AG calls for Backpage to remove 'adult' section after Burlington escort murder

(MyFoxBoston.com) -- Police are still looking for a possible third suspect, who may have been driving the getaway car last week for two men who allegedly murdered a prostitute in a Burlington hotel. Authorities fear the men could be serial predators. 

The men are accused of using the online classified ad site Backpage in a scheme to rob escorts offering services on it.

Now, Attorney General Maura Healey is publicly calling on Backpage to immediately take down its adult services section, calling it long overdue.

A woman who offers her services on the website also told FOX25 that she, too, became the target of an armed attacker.

FOX25's Heather Hegedus searched Backpage.com and found postings of escorts warning each other about customers who'd robbed and harmed them, after meeting on the website.

Hegedus spoke over the phone with one escort who posted a warning, and now wonders if a customer who pulled a knife on her back in May might be one of the suspects in Thursday's murder at a Burlington hotel.

"Do you think escorts should be afraid for their lives knowing that this is happening now?" Hegedus asked the woman, who goes by the name Lady Monica. 

"No, what they should be is strong. Afraid will get you killed," she said. "If I was scared that night that [expletive] pulled a knife I would have been raped and robbed."

And it's not just escorts who are in danger; crimes can happen just as easily to the people surfing these websites for services.

Arlington Police Chief Fred Ryan shared a police report with FOX25 about a quadriplegic man who fell victim to two women he met online.

"They knocked the victim out of his wheelchair, robbed him, stole his computer and his money, and fled the scene," Ryan said.

Attorney General Healey is calling on Backpage to take down their adult services section. She has also publicly supported a lawsuit against the website.

"This is about the exploitation of human beings," she said. "Behind every name is somebody's mother, sister, daughter, brother, and the time has come for this to end this cycle of violence."

Hegedus asked Healey why the government can't take down Backpage or its adult services section, since many of the services offered on it, or insinuated on it, are illegal.

She said she isn't ruling anything out, but that past attempts have come up against a federal law that provides a shield to online publishers. It's law she feels needs updating.

Cox Media Group