6 bizarre and stupid crimes with ties to Facebook

This week, a 21-year-old Canadian woman was convicted of strangling a friend to death in 2015. The pivotal (and most incriminating) clue to her crime: The convicted woman was seen wearing the murder weapon in a Facebook selfie that she posted on the same day as the murder.

Cheyenne Rose Antoine pleaded guilty to the murder on Monday. Her victim, 18-year-old Brittney Gargol, had been strangled on the side of a road in Saskatoon, Saskachewan, according to CBC Saskatoon. Near the body was a black belt that Antoine wore in a selfie she had posted on Facebook, six hours earlier.

Antoine also used Facebook later that night to try to cover up the crime, by sending messages to the victim’s account.

“Where are you?” she wrote. “Haven’t heard from you. Hope you made it home safe.”

COLUMN:What's next for Chris Christie? Radio? Reality TV? Pizza?

BACKLASH:H&M receives backlash for black model wearing 'coolest monkey in the jungle' hoodie

WE'RE EXHAUSTED:Stress and social media are taking their toll

Antoine, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for the killing, blamed drug and alcohol use for the crime, in a statement released through her legal representative. And, yes, her Facebook account was suspended.

Through the years, Facebook has played a role in several bizarre legal cases, including mass shootings.
 
Among the oddest cases:

Looking for a hit man

 A 19-year-old West Chester, Pennsylvania man was arrested in 2010 after posting on Facebook that he wanted to hire a hit man to kill a woman who had accused him of rape.

 The post caught the attention of detectives and the poster, Corey Christian Adams, was eventually sentenced to 11-22 years in prison, charged with rape, criminal solicitation of murder and unlawful restraint.

One really stupid burglar

In 2009, Jonathan G. Parker was captured by police and charged with a home break-in that occurred in Rome, Italy. Evidence that led authorities to Parker: During the burglary, he logged into the victim’s computer to check his Facebook page and neglected to log off.

(OK, that’s pretty dumb.)

Fled prison and opened an account?

Also in 2009: Convicted thief Craig Lynch escaped from Hollesey Bay Prison in the UK and bragged about the feat on a public Facebook page, which eventually brought him 40,000 followers. He posted photos of himself and bragged about what he was doing. (He even posted a photo of a woman he had begun dating.) But January 2010, he was back in the pokey.

An exotic meal, with repercussions

In 2009, Vanessa Star Palm of Illinois and Alexander Daniel Rust of Indiana were arrested and sent to jail after posting photos of themselves catching and then eating an (endangered) iguana while vacationing in the Bahamas.

The couple apparently grilled the iguana and police were soon grilling them.

Friend request led to jail

In 2007, Dylan Osborn of Buckinghamshire, England was arrested and sentenced to 10 days in jail for sending a Facebook friend request to his wife.

Problem: The couple had separated and Osborn had been ordered by the courts not to have any contact with his estranged spouse. Osborn claimed he didn’t intentionally send the request. Rather, he  blamed the social media site for contacting her when he gave the site permission to send requests to everyone on his email list.

Osborn further noted that while he knew his wife was on his email list, he didn’t realize she had a Facebook account.

He went to jail, anyway.