July 20, 2026
Terrifying & True | The Murder of Brian Barrett: TalHotBlond and the Internet Love Triangle Murder
Key Takeaways
- The TalHotBlond murder case serves as a chilling reminder of the dangers inherent in early internet chatrooms where anonymity allowed predators to construct elaborate, fake identities.
- Brian Barrett, a promising college student and athlete, was tragically killed due to the obsessive, jealous, and delusional reactions of a coworker, Thomas Montgomery.
- The case involved two adults—Thomas Montgomery and Mary Shieler—who both created fake online personas to escape their real lives, with devastating real-world consequences.
- This investigation highlights how quickly digital deception and online rivalry can escalate into physical violence when boundaries between fantasy and reality become blurred.
- The murder of Brian Barrett demonstrates that the most dangerous lies are not just those typed on a screen, but the ones that individuals decide to defend with lethal force.
The murder of Brian Barrett became one of the most disturbing true crime cases of the early internet age: a deadly online love triangle built on catfishing, fake identities, chatroom deception, jealousy, and obsession.
In 2006, 22-year-old Brian Barrett was shot and killed outside Dynabrade Corporation in Clarence, New York, near Buffalo. At first, the murder seemed almost motiveless. Brian was a college student, athlete, Little League coach, and future teacher with no obvious enemies. But investigators soon uncovered a digital trail involving Pogo chatrooms, Yahoo instant messages, online romance, and a username that would become infamous: TalHotBlond.
This episode of Terrifying & True investigates the real story behind the Brian Barrett murder, the TalHotBlond case, and the online deception that led to violence. Thomas Montgomery, a 46-year-old married father, had been posing online as an 18-year-old Marine sniper named Tommy. Mary Shieler, a 45-year-old mother in West Virginia, was posing as her own teenage daughter, using the girl’s photos and voice to maintain the fantasy. Brian Barrett entered the situation as himself — a real 22-year-old man caught between two adults hiding behind fake ide
As the lies unraveled, Montgomery became consumed by jealousy, humiliation, and obsession. The online rivalry moved from Pogo games and instant messages into the workplace, where Brian and Thomas both worked. Then, on September 15, 2006, Brian walked to his pickup truck after his shift and was ambushed with a .30-caliber rifle.
We examine the evidence against Thomas Montgomery, the DNA on the peach pit, the missing rifle, the chat logs, the TalHotBlond deception, Mary Shieler’s role, and why the case became known as the internet love triangle murder. But at the center of the story is not a screen name, a scandal, or a twist. It is Brian Barrett — a son, brother, friend, coach, student, and future teacher whose life was stolen by obsession.
We’re telling that story tonight.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the TalHotBlond murder case?
The TalHotBlond murder refers to the 2006 killing of 22-year-old Brian Barrett, who was ambushed and shot by his coworker, Thomas Montgomery, following an online love triangle involving false identities.
Who was behind the TalHotBlond screen name?
The screen name TalHotBlond was used by Mary Shieler, a 45-year-old mother in West Virginia who was posing as her own teenage daughter to maintain an online fantasy.
Why did Thomas Montgomery kill Brian Barrett?
Montgomery, who was posing online as a young Marine, grew consumed by jealousy and humiliation after Brian, who also chatted with 'TalHotBlond,' exposed his true identity and mocked him.
How did investigators solve the murder of Brian Barrett?
Detectives uncovered a massive digital trail of chat logs, instant messages, and fake accounts that connected the workplace rivalry between Brian and Montgomery to the online deception.
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In two thousand and six, Brian Barrett was shot outside
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his workplace in Clarence, New York. The motive wasn't robbery, revenge,
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or a random attack. It was an online fantasy involving
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fake identities, catfishing, jealousy, and two adults pretending to be teenagers. Tonight,
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we explore the love triangle that led to murder.
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What you were about to be is burd to be
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based on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record. This is terrifying.
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And a young man clocks out after a long shift.
