As much as great stories of victims and their families finding closure through the indictment of their cyberbullies exist, the case of a 16-year-old Breanna Marie Wood highlight the other side of criminal investigations into cyberbullying.
The Alamance Sheriff’s Office stated recently that the teen, from Elon, North Carolina, faked social media accounts to appear like she was receiving threats from another person.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, officers launched a cyberbullying investigation on May 13, after Ms. Wood communicated to her School Resource Officer at Western Alamance High School that she was being cyberbullied. The online posts on two social media sites alleged improper conduct by the victim, and made derogatory remarks and threats of physical violence.
Through additional investigation and search warrants by the Sheriff’s Office’s Computer Crimes and Forensics Investigations Unit, officers concluded that it was the teenager who created social media accounts to fake the cyberbullying, and used an application to “spoof” her telephone number to give appearance that she was receiving death threats through text messages.
She was charged with filing a false police report, and was placed under a $500 unsecured bond.
