Woman killed by husband after changing Facebook status to single
In the past, I’ve heard people get in trouble for changing their Facebook status’ to certain things and I even know people who’ve been in trouble for changing their Relationship Status. However, when I say “trouble”, I mean like they got an ugly text message or something. In this case, Emma Forrester, 34, was stabbed to death by her husband for changing her Relationship Status to “single”!
Forrester, who pleaded guilty to murder, was ordered to serve a minimum term of 14 years.
Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, told him: “You committed a terrible act. There is no possible excuse or justification.
“This is a tragic killing and what you have done has caused untold anguish.”
The day before the murder, he called her parents and complained about his wife’s Facebook entry which he said “made her look like a fool”, the court heard. In a statement to police Forrester said: “Emma and I had just split up. She forced me out.
“She then posted messages on an internet website telling everyone she had left me and was looking to meet other men.
“I loved Emma and felt totally devastated and humiliated about what she had done to me.”
Grief, this is seriously scary stuff isn’t it! To think that social media is leading to degrees of behaviour like this, it makes me wonder what will happen several years from now!
Christopher is the founder of iMod - Most of his time is spent building websites and pushing the limits with Search Engine Optimization. You can follow him on Twitter @ChristopherM
Chris M has written: 4117 posts.
Oct 18th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I think if Emma did what she did in Saudi Arabia her own family would wipe her out.
It’s scary being Muslim and female, even in Western countries like Britain.
I think Emma never knew what her ex-husband was prepared to do to her in response, until it was too late. I think a lot of men and women make this mistake when they upset certain people.
I guess she didn’t expect the man she once loved to take her life.
Another theme that comes up for me is the different way some people react to the end of a relationship. This woman was ready to move on and find someone new almost immediately, whereas it takes me some time after the end of a relationship before I’m ready to attempt another.
I wonder, “do women mourn less than men at the end of a relationship?” The words, “undue haste” spring to mind.
Oct 18th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Research has found that the time it takes you to ‘move-on’ after a relationship is bound up in how emotionally involved you were in the relationship at its end point. That’s why it is easier for the person who ends the relationship to move on because they have already emotionally detached themselves. Some people obviously end relationships before this has happened though…
I just think it’s sad that it got to that point; sounds like some psych intervention was needed a long time ago.
Oct 19th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
We had a creepy incident here in Atlanta recently where someone pretended to be a young woman with a rape fantasy and gave contact information for someone else. Apparently, social media is not all good.
Oct 19th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Oh wow Christine, that’s pretty darn scary! :(((
I hope the person was caught and dealt with!
Oct 20th, 2008 at 8:56 am
This could have happened two hundred years ago as well. The social media in those days could simply have been parties; a woman may have decided to go to a ball carrying a dance card like all the single debutantes. In both cases, it is not the social media which lead to the behaviour. It is the simply how individuals choose to use these media or to respond to their use by others.
Oct 20th, 2008 at 10:18 am
He had already threatened to kill her before she changed her status, and their marriage was described as ‘volatile’.
Maybe changing her status was a way to boost herself, many people do that sort of this after a relationship ends, as it symbolises their need for change. Or maybe it was a final act of defiance, who knows.
He was not the rational type it seems, and heavy drinking and cocaine-fueled rage wouldn’t have helped the situation at all.
P.S. @Richard, your last comments on “do women mourn less than men at the end of a relationship?” and “undue haste” were a bit off in this case…
There is a big difference between a women simply ending a relationship and moving on to another dude, and a women leaving a ‘volatile’ marriage, and being beaten to death for making some of declaration of her marriage’s end.
As for ‘undue haste’ – if she hadn’t changed her status, he would have found another reason to kill her, and he was obviously unbalanced in the first place.
Oct 20th, 2008 at 11:07 am
@Rox: The English and French have divergent views on “crimes of passion”. I think the French blood in me is more influential in my thinking than my English.
Wayne Forrester was found by police sitting outside of the apartment in Feb 2008. He freely confessed killing his wife in a fit of jealous rage.
“The French penal code in those days [until 1970] included a love-triangle provision that was a vestige of the Napoleonic era. It absolved from punishment any man who committed homicide after finding his wife in bed with another man.”
It seems clear that this was a crime of passion. No matter what laws we enact or what opinions we hold, crimes of passion will continue to be committed when a partner feels aggrieved by the actions of their spouse. We can’t regulate human emotions with laws nor can we change human nature.
We are what we are and sometimes we can be brutal, especially in love and war.
Oct 20th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
That still doesn’t mean that men are hit harder by failed relationships.
