December 20, 2019 • 10 mins
In some ways Sharon Lopatka was an extremely ordinary woman. Classmates would later describe her as “as normal as you can get”. At age 30, in 1991, she married a construction worker named Victor. Sharon was interested in the internet early, and made her living with various businesses online. She created websites for selling home decor booklets, writing ad copy, and several websites devoted to psychic readings.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Go up that freak kind and bitethe ground, you know, to make
us rip our things with night.I sup the Mama's Fretualcy Internet Show.
(00:28):
Hey, everybody, welcome back toInternet Freak Show. So the Internet is
great, right, I think wecan all agree with that. It is
great for building communities around common interests. That's like the whole basic point of
social media. Right. In Facebook, you can join groups for TV shows
you like, or hobbies you mayhave, or the neighborhood you live in.
(00:49):
On Twitter, you can follow brandsyou enjoy or celebrities that you like.
Meetup dot com is a great wayto physically meet other members in your
nearby community to share hobby or abeer with. But what about these people
who share interests that are a littleless traditional. So back in the early
days of the Internet nineteen ninety sixto be exact, long before the social
(01:11):
media sites that we mentioned before,people found other members of their communities in
dedicated forum sites, chat rooms,and email. And that is the era
in which we find Shannon Lapotka.In some ways, she was an extremely
ordinary woman. Classmates would later describeher as quote normal as you can get.
(01:34):
At age thirty in nineteen ninety one, she married a construction worker named
Victor. Sharon was interested in theInternet very early in her life, and
she made her living with various onlinebusinesses. She created websites that sold home
decore booklets, and she wrote adcopy. She made several websites devoted to
psychic readings. A few hundred milesaway from Sharon, there lived a man
(01:59):
named Bobby Glass. Like Sharon,Bobby was a pretty normal guy. In
nineteen ninety six, he had beenmarried to his wife, Sherry for fourteen
years. They had three kids,two girls and a boy. He worked
as a computer analyst, so likeSharon, he had interest in technology and
the Internet. Both Sharon and Bobbyshared other interests as well, including hiding
(02:23):
their private lives on the Internet,as well as morbid sexual desires. In
addition to her more typical online businesses, Sharon also marketed pornographic content under various
pseudonyms, showing women that had beendrugged, bound and gagged. She sold
(02:43):
her used panties online. She participatedin chat rooms exploring fetishes like necrophilia,
bondage, sado masochism, and more. And that is the world in which
she met Bobby, who was alsointerested in these topics. By this point,
Bobby's marriage had started to collapse becausehe was spending way too much time
(03:04):
chatting online and emailing, and notenough time devoted to his wife and children.
Suspicious of Bobby's behaviors, his wifelogged into his computer only to find
these quote raw, violent and disturbingmessages. Fearing the safety of herself and
her children, she left Bobby inMay of nineteen ninety six, and this
(03:25):
left Bobby pretty unencumbered and able tochat as much as he wanted with whoever
he wanted to chat with. Thatis when he met Shannon in a pornographic
chat room, but they carried theirrelationship over to email. Over the next
few months, they exchanged many emails, many, many many emails, over
(03:46):
nine hundred pages of them, infact, were recovered. In the course
of these messages, Sharon relayed herdesire to be tortured to Bobby, and
Bobby was a perfect fit, offeringto fulfill these fantasies for her. Just
two months later, Sharon, nowthirty five, set in motion her plan
for both Bobby and herself to fulfilltheir own fetishes of torture and murder.
(04:10):
Sharon left a note for her husbandand told him that she would not be
returning home, ending the note withquote, if my body is never retrieved,
don't worry. I'm at peace endquote. This was not a short
journey for Sharon. She was intenton making this happen. She took an
Amtrak from Baltimore to North Carolina,only to be picked up by Bobby and
(04:32):
driven another ninety minutes to his home. There was plenty of time here for
changing her mind or getting cold feetand backing out, but Sharon didn't seem
to show any signs of hesitation atall. It didn't take too long for
Sharon's husband to alert police as toher missing status and the strange note that
she had left behind. The policequickly read her email and had a pretty
(04:54):
good guess as to where she endedup. The police staked out Bobby's house
for several days, but never sawSharon. It took a court ordered search
warrant to get police into that houseto look for her, and although they
did not find her in the house, they did find many of her belongings.
