Blogs and Stories
The Other Craigslist Killer
As Craigslist begins monitoring its sex ads, another death shows how securing the Web site won’t be easy—just ask the parents of Donna Jou, whose tutoring ad got her killed.
When 36-year-old John Steven Burgess picked up 19-year-old Donna Jou on an ’81 Yamaha two years ago, it was the kind of incongruous rendezvous that, before the Internet, didn’t happen easily. Burgess, after all, was a convicted sex offender. Jou was a straight-A sophomore at San Diego State. They weren’t the types whose paths would cross easily, but cross they did, on Craigslist in May 2007.
When Burgess responded to Jou’s post offering her services as a math tutor, he described himself as a loving father, a devoted son, and a decorated veteran of Desert Storm. Soon the two had struck up a correspondence, and after a month of chatting, they arranged to go to a party at his house. The Yamaha, with Jou on the back, spirited them to the dingy, one-story Los Angeles cottage he called home.
Then they went inside, and before sunrise, she was dead. Burgess later told authorities he stuffed her body in a duffel bag and tossed it into the sea.
Before sunrise, she was dead. Burgess later told authorities he stuffed her body in a duffel bag and tossed it into the sea.
Her death, for which Burgess will be sentenced today to five years on involuntary manslaughter charges, is raising new concerns about the dangers of Craigslist and how strangers use it to meet one another. After masseuse Julissa Brisman was murdered in a Boston hotel last month, allegedly by Philip Markoff, dubbed the "Craigslist Killer," the free-advertising Web site said it will more closely monitor its sections designated for sex ads.
But such monitoring would do nothing to prevent strangers from meeting through ads like the one Jou posted. Which is why today, after Burgess is sentenced, the Jou family’s attorney, Gloria Allred, will publicly call on Craigslist to require all registered sex offenders to disclose that fact to other users, Allred told The Daily Beast. Allred, who famously filed a complaint with Child Protective Services about “Octomom” Nadya Suleman, said she believes that had Jou known Burgess was a convicted sex offender, she would never have agreed to meet him.
“If Craigslist had that policy,” she said last week, “Donna might be alive today.”
The 19-year-old Jou, an aspiring doctor, often tutored and volunteered at charities around her Rancho Santa Margarita home. She loved to help people, her family said. By contrast, court records show that Burgess had a criminal history with three battery convictions in 2002, an arrest in 2005 after police accused him of beating up an ex-girlfriend, and a 146-day jail sentence after committing a lewd act on a girl younger than 14 in 2002. For that last offense, Burgess had to register as a sex offender. He did at first, but in 2006 he failed to re-register, and police left him unchecked because he told them he planned to move out of state. At this point, he apparently fell off the radar of law enforcement.
After he responded to Jou’s ad in 2007, they began an email conversation. Over the course of the next few weeks, they talked about school, family—and drugs, which Jou told Burgess she was interested in trying. Eventually, Burgess asked her if she wanted to go to a party with him. She accepted, and Burgess borrowed a friend’s motorcycle. On June 23, Jou told her parents she was going to a party, and that a friend’s boyfriend was swinging by to pick her up. As her family left to go out to dinner, Burgess pulled up and Jou hopped on the back of the bike. It was the last time her parents would see her alive.
What happened after that remained a mystery for nearly two years, until earlier this month, when, on May 6, Burgess, already convicted of manslaughter, met with Jou’s parents and Allred to talk about what happened that night. A few detectives and Burgess’ defense attorney sat in a conference room with them at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. Allred took detailed notes of the meeting, which she later shared with The Daily Beast.
Burgess’ story went like this: The pair arrived at his home just west of Culver City in greater Los Angeles, a messy, overcrowded house with sticky floors and a cluttered yard. It was early evening, and guests were still showing up with booze and drugs—cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. Jou seemed apprehensive and innocent, “not knowing about the world yet,” Burgess told Jou’s parents.
“Everyone was having a decent time,” he said. “She was friendly with everyone, but seemed shy, like a new kid at school.” He said he had parties every weekend at his house, and that when Jou was there, some guests were doing ecstasy and prescription pills in addition to the pot, the coke, and the heroin.
What Are We About to Pass?
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
10 Power Food Combos
Divya Gugnani is the CEO and founder of BehindtheBurner.com, an emerging culinary media brand that creates expert-based content about food, wine, mixology, and nutrition.
How Barack Beat Bibi
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. His new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, will be published by HarperCollins in June. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
New Charges: Melissa Huckaby Drugged People
Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
The Police Were Warned About Melissa Huckaby
Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
Melissa Huckaby's Other Victim
Jennifer Wadsworth is a reporter for the Tracy Press in Tracy, California, where she writes about schools, politics, and crime.
