The popular “Confession Bear” meme is often used online to reveal light-hearted secrets. Now, police are investigating a man who used the meme to allegedly post a detailed murder confession on the internet.
The “Confession Bear” post in question, read: “My sister had an abusive meth addict boyfriend. I killed him with his own drugs while he was unconscious and they ruled it as an overdose.”
Hundreds of social media users saw the post on a website called Reddit and traced the online confession to a man with San Diego ties, former Mission Bay High School student Colton Goodbrand.
The San Diego Police Department received a tip about the dark online post on Thursday.
Police are now trying to track down and investigate Goodbrand. Officials are working to determine whether the risqué murder post has any credibility or if it's simply an online hoax.
Lt. Kevin Mayer with the San Diego Police Department says the post is being looked at like a lead.
“Like any other tip, we vet it to determine if it's credible and we're still in that process of investigating it,” Lt. Mayer told NBC 7.
The SDPD cold case team is picking apart tidbits from hundreds of Reddit users who saw the post and immediately dug up information on a user named “Naratto.”
The online forum quickly pointed to 24-year-old Goodbrand as being that user. Word spread to other websites like Gawker, where users further traced Goodbrand to Pacific Beach.
“It's information that other people have posted. We have not determined the credibility of that at all. Even the person's name or identity that's posting this stuff,” explained Lt. Mayer.
Mission Bay High School did confirm that Goodbrand attended school there in 2003 and 2006, before transferring to La Jolla High School.
Still, authorities have yet to tie everything together. And, even then, there’s a possibility that the “Confession Bear” post was nothing more than a joke.
“A lot of times when people see things like this, they automatically assume it's a hoax, but you just never know. It's always a good idea if someone is claiming something, to bring it to our attention,” said Lt. Mayer.
Officials say the investigation is still in its preliminary stages. Check back for updates on this story.
Photo Credit: NBC 7 San Diego