Internet fame draws cyberstalker for model Kourtney Reppert, others
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A California glamour model and “online personality's” Internet fame led to a frightening four-month ordeal when a man sent her hundreds of messages threatening to kill her and her parents if she did not stop modeling.
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Kourtney Reppert, 26, revealed the terrifying details of her ordeal. After moving from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of modeling, she earned hundreds of thousands of fans from her modeling website and social networking pages. But it also earned her frightening messages from a man later identified as a 47-year-old Chicago man named Luis Plascencia.
Over the course of a few weeks, he wrote hundreds of emails to her with graphic and violent messages.
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"I'm going to stab you in the f---ing heart and cut your f---ing head off. I will kill your parents, cut them to pieces with a handsaw, do you f---ing understand me? Don't f--- with me or make me mad," one email from her stalker allegedly read.
He also knew where she lived, as well as her parents and friends.
But experts say in the internet age, Reppert is not alone. Many celebrities have been stalked and threatened online.
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“The Internet makes it easier with Youtube, with Twitter, because these stalkers believe that the celebrities are actually talking directly to them,” California prosecutor Rhonda Saunders said. “They think they have a relationship, and there’s a lot more information out there about the victim.”
"It's a Catch 22," Reppert said. "You've got to put yourself out there, but I never signed up for what—this is not something I asked for."
Plascencia has been charged with interstate stalking.