In a 2010 interview, Owen Walker confessed to the bloody crime of stabbing the mother of two of his children 26 times.
“At the time of the actual incident, I was completely out of my own control,” says Walker.
Walker is confined in a mental ward at Eastern State Hospital, yet he has found a way to reach beyond the barbed wire.
Three years later, the victim’s father says he cannot heal because he is vexed by the taunts of the killer’s posts on Facebook.
"I was livid because to read what he posted, it was all about him,” says Bill Knarr.
In one posting he writes, “To my children: I miss you and love you more than ever before."
"In his original confession he had told law enforcement he had considered killing the children after he killed their mother,” says Knarr.
Bill is afraid for the children when Walker gets out, based on his rantings in a 2010 NewsChannel 3 interview where he says he wants to explain the murder to his daughter - the same child who witnessed the killing.
"If she ever wants, for some odd reason to talk to me, I guarantee it will happen. At some point in her life, she will want to know why, and all I can do is offer her the truth. Daddy did it. I don't know why, but I did,” says Walker.
In another posting, Walker suggests that Danielle is speaking to him from the grave and says, "I now know that I have your forgiveness and with that you've given me the strength to go on.
"But when he wrote that, it's just another stab in the back for me,” says Knarr.
And now all Knarr wants is for the killer to shut up.
"My daughter is dead and she's buried. I'll never see her again. Where's the justice in this?” says Knarr.
How is it that a confessed killer can post on Facebook?
There are shades of gray when handling criminals and the criminally insane. We asked Peter Decker, III, who is a member of the state corrections board, to make the distinction.
"So if you stab a woman and you're convicted, do you have access to Facebook?” asked NewsChannel 3’s Barbara Ciara.
"You do not have access to Facebook, computers, cell phone, not allowed in department of corrections,” says Decker.
"But if you're criminally insane, you can have access to Facebook ?” asks Ciara.
“Depending on who his therapists are, his providers, they may allow it as part of his rehab,” says Decker.
NewsChannel 3 took action and pushed Eastern State Hospital to provide answers about Owen Walker’s Facebook postings. They declined an on-camera interview, or to specifically address his case.
Eastern State did provide a policy statement which, in summary, said that patients are given access to communication privileges on a case-by-case basis.
Mysteriously, after two weeks of repeated phone calls and emails, Walker’s Facebook page disappeared.
“Everything has disappeared so it’s like somebody has scrubbed him from the Internet,” says Knarr.
"I’m sure that the commissioner of health and the people under him made sure that stuff disappeared based on your following through,” says Knarr.
Follow through is key because patient access at Eastern State is so unpredictable, the Facebook page could re-emerge without warning.
Bill Knarr says he will monitor Walker’s Internet activities until he takes his last breath.
