Killers Who Tweeted Before, During, And After Their Crimes

In the modern age of social media, many killers are caught because of the things they post online. Murderers sometimes post warning signs about their future crimes on Twitter, like the man who tweeted about wanting to kill his roommate 24 hours before actually doing it. Other killers use Twitter to keep up appearances after their crimes, posting messages about how much they loved the person they murdered. A few of them use Twitter as a way to broadcast their crimes to the widest audience possible.

If you're not following your roommate on Twitter yet, you'll definitely want to do that by the time you finish reading this list.

In 2016, Trenton Forster allegedly shot and killed a St. Louis County Police officer named Blake Snyder. It started after a woman called police when Forster repeatedly knocked on her door looking for her daughter. When Snyder arrived on the scene, Forster opened fire on him. 

In the weeks leading up to the murder, Snyder's Twitter account was filled with troublesome messages. "I'ma kill em all, just watch," he wrote. " In reference to a gun he said, "The compact .40 cal send all my enemies to hell."

Despite having a history of violent behavior, Forster pled not guilty to the murder of Blake Snyder. He is still awaiting trial.

After being hired to work a sex party in 2010, adult film stars Amanda Logue and Jason Andrews came up with a plan to murder and rob their customer Dennis Abrahamsen. Police were able to trace their plans through various text messages on the night of the party.

On May 15, the day of the murder, Andrews tweeted that they were "killing time" before the party. Abrahamsen's body was found the next day. He had suffered stab wounds and head trauma. Police later realized the Logue and Andrews had fled the scene with a camera, credit cards, and $6,000 in cash.

The day after the murder, the couple posted about how they'd spent the day watching movies and relaxing. As police closed in on them, Jason tweeted a message to Amanda in Hebrew: "Amanda, please tell me you're okay, I fear I will never see you again."

Logue denied taking part in the murder and blamed everything on Andrews. She was sentenced to 40 years in prison; Andrew got life without parole.

In July 2012, 16-year-old Skylar Neese disappeared from her West Virginia home. Six months later, her friend Rachel Shoaf confessed that she and another friend, Shelia Eddy, had stabbed Neese to death and then left her body in the woods.

While Neese was missing, Shelia Eddy remained active on Twitter, posting birthday messages to friend and tweeting about her everyday life. After Skylar's body was discovered, Shelia posted a photo collage of herself and Skylar with the caption "Rest easy, Skylar. You'll ALWAYS be my best friend."

Rachel Shoaf told police she and Shelia had planned the murder in science class. They lured Skylar out into the woods and then planned to stab her on the count of three. About one month before she was arrested, Shelia tweeted "We really did go on three."

Rachel was sentenced to thirty years in prison; Shelia received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

On the morning of April 15, 2013 two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing six people and injuring 280. Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were later identified as suspects and captured during a shootout with police. Tamerlan was killed, but Dzhokhar was arrested.

Before he was captured, Dzhokhar tweeted out a message of support to the city of Boston. "Ain't no love in the heart of the city," he wrote. "Stay safe people."

He was convicted and sentenced to death.

In November 2016, sixteen-year-old Emma Walker was killed by a gunshot wound as she slept. The shot came from outside her bedroom window. After her death, her ex-boyfriend, William Riley Gaul, posted a loving tribute to her on Twitter. 

"To think that every memory we have, every happy special moment we shared, can't ever be relived. I love you Emma Jane Walker," he wrote. His Twitter bio was also dedicated to Emma, saying "I love you beautiful and I know you're in a better place now."

According to her family, Emma had broken up with Gaul but he refused to accept it. He was placed under surveillance and arrested shortly after. In January 2017, he was formally charged with first-degree murder, aggravated stalking, and tampering with evidence.

In 2014, a woman who called herself Felina became an online crusader fighting the drug cartels in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The cartels had declared a media blackout, so none of the major crimes in the area were being reported. As a result, people turned to social media to share information.

Felina ran Valor por Tamaulipas, the most popular of these citizen news organizations. She posted emergency phone numbers and encouraged people to speak out about crimes, and this caught the attention of the cartels. Felina began receiving threatening messages as the cartels worked to discover her true identity. 

On October 16, a message was posted from Felina's Twitter account: "Friends and family, my real name is Maria Del Rosario Fuentes Rubio. I am a physician. Today my life has come to and end." A few other tweets were published warning her friends not to make the same mistakes that she had made, and then a photo of Felina's body was posted. She had been shot by the cartel, who were tweeting messages from her phone to scare her followers. 

In 2014, high school student Jaylen Fryberg opened fire in the school cafeteria, killing four people before shooting himself. He had recently suffered a romantic rejection and posted about his broken heart on Twitter.

"It breaks me, it actually does. I know it seems like I'm sweating it off but I'm not. And I never will be able to," he wrote. 

Just one week before the shooting, Fryberg had been named Homecoming Prince. 

One week before killing his former colleagues, Vester Lee Flanagan II created a Twitter account. He uploaded a few test videos, and then recorded himself as he approached reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward as they were doing an interview with a local official, Vicki Gardner. He shot all three, killing Parker and Ward. He then posted the shocking video to his Twitter account.

Flanagan committed suicide when he was confronted by the police, but his apparent motive for the crime was retaliation. He claimed Parker had made racist comments about him and Ward had reported him to human resources, but there was no proof of his allegations. He had been fired from his job at the station two years before the crime, and was been fired from several jobs before that as well.

Jacqueline Vandagriff's burned and dismembered body was found in a Texas park on September 14, 2016. One day later, her killer tweeted from her account. "Never knew I could feel like this," said the mysterious message.

On September 13, Vandagriff met Charles Dean Bryant at a bar and the pair was seen leaving together. Employees were able to give police Bryant's name and from there, the evidence against him quickly piled up. Cell phone records showed her phone was near Bryant's home around 1:00 am and her purse was found in a nearby trash can. Bryant was caught on video buying a shovel and there was evidence that he had tried to dig a hole in his yard before apparently giving up and bringing her body to the park.

He was arrested three days after posting the strange tweet on Vandagriff's account.

On August 20, 2016, Zachary Penton tweeted "I need to move out of my place before I viciously murder my roomates." The next day, he called 911 and confessed to killing his roommate, Daniel Garofalo. They had only been living together for about two months at the time of the murder. Claiming self-defense, Penton said he shot Garofalo after being threatened to move out of the house.

It may have been self-defense, but a look through Penton's Twitter history shows an obvious obsession with guns. In June 2016, he wrote that buying a gun was easy. Just a few days before the shooting, he tweeted "I need two boxes of 9mm stat." His tweets went viral after the murder, with many people warning that you should always follow your roommates on Twitter.