Stephen Marshall was 20 when he decided to search on his own for people convicted of sex crimes in the United States. In April 2006, the young Canadian consulted Maine’s public registry, which listed photographs, names, and addresses.
On April 16, he shot and killed two men in their own homes. First, he killed 57-year-old Joseph Gray by shooting him through a window of his home. Hours later, 24-year-old William Elliott was shot several times when he opened the door.
But the investigation revealed something even more disturbing: Marshall had looked up the information of 34 people and made his own list of 29 potential targets. He even drove past four other homes.
One of the victims, Elliott, had served four months in jail for having sex with his girlfriend, who was just days away from turning 16.
After the murders, Marshall fled toward Boston. When police found him on a bus, he shot himself and died.
Authorities temporarily took the registry offline for fear of further attacks.
The case sparked a debate about the limits of vigilante justice and the risks of publishing the addresses of people who had already been convicted.