Man pleads guilty to cyberstalking former MSU-Mankato classmate
Blue Earth County Jail
A Minneapolis man has pleaded guilty of cyberstalking after he made repeated online threats to a former classmate.
Jeffrey Collin Purdy, 28, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of cyberstalking in U.S. District Court in St. Paul. According to court documents, Purdy made threats to injure and kidnap a former classmate from August 2017 to February 2020. Purdy was charged in March.
The victim and Purdy had attended Minnesota State University, Mankato together, where she had rejected Purdy’s romantic advances. The victim initially reported Purdy to the Mankato Department of Public Safety for sending harassing emails in September 2017.
The victim blocked Purdy from her cell phone and social media accounts.
Purdy then used Mankato State’s State’s Silent Witness Report, an anonymous reporting tool, to contact the victim. Using the tool, Purdy made multiple threats against the victim. An IP address was able to trace the communications back to Purdy.
The case was investigated by the FBI, Mankato Department of Public Safety and the Blue Earth County Attorney’s Office.
In a February interview with the Mankato Department of Public Safety, Purdy admitted to sending the anonymous reports.
