Walkabout spammer dead after murdering family

by Steve Ragan - Jul 25 2008, 19:33

The story and the ensuing hunt for spammer turned escapee Edward "Eddie" Davidson (35) started as an amusing look into just how (in)secure minimum security prison camps can be. Now, the story takes a nightmarish turn and ends in complete shock and tragedy, after Davidson was located. According to the Denver Post, as well as other news sources, authorities found Davidson after he shot and killed his wife and child, wounded a second child, and then turned the gun upon himself; they are treating the investigation as a murder-suicide.

Davidson, the coward that he is, was located Thursday. (IMG:J.Anderson)

On Thursday, Davidson was found after police responded to a report of shots being fired in the small town of Bennett, Colorado. Police discovered the bodies of Davidson and his wife, Amy Lee Ann Hill (29), near a Toyota Sequoia SUV parked in the driveway of the location from where the shots were heard; they also found the body of the couple's three-year-old daughter in the backseat of the SUV. A 7-month-old baby boy was also discovered unharmed in the backseat of the Toyota, while a teenage girl, who had been present during the murders, sustained a gunshot wound to the neck. According to reports, the teenager escaped and ran to a neighboring house to raise the alarm.The teenager was later taken to a local hospital, where she is now in a stable condition and has been talking to investigators, according to both the Denver Post and Colorado NBC affiliate 9NEWS. There were no updates available on the condition of the baby boy at time of publication. U.S. Marshals as well as the FBI, which were both involved with the hunt for Davidson after his escape earlier this week, are helping with investigations."What a nightmare, and such a coward," commented U.S. Attorney Troy Eid regarding the gruesome murders. "Davidson imposed the 'death penalty' on family members for his own crime."In April, Davidson, who was known as the “penny stock” Spam king, was sentenced to 21 months in a minimum security prison camp in Florence, Colorado, where he had served just under eight weeks before literally walking away from the facility.Prior to his conviction, Davidson had worked from home operating a company called Power Promoters between 2002 and 2006, during which time he netted millions of dollars from sending bulk e-mail or Spam. The operation was slick, to the point where Davidson would change the header information in his messages to make it appear as if they had come from legitimate companies, the U.S. Department of Justice said.One question is left unasked. How it was that Davidson was able to hide any underlying mental health issues that could have led him to commit such acts? While spammers are vile, this amounts to far more than a mere spammer who did not want to return to prison.

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Ivory BillJul 25th, 2008 - 23:44:09

I am not sure why you think this guy has mental health issues. Not everyone who commits an unthinkable crime is mentally ill.

This story sounds to me more like a domestic dispute that may have had something to do with his convict status. But I don't know that, and thats really not the point.

My point, once again, is that attributing any antisocial behavior to 'mental health issues' trivializes those issues for the truly sick.

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MorisJul 26th, 2008 - 07:50:39

American laws are too tough for Internet crimes...it drives people to commit extreme acts..he could have being restricted to just not use computers for six months or just banish from America for a certain period.

21 month prison for a tech savvy individual is too tough..it will cause mental imbalance...if any alternative are not provide

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jdubbaJul 26th, 2008 - 08:09:57

Moris: sentence was light: he was a fraud, and caused internet providers, servers, processors, filters and end users to deal with untold hours of crap that served no legitimate business purpose.

Having said all that, some people just cant deal with the prospect of jail, and go to extremes. It is a shame his family took the brunt.

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Alvar HansoJul 26th, 2008 - 10:23:26

are you serious? you think the problem is that is sentence was TOO HARSH?!

the problem is that he was in a 'jail' that he could WALK AWAY from.

come on, people. life ain't Teletubbies.

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HannahJul 26th, 2008 - 10:50:57

Sociopaths have a mental disorder and this guy is clearly a sociopath. He was no different than any other sociopath who robs people, embezzles from their employer or steals cars. And because this self-centered egomaniac couldn't cope with a few lousey months in a minimum security facility to atone for his crimes, he became a homicidal maniac. What kind of blank-blank coward kills his own 3 yr. old baby and wife? These kind of SOBs aren't content with simply taking the coward's way out and off'ing themselves. No, they have to take innocents with them. May he rot in hell.

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reading the commentsJul 26th, 2008 - 11:45:53

there are few things more amusing in life than reading the comments after stories like this one - you're all such experts! You know about 2% of what's going on in any story yet you have all the answers!

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SteveJul 26th, 2008 - 11:56:43

Mental health issues are defined sometimes by actions. One who crosses the line is mentally ill. One who does not and commits no crime is not defined as mentally ill until the actions of the individual violate some norm or someone's personal rights.

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jelloJul 26th, 2008 - 14:21:42

i dunno i thnk hes kinda cute!

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