GUILTY OK - Travis Taylor for stalking, threatening woman online, Terlton, 2011

[flourish]

Here's a great article advising people how to safely and effectively handle a stalker/person who is non-consensually contacting you:

http://www.esia.net/Building_your_Case.htm

From link:

You may have made the mistake of confronting the stalker or you may have had other individuals try to intervene on your behalf, all to no avail. Over and over victims state: "If I had only known what I could have done in the beginning. Why didn't someone tell me to start documenting and filing reports even if it was for documentation only? Every time I met with my stalker I honestly thought it would end, he kept telling me - just meet with me one last time and I'll leave you alone, I believed him. What would the police think if I told them I had met with my stalker? Would they understand or believe me why I did?"

 

[Filly]

If he had written that there wouldn't have been 8 letters. If someone suggests they will hurt my animals that is not funny. It is serious.

No it's not funny. It is serious. Just as it was not funny and was serious for the victim here.

Riddle me this. If you wouldn't call the police and you wouldn't tolerate it how then would you stop the threats?

You just admitted if someone threatened you with the old fava bean line you would call the police. This is exactly what the young lady did. Exactly.

Onto more important matters in the case. A victim is a victim weather this young woman, you, me, your pets or mine. Just because the guy is kind to animals or so we think and cares for his dad doesn't give him a get out of creeper jail for free card. In fact I'd question his love of animals. Looks like he had something in for a reptile he couldn't write about publicly.

 

[Filly]

Here's a great article advising people how to safely and effectively handle a stalker/person who is non-consensually contacting you:

http://www.esia.net/Building_your_Case.htm

From link:

Excellent stuff, Flourish. That could truly help someone.

Even documenting the hang up calls stood out to me. The journal. Amazing how the woman said once she read it she was shocked herself.

 

[LadyL]

the first youtube video is freaky in how he goes off on the parents of the skateboarders who woke him from his nap & then in the second video, he basically says "oops, I was grumpy" (I forget the actual words) in reference to the first video and then proceeds to go across the street and videotape the skateboarders who woke him up in the first place

the first is creepy with a capital 'C' - extremely disturbing
the second is awkward & strange IMO

and just to add, I've had personal experiences with stalkers - engaging them or their family is the opposite of helpful, it's actually dangerous b/c that's exactly what they want - it makes them feel special

the only thing to do is to document all incidents, report all incidents, protect yourself and hope the guy gets locked up for awhile so you can breathe easy for a short time

unfortunately, in most cases, when he gets out, he starts up again unless he can't find you, in which case he moves on to the next victim

if you've been successful in hiding from them, they find someone new but the BEHAVIOUR does not ever stop - not even with the police heavily involved

in my experience anyway

 

[knowthefacts]

Please take a moment and read the Facebook threats in question.
Http://elexishennigh.blogspot.com

 

[flourish]

Please take a moment and read the Facebook threats in question.
Http://elexishennigh.blogspot.com

I thank you for providing that link. My goodness. There is absolutely no way to "misinterpret" the word

STOP

repeated about a gazillion times. Before it even got to that, she was clear and to the point.

If there was any shreds of wonder in my mind that this perp was being wrongfully accused, or misinterpreted, they are LONG GONE NOW MR. OBSESSIVE FREAKY GUY!!!!


[disclaimer: Based on the fact that Mr. Taylor was (as stated by him) accepted into the military and some college at some point, I think it's safe to assume he is not developmentally disabled or on the autism spectrum. His mental health state, lawfully speaking, is undetermined at this point as far as I'm aware. So yes, I'm calling him obsessive and freaky and sticking to it, with the above in mind.]

Wow.

Open message to EH: You seem like a strong, intelligent woman. You handled this well, and I wish you tranquility, happiness, and SAFETY for the rest of your many, many days. :hug:

 

[Nancy2441]

WOW!! That was some very disturbing reading. I actually felt sick to my stomach. I hope
He stays locked up for some time. I feel very bad for EH. How terrifying this all must be for her.

 

[Nancy2441]

:welcome: knowthefacts

 

[NancyA]

Thanks and welcome know the facts. Interesting reading.

Now, I&#8217;m probably gonna take some heat for this even though I don&#8217;t mean to be a victim basher, I agree no one deserves to be subjected to communications like that and I too would have immediately gone to the cops but, IMO,<modsnip>. Seems to me that even though she had NO interest in pursuing a &#8216;romantic&#8217; relationship with this guy, she liked the attention he gave her, was flattered by the fact she had this not-so-secret admirer and was enjoying the &#8216;power&#8217; she had over him.

