Man Drives 40 Hours to Stalk 15 Year-Old Girl He Met Online in Halo

In Re: stephen says 01/08/08 12:17 PM
Just because the guy represents himself to be a Christian doesn’t make him one. After all, he spends an inordinate amount of time living in a fantasy electronic world were “you can be anything you want to be.” I doubt that he really knows anything about Christianity (or anything else in the real world). Looks like a case of lack of parental supervision for most of his life. His parents probably gave him a credit card and expense account and turned him loose on the world because they couldn’t be bothered with actually being responsible for their offspring.

Stephen, It's ok if you think I'm nutty, but have blessed day anyway! :)

Notice the one thing that most of these unstable people have in common...christianity. Breeds instability and lack of reasonable free-thinking. So sad.

1ST OFF ERIC HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. THESE KIDS ARE GIVEN WAY TOO MUCH SLACK. I HAD MY 1ST JOB AT 15 AND BEEN WORKING EVER SINCE. KIDS NOW A DAYS SELL DRUGS OR JUST DON'T CARE OR MOOCH OFF THEIR PARENTS. MY PARENTS WOULDNT GET IT FOR ME UNLESS IT WAS A NESECITY IT IF WAS A WANT, THEN I HAD TO BUY IT. KELLIE NOBODY HERE CLAIMED TO A PERFECT PARENT IF YOU READ THE PAST COMMENTS THEY SAY THEY'VE MADE MISTAKES TOO. I'M NOT SURE Y WE'RE GETTING ON TO WHO'S A PERFECT PARENT WHEN THIS WHOLE TOPIC STARTED BC OF A 20 YEAR OLD CRAZY WHO IS WALKING THE STREETS. AND THAT GIRLS PARENTS HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING LEGALY YET TO HIM. I AGREE HER PARENTS SHOULDNT HAVE LET HER ONLINE JUST LIKE HUNDREDS OF OTHER PARENTS SHOULDN'T LET THEIR CHILD OR TEEN ONLINE. WHEN KIDS GET OLDER AND OF AGE THEN I THINK IT WILL BE APPROPRIATE FOR A PERSON TO USING NET, BC THE WHOLE TIME THEY WERNT THEY SHOULD BE HAVING DRILLED IN THEIR HEAD HOW TO BE SAFE WHEN THEY DO GET AROUND THE INTERNET. BUT INSTEAD ITS TURNED INTO A BABY SITTER FOR PARENTS

When I was that age I met lots of people on line- I also participated in on-line gaming communities and I met some people who ended up being wonderful mentors and great friends who I still talk to today... I also met some people who turned out to be pedophiles, con artists, and general creeps...

I had pretty good luck in the beginning, meeting genuinely nice people with similar interests who tended to be around my age- the bad luck happens when you've had good luck and then you start giving people the benefit of the doubt!

It's sheer luck that nothing really terrible ever happened to me- in retrospect I made some seriously stupid decisions on a few occasions where I put myself into situations which, even though I did handle them without anything terrible happening, I can see could have gone very poorly.

And for those of you who are saying the parent didn't supervise their daughter enough- my father was paying someone to go through my computer and print out anything they thought he should see the whole time I was in middle school and high school... I was heavily monitored but you know what... a) that breeds resentment- even if he had my best interests in mind there's a right way to go about things- talk to your kids but at least pretend like you have some faith in them! b) he still doesn't know half of the things I did or people I met or talked to on line or on the phone because I learned how to cover my tracks. If your kid doesn't want you to know something you're not going to know it. It would have been much more effective for him to sit me down and show me stories like this to explain why it was so important to be vigil and careful.

If you've got kids using the internet (at your house, at a friend's house, on their phone, at school, whatever) show them stories like this, explain that you do trust them to make good decisions and that you want to hear about who they are talking to- not because you want to scrutinize everything they do but because you want to know about their friends. I met so many cool people on line that I would have loved to have told my dad about- but his attitude was that the only people I was ever going to meet were creeps and so I shouldn't meet/talk to anyone and I know that the good people that I did meet contributed positively to my life. If he had acted like an interested party rather than a jail warden he probably would have been a lot more help to me in pointing out warning signs about people.

