ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – After weeks of appealing to police and officials on three continents to stop a stalker seemingly bent on kidnapping her, 31-year-old social media influencer Alexandra Saper said help may finally be at hand.
The Bali-based American said she fled Indonesia after Robert Keating – who had set up multiple Instagram accounts to send her messages and “dark” e-mails including dozens of lurid videos – arrived at the resort island on January 29.
Saper said she had previously consoled herself that the messages were the work of an unstable mind who likely would not navigate the challenges of international travel to follow through on the threats.
“Up until then I was terrified, but I spoke to my parents about it and to my friends in Bali, and we were all just: ‘He’s mentally ill. He won’t do this.’ I was able to tell myself it wasn’t a real threat,” said the lawyer-turned-travel-blogger, who has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
But then Keating, said to be a 38-year-old former traffic management operative from Horsham, West Sussex, England, reached out to Saper’s friends asking for her whereabouts and sent messages regarding his travel dates.
“When he got to Bali, I finally thought, this is a threat. This is a danger,” she said.
She filed a report with the local police and moved in with friends. On February 15, Saper, who calls Keating “deranged” and “delusional” in her posts, announced on Instagram that she had escaped to “somewhere else in the world where I know I won’t be found”.
During a video chat, Saper was visibly exhausted and said she was suffering from acid reflux due to stress. She said she would use her “privilege” and social media following to raise awareness of online harassment.