The way I read those exchanges, it comes across that she was constantly blowing hot and cold and keeping him on a string all along - &#8220;Yes, I&#8217;ll have dinner with you &#8211; no, I won&#8217;t.&#8221; &#8220;Yes, you can be my FB friend &#8211; no, you can&#8217;t &#8211; yes, you can.&#8221;
And after that FB exchange with those other women, she was clearly aware he was not playing with a full deck, so what message did she think she was sending when she RE-friended him?!

And when she realized, belatedly, THAT was a mistake she continued to engage him and respond to him even while telling him &#8220;STOP&#8221;? Mixed signals there or what especially to a clearly disturbed individual?

I absolutely agree that this guy is an out and out frighteningly warped personality who is potentially VERY dangerous &#8211; he definitely needs some serious psychiatric intervention and I hope he gets it - <modsnip>.

 

[Salem]

We don't blame the victim at WS, so please stop.

Just because a person is nice to someone, doesn't mean they are inviting the someone to stalk them, harrass them, or send messages about how they are going to kill them.

Salem

 

[Tinsamd]

Thanks and welcome know the facts. Interesting reading.

Now, I&#8217;m probably gonna take some heat for this even though I don&#8217;t mean to be a victim basher, I agree no one deserves to be subjected to communications like that and I too would have immediately gone to the cops but, IMO,<modsnip>. Seems to me that even though she had NO interest in pursuing a &#8216;romantic&#8217; relationship with this guy, she liked the attention he gave her, was flattered by the fact she had this not-so-secret admirer and was enjoying the &#8216;power&#8217; she had over him.

The way I read those exchanges, it comes across that she was constantly blowing hot and cold and keeping him on a string all along - &#8220;Yes, I&#8217;ll have dinner with you &#8211; no, I won&#8217;t.&#8221; &#8220;Yes, you can be my FB friend &#8211; no, you can&#8217;t &#8211; yes, you can.&#8221;
And after that FB exchange with those other women, she was clearly aware he was not playing with a full deck, so what message did she think she was sending when she RE-friended him?!

And when she realized, belatedly, THAT was a mistake she continued to engage him and respond to him even while telling him &#8220;STOP&#8221;? Mixed signals there or what especially to a clearly disturbed individual?

I absolutely agree that this guy is an out and out frighteningly warped personality who is potentially VERY dangerous &#8211; he definitely needs some serious psychiatric intervention and I hope he gets it - <modsnip>.

Yikes! Once again, my mind has been blown!

After having read through the link provided by "knowthefacts" I cannot help but say that this VICTIM was nothing but super respectful of this man!!!!

I'd rather not refer to him as a man because I have much stronger words to describe this type of behavior; however I don't want to get snipped again for name calling. :crazy:

She wasn't giving him mixed signals. She could have said anything & it seems as though he would have read into it. He did.

This sort of thing could happen to anyone!!

It's the reason that I canceled my facebook page a year ago. (obsessive ex girlfriend of my now fiance, but none the less, extremely EXTREMELY bothersome)

Scary, scary stuff....

For whatever reason, Facebook makes folks who obsess all day think that they actually know someone & what they are doing in their real life because of what they see on that person's facebook page.

 

[Nancy2441]

I have friends on FB that I don't really know. Friends of friends type of thing. But after this story I am seriously thinking about having my FB limited to family and real life friends only. I am so disturbed by this whole story.

 

[flourish]

Yeah, he sent her, like, four long messages in a row before she even responded...and that's leading him on? I STRONGLY DISAGREE. She was clear. He chose not to listen to and respect her words. She did not do anything wrong.

Did I hit my head and end up in the 1950's or something? Are we going to hear next that fifteen years ago when the victim's car had broken down (something she doesn't even remember) she had a short skirt on so now she deserves all this?

I feel like I need to go to a womens' liberation movement event now or something. *Shudder* And I thought we'd "come a long way." *shakes head and mutters away*

 

[OneLostGrl]

Please take a moment and read the Facebook threats in question.
Http://elexishennigh.blogspot.com

:Welcome1:

 

[LadyL]

I have friends on FB that I don't really know. Friends of friends type of thing. But after this story I am seriously thinking about having my FB limited to family and real life friends only. I am so disturbed by this whole story.

Last week I had deleted over 100. Last night I deleted another 250 or so. Now 90% of them are people I actually know and have known for years. The other 10%, I feel pretty safe with. However, I also do not have any personal info on my FB, except my name. No phone numbers, no addresses, no work info.

Of course, the victim in this case went to school with him so she felt like she knew him too. I guess in the long run, we can try to protect ourselves but if someone is going to get to us, they will.

 

[LadyL]

and to Elexis <modsnip>:
the public needs an education in dealing with these creepos and you are helping immensly

stay strong!

