Recently I watched the movie Megan Is Missing, it’s one of the most disturbing movies I have ever seen. Netflix lead me to believe that is was a thriller, maybe even a horror movie about the mysterious disappearance of two teenage girls. What I got was a horrific found footage type of movie about the rape and murder of two 14-year-old girls. It’s not very often that a movie bothers me like this did, I won’t soon forget this movie. Why it’s relevant to geek culture is the fact that the girls meet their killer by chatting with him online and in the case of Megan eventually meets up with Josh who she thinks is a 17-year-old skater boy. It’s not the best movie I have seen but its most effective in showing the dark side of the Internet.

Megan Is Missing definitely got me thinking about the danger that lurks in the anonymity of the internet. I also recently stumbled across a few stories that exemplify the shadier side of the Internet that I thought would make interesting fodder for this weeks She-Geek column since both stories center around the female online predator.

Lisa Carroll, 39, met her 16-year-old fiancée through a German browser game WAR2 Glory. After getting closer through the game they started Skyping and eventually got engaged. Lisa Carroll started driving 800 miles from Maryland to Florida where the couple would meet at a hotel and have sex. Mind you not only is that gross and creepy but it’s also illegal in Florida for anyone over the age of 23 to have sex with a 16-year-old.

After she left to go back to Maryland, the 16-year-old boy started thinking about the relationship and how weird it was and decided to tell parents. They of course called the cops and when police showed up to arrest Lisa Carroll they discovered she was already married and her husband was in the room as they handcuffed her and explained why she was being arrested.

In Japan Kanae Kijima is known as the “Black Widow Killer” and met her victims via online matchmaking sites. She preyed on lonely middle-aged men who were eager to get married, once she got engaged to them she would demand thousands of dollars. Kijima lived a lavish lifestyle, dined at fancy restaurants, draped herself in name brand clothes and cruised around in a Mercedes-Benz all funded by grifting and killing. Interestingly she wasn’t noted for her good looks but used camera tricks and altered her pictures to lure her victims in.

She made the murders look like a suicide and has been linked to the death of six men and conned about 20 other men out of their money. Last week Kijima was sentenced to death in Japan. She was found guilty in murdering 3 of her lovers. Kijima always used her real name online and her blog was basically a record of all the things she bought with the money of the men who later became her victims. In the end this led to her downfall and aided the authorities in her arrest and conviction.

Geek guys and girls please be careful when dealing with strangers on the Internet.

Related articles

• Maryland Woman Nabbed For Having Sex With A 16-Year-Old Florida Boy(dreamindemon.com)

  ---

• Sad face time! Darksiders II delayed until August!(donthatethegeek.com)

  ---

• Death is eternal in this new Darksiders trailer! [VIDEO](donthatethegeek.com)

  ---

• ‘Black widow’ sentenced to death in Japan (english.alarabiya.net)