(KTVI-FOX2now.com)—
It wasn't rape. But a South St. Louis County woman facing internet harassment says that's what it felt like. The victim discovered someone was impersonating her and giving away her personal contact information to individuals looking for one night stands on Craig's List. At least ten people called her on April 24th to respond to a message they thought she had sent."I was extremely terrified knowing people had all this information about me when I never talked to them," the south county mother of two said Tuesday.
With help from a friend who is a cyber forensic expert the victim recovered some of the emails and turned the information over to St. Louis County police. "They were pretty graphic, things that I would never have said," she noted. "And when I read these emails I felt that I had been raped, violated."
The forensic expert, Al Bakt said he contacted the individuals who left voice mails on the victim's phone. "Three or four of them told me they were already on the sex offenders list and did not want any further problems," he explained. Bakt said he traced the email to a woman in the St. Louis area who had dated a man the victim once dated.
St. Louis County police investigated the complaint and issued a summons to the suspect. She is scheduled to appear at South County night court on June 18.
The victim has written letters to St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch asking that he take over the case and charge the suspect with a felony. "This isn't a joke; people's lives are in danger," she said. "With that Craig's list killer that was out there what if.. she would have contacted him what if he would have come after me? My life would have been over," she complained.
The victim said she has never used Craig's List adding "I wouldn't know how to begin to do it." Bakt said the suspect used the personal ad section of Craig's List and not the prostitution site that was recently shut down. He praised managers at Craig's List, Facebook, My Space and the St. Louis County Police for helping move the investigation along rapidly.
