JENSINE ECKWALL
Fifteen years ago, Haley Byrd considered Matt Hickey her friend.
Long before Hickey, a Seattle-based tech journalist, would be accused of using an elaborate, fake “porn audition” scam to coerce multiple women into sleeping with him, she and Hickey ran in the same Olympia social circles.
He and Byrd frequented the same all-ages music shows. Two of Byrd’s high-school best friends eventually became Hickey’s housemates. To Byrd, Hickey was friendly; he was cool.
And at the time, Byrd had no reason to think otherwise.
