The mystery of Aurora suspect's missing Facebook account

As details unfold the life of James Eagan Holmes, the suspect the Aurora, Colo., movie shootings, many are puzzled by the 24-year-old's apparent lack a digital footprint.

"I am not a 24--old gun-slinging killer from Aurora," James P. Holmes wrote Facebook on Friday morning.

Holmes is a Denver man who shares first and names with James Eagan Holmes, the suspect in the deadly shooting that took at a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie hours before.

As the investigation got way in the shooting at the "The Dark Knight Rises" premiere, in which 70 members of the estimated 300-seat crowd killed or injured, those looking for clues to make of it all went online for a digital footprint of the suspect -- to no .

It appears the suspect Holmes is not on any social networks -- at least not his legal name. Yet the picture of Holmes that has painted is not much different than that a typical, perhaps disenchanted, college student.

This is what we know James Eagan Holmes: He graduated a bachelor's degree in neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside, and was about to out of graduate school at the University of Colorado, Denver. The reasons Holmes would get dressed all black, a ballistic helmet, and tactical gloves and walk that AMC Theater early Friday morning and open on innocent people remain a mystery.

If he was on Facebook, we might know what's been on his , what he had for dinner, or how he the Fourth of July, offering insight his mental state ahead of the events, but Holmes is not found on that social network, or Twitter. He doesn't have a Web site or a blog. Unconfirmed reports late Friday allege that he may have been on the site AdultFriendFinder.com, not a forum most would choose to connect friends, family, or the greater public.

The fact that Holmes is not perplexed denizens of the Internet throughout the day, invoking some to message people similar names, create fake Facebook profiles, and even write articles pondering Holmes presented no presence online.

Mashable Editor Chief Lance Ulanoff can't "get what an online ghost Holmes appears to be." Slate staff writer Will Oremus posits that Holmes really doesn't have a digital footprint, or his name is so common that search results have been buried Friday's news.

"It's certainly unusual. Data suggests that 95 to 98 percent of people Holmes' are on social media," Dr. Megan A. Moreno, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, told CBS News. As for that 5 percent to 2 percent, Moreno, who has connection to the case, highlighted a link extreme Internet use -- or lack of use -- and depression.

A study titled "A U-shaped association intensity of Internet use and adolescent health," published by the journal Pediatrics, attempted to a correlation between mental health and intensity of Internet use. The theory that poor mental health may result in either heavy of the Internet or little to none.

But the lack of a Facebook doesn't necessarily mean the suspect was depressed. If he was pursuing a graduate in neuroscience, he may have limited his presence on social networks professional reasons. After , even with privacy settings place, your information is still online.

There is the possibility that Holmes either used a pseudonym his online accounts or his accounts were put on , making them unavailable during an search. A former student colleague told The New York Times that the suspect spent in the lab logged in online role-playing games.

A truth is that with tragedies comes the human to ask "why" -- even when grasping at . The fact that James P. Holmes had to publicly announce on Facebook that he was not the shooting , and that a screenshot of his status update was seen thousands of , is telling of how many have tried to connect information.

A day and a half since the shooting, the mystery of "James Holmes" continues. People are "so angry they can't get to that person," Moreno said. "They're trying to get anything -- trying to vent."


Adapted from: CNET, July 21, 2012.