Cleveland: Search for Steve Stephens, suspect in Facebook homicide video, widens to 5 states:
Steve Stephens, 37, is suspected of killing 74-year-old Robert Godwin on Sunday in a residential area east of Cleveland, police said.
An aggravated murder warrant has been issued for Stephens.
One of the newest pieces of information: There was a ping to the suspect’s cell phone picked up in Pennsylvania.. the location, it would appear, is on a highway north of Meadville and Titusville, near Lake Erie..
Meanwhile on the socials, there is a buzz an flurry of activity as to the whereabouts of Stephens..
Rumors are filling threads and comments sections, but each one seemingly has leads drying up just as fast as posts are being made.. There are local news reports in Cleveland on a local ABC affiliate reporting that Twitter and Facebook posts last night had a highly re-tweeted post that the suspect was on the Corner of Caves and Wilson Mills in Chesterland Ohio.. A rumor even swirled that police found the suspect’s car in Chesterland. None of it was true. Media outlets picked it up.. But none of it was true.
It is a rough and ‘tumblr’ world right now. For media and journalism professionals? They are busy chasing their leads in the midst of rumor and HTML fear mongering…. damned if the report . .damned if they ignore….
For the social media crowd? No one loses a job for reporting a rumor.
For police? They are searching for the authentic leads… for the real thing that will get them to the suspect…
And for the Facebook homicide suspect? This is the newest example of crime in the new age: Streamed online for an audience.. attention-grabbers abandoning the duck face selfie and fake life in exchange for high profile crime online.
On Sunday around 2pm, Easter Sunday to be exact, Stephens posting a video on Facebook. The site took it down a few hours later… Stephens said he committed multiple murders–no official word yet that any of those claims are true.
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Facebook, Instagram, Twitter..Periscope.. all the places where live video can be streamed and watched, have been the houses of horror as of late. Suicides …ratings.. beatings… And now. Murders.
This is the rage on the raging socials–places where people can live stream their lives, whether filled with class or crass…blood lust now taking center stage, mixed in with memes and Easter family photos. The Facebook Feed for Stephens? Horrific and gory…
This..THIS..is the real world we live in. Who created it? … Mark Zuckerberg just gave people a vehicle. We choose to drive the way we want.
And right now, a suspect is on the loose driving somewhere near the scenic lake Erie section of Pennsylvania. On his way to meet fate.
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