LAWRENCE - Police have seized two computers in connection with a MySpace Web page that appeared this week threatening the same nine girls listed in a note found at Central Catholic High School last week.
One computer was seized from the Methuen home of a 17-year-old girl who is a junior at Central Catholic, police Chief John Romero said.
That girl has admitted to creating the MySpace page under the name "cchskilla," Romero said. A second computer was seized from a home in Salem, N.H., though Romero would not say how it was connected to the case. No charges have been filed yet. Romero would not identify the girl or say if she was one of the girls on the note.
The page, which was online for only about four hours, had three photographs. One contained all nine of the Central Catholic students identified on the self-proclaimed "official hit list" found in a women's bathroom at the school last Thursday. A similar note, likely written by the same person, was found in a men's bathroom the day before.
"It looks like a prom picture," Romero said. "Some sort of party."
The page also had the phrase "all disgusting girls who I want dead" and a macabre poem threatening violence on the girls while referring to each of them by their last name.
Police learned of the page on Monday after being contacted by a parent who saved a copy of it before it was deleted. Capt. Dennis Pierce reached out to MySpace staff, who helped trace the page back to Methuen.
Romero said police do not yet know if the person who wrote the lists is the same person who put up the MySpace page.
"We believe there's a connection between the points," Romero said. Working with Central Catholic administrators, police are hoping the MySpace page will lead them to the letter writer.
"The school administration has been kept abreast of all our progress and developments in the case," Romero said. "Their cooperation has been excellent and so has that of the parents and the students as well at school."
Lawrence police have had little experience so far working with MySpace. But other police departments have, Romero said. The social networking Web site, which is free to use, has come under scrutiny because of the ease with which it lets anyone post and share information.
One computer was seized from the Methuen home of a 17-year-old girl who is a junior at Central Catholic, police Chief John Romero said.
That girl has admitted to creating the MySpace page under the name "cchskilla," Romero said. A second computer was seized from a home in Salem, N.H., though Romero would not say how it was connected to the case. No charges have been filed yet. Romero would not identify the girl or say if she was one of the girls on the note.
The page, which was online for only about four hours, had three photographs. One contained all nine of the Central Catholic students identified on the self-proclaimed "official hit list" found in a women's bathroom at the school last Thursday. A similar note, likely written by the same person, was found in a men's bathroom the day before.
"It looks like a prom picture," Romero said. "Some sort of party."
The page also had the phrase "all disgusting girls who I want dead" and a macabre poem threatening violence on the girls while referring to each of them by their last name.
Police learned of the page on Monday after being contacted by a parent who saved a copy of it before it was deleted. Capt. Dennis Pierce reached out to MySpace staff, who helped trace the page back to Methuen.
Romero said police do not yet know if the person who wrote the lists is the same person who put up the MySpace page.
"We believe there's a connection between the points," Romero said. Working with Central Catholic administrators, police are hoping the MySpace page will lead them to the letter writer.
"The school administration has been kept abreast of all our progress and developments in the case," Romero said. "Their cooperation has been excellent and so has that of the parents and the students as well at school."
Lawrence police have had little experience so far working with MySpace. But other police departments have, Romero said. The social networking Web site, which is free to use, has come under scrutiny because of the ease with which it lets anyone post and share information.
"Apparently on MySpace people just say things that ordinarily they wouldn't say," Romero said.
