WEBVTT - Episode 1: The Death of Laura West 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:04.800 This episode contains references to suicide. You can find links 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:11.840 in our show notes to support services. Let me start 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:15.960 in December twenty ten. It's a Monday morning in Auckland, 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.960 New Zealand's largest city, and a cluster of young people 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:25.599 are waking to a nightmare. A young woman, Laura Jane West, 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.840 has been killed overnight in a car crash. She was twenty, 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.239 survived by a five year old daughter, Caylee. This was 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.839 devastating news for Laura's family, but the shock the grief 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:43.240 of losing Laura went much further. Laura was bright, bubbly, vivacious, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:49.920 and like her sister's very pretty and popular, particularly online. 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.400 When it came to Facebook, Laura and her three sisters 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.320 and their friends at times were a swirling whirlwind of 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:01.160 excitement to the first generation to truly raise social media. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:07.240 Distance disappeared and they connected with people across the country. Laura, 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.080 dead at twenty, was barely sixteen when she joined Facebook, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.040 and the years that followed she built friendships and even 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:20.160 discovered love online. So when his sister Abby announced Laura's 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.920 death on Facebook, the impact the grief went far beyond 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:26.120 her immediate family. 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:30.400 Last night, at three am, Laura and May opt into 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.479 a car with a guy they trusted and know really 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.520 well who told them he was sober to stand out 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:37.920 to be alive. He was five times over the limit. 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:40.600 My particle sister just wanted to forget and have a 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.240 good night out. On the way home, the driver of 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.080 the car checked the corner at great speed and lost 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.600 control of the car, heading into the lamppost rap. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.560 Babeger, there have been tragedy enough in Laura Wes's family. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.880 Just weeks earlier, the sisters Rachel, Abby and Becker shared 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.240 through Facebook that they'd lost their dad. He was one 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:03.360 of the twenty nine men killed when the Pike River 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.880 mine on the West Coast exploded. And now Laura dead too. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.520 A young life cut short just when it was getting going. 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.320 The daughter Kaylee left without a mother. It's a tragedy 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.560 in every sense of the word, and the Facebook post 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.720 was filled quickly with tributes from those who counted her 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.680 as a friend, even if they had never met in 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:25.280 real life. 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.040 Rap baby girl, you were there for me always when 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.320 Amy passed, and fuck, I'm going to miss you like 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:36.520 I do Amy every fricking day. I love you the rest, easy, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:41.639 little one. Always missed, never far from her heart. Hey, 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.480 my sys fucking miss you like crazy. Love you so much, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.399 Never going to forget you in my heart forever. Love 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:49.120 you bud. 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:50.760 R P. 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.080 Baby girl, I'm going to miss your big times. 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:53.960 See you my God. 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:59.320 I can't believe this is true, mate, I miss you. 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:09.560 Remember the time when I saw you jis and my 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.960 heart goes out to you and wee Kaylee. 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.840 Then there were those who learned more directly. In the 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.119 South Island, in a small town not far from christ Church, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.280 a grandmother called Bernie received a phone call when her 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.320 teenage daughter Emma had started making friends online. Bernie had 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.760 got on the phone to check them out, and that's 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.720 how she came to know Laura and Abby, discovering through 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:41.840 them a distant family connection. They called her Auntie when 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.040 they called or connected on a messenger. Emma was the 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:49.760 new founder cousin. So that day, December sixth, twenty ten, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.120 remains fixed in their memory for the impact it had. 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.120 When a broken, distraught Abby rang to break the news 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:58.320 to Bernie. 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:02.880 Abby wrung, Mum and I are a mess. So Laura 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.560 is dead and my mom was like she was like no. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:08.680 She had a car crash and she did. They took 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.960 the ICU, but she didn't make it. Yeah, we got 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.600 the message, and then I got a message or a 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:18.720 phone call at the home saying she dead. Your cousins did, 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.280 and you know that sent both of us spiraling. 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:23.480 It was a. 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.600 Crushing blow for the mother and daughter, but especially for Emma. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.240 She had lost a friend, a close friend, to suicide 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.200 just months earlier, and a friend who died before that 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.919 at a car crash that was very similar to that 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:38.839 which killed Laura. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.320 That's what I went on a big bender because I yeah, no, 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.000 I want a big bender. Then you know, I broke 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.279 my sobriety. We just sat there numb and grieving, and 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.360 we were trying to, you know, help planning the funeral. