{"id":1502802,"date":"2022-06-03T16:04:15","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T20:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1502802"},"modified":"2022-06-03T16:04:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T20:04:19","slug":"fact-check-did-a-florida-man-turn-himself-in-for-killing-his-imaginary-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-a-florida-man-turn-himself-in-for-killing-his-imaginary-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Did A Florida Man Turn Himself In For Killing His Imaginary Friend?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-did-a-florida-man-turn-himself-in-for-killing-his-imaginary-friend%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1502802&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>An image <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dahlia.legault\/posts\/pfbid02FkckYKieg64dVvcX1tf9w1SFD9b2PCykVR6EQAkB5aUPxF3118E3M2fHyJiNY7dgl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> purportedly shows a news article with a headline that reads, \u201cFlorida Man On Drugs Kills Imaginary Friend &#038; Turns Himself In.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The details of the article are fabricated, The article stems from a satirical website.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dahlia.legault\/posts\/pfbid02FkckYKieg64dVvcX1tf9w1SFD9b2PCykVR6EQAkB5aUPxF3118E3M2fHyJiNY7dgl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">post<\/a> shows what appears to be a news article featuring the mugshot of an unidentified man and the headline, \u201cFlorida Man On Drugs Kills Imaginary Friend &#038; Turns Himself In.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAhhhh. I love you Florida man,\u201d reads the post\u2019s caption. <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2020\/08\/27\/fact-check-florida-couple-arrested-golden-tickets-heaven\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Was A Florida Couple Arrested For Selling Fake \u2018Golden Tickets To Heaven\u2019?)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The story is not genuine. A keyword search revealed the article first appeared in May 2015 on <a href=\"https:\/\/moron.com\/florida-murder-imaginary-friend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Moron.com<\/a>, with the writer of the article listed as \u201cMORON.\u201d The outlet describes itself as \u201cMoronic stories and people from around the web\u201d on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/moroncom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a> page. The website itself has not been updated since 2016 nor does it feature a Disclaimer identifying itself as a satirical site.<\/p>\n<p>The article goes on to claim that the suspect, Geoff Gaylord, was arrested in Jacksonville for the alleged crime. However, there are no credible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=Geoff+Gaylord&#038;sourceid=chrome&#038;ie=UTF-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">news reports<\/a> suggesting a man by that name was arrested for committing such a crime. There are likewise no announcements about the alleged arrest on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jaxsheriff.org\/News.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s website<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile\/100064548499593\/search\/?q=imaginary%20friend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">social<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jaxsheriff\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">media<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=imaginary%20friend%20murder%20(from%3A%40JSOPIO)&#038;src=typed_query&#038;f=top\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accounts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>John Medina, a spokesperson for the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/factchecks\/2022\/jun\/01\/facebook-posts\/no-record-florida-man-turning-himself-murdering-hi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PolitiFact<\/a> he could not locate an incident that matched the scenario described in the Facebook post.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/florida-man-turns-murdering-imaginary-friend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Snopes<\/a> previously debunked the story in 2015, stating that the mugshot had been taken from a now-deleted gallery of \u201ccrying mugshots\u201d created by Tampa Bay television station WTSP-TV in 2011. The man pictured was found to be a Florida resident named Billy Southern, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Check Your Fact has reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office for comment and will update this piece if a response is given.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a news article with a headline that reads, \u201cFlorida Man On Drugs Kills Imaginary Friend &#038; Turns Himself In.\u201dVerdict: False The details of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}