Social-Media Hoax Frames Innocent Man, Sean Bailey for Indiana Murder; Real Suspect Caught After DNA Break
Imagine getting hauled off to jail for a murder you didnât commitâbecause someone
made up fake Facebook accounts and sent videos of a dead body⌠pretending to be you.
Thatâs exactly what happened to Shawn Bailey, a 33-year-old man from Louisville who spent nearly 10 days locked up for a brutal killing in Indiana that he had nothing to do with. According to investigators, Bailey was set up in one of the most twisted, tech-savvy frame jobs weâve seen in a while.
It started on April 15, when deputies in Hanover, Indianaâjust across the river from Louisvilleâwere called to check on 35-year-old Wilma Gayle Robertson. What they found was horrific: Robertson was dead inside her home on Hickory Drive, stabbed in the back.
Hours later, Bailey was arrested for her murder. On the surface, it looked like an open-and-shut case. There was allegedly a confession. There was
video evidenceâa clip sent through Facebook showing Robertsonâs lifeless body on the floor, with Chris Brownâs âStutterâ playing in the background. One message attached to it taunted: âTell her baby daddy he doesnât have to worry about her anymore⌠I did him a solid favor.â
Chilling stuff. And the Facebook account? It had Shawn Baileyâs name on it. Slam dunk, right?
Wrong.
As detectives kept digging, the cracks in the story widened. The DNA from the crime scene didnât match Bailey. Not even close. And the digital trail? It didnât point to him at all.
Instead, the fake accounts, the video, the entire setup led back to
Nigel Thomas, a 34-year-old aspiring rapper from Oxford, Ohio, who goes by the stage name âNati Bang.â According to Jefferson County prosecutors, Thomas not only stabbed Wilma Robertson but then orchestrated an elaborate scheme to make it look like Bailey did itâgoing so far as to create multiple bogus Facebook profiles, fabricate a confession, and even send out the murder video under Baileyâs name.
Prosecutor David Sutter didnât mince words. He said Thomas âengaged in an elaborate plan to frame Shawn Bailey,â and praised law enforcement from Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio for tearing that web of lies apart.
On Friday, Thomas was arrested in Ohio. Baileyâs charges were dropped, and he was finally released. No word yet on
why Thomas targeted Robertson, or what his connection to her even wasâbut prosecutors say those details are coming.
Meanwhile, Wilma Robertsonâremembered for her kind heart and uplifting social media presenceâleaves behind two children. She worked as a certified nursing assistant. Her life was real. Her death was senseless. And the attempt to twist it into a clout-chasing stunt for someone elseâs gain? Unforgivable.
The justice system got it rightâeventually. But you have to ask: how many other âairtight casesâ are really just one fake profile away from falling apart?
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