Chatter about N.C. tragedies abounds online

Itching to find out whether Jason Young's mistress gave a eulogy at his departed wife Michelle's funeral? Can't wait to offer some theory about why New Hanover County sheriff's deputy Chris Long shot to death Durham native Peyton Strickland? Want to dissect DNA testing procedures used in the Duke lacrosse rape case?

There's a place in the virtual world where strangers meet and dish about the intimate and often gruesome details of real-life tragedies. Online forums -- often sparked by the latest titillating crime story -- have become portals for people around the world to swap theories or debate each salacious turn in the case. It's partly about playing detective, partly about gossiping at the lunchroom table.

Since Michelle Young, a 29-year-old pregnant mother, was beaten to death in her home south of Raleigh last month, more than 11,000 messages have been posted in an online board sponsored by CourtTV. These anonymous posters dissect news reports and cast their votes in online polls about who did it. In the Duke lacrosse case, dozens of users responded Thursday to a blogger's notes about another high-profile rape case Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong handled; CourtTV sponsors a forum for the Duke lacrosse case, too.

The virtual chatter about Strickland, an 18-year-old shot dead through his door by a deputy trying to serve a search warrant, is much more sober and grew out of the Wilmington Star-News Web page.

"If I didn't have this outlet, I'd feel like I had claustrophobia," said Michael Maxwell, a 53-year-old retiree from Jones County who spends as much as five hours a day posting messages on the Strickland boards. "I guess I'd be relegated to writing letters to the editor to get this off my chest."

Maxwell, like most users, didn't know Strickland and has never met his family or anybody else remotely involved with the case. Maxwell lives 77 miles north of Wilmington and never travels there, save an occasional doctor's visit.

But Maxwell identified with Peyton Strickland, who, like his son, studied welding. The level of force used by deputies trying to arrest Strickland and find a stolen PlayStation 3 video console sickened him, he said.

On CourtTV's forum about Young, regulars jump between the newest twist in her death and the mundane tasks in their own lives. A young mother in Washington state confided she had been out of touch from the board because her daughter was sick with a respiratory infection. Another poster then suggested that she feed her daughter yogurt to avoid another infection the antibiotic might cause. They then jump back to Jason Young's mistress and how she found out about his wife's death.

On these boards, Michelle Young is simply "MY," her husband "JY." When veteran posters drop the name "Laci," everyone knows they mean Laci Peterson, a young pregnant woman killed in California; her husband Scott Peterson was later convicted of her murder.

Anne Monappella, a secretary in rural Pennsylvania, got hooked to CourtTV's forum in 2003 during the Peterson trial. Young's case feels eerily familiar, Monappella said.

"I mean, I predicted from the start that there'd be some sort of blond bombshell surfacing here," she said. "Well, she's brunette, but she's here."

Chatter about Young's murder can get pretty catty. One fellow, who posters say is a little hard on women and too defensive of Jason Young, gets his share of razzing.

"I just love messing with him," Monappella said.

But CourtTV tries to keep the conversations civil. Using vulgar words will get posters kicked off. So will talking ugly to fellow chatters.

"People just love to argue here," said Paul Hechinger, a senior producer for CourtTV Online. "It can be fierce, but most of the time it's substantive, and we try to make it respectful."

Hechinger's team pulled chatter about Michelle Young's case out into a more general forum last month after several users started swapping thoughts on the case there. CourtTV's site currently sponsors nearly 50 active online forums.

But on this forum, users are free to speculate as much as they like. They also do their own digging.

When Michelle Money's name surfaced as Jason Young's mistress in search warrants earlier this month, a CourtTV forum poster snooped around her personal eBay auction Web page.

Why was she buying Strawberry Shortcake bed linens? The question kept posters going for a half hour just before 4 a.m. one day last week.

"I understand she has a little boy. She seems a little old to be enticing her husband to bed with those kind of sheets," one poster wrote.

"I found that a little odd too, because I thought she had a little boy. Unless she was planning on having company that had a little girl. Hmmmmm.," another responded.

"She's in the age group when Strawberry Shortcake was very popular years ago. And her lover has a little girl. Maybe nothing, maybe she's planning on taking over. Type of behavior police should be examining."