you can say anything you want online. and that's why i'm dead,

executed, at the age of 22. the headlines say i was cybersexed to death by a girl who called herself talhotblond. she was tall, hot, blonde. add deadly to that. this true story i'm about to tell you begins with a lie, told by one of my co-workers, thomas montgomery. i met montgomery when i started working at the dynabrade. factory.

it's near buffalo. he showed me the ropes, even invited me to meet his family. that's me, brian barrett. i was working and going to school part-time to become a teacher. that is my first truck, used. but i paid cash. the work at dynabrade was pretty dull. we all had escape dreams. >> i was a machinist there. oh, they make powered hand tools, buffers, things for cars. i was looking to try to change my career. but with having two -- two young daughters, it was -- for me to start over, i was going to take a big pay cut. so, i just stayed there. [ gunfire ] >> keep a sharp lookout for snipers. >> always wanted to be a marine. when i was a kid, we used to watch the movies, john wayne made them famous. >> thomas montgomery loved to reminisce about his days as a marine. >> used an m-14, m-16, .50 caliber.

>> he never did see live combat. instead of medals, he left the military with a drinking problem. but he quit cold turkey after becoming a responsible family man, with a house in upstate new york, a wife and two lovely daughters. montgomery was a model citizen, taught sunday school, never even had a speeding ticket to his name. what we didn't know about montgomery is that his 17-year marriage was in trouble. and he had become impotent. >> i mean, i had a desire. but there was times i just couldn't do anything. i wasn't disappointed in her. i was more disappointed in how my life was. i mean, i had great kids, and a great wife. but it seems like i felt guilty because i wasn't satisfied. i wanted something else. >> that something else, first it was online gaming, then it was a girl. a teenaged girl. >> i was in a game room playing blackjack.

her name was talhotblond. she said hi. i said hi back. and we started talking. she says you're in the wrong room. i said what are you talking about? she says this is a kids' room. and i panicked, because i heard about all the stings on the internet. i didn't want to become involved in that. so, i told her i was 18. the first time we talked, she sent me a couple of pictures of her in swimsuits. i mean, the first day, she shipped them out to me. like i said, i mean, they were -- they weren't pornographic pictures but they were provocative. and she told me to describe me physically. so, i described me. i'm six foot tall and i told her muscular. she goes do you got big shoulders? she says, yeah. she goes, i like big shoulders. >> montgomery was hooked, he knew that jessi, that was talhotblond's real name would never keep messaging him if she

knew he was really a middle-aged dad. so, online, montgomery pretended to be a young, brave marine, headed off to boot camp. he gave himself a new name, tommy. >> i mean, i knew i was never going to meet this girl. and you can say what you want on the internet. >> montgomery told jessi sob stories, all lies, like how tommy never felt love ever since his mother died when he was young. and he often thought of suicide. >> i used to tell her that tommy didn't have any feelings because he was hurt. and he was more of a loner. and he was burnt a couple of times. so, when she started talking to him, she opened up the gate. we talked about her liking sports, being softball. and she would come back and ask why would you want to -- why do you want to be a marine? so, i would come back and say i want to try, you know, to be the best. i want to do the toughest things. >> montgomery was a world-class liar.

when jessi wanted to see what tommy looked like, he sent the 30-year-old photo of himself. she wanted to talk on the phone. he called her a few times, late at night, while tommy was supposedly off-duty. jessi really believed he was 18. montgomery couldn't believe his luck. >> what's satisfying about any relationship is not its reality, but the fantasy of what is possible. this is a depressed person, a stimulus-hungry person, in a dead-end marriage and a dead-end life. a dead end that would be good enough for many. but not good enough for him. and definitely not good enough for a marine sniper, who had an opportunity for something more, something better, at least something different. to being a different kind of communications company. ♪

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jessi's fantasies were pretty typical for a dreamy, teenaged girl. she was from a small town deep in the hills of west virginia. this is the house where she lived with her traditional family, a working dad, stay-at-home mom and a brother. jessi was about to graduate, go to prom, wasn't sure about her future. tommy could be her ticket out of town. she called him her sweet, sexy marine, sent homemade videos set to power ballads and confessed her deepest secrets. jessi lost her virtual virginity to the boy she thought was tommy. since tommy would never be able to meet jessi in real life, montgomery created elaborate cover stories. tommy finished boot camp. then, he was shipping out to iraq. now, he was deep in enemy territory, protecting jessi and america.