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He's twenty two years old, a college student, a coach,
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a future teacher. He walks into the dark parking lot,
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opens the door of his pickup truck, and sits down
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behind the wheel. Then three shots tear through the driver's
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side window. At first, the murder of Brian Barrett seems
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almost impossible to explain. There's no robbery, no obvious enemy,
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no ordinary motive waiting in his past. But investigators begin
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reading the messages, Hogo chat rooms, Yahoo instant messages, fake names,
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stolen photos, a supposed teenage girl who went by the handle, tall,
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hot blonde, a middle aged man pretending to be a
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young marine, a middle aged woman pretending to be her
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own daughter, and Brian Barrett, the only one in the
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triangle who was largely who he said he was. Tonight,
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we dive deep into the murder of Brian Barrett, the tall,
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hot blonde case, and the deadly online deception that turned
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a jealousy into an ambush. Because sometimes the most dangerous
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lie is not the one typed on a screen, It's
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the one someone decides to kill. Four But before we begin,
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make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcast app for
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a brand new, terrifying and true every Monday. Here at
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weekly Spooky Friday, September fifteenth, two thousand and six, the
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second shift is ending at Dina Braid Corporation in Clarence,
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New York, east of Buffalo. At ten sixteen pm, twenty
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two year old Brian Barrett punches out. He's spent most
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of the day moving between college classes and the factory
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job that helps him pay for them. Now, he walks
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into an isolated section of the employee parking lot, opens
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the door of his white pickup truck, and gets behind
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the wheel. Three shots tear through the driver's side window.
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Investigators will later identify the likely weapon as a thirty
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caliber carbine. The gunfire strikes Brian in the neck, jaw,
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and arm. He has no meaningful chance to escape. The
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attack suggests the shoe knew where his truck was parked,
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knew when his shift ended, and came close enough to
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make certain the ambush would be fatal. Then the shooter
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leaves Brian in the cab and disappears. Just before midnight,
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an instant message appears on the computer of a young
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woman in West Virginia. It comes from one of Brian's coworkers,
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a much older man named Thomas Montgomery. Quote you waiting
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for your BF. The boyfriend is Brian. By the time
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that message is sent, Brian can't answer any more. His
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body will remain in that truck until Sunday, when a
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coworker notices the vehicle still sitting in the lot. Detectives
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will find no robbery, no random quarrel, and no mystery
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enemy from Brian's past. Instead, they'll find online conversations, invented identities,
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a missing rifle, a peach pit carrying DNA, and a
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jealousy that had been typed out almost line by line
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before it became murder. The woman at the center of
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those conversations called herself Jesse. Brian believed she was an
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eighteen year old high school student. Thomas believed the same thing,
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but the girl in the photographs had never spoken to
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either man. Of the three people trapped in the online rivalry,
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Brian was the only one who hadn't concealed his face, age,
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or real life from the person he dated before his
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name became attached to Fray Like Internet love triangle and
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chat room murder. Brian Barrett was a son, a brother,
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a student, a friend, and a coach. He grew up
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in western New York, attended Star Point High School and
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stood out in baseball and soccer. The adults who coached
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and taught him remembered more than just athletic ability. They
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remembered his character. Tom Sarkovic's, Brian's former baseball coach and
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Star Points athletic director, described him in the simplest terms
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possible quote he was just a nice kid, a gentleman.
