Wife Busted For Craigslist Harass Of Husband’s Ex

JUNE 24--In a bid to harass her new husband’s former wife, a Florida woman placed a phony ad on Craigslist that purported to seek men willing to stop by the ex-spouse’s home since she needed  “to be thrown around a little bit and to be dominated, that is exciting for me.”

The ad, placed in February, resulted in a stream of unwanted suitors arriving at the home of Tracy Wilder, who also received phone calls and text messages from unknown men who said they were replying to “an ad on Craigslist in the casual encounters section ‘women4men,’” according to a Bradenton Police Department report.

One man who called Wilder said that he had replied to the ad and had exchanged e-mails with someone using the address [email protected]. During that correspondence, the man said, he was provided with Wilder’s home address and phone number.

He also gave Wilder a copy of the original Craigslist ad, entitled “Adventerous Couple,” which claimed that, “I also like to take charge sometimes but I need a strong man to keep me in check. My boyfriend Matt lives with me but he is open to my need to explore.”

After Wilder contacted police, investigators subpoenaed records from Google for the [email protected] e-mail account. The documents revealed that the account was created on February 18, the day the fake Craigslist ad was posted. Google also provided the IP address from which the account was created, which resulted in the subsequent issuance of a subpoena to Verizon for subscriber information corresponding to that IP number.

Verizon records showed that Wilder’s ex-husband, Donald Larson, had been assigned the IP in question at a Sarasota address. During the execution of a June 15 search warrant at the home, Natasha Larson, Donald’s wife, admitted posting the phony Craigslist ad in Wilder’s name. Additionally, Larson, 34, “admitted that she had spoken with several unknown persons’ through e-mail inviting them to meet her at the victim’s home address for a sexual encounter and giving out the victim’s personal cell phone number.”

As a result, Larson--pictured in the above mug shot--was arrested yesterday and charged with criminal use of identification information, a felony. She was released from custody after posting $1500 bond.

The police report does not indicate why Larson targeted her husband’s former wife, though investigators did note that when Wilder first contacted cops about the fake ad, she did say that she suspected Larson was responsible for the Craigslist posting. (4 pages)