Are two homicide suspects named Shaila Bradshaw and Tyler Chapman on the run for the killing of 8-month-old Marquel Smith as of March 24, 2025? No, that's not true: The posts are fake, part of a bait-and-switch scam aimed at luring social media users to ads designed to harvest personal and financial information. These posts use mugshots taken from posts about lesser crimes unrelated to homicide or the purported murder victim.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on Facebook on March 18, 2025, under the title "HOMICIDE SUSPECTS ON THE RUN in #vassar". Above the two mugshots, it read:
The Homicide Bureau has identified Shaila Bradshaw, 18, and Tyler Chapman, 22, as suspects in the death of 8-month-old Marquel Smith. The baby died on 15 March, 2025, due to blunt force trauma. Chapman and Bradshaw face murder charges and are currently evading capture. The Police urge anyone with information on their whereabouts to come forward. LETS BUMP THIS POST TO HELP LOCATE THEM.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X.com screenshot taken on Fri Mar 24 15:19:31 2025 UTC)
While the mugshots are those of Chapman and Bradshaw, they are not related to a homicide case. The pair were arrested by the Kanawha County, West Virginia, Sheriff in April 2021 for allegedly stealing property from a maintenance building. This is the Facebook post (archived here) where the mugshots were published:
Scam Posts
Scam posts are a tactic used on Facebook by spammers that employ "bait and switch" content to lure people into a scam. Scammers will pair an alarming or heart-wrenching claim with a compelling image to catch people's attention -- missing children or aging adults, injured animals, injured people in hospital beds and sex trafficking tactics -- and drive engagement.
Once a post has gathered sufficient attention, the scammer replaces the bait, switching to a deceptive real estate ad to harvest personal information from users interested in the too-good-to-be-true rental. The wording and images of these eye-catching posts, typically seen on local Facebook "yard sale" pages," are frequently identical, even when the offered property is located in different cities, regions of the U.S., or countries.
The content switch is clearly documented by a post's edit history, which also notes additions or deletions of content. To access the edit history of a Facebook post, click the three dots in the top right corner and select "View edit history" from the menu.
Commonly, such posts use links that lead to landing pages with disclaimers or false promises and contact information requests used to gather personal data, including financial information.
Some links purport to connect people to a U.S. Housing and Urban Development site to help them search for deals on foreclosed homes. Lead Stories found these links lead to sites that carry disclosures at the bottom of the page that note they are "not affiliated with, endorsed, authorized, or approved by the Federal Government or the US Department of Housing and Urban Development."
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Other Lead Stories fact checks related to such bait-and-switch scams are found here.
