Sharon Lopatka
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Sharon Rina Lopatka (September 20, 1961 – October 16, 1996) was a female Internet entrepreneur in Hampstead, Maryland, United States who was killed in a case of apparent consensual homicide. She was tortured and strangled to death in October, 1996, for the purpose of mutual sexual gratification by Robert Frederick Glass, a computer analyst from North Carolina. The case became the earliest, widely publicized example of a consensual homicide mediated through the use of the Internet.
[edit] The murder
Using the Internet, where she also advertised pornography related to unusual sexual fetishes, Lopatka searched for a man who would torture and kill her. After contacting several people who turned out not to be serious, she finally found someone willing to fulfill her request. Glass and Lopatka exchanged many e-mails until they met in North Carolina, where Glass strangled Lopatka using a nylon cord after torturing her for several days. Glass was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the act. He was also found to be in possession of child pornography.
The case shows some similarities to the Internet-mediated cannibalistic killing of Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes by Armin Meiwes in March 2001.
