I understand that when married couples decide they don't like each other any more, they sometimes opt for extreme feelings and gestures.

No wife, though, has perhaps expressed herself in quite as socially networked way as Angela Voelkert.

Voelkert, according to court records obtained by the Smoking Gun, decided to use Facebook to see if she could find out what was really in her husband's mind.

She created a Facebook profile for a superficially attention-grabbing teenage girl called Jessica Studebaker. Her first step was for her creation to friend her estranged husband. Her next step was to persuade a trusted friend to be Studebaker's typing fingers and to entice her husband, David, into communication.

This allegedly worked better than many might imagine. Soon, the court papers declare, David Voelkert was e-mailing his newfound Ms. Studebaker and revealing details of plans to disappear with his children.

It seems that Voelkert might be technically inclined, given that he owns a South Bend, Ind., business called Secured Alarms, some of whose customers are allegedly police departments.

So a Facebook message he allegedly wrote to Studebaker might just have tipped the balance in the eyes of the FBI. It is said to have read: "O.K. Here is the deal. I had a GPS tracker on my van and I took it off earlier, it was just installed on my ex-wife's van so I can track her and know where she goes."

He then allegedly made suggestions that he would find someone to "take care of" his ex-wife.

Oddly, the FBI allegations in these court papers suggest that David Voelkert then believed he could leave for another state and that Studebaker, whom he'd never met (given that she didn't exist), would come with him.

David Voelkert has been charged (and appeared in court yesterday) with installing a listening device into his wife's car. He has not been charged with threats towards his wife.

It is not clear where the picture of the invented Ms. Studebaker came from, but the profile is currently still up on Facebook.