So Sad and Close to Home

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WoW Parent
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So Sad and Close to Home

I've been reading about this missing little girl for the past day.A Then I found this link on the WoW Widows forum.A The WoW information was not mentioned in our local newspaper.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5327597.html[/url]

Above link is broken, but here is another link to the same story:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482742,00.html

satyag
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

I was wondering what this had to do with gaming. There is implication here that there might have been neglect. Due to playing WoW? You can bet they are investigating for drug abuse. Wonder if they are doing the same for gaming. I hope they ask about what they were spending time doing.

LoriDee
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

I think the fact that they met online playing WoW says something about the nature of the relationship: not RL.

littlefiery
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

I noticed that, too. I'm sure that little girl's needs were just too much for her (insert hateful name here) parents. Sometimes it's hard not to feel really hopeless about this problem.

WoW Parent
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

You know, I keep envisioning them both hard at work grinding and that little girl trying to demand some attention. It scares me to death when I remember back to the type of reaction we used to get when we tried to stop or interrupt the gaming. I hope the rest of the story comes out eventually. It would be another case in point for the personality change that can take place.

littlefiery
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home
"WoW Parent " wrote:

You know, I keep envisioning them both hard at work grinding and that little girl trying to demand some attention. It scares me to death when I remember back to the type of reaction we used to get when we tried to stop or interrupt the gaming. I hope the rest of the story comes out eventually. It would be another case in point for the personality change that can take place.

That's exactly how I picture it. I have a toddler, so I know it's a challenging age. If her parents were addicted, I can imagine the reaction she got just for being a normal baby. It's heartbreaking.

satyag
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

The paper this morning mentioned something about a violent death. I too wonder about the possible anger. I do hope the full story comes out. It makes me sick thinking about how that child was brutalized.

Gamersmom
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This was top-of-the-page

This was top-of-the-page headline on foxnews.com this afternoon, making the WoW connection to this case more clear: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316333,00.html (Warning: WoW screenshot) I think they completely missed the point in the story, and agree with WoWParent that what most likely happened was that the little girl was probably crying for attention (maybe hadn't been fed yet that day, or that week?) and had the bad luck to interrupt a raid at the crucial time. So sad.

"Small service is true service while it lasts.  Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one

The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,

Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." -------William Wordsworth

satyag
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

I agree they missed a lot about the addictive qualities of the games for some.

swingclogger
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

It is so sad to see these things happening. Whats even worse is the kids that are involved. It breaks my heart to hear of things like this when children suffer and our hurt. The addictive nature of games, and other internet activities, really needs to be addressed. Its not an issue that can be kept neatly in the closet any more. The Media keeps talking about the symptoms and makes no mention of the real problem...ADDICTION.