I bet those old laws didn’t apply to women who committed ‘crimes of passion’ – and men are usually much more likely to cause jealous rages than women are.
Besides all of this, he had already made threats, and he was trashed.
You can blame social network media, jealousy or anything else… but the fact remains that normal human beings do not beat their exes to death when relationships end.
Oct 20th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
@Chris M, if they caught the person, it hasn’t appeared in the newspaper. Here is the original link http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/10/02/craigslist_rape_atlanta.html
@Richard, also half Frog here, I believe crimes of passion do not apply if there is a prior history of violence in the home; then it would be a domestic violence case. Either way, he killed her and shouldn’t get away with it.
Oct 20th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I agree with you, Rox. I think what I’m saying is getting confused with the seriousness of his crime.
Killing your wife for changing her FaceBook status is ridiculous. It makes me think there were other contributing factors.
Dec 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I guess the relationship was over in her head well before the separation. Which happens. And he was a poor sport about it. Which happens. Irony now is that HE is the single one… surrounded by very large “suitors”, heh heh.
Dec 28th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Absolutely, that’s spot on Mushroom..
May 14th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Dear reader (s); my name is Djowanne.
I just read about what to Emma Forrester. What a sad ending to this woman’s life. Isn’t it easy to see that this ex wasn’t “mentally fit”? Couldn’t take no for an answer… Imagine just what he was like before they split up…? You see, what took me to this web site is the fact that I broke up with someone a year and a half ago. He was controlling, doubted every word I said, questioned everything I said, or did, and most of the time didn’t say or do. Everytime I wanted to put an end to the dating, he could have violent crying spells and he would have suicidal tendencies. He knew which buttons to push. I lost a brother to suicide, and my former husband committed suicide years ago when he realized his rebound relationship was backfiring aginst him. We had children, whom I raised alone. They were between 9 – 12 years old. All this to say that this ex-”boyfriend” whom I dated on and off for 8 months, has been stalking me, has made threats, harrassed my family, followed me when I
I’d come home from work, boxing me in between his car and some of his friend’s vehicles on highways, quit his job…to stalk me? Probably. (He was in good health…) Anyway, he’d show up at my job, was seen by my former co-workers until I quit a much loved job of 15 years. I figured, he’ll lose track of me. Wrong! I had a very public career.
Well, he is still following me, followed some of my family members right up to my sister-in law’s parents! He caused a scene on the street in front of the children.
Well, I found a new job I was such a mess that I had trouble concentrating, that I was subsenquently fired! I’m in my mid-forties, am without a job, live in fear, though I try to do my everyday thing.
Last I heard, just yesterday evening was that he went out of his way, a forty minute drive away from his place, to park his vehicle at one of my father’s relatives driveway, while they were out! (I take it he must have followed my father there at one point!) My father’s cousin had to wait for him to get out of their driveway so they could get in and park their car. They didn’t know who this guy was.
I’m at my wit’s end.
I made numerous complaints, from the beginning (2 years ago) to police and it’s only recently that I have been taken seriously, by a Sargent who thought it was about time something be done. I had witnesses from the beginning….
There’s a warrant for his arrest. Police showed up at his place days ago and he wasn’t there. Result? A family member called him to tell him the police were looking for him. He’s been getting worst ever since. I had been hiding quite abit, and because he lost track of me I guess, he’s after my family. So, I have started to go grocery shopping again, in hope that while he has his sights on me, he’ll let go of my family,till he gets picked up.
If I backtrack, I can say he became violent after a few months of dating, moreso because I said I missed my family and wanted to have free time for myself, so I could see them. The answer I almost got was his fist, which I saw coming! I almost got it in the side of the head. I felt the breeze. That’s when I knew I had to do something.
Since the break-up, he has left notes on windshield of my car, gifts, text messaged me and made threats that he’s get biker gangs to kill me, threatened me in public when he thought no one was there.
He’s on Facebook, and also on very popular dating sites. (A friend of mine saw his profiles)
I have been with a very supportive man for almost a year now and he’s doesn’t know what to do to help me though this.I have reassured him that his being there for me when times are hard is all I need. He wants to confront him verbally should we run into him; I refuse. I am afraid my ex might cause him “harm”.
If you have read my post this far, thank you. I could keep writing about things that were done to me while I was seeing him, but I won’t. I intend to write my story,(book) if I come out of this alive.
I don’t want pity. All I want is for women to be very careful when they start dating. If there are red flags early on while dating a new man, listen to your gut if it’s talking to you. Don’t do like me and think that in time, he will trust you and change. He won’t.
It’s too late to kick myself.
May God bless all the Emma Forresters of this world, and may He watch over those whose lives, is a living hell.