Homicide victim was lured by a Craigslist ad, police said:

Police in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, say that 44-year-old Rene Filsdelfo Levia-Archilla of Baltimore was lured to his death by a craigslist ad. Mr. Levia-Archilla and a friend of his were in Harmans, Maryland, to buy a car from a craigslist seller. Instead it turned out to be a robbery set up where Mr. Levia-Archilla was shot to death. His friend fled and survived. The suspect is still at large.

The suspect is being described as a white male, 30-40 years old, approximately 5-foot-10 with a medium to heavy build, black, crew cut style hair and a five o’clock shadow.

The suspect vehicle is described as a silver or white mid-size, four door sport utility vehicle (SUV). Anyone with information about this crime can contact Metro Crime Stoppers or the Anne Arundel County Police homicide unit at 410-222-3566 .

Like I’ve said previously I’ve lost count of how many murders have been perpetrated through craigslist. What gets me is craigslist does nothing to stop this and people are ok with it. When MySpace was at the height of its popularity people and lawmakers almost stormed the MySpace offices with pitchforks and torches over the kids who were being preyed upon by pedophiles. MySpace to its credit did everything within its power to curb the amount of predators on their site. Craigslist is basically saying “Eh, you just have to take your chances.”

I realize that the number of transactions that happen on craigslist that result in murders are a very small percentage, probably smaller that 1% of all craigslist transactions in the US. It still doesn’t change the fact that a few dozen people have been killed by using the website. A few dozen murders that no one seems to have a problem with, policy makers and media included and that’s the real shame of this.

UPDATE 3/10/2014: 34-year-old Gregory Dontae Lewis of Millersville, Maryland, has been arrested for the murder of Rene Filsdelfo Levia-Archilla.

Still, no one cares.

UPDATE 4/13/2015: Back in February Lewis pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 years behind bars.