History Main / MurderDotCom

->''This morning, Heather Preston was kidnapped. Two hours and 20 minutes ago, the ransom call came in. As you can see, people keep arriving here to show their support. On our screen, we're carrying the live Web feed of Heather's ordeal in what may be the first kidnapping broadcast live over the Internet. We pray when Heather prays. We cry when she cries. Heather may not hear us, but we are with her. Kelly Santos, reporting.''

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" provides the page quote. The episode has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], which is named after the episode's VictimOfTheWeek, Heather Preston, a wealthy 16½-year-old girl who was kidnapped by that episode's VillainOfTheWeek, her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard, McNeely]], and about to be murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. According to news reporters Angela Kane and Kelly Santos, it's the first televised kidnapping in history and it provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and [=McNeely=]'s eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her from the bullet, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

->''This morning, Heather Preston was kidnapped. Two hours and 20 minutes ago, the ransom call came in. As you can see, people keep arriving here to show their support. On our screen, we're carrying the live Web feed of Heather's ordeal in what may be the first kidnapping broadcast live over the Internet. We pray when Heather prays. We cry when she cries. Heather may not hear us, but we are with her. Kelly Santos, reporting.

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's VictimOfTheWeek, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by that episode's VillainOfTheWeek, her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]], [=McNeely=], and about to be murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. According to news reporters Angela Kane and Kelly Santos, it's the first televised kidnapping in history and it provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and [=McNeely=]'s eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her from the bullet, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's VictimOfTheWeek, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by that episode's VillainOfTheWeek, her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]], [=McNeely=], and about to be murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. The website provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and [=McNeely=]'s eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her from the bullet, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's VictimOfTheWeek, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by that episode's VillainOfTheWeek, her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]], and about to be murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. The website provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her from the bullet, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

A killer kidnaps a victim, imprisons them and then webcasts their murder onto the Internet. Sometimes the victim's fate is linked to number of hits the website receives: either the victim will be killed when a certain number of hits are achieved, or the more hits received, the faster they die.

* ''Manga/DEADTube'': Member of the Film Research Club, Tomohiro Machiya is called by school idol, Mai Mashiro, to film her, and after he tapes her swimming, she asks him to film her continuously for two days. He agrees, hoping. Everything seems normal until Mashiro kills her "boyfriend" who was a former bully and delinquent, while Machiya films it all. He then finds out Mashiro is uploading videos to a website called Dead Tube, where users post content and are rewarded with money based on the number of views they get. The users are encouraged to post videos, but there is a catch: the person or people whose video gets the fewest views has to pay for the expenses and the crimes of all the other participants.

* ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}'': In "Innocent as a Human", a SnuffFilm featuring a man being killed on screen by a Vampire also has a Hellsing soldier in the background, which forces Integra to deploy Hellsing and Seras to investigate the film and find out who is responsible for broadcasting the film and end further snuff film broadcasting before widespread curiosity can be incited regarding the Hellsing Organization.
* One story in ''Manga/ToshiDensetsu'' features a website actually name "Murder.com". Submitting a name will cause the chosen victim to killed by an unrelated third party. [[spoiler:Using their services means you'll be asked to commit someone else's murder in the future.]]
* A variant occurs in ''Manga/TokyoGhoul[=:re=]'', with TortureTechnician Shiki Kijima posting an extremely graphic torture video onto the internet. He does this to taunt the employers of his victim, and justifies it since [[FantasticRacism Ghouls don't have rights]] anyway. The video immediately causes a scandal, though he's only reprimanded for his actions. [[spoiler: He later reveals that he killed the victim immediately after posting the video]].

* In ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'', Arcade loads the videos of the teenagers killing each other on to the internet.

* In ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales Presents ComicBook/RobynHood'' #15, a gang of monsters capture Robyn and Van Helsing and plan to livestream their murder on to the web to show other monsters two of their biggest hunters have been disposed of. Things do not run to plan, and the deaths of several monsters end up being streamed instead.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Sink}}'', Graphite Green is presented as an experimental rent-free luxury apartment complex in Sinkhill. In reality it's a false front for an elite televised competition for four killers to kill the most people.

* During the climax of ''Film/Scream4'', it is revealed that the killers were streaming their murder spree over the internet through hidden cameras in the hopes of getting famous. [[spoiler:Jill specifically had seen how her cousin Sidney won FifteenMinutesOfFame after surviving multiple killing sprees in the three prior films, and wanted a piece of the action for herself. Her MotiveRant even has her discussing building an online fanbase by posing as the heroic FinalGirl.]]

