Ashley Madison Leak Forces Cop To Commit Suicide, But He Wasn’t Even A Member Of The Site

A cop who committed suicide after his name appeared on the leaked list of Ashley Madison users wasn’t even member of the site, it has been revealed.

According to an investigation carried out by Mail Online, Captain Michael Gorhum, who killed himself with a gun on the premises of a church after his name was released post the Ashley Madison website hack, was in fact an unfortunate victim of a smearing campaign carried out by a police-hating blog, called Cop Block. As it turns out, Michael Gorhum never accessed Ashley Madison, the popular online dating website, which received widespread media attention this past July after hackers released the details of its users.

Michael Gorhum’s San Antonio Police email address was published in a list of alleged users of Ashley Madison on Cop Block, which is known for publishing content critical of the police. But an ensuing investigation has found out that Gorhum was never member of the site, and instead his name was published by Adam Mueller, the 33-year-old founder of police-hating website Cop Block, who hails from Wisconsin.

Along with Michael Gorhum’s email address in the list of fake Ashley Madison usernames published by Cop Block, the site also released several spoof names, including ‘orackobama@whitehouse.gov’, ‘yoda@irs.gov’ and ‘foxmulder@fbi.gov’, the latter being a reference to The X-Files, a popular American horror drama. The identification of spoof names in a list which supposedly contained names of Ashley Madison users alerted Gorhum’s colleagues that all was not right with the list.

A colleague of the cop who died said whoever released the list of fake names has blood on his hands.

“I have been told by several other officers who have heard the same and checked it on that blog. Everybody was shocked and reacted the same with ‘No. Not Mike … never.’ But when I logged on it only took me a few seconds to find his email. I hadn’t seen it anywhere else. Whoever was responsible for publishing his email address attached to being a cheater, and brought ridicule on him, has his blood on their hands.”

Adam Mueller has not commented on the credibility of his sources. He describes himself as a “keyboard-warrior” anarchist and has refused to take the blame for the death of Michael Gorhum. However, the San Antonio police confirmed that it will carry out an investigation against Mueller for publishing a fake list of Ashley Madison users, and if found guilty, Mueller may find himself facing a drawn-out trial for cyber-bullying, and possibly, even felony.

[Photo by Carl Court / Getty Images]