Review: 'Murder.com'

True crime stories are a growth industry on cable television and Biography has begun wading into the genre in a big way. For the most part, the format of all of these shows is the same. Actor reenactments are intercut with interviews from the police, friends, coworkers and sometimes the victims themselves. The only real distinguishing feature is the theme of the series. Some deal with betrayals, some with cheating or family disputes. The most successful shows in the genre have a hook that is both easy to promote and offers the opportunity to retell a lot of compelling stories.

"Murder.com" is the latest Bio Channel entry in the genre and as you might imagine from the title, it focuses on crimes that began online. Given the number of crimes that are cyber-related it's a promising niche and based on the first episode it's going to be a fun show for true crime fans to add to their viewing schedule.

The episode centers on the murder of a 22-year-old upstate NY man, Brian Barrett. When police begin investigating the crime, they uncover a three-way cyber romance between Barrett, an older co-worker and a young blonde woman both men had met online. The young woman had begun a cyber romance with middle-age murder suspect Tom Montgomery, who had claimed he was a 20-year-old ex-Marine sniper. When she discovers the truth, she falls into a similar romance with Barrett. Montgomery becomes enraged at the budding romance and allegedly kills Barrett.

After an investigation local police plan to arrest Montgomery, only to discover that he has disappeared. Worried about the safety of his ex-cyber lover Jessi (who used the handle "TallHotBlonde,") they travel to her house in West Virginia. Only to discover that "Jesse" is in reality a middle-aged dumpy brunette. It turns out that she had been having these online romances using her 18-year-old daughter's photo and online account, a move which may have put her in danger from an obsessed Montgomery.

Montgomery is later arrested in New York and is shocked when police reveal the truth: everything he thought he knew about Jessi was a lie. The only person being themselves online was Brian Barrett, who ended up dead for his trouble. Montgomery was eventually pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter and is sentenced to twenty years in prison.

The case has all the weirdness you would expect from a cyber-romance. When "Jessi" discovers Tom had lied to her, she has a meltdown and goes out of her way to ruin his life.  Which is somewhat psychotic behavior coming from someone who is also lying about their identity. And then there's Montgomery, who is obsessed about Jessi to kill someone even though he'd never met this woman and he knew she wanted nothing to do with him. In fact, the only person who wasn't lying in this story was Brian, and he ends up dead.

I don't know of every story is going to be this warped but it's a good way to lure the viewers in for more. "Murder.com" is sort of like "Catfish" with a corpse and that's going to keep a lot of true crime fans very happy.