As you all know you can find just about anything on craigslist. Hacked iPhones, stolen stereos, a human being. Wait, what?
That’s what 35-year-old Willie Donaldson of Arlington, VA got. He responded to the ad of 32-year-old Matthew Hicks of Sterling, VA. Donaldson hired Hicks and his girlfriend but it was unknown for what but not surprisingly Hicks’ ad was in the erotic services section of craigslist.
At sometime during the night Hicks and Donaldson got into some kind of argument. Shortly before 4am the ex-marine Donaldson put an end to the argument by allegedly shooting and killing Hicks. Donaldson then called the police and when they arrived at the scene Donaldson turned himself in quietly.
According to the article, Donaldson looked brutal in his mugshot sporting some blood, a black eye, and a sling. So technically Donaldson could have acted in self-defense. That remains to be seen.
What you won’t hear the media say is that this is the third murder that was somehow connected to craigslist. The first was Katherine Ann Olson of Minneapolis who was shot and killed when she responded to a fake employment add. The second was Charles Parrish Murphy of Fresno, California. He was found dead after he went to meet someone he was selling a car to on craigslist. That doesn’t even count 19-year-old Donna Jou who disappeared after having a date with a sex offender that she met through craigslist.
This highlights a big problem with craigslist and its erotic services section. Even after its much-lauded new security measures, it seems that the erotic services section of craigslist is still alive and thriving. If you haven’t figured it out by now I would say that 99% of all erotic services ads are not so thinly veiled ads for prostitution. And prostitution is not a victimless crime as so many would have you believe. Even if prostitution was legal you’d still have the problems of drugs and violence that are associated with it now.
Even though craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said that any amount of crime on craigslist is unacceptable he still allows the largest source of crime on its site to continue.