Crime & Safety

Police Investigate Anonymous Sewickley Gossip Twitter Account

Edgeworth police said the investigation is ongoing.

An investigation is ongoing regarding a Twitter feed created to spread student gossip in Sewickley, according to Edgeworth police.

Edgeworth police said no one has been named or charged at this point, but the investigation is not over.

The Twitter handle @SewickleyGossip has since been taken down following an inappropriate incident last week that led local school officials to contact the police and the FBI.

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Mandi Semple, Sewickley Academy spokeswoman, said administrators learned in August that someone was posting inappropriate content about Sewickley minors.

The anonymous person was asking students via the social media network to send gossip that would then be disseminated on Twitter. Last week, the anonymous account holder crossed the line and posted a tweet claiming to have received a nude photo of an underage girl, authorities said.

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Semple said local police and the FBI were notified, along with the Allegheny County Department of Child Protective Services.

Semple said an announcement was made about the account to Senior School students the morning of Sept. 28. About 20 minutes later, all posts had been removed and the account taken down, she said.

The school also sent a letter to parents explaining the situation.

Quaker Valley spokeswoman Tina Vojtko said the district found out about the account after an anonymous person called the school hotline. Vojtko said school officials took a look and found the graphic content to be “alarming.”

Vojtko said the district immediately reported the matter to police and notified Sewickley Academy.

“We felt compelled to call Sewickley Academy, and they had already known about it,” she said.

Semple said school officials are unsure if the account-holder attends Sewickley Academy.

"There's no way to tell who was doing it," she said.


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