Florida couple arrested, Googled how to commit murder

Google Murder — Image used with permission by copyright holder

A young Florida couple has been arrested for murder after their social media history on Facebook, Google searches, and text messages revealed the evidence for what led to the death of their 19-year-old roommate.

Police say the victim, Juliana Mensch, was strangled on March 24 in the Fort Lauderdale home she shared with the couple following a money dispute. James Ayers, 32, was arrested a few days later after he confessed a crime to a friend while his girlfriend Nicole Okrzesik, 22, blamed the entire ordeal on Ayers. However, a police investigation on Okrzesik’s social media history show disturbing evidences of the couple’s thought process before and after the crime.

Using her smartphone, Okrzesik Googled several search terms including “chemicals to passout a person,” “making people faint,” “ways to kill people in their sleep,” “how to suffocate someone,” and “how to poison someone.” Mensch was killed minutes after Orkzesik looked these words up on Google, reports the New Times Broward-Palm Beach.

The next day, Orkzesik and Ayers exchanged “several hundred text messages” that show Ayers may have regretted the decision.

Ayers: I’m callin 911 remember your driving her car

Okrzesik: stop it

Ayers: F*** it ill just call the cops

Okrzesik: Why the f*** would you do that and ruin both out lives when we can just get rid of the s*** and move on

Ayers: You held her down remember, you better hurry, call me now

The situation was not resolved by March 27. According to the Facebook chat transcript between the two that day, Orkzesik and Ayers continued to argue over how to dispose of the body. The New Times published the following conversation.

Okrzesik: What did Danielle say?

Ayers: She said Jules missing

Okrzesik: What did you say?

Ayers: It was 3 am, I didn’t respond

We have to figure this out, Im not going to but if the smell gets worse were f***ed

Okrzesik: Cant we just go dump it somewhere then take off

Ayers: Please just get here already, I need you, were in this together

Orkzesik did not show up, and instead checked into a rehabilitation facility later that day. Ayers turned himself in and was charged with first-degree murder, with a trial starting on June 25. Orkzesik was arrested on May 10 when she was finally linked to the murder thanks to their sloppy trail of evidences. Her case will be presented to a grand jury on June 7, according to the Broward State Attorney’s Office.

This certainly isn’t the first instance of Google and other social media sites proving to provide evidence for a crime. We previously reported on the arrest for a ‘double murder’ following a Facebook defriending. In 2005, a Apple Macintosh specialist was also arrested after Googling how to kill his wife by “neck snap break.” The majority of these cases reveal that it’s not particularly social media that’s helpful, it’s people heavily relying on it and leaving behind tracks that make it easier for authorities to convict them of the crime.