>> i always wanted to be a combat marine. always wanted to go to war. i don't know. maybe i'm crazy or stupid or something. but i always wanted to test my skill against somebody else. and doing that with jessi let me live that life that i knew i was never gonna live. one lie led into another. and like i said, it was just like an addiction. >> he would sometimes -- we would see ims until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning and he had to be at work at 7:00. >> by now, the affair had been going on for almost six months. here is one of jessi's diary entries, taken from police evidence files. tommy had asked her to marry him when he got back from iraq. you have got to wonder, how could montgomery do this to such a gullible, young girl? i mean, she thought she had a fiance. >> at first i thought about it but then when it made me feel good, i figured, she's not going to get hurt. she's a young girl, she'll find somebody else. it made me feel like a kid

again. >> love, even pathological love, is incredibly powerful. we talk about people who are addicted to alcohol, people who are addicted to sex, people who are addicted to the internet. but the biggest human addiction is love. we are endlessly and hopelessly addicted to love. it's the master addiction that nothing can replace. >> as the affair grew, montgomery seemed to cross the line between fantasy and reality. then he wrote himself this bizarre note. he was hiding it at work. it said, "on january 2nd, 2006, tom montgomery, 46 years old, ceases to exist and is replaced by an 18-year-old battle-scarred marine. he has money in the bank, $2.5 million. he is handsome, like a

red-headed harrison ford." he talked about the size his private parts would be and how he wouldn't be impotent anymore. and then montgomery wondered when the transformation would take place. so he could prepare. >> i think thomas montgomery was so obsessed and consumed and this was everything to him. it became -- the internet became his world. >> but that world was about to fall apart. montgomery's wife, cindy, had been suspicious for a while. >> and she would come over and see what game i was playing. but i could always hit a button to make everything jessi say be deleted off there. and she was, who you talking to? oh, just talking to some friends. toward the end there i was trying to figure out how i was going to end this, because the guilt was eating me up big-time. back in the summer, i had thought i had a heart attack.

it was just a big anxiety attack, all the guilt. the doctor told me i got to start getting rid of the stress. i figured, well, i will lay off the computer. that made it even worse because i couldn't talk to her. >> finally, fate stepped in and exposed montgomery's charade. his wife, cindy, found a package jessi had sent to tommy. the red panties inside explained everything. game over. >> she come in. and she was angry, saying i was leading an 18-year-old girl on. that's -- i shouldn't be doing this and that. and me and her should be working out our problems, not me talking to somebody else. she got angry and told me, she goes, i'm sitting right here. i said, cindy, it is easier for me to talk to somebody that i can't see. i says, i won't see the emotions. look how angry you are now. and like i said, i don't blame her for being angry. >> cindy montgomery was devastated. she wanted a divorce.

but first, she wrote this letter. "jessi, enclosed you will find a picture of my family. let me introduce you to these people. the man in the center is tom, my husband. there is no tommy. he is taking advantage of you. you need to be much more cautious with your safety. you will only be hurt by a man who has mastered the art of manipulation and lies. do not trust words on a computer." how did jessi react when she got that letter? total shock. she was disgusted that she had been sex texting a 46-year-old dad. >> she was angry and hurt. we went into a private chat room to talk. and she asked me why i did it, why i hurt her. and i said i wish i could explain it. i don't know. i told her, i never meant to do it. but it was -- it was too late for that. in a way, i was glad it happened, 'cause, i mean, it took the weight of the world off me then.

