Reason First: Murder in the Digital Age, Delaware Style

For purposes of protecting her identity, I will go along with my source Delaware Online/The News Journal and refer to this woman as Amanda. In her case, she was not sleeping with the enemy. She had told her then boyfriend, Justin Chaffier, whom she had recently met online, that she wanted to abstain from sex. She had already given birth to an eight month old. He agreed. This made her comfortable in a way. She had just recently had an abortion and wanted to be on the side of right despite her faith-based ideals.

But he had ulterior motives to go along with his goals for being in a romantic relationship with her. Amanda would be harassed and assaulted through text messages and when she finally broke down and had sex with Chaffier, respectively. It happened multiple times and she became pregnant.

She would eventually get an abortion but in the meantime, Chaffier played mind tricks and gaslit Amanda the entire time they were together. He bought flowers and candy but just as a ruse to hide his offensive behavior.

This whole time, Amanda was receiving messages that would disappear. Chaffier actually snapped pictures of an ice cream shop near her house to let her know he was close by.

He rolled by her parents’ house to do reconnaissance on her. That took a great amount of resolve for Amanda to withstand. Being gaslit or continually manipulated psychologically, resulted in her second-guessing herself and turning around corners to see if Chaffier would be there.

This extremely noxious relationship spiraled into nothingness. But that wasn’t before he sent messages and then retracted them. That wasn’t before he showed himself to be the future felon he would be.

Amanda continued the connection with Chaffier until it got to a point. He had only focused the attention away from her after he found a new victim, Nicole Crawford. It may have been a boon for Amanda, but Nicole Crawford wasn’t so fortunate. He would kill her and make Amanda have to wonder how close she came to being slain by Chaffier. She and her daughter escaped his clutches but Crawford couldn’t.

A complex created in Amanda’s mind soon developed even further when she realized how close she was to being murdered as well. In a sense, she was Chaffier’s prototype. The same behaviors he exhibited with Amanda he showed with Crawford.

All of the mind games and the bizarre behavior stuck to his new relationship. Crawford just wanted to see the world with her sons. She had dated Chaffier for some time and they had broken up. Only they would still see each other, or more pointedly, he would stalk her. A footprint led Nicole to suspect that it was her ex-boyfriend Chaffier who had made it.

In the end, he had used force to cease Crawford’s life. She had been the victim that Amanda had avoided.

Though he is currently locked behind prison walls and refused to communicate with the press, Chaffier is most definitely going to get life in prison upon conviction according to Delaware state law.

The sad tale of Crawford being killed and the inability for Amanda to prevent her murder is just another installment in the sickening murder cases in the First State. All of this stemmed from the dating sites online that are altogether innocuous except for the vicious individuals who lurk on those pages, like Chaffier.

The men and women who seek companionship like Amanda and the late Crawford have to contend with criminals like Chaffier. Despite the various ways to protect oneself on the Internet, it is still possible to meet a monster. It’s something that should be discussed and the memory of Nicole Crawford should never be forgotten.