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.440 We were we were like trying to make the trip 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.200 up north apparently too, that's where it was happening. 0:04:59.400 --> 0:04:59.640 Thank you. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.440 Yeah everything, oh nine yards just to get up there, 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.440 because I was made to carry of the casket. 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.480 All these years down the track. They can't shake the 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.159 horror of losing so suddenly, such a bright spark of 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.480 life and a thoughtless drink drive death. 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:15.080 Early that Monday morning. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.800 For Sam Baker, who was dating Abbie, he remembers the 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:23.200 distress and wanting to console Laura's boyfriend. 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.880 I heard from my friend and he was very very upset. 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.440 He just read about it on Facebook. I think one 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.440 of the sisters had gotten in contact with him, or 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.840 it might have even been I don't know. I'm really 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.320 scratching my fourteen year old memory here, but there may 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:42.719 have been a mother Facebook page that was involved as well, 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.080 that reached out to my friend and said that, yeah, 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.760 very very sorry to tell you, but Laura's tragically passed away. 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.479 You know, she loved you dearly. She wanted to build 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.679 this big life with you and everything. It's really really sad, 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.160 but feel free to keep in contact with us, because 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.119 you know, you're like family to us. Like my mate, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:02.640 he liked he was going to buy a ring for 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.719 her and stuff like. They were really really locked in. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.160 So whendn't he found the news? When I found the 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:09.560 news out from him, you know, I went up to 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.400 console him, but he was beside himself. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:12.839 It was really quite horrible. 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.040 But there's a catch to this story, and that catch 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.560 is that Laura never existed. Her daughter Kayley didn't exist. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.080 There was no car, no car crash, there was no 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.920 death at all. Abby didn't exist. None of the sisters existed. 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:34.560 They were all characters created by one woman, a woman 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.320 who joined in the Facebook grief posting with a heartfelt 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.719 message that she knew wasn't true. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.680 At twenty, you have not even lived yet, my sweet girl. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:47.240 Why is all I am asking? 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:48.480 You know? 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.719 Getting into a car with a drunk hass driver is wrong? Babe, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.800 Rip Laura Jane West, you are going to be missed 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:56.760 and loved. 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:03.680 That post was written by Natalia Burgess. My name's David Fisher. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.279 I'm an investigative journalist with the New Zealand Herald. I 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.559 first heard about Natalia a few months after this post 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.920 bent up back in twenty eleven. I've written thousands of 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.520 stories over thirty five years in journalism, thousands of lives 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:20.960 that have touched mine and carried on into the future. 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.800 In my life, people come and go with the stories 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.200 they have to tell, and then there are those stories 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.880 and people that come back. This is one of those stories. 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.520 This is a story about Natalia Burgess, also known as 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:42.600 Laura West or Amy West or Kaylie Rose Becker, Julienne 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:48.520 Abby William, Rachel Drent, and so many other names. There 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:52.640 were so many false identities Natalia Burgess created online and 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:54.240 infused with life. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.000 And histories and friendships. 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.840 The problem with Natalia's fancy world was how imaging it became. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.960 For those whose identities she used and for those who 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:08.360 believe she was real. Hearts were broken, trust was betrayed, 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:14.440 someone died, and Natalia went to prison. I never thought 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.720 I'd be thinking of this case again, But here I 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:22.000 am in twenty twenty four, thirty years after all this happened, 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:27.280 and Natalia is back in my life. Back then, she 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:32.720 called herself the puppeteer, and after all these years, she's 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:37.520 still pulling all the strings, and I'm looking for a 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:46.160 way to cut her loose. My journey with Natalia started 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.800 in early twenty eleven. Back then, I was working as 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.800 the chief reporter for the Herald on Sunday, a twenty 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.040 two year veteran reporter and quite a bit more veteran. 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.720 Now it's easy to forget how much has changed and 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.480 just thirteen years, and how different technology was then. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:05.959 Let me take you back to that time. 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.800 This was a time when MySpace and Bebo had just 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.280 passed the use by days as the big players and 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:18.359 online social media Twitter hadn't really taken off in the mainstream, 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.320 and Facebook was still young enough and still quirky enough 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.320 that a biopic about its creation was a big player 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:29.080 in Hollywood's Ward season that year. There was no zoom 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:33.160 and Skype. Conversations were often about how I can see you, 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.760 but I can't hear you all the other way around. 