* ''Film/SnuffMovie'' is a 2005 gothic horror film by British director Bernard Rose. It stars Creator/JeroenKrabbe as a horror film maker named Boris Arkadin, whose pregnant wife was brutally murdered by a Manson like gang of hippy psychopaths during the 1960s. Because of this he has become a recluse, until, several years later, he makes a come-back and invites some actors to a large mansion in the English countryside to 'audition' for his new film. But unknown to them they are being filmed by hidden cameras linked to a 'snuff' website.

* In ''Film/{{Virtuosity}}'', Sid 6.7, a serial killer personalty construct originally in a virtual reality system has figured a way to escape into the real world, takes over a TV studio and announces "Death TV" where the viewers get to vote by telephone on which member(s) of the studio audience dies.

* In ''Literature/TheSubjectSteve'', there is a variant of this near the end. It is described as "a revolutionary media space that binds together the most innovative aspects of gaming, spectacle, democracy and commerce."

* Season 4 of ''Series/TwentyFour'' starts with terrorists advertising they will kill a senator they kidnapped, [[spoiler:as a EvilPlan to overload the Internet with viewers which would cause the safety systems at nuclear power plants to crash.]]

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' "Grave Danger": Nick Stokes is buried alive and the killer establishes a webcam link between the coffin an CSI. However, whenever the light in the coffin is turned on, the ventilation turns off, which is what leads him to shoot the light out. The killer probably knew this would happen, as he put several glow sticks in the coffin before he buried it.

** "Crowd Sourced": A bomb was linked to the number of views of a website; if it hit one million, the bomb would go off. When the FBI discovered the place where it was setup, it turned out to be a trap that lowered the number to 750,000.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' features an aversion - sure, there's a scary serial killer, but his site's password protected, [[CriminalMindGames and you have to find out using real life evidence]].

* ''Series/{{Endgame}}'' offers a variant on the theme. Arkady is forced to play chess with an opponent online, and every time he looses a hostage dies. Only catch, he is playing against a computer that grows better the more he plays.

* An episode of season 8 of ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' had a group of eco-terrorists kidnap a load of high-powered business man and host a live trial on the internet whether the businesses were unethical. If the internet voted them guilty, their execution would be streamed live.

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's VictimOfTheWeek, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by that episode's VillainOfTheWeek, her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]], and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. The website provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her from the bullet, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'': The murder attempt on Iris is live streamed. Date can only watch as he drives to the traced location. Depending on the route, Iris either dies or survives.

* Around May 29, 2017, a Periscope stream of a girl being tied up with a iPad countdown on her lap caught the attention of a couple of Twitter users, and the stream frequently went offline as Periscope tried to shut it down. It was initially believe that the stream was a marketing stunt for a game on Steam, but the developers denied any involvement. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtUSQXTxc1A The stream was later revealed to be a hoax by a group calling itself Black Elephant, a "social experiment and commentary on how social networks handle such situations."]]

* The "Red Room" urban legend claims that, in UsefulNotes/TheDeepWeb that isn't indexed by search engines and can only be accessed through special software (such as through Tor and similar encrypted browsers), one can find sites hosting live torture and murder sessions for the entertainment of paying customers. While the deep web contains a lot of illegal material (BlackMarket drug and gun sales, child pornography, et cetera), Red Rooms are generally considered to be an {{urban legend|s}}, but this hasn't stopped the proliferation of any number of "DEEP WEB TRUE HORROR STORIES" (read: StrictlyFormula [[{{Creepypasta}} creepypastas]]). If you read one, count how many times the "Red Room" is mentioned, as well as how easy it apparently is for the protagonist to get into one. In reality, even if Red Rooms did exist, it's highly unlikely that a random person exploring the Deep Web would just stumble into one, especially given that, as noted above and below, the people who upload murder videos to the internet are usually after the widest possible audience.

* ComicBook/TheJoker briefly thinks of doing this (or at least floats the idea around) in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''.