>> when he says that he was relieved, what would be more proper for him to say, which he doesn't have the insight to say, is that thomas montgomery was relieved. the identity marine sniper was not relieved. at the same time, he is glad that he is caught, marine sniper wants to be restored to life. marine sniper is somebody inside of montgomery who has not come out, but is desperately struggling to do so. eans were this skinny. not since us three got a haircut. ♪ not since my first twenty-ninth birthday. [ female announcer ] head & shoulders. clinically proven to improve scalp health. with seven benefits, there's no worries from flakes,

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this is the part where jessi and i hook up. here's how it happened. i used to play online games with jessi and montgomery. she remembered my screenname, beefcake, and contacted me more to find out about montgomery. she knew we worked together.

i couldn't believe all the crazy lies he told her. i felt so sorry for her, consoled her. we struck up an online friendship. she started sending me the pictures she had sent montgomery. and, well, i think you can see where this was headed. jessi was just my type. we got close, quick. i could see why montgomery would have made up anything to talk to a girl like that. she was a world-class flirt.

what i didn't know was that jessi was still mad as hell at montgomery for lying to her. and she was using our relationship to get back at him. i had no clue they were still talking. >> she just comes in. she goes i like brian because he doesn't lie to me. he's closer to my age. and she goes, i really love him and this and that. she said they both had video cams and they sent each other pictures of their, you know, stripped down for each other. and she told me this, she told him that she was doing it to get even with me, to make me angry. and i said, for the first two weeks when we didn't talk, i thought i was over it. but when she came back in and started talking again, it just brought that feeling back of feeling good.

♪ ♪

>> that could have been the perfect ending for the tommy fairy tale. but it wasn't. jessi was still furious about montgomery's lies and used me to get more revenge. i'm not proud of what happened next. but jessi had a certain hold over me. she got me to help her make fun of montgomery online. we went into game rooms and called montgomery a predator and a loser. he was suspended from playing. and then i decided to tell our co-workers at the factory about how he had lied to jessi.

montgomery wasn't talking to me in person anymore. in fact, he had told us both to leave him alone. frankly, i was getting tired of playing jessi's games. she was out of control. but she did invite me to finally come meet her in person. i should never have let it slip at work that i was driving to west virginia to visit the virgin. i got a text lashing. seems montgomery still had a thing for jessi, and her virginity.

i never did meet with jessi. she got mad at me, claiming all i wanted was sex. our relationship was over. maybe that's why she went back to montgomery. she was an attention junkie, and quite the vixen now. even though montgomery was still mad at jessi for humiliating him, watch how she lured him back by playing the tommy fantasy card.

>> now that montgomery and jessi were, quote, friends again, he started confiding in her. i had no idea he hated me so much.

>> you'd think jessi would have been freaked out by that outburst. but she seemed to get off on his rage. jessi promised montgomery she would never message me again. and to seal the deal, she took her new friendship with the real 47-year-old thomas montgomery to a dark and twisted place. we love gardening...

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president obama is speaking in virginia right now after the second of two rallies to officially kick off his re-election campaign. the president also stopped in ohio earlier today. both states are considered crucial battleground states. khalid sheikh mohammed refuses to cooperate at an arraignment hearing in guantanamo bay today. families of the 9/11 victims have travelled to gitmo to watch the proceedings. more news later. now back to our program.

god, jessi loved playing games. just when she had montgomery back where she wanted him, she started flirting with other guys online. montgomery was devastated. he begged her to stop toying with him. >> then, i made the stupid mistake and threatened her. told her if you don't leave me alone, i'm going to physically hurt you. which was my anger coming back, which i thought i had under control. but i didn't. i told her if she didn't leave me alone, i would come down there and physically hurt her or i would take something away from you that you love, meaning her mom. i would come down and hurt her mom. so, for a while, she didn't talk. then, she came back and talked to me saying my mom wants to talk to you. okay. i'll talk to your mom.

