Fla. Craigslist jobseeker found dead in Ohio grave

JoANNE VIVIANO

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — A job­seeker from Florida who responded to a bogus Craigslist ad for a job on a south­east Ohio cat­tle farm was found dead, buried in a shal­low grave, and another from South Car­olina was shot but escaped by run­ning away through the woods, a sher­iff said Thursday.

Noble County Sher­iff Stephen Han­num said two men were taken into cus­tody after cadaver dogs found the body of the Florida man this week in a grave in a remote area out­side Cald­well, a small vil­lage about 80 miles east of Columbus.

He said the search was under­taken after the South Car­olina man escaped from the area on Nov. 6 and noti­fied police, who later found a hand-dug grave author­i­ties believe had been meant for him.

An autopsy on the Florida man was being per­formed Thurs­day in Lick­ing County, out­side Colum­bus, and Han­num said names of the sus­pects and vic­tims were being with­held until at least Friday.

Author­i­ties received a call five days after the South Car­olina man was shot from the Florida man’s twin sis­ter, con­cerned that her brother had not been heard from since Oct. 22 in Park­ers­burg, W.Va., the sher­iff said. The twin, in Boston, said her brother had responded to what she believed was the same Craigslist ad, which sought a care­taker for cat­tle on a 688-acre farm.

The sher­iff said the South Car­olina man had been told to carry his belong­ings to Ohio because he’d be liv­ing at the farm, and rob­bery was believed to be the motive.

“It seems that this was just a ruse to lure vic­tims into the trap, most likely to com­mit a mur­der and relieve the deceased of their per­sonal prop­erty,” Han­num said.

He said it was unknown how long the ad had been online or how many peo­ple may have responded.

The sher­iff said the call prompted offi­cers to return to the remote area, where they found the grave believed to have been intended for the South Car­olina man.

“A grave obvi­ously had been dug that we assume had been dug for him, but he was shot and wounded and he got away,” Han­num said. “We brought in cadaver dogs think­ing that a pos­si­bil­ity that the per­son that was adver­tis­ing on Craigslist and lured this guy down here may very well have lured some­one else to the same area. Our hunch was correct.”

The cadaver search began Mon­day, and offi­cers found the body the fol­low­ing day. The sus­pects were arrested Wednes­day in Sum­mit County, in north­east Ohio, about 90 miles away.

Han­num said the South Car­olina man had hid­den in the woods for about seven hours with a gun­shot wound to his arm.

The man even­tu­ally made his way to a house about 2 miles away. He told police he had been walk­ing in a wooded area with one of the men when he heard a gun cock and turned to see a firearm pointed at his head. He pushed it away and ran. He said mul­ti­ple shots were fired and he was hit once.

The man said he had met the oth­ers for break­fast and later rode with them in a vehi­cle, believ­ing he was headed to the farm, until he was told a land­slide had closed the road and entered the woods on foot.

The Craigslist web­site, which fea­tures free clas­si­fied ads for hous­ing, jobs, per­sonal announce­ments, items for sale and ser­vices, among other things, has been blamed for a num­ber of deaths, includ­ing that of a New York City masseuse who author­i­ties say was killed in 2009 by a Boston med­ical stu­dent she met through the site.

More recently, in Sep­tem­ber, the last of four defen­dants was sen­tenced in the 2010 killing of a Tacoma, Wash.-area man in a home rob­bery dur­ing which the group pre­tended to be inter­ested in a dia­mond ring adver­tised on Craigslist.

Craigslist founder Craig New­mark has urged peo­ple to take pre­cau­tions when using the site.

“It’s been dev­as­tat­ing to see that it can also be used by bad peo­ple to take cruel advan­tage of oth­ers,” he said in 2009 at a cer­e­mony hon­or­ing a Min­nesota woman who died after respond­ing to a phony ad for a baby sitter.

Posted by AP News on Nov 17 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.