In addition, they found drugs,bondage equipment, a three fifty seven
(05:15):
magnum and child pornography magazines, andfinally, less than one hundred feet from
Bobby's house, police found the remainsof Sharon buried in a shallow grave.
The cause of death was pretty obvious. She had been strangled with a rope.
Motivation here was also pretty obvious.For both Bobby and Sharon. They
(05:35):
were fulfilling strange sexual fetishes. InSharon's case, it was her final indulgence.
Bobby admitted to killing Sharon and fantasizingabout the torture and murder, but
also he claimed that her death wasan accident. Sure, he was trying
to torture her, but he justtook it too far. He says,
quote I never wanted to kill her, but she ended up dead end quote.
(06:00):
The emails, however, tell adifferent story. He outright promised to
kill her, and she was excitedabout the prospect of that. Bobby ultimately
pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter as wellas another sentence for minor exploitation to cover
the child pornography that they found onhis property. For his crimes, Bobby
was sentenced to a meager thirty sixto fifty three months for Sharon's murder,
(06:24):
and another twenty seven months for thechild porn to be served consecutively. For
those of you that think this sentenceisn't quite long enough to cover the terrible
nature of the murder and the childporn, first of all, I agree
with you, But second of all, please take some solace in the fact
that Bobby died in prison of aheart attack before he was ever freed.
This was one of the very firstcases of police using emails and internet chats
(06:46):
to follow up on a case andfind their perpetrator. These days, of
course, it's a lot more common. Most missing people have their phones tracked
and social media investigated for clues,But in nineteen ninety six, these were
still emerging technologies that most people didnot use. And this isn't the first
case of people meeting online that resultsin a murder. That honor belongs to
(07:09):
Chip Heminway and Jesse Unger, whomet in an Aol chat room. When
they met in real life, Chipmurdered Jesse in this case, however,
there is no reason to believe thatJesse wanted to be murdered. Instead,
Jesse apparently bragged about molesting young children, which enraged Chip, who shot and
killed Jesse. In this case,Chip was sentenced to thirty years. But
(07:32):
in cases where a person is insearch of their murderer on the Internet,
it seems that Sharon and Bobby weretrailblazers. There's another notable murder in two
thousand and one in Germany where avictim and his murderer fantasized about their fetish
for murder and cannibalism and ultimately metup. I don't want to get too
graphic and gory on this podcast,but the victim was ultimately murdered and eaton
(07:56):
over the course of ten months.This case turned into quite the media when
it occurred, and you still seereferences to it in movies and TV shows
and songs. For the conclusion ofthis story, please stay tuned after these
words from our sponsors. These murdersspawn many questions about the Internet, meeting
strangers online, and of course censorship. While the Internet can be used for
(08:18):
great things, meeting friends and buildingbusinesses and getting involved with hobbies, it
also clearly has a dark side,and in the case of these porn fetish
sites and cannibalism sites, should wecensor users from exploring their unique interests.
Obviously, I believe that if peopleare actively trying to participate in torture,
(08:39):
murder, and cannibalism. They've gonetoo far, But what about just posting
these topics and chat rooms, roleplaying and fantasizing. Is that going too
far? Your answer to these questionsprobably rely on many factors. Your political
leanings, your religion, your personalinterests and fetishes. I think we can
(09:01):
all agree, though, that theInternet and the free speech that it affords
us can be used for good aswell as bad. While most Internet Freak
shows focus on the bad side ofthe Internet, we also need to keep
in mind of the positive connections thatwe can make anonymously and otherwise. If
you have any feedback, please leavean iTunes review or reach out to me
a via Twitter. I am atTim Watson, Tim Wasso n Thank you
(09:26):
for listening to this episode of InternetFreak Show. For more awesome podcasts,
or if you want to start yourown podcast, check out geek Nersery Podcasting
network at geeknrdery dot com. There'spodcasts on reality shows, horror movies,
bowling, and more. This isthe end of season two, but I
promise that I will I will beback for season three and you won't need
(09:48):
to wait two years to hear it. If you want to encourage me to
get to work a little sooner,please hit me up on the aforementioned Twitter
or leave those it in interviews thatreally does help. Thank you for listening
to Internet Freak Show. Until nexttime, Steve Free be lurder me
Go up that freak kind and bitethe ground, you know, to make
us rip our things with night.I sup the Mama's Fretualcy Internet Show.
