Craigslist horror: fake ad leaves 3 men dead

In a story that seems more likely written for a Hollywood horror movie, two men are suspected of murder at at a rural southern Ohio property after posting phony Craigslist ads promising money, free housing and unlimited fishing to “watch over a 688 acre patch of hilly farmland and feed a few cows.”

Police arrested Richard Beasley, 52, and Brogan Rafferty, 16, of Ohio as suspects of the gruesome murders of three men, The New York Times reported.

The suspects allegedly vetted the Craigslist contacts, trying to select the least intelligent and ones with smallest ties to family and friends – essentially loners. They’d lure the unsuspecting men out one by one to a rural property owned by a coal company, shoot them and bury their bodies in a shallow grave.

There was an attempted murder of a fourth man named Scott Davis who survived the attack, The NY Times wrote:

Mr. Davis told the sheriff that he had met two people for breakfast in Marietta, Ohio, and after leaving his car in Caldwell, was driven to the nearby "farm."

While walking through the wooded area, Mr. Davis reported, he "heard what he thought was a gun being cocked. He turned to see a gun pointed at his head. He deflected the gun and ran," hiding in the woods and finally seeking help at a house two miles away.

The news report said the alleged murders took advantage of Ohioans hit hard by the recession that were strapped for work. Beasley reportedly has a long criminal record – including 15 counts of promoting prostitution and selling the painkiller OxyContin.

With over 100 people having responded to the bogus Craigslist ad, investigators suspect many more bodies could be found than the three identified.