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.920 We were only up to the iPhone four and the 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:43.280 first generation iPad. The idea of smartphones as an everyday 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.480 part of life had yet to be embedded in the mainstream. 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.880 The Internet and social media may have started to infiltrate 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.880 our lives, but not in the all consuming way they 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:57.839 do now. The reason all this matters is the herold 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.880 on Sunday where I worked was people had said it 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.160 was crazy to launch a newspaper when the whole news 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:08.560 industry was going to shift online. But it worked, and 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.800 one reason for that was we worked harder and smarter, 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.559 finding every advantage that we could. One of those things 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.320 we got really good at very early in the piece 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.800 was mining these new social media sites like Facebook for 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.840 information about the people using it and the connections they had. 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:33.080 That meant when the Press newspaper in christ Church reported 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.160 that a woman was using false Facebook identities to scam 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.360 teenage boys. I was perfectly placed to dig below the surface. 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.200 It took a week to identify in Natalian Burgess as 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.120 that woman. It was a week of building evidence and 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.800 developing sources to the point where we could name her 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.839 and run her photograph on the front page of the 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:59.400 next edition. Over a year, Burgess used her multiple online 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.520 personalities to form Internet relationships with dozens of teenage boys 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.240 and men across the country. Almost forty boys at Saint Thomas, 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.080 at Canterbury School and Cristchurch were caught up, along with 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.440 dozens of others. Many believed they were in relationships with 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.640 attractive girls their own age. She would arrange to pay 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.680 for some to have their mobile phones topped up with 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.720 credit and they would spend hours through the night talking 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:27.000 to her. I'd later learn that Natalie was not just 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:31.040 focused on one school. There were dozens of young people 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.839 and adults around the country that fell into her orbit. 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.920 One of those people was Sam Baker, he heard earlier 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.920 talking of his shock over Laura's death. He was just 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.520 thirteen when drawn into Natalia's world. All the way from 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.840 tiny Murchison near the top of New Zealand South Island. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:52.439 It was once a gold mining town. 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.520 Now it's sought after for whitewater adventure sports, and it 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:00.440 is a tiny town. The last census put the population 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:04.640 at fewer than five hundred people. Small as it was, 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:09.560 the internent made Sam's world feel so much bigger, and 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:11.000 that's how he got mixed up in this. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.480 I was up visiting a friend of mine who was 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.000 speaking to a girl that he'd been talking to quite 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.160 a while over online, and from what I was under 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.680 the impression of they were in an online relationship. 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.640 At the time, I just assumed that he had known. 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.679 Who previously and they were just communicating on an online platform. 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:29.920 But I didn't really that didn't occur to me to 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.120 press any to do that. I was thirteen at the 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:33.560 time and he was a good friend of mine, so 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.480 I just thought really nothing of it. Bear in mind, 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.320 when I was living he was sixteen. It was I'm 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.960 from a small town, so people from varying age groups 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:43.720 just tend to hang out with each other, I guess. 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.679 But anyway, I was talking to this girl who name 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.080 happened to be Laura, and I started yearning to all 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:51.120 I was up to seeing my mate, and we just 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:52.800 I don't know. I just said, hey, hey you Gan, 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:53.199 you're good. 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:54.840 Thanks. She asked me what my name was, asked what 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:55.480 her name was? 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:57.640 Asked her, you know how long they guys have been 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.480 friends talking to each other. She said maybe like a 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:01.760 year or so. And he's like, yeah, I've met her online. 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:03.920 When we get along great, I was like, that's pretty cool. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.240 Sweet as I thought nothing of it. He ended the call. 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.400 We played a few games of Xbox, as you do 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.520 when you're thirteen years old, and then I just Sweet 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:13.319 Home and Sweet Home for dinner and then to do 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:17.000 homework and stuff. But anyway, I log into my Facebook 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:18.920 and I noticed that I have a frame request from 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.920 a random girl who name. The full name eludes me nowadays, 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.120 but it was Rachel. I think her name was Rachel. 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.520 And I accepted it and messaged to her. I was like, hello, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.600 who are you. It was a bit more colorful that 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:32.920 I was like hello, who are you? She's like, hello, 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.080 my name is Rachel. I believe you were talking to 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.480 my sister earlier and Laura. I was listening to the 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.360 conversation and I thought you had a cute voice. I 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.560 was wondering, would you be keen to I don't know 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.160 develop her friendship, and I was like. 