Parole violation alleged in Facebook case

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DETROIT, June 21 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman sentenced for taunting a terminally ill girl on Facebook and trying to run another neighbor over is violating her probation, neighbors claim.

Jennifer Petkov, who was ordered to move out of her Trenton home during her 18-month probationary sentence, has been sneaking back into the home where her husband and children still live and has resumed taunting her neighbors with Internet postings, neighbors told The Detroit News.

"I'm frustrated. All we asked for was a peaceful summer. It should not be this hard to get," Rebecca Rose, the grandmother of 8-year-old Kathleen Edward, who was the victim of Petkov's Facebook taunts, told the newspaper.

Kathleen was diagnosed in June 2009 with Huntington's disease, a neurological disorder that claimed the life of her mother, Laura Edward. The taunts allegedly began in 2008 with Petkov's admitted postings of altered photos of Laura Edward in the arms of the Grim Reaper and a photo of Kathleen's crying face over crossed bones.

The complaints about Petkov's alleged visits to the home are under investigation as a possible probation violation, Trenton Police Chief William Lilienthal said Monday.

The complaints about Internet harassment would be more difficult to prove, he said.

"We have a great deal of difficulty proving who it is behind a screen name," Lilienthal said. "It isn't impossible, but it is difficult."