The first fugitive caught by the internet
Sebastian Strzalkowski still remembers the day his uncle Bill came to install a modem that would connect him to the World Wide Web.
Bill Young, or Uncle Bill as he was known to Sebastian, stood over the phone jack, fiddling with a splitter. His parents had agreed to buy him an internet connection, and their family friend Bill had come over to set it up.
They lived in the small city of Antigua, in central Guatemala, part of a tight-knit community of expats who grew close and were used to eccentric people coming and going. When Sebastian’s parents hired Anna Young, Bill’s wife, to help with bookkeeping for the family business, they learned the Youngs were no different.
Bill Young, 50ish and tattooed, was a local Mr. Fix-It who could rig up a boat in no time and rarely went anywhere without a beer. His gruff demeanor hid a kind heart: When the family needed a ride to a neighboring town to pick up Zorra, Sebastian’s new German shepherd puppy, it was Bill who drove them over.
Little did they know, Uncle Bill’s name wasn’t Bill Young at all. He was one of America’s most wanted fugitives. And it was Sebastian’s very internet connection that would bring him to justice after more than a decade on the run.