Mixpixlix
How do you enforce the requirement that sex offenders identify themselves? If you think Craigslist is going to run a criminal background check on everyone who uses their site, you're dreaming.
The lesson in this tragic tale is for young girls to smarten up. The world is and always has been a dangerous place for women alone. In my opinion that wonderful young lady may still be alive IF she had taken a buddy with her that night.
I don't blame her for what happened, but had she been more aware of the dangers she may have thought twice about meeting someone she only knew online.
Youth is all about hope and optimism, but it must be tempered with reality.
exploora
I think Craig list is dangerous, and at the same time there are good ads for good jobs, but the person who replies usually gives you there real email, and you can phone and make sure the person is from the company, especially if someone suggests to meet in a strange place. People being desperate I think clouds good judgment.
Einstein had an ad for tutoring, at one point, I am reading the book, and I think our society today makes everyone look so horrible. Those personal ads in Craig list, I think are put there just to degrade people, they don't seem real, but the tone is real though.
I think when someone gets a tutor, they usually meet in the library or maybe in a donut shop, and the clue is the books,
I know I once was emailed to help a student with a question cause the instructor was missing tools in excel and had to go through a bureaucratic procedure, so we did it through email, then I got another email from another student who wanted a tutor, that was in the class, but sounded angry, cause he said his father could not afford a tutor, so I never answered.
Often tutors are going to be teachers. That is what happened in Einstein's case. Some times ads for student tutors at the school suggest this could be a good experience if you are considering teaching.
So this guy, in this story, does not resemble a tutor. The first thing a person needs to look for is books. Especially for math, or stats, or physics, that kind of thing.
cybertoothcat
No, he didn't resemble a tutor, because he wasn't one. Did you read the article? Donna Jou was the tutor.
exploora
I know, read the other comments. You probably didn't. The ads could go both ways. A person could be desperate looking for a tutor. It is about a murder on craig list. It could happen again, Especially the other way around, cause a person looking for a math tutor can be quiet desperate, and these ads that are meant to mislead do. That was my point. It could happen again. This case can't be prevented now, the future ones can be.
exploora
Both tutor and student would have books. Don't dismiss what I am saying as if I am stupid.
exploora
I re posted this which I posted before you posted yours, so you didn't read mind :(
{And visa versa, if he doesn't have books, and assignments he is trying to get done, there is something fishy.
As a rule a person will be begging you to do the questions for them, and you would have to explain to them, they have to learn the principal, or you won't pass the exam, and it is practice, practice, practice.
There was a guy in a class I was actually in, who I thought was doing really well, he used to always sit beside me, and answer questions. And he failed the exam.
These are the things that are not easy to tell over the internet, that make so much sense in real life. And there is the fear of being rude. I think this is the way women are pushed around all the time, because if you don't do what you are told, you are being rude, that weakens women's ability to respond to their gut instincts. And people will say she deserved that cause she was being rude. That is why misogyny is so easily disguised as morality.}
1:18 pm, May 18, 2009
Chuckv
There is a question here of cause and effect. It has always been the case that men and women meet each other one way or another. Sometimes the men kill the women because they are evil, insane, or just plain stupid. Women kill men for the same reasons, just less frequently.
Meeting a killer through Craigslist is bad luck for the person involved, but good luck for some other person who did not meet the killer in a bar or at a church social. Wherever or however people meet the whole range of possible outcomes is possible, from life long love to murder.
That being said, a law requiring sex offenders to identify themselves would be good, although I do not see how to enforce it. At least it would give prosecutors something to prosecute when they can not prove the underlying crime.
exploora
I remember in grade 10 math, this was a long time ago, I don't remember all the details it was so long ago, but somehow I landed up in the library to work at my own pace, I can't remember what led to that, but another girl in the class joined me, and we finished a couple of months before everyone else.
Her parents' house was right behind the school, so sometimes we went there and we did the math work and she made coffee and breakfast stuff.
That class was so big, I don't know how anyone could have learned in it. And it was so noisy. And some of the kids didn't seem to like the course, or understand the principles being taught in the course, or even care.
It wasn't a good learning environment. The library was better.
Maybe that is why she thought this guy was a normal tutor. I think the tutor has to have the books to practice exercises with, that would be the clue. That is the only way you can get better at it, is to do the exercises until you understand the principle.
There are two issues. The course work and the horrible class environment.
WorkerBee
I don't think you read the article. She was the tutor not him.
mredder4
It sounds like a lot of arm-chair moralists want to bring back scarlett letters. As many people have pointed out, enforcement of this rule would be next-to-impossible. It would require a permanent 24-hour case worker to be assigned to each sex offender to monitor their behavior and make sure that they comply. The only obvious real solution is to brand these offenders, preferably on their foreheads. A tattoo might do, but it could be removed by surgery. No, let's go burn some marks in people's heads or faces so that anyone that meets them can know their crimes.