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That's important because the sensational version of this case often
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rushes past Brian to get to the twist. He was
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twenty two years old, studying at Buffalo State College to
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become an industrial arts teacher. The kind of teacher who
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could show students how to build, repair, solve problems, and
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take pride in work done with their own hands. Paying
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for that future required a punishing routine. Bryan's father later
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described weekdays that began around six thirty in the morning,
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ran through college classes until about three, then continued at
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Diner Brade until ten o'clock at night. The factory job
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was not his destination, it was how he was trying
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to reach one outside school and work. His life was
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ordinary in the best sense. He met friends for wings,
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beer and pool on Sundays. He volunteered as a little
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league coach, and also helped his father coach soccer. There
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is a temptation in true crime to polish every victim
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into perfection, as though a person must be flawless before
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their death can be treated as an outrage. Brian didn't
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need that. He joked, he flirted online, made immature choices,
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and sometimes underestimated danger. None of that diminishes what was
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stolen from him. If anything, it makes him recognizable a
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young man still learning, while already giving his time to
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children and working toward a life in the classroom. At
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Dina Braide, Brian was one of the younger employees. Thomas
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Montgomery had worked there for approximately twelve years. He was
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old enough to be Brian's father, but the two men
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were friendly enough to play poker together and cross paths
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in online games. In the factory. There was nothing remarkable
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about that connection. Online, Brian used the screen name Beefcake
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fifteen seventy two. It was playful, but the person behind
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it was largely who he said he was, a twenty
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two year old college student in western New York. He
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wasn't inventing a military career, borrowing another person's face, or
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pretending to be a teenager. Thomas Montgomery, on the other hand,
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was doing all three. By spring of two thousand and five,
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Thomas had created the screen name Marine Sniper. Behind it,
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he began erasing nearly three decades from his life and
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building an imaginary young man named Tommy, someone stronger, braver,
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more exciting, and more desirable than Thomas believed himself to be.
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Thomas was forty five years old, a former marine, a machinist,
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a husband of sixteen years, and the father of two daughters.
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He took his children to swim, practice, played cards with coworkers,
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walked the family dog, and went to the same factory
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he had worked at for more than a decade. Nothing
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about that life was imaginary, but Thomas appeared to experience
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it as confinement. On the gaming site Pogo, Marine Sniper
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could be someone else, Thomas used a photograph from marine
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boot camp taken roughly thirty years earlier, and presented it
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as current. He told other users he was an eighteen
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year old marine named Tommy, bound for a rack and
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trained as a sniper. Military records later obtained by ABC
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News showed that Thomas had served for six years and
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qualified as a sharpshooter, but had not tr raigned as
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a sniper and had not seen combat. The lie did
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not remain a false age attached to an old picture.
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Thomas built Tommy a history, a personality, a body, emotional wounds,
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military adventures, and a future. When maintaining the role became difficult,
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he invented another character, Tommy's father, Tom Senior. Thomas could
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then write as both the young marine and the older man,
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supposedly passing messages and packages to him. In May of
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two thousand five, Marine Sniper began corresponding with a user
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called Tall Hot Blonde. She presented herself as Jesse, a
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West Virginia high school student who was seventeen and approaching eighteen.
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Her photographs showed a smiling, athletic blonde. Her messages described softball, school,
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family frustrations, and the emotional turbulence of being a teenager.
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Thomas later said he initially justified the deception by telling
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himself they would never meet, but distance made the lie safe,
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and that safety allowed it to grow. Tommy and Jesse
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exchanged instant messages, telephone calls, gifts, letters, videos, and intimate photographs.
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Packages arrived at Thomas's real home carrying symbols meant for
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the imaginary marine. Each object moved the fantasy farther into
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the physical world, and each new piece of the relationship
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required Thomas to protect the identity he had made. In
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a recorded interview years later, he described the result with
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unusual clarity, quote, it became more real to me than
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real life. Thomas also compared the daily contact to a drug.
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That language didn't excuse him, but it revealed how completely
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he had surrendered responsibility for his choices. He repeatedly chose
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the fantasy, reinforced it, and punished anyone who threatened it
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by late two thousand and five, he was talking at
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work about leaving his family for Jesse. At home, he
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spent long hours at the computer and pushed away the
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people who actually knew him. On a pad at work,
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he wrote that on January second, two thousand and six,
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forty six year old Thomas Montgomery would cease to exist
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and be replaced by an eighteen year old battle scarred
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marine moving to West Virginia. The date came, nothing changed,
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his body, marriage, job, and obligations remained. The contradiction did
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not end the fantasy. It made him more desperate to
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defend it. His wife, Cindy, eventually found the gifts and
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messages being sent to the supposed young marine. She confronted Thomas,
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then made a decision that placed the truth directly in
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front of Jesse. Cindy wrote to her, enclosed a current
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family photograph and explained that Tommy did not exist. Tom
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Senior and Tommy were the same forty six year old
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married father. The bootcase MP photo was Thomas decades earlier. Then,
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Cindy offered seven words that should have stopped everything quote
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do not trust words on a computer. The person writing
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as Jesse claimed not to know whether to believer Thomas
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had layered the deception so deeply that even a photograph
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of his real family could be interpreted as another trick.
