Skip to main content

Woman and baby being held hostage saved after Facebook status update

facebook-giant-sign
Image used with permission by copyright holder

According to a story in the Associated Press, a woman in Utah and her 17-month old baby were removed from a home where they were being held captive for the past five days after the woman posted a Facebook status update pleading for help. According to an account from the hostage, she ducked into a nearby closet with her laptop and wrote “Hello…is anyone out there? I am having a serious problem and me and (my son) will be dead by morning,” on her Facebook page on December 24. Friends of the woman were able to determine where she was being held and alerted the authorities of her dire situation.

CritchfieldUpon arriving at the scene, the Salt Lake City police met with the kidnapper and ex-boyfriend, Troy Reed Critchfield, and he eventually allowed the police into the residence. Officers located the woman in the residence and discovered that she had been held in the home for the last five days. Critchfield took her cell phone in addition to hitting and choking her when she approached any door that exited the premises. He also repeatedly sexually abused her during the five days as well as threw the baby and didn’t feed the dog. Critchfield was immediately taken into custody by the police and charged with suspicion of aggravated kidnapping, forcible sodomy, aggravated assault, domestic violence in the presence of a child, damaging a communication device, child abuse and cruelty to animals. 

Critchfield had previously been convicted of felony assault on the same victim during 2010 as well as obstruction of justice charges. While the judge sentenced him to a five year prison term, that punishment was suspended for a 120-day jail term and three years probation. Facebook also played a role in the capture of a fugitive earlier this year as well as a standoff with a SWAT team in Utah

Topics
Mike Flacy
By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…
X rival Threads could be about to get millions of more users
Instagram Threads app.

Threads -- Meta’s rival to X, formerly Twitter -- has just launched in the European Union (EU), a market with nearly half a billion people.

The app launched in the U.S. to much fanfare in July, with Meta hoping to attract X users disillusioned with the turbulence on the platform since Elon Musk acquired it for $44 billion 14 months ago.

Read more
X (formerly Twitter) returns after global outage
A white X on a black background, which could be Twitter's new logo.

X, formerly known as Twitter, went down for about 90 minutes for users worldwide early on Thursday ET.

Anyone opening the social media app across all platforms was met with a blank timeline. On desktop, users saw a message that simply read, "Welcome to X," while on mobile the app showed suggestions for accounts to follow.

Read more
How to create multiple profiles on a Facebook account
A series of social media app icons on a colorful smartphone screen.

Facebook (and, by extension, Meta) are particular in the way that they allow users to create accounts and interact with their platform. Being the opposite of the typical anonymous service, Facebook sticks to the rule of one account per one person. However, Facebook allows its users to create multiple profiles that are all linked to one main Facebook account.

In much the same way as Japanese philosophy tells us we have three faces — one to show the world, one to show family, and one to show no one but ourselves — these profiles allow us to put a different 'face' out to different aspects or hobbies. One profile can keep tabs on your friends, while another goes hardcore into networking and selling tech on Facebook Marketplace.

Read more