Domestic Violence Awareness Month and following yesterday’s sentencing of a Blair County man for the murder of his wife, a group today hosted a webinar on cyber abuse. Douglas Braff watched the webinar and brings us those details.
Today in Hollidaysburg, the FSI Victim Services program hosted a luncheon, learn with a panel of speakers talking about domestic abuse in the digital age.
Elaina Roberts, a technology safety manager from the national network to end domestic violence, walked folks through all shapes and forms, abuse takes and how different technologies play a role. At one point, Roberts talked about
abusers impersonating survivors as a tactic.
The reality is, survivors are using it. Offenders are using it. And so it’s really critical that we stay on top of the evolution of technology because it does evolve and it’s moving at a really rapid pace.
This comes a day after a man from Blair County, Michael Copley, was sentenced for the 2015 murder of his wife.
Kathryn Roberts highlighted the recent fast developments with technology. So a lot of times is trying to either alienate the survivor and get them to isolate them and get them away from their support system, or they’re impersonating them so that charges are dropped or is spreading other false information about the survivor.
While both survivors and offenders use technology, so can police with finding offenders and their crimes. On Thursday, Copley was sentenced for murdering his wife, according to Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks.
Copley lied to police about his alibi and his wife’s with phones.
One of the most damaging things he did in the investigation was he reported her missing and he had a story and he had text messages to back it up from her phone to him telling him where she was going.
And he presented the police with the story that she was missing. Within two hours, when he said she was missing, Copley, whom Weeks described as having a history of abusing significant others, didn’t get away from his crimes, however.
In fact, Michael Copley used technology these cell phones to pretend his wife was alive, to pretend his wife was talking to him and other people. But we were able to use technology in that case to prove that he was nowhere near where he said he was.
And in fact, he was right where his wife was. And that’s not the only routine behavior Copley displayed that tipped off police. one of the wonderful things this gentleman did is he was so brazen.
He started walking around before her body was found tearing these posters and it off of the telephone poles and thrown them away.
He did it so many times that he was caught by his wife’s family members and was subsequently arrested. Copley’s story is an example of just how about abusers can truly be and why precautions, especially with technology, are necessary.
Reporting from Centre County on Douglas Braff.
