DEATH ON THE INTERNET

They talked about sex, torture and death, but never face to face. Robert Glass and Sharon Lopatka were intimate strangers, communicating over the Internet, she as "Nancy" from Hampstead, Maryland, he as "Slowhand" from his trailer outside Lenoir, North Carolina. Then the pair decided to meet. Lopatka boarded a train Oct. 13 for North Carolina. Her family never saw her alive again.

On Oct. 28 the state's chief medical examiner confirmed that it was Lopatka's body that the police had dug out of a shallow grave in Glass's yard. Glass, a county-government computer programmer, is charged with her murder. His attorney says Glass maintains that Lopatka's death was an accident that happened while the two were having sex.

Anticensorship advocates responded hotly to suggestions that the Internet was responsible. But clearly the technology can facilitate some strange behavior. Communicating anonymously "leads to the Mardi Gras phenomenon," says Paul Gilster, who has written five books about computers. Because "you're wearing a mask, you feel you can act and speak with impunity."

According to police who examined the E-mail, Lopatka and Glass shared an interest in "sexual torture, bondage and death." A letter she left read, "If my body is never retrieved, don't worry. Know that I am at peace." It was clear from the E-mail that the two were very troubled. "Blaming the medium for the difficulty of some people who exist in society is wrong," says Scott Bradner, a consultant with Harvard University's Office of Information Technology. "It's the Luddites of the world who claim new technology is inherently evil."