Just months after the parents of a murdered Valdosta State student learned of her death on Facebook, we have yet another bizarre tale of the social networking site being used inappropriately.
The mother of a 30 year old man who had been missing since January 25, 2013, is understandably furious after receiving a Facebook message from?Clayton County police notifying her of her son’s death!
The mother,?Anna Lamb-Creasey,? says authorities attempted to contact her online but when she got the message, it was simply because it came from a strange name with a profile photo of rapper T.I.
Details below…
According to The AJC, Lamb-Creasey says she had been searching for weeks for her son, Rickie Lamb, 30. He had been missing since Jan. 25. She called hospitals and checked jails.
She even posted messages on his Facebook page.? “Rickie where are you? Love mom,” she read.
Lamb-Creasey said she had no idea that if someone who is not a “friend” sends her a message, it goes to a box called “other” in the message folder.
That’s where she said she finally found a message from Clayton County police to call them. But it took her weeks to do that, because of the strange name on the account listed as “Misty Hancock.”
Her daughter received a similar facebook message but they both paid it no mind because again… it was a strange name and the profile picture was of rapper TI.
“I’m like, OK. I’m thinking it’s just fake,” she said.
On Valentine’s Day, some 20 days after Lamb went missing, Lamb-Creasey’s daughter finally called the number on the “Misty Hancock” page and that’s when an officer gave her the bad news.
Lamb-Creasey’s son had died after an unfortunate accident. A driver hit Rickie Lamb as he crossed Tara Boulevard and Old Dixie road on Jan. 24 around 11 p.m. The driver wasn’t ticketed.
The officer had been attempting to reach them via Facebook from the fake profile.
Clayton County police told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution they made every effort to contact the family in a more conventional way. They said they checked several addresses and never could reach anyone. They?re still looking into why that Facebook account was used.
Lamb?s funeral is set for Saturday.
If you?d like to help with funeral expenses, Lamb-Creasey?s job has set up an account at any Chase Bank. Just refer to account number 183503217.