Internet romance goes horribly awry:

 He was an 18-year-old Marine headed to war. She was an attractive young woman sending him off with pictures and lingerie.

Or so each one thought.

As we parents all know – it’s all fun, until someone gets hurt: 

In reality, they were two middle-aged people carrying on an Internet fantasy based on seemingly harmless lies.

When a truthful 22-year-old was drawn in, authorities say, their cyber escape turned deadly.

[Murder victim Brian] Barrett, 22, was an aspiring industrial arts teacher, an accomplished high school athlete who had coached Little League all summer and helped his father coach soccer. Those who knew the Buffalo State College student described him as quiet and unassuming.

He had clearly been targeted. Barrett was shot three times at close range in the neck and left arm after climbing into his truck about 10 p.m. at the end of a shift at Dynabrade Corp. in Clarence, 20 miles outside of Buffalo. His body was found two days later when a co-worker spotted his pickup in an isolated part of the company parking lot.

The problem is, except for the whole “one of the principals got murdered” bit, I can’t see a way to make it anything but a comedy.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 4:02 am and is filed under Crime and Punishment, Culture War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.