Stalker jailed after plotting to murder swimwear model after gay hoaxer used her photo to fool him in 'catfish' internet dating scheme
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A stalker has been jailed for five years for plotting to kill a swimwear model who had unwittingly become part of an Internet dating scam similar to the MTV show ‘Catfish’.
Brian Hile, 29, was caught a mile from the home of Tiffany Watkins in San Diego, California with a to-do list which included buying a knife and chloroform.
Her image had been used by a gay man in South Africa who had fooled him into thinking he was a woman - and began a two-year online relationship with him.
The would-be killer: Brian Hile was arrested before being able to carry out his evil revenge plot
When Hile discovered he had been fooled he decided to lash out at Miss Watkins, even though she had not played any part in the scam.
The erotic images of her that the scammer had used had only ended up in the public domain when they were stolen from an online account of hers when she was younger.
Hile, who is unemployed, was jailed for five years in what the FBI have called a ‘cautionary tale about online romance and revenge’.
It also sounds like an episode of ‘Catfish’, in which innocent daters are told how they have been manipulated by people who are not who they claim to be.
Often the scammers use images of attractive women they have found on the Internet to fool their targets to satisfy their twisted desires for control.
Hile had been living with his 86-year-old grandmother Virginia Dewitte in her mobile home in Fremont, Michigan, when he was fooled by unnamed man in South Africa.
Hile would speak to ‘her’ on the phone regularly sent her pictures of his private parts, though they never met in person or spoke via video on Skype.
Prosecutors said that when he found out his ‘lover’ was a gay man, he shouted out: ‘Grandma, it’s a gay! I hate gay guys’.
Fooled: A gay man used pictures of this model to 'catfish' Mr Hine
Dewitte told investigators that Hile ‘fell in love with the woman’ and was ‘obsessed with the failed Internet relationship and deception’.
Through Internet sleuthing he was able to find out that the pictures were actually of Miss Watkins - so he fixated on her for revenge as South Africa was too far away.
Hile boarded a bus and headed to California in August 2011, and when his relatives discovered this they became deeply concerned.
An FBI affidavit says his intention was to ‘kill a slut’ and that he wanted Miss Watkins to suffer a ‘slow and painful death’.
Hile’s brother Brett went to find him and after somehow tracking him down the police were called in, and Hile was arrested.
According to reports at the time, he had a notebook on him which ‘contained a list of names, addresses, telephone numbers, and other personal information of individuals Hile intended to kill’.
Easy target: The con-artist likely found an easy target in Mr Hine while using the pictures of a young model
There was also a section which read: ‘Supplies: trench coat, rope? duct tape, mace? chloraform?, knife, plastic zip ties’.
The notebook read: ‘Make certain all info is up to date and ACCURATE—I’ll know where/who to go to and what I can do.”
Prosecutors said that not only did Hile plan to kill Miss Watkins, but also her boyfriend David Cranford, 30, as well.
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ShareHile was found guilty by a jury in San Diego on two felony counts of interstate stalking ‘with the intent to kill, injure, or harass’.
Only afterwards did the full story of what happened to Miss Watkins emerge.
FBI Special Agent Steve Kim of the Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team, said that she was a ‘victim twice’.
Revenge: When Mr Hine learned it was not the woman, he planned a revenge plot against her - and came dangerously close to possibly finishing it
Agent Kim said that back in 2007 when she was 18 she took some steamy pictures of herself along with shots of her in a bikini and put them on Photobucket.
Her account was hacked and some 200 images then began circulating on the Internet, with some used to advertise porn sites.
Agent Kim said that Miss Watkins never met Hile and that she had ‘no idea’ what the pictures of her were being used for.
Even after the sentencing Brett Hile still maintains that he does not think his brother would have actually gone through with the murder.
He has said: ‘Brian eventually realized that Tiffany had nothing to do with the deceit but he was so set on revenge that he was wondering whether to give her and those behind the elaborate hokes a stern warning or whether to just kill them all.’
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