Post falsely claims serial killer, wife at large after killing 3 officers

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Post falsely claims serial killer, wife at large after killing 3 officers

The claim: A serial killer and burglar are on the run after killing 3 police officers

A Jan. 27

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

post (

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

) claims a man and woman are at large after a deadly altercation with police. The post includes side-by-side photos of purported suspects with distinctive facial tattoos.

“Please lock your doors and stay vigilant,” the post reads. “A dangerous couple Husband serial Killer Ryan Edward (41) and the woman Alice Chapman (32), a House Burglar are on the run after killing 3 female police officers on Saturday here in #Burlington.”

The post was shared more than 24,000 times in one week, and similar claims circulated on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

claiming the man was on the loose in other locations, including San Antonio, Texas.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims |

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

|

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Our rating: False

The post misidentifies the people in the photos. Officials have called the post a “hoax,” and no credible news reports support its claims.

Police in other states debunk similar posts

Different versions of the post have circulated online, frequently substituting the alleged suspects’ photos and last-known whereabouts. But the images actually show Joanne Dennehy and Christopher Russell.

Dennehy’s photo appeared in several

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

about a widely covered 2013 crime spree in which she

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in the U.K. She is currently serving a life sentence in the U.K.,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Russell was arrested in March 2020 as part of an unrelated investigation in Hobart, Indiana, according to a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at the time. That release included an image of Russell with the same facial tattoos as the man featured in the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

post identified as “Ryan Edward.”

Russell was convicted of burglary in 2020 and sentenced to three years in prison, according to the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Fact check: No, figure skater didn’t narrowly avoid being on doomed DC flight

Some posts made nearly identical claims but changed the alleged suspects’ photos and ages. Others said the supposed fugitives were at large in 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, and 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. But there are no credible news reports about people on the run after killing three police officers in either place.

“Our Southwest Texas Fusion center has deemed this post a hoax/scam,” San Antonio police officer

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

told USA TODAY. “It has been circulating in various counties and states with different information in each post. However, the information is false.”

The Altoona Police Department in Iowa

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, advising people not to react to or share the content.

Emotional or seemingly urgent messaging that encourages users to share a post can indicate a scam,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Scammers may wait for users to share the content before replacing it with an advertisement, survey or sales pitch. Such posts are often shared in local buy-and-sell groups, where a sense of community and trust is already established, BBB reported.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

USA TODAY is a 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Post #falsely #claims #serial #killer #wife #large #killing #officers

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up