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:46.839 Okay, cool. 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.760 Bearing in mind, I was thirteen years old and a 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.160 town of five hundred people. 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:52.199 In my school. 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.679 There are one hundred and twenty kids in my classroom. 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.800 I would have been probably year seven, year eight at 0:13:57.840 --> 0:13:58.240 the time. 0:13:58.840 --> 0:13:59.680 Out of thirty of. 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.000 Us, I think there were three girls, so to be 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.440 getting this sort of female attention, I didn't really think 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.319 twice about it. I just thought, oh my god, there's 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.960 a very attractive girl heading me up. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:16.280 Natalia knew her target demographic well. Her primary false personality 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.840 was a young woman called Laura West. Laura entered Facebook 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:25.400 age sixteen, and at that time Natarmi was. 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:26.400 Around twenty six. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.320 Laura West was pretty with a bright and engaging smile. 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.320 She also seemed to be very popular where she went 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.920 On Facebook, she traveled with an engaging social circle who 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.480 liked Laura were young and attractive women, and it seemed 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.680 that they, like any teenager, were trying to work out 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.960 how they fitted into the world and with others their 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.280 own age, so many came under their spell. One of 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.080 those boys was Ethan Williams, whose story is pretty similar 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:02.840 to Sam's. Years older, around fifteen, when he first met Laura, 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.440 and he too was a small town boy raised in 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.479 Monteweka and Nelson, the same general area where Sam lives. 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:16.440 So I think initially I met a girl called Laura online, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.120 and I think this is this is probably in the 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.000 early days of Facebook or kind of towards the tail 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.400 end of the old Bebo social network when that existed, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.600 and it was just one of those kind of random 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.960 ads on Facebook. She haded me, and I thought, yeah, oh, 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.560 why not? You know, but there were there were about 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.040 three or four different people that you know, that were 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.320 family of this this Laura West that her last name 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:49.200 was West, That's right. That added me as well. And 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.160 I didn't want much of it. And I guess as 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.200 I probably said to you, well, I wouldn't have set 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:55.440 you at the time. But as I said, just a 0:15:55.440 --> 0:16:00.240 moment ago, being quite a naive Asia, I didn't think 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.760 much of it. And I think also because catfishing wasn't 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:08.600 particularly a well known phenomenon back then, it wasn't something 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:09.760 that ever crossed my mind. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.560 Could you tell me how Laura presented herself? I mean, 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.840 who did you think you were communicating with online? 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:26.040 Yeah? I so it's a very good question. If we 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:30.960 think about an answer she presented as kind of an 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:35.120 attractive I think she was seventeen eighteen or something around 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:37.440 that sort of age, kind of a little bit older 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.520 than me, but you know, quite an attractive young woman, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.560 you know, short blonde here and someone that I thought, 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.400 you know, she's she's quite attractive. I'll talk to her 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:53.080 if she's gonna talk to me. And yeah, it's kind 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.000 of ret snowballs. I suppose. 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.280 Ethan was fifteen when you started talking Tonalia, or as 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.840 he knew Laura West, and Sam was just thirteen when 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.160 he started dating her sister Rachel. 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:10.640 This was in twenty ten. 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.080 At this time, Natalia, being twenty six years old, is 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:19.600 literally twice the age of Sam. I remember being told 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.880 once that the guide for age suitability is to take 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.720 your age, split it into add seven and the results 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.280 at the youngest end of the sliding scale that you 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.280 should be on. You've probably heard something similar. It's one 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.920 of those unwritten rules of humanity. We will just seem 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.159 to know. By that measure, Natalia shouldn't be talking to 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:44.840 anyone younger than twenty, or at least not in the 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:49.240 way she spoke with Sam and others his age. But 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.560 There's really only one equation that matters here, and that 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.320 is back in twenty ten, Sam is a child and 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.199 Natalia as an adult. And another thing to think on 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.000 is that Sam had no idea the girl who contacted 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.520 him online was twice his age. The voice he heard, 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:12.800 the photographs he saw were of a teenage girl, while 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:17.080 Laura West herself didn't exist. The photos belonged to a 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:21.200 real person. The photographs Natalia used. 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:23.560 Where of a real woman? Could Natalie? 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.680 This was someone Natalia did not know, but, as Ethan says, 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.280 she knew the effect she could have with the photographs. 