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Internet fantasy lives blown apart by rifle blast in the car park

March 30, 2007 on 3:15 pm | In Money |

HE WAS an 18-year-old marine headed to war. She was an attractive young woman sending him off with pictures and lingerie.

Or so each one thought.

In reality, they were two middle-aged people carrying on an internet fantasy based on seemingly harmless lies.

When a truthful 22-year-old was drawn in, their cyber escape turned deadly.

“When you’re on the internet talking, you haven’t got a clue who that is on the other end,” Sheriff’s Lieutenant Ron Kenyon said. “You don’t have a clue.”

When Brian Barrett was shot dead on 15 September, 2006, outside the factory in New York State where he worked to help pay his college fees, investigators and his family were stumped.

Mr Barrett, 22, was an aspiring teacher, an accomplished high school athlete who had coached junior baseball all summer and helped his father coach football. Those who knew the Buffalo State College student described him as quiet and unassuming.

He had clearly been targeted. Mr Barrett was shot three times at close range in the neck and arm after climbing into his 4×4 at about 10pm at the end of a shift at Dynabrade in Clarence, 20 miles outside Buffalo. His body was found two days later when a colleague spotted his pick-up truck in an isolated part of the firm’s car park.

“He was just a nice kid, a gentleman,” said Starpoint High School athletics director Tom Sarkovics. “I don’t think anybody could say a bad thing about him.”

On 27 November, Mr Barrett’s co-worker and friend, Thomas Montgomery, 47, was charged with his murder. The motive, investigators said, was jealousy over Mr Barrett’s budding internet relationship with the same 18-year-old woman Montgomery had been wooing.

What neither man knew was that the woman was a 40-odd West Virginia mother using her daughter’s identity to attract internet suitors. Cyberspace, it seemed, was enough; she never intended to meet either man.

“The game would have been over at that point and time for sure,” Lt Kenyon said.

When Montgomery began chatting with the woman in 2005, the former marine portrayed himself as perhaps a previous version of himself - a young soldier preparing for deployment to Iraq, assistant district attorney Ken Case said.

For a time, they communicated strictly through chat rooms and e-mail.

Then the woman began sending gifts to Montgomery’s home, Mr Case said. Pictures of the woman’s daughter, lingerie and a set of custom-made military dog tags arrived at the pale yellow suburban house that Montgomery shared with his wife and two teenage children.

Montgomery’s wife intercepted one of the packages, Mr Case said. She wrote back to the woman at the return address, and included a family portrait to make her point.

“As you can see, Tom’s not 18,” Mr Case said she wrote. “He’s married and he’s a father of two. He’s 47 and I’m his wife.” And, believing she was writing to an 18-year-old: “You’ve obviously been fooled.”

The West Virginia woman - whom authorities will not identify - remembered a friend named Brian that Montgomery had mentioned. She recalled enough of his internet screen-name to contact Mr Barrett to ask him about what Montgomery’s wife had told her.

Soon, Mr Barrett was in regular contact with the woman. Despite knowing the truth about Montgomery, the woman remained in contact with him as well, Mr Case said.

The woman made no secret of the fact she was chatting with Mr Barrett, Mr Case said, and Mr Barrett talked about the relationship at work. Montgomery, authorities say, became jealous.

Investigators believe that Mr Barrett’s killer wore camouflage and a ski mask when he approached his victim in the car park with a .30-calibre rifle and fired at close range.

Montgomery is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to second-degree murder. Tall and with thinning hair, glasses and a moustache, he said nothing at a procedural court appearance earlier this month.

His wife has begun divorce proceedings, Mr Case said.

The internet crime expert JA Hitchcock, author of Net Crimes and Misdemeanours, said the case illustrated the dangers that lurk on the web.

“I’m hoping that this case will make people think twice about what they do online and what their actions can cause in the long run,” she said.