lizwool
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

http://www.truecrimeweblog.com/2007/10/amber-alert-in-north-carolina-harmony.html AMBER ALERT in North Carolina: Harmony Jade Creech *UPDATED* 10/19/07 by Steve Huff (Edited on 10/22 to correct Harmony's middle name. It was given out incorrectly by several sources over the last few days as "Jude." Her middle name was "Jade." My sources for basic information in this blog entry are listed at the bottom of the entry. Otherwise, sources are referenced in the body of the blog post. If you want something corrected, I need more than an allusion to what might be wrong. Also, you may want to employ a bit of middle-school reading comprehension skill and check and see where I may have gotten information before you go blaming this blog for anything. I make it a point to cite sources for a reason.) An Amber Alert has been issued in North Carolina for a missing 11-month-old baby girl named Harmony Jade Creech. Harmony's father, Ronald Earl Creech II, has never met his baby. A soldier with the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, Creech was in Iraq when his daughter was born. Ronald Creech came home to find that the child had vanished. Creech met his mom Friday morning and the pair went to the home where Harmony was living with her mom, 25-year-old Johni Michelle Heuser, and three other pre-school-age children. Harmony's grandmother discovered that the child was gone. A screen was missing from the window to the baby's room. Most of her clothes were gone as well. By noon on Friday the Harnett County Sheriff's Office was involved. They searched the home and the surrounding neighborhood with no success. The 3 other kids in the house were unharmed. They are not related to Harmony's father. In-home abductions of very small children like Harmony Jade Creech by strangers are rare. While there are sexual predators who might target infants, there aren't that many. An insane female who wants to take another woman's child for her own is probably rarer still. The outlines of this mystery seem familiar and sickening, at the moment. According to WRAL-TV, Johni Heuser was still being questioned Friday night. The FBI is assisting local authorities with this investigation. Harmony Jade Creech was last seen around 11 p.m. on Thursday night at 1680 Ray Road, near Spring Lake, North Carolina. She was clad in pink footie pajamas. "Daddy's Girl" was written on one arm of the jammies. Harmony reportedly has small dark birthmark on the back of her head. If you think you have info about the disappearance of Harmony Jade Creech, call the Harnett County Sheriff at (910) 893-9111. *UPDATE* Harmony Jude Creech has been found deceased in the attic of the home on Ray Road. According to WRAL TV, Harmony's mother told police that she'd found the baby dead in her crib weeks ago and decided to hide the body. Johni Heuser said she made her decision out of fear. Heuser put on an interesting act, if she is telling the truth. Some early reports about the baby's disappearance stated that Ron Creech's mother discovered the baby was missing, but others, like this article in the News & Observer, said that Johni Heuser was entering the baby's room to introduce her to her father when she found her baby missing. Heuser may have been the one who called the police. Her description of the child wearing a jumper with "Daddy's Girl" on one sleeve is unsettling as well. She knew the baby was dead in the attic, yet she carefully geared the story to play upon Ron Creech's emotions, by the sound of it. A user posting in this thread about Harmony Creech's disappearance at Websleuths.com, "dimples37398," found Johni Michelle Heuser's MySpace account: http://www.myspace.com/chellbell1982. There may be much to discuss in that profile, or not. Under this photo, apparently of Harmony, Heuser had posted the caption, "Mama's lil girl." Ron Creech left a comment on that photo in June. He wrote, " i'll take credit for that lil one." Charges haven't been filed against Johni Michelle Heuser yet. Any parent trying to conceive of sleeping under an attic for weeks with your dead infant locked away above you will wonder how that can be. How one could sleep at all. If Harmony Creech died a natural death, what caused Heuser's fear? And how could that fear override grief? In her MySpace photo gallery, Johni Heuser had two albums. One was 10 photos of Heuser, her children, and friends. The other was 25 screenshots of characters from the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), Final Fantasy XI. Heuser's character was named "Chellbell." Which was more important to Heuser, the 10 photos of family and friends, or the 25 pictures taken from a game? And is there a connection between "Chellbell's" investment in an online fantasy world and the death of her child? There may be more than one "Chellbell" playing Final Fantasy. If that community, however large, is like most other online communities, it probably doesn't allow exact duplication of user names. So it is potentially interesting to note that a "Chellbell" was bidding online for Final Fantasy game play items as recently as October 18. **UPDATE 2** Johni Michelle Heuser has been charged with her daughter's murder. She is being held in the Harnett County Jail without bail. News 14 Carolina (linked above) reports that neighbors were suspicious Heuser's story: AC/a,!A"Initially, I felt there was foul play involved but I felt also that it was someone they knew," said Stacie Siebert. "I felt it was an inside job from the beginning." Authorities think Harmony lay decomposing in the attic for at least two weeks. Neighbors had noted a terrible odor for weeks. The smell faded as temperatures dropped. The odor was surely strongest inside the home Johni "Chellbell" Heuser shared with her other 3 kids. Yet did she continue playing Final Fantasy? Did she keep talking with friends on the phone, e-mailing? It's hard to imagine. For the record, anyone with a lick of sense should understand that Heuser playing a MMORPG had no connection with this other than how she used it -- to distract herself from an otherwise lonely and mundane life. It gets tiresome, how the media sometimes approaches such a thing, and how the online communities react. Final Fantasy as an entity had nothing to do with this child's death. Its only connection was in how Harmony Creech's mother may have used the game as her "drug of choice." Anyone truly concerned about this case should be concerned for Johni Heuser's other children and for Ronald Earl Creech II. He thought he was coming home from the War to greet his baby daughter. Instead he came home to unimaginable sadness and tragedy.

