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Caution: Contains disturbing content; discretion advised.
Melissa Friedrich
Note: Images enhanced for clarity, resolution, lighting, and minor blemishes.
Melissa Ann Shepard
The Canadian black widow.
Victim(s)
Gordon Stewart (44M), Robert Friedrich (73M), multiple elderly men defrauded or poisoned
Perpetrator(s)
Melissa Ann Shepard (a.k.a. Melissa Ann Weeks, Melissa Ann Friedrich, Melissa Ann Shephard, Melissa Ann Stewart)
Case Status
Closed Case
Case Years
1991–2013
Location(s)
Nova Scotia, Canada—Florida, United States
Read synopsis
Melissa Ann Shepard, born in 1935 in Nova Scotia, became known across North America as the “Internet Black Widow” for her pattern of marrying or befriending older men before drugging, defrauding, and in some cases killing them. In 1991 she was convicted of manslaughter for the death of her husband Gordon Stewart, whom she drugged and ran over twice with a car. Years later she served time in the United States for defrauding an elderly man she met online, and in 2013 she was again imprisoned in Canada for poisoning another husband, Fred Weeks. Her crimes revealed a chilling pattern of manipulation and predation, hiding behind the mask of charm and companionship.
