Pitt Student Says Unknown Snapchat User Has Been Threatening, Harassing Her
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A University Of Pittsburgh student says she has spent the last few weeks fearing for her life after receiving threatening messages on Snapchat from someone she has never met.
Worse yet, when the student blocked the account, the messages didn't stop; they got worse.
Pitt Police got involved and now the student is speaking out.
According to the student's attorney and information from authorities, there may be another female victimized by the same Snapchat user.
When the attorney for the victim of the Snapchat threats on Pitt's campus got Pitt police involved, they were able to capture metadata from Snapchat. That metadata indicates another potential college student victim who may have been harassed by the same Snapchat user.
KDKA is protecting the victim's identity but the Pitt student harassed on Snapchat spoke to us outside the Pete on Saturday. The Pitt freshman has been receiving threatening messages on Snapchat from someone she doesn't know.
"It's terrifying because it's more not knowing. I didn't know when I got these threats if it was someone in my classes or if it was someone across the world," she said.
It began from a Snapchat account she didn't recognize with someone asking her on a date. When she said no, the harassment and threats on Snapchat got worse. The user said he'd find her on campus and slit her throat.
"When you get messages that are threats, I feel like... I reported it. You can send a little message [to Snapchat] saying, like, what happened and I sent a message telling them the threats and [Snapchat] never even responded," the Pitt student said.
That's when the Pitt freshman and her family reached out to their attorney, who also reached out to Snapchat and the Pitt police.
Lee Davis is the attorney for the victim.
"It's unbelievable that you can't protect yourself. You don't know who these people are. They could be anyone," Davis said. "We have an individual we're looking at. We are trying to get him charged but the Pitt Police don't have jurisdiction."
The young woman says she is undergoing counseling and her life has been terrorized.
No charges have been filed so far and Snapchat has not returned any inquiries as to why it took them so long to respond.