Wednesday, Mar. 03, 2010

Mystery fax involves Silliman's death

The Wake County Sheriff's Office and two Raleigh defense lawyers recently received an anonymously faxed document that contained information about the 2008 disappearance and murder of Apex High School student Matthew Silliman.

The document was faxed Jan. 24 from faxzero.com, a free online fax service, to the Sheriff's Office and the offices of Raleigh defense attorneys Joe Cheshire and Celia Visser.

Wake County sheriff's investigators obtained a search warrant and traced the fax to the Yahoo e-mail account avatarapex2009@yahoo.com.

However, the investigators declined to identify the holder of the account.

The warrant does not reveal the contents of the faxed document.

State investigators were intrigued, because the document contained "specific case related facts that have not been released to the public."

The body of Silliman, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout, was found on Dec. 2, 2008, in a plastic bag on the bathroom floor of a mobile home in the New Hill community in southwestern Wake County.

The teen had been reported missing one week before, on Nov. 25.

Four of Silliman's acquaintances - Alegra Dahlquist, 19; Aadil Khan, 18; Drew Shaw, 18; and Ryan Hare, 19 - were charged in the drug overdose and beating death of Silliman one day after his body was found.

The youths were linked by friends, courtships and social networking Web sites.

Attempts to reach Cheshire, who is representing Dahlquist, were unsuccessful.

Visser, who works with the Wake County Public Defenders Office, also could not be reached for comment last week.

Last month, Hare, Dahlquist and Khan also were indicted on charges of conspiring and attempting to murder Silliman on Nov. 25, the last day he was seen at his Apex home.

The four teens charged in Silliman's death all remain in custody without bail.