Interesting News Report

I thought this was an odd but interesting news report.

By Alison Auld

HALIFAX (CP) - It appears Stephen Marshall has taken his deadly secrets to his grave.


Investigators, family and friends still can't explain why the lanky young man from North Sydney, N.S., gunned down two registered sex offenders in Maine and then ended his own life with a single gunshot to the head.


And they may never know.


The head of a forensic computer team in Maine confirmed Wednesday that they have ended their investigation of two computer hard drives Marshall used at his and his mother's homes in Cape Breton.

They were hoping the electronic data might yield some clues as to why the 20-year-old dishwasher used Maine's public, online sex offender registry to hunt down and fatally shoot two offenders in their homes.


"I'm not sure that anyone will ever have all the answers," said Sgt. Glenn Lang of the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force.


"Nothing has turned up on the hard drives."


Specialists have been combing the devices for several weeks since Maine state police retrieved them from the two homes. They had hoped they might contain some correspondence that could help explain the young man's homicidal behaviour.


Earlier, they analysed Marshall's blood-spattered laptop, which he had with him when he shot himself on a Boston-bound bus as police closed in.


A spokesman for the Maine police said the computers were the last key pieces of evidence in a case that has baffled relatives and left officials with no obvious explanation for Marshall's violent acts.


"We've done a number of interviews, we've looked for any paper trail that might explain his actions . . . but so far we do not have any answers," Stephen McCausland said Wednesday.


"In the aftermath of a bizarre case, police are asked to rationalize totally irrational actions and sometimes there are answers and sometimes there are not."


Marshall's mother, Margaret Miles, said the prospect of not knowing why her son set out on the deadly mission is "disappointing."


But she said she would remember him for the sympathetic person he was.


"You just have to go on what you know and I know the kind of person Stephen was and I know he was kind-hearted and I know he was not aggressive and he was gentle and something happened that pushed him over the edge," she said from her home in Bras d'Or, N.S.


"I don't know what was going through his head. He must have been holding something in, but he didn't share it with us."


A detective with the Maine police said they are still planning to do follow-up interviews with people linked to Marshall to determine if there was something in his past that led to a hatred of pedophiles.

But, Det. Brian Strout wouldn't reveal who police intended to speak to, saying only that it included Marshall's father and possibly some people in Idaho where the young man used to live.

A friend of Marshall's from the small community of Culdesac, Idaho, has said the two teens put together a website five years ago that stated their disgust with people who prey on children for sexual purposes.

It included links to favourite sites, including one on "how to spot a pedophile," and a list of his dislikes that ranged from law enforcement, gays, minorities and "women in general."

Marshall's laptop also revealed that he downloaded information about four other sex offenders the night of the murders.

A global positioning program on his computer showed he started his deadly journey on Easter Sunday at his father's home in Houlton, Maine, where he loaded up on handguns. He found his first victim, Joseph Gray, 57, at the door of his home near Milo, at 3 a.m., and shot him four times.

About five hours later, he fatally shot 24-year-old William Elliott nine times at his home in nearby Corinth.

A digital map on the laptop suggests Marshall might have knocked at other doors in the hours between the two killings.

Miles said she recently spoke to Gray's daughter and apologized for her son's actions.

"I told her how sorry I was that my son took her father away from her," she said


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Let's anylize this word shall we? Sympathetic. "Sympath," as in sympathy, and "pathetic," is self explanatory. Put them together and you have pathetic sympathy. Get over it lady, he got wiped three evil people from this Earth. Two child molesters and himself, a murderer.

Couldn't imagine why...

For going vigilante on some scumbags, he has his share of skeletons in his closet. He seems to be a rebelious gay racist homophobe, hardly a model citizen doing the world a favor. Theres my ePinion'.

Is this a serious question? (I do not mean this in a judging way, I'm really wondering why you ask).

There is nothing heroic about what he did, so why would someone think of this guy as a hero?

I think you cheated on that Nazi test.

Seriously, I find your point of view hypocritical (or whatever is the right word, referring to hypocrisy). If you think most people in (your) society feel like you do, then be consistent and introduce the death penalty for any child molesting act (or life long sentences without parole possibility).

Apparently society thinks different, and it's not just up to you, how we punish offenders of the law. If you're ever going to be on a jury you will have to determine whether the accused is guilty or not, according to the laws of your society, not according to your personal "standards". Interesting that I'm the one pointing this out to you, as you are used to a public jury system, whereas we do not have this in the Netherlands.

Just to be clear: I think paedosexuality is a serious crime, one of the worst possible, but I agree with society that murder is even worse. I hope I can remember this if I ever found out one of my daughters was sexually harassed/abused by someone, and I get my hands on that particular person.

Not true actually, they want you to judge whether the accused is guilty according to your laws, not guilty according to your views.

None were asked and none are needed. You make perfect sense in what you believe is right. Hyprocisy is just a word. What is at the bottom of this, is the core of our civilisation. If everyone starts being his own judge, as the case that was brought up by zpyrd seems to be about, then this will result in chaos.

I hold dear the benefits that civilisation has brought us, and I intend to hold on to it if misfortune should hit my family. And with you, I hope never to find out whether I can hold up to my own convictions, but as I expect the overwhelming majority of society to live by these same convictions, they must also apply to myself.

Instead of facing the concequents of his crimes the man took his own life.
Thus leaving no explanations for his actions nor leaving the families of the victims to find closure for there loss.

Suicide to escape punishment is a cowardly action. Or an action of remorse from a guilty conscience.

The people he killed were punished for their crimes and served their sentences. The men he killed may have been leading productive lives and contributing to society. That is something that should have been in the news report.

Do I have feelings of sorrow for the persons involved in the story? No I do not because I have not had a social interaction with the people involved.