Online Fantasy Romance Ends In Murder

A ‘Talhotblond,’ a ‘Marinesniper,’ and an online affair

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Let me tell you a bizarre story with a bit of a moral…

Once upon the year 2005, there was a man named Thomas Montgomery. Montgomery was 46 and rather dumpy-looking, a machinist, and a Sunday School teacher living in upstate New York. He was married to a woman named Cindy and had two lovely daughters.

One day, Montgomery was online in the children’s section of a gaming chatroom — for which he surely had a good reason — when he met someone by the internet handle of ‘Talhotblond.’

Montgomery would get to know ‘Talhotblond,’ whose profile picture confirmed the accuracy of her handle, as a pretty 18-year-old high school senior named Jessi, who played basketball and softball and happened to be a virgin.

It might have seemed inappropriate for Montgomery to engage in a conversation with a high schooler in a children’s gaming chatroom, so instead, Montgomery magically became ‘Marinesniper,’ a buff and handsome 18-year-old Marine named Tommy, whose photo was Montgomery’s Marine portrait from nearly 30 years before.

Jessi and Tommy soon struck up an intense online affair. Jessi sent somewhat suggestive photos of herself and even sent Tommy special packages full of love notes and pairs of her lace panties.

But it wasn’t just sexual. Over the months of their romance, the two talked of love and even of marriage.

Now, Tommy, you will remember, is actually a 46-year-old man named Thomas Montgomery, but as he said much later, his time online with Jessi was like a drug.

At some point, his life as Tommy became, he says, more real to him than his life in the real world. He even wrote a note to himself that in part read:

“On January 2nd, 2006, Tom Montgomery (46 years old) ceases to exist and is replaced by a 18 year old battle scarred marine…”

Montgomery couldn’t bear to be away from the computer (and his covert love affair with Jessi), which his wife Cindy saw as suspicious behavior.

Unfortunately for Tommy — I mean, Montgomery — Cindy found one of those very special packages that Jessi had sent to him, to…