Lights Out

What does it mean to consent to your own murder? Sharon Lopatka was a typical, married, 35-year-old online entrepreneur. She lived in the quiet neighborhood of Hampstead, Maryland, until her husband discovered a note that set off alarm bells: “If my body is never retrieved, don’t worry. Know that I am at peace.” He would later discover Sharon’s internet secrets of gut-wrenching fetishes and brutal sexual violence that ultimately led her down a road from which she wouldn’t return. Her perpetrator, a shady man she met online, claimed it was all an accident and that Sharon had consented to it all.