Barbara Schroeder’s debut feature documentary, ‘talhotblond,’ is a horrific Internet tale that keeps the viewer engrossed throughout its 67-minute running time. MSNBC has purchased the television rights and Paramount the movie rights from the Pacific Palisades resident, who is an award-winning television journalist and former Fox Television news anchor. Schroeder, who made a short documentary in 2007 called ‘Six (and a Half) Secrets of Love,’ was searching for a topic for her second documentary when her husband Richard showed her a story in Wired magazine. Schroeder initially protested because she felt it was just another Internet saga, but Richard made her promise to keep reading until page two because there was a ‘twist.’ ‘As a journalist, I couldn’t believe the story,’ says Schroeder, who thought that someone must already own the rights. She made some calls, only to find out that the true tale had only been featured on local television and had not yet received national television coverage. After securing the rights to the story, she read the e-mail transcripts. ‘First it was like a romance novel,’ she says, ‘and then it turned to a horror story.’ The story is as follows: Tom Montgomery, a 47-year-old married New York factory worker and father of two daughters, is a frequent visitor to Internet game rooms. On one site, he comes across the moniker ‘talhotblond’ and strikes up a conversation with 18-year-old Jessi, who lives in West Virginia. Using the screen name ‘marinesniper,’ Montgomery, claiming to be a 19-year-old Marine waiting for deployment to Iraq, strikes up an online rapport with Jessi. A steamy online romance ensues, with Montgomery spending more and more of his evenings immersed in this cyber fantasy. According to neighbors, Montgomery was a kind man, a person who was on his daughters’ swim team board and a church member. As the months go on, he becomes more and more smitten with Jessi, who has posted wholesome photos from her high school basketball and softball teams, and graduation and prom. Jessi’s language becomes increasingly graphic and eventually she sends sexy underwear to Montgomery. Montgomery’s wife discovers the underwear and sends a letter and a photo of the family to Jessi to let her know she’s not communicating with a young buffed Marine, but rather her middle-aged husband. Jessi then contacts another 21-year-old Brian Barrett, a part-time student, who works at the same factory as Montgomery, to verify the story. Barrett and Jessi hit it off and he becomes enamored with the pretty girl. While still communicating with Barrett, Jessi contacts Montgomery again. She pits the two men against each other. Barrett backs off, but Jessi doesn’t let Montgomery know, playing on his jealousy. In January 2009, Barrett is murdered and Montgomery is arrested. Police find Montgomery’s messages from Jessi and worry about the young girl’s safety. They contact police in West Virginia, who go to Jessi’s home. They don’t find the teen, but do find Mary, Jessi’s frumpy-overweight mother with brown hair, who has been posing as her daughter, without her daughter’s knowledge. ‘The mother [Mary Shieler] never broke any laws,’ Schroeder says. ‘She was never convicted of anything.’ Schroeder explains that the woman had an adoring husband [Tim], but was bored, lonely, had no job, no career and the Internet was everything to her. She and Tim later divorced. ‘This woman got away with a virtual accessory to murder,’ Schroeder says. ‘She didn’t do anything illegally, but morally she did something unspeakable.’ In a video captured during her divorce hearing, the Internet affair and the death of Barrett was brought up. Shieler responded, ‘Get over it, I have.’ Schroeder, who graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in communications, started her career as a reporter and television anchor in Michigan. Soon after moving to Los Angeles in 1992, she was assigned to the anchor seat for Fox during the L.A. riots. In addition to winning several Emmys for her television work, she has co-authored the book ‘The Diet for Teenagers Only.’ Her first short documentary was a 2007 Winner for Best Documentary at the Hollywood DV Film Festival. In order to make ‘talhotblond,’ Schroeder’s production company, The Answers Productions, secured rights from Montgomery, Tim Shieler and Jessi. Brian Barrett’s parents Deb and Dan, shared Schroeder’s sentiment about Shieler and have started a petition on the film’s Web site (talhotblond.com) asking people to support the call for new legislation regarding accountability on the Internet. ‘Talhotblond’ is available on Amazon and iTunes. When asked if she is currently working on another project, Schroeder responds, ‘People are coming to me with ideas. I may want to do something a little less dark. Although”
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