Liz Woolley

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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

This story continues to ravage my mind with grief and sadness.

"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative." --W. Clement Stone

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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

I am not sure if we've had the news about this in my country, although I am interested in why it seems many don't see the addiction to gaming as a disease, as well as alcoholism or addiction to gambling??? Is it that it's too new or what's the scoop?

shiva
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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

+ itA's too new + there is a lot of money at stake (for the companies and the media) + there is a lot of self-esteem at stake (for the addicts) /ironic voice: Who the heck wantA's to be addicted to colour pictures and cute sounds anyway ... at least being a coke or a meth addict has "style" in most peopleA's eyes ... itA's "real drugs", not something imagined :D

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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

Being addicted to meth certainly is real, but there's no style there, it is straight down-right sad. I say this knowing personally several meth users who are trying to quit, mostly unsuccessfully. It is life and death. This story about this little girl would have different connotations if the neglect was from meth useage, but since the game angle is inherent, it may lack the public lustre that coke or meth might induce. I am still in shock that such abuse could happen, not in this world, but it does indeed.

"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative." --W. Clement Stone

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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

Well, sadly - I TOO probably look at drugaddiction and gameaddiction differently. And maybe that's why there's so much shame in this addiction, which makes it harder to be open about it. I mean (ironic); "Why would I spend hours on online-games instead of playing with my children? I must be stupid? " That drugs can make you neglect children people can understand, but games? I mean, even with all the research that is there about substance abuse, there are still those that won't accept that a person simply can't stop, thinking he/she is WEAK. Some will understand, some won't. I think things will change in our thinking when more information comes out about Internet/gaming addiction ect. And then there's the thought; When does an addiction become a disease in a person? And can you become addicted to just anything..? OK :D I'll stop now. /free

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Re: So Sad and Close to Home

When I start getting muddled about gaming addiction, I substitute alcohol or drugs for gaming and it becomes much more clear. For example: should I give my son a PS2 for Christmas, it's like a computer game, but it's not a game. (I didn't, by the way) When I think about it in terms of alcohol: should I give my son something that's similar to alcohol, like NA Beer, when he's struggling with alcohol addiction? I wouldn't. Or, will my son grow out of this and be able, someday, to play these games in moderation? Will the alcoholic grow out of the addiction and someday be able to drink? There's a lot of contraversy about that, but I wouldn't take that chance if I were alcoholic.

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Can we get an admin to edit

Can we get an admin to edit posts with links that have screenshots in them to put a warning before the link? Thanks!

"Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win." -Jonothan Kozol

Gamersmom
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Done.

Done.

"Small service is true service while it lasts.  Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one

The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,

Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." -------William Wordsworth

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For what it's worth, the

For what it's worth, the mother was found guilty of murder after just two hours of deliberation. She has received a life sentence without possibility of parole.

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For bringing this discussion

For bringing this discussion up for those of us new to this board, thank you. To my gamer ex I have made the argument repeatedly: You do not know who you are playing with, who you are sitting all day and night with, in a worthless game. The 'awesome guildie friend' could have starving and neglected children languishing in the same house; a neglected wife, lonely and broken, an abused/murdered child....................................... it goes on and on. Am I unreasonable by expecting us to live our lives with concern for others. If you are fooling around with a mother in a game, and you know she has 3 children and you also know that she spends 8-10 hours per day with you in WoW; is it unreasonable to expect you to be a caring human being and tell that woman to get up from her PC, turn off the game take care of those children. you KNOW those children are suffering some type of neglect- yet you continue?

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