Police are being coy releasing information about the connection between 34-year-old David Shern and his 19-year-old killer Larry Walters, a Black metal loving teen who openly professed a fascination with bondage, sado-masochism and “rope play” on his MySpace page. There he also posted pictures of him like the above which are clearly designed to advertise his interest in S&M to potential partners, along with videos of himself practicing sword fighting.

I put forward that his similarity to the murderer of George Weber is not just uncanny but may be an important clue in understanding what might of led to David Shern’s murder.

Which isn’t to say I am claiming that David Shern did or did not have a sexual relationship with Walters based on their shared love of rough sex, degradation and humiliation. The news reports make it very clear that the police are not going to confirm any such theories:

While police remain quiet on why they believe Larry James Walters fatally stabbed David Shern, the accused made his first appearance in Larimer County Court on Monday.

Magistrate Matthew Zehe advised the 19-year-old Walters that he is being investigated for first-degree murder for the stabbing at North Lake Park.

But he did not set bond.

[…]

Police will not say the reason behind the stabbing; they say releasing that information could hurt their investigation.

But they have said what are not reasons: Drugs or gangs.

Police have said at least six people were at North Lake Park about 9:45 p.m. Thursday when Walters allegedly stabbed Shern, 34.

A friend drove Shern to McKee Medical Center, where he died the next morning, according to police.

Police refuse to release any information about the weapon used or who brought that weapon to the park.

“We do know that, but we can’t release it,” Burreson said.

While police remain mum on what they believe is the motive, they do not believe there is a lingering danger at the park.

“It’s an isolated incident,” said Burreson. “We’ve arrested the one party that we believe caused that.”

Though they police claim the two did not know each other this could of course be a ruse to further an investigation or to simply spare Shern’s family the pain and embarrassment of his “outing” in the public square.

These six people being in a park at 10:00pm, factoring out drugs or gang involvement as the police say, seems to leave only “cruising” as the motive to their presence. “Cruising” in parks is a long standing tradition in many cities where men, gay, straight or more likely in that nether region between the two, gather in certain areas of public parks for anonymous sexual hook-ups and perhaps prostitution. The Brambles of Central Park is one such area. Whereas female prostitutes rightly fear doing business in such secluded night time spots where a mugging or worse could easily happen, male “hustlers” tend to (perhaps falsely) feel much more secure there.

Given his stated interest in Black metal one could surmise that Walters may have acted out the infamous 1993 murder of a homosexual (among other heinous crimes) by Count Grishnakh a.k.a. Varg Vikerens of the band Burzum, details of which can be found in the book Lords of Chaos. In that murder a gay man was targeted in a park and stabbed to death. This may be another scenario which the police deem too embarrassing for the family.

But Shern, who I am not blaming for his own death by any means, does fit a similar victimological profile to George Weber, who shared cocaine and liquor with his killer before engaging in the rough sex that led to his death. Shern is reported to have a lengthy criminal record that paints the picture of a man who liked to “party” including drunk driving arrests, and more sinisterly had a history of theft, restraining orders and at least one case of “impersonation” which tells us that he was, like Weber, out of control.

Of course Weber was a law abiding citizen while Shern wasn’t, but then again Weber was an out and accepted homosexual, while Shern is a man who police are shying away from explaining exactly what he was doing in a park news reports claim is known to be a popular hang out for teens.

The tight lipped police will leave us guessing, but the similarities between Larry Walters and the murderer of George Weber are hard to ignore. As the case progresses we may see more startling similarities but for now we are left to speculate if this was another Internet S&M liaison gone wrong.

h/t T.D.K.O.M