(00:28):
Hey, everybody, welcome back toInternet Freak Show. So the Internet is
great, right, I think wecan all agree with that. It is
great for building communities around common interests. That's like the whole basic point of
social media. Right. In Facebook, you can join groups for TV shows
you like, or hobbies you mayhave, or the neighborhood you live in.
(00:49):
On Twitter, you can follow brandsyou enjoy or celebrities that you like.
Meetup dot com is a great wayto physically meet other members in your
nearby community to share hobby or abeer with. But what about these people
who share interests that are a littleless traditional. So back in the early
days of the Internet nineteen ninety sixto be exact, long before the social
(01:11):
media sites that we mentioned before,people found other members of their communities in
dedicated forum sites, chat rooms,and email. And that is the era
in which we find Shannon Lapotka.In some ways, she was an extremely
ordinary woman. Classmates would later describeher as quote normal as you can get.
(01:34):
At age thirty in nineteen ninety one, she married a construction worker named
Victor. Sharon was interested in theInternet very early in her life, and
she made her living with various onlinebusinesses. She created websites that sold home
decore booklets, and she wrote adcopy. She made several websites devoted to
psychic readings. A few hundred milesaway from Sharon, there lived a man
(01:59):
named Bobby Glass. Like Sharon,Bobby was a pretty normal guy. In
nineteen ninety six, he had beenmarried to his wife, Sherry for fourteen
years. They had three kids,two girls and a boy. He worked
as a computer analyst, so likeSharon, he had interest in technology and
the Internet. Both Sharon and Bobbyshared other interests as well, including hiding
(02:23):
their private lives on the Internet,as well as morbid sexual desires. In
addition to her more typical online businesses, Sharon also marketed pornographic content under various
pseudonyms, showing women that had beendrugged, bound and gagged. She sold
(02:43):
her used panties online. She participatedin chat rooms exploring fetishes like necrophilia,
bondage, sado masochism, and more. And that is the world in which
she met Bobby, who was alsointerested in these topics. By this point,
Bobby's marriage had started to collapse becausehe was spending way too much time
(03:04):
chatting online and emailing, and notenough time devoted to his wife and children.
Suspicious of Bobby's behaviors, his wifelogged into his computer only to find
these quote raw, violent and disturbingmessages. Fearing the safety of herself and
her children, she left Bobby inMay of nineteen ninety six, and this
(03:25):
left Bobby pretty unencumbered and able tochat as much as he wanted with whoever
he wanted to chat with. Thatis when he met Shannon in a pornographic
chat room, but they carried theirrelationship over to email. Over the next
few months, they exchanged many emails, many, many many emails, over
(03:46):
nine hundred pages of them, infact, were recovered. In the course
of these messages, Sharon relayed herdesire to be tortured to Bobby, and
Bobby was a perfect fit, offeringto fulfill these fantasies for her. Just
two months later, Sharon, nowthirty five, set in motion her plan
for both Bobby and herself to fulfilltheir own fetishes of torture and murder.
(04:10):
Sharon left a note for her husbandand told him that she would not be
returning home, ending the note withquote, if my body is never retrieved,
don't worry. I'm at peace endquote. This was not a short
journey for Sharon. She was intenton making this happen. She took an
Amtrak from Baltimore to North Carolina,only to be picked up by Bobby and
(04:32):
driven another ninety minutes to his home. There was plenty of time here for
changing her mind or getting cold feetand backing out, but Sharon didn't seem
to show any signs of hesitation atall. It didn't take too long for
Sharon's husband to alert police as toher missing status and the strange note that
she had left behind. The policequickly read her email and had a pretty
(04:54):
good guess as to where she endedup. The police staked out Bobby's house
for several days, but never sawSharon. It took a court ordered search
warrant to get police into that houseto look for her, and although they
did not find her in the house, they did find many of her belongings.