she came and talked to me and told me to stay away from jessi. i said, okay. i will. but please tell her to stay away from me, too. reciprocate your request to your daughter. she said, okay. so, a couple weeks went by, nothing. didn't hear from jessi, nothing. next thing i know, jessi comes back. i says wait a minute. your mom told me to stay away from you and you were going to stay away from me. she says, well, she will never know. ♪ ♪

>> looking back, you can see how jessi's mind games were driving montgomery crazy. they messaged back and forth for weeks, a texting cycle of verbal abuse and sexual tension. and then, inexplicably, she started messaging me again, wanted to be friends. montgomery didn't know. until he saw my name on jessi's myspace page. that's when all hell broke loose.

[ gunshots ] >> beautiful, quiet september day. and walked up to the car. and i saw three bullet holes. the window was closed. the driver's window was closed. and there were three bullet holes in it. he was sitting in the driver's seat.

and he was slumped sideways, not quite on the steering wheel but over toward the right side. his arms were at his side. so, you could see the one hole here. and there was a huge hole in his neck and it was -- he was just covered with blood. there was blood all over the front seat of the car. it was a cold-blooded, methodical execution. >> brian acted unwisely. he acted insensitively. he underestimated the explosive forces that were at issue here. and he paid a price that no one should pay for that. ♪

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if his vehicle is here, you say this is the -- >> the investigation into my murder quickly focused on thomas montgomery. but deputies couldn't find him right away. and they were worried he might be going after jessi. west virginia police were immediately dispatched to jessi's house. >> it was about 6:00 in the morning, between 6:00 and 6:30. myself and another officer arrived at this residence. came to the door here. knocked on the door. a lady comes to the door. she was nervous and you could see her eyes starting to tear up a little bit. you could tell that something was wrong.

so, we kept interviewing her and trying to find out where jessi was. and finally, she broke down and started crying and admitted, i'm jessi. i've been using my daughter's name on the internet, using my daughter's name on the internet. >> oh, my god, there it was. the truth, the unimaginable truth. jessi, the real jessi, never wrote a single word to montgomery or me. it was her mother. mary shieler, who had been sending out jessi's pictures. and lingerie. having cybersex online. the mother using her own beautiful daughter as bait. and look what happened. >> i think she enjoyed as much as he enjoyed living this fantasy life through the

internet, she did also. i mean, he was an 18-year-old marine. and she was a beautiful 18-year-old, you know, female. >> she created the perfect storm for incredible rage and disappointment. and she did it day in, day out, over and over again. there is a cruelty of violence to her conduct that is just indescribable to me. >> so, imagine that moment when montgomery is taken into custody and he's handed this picture of mary shieler. and they tell him, that's who he'd really been talking to. >> like i said, when i found out who she was, i was shocked, big-time. i really thought she was an 18-year-old girl. i mean she played the part to a

tee. she was a great actress, what she did. >> and did you intentionally shoot this person with a weapon? >> yes. >> what kind of a weapon? >> a .30 caliber. >> and how many times was he shot? >> three. >> this was a totally senseless killing, as all parties have pointed out, as a result of a nonexistent relationship, a love triangle between three people who did not even know each other. >> in new york state, it's difficult because you'd have to prove that she actually assisted him in committing the murder or basically told him to commit the

murder, which she never did that. she clearly got him worked up into doing this. but she didn't actually say, yeah, you should go take care of brian. you should go kill brian. you should -- it's a fine line. and that's why i said, should she feel some responsibility? i would hope that she does. [ male announcer ] fighting pepperoni heartburn and pepperoni breath? fight both fast with new tums freshers! concentrated relief that goes to work in seconds

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i think she sees herself more as a victim who was -- >> this is tim shieler, mary's newly-divorced ex-husband. >> i was planning my life with this person. this was the person that i thought i was gonna die with. and she is sitting on the couch. and she's got that laptop. and she doesn't even look up. and you begin to wonder what is wrong? and you try to talk to her and then she gets angry and defensive.