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To find out, she looked for someone Thomas had mentioned
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from work, a younger coworker who also played on Pogo.
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The username was Beefcake fifteen seventy two. The person behind
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it was Brian. When Jesse contacted Brian, she was looking
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for confirmation. Was Thomas Montgomery truly a middle aged married man?
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Was Tommy entirely invented? Brian knew the answer. He confirmed
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that Cindy's photograph was real and that Thomas was the
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man behind both entities. For Jesse, at least as she
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presented herself, it was devastating. Brian became the person who
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could verify reality, explain Thomas's life at the factory, and
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listen while she reacted to the betrayal. They began playing
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lotso together in a Pogo room called Princess Priceless. They
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moved to Yahoo instant messages. The conversations became friendly, then flirtatious,
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then openly romantic and sexual. Brian believed he was speaking
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to an eighteen year old. He talked about meeting her,
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She delayed or discouraged an actual visit while continuing to
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send messages and photos that made the relationship feel immediate.
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For Thomas, Brian's involvement was not merely romantic competition. Brian
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knew who he really was. Worse, Brian was physically present
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in the part of Thomas's life the fantasy had been
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designed to escape. The conflict spilled into public game rooms
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and the factory. Brian and Jesse mocked Thomas online and
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called him a predator for posing as a teenager while
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pursuing someone he believed was a high school student. Jesse
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shared passwords with Brian, and he sometimes entered her accounts
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and spoke to Thomas while pretending to be her. At work,
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Brian boasted about the relationship, according to a recovered exchange.
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He also left printed copies of conversations on Thomas's toolbox.
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Those actions were humiliating and reckless. They were also the
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actions of a twenty two year old confronting a forty
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six year old coworker who had constructed a fake teenager
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to pursue a supposed high school student. Brian may have
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believed he was exposing a liar who deserved ridicule. He
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couldn't have known that Thomas was converting embarrassment into homicidal grievance.
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The distinction must remain clear. Mockery can be cruel, but
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it is not consent to be stalked, ambushed, or killed.
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Brian did not cause Thomas to choose a rifle. That
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decision was Thomas's alone. The messages show Thomas experiencing the
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exposure as the destruction of both identities he had been living.
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He complained that coworkers saw him as a loser and
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a predator. He threatened to make himself and Tommy disappear.
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He blamed Jesse for replacing the fictional young marine with
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the real young man who worked beside him quote half
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the company knows now, but the person writing as Jesse
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did not make a clean break. She told Thomas she
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still ached for Tommy. She promised to stop speaking to Brian,
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then continued. At other moments, she told Thomas the relationship
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with Brian had begun as revenge. She alternated reassurance, rejection, affection,
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and silence while hiding the most fundamental fact of all.
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She was not the teenage in the photographs. By the
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summer of two thousand and six, Thomas was sleeping little
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and exercising intensely. He told Jesse he was training for
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war at Dinah Braid. His vague threats made at least
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one coworker feel uneasy enough to wear a bulletproof vest
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as a grim joke. In one message, he warned that
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if he discovered more lies, she would lose something close
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to her. The target didn't need to be named. Brian
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was the person Thomas saw at work. Brian was the
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person whose messages could be placed on his toolbox. Brian
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was the person who had replaced Tommy without having to
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invent youth, strength or a future, and Brian's work schedule
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was predictables. Before the killing, a coworker would later tell detectives,
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Thomas stood near the time clock and asked exactly when
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Brian finished his shift. The same coworker recalled Thomas making
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a chilling comment if he ever killed someone, he would
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not be stupid enough to leave shell casings behind. At
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the time, the remarks passed without intervention. After September fifteen,
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they would sound like a rehearsal. The final escalation unfolded
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in messages investigators would later read in sequence in the
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early hours of September thirteen, two thousand and six, Thomas
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