On the Internet, some suspects get tangled in own webs

When Newport News detectives began seeing contradictions in their investigation into the murder of a Navy officer, they turned to crime analyst Kristin McManus, an expert on Internet social networking.

On MySpace, she quickly discovered that the sailor's wife appeared to be having an intimate relationship with another man.

The case snowballed, ultimately leading to the arrests of the wife, her boyfriend and another MySpace pal in the April 2007 murder-for-hire of Ensign Cory Voss.

Homicides, robberies, sex crimes, missing persons: Police departments across the country are increasingly turning to social networking sites for clues to unsolved crimes.

"I do frequently go online to further an investigation," McManus said from the witness stand last week in the federal murder-for-hire trial of Michael Anthony, Eric Draven and David Anthony Runyon.

"Almost daily?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa McKeel.

"Yes, absolutely," McManus answered.

Voss' wife, Catherina "Cat" Voss, pleaded guilty to arranging the murder of her husband by hiring Runyon as the triggerman. If convicted, Runyon faces the death penalty. Draven, her boyfriend, is charged as an accessory and could face life in prison.

On the witness stand, McManus explained to the jury how social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter operate. In the past two years, she said she has trained her city manager, city council, school board, every city principal, other police departments and even U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott on how to use social networking sites.

"It's a place where friendships are often made," she said.

McManus explained that she ran into a roadblock in her investigation. Voss' MySpace page, which still exists at www.myspace.com/kittycatv, is listed as "private." McManus was unable to get beyond the first page without contacting the service.

Draven's page was another story. His page is listed as "public." Anyone can go in and look around. And right there at the top of his page, McManus saw, was his "friend" Cat, whom he listed as "my beautiful wife."

McManus also discovered a clue on a MySpace feature that allows users to post their "mood." By obtaining backdated pages, she discovered that on April 30, 2007, the day Cory Voss' body was discovered, Draven listed his mood as "accomplished."

Detectives and the FBI were able to use that information as part of a package to obtain court-approved wiretaps and search warrants. Voss' story that she and her husband maintained a healthy, faithful marriage began falling apart.

They also discovered MySpace links between Runyon and Draven, who met during paid drug experiments in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Runyon was living in West Virginia at the time.

A key tool that detectives use is taking a "snapshot " of a Web page to preserve it as future evidence. That's what McManus did, so that when Runyon ultimately tried to wipe clean any MySpace links to Draven, the police still had them.

But if that doesn't work, MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites make it clear in their terms of service that they save deleted pages on their servers and will turn them over to authorities investigating criminal activity.

Facebook spokesman Simon Axten said the company will turn over information to law enforcement only when given a subpoena or court order. MySpace did not respond to inquiries about its policy.

Chris Amos, a Norfolk police spokesman, said his department's gang squad and sex crimes division probably use these sites the most. The gang squad will use sites not only to investigate crimes but to identify gang members and alert their parents to what's going on.

Service providers, he said, are "very cooperative" in sharing information. He said some users apparently don't understand that their postings can be used as evidence against them.

"They'll share their thoughts with little thought of incrimination," he said. "They'll just fire away."

In another local case, d etectives in Chesapeake investigating the death last month of 5-year-old Carly Sawyer cited the mother's Facebook page in a search warrant application.

Federally, the U.S. attorney's office said it routinely looks at suspects' social networking pages, as well as those of their family members and friends. At a recent bond hearing, an assistant U.S. attorney objected to granting bail for a suspect after authorities learned that his girlfriend had Nazi and white-supremacist logos on her MySpace page.

At least 50 and perhaps more than 100 police departments across the country have established their own social networking pages, mostly on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, in an effort to connect with the public. Norfolk and Portsmouth each has a Facebook page.

Civil libertarians and privacy activists have warned of the potential for law enforcement abuse.

"Many users are quickly finding out that the information they intend to share with their friends can all too easily find its way into the hands of authorities, strangers, the press and the public," warned the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an Internet privacy and free-speech rights group.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a similar group, recently created a "surveillance self-defense" Web site aimed at educating Internet users about "the law and technology of government surveillance."

The site says it provides "information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it."

For some, such advice may have come too late. Draven, whose trial in U.S. District Court with Runyon will continue today, lamented his position in his very last MySpace posting on Feb. 21, 2008, eight days before his arrest:

"Where have all the friends gone??? It is sad to realize that all the friends you have disaper (sic) when your going through a life chaning (sic) event. Only 2 people have actually contacted me.

"I just wish I could have seen it more clear."

That day, Draven listed his mood as "tired."

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com