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| OST Collective via Flickr CC |
While social media
has enriched lives and helped to launch revolutions, it can also be a platform
for twisted minds to show us the ugly side of the human psyche. When Miami resident DerekMedina posted a photo of his dead wife, admitting he murdered her and was
probably going to jail, it became a gruesome and extreme example of what people
are willing to share. Seemingly
obsessed, Medina made frequent posts on the social media, uploaded videos to
YouTube and wrote a handful of ebooks on sale at Barnesandnoble.com.
Derek Medina was in
a dramatic relationship with his wife, Jennifer Alfonso, after divorcing and
remarrying her once, friends said they often fought and threatened to leave
each other. Alfonso was shot several
times on Thursday, August 8th, after Medina says that she was
punching and kicking him in a fight.
Medina turned himself in to the Miami Police Department several hours
later, but not before taking a photo of her bloody body and sharing it to his
Facebook page, with a note saying he was “going to jail or death sentence for
killing my wife… Facebook people you’ll see me in the news.”
Two days earlier
Derek Medina had posted a video of him aggressively working a punching bag at a
gym before he was charged with his wife’s murder. It was the 143rd upload to his
YouTube account. Medina is also the
author of books with titles such as “How I Saved Someone’s Life and Marriage
and Family Problems Thru Communication.”
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| Covers of Derek Medina self published books |
Miami Police charged
Medina with murder and searched his home on Thursday, documenting the crime
scene. Alfonso’s ten year old daughter
was still inside the house. The post of
Alfonso’s body was shared over 100 times before Derek Medina’s profile was
reported and removed by Facebook employees.
The note left by Derek Medina in the photo brings the question, “did
Facebook attention lead to the murder of Jennifer Alfonso?”
There is a point
where social media can be too obsessive.
This gruesome murder is a reminder that too much attention to violent
murderers can often encourage it.
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