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Facebook murder plot: Double-cross by exes?
Child custody suits bring out all kinds of ugly between spouses who formerly promised to love, cherish and honor each other for the rest of their lives — but planning murder? Not unusual either, and one ex-wife found out her ex-husband's nefarious plans through creating a profile as a teen girl on Facebook, and eliciting enough evidence to warrant an arrest by the FBI.
Angela Voelkert, 29, set up her ex by creating a false Facebook identity, 17-year-old "Jessica Studebaker." (By the way, that's a big no-no with Facebook's terms of service.) She used the profile to exchange messages with the ex, David Voelkert, 38 of South Bend, Ind. On June 1, Angela Voelkert used the information to apply for a restraining order against her ex-husband, who spent four days in custody until a judge dismissed charges yesterday.
The charges against David Voelkert focused on him allegedly placing a GPS device on his ex-wife's car to track her, for purposes of finding someone to "take care of" and "put a cap in her ass" for $10,000 — as revealed by these Facebook messages.
But, it seems Voelkert was onto his ex-wife, and knew she embroiled him in a sting operation. And just as she was trying to use the information against him in the fight for custody of their kids, he did the same by feeding the faker with an elaborate plan.
Thanks, Smoking Gun, for not only posting the original story, but also the update!
Federal prosecutors were prompted to drop the charges after an affidavit emerged filed by David Voelkert days earlier, on May 25, that revealed he knew "Jessica" wasn't a real person.
"I am lying to this person," he stated, "to gain positive proof that it is indeed my ex-wife trying to again tamper in my life. Anything said in the chat to her from me cannot be held as the truth and I am chatting to this person in attempts to prove to my court that my ex-wife will not leave my personal life alone ... In no way do I have plans to leave with my children or do any harm to Angela Dawn Voelkert or anyone else."
He, in turn, wanted to use this as evidence in their ongoing custody case. His ex-wife used exchanges between him and "Jessica" dated May 31 as her evidence in obtaining the restraining order.
These court records (again, thanks Smoking Gun) give a blow-by-blow account of the sting, which actually engaged a friend of Angela Voelkert's who posed as the fictional teenager, beginning May 23. Angela Voelkert monitored the emails once they started writing each other. Things heated up on May 26, the day after David Voelkert filed his affidavit, in that he revealed (falsely) that he had sold his business, planned to move somewhere warm with his kids after his next court appearances. On May 31, the plan really roared into play as he laid out to "Jessica" the elements that would allow him to leave with the children and eliminate the major obstacle in his way: his ex-wife.
Oddly, if all this was an elaborate hoax, David Voelkert might have gone all the way with it, allegedly going to the trouble of installing a "small black plastic box" stuck on his ex-wife's windshield.
As of today, Voelkert, owner and operator of Secured Alarms, does not have "Jessica Studebaker" listed as one of his Facebook friends.
More stories:
- Dying teen's 'bucket list' goes viral
- Facebook 152-friends-on-arm tattoo is a lie
- Facebook: Marriage killer?
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