And it's sooo easy to stalk people. Now that I'm the adult and sometimes the people I'm talking to in the gamming communities are teens or young adults if we develop any kind of friendship beyond gaming if they offer to give me their number I point out to them how easy it is for me to find their last name or their address or information about them/their family if they do that- not because I care about the information but because they need to know that you're almost never really giving someone "just" a phone number or even "just" an e-mail address.

I gave one guy an e-mail address that I had used while in college, not realizing there was a cashe of a web page that listed a directory of all the members of a group I belonged to that still had that e-mail address on it and that guy used just that e-mail address to find my name and what school I went to and from there quite a few other pieces of information as well...

Pretend to stalk yourself for an hour- use google to search your name and your phone numbers and e-mail addresses and the reverse phone number option at whitepages.com etc etc

Don't live in fear, just be conscious about what information you're actually giving a person and give yourself pleeenty of time before making any decisions about whether someone you've met is really a decent human being.

Marlinj,
Have you looked at his website? It is really very pious. I don't know why you are making up a whole fantasy explanation. Look at his website before you comment. The man really knows his Christianity. Probably, I hate to say this, better than you know yours.
And Lissa.......
You have a blessed day too Lissa. By the by, have I mentioned a really nice piece of property out your way that you can buy today for just pennies on the dollar. Or, how about that new diet pill that I guarantee will make you shed 20 pounds in a week with not exercize and no dieting.
(Oh well, there really is one born every minute.)

Come on, people, we're talking about a 15 y.o. How good was your judgement at that age.

I don't play Halo... but I do play a lot of other games online. I always pick the male avatar..lol
I don't want anyone to even begin to flirt with me...I am an older woman who thinks that crap is a waste of time and space on the web...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME STEPHEN. HIS PAGE IS CRAZY. AND WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE YOU GET ON HERE TO BASH OTHERS. DALLAS SUMMED IT UP GOOD ENOUGH AND IT SHOULD BE LEFT AT THAT. NOT PEOPLE IN HERE TEASING OTHER PEOPLE. I THOUGHT THE BULLY THING WAS COVERED A FEW PAGES AGO.

In Re: stephen says: 01/08/08 1:11 PM
“Lissa,
My Dear lady.....
God personally guides you too? That's a mighty busy God. Good luck in future and please be sure to say hello to Pat. For you; not for me.”

Stephen is yet another atheistic ignoramus. He questions God ability to guide you and says he must be mighty busy. God is infinite and omnipotent, therefore is able to be personally interested in everyone at the same time. The reason Stephen can’t find God is he refuses to look and prefers to mock those who believe. Lissa, I suggest you do as the Bible says. If they receive not the message then shake the dust of that place from your feet and leave them in their ignorance. There is no use talking to someone who won’t listen.

M.G.
What would possibly make you think that I am kidding?
Have YOU looked at his webpage?
I have .... and it ain't crazy at all!
(And why are you shouting?)

If he goes to prison Mr. Stetar, will change his mind about homos when he meets Bubba-whether he likes it or not!

You can ignore all of the comments in this blog except those from Jill and Dee. These moms have their heads on straight. Bless you, ladies.

cut his nads off

Marlinj Brown:

Good advice and thanks!

OK, she's 15. In three years she will be an adult in the eyes of socity. The parents are not to blame. The girl and the man are. The girl should know better than to give her personal info out to anybody that asks and the man just has problems and needs help. I meet my husband online when I was 18 over Myspace, how typical. Me being head over heels for him I gave him my phone number over a survey, he never asked for it. Then I gave him my address when he asked. No problem. DEAR GOD I WAS SO STUPID!!! I got lucky and didn't get a freak but God know's I could have, and no it wasn't my parents fault. They told me several times never to give out personal info and even went through my mail and everything else to make sure I wasn't being stupid. I didn't want them to find out what I had done, and they didn't. So there's nobody to blame but the 15 yr old.

I'm a kid who plays Halo 3 and other interactive online games, and I would never in a million years give personal info out. I remember once that someone asked what STATE I lived in and I refused. My mom always warns me about things like this. She's actually the one who sent this to me. But to other kids out there, be careful what you do and say online, because you never know what will happen.