Swipe Right for Murder

The murder of Nadine Aburas from Cardiff by a businessman she met on a dating site in 2012.

This week looks at the case of young mother Nicole White. She met Jonathan Harris online and he seemed to be just the rugged type of man she found attractive. Their first date went well and they decided to meet for a second time, a couple of weeks later. CCTV footage from their second date showed their evening getting off to a great start and at the end of the evening the pair drove off in Nicole's car, but she never made it home. Harris denied any involvement in her disappearance, and despite a huge search, there was no sign of Nicole. The police had little evidence with which to use to arrest Harris. However, when the FBI later arrested him on munitions charges the police continued their investigations and uncovered key evidence about Harris' whereabouts the day after Nicole's disappearance linking Harris to the remote spot where Nicole's body was finally discovered. In the face of overwhelming evidence Harris pleaded guilty at his trial and on October 31 2016, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

In April 2007, lonely and looking for love, Clare Wood met 40-year-old fairground worker George Appleton online. At first, it seemed to be the perfect relationship but neither her father nor her brother warmed to him. When she discovered that Appleton was having affairs Clare attempted to end the relationship and over the next six months made several complaints to Police about him. On 6th February 2009, her ex-husband discovered her burned body at her home in Salford and a national manhunt began until Appleton, was found hanged in a derelict pub near her home. After Clare's death, it emerged that Appleton had a history of violence towards women, and had several previous convictions for harassment and assault.

When teenager Carly Ryan went online to meet new friends, she thought she'd met the boy of her dreams in 18-year-old musician, Brandon Kane. She lived in Adelaide and he lived in Melbourne, so their relationship developed over the internet. They chatted intensely online for 18 months - always under the watchful eyes of both Carly's mother Sonya, and Brandon's stepfather, Shane. When Brandon couldn't come to her 15th birthday party, Carly was delighted that Shane said he would come instead. Being so far from home, Shane stayed the night but the following morning Sonya was horrified to discover Shane not in the guest room, but in Carly's room, sleeping on top of her bed. She threw him out of the house immediately. After begging and pleading, Sonya allowed Carly to continue chatting to Brandon online, and life continued as normal. Or so it seemed. On 19th February 2007, Carly went to stay the night with friends. When Sonya called Carly the next morning, Carly didn't answer and her mother was instantly worried. She then got a call from a man saying he'd found Carly's purse on the side of the road. Carly's body was discovered at a beach 80km south of Adelaide and the terrifying truth was revealed. Carly had kept a secret from her mother - she wasn't seeing friends. Carly had planned to meet Brandon. What neither Carly nor Sonia knew was that Brandon and Shane didn't exist. They were just two of more than 200 online personas created by 50-year-old Garry Newman. Newman lured Carly away from her family, attacked and killed her.

Finding herself alone for the first time in many years following the death of her husband, 62-year-old Lorraine Long decided to try online dating. In 2009, she met Robert Wiesner on an online dating site. Lorraine and Robert quickly hit it off and the relationship flourished. But friends and family had misgivings about Lorraine's new man - he seemed vain, spent too much time on his car, he didn't have a steady job and he led a transient lifestyle. Their relationship soured after he started to show signs of jealousy and an explosive temper. Lorraine tried to end the relationship, but Robert refused to let her go. Lorraine was so frightened by his actions and his refusal to leave her alone, that she took a restraining order against him. Five months later, he broke in to Lorraine's house, drove with her to her remote ranch house in the desert, and he shot her twice in the chest. Wiesner is serving a total of 27 years in prison for burglary and the murder of Lorraine Long.

Kayleigh Haywood was 15 when 27-year-old Luke Harlow contacted her out of the blue online. He bombarded her with messages, saying she was pretty, special, and that he should be her boyfriend. From this intense grooming (over 2,500 messages exchanged in just two weeks), Harlow persuaded Kayleigh to lie to her parents to meet him. On Friday 13th November 2015, Kayleigh told her parents she was staying overnight with a friend, and instead went to meet Harlow for the first time. On the Saturday, Kayleigh messaged her mother to ask if she could stay another night, and believing she was safe, her mother agreed. It was on the Sunday morning, when a local builder found Kayleigh's smashed phone on the side of a road, that her parents realised something was terribly wrong and called the police. Kayleigh's social media activity lead them to Harlow, who denied knowing what had happened to Kayleigh, instead implicating his neighbour Stephen Beadman. Trying to explain away fresh injuries to his face, Beadman told police he'd fallen while doing some contract work at an outdoor site. He inadvertently led police to this location, where they discovered a bonfire with clothing stained with Kayleigh's blood. After three days of questioning, he finally confessed to her murder, and disclosed the location of her body. On 19th November 2015, Beadman was charged with Kayleigh's rape and murder, and Harlow with grooming and sexual activity with a child. They were later sentenced to life in prison and 12 years respectively.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ashley Pegram was a mum to three young children. Her world fell apart when her partner, and the father to her youngest son, was killed in a car accident returning home from work. Lonely and depressed, Ashley began to use dating apps to meet new men. On Friday 3rd April 2015, Ashley hastily arranged to meet a guy she'd met online just a few hours earlier. He called himself 'E Money Bon'. She left for her date around 9pm, and she was never seen again. That night, she had left the phone she shared with her family at home, and the police were able to use a text that her date, Edward Bonilla, had sent her, to track him down. Bonilla denied any involvement in Ashley's disappearance but Bonilla's story didn't stack up. They found Ashley's blood in his work van and the car he was driving that night. It was a month later that her body was found. On 11th August 2016, a jury found Edward Bonilla guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Twenty-nine-year-old mum Sharon Siermans from Ballarat (Victoria, Australia) was looking for love when she began chatting online to a man named Jason Godfrey, in January 2013. They arranged their first date but when Sharon met him at Ballarat train station, he looked nothing like he did online. Sharon was so embarrassed to be seen with him in public that she made a catastrophic decision: she invited him to her house. The date didn't go well, so Sharon called it short. Sharon forgot all about her disastrous date and moved on. Meanwhile Jason was beginning a relationship with another local single mum, Sonji Beacham. But Jason Godfrey was not the man he claimed to be online. He was actually called Jason Dinsley and he was a man spinning a web of lies to hide his violent criminal past. Three months passed with no further contact. When Dinsley went for a late-night walk in the early hours of Saturday 6th April 2013, he walked past Sharon's house. It brought back his intense feelings of rejection and he flew into a rage. He got a cricket bat from home, broke into Sharon's house and beat her to death. What no one knew was that Jason Dinsley was on parole for a previous rape at the time of Sharon's murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 32 years.