For the last few months, I have been pleading for Julie Murray to take some action to address the alarming behavior of her advocates, specifically the people who have worked closely with the Murray family for years. Earlier this Spring, Julie and I spoke to Amanda Knox for a series of recorded interviews for the new season of her podcast. Again, I addressed the issue with both of them – pointing out how these advocates were hurting other people and warning that their behavior was escalating. Again and again, I was told that they had no time to focus on such things. And I kept not addressing it publicly, because I desperately wanted to have some kind of working relationship with Julie.
Then, we discovered that Julie’s go-to advocate, Erinn Larkin, helped to create a fake tip about her sister’s disappearance, which a judge cited in his decision to keep crime scene photos from the family. Again, Julie said nothing.
Then, we discovered that the administrator for the family’s facebook page was also creating fake pages to harass and defame journalists and others who covered the case. Again, Julie said nothing.
Scott Wahl has worked closely with Fred Murray for over ten years. Julie knew that Wahl was the subject of an FBI child porn raid and still allowed him to speak for her family at public events like CrimeCon. When the news was made public, Julie distanced herself from Scott, but allowed him to remain as administrator on a Facebook page devoted to her sister’s case that has over 20,000 followers. When Julie’s own administrator alleged Wahl put a tracking device on a car belonging to one of his daughter’s teachers, again Julie said nothing.
When a private investigator who had worked with the family threatened to kill reporter Maggie Freleng, again Julie said nothing to her followers.
By saying nothing, these dangerous people viewed it as tacit permission from the Murray family to continue victimizing others. The message was clear – as long as you attack others, but not us, we’re cool.
I am currently on vacation with my family in the Outer Banks. We looked forward to it as a welcome bit of relaxation after a crazy year. But at 5:30 am, my sister went out to the beach and discovered a threatening message placed on the stairs of our rental house. See below.
My immediate thought was Scott Wahl, the only person I could think of who be so cruel. This hunch became much more likely when I learned that by an astronomically ridiculous twist of fate, Wahl is no stranger to the small town on the Outer Banks where we’re staying. See below.
Last night, I spoke to the manager of the gas station at the end of the street. He said that not only did he know Scott Wahl, but that he stopped by to get gas that morning, not long after the message was found at the house, about 100 yards away.
In response, here’s what Julie had to say:
This was the logical conclusion to Julie’s years of enabling terrible people. She has still not taken away the admin capabilities for Scott Wahl on her sister’s Facebook page.
The only thing I’ve ever asked of the Murray family is that they ask their followers not to threaten and attack people covering the case. A simple statement that would take all of five minutes. And as these attacks become more alarming, they have declined to do so every time, saying they don’t have the time. But that excuse falls flat when Julie and Kurt regularly take down comments from people watching this developing, who speak out against the hate. And they ban users who speak favorably about journalists. The message is clear.
UPDATE: Dare County judge has granted me a temporary restraining order against Scott Wahl