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's VictimOfTheWeek, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. The website provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her from the bullet, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. The website provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her from the bullet, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]]. The website provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]] with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom. The website provided live coverage of Heather's [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and used him as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect her, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]] with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom. The website provided live coverage of her [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and in the midst of the fight, used the traitor as a BulletproofHumanShield to protect Heather, essentially [[HoistByHisOwnPetard creaming him with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]] with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom. The website provided live coverage of her [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] [[spoiler: and her captor's eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and [[BulletproofHumanShield creamed him]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within six hours]] with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer]] unless her father paid a ransom. The website provided live coverage of her [[TearsOfFear painful]] [[TooYoungToDieLamentation ordeal]] and her captor's crimes[[spoiler:, and eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and [[BulletproofHumanShield creamed him]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer that will go off]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within that timeframe]] unless her father paid a ransom. The website provided live coverage of her captor's crimes[[spoiler:, and eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and [[BulletproofHumanShield creamed him]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer that will go off]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within that timeframe]] unless her father paid a ransom. The website provided live coverage of her captor's crimes[[spoiler:, and eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and creamed him [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with his own murder weapon]]]].

* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]" has [=HeatherCam2001.com=], named after the episode's DamselInDistress, Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl who was kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer that will go off]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within that timeframe]] unless her father paid a ransom. The website provided live coverage of her captor's crimes, and eventual defeat when Walker found them JustInTime and creamed him [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with his own murder weapon]].

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' has the episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]", where Heather Preston, a wealthy teenage girl, is kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer that will go off]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within that timeframe]] unless her father paid a ransom. The name of the website covering the gruesome crime is known as [=HeatherCam2001.com=].

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' has the episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]", where a wealthy teenage girl is kidnapped by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] and is about to murdered with a [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts shotgun rigged up to]] [[RaceAgainstTheClock a timer that will go off]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin within that timeframe]] unless her father paid a ransom. The name of the website is known as [=HeatherCam2001.com=].

%%

** Also "P911", though the unsub wasn't necessarily intending to kill the boy.
** And "The Internet Is Forever".

* ''Series/CSICyber'' did this in its fifth episode, "Crowd Sourced," with a bomb. A bomb was linked to the number of views of a website; if it hit one million, the bomb would go off. When the FBI discovered the place where it was setup, it turned out to be a trap that lowered the number to 750,000.

* The end goal of ''VideoGame/WelcomeToTheGame'' is to access one such "Red Room". See Real Life below.

* Similar to Domus Mortem, around May 29, 2017, a Periscope stream of a girl being tied up with a iPad countdown on her lap caught the attention of a couple of Twitter users, and the stream frequently went offline as Periscope tried to shut it down. It was initially believe that the stream was a marketing stunt for a game on Steam, but the developers denied any involvement. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtUSQXTxc1A The stream was later revealed to be a hoax by a group calling itself Black Elephant, a "social experiment and commentary on how social networks handle such situations."]]

* The "Red Room" urban legend claims that, in UsefulNotes/TheDeepWeb that isn't indexed by search engines and can only be accessed through special software (such as through Tor and similar encrypted browsers), one can find sites hosting live torture and murder sessions for the entertainment of paying customers. While the deep web contains a lot of illegal material (BlackMarket drug and gun sales, child pornography, et cetera), Red Rooms are generally considered to be an {{urban legend|s}}, but this hasn't stopped the proliferation of any number of "DEEP WEB TRUE HORROR STORIES" (read: poorly-written Website/{{Reddit}} {{creepypasta}} fanfiction). If you read one, count how many times the "Red Room" is mentioned, as well as how easy it apparently is for the protagonist to get into one. In reality, even if Red Rooms did exist, it's highly unlikely that a random person exploring the Deep Web would just stumble into one, especially given that, as noted above and below, the people who upload murder videos to the internet are usually after the widest possible audience.

* In ''Film/ScareCampiagn'', the dark web series ''Masked Freaks'' involves a bunch of costumed people killing other people gruesomely.

* In ''Film/{{Vlog}}'', The killer creates a website where they post videos of their kills. Later Brooke's murder is captured on her vlog.

* The 2005 thriller ''Film/{{Feed}}'' features a website that caters to feeding women to death.

* A minor plot point in ''VideoGame/Persona3''.

* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' "Homicide.com": Quite possibly the TropeMaker here (although see the ''Series/{{Millennium}}'' entry below). Sheppard and Bayliss investigate a woman's ritual stabbing death that was broadcast on the Internet.

* ''Series/{{Millennium}}'' "The Mikado" came about a year before the ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' episode. They may be sibling TropeMakers. After a group of boys witness a murder via a live webcam feed, Millennium Group profiler Frank Black realizes that the culprit is an old adversary who has learned to exploit the internet to continue his killing spree while avoiding capture.