The mystery of James Holmes' missing Facebook account

CBS News ^ | 7/20/2012 | Chenda Ngak

[Sacajaweau]

I certainly think there's more to him than what we have been told and I think there is "a friend" somewhere.

Wonder if they drug tested him that night?

[MD Expat in PA]

I would agree with everything you said except this, “very bright academically”. Mark Levin said last night that he was struggling in grad school and was most likely going to fail out.

Perhaps I should have said “until recently”. He had been an honors student at UC Riverside. I understand he was in the process of withdrawing from the Ph.D. program in Colorado but so far the university hasn’t given much detail as to what that meant – was it truly voluntary?

[Eye of Unk]

I had a Facebook account, deleted the bugger the best I could.

Damm thing tracks you everywhere.

[Eye of Unk]

The guy sounds like a recent convert to the OWS Black Bloc, of which some will say is the brainchild of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.

[Momto2]

He had been an honors student at UC Riverside

Yes - he also took many AP courses in high school and apparently passed with flying colors and was granted multiple merit scholarships. It sounds like he was above average in intelligence at an earlier time!

[PapaBear3625]

I’ve never had a Facebook account. I’m online in a bunch of places, but never under my real name. I like being free to express controversial, politically-incorrect opinions without real-world harassment.

[Momto2]

Has anyone noticed that there is little/no information yet about his family? I am curious if he has siblings, what his parents do for a living, etc. etc.

[Revolting cat!]

Lucky guy. Now everybody wants to friend him on Fakebook, everybody wants to know about his family friends siblings, you can bet that marriage proposals will flow to him like an Amazon river. What’s wrong with use people? Tabloid much?

[PapaBear3625]

There are hundreds and hundreds of James Holmes listed, many don’t have location or use something other than a picture of themselves as a profile picture so it will be hard to go through. It might be near impossible to determine which one his is depending on his personal security settings.

Some people think they can hide their identity because they are on Facebook under a false name and with a fake picture. They forget that their set of friends can uniquely identify them.

Somebody is going to be searching for the facebook identities of his relatives, co-workers, and classmates and looking for commonality. Probably on LinkedIn and similar sites too.

[randita]

It’s often recommended that aspiring professionals steer clear of social networking as prospective employees can track that and might find something to discredit you.

[RegulatorCountry]

His father, Robert M. Holmes, sr. is or was employed with FICO, having a background in neuroscience and a string of impressive degrees. His mother, Arlene Rosemary (no maiden name provided thus far) Holmes remains something of a cipher, little info on her. No info onmthe “Junior” implied by the “Senior,” eirher. Family is described as simply “churchgoing,” very vague.

[Tea Party Terrorist]

Didn’t Anders Breivik spend an enormous amount of time playing online role playing games?

If Facebook serves no useful purpose, then any type of role playing game serves no purpose either.

[Centaur]

There is. I had an experience with the son of a friend who seemed perfectly normal until his mid-twenties when he became quiet and withdrawn. No other indications until he started stalking an old flame out of the clear blue.

He was charged with a minor crime and I was asked to intervene. His affect was so odd, I convinced him to go to the hospital. He had a preliminary diagnosis of depression and was released. His stalking began immediately and he was again in trouble.

To make a long story short, this young man was having auditory hallucinations telling him to do things. So real that in a car ride with just him and me, he carried on a very detailed conversation with "people" who weren't there. It was frightening but very real to him. Luckily, he was eventually correctly diagnosed and the family is quite attuned to the signs of his being off meds and he readily accepts their observations.

[libstripper]

The trouble with a FB account is it basically invites you to undress in public. Then, at the worst possible time, your worst enemy is going to be able to use something you’ve posted against you. I have one so I can access FB but have posted nothing about myself on it and do not intend to do so.

[nascarnation]

He was a Phi Beta Kappa in undergrad and one of the top students in high school.

Something went bad in his head the last year for sure.

[Chode]

i can understand that

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

not weird at all, i've never had and never will have a FB account...

Indeed. Nor will I. Nor Twitter, MySpace or any of the other ridiculaous, narcisisstic social media sites.

I know for a fact that no one cares what inane thoughts cross my mind every moment of the day and I certainly don't care about anyone else's.

[Chode]

yup, navel gazing writ large...

[castlegreyskull]

Very bright something doesn’t add up why he stumbled recently.