>> tim says mary continued lying, even after my death. she never told her own family the whole truth either. >> she said i was in a chat room. and she said one of the men that i was talking to, i didn't realize it, but he was -- had a mental problem. and i was also talking to one of the men that he works with in a chat room and he apparently got jealous and killed the guy. so, you know, i start asking questions. i always thought it was her. i thought that's how she had been doing all this, as her. i guess people -- friends hearing things had odd comments that struck jessi as odd. so, she googled her mother. and when you googled her, it all came up. my baby girl found out all of it. she went on.

and there it was with her, in her space and her name and her pictures. she came in and she said, daddy, did you know this? how do you tell your child, how can you say, i didn't have a clue, when i didn't have a clue? and i had to talk to her for hours before i could even convince her that i didn't know what her mother had done. i couldn't believe what her mother had done. how do you do that to a stranger? how could you do that to your child? she has gotten away with not participating directly, as far as i know. but still, yet, being associated with the ending of a 22-year-old man's life, before his life got started. ♪

>> it's sad that jessica, the daughter, kind of fit the mold of exactly what he would have liked in a girl. he liked blondes. he liked athletic girls. and she was on the basketball team. he got the standard presents that montgomery got in the mail. and he has got photos and dozens of photos. i think you put it all together, and you start to believe that jessica is a real person. >> her actions led to, you know, my greatest sorrow, losing our first born son. we were just stunned over it. we just couldn't fathom someone being so -- so wrong to have done something so horrible. >> she can't be put in prison for what she did because there is no law. so, you're stuck with the

knowledge that she could do this and walk away. >> and this is jessi, the real jessi. betrayed, shaken, fragile. she wasn't up to doing an interview. but she has completely cut off communications with her mother, refuses to speak to her. jessi says her mom still hasn't apologized or explained why she lied. the betrayal has devastated her. mothers are supposed to love and protect you. >> i submit to jessi, if i was speaking to jessi right now, i would say, jessi, there is a rule of forgiveness. never forgive those who are not repentant. you see, until her mother can come to terms with and take responsibility for the magnitude

of her evil, she is not repentant. and if she is not repentant, she is not forgivable. >> it took six months, a private investigator and a surprise visit by reporter to finally get mary shieler's side of the story. she lives with her parents now in this new house. she wouldn't allow cameras inside. she doesn't want thomas montgomery to know what she looks like when he gets out of prison. her defense of why she did it? she says all she ever wanted was to be a good mommy, and that she never meant for any of this to happen. she said she was bored and lonely. her children had grown up. her husband was often gone for work. and she was just trying to have some fun online. she claims the only reason she kept talking to montgomery was to keep him from talking to real-life teenagers.

when police confiscated mary shieler's computer, they found some pretty disturbing stuff. there were hundreds and hundreds of pictures of jessi. it was like she had been stalking her daughter with a camera. many of the photos were obviously taken without jessi's knowledge. the most troubling of all it turned out mary was sending pictures to several men, not just montgomery and me. there was even a video clip. mary had somehow taken a compromising shot up her daughter's miniskirt and e-mailed it, asking guys, do you like it? mary's son, tim jr., didn't want to talk on camera, either. his mother doesn't speak to him about what happened. but he says he sees her spending lots of time on the computer again. and he's worried. >> to put it biologically, even a snail will give up its life to protect its young.

>> i think she should be sitting where i am. i really do. she had a lot to do with this, too. don't make the mistakes i made. don't sit and keep everything inside. don't think you can settle your problems by talking to somebody on the internet, 'cause all it does is make it worse. and don't -- don't push your family away from you. when you have problems, pull your family in closer so you will be stronger. 'cause i know, i see the hurt in my kids' eyes every time i see them. and it's -- it just hurts me even more. i mean, the guilt kills me every day