How to Catch A Criminal: Liar, Liar

Every officer with a decent amount of time on the job knows the unexpected turns an investigation can take. Seeing a major case through to completion often involves giving up on a theory and taking your investigation in a different direction as new information becomes available. In How to Catch A Criminal, we look at the many ways not-so-perfect crimes are solved. This month, a fantasy fling becomes a fatal reality.

Since the turn of the century, internet chat rooms have been connecting old friends around the world, but more than that, making new acquaintances and even romances. Plenty of happy couples have grown from online meetings. As one would expect, the opportunity for people to meet from behind the veil of a computer screen opens the door for all manner of pranks and scams. This phenomenon, known as “Catfishing”, entails a person using a bogus identity to gain the trust of a victim in order to manipulate them for nefarious purposes. Sometimes the offender deceives to find love and affection they can't achieve in their real life, other times it is for financial gain. In either case, the person being manipulated can become so attached they will do anything to make their online relationship feel real.

On the evening of Friday, September 15, 2006, 22-year-old Brian Barrett, was leaving his factory job in Buffalo, New York. As Barrett entered his car, he was shot three times by a 30. caliber rifle, twice in the neck and once in the right arm. Unfortunately, Barrett wasn't found until employees returned to work on Monday. At the scene, a magazine for an M1A1 rifle was found, as well as a discarded peach pit, but no bullet shell casings. Barrett was a part-time employee of the factory, a little league baseball coach, and a college student, working on his teaching degree. His murder baffled his family because Brian didn't have any known enemies. His colleagues however, quickly tipped off investigators about a strange feud going on in the workplace, that very well my have resulted in the shooting.

Investigators began looking into one of Brian Barrett's coworkers, 46-year-old Thomas Montgomery. He was a married father of two who had worked at the factory for years. For months Thomas Montgomery had been causing issues with Brian, despite the fact that they used to get along and even frequented the same online games and chat rooms. Montgomery had even made a passing comment to a coworker that if he were ever to kill someone, he would use an M1A1 rifle, sniper style, and he wouldn't leave any shell casings. Thanks to this information, the task of naming a prime suspect wasn't exactly challenging, but the motive for the murder was another story. The initial investigation determined that despite the more than 20 year age gap between Barrett and Montgomery, they had both been courting the same woman. This woman, an 18-year-old by the name of Jessi, lived in West Virginia, and evidently she had made Thomas Montgomery very jealous. With Barrett out of the way, officers were concerned Montgomery was headed to take care of Jessi next. Using a phone number found on Barrett's cell, they called to make sure Jessi was okay. When Jessi answered she confirmed that she had been involved with both men in long distance relationships. As an extra precaution, officers in West Virginia were dispatched to Jessi's home to check on her in person.  The woman who answered the door was Mary Shieler, who identified herself as Jessi's mother.

Back in New York, Thomas Montgomery eventually surfaced. When he was questioned he insisted that he had gone out to dinner on the evening of September 15, and he got home before 10:00 pm, when Barrett got off work. This story went out the window when Montgomery's wife, Cindy, claimed he got home at almost 11:00. When asked about his firearms, Thomas showed investigators to his gun cabinet, which did not contain an M1A1 rifle. Doubt was also cast on this fact thanks to a photo of Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery hanging in the house which showed the same gun cabinet in the background, containing the rifle in question. Add to that DNA collected from the peach pit eventually returned as a match for Thomas Montgomery, undoubtedly placing him at the scene of the shooting. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Mary Shieler did some explaining of her own that brought the case full circle, but not without a few twists.

For over a year, Thomas Montgomery had been playing online poker and using a chat room to make friends under the screen name “MarineSniper,” an homage to his six years of service in the Marine Corps. Eventually, he found his way into a chat for teenagers, and began talking to “TalHotBlond”, better known as Jessi. Completely taken with this teenage girl, Thomas pretended to be “Tommy” an 18-year-old version of himself who had just enlisted in the Marine Corps and would be called off to the Iraq War any day now. Tommy and Jessi fell for each other, chatting every day about their future together when Tommy gets back to the states. Gifts and photos were exchanged, both online and by mail, including the occasional photo of Jessi in a swimsuit and even a few pairs of her undergarments for Tommy to hang on to. The happy online couple even went as far as getting engaged and planning to get married once they were able to meet in person. A wrench was thrown in the works when Cindy Montgomery came across one of Jessi's packages. After a bit of snooping, she discovered Thomas was enthralled in an affair with this young woman who had no idea he was really a middle-aged married man. Cindy mailed back a photo of the Montgomery family and a letter informing the young woman that she had been tricked, and she needed to be careful who she talks to online. Cindy's next step was to confront Thomas and demand a divorce, which he agreed to.

When Jessi got the news, she couldn't believe it. She reached out to one of Thomas' friends she had previously been introduced to during a night of online poker playing. That friend, “Beefcake,” AKA Brian Barrett, confirmed that “Tommy” was really Thomas Montgomery, his coworker. For the better part of a year, Thomas couldn't help but brag to his coworkers about his much younger girlfriend. After learning of his true identity, Jessi hatched a plan for revenge. Jessi enlisted Brian to spread the word to Thomas' colleagues, as well as other members of their online circles: Thomas Montgomery liked to masquerade as a teenager to entice young girls. This campaign also resulted in Brian and Jessi becoming a couple. Embarrassed, scorned and jealous, plus having tarnished his marriage and family for a romance he had already lost, Montgomery blamed Brian Barrett for his world crumbling down. Thomas' rage brought him to the parking lot of the factory on the night of September 15, 2006, rifle in hand.

When investigators reached the home of Mary Shieler and her daughter, Jessi, they were met with the final twist in this internet love triangle. Fourty-five-year-old Mary had a confession of her own to make. She broke down and stated her daughter, Jessi, never knew Brian Barrett or Thomas Montgomery. Jessi didn't have any online accounts, but Mary did, and she liked to pose as her 18-year-old daughter to flirt with young men. Mary would even take photos of her daughter, sometimes in suggestive poses, and send those photos, as well as Jessi's undergarments to her male suitors, unbeknownst to Jessi. Though disturbing, Mary Shieler's actions did not violate any laws. From a criminal standpoint, the only person responsible for Brian Barrett's death was Thomas Montgomery.

Montgomery was arrested for the murder on November 27, 2006. While awaiting trial, he was faced with the reality that his teenage fling was just like him; a bored, mid-forties adult looking for an escape from their mundane family life. The only person involved in this love triangle who wasn't living a double life ended up losing his. Thomas Montgomery avoided a murder charge by pleading guilty to manslaughter, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Mary Shieler ended up divorced from her husband and estranged from her daughter.