20-Year-Old Accused Of Using MySpace For Cyber-Stalking

A local woman was stalked on a popular website and the Internet giant helped track down the suspect. The victim said her ex-boyfriend made the threatening statements on her MySpace page.

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The victim's MySpace page is set to private, but it does list her mood as "miserable." That would make sense, because in just the span of a few days her current boyfriend committed suicide and her ex-boyfriend was arrested Wednesday night for stalking her.

You have to be a "friend" to access Chalisse Erickson's MySpace web page, but she said a series of messages from her ex-boyfriend were downright threatening. According to investigators, 20-year-old Shawn Hutchinson harassed Erickson about a new boyfriend, allegedly writing, "I told you that if I saw you with David that would be the end of you. That's not a threat, it's a promise."

"It's a very frightening situation," said Lt. Dennis Lemma, Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

Seminole County sheriff's detectives said the harassment turned even more vicious when, on February 20, Hutchinson posted nude photographs of Erickson on the Internet, photos Erickson said only Hutchinson had.

"It's very obvious to see his intent was to create fear and then embarrassment with those explicit photographs," Lemma said.

myspacestalker022108-4 Court Appearance Images Authorities arrested Hutchinson at his home in Winter Park on Ellwood Drive less than 24 hours later, because they say investigators with MySpace helped them track the outgoing messages to an account at the Travel Country Outdoors store in Altamonte Springs, where Hutchinson worked.

"Their investigators are willing to go the extra mile and, by that fact alone, we were able to have investigators knocking on this person's door the same day," Lemma explained.

Even more bizarre, Erickson's new boyfriend mysteriously committed suicide in Polk County only a few days before Hutchinson was arrested.

"It is obviously a concern, since it's so close together. We don't know if they have any connection at all," Lemma said.

Investigators said Hutchinson admitted to the cyber-stalking. He was arrested on a charge of aggravated cyber-stalking and jailed. A judge Thursday set his bond at $1,000 and ordered him to stay away from Erickson.