ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 4, 1996 TAG: 9611040130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LENOIR, N.C.
SOURCE: Associated Press
SEVERAL PEOPLE WHO CORRESPONDED with Sharon Lopatka in sexually oriented chat rooms say they tried to stop her from pursuing an apparent death wish.
All varieties of sex were offered in the fantasy world Sharon Lopatka concocted for her audience on the Internet.
In some messages, she was an actress prepared to star in whatever type of sex video her fans cared to purchase. In others, she presented herself as an aggressive 300-pound dominatrix.
In the end, police say, Lopatka decided to meet a man she had exchanged sexual messages with - even though he had said in one that he planned to kill her.
She was bound with rope, made to bleed and then strangled. Her nude body was found Oct. 25, buried near the man's trailer in the mountains of western North Carolina.
Robert Glass, 45, a computer analyst for the Catawba County government, was arrested the same day and charged with murder.
His attorneys maintain Lopatka died accidentally, during rough sex.
Police who examined the Internet messages say the two carried out a bizarre quest in which he promised to kill her and she accepted.
The Washington Post quoted a self-described bondage enthusiast as saying she tried to stop Lopatka's apparent death wish. Tanith Tyrr, of Berkeley, Calif., said she and others corresponded with Lopatka in sexually oriented Internet chat rooms.
``She was going into chat rooms and asking to be tortured to death, for real,'' Tyrr said. She said several men corresponded with the woman but stopped when they concluded that she was serious.
Later, the person posting the messages told Tyrr her name was Sharon and offered her phone number. That number was for Lopatka's home near Hampstead, Md., the Post reported Sunday.
Lopatka also arranged in an e-mail exchange to meet a man in New Jersey to be sexually tortured and then slain, law enforcement sources told The (Baltimore) Sun. He backed out after Lopatka traveled to New Jersey, The Sun reported.
It appears Lopatka used the Internet to present herself as many different people, most of them with unconventional sexual interests that she was more than willing to share, for a price, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.
The 189-pound Lopatka invented an Internet persona called ``Miranda'' who was described as a svelte, 5-foot-6-inch, 121-pound cyberwoman. She used the alias while hawking her panties in cyberspace chat rooms, reported The Carroll County Times, of Westminster, Md.
``Hi! My name is Nancy. I just made a VHS video of actual women willing and unwilling to be knocked out drugged under hypnosis and chloroformed. Never before has a film like this been made that shows the real beauty of the sleeping victim,'' reads a message that Lopatka posted Oct. 1, the newspaper said.
On Aug. 2: ``DO YOU DARE ENTER THE LAND OF THE GIANTESS??? Where men are crushed like bugs by these angry yet gorgeous giant goddesses.''
And again Oct. 1: ``Let me customize your most exciting Bondage fantasy for you on VHS to watch and enjoy privately in the comfort of your own home Prices start at $100.''
There was no evidence that Lopatka ever made any videos.
Investigators have said they recovered nearly 900 pages of messages exchanged by Glass and Lopatka.
``If you put all their messages together, you'd have a very large novel,'' said Capt. Danny Barlow of the Caldwell County Sheriff's Department. ``It would be very thick, and I think you could say it would have a very sad ending.''
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