Woman sees man stalking her on Instagram while hiking, feds say. He’s been sentenced
A woman got a temporary restraining order against a man who was stalking her on Instagram — then saw him one day later while hiking at a Tennessee park, federal prosecutors say.
Two years later, a judge sentenced Barry Zarculia, 55, of Nashville, to three years in federal prison for cyberstalking on July 29, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee says.
The woman is one of six victims Zarculia is accused of stalking, harassing, intimidating, and threatening via Instagram from at least 2019, court documents show. Prosecutors say his sentencing comes after he pleaded guilty to three counts of cyberstalking in November 2021.
“I think I actually know where you live,” Zarculia is accused of telling the woman in an audio message sent to her Instagram account in September 2020, according to a complaint.
McClatchy News contacted Zarculia’s attorney for comment on Aug. 1 and was awaiting a response.
In June 2020, an anonymous tip alerted the FBI to Zarculia’s Instagram account about “hateful, racist, anti-black” posts he shared, according to the release. Additionally, Zarculia allegedly made posts commending the sniper who carried out the 2017 Las Vegas massacre.
Prosecutors accused him of using his account to send death threats, explicit photos and telling multiple victims he knew where they lived.
The cyberstalking victims
After Zarculia’s social media posts began getting “negative feedback” in 2020, he started posting identifying information about one man on his Instagram account, according to the complaint.
“Anyone that wants a piece of me, come on over…I sleep in the front bedroom,” Zarculia wrote in one post, sharing a photo of the man’s home and his address, court documents show.
In July 2020, the FBI interviewed the man who told investigators that his young son sleeps in the front bedroom and he was worried for him and his son’s safety, according to the complaint. They learned Zarculia allegedly sent the man death threats.
That same month, Zarculia began sending one woman unsolicited Instagram messages, the release says. He is accused of making “it apparent that he had followed her and knew where she had been and where she lived.”
One month before these messages, described as “sexual in nature,” began, the woman told the FBI she had seen Zarculia waving at her on roughly a dozen separate occasions as she walked or drove around her neighborhood, the complaint says.
Zarculia’s Instagram messages resulted in the woman installing a security system at her house and reporting him to the Metro Nashville Police Department, according to prosecutors.
On Sept. 19, 2020, the woman was at a gas station when Zarculia arrived — prompting her to hide in her car in the hopes that he “would not see her,” the complaint says.
However, in an Instagram audio message she received after arriving home, Zarculia made it clear that he did in fact see her and referenced how she lives near the gas station, according to prosecutors.
After more “threatening/harassing/intimidating messages,” the woman obtained a restraining order against Zarculia on Oct. 2, 2020, the complaint says.
On Oct. 3, 2020, the woman finished hiking at a local park when she saw Zarculia from afar and decided to hide in a large bush until he went away, prosecutors say.
A park ranger escorted the woman to her car when she again saw Zarculia, who yelled at her, “Stay away from me crazy a--! Going to see you in court!,” the complaint shows.
Zarculia is accused of cyberstalking and harassing at least three other women via Instagram, including one who said he eventually confronted her at a grocery store, the complaint shows.
In regards to this woman, “these messages continued to escalate to violent and threatening rants, some sent in audio format and also directed at a friend of the woman who had become involved out of fear for the woman’s safety,” the release says.
Zarculia’s victims “were forced to take additional security measures, including installing or updating their home alarm systems, or even moving from their home, in order to mitigate the threat,” prosecutors say.
This story was originally published August 1, 2022 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Woman sees man stalking her on Instagram while hiking, feds say. He’s been sentenced."
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