In addition, they found drugs,bondage equipment, a three fifty seven
(05:15):
magnum and child pornography magazines, andfinally, less than one hundred feet from
Bobby's house, police found the remainsof Sharon buried in a shallow grave.
The cause of death was pretty obvious. She had been strangled with a rope.
Motivation here was also pretty obvious.For both Bobby and Sharon. They
(05:35):
were fulfilling strange sexual fetishes. InSharon's case, it was her final indulgence.
Bobby admitted to killing Sharon and fantasizingabout the torture and murder, but
also he claimed that her death wasan accident. Sure, he was trying
to torture her, but he justtook it too far. He says,
quote I never wanted to kill her, but she ended up dead end quote.
(06:00):
The emails, however, tell adifferent story. He outright promised to
kill her, and she was excitedabout the prospect of that. Bobby ultimately
pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter as wellas another sentence for minor exploitation to cover
the child pornography that they found onhis property. For his crimes, Bobby
was sentenced to a meager thirty sixto fifty three months for Sharon's murder,
(06:24):
and another twenty seven months for thechild porn to be served consecutively. For
those of you that think this sentenceisn't quite long enough to cover the terrible
nature of the murder and the childporn, first of all, I agree
with you, But second of all, please take some solace in the fact
that Bobby died in prison of aheart attack before he was ever freed.
This was one of the very firstcases of police using emails and internet chats
(06:46):
to follow up on a case andfind their perpetrator. These days, of
course, it's a lot more common. Most missing people have their phones tracked
and social media investigated for clues,But in nineteen ninety six, these were
still emerging technologies that most people didnot use. And this isn't the first
case of people meeting online that resultsin a murder. That honor belongs to
(07:09):
Chip Heminway and Jesse Unger, whomet in an Aol chat room. When
they met in real life, Chipmurdered Jesse in this case, however,
there is no reason to believe thatJesse wanted to be murdered. Instead,
Jesse apparently bragged about molesting young children, which enraged Chip, who shot and
killed Jesse. In this case,Chip was sentenced to thirty years. But
(07:32):
in cases where a person is insearch of their murderer on the Internet,
it seems that Sharon and Bobby weretrailblazers. There's another notable murder in two
thousand and one in Germany where avictim and his murderer fantasized about their fetish
for murder and cannibalism and ultimately metup. I don't want to get too
graphic and gory on this podcast,but the victim was ultimately murdered and eaton
(07:56):
over the course of ten months.This case turned into quite the media when
it occurred, and you still seereferences to it in movies and TV shows
and songs. For the conclusion ofthis story, please stay tuned after these
words from our sponsors. These murdersspawn many questions about the Internet, meeting
strangers online, and of course censorship. While the Internet can be used for
(08:18):
great things, meeting friends and buildingbusinesses and getting involved with hobbies, it
also clearly has a dark side,and in the case of these porn fetish
sites and cannibalism sites, should wecensor users from exploring their unique interests.
Obviously, I believe that if peopleare actively trying to participate in torture,
(08:39):
murder, and cannibalism. They've gonetoo far, But what about just posting
these topics and chat rooms, roleplaying and fantasizing. Is that going too
far? Your answer to these questionsprobably rely on many factors. Your political
leanings, your religion, your personalinterests and fetishes. I think we can
(09:01):
all agree, though, that theInternet and the free speech that it affords
us can be used for good aswell as bad. While most Internet Freak
shows focus on the bad side ofthe Internet, we also need to keep
in mind of the positive connections thatwe can make anonymously and otherwise. If
you have any feedback, please leavean iTunes review or reach out to me
a via Twitter. I am atTim Watson, Tim Wasso n Thank you
(09:26):
for listening to this episode of InternetFreak Show. For more awesome podcasts,
or if you want to start yourown podcast, check out geek Nersery Podcasting
network at geeknrdery dot com. There'spodcasts on reality shows, horror movies,
bowling, and more. This isthe end of season two, but I
promise that I will I will beback for season three and you won't need
(09:48):
to wait two years to hear it. If you want to encourage me to
get to work a little sooner,please hit me up on the aforementioned Twitter
or leave those it in interviews thatreally does help. Thank you for listening
to Internet Freak Show. Until nexttime, Steve Free be lurder me
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