Suspected Craigslist Toll Now at 3 Dead, 1 Wounded
Giorgio Fochesato/Vetta/Getty Images(AKRON, Ohio) -- The discovery of two new bodies in shallow graves could bring to three the death toll from a Craigslist ad that police say lured victims into a lethal robbery scheme in Ohio.
Police are trying Saturday to identify the two new victims.
A caller's tip on Friday morning led police to a body buried in a shallow grave behind Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio. The body might be that of Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, a missing man who answered the Craigslist ad. Kern has not been seen in over a week, according to FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson.
"Do we think it might be [Kern]? Maybe," Anderson said. "He's missing. We haven't been able to find him. It could possibly be, but we just don't know that yet."
Hours later and 90 miles away in Noble County, police discovered another shallow grave containg the remains of a white man. The body did not have any identification on him.
An online posting advertising a job working on an Ohio cattle farm is being eyed as a common link in the deaths. The ad has already been implicated in the death of one man and the injury of another.
Both of the first two victims, one of whom is from Florida and the other, South Carolina, had responded to the ad. They were told to bring all of their belongings, as they would be living on the farm.
The man from South Carolina was shot in the arm but managed to escape and inform authorities.
As police investigated the shooting, they found the body of 51-year-old David Pauley of Florida in a shallow grave outside Caldwell, Ohio, about 80 miles east of Columbus.
Authorities believe robbery was the motive, and on Nov.16 took two suspects into custody: a 16-year old high school student identified by ABC News' Columbus affiliate WSYX as Brogan Rafferty, and 52-year-old Richard Beasley.
Craigslist, an online marketplace that hosts ads for a wide variety of sales and services, has been blamed for a number of crimes and deaths, including the 2009 murder of a New York masseuse allegedly killed by a Boston medical student she met through the website, and the 2010 murder of a Tacoma, Wash., man in a home robbery committed by people pretending to be interested in a diamond ring he'd advertised on Craigslist.
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