snuggles 3 months ago
        Our facebook friends help in times of need.We've gotten a 14 pound box of food,bedset,toaster oven,crockpot and a lot of other things.Even hamster food and supplies.
      • CHRISTINE
        CHRISTINE 3 months ago
        I agree with Snuggles, it's only the few idiots who use Facebook incorrectly. Some of my friends on Facebook have become great friends in real life too. I have a lovely bunch of supportive friends.
      • Elizabeth
        Elizabeth 3 months ago
        i use facebook & twitter - pigeonhole me?!
    • I
      I  •  Hemel Hempstead, England  •  3 months ago
      OMG what am I going to do, I just closed my account because of themindless drivel being put there for everyone to read, do we really want to know when someone blows there nose and what was in the handkerchief?
      • Donnie
        Donnie 3 months ago
        hahahhaah i was going to post exact same thing ,,beat me to it
      • Troll
        Troll 3 months ago
        I am coming for you both! Mwahahahaha!
      • louise
        louise 3 months ago
        i'm going to be closing my account for same reason soon, fed up of reading day after day same nonsence
    • Kez
      Kez  •  Halifax, England  •  3 months ago
      Some sad sad people around these days
    • Bascule
      Bascule  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      i'm starting to wonder what percentage of the worlds population is now insane...
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Palo Alto, United States  •  3 months ago
      Jenelle Potter could not be reached for comment....she's right there, at home, on her computer, on facebook! Janelle cannot be charged? Isn't it the same as hiring a hit man?!! She has everything to do with it as well as the two who actually did it! CREEP!
    • MICHELLE
      MICHELLE  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Unbelievable! For that woman to lose her life the way she did - whilst cradling her baby....heart wrenching! Heart goes out to the couple's family and baby
    • caravan
      caravan  •  Ilford, England  •  3 months ago
      absolutely fecking bonkers ! i was right , the world is going mad !
    • Dopey
      Dopey  •  Crawley, England  •  3 months ago
      Why would anyone want to be friends with people they don't even know. I use facebook just to stay in touch with our relatives and close friends.
    • Nick
      Nick  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      There has to be more to it. Im sure we only have half of the story. Why would two grown men kill some one simply on a facebook defriending?!
    • COLIN
      COLIN  •  3 months ago
      Am I the only person in the world who would not touch Facebook with a barge pole?
      'Twitters', 'Blogs'! What a load of cobblers!
    • Christina
      Christina  •  Ilford, England  •  3 months ago
      How sad. At least they're in the US so they will be sentenced properly.
    • Kelly
      Kelly  •  Brighton, England  •  3 months ago
      ist obviously more involved in this story people,don't fall for stupid headlines!
    • Richard
      Richard  •  3 months ago
      "safe to say there's more to it than the Facebook problem, it appears."
      Gee, ya think so?
    • Tony B
      Tony B  •  Brighton, England  •  3 months ago
      BL00DY bent and sick YOU have to ask yourself WHAT is the world coming to??????
    • RARA
      RARA  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      This would have never happened if her father rolled her half naked in the snow, instead of giving in to her every whim just to stop her from crying.
    • The world's press
      The world's press  •  3 months ago
      Execute them, dont blame facebook, these people are ticking time bombs and need to be removed from society asap
    • shaun
      shaun  •  3 months ago
      Wow, Yahoo are pretty insidious, i tried to name another website in a post but Yahoo deleted the post before it even appeared. Isnt that a breach of my right of freedom of speech?
     Post a comment
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