Is Rusty D Nelson from Independence, Misouri wanted by the police in connection with thirty deaths in Kansas? No, that's not true: the story was put out by someone on a prank website where anybody can upload a picture and a headline and it unexpectedly went viral.
The story originated from an article published on NSFNews on June 29, 2019 titled "Wanted considered extremely dangerous" (archived here) which opened:
Police say Rusty d Nelson of Independence Missouri has been linked to over 30 deaths in the Kansas City metropolitan area the police say consider him armed and dangerous immediately take cover if you see him Independence Police say they may have one of the biggest serial killers in history on the loose right now and he is known to leave his trademark mushroom stamp on all of his victims foreheads he is known to be staying at 15015 East Truman road his known acquaintances are Stephen Foster and Parrish Walker if you see any of them please call proper authorities immediately or call 1 800 tips
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Wanted considered extremely dangerous
Police say Rusty d Nelson of Independence Missouri has been linked to over 30 deaths in the Kansas City metropolitan area the police say consider him armed and dangerous immediately take cover if you see him Independence Police say they may have one of the biggest serial killers in history on the loose right now and he is known to leave his trademark mushroom stamp on all of his victims foreheads he is known to be staying at 15015 East Truman road his known acquaintances are Stephen Foster and Parrish Walker if you see any of them please call proper authorities immediately or call 1 800 tips
The site where the prank was posted apparently has been experiencing some issues so people weren't always able to access the original site where they could see the story was just a joke.
The real Rusty D Nelson posted about the prank on his Facebook profile:
In the comment thread under the post he confirmed the story was a joke:
The site that published the story is a prank website where users can submit their own headline, description and photo to create realistic looking prank news articles.
Users don't even need to upload their own image, there is a built-in search function that will pull an appropriate image from Google image search.
The site is part of a larger network of prank sites all using the same basic layout but sometimes in different languages. It appears to be run by a Belgian company named Mediavibes or Media Vibes which is managed by a man named Nicolas Gouriou according to registration records.
Each site in the network comes with a disclaimer (sometimes translated into a different language) that reads:
This website is an entertainment website, jokes are created by users. These are humourous jokes, fantasy, fictional, that should not be seriously taken or as a source of information.
So don't fall for this prank now that we've warned you about it!
We wrote about nsfnews.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Gérard Jugnot Did NOT Die This Morning
- Fake News: K. K. Downing NOT Back in Judas Priest
- Fake News: 22 Year Old South Carolina State Student Did NOT Win 1.5 Billion
- Fake News: Young Buck Did NOT Admit He Is Gay
- Fake News: Jackson Man NOT Arrested For Hacking College Computer And Returning All Funds to Students Since 2010