 

[waltzingmatilda]

Oh my! I just read Elexis' blog. How very frightening for her. This, ahem, unusual person escalated and became more and more desperate as time went by. And it's all documented right there on FB. She should be proud for standing up for herself and having this guy put behind bars.

Facebook:

I unfriended a man on FB who sent me an ugly private message on FB because he wasn't included in my birthday plans. (why he felt such entitlement, I do not know) My bf and 4 of our friends had arranged for us to travel for an overnight trip to see my favorite band. It was their gift to me and we discussed it on FB.

I learned some FB lessons:

I do not list any personal information, ie address, phone #, location, etc.

I do not answer any invitations for events which confirm if I plan to attend or not.

I never post my plans in advance. If I am planning a trip out of town that I am excited about, I wait until I return home to post the details if I wish to share with others.

I customized my FB profile. Users have the ability to block individuals from your updates alerting them. One can also block others' posts from appearing on your profile page. I had to do this with a 'friend' of mine who is pro legalization of marijuana. Although I respect her opinion, I use FB for networking to promote my business and there is just no place for that mess on my profile, it projects the wrong image to potential clients, many of which live in the Bible Belt. (How many times have we sleuthed cases here on WS and have been appalled at a POI's FB friends' posts on their page?)

FB can be a great networking tool in promoting a business! We all just need to educate ourselves on security. Thank you Elexis for creating awareness!

MOO

wm

 

[flourish]

Oh my! I just read Elexis' blog. How very frightening for her. This, ahem, unusual person escalated and became more and more desperate as time went by. And it's all documented right there on FB. She should be proud for standing up for herself and having this guy put behind bars.

Facebook:

I unfriended a man on FB who sent me an ugly private message on FB because he wasn't included in my birthday plans. (why he felt such entitlement, I do not know) My bf and 4 of our friends had arranged for us to travel for an overnight trip to see my favorite band. It was their gift to me and we discussed it on FB.

I learned some FB lessons:

I do not list any personal information, ie address, phone #, location, etc.

I do not answer any invitations for events which confirm if I plan to attend or not.

I never post my plans in advance. If I am planning a trip out of town that I am excited about, I wait until I return home to post the details if I wish to share with others.

I customized my FB profile. Users have the ability to block individuals from your updates alerting them. One can also block others' posts from appearing on your profile page. I had to do this with a 'friend' of mine who is pro legalization of marijuana. Although I respect her opinion, I use FB for networking to promote my business and there is just no place for that mess on my profile, it projects the wrong image to potential clients, many of which live in the Bible Belt. (How many times have we sleuthed cases here on WS and have been appalled at a POI's FB friends' posts on their page?)

FB can be a great networking tool in promoting a business! We all just need to educate ourselves on security. Thank you Elexis for creating awareness!

MOO

wm

Thanks for sharing your observations, wm I also like how FB can be customized. I know there are some things that aren't "hidable," like me "liking" "Family Guy" or something, but I appreciate the ability to block users, etc.

I refused to join FB for a long time b/c my son's killer is out of prison and I didn't want him to be able to find me easily (I know it's practically impossible to not be found if creepy one tries hard enough, but I wasn't going to hand him a hand-wrapped package).

I did eventually join, though, after family pressure and missing out on all the family photos being posted there. I then found my son's killer's sister and kept an eye on her "friends" list until he popped up on there, then I preemptively blocked him. I don't use my actual name, either. Not even my friends can see my email address. I do, however, list which universities I've attended, but not which High School.

I've found that finding people you don't want to find you, and then blocking them before anything even happens, has been a good tactic so far...well, for people I already know are creepy and bad news.

I do have some "friends" that are for PetVille purposes only. They are mostly women around the same age as me and I would block them in a hot second if I felt I needed to, which I haven't. They could probably ascertain where I live because of comments I've made, my "liking" local businesses, etc. And I'm sure I've been blocked from some people's news feeds because I do use adult language and discuss topics like politics, crime, religion, etc. I'm okay with that, and have even posted as such. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable but I do want my friends who are interested to be able to debate with me.

I think this thread has been helpful, informative, and insightful. I'm sorry that EH had to go through what she did in order for the thread to exist in the first place, but I think there's some good stuff resulting. moo

OT: And, interesting side-note, I got tired of seeing the "list your hometown" thing on my profile page, so I just put some foreign city in there and as my current city. The ads on the side of the page are now in that foreign city's language. Often I can tell when I've picked up some ad-ware tracking thingies because my ads will suddenly be from my actual zip code instead of the foreign one. Also, the foreign language ads are easier to ignore.

 

[knowthefacts]

New post on the blog...
http://elexishennigh.blogspot.com

 

[Aking]

Wow THE USB drive engraving is nuts!