The Fifth Nail is a blog hosted by Blogger (via Wired). Dark blackground, bright fonts, almost similar to the plethora of Blogger blogs.

Its content, however, is chilling.

The blog is purported to belong to Joseph Duncan, a registered sex offender currently charged with the kidnapping of Shasta and Dylan Groene. Dylan is still missing, but many believe that he is dead.

The blog details Duncan's apparent inner turmoil as he "wrestles with Demons". His second last entry reveals this alleged battle is lost, and that the loosed demons have "locked up the 'Happy Joe' person [Duncan's innocent persona] in the same dungeon that 'Happy Joe' kept them in for so many years". In the April 24th entry, he admits that "only two people in the world have a clue as to the power and nature of my demons (besides me) and they will probably never read this".

The blog has since received the attention of the mainstream media, and the sheer volume of the comments left in the last few entries are nothing short of staggering. Many call for his head (in a less poetic fashion... I believe this blog can contend for the most number of expletives in a website), while others are sympathetic enough for Duncan's, wishing his "cries for help" were heeded. Yet some others comfort Duncan, assuring him that:

He loves you and wants to heal you. I don't know how long you will sit in jail or what your ultimate fate will be, but please remember that God loves you and will always forgive you. Not only that, he will give his precious spirit to you and you can feel his presence which will give you such peace, happiness, and joy that you will know longer care whether you are in jail, or whether you live or die. You will feel safe! I know you want to feel safe. He will take your fear of death away. He will take your guilt away.

All three types of responses chill me almost as much as the blog itself. The first type because of its mob mentality. The second type because it somehow suggests that Duncan is not entirely at fault because he blogged about his turmoil but received no help. The third type because it presumes a God that exonerates all wrongdoing unconditionally*.

I do not know if this blog is a prank, though many appear to believe in its veracity. Although it has entries dating back to January 2004, it is not impossible for someone who is patient to pull an elaborate prank, because Blogger allows the poster to change the date of the posts. Perhaps what some visitors to the blog wrote are not without truth:

Why on earth can we not monitor things of this nature? We have the technology to do it, but it takes the death of a child in order for someone to react.

I do not normally approve of all internet monitoring, but if monitoring of blogs could have helped Shasta and Dylan Groene, then perhaps we are ethically predisposed to do so.

* Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14)

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