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:33.879 She had chosen. 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:40.880 Those boys at Saint Thomas and Canterbury, Sam Ethan, their friends, none. 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:41.639 Of them stood a chance. 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.919 At the age of thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and some a 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:51.119 few years older. They were confronted with bright, vivacious Laura 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.120 and a coterie of friends who were intent on forming 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.639 bonds and exploring relationships. By the time I came along, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:03.399 Natalia's on line personas were well advanced, brought to life 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.040 with other stolen photographs taken from other people's social media pages. 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.720 Those characters were so well advanced that they had time 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.880 to form relationships. Speak of love, contemplate marriage, and all 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.800 those other things teenagers do when they first fall head 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:25.160 over heels. Each of her characters was fully realized. Along 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:29.600 with photographs harvested online. Natalia had given them family connections 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:35.040 and personalities, breathing life and credibility into every false persona. 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.480 With some of them, she created family. Laura's sisters, as 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:45.240 we've heard, were Rachel Becker and Abby. It wasn't all 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:50.520 playing out online either. As Natalia's characters formed online friendships 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.119 with schoolboys, she worked to take it to the real world. 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:56.840 I think I had the first voice called with her, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.520 maybe like a week into the relationship. It was weird, 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:02.360 it was I don't know how she pulled it off. 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.240 Thinking back, I spoke to her Laura, and there was 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.639 another sister. I can't remember her name, but she was 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.240 a blonde girl and she worked at Packing Save And 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:11.760 I had a threewey. 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.800 Chat with all three of these girls, and they told 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:15.959 me how much of the nice boy I think I 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:17.480 am and how. 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:19.359 I'm going to be so perfect for the sister, And 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.240 they asked me like, will you be my sister's boyfriend? 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:24.600 Like these two girls sort of asked on her behalf 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:26.639 like I've taken into the back room sort of thing 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.879 and given the fifth degree, and I was just like, yeah, 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:30.520 all right, sweet, let's do it. 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:35.320 There were phone calls and long conversations. Evidence emerged of 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.240 Natalia paying to top up phones so she could speak 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:42.120 for longer as Laura or Abby or Becka or any 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:46.360 of the other identities she manufactured, and even occasionally as 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:51.600 herself as the real Natalia Burgess in the shadow cast 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:57.080 by her younger, glamorous friends. As I said earlier, Natalia 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.320 wasn't a teenager when she was talking with all these kids, 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:04.600 and it kind of reminds me of Hollywood's tendency to 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:10.000 cast old when casting teenagers like Greece or nine O 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:14.720 two zero will Glee. Every generation has some example of 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.600 a grown adult playing young, and Natalia was bringing that 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:24.320 fantasy to life in her own way. This was real life, though, 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.040 and not a Hollywood set. As I dug deeper, there 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.919 was seriously disturbing aspects to her interaction with those she 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:36.480 met online. As she built her fictional world and populated it, 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.080 she started to develop it with whatever came to hand. 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:46.280 Natalia even attached real life people to false personas. After 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.600 the Pike of a mind disaster. Laura West posted a 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.520 memorial message with a photograph of one of the miners 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:53.240 who was killed. 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.560 I miss you and I will never stop loving you, 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:58.240 Rip Daddy. 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.600 It's one part of the story that Sam Baker remembers 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:02.400 all too well. 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:04.679 I grew up in Murchison. 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.320 The tragedy happened, I believe in Greymouth, So Murchison and 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:10.800 Graymouth for about two hours away from each other. 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:13.040 And what happened was is I remember there was a 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:13.520 whole lot. 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:16.480 Of like this was way before crowdfunding and go fund 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:18.400 me were a thing. People used to sort of reach 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:22.120 out for donations and help via Facebook pages and groups. 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:25.520 And there was a Facebook page called the Pipe. 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:27.880 River Mind twenty nine and it was people that could 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.360 come together that were affected by the tragedy, that could 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:34.160 share photos and memories and maybe like people that had 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:35.800 a bit of money they wanted to donate to a 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:38.520 family that had been displaced because their father a peerish 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.000 they could you know, put down their bank account details 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:45.800 and receive donations. Laura started fabricating making these big, giant 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.119 like Facebook murals. I guess, like with this Paul Blokes 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:51.560 photo and then like the name up in lights, and 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.439