Isn't that what this idea is all about, after all?
opedanderson
Craigslist is a wonderful thing. Nothing should be changed. Is there danger there? Of course, as there is danger on the street, at your job, in school, even in your own home.
The lesson here is don't be careless but life goes on and we need to grow up. The government, the police or the know-it-alls in the blogosphere cannot fix this. Going after CL will just ruin a perfectly good site.
Melusine
HE DID NOT KILL HER~! She killed herself with too many drugs and bad judgement. Bad hede--editor, use your head!
catsmom
Do you honestly believe his story? I don't.
mothnflame
This story has nothing to do with Craig's List, other than the fact that they met there. Policing the list isn't going to change that!
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
sippewissett
Wow, an ex sex offender with this self-admitted drug use gets "five years on involuntary manslaughter charges". Lucky b*st*rd. He may not have directly harmed her, but if she hadn't met him and been at that "party", she'd be alive today. How sad for her family. Her life was worth more than that.
ambralita
Horrible. What poor, poor judgment this young woman had. I think the fact that she 1) went alone and 2) used drugs and alcohol (ALLEGEDLY) were her fatal decisions. Who knows what really happened, but it's clear this guy is extremely shady. He should be charged with the worst crime. He disposed of the body for crying out loud. What more admission of guilt is there? Horrible.
As far as "policing" CL, it's tricky. How to enforce, as everyone says? But clearly, if they are going to provide this vehicle for the general public can they in their right conscience DO NOTHING?
ambralita
What poor, poor judgment this otherwise intelligent young woman used. This low-life should be charged to the fullest extent of the law. Fact is he disposed of a body like a murderer--what other admission of guilt is there. Plus history of violence towards women. It's almost text book.
Interestingly i assumed before reading this article, she met him to tutor him and then was murdered. But the fact that she took off on a bike and partied (allegedly) w/him at his house really sadly makes CL irrelevent. If she HAD met him in a library and actually tutored him, and then he killed her, then CL would be more liable. CL is unfortunately like everyother place on the net trolled by utter creeps and psychos. Use at your own risk, people!
kmwusa
2 things that seem to be being ignored here. One, this death really has nothing to do with Craigslist. If Jou hadn't found someone to introduce her to drugs on Craigslist, she could've easily found someone somewhere else. The point is - she appears to have been looking for trouble, and she just happened to find it on Craigslist.
Two, with what evidence is currently available - it appears the fact that Burgess was a sex offender doesn't have anything to do with the death either. Not all people who do illegal drugs are sex offenders & not all sex offenders do illegal drugs.
It's sad to see such a lack of personal responsibility in regards to this. The girl was apparently looking to do illegal drugs. She hooked up with Burgess to do drugs. She had a bad reaction to the drugs and died. It's tragic, for sure, but it was a consequence of her choice. She chose poorly and it cost her her life. The real lesson/moral here is that people need to think about consequences before they make choices.
Annie57
Is it just me, or does five years seem like a short sentence for what this guy did? the fact that Jou called her friend from the bathroom, saying that Burgess was creeping her out, makes me think that his story is a lie and that he probably strangled her (or dispatched her according to his usual m.o.) and that she didn't drink or drug herself to death. I mean, give me a break. She was a smart person who wanted to be a doctor. I think she might have wanted to get a little high, but I doubt, given the way she's described in the article, that she would have taken suicidal amounts of drugs. The more likely scenario, it seems to me, is that she didn't want to sleep with him, and he killed her. He should het life, without parole. I'm sure in five years he'll be back on the street, victimizing another poor soul.
exploora
You are right, I think, There is the nerd factor too. I am not saying that could have been a nerd, I am just saying that there is an isolation related to being nerdy, which doesn't make you street smart.
exploora
And visa versa, if he doesn't have books, and assignments he is trying to get done, there is something fishy.
As a rule a person will be begging you to do the questions for them, and you would have to explain to them, they have to learn the principal, or you won't pass the exam, and it is practice, practice, practice.
There was a guy in a class I was actually in, who I thought was doing really well, he used to always sit beside me, and answer questions. And he failed the exam.
These are the things that are not easy to tell over the internet, that make so much sense in real life. And there is the fear of being rude. I think this is the way women are pushed around all the time, because if you don't do what you are told, you are being rude, that weakens women's ability to respond to their gut instincts. And people will say she deserved that cause she was being rude. That is why misogyny is so easily disguised as morality.
exploora
The most obvious point, some of these people, looking for math tutors are terrible students. so it is hard to tell. Some poor students don't even take their books home.
We are so quick to assume everyone is a drug addict and an alchi, we don't even care that misogyny is probably a crime against God, not just the woman. I would hope God has taken notice.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.