Killers' confessions of crime on social media a growing trend

Derek Medina's was not the first Facebook confession, but it may have been the most graphic.

At least a handful of others have posted online about killing someone, but this seems to be the first time anyone included a grisly photo of the corpse. Medina, 31, made the post on Thursday after allegedly killing his wife, then turned himself in to police.

In December 2011, a middle-aged Indiana man posted that he had shot dead his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and her friend. He also announced his own death.

"someone call 911. three dead bodies at 3229 lima road fort wayne Indiana," he wrote. "I've killed ryann, erin, and myself. People were warned not to play me and ruin me. They didn't listen. Sorry about your luck."

Police found all three dead when they arrived.

Last April, a 28-year-old Vietnamese man posted a Facebook message confessing to killing his girlfriend of six years after she broke up with him, press reports said. The man, Dang Van Khuyen, reportedly surrendered to police in Ho Chi Minh City soon afterward.

The same month, San Diego police began investigating a possible murder confession that went viral after being posted anonymously on the popular website reddit.com The post, by a user identified as "Narratto", reportedly said: "My sister had an abusive meth addict boyfriend. I killed him with his own drugs while he was unconscious and they ruled it as an overdose."

Experts are not surprised that people are turning to social-networking sites to confess shocking crimes.

"Social networks are becoming more and more a public place. We shouldn't be terribly surprised that people would gather in that place and do what people do, which is some things that are extremely unseemly and unconscionable," said Al Tompkins, senior faculty member at The Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.

Medina shared prolifically on social-media sites, from 143 YouTube videos chronicling everything from his basketball games to his boat trips, to numerous self-published e-books.

"It's quite common for people to see online social media as an extension of their life," Tompkins said.

Medina's post may indicate a narcissistic personality disorder, according to Dr Prakash Masand, a former psychiatrist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who directs a medical-education website.

"In the most twisted way, that's the ultimate form of grandiosity. You're posting the conquest of a bizarre action you performed for the whole world to see on Facebook," he said. "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Online confessions were rare, but accidentally incriminating oneself was becoming more common, said Lauri Stevens, who consults with law enforcement around the United States on social media.

Before Facebook removed Medina's profile at the request of police, the confession and graphic photo were widely shared on social-networking sites.

People have been responding to the death in the same way he published it - online.

At least three fake Facebook profiles for Medina have emerged, one with the tagline "I killed my wife, big deal."

They have received hundreds of likes and comments.

Curiosity about gruesome acts was human nature, but social media has allowed it to go viral, Masand noted.

"It appeals to our basic instincts," he said.

However, Tompkins cautions against blaming the messenger. "It's not Facebook's fault," Tompkins said. "It's a marvellous tool, but like all tools it can be used badly."