Killers fishing online for pen pals
|
Looking for a pen pal?
David Anderson might be just the guy. Or maybe Steven Sherer.
That is, of course, if you don't mind that Sherer is locked in prison near Walla Walla for the next 60 years for killing his wife, whose body has never been found.
Or that Anderson is there, too, doing life without hope of release for helping pummel and strangle his former girlfriend and kill her younger sister and parents in the worst mass murder the Eastside has known.
"If you're willing to take a chance and look past the charge I'm being held for, which I did not do, then write me and let's see where this goes," Sherer writes in his Internet ad on www.prisonpenpals.com. "My main goal for doing this is to meet a companion or a very close friend."
"I miss talking with women," Anderson says in his ad on the same site. "I miss seeing them smile. I miss smelling perfume. I miss everything about them."
Anderson and Sherer each paid $80 for ads on the ever-growing site, which features hundreds of postings from prisoners all over the country, with photos, mailing addresses and lengthy essays.
They aren't the first high-profile killers to cast for pen pals on the site, and they won't be the last. But their online sales pitches from prison are disturbing to the families of the victims and those who helped put them behind bars.
"I thought they were supposed to be in jail to be punished for a crime," wonders Judy Hagel, mother of Jami Sherer, who has been missing since 1990. "So why are they allowed to have their own Web site so they can solicit girls?"
A King County jury last year found the 39-year-old Sherer guilty of first-degree murder.
"And what kind of woman would lower herself to communicate with a convicted murderer?" Hagel asks. "That's just sick. They're sickos."
Anderson, 21, was convicted along with his best friend, Alex Baranyi, for killing William, Rose, Kimberly and Julia Wilson in Bellevue in 1997.
Baranyi has not posted an ad.
Like Sherer, Anderson uses his page on the pen-pal Web site to proclaim his innocence.
But mostly he's looking for women.
"My life is filled with guys already," Anderson writes. "I live with them, I am surrounded by 2,500 other men every hour of every day."
Anderson also would like women to know that he likes kids and animals, sports and nature, weightlifting and "creating things with my hands."
Inmates at Washington state prisons don't have Internet access, so they send their essays and photos to the Web site through a friend or relative on the outside, said Lori Scamahorn, spokeswoman for the Washington State Penitentiary near Walla Walla.
When the site was created a few years ago, inmates didn't have to disclose their crimes. But in 1998, after convicted wife-killer Randy Roth posted an ad, public outcry swayed the company to require disclosure.
"Some are legitimately looking for someone to talk to," Scamahorn said. "It hasn't been a big problem, but it's always a good idea to be cautious and be aware."
Anderson smiles from his page while straddling a chair, his muscular arms shown off by a white tank top. Sherer has provided three 1998 studio portraits showing him well-coifed and neatly dressed.
"He looks no more like that now than the man in the moon," Hagel says.
Sherer acknowledges that an inmate may not be an ideal mate.
"What can I say to make you believe that I'm a good person despite the reason why I'm being held in prison?" he writes.
But he also says he's "a sun and outdoor type of guy" who loves sports and his son. He seeks an attractive and honest woman who isn't very religious and has "no sexual hang-ups."
"So now it's up to you!" Sherer concludes. "I hope to hear from you soon."
Ian Ith can be reached at 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com.