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Billy Joel Daughter Alexa Ray's Alleged Cyberstalker Arrested

By Aditi Mukherji, JD on April 16, 2013 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A cyberstalker allegedly barraged Billy Joel's daughter Alexa Ray Joel with creepy Facebook messages, and the content involved "pedophilia, sadistic-sexual behavior, violent physical assaults and murder," according to court records.

Alexa Ray Joel, whose song "Notice Me" seems to have landed her with wrong kind of notice, was reportedly afraid to leave her Manhattan home.

Billy Joel hired his buddy Paul McCartney's private eye to hunt the stalker down, reports The New York Post.

The private eye found Sheryl Finley, a 40-year-old woman, naked in the woods in Minnesota. She "started the fire" by allegedly sending Alexa Ray Joel more than 60 messages full of violent threats, reports The Post.

She was reportedly sending the Facebook messages under the alias "Rick Steenfield" -- not to be confused with "Rick Springfield."

Finley has been charged with a felony for stalking Ms. Joel via electronic messages sent by false impersonation, and with a gross misdemeanor for stalking via repeated electronic messages, reports The Telegraph.

Cyberstalking is a flavor of harassment. Generally, a victim needs to show a pattern of harassment through websites, email, text messages, or other types of electronic communication.

If Finley is convicted of cyberstalking, she could face a restraining order, probation, and criminal penalties. But since Finley has a long history of mental illness and apparently told the police she didn't want to do those horrible things to Joel "during this life," she will likely get a psychiatric evaluation first.

Oddly enough, Finley remained hopeful that Alexa Ray wouldn't "object to meeting with her." This is a wild guess, but she's probably off social media.

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