Woman Convicted in Love Triangle Stabbing Blames Social Media

A young woman who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for the murder of her romantic rival claims social media fueled the violent love triangle.

"You can hide behind technology. You can be a whole other person," Rachel Wade told Florida's WFTS-TV. "It's almost like you can threaten something or say whatever you want and possibly scare them and you don't have to face them at that moment."

Wade was 19 years old on April 15, 2009, the day she fatally stabbed 18-year-old Sarah Ludemann to death in Pinellas Park, Fla.

The teens had been fighting over Joshua Camacho, a 19-year-old who was dating both of them at the same time. Over a six-month period leading up to the slaying, local law enforcement had logged more than a dozen police reports detailing disputes centered on the trio's relationships, police said.

According to Wade and her attorney, Jay Hebert, the young women got into a war of words on the social networking website MySpace and also sent each other vicious text messages and voice mails.

"There was an incubation period in which the case percolated and verbal and malicious threats went back and forth both ways between the two girls," Hebert told AOL News. "The entire relationship played out in either a MySpace forum or instant communication back and forth, and that just led to a [much] heightened, very volatile [situation]."

Herbert says technology allowed the rivals to say things to each other via a keyboard or cell phone that they would not have said face to face.

"It took everything to a different level -- the threats," the attorney said. "It was a two-way street. It escalated everything and poured gas on a fire that was already raging."

When the case went to trial in July, authorities said Wade was visiting a friend when Ludemann pulled up in a van and the two started fighting. It was during that altercation that Wade stabbed her twice with a kitchen knife, police said.

Testifying on her own behalf, Wade said she acted in self-defense and only stabbed Ludemann after she herself had been struck in the head three times.

"I didn't know where she was stabbed or how severe it was," Wade testified. "I was scared."

Ludemann, who was unarmed, died at the scene, police said.

A six-person jury deliberated for 2 1/2 hours before finding Wade guilty of second-degree murder on July 23.

Hebert said the outcome might have been different if the jury had not heard voice mails Wade left for Ludemann, including one in which she said: "I'm going to f-----g murder you, Sarah."

"[The] voice mails were incredibly damaging and I'm convinced [they] convicted her of this crime," Hebert said. "Sarah's voice mails were not saved by Rachel but they were just as aggressive. Maybe not as graphic and specific but they were very mean in nature –- 'Watch your back' and stuff like that."

During her interview with WFTS, Wade maintained she had acted in self-defense. She admitted leaving the voice mail threatening to murder Ludemann, but said she never meant it.

"I never really took any of that seriously," she told the news station. "I never thought I would be confronted with the situation where we would actually fight."

Hebert is convinced technology played a major role in the case and, with his client's blessing, has been going from school to school to speak with students and parents.

"What I've been doing for about four months now [is a] two-part lecture seminar series to both public and private schools ... about the risks and dangers involved in cybereducation," Hebert said.

Herbert added, "The parent lecture is a little more direct because it is everything your kids don't want you to know and everything you should know." The kids' lecture, he said, warns them about the dangers of predators and educates them about how a minor dispute can escalate online into an all-out war, as it did in his client's case.

"I have found it to be very rewarding," Herbert said about the lectures. "We are giving back and helping educate both the parents and the kids."

Harold Copus, a retired FBI agent who has worked on hundreds of homicide cases, said he is supportive of any message that educates parents and children, but does not believe social media should be blamed as the cause for Ludemann's death.

"Technology may play some part of it, but technology did not make her take a knife with her," Copus, now head of Copus Security Consultants in Atlanta, told AOL News. "I am pretty dismissive of that and we also have the smoking gun –- the voice mails."

Wade is appealing her murder conviction. Whether she ultimately wins her freedom is yet to be seen. In the meantime, she said she is supportive of her attorney's activities and even has her own message for people.

"My biggest thing is not to threaten people, because I personally cannot believe some of the things I said in a text message or e-mail. It is not like me," she told WFTS.