Facebook Selfie Helps Convict Woman Who Killed Best Friend

Never let it be said that selfies are stupid: a seemingly-random Facebook picture helped Canadian police convict a woman who strangled her best friend with a belt and left the body on the side of the road.

Two years ago, the 18-year-old Saskatoon woman was found dead, and while searching for clues, police discovered a selfie on Facebook that the woman had taken with her best friend hours earlier. Visible in the photo was a black belt that investigator suspected was the murder weapon.

“[The car] was dirty and it had dust, and you could see on the side of the car — you could see marks, and the marks were consistent with that black belt,” Senior Crown Prosecutor Robin Ritter told CNN. “And it also looked like there was a struggle.”

According to police, both women were intoxicated and got into an argument. The woman who confessed to the killing, 21-year-old Cheyenne Antoine, lied to police and told them that her friend had left the bar that night with an unidentified man. She also instructed a relative to lie to the police about her role in the crime, even though she drunkenly confessed to another friend that she was the one responsible.

It can be a little creepy knowing that law enforcement is actively surveilling Facebook. But while that might not be a good thing for user privacy on the whole, it’s hard to argue if it helps take a murderer off the streets.