An Eye Opening Email
Here is an email received from a family that personally
went through a true chat nightmare. It is a must read for parents
that may still be in doubt about what can happen to children in
Internet chat rooms.
My daughter fell prey to these chat rooms and it
really hurt that it happened. Here is a general story about
what happened and the two men that were involved are
still being investigation. Is there any companies that
will come to your local school and help educate them
about chat room.Our local school can not seem to stop
these kids from accessing these chat rooms.Below is my
story and I would be willing to answer any question
you might have.I would really like your help.
Michael Janssen
On April 9, 2005 our daughter at the age of 14,
left to go down town and get a latte. A half an hour
later she called and said she would be on her way home
and she never made it. Not knowing at the time that
she had met a 26 year old man on an Internet chat-room
that was from Tumwater, Washington and had left town
with him willingly. We as parents knew something was
wrong and attempted to find out what had happen. The
local police got very involved to find out what had
happened to her. After being interviewed by the
police, all leads turned to another 18 year old boy
that she had also met on an on line Internet chat-room
that lived in Davenport, Washington.
We had found out a few days prior to her going
missing that she met this boy and we put a stop to it
because of her age. However, all the information led
us to believe she was trying to go see this boy in
Davenport. After numerous hours of concentrating on
all the facts we had, we were no closer in locating
her. Around 11:12 pm that evening we received a phone
call from our daughter that she was kidnapped and she
had no idea where she was at. We asked her to hang up
and call 911 so they could get a position on her
location by her cell phone and that call never came.
It was sometime later that we received another phone
call from her saying she had gotten away from her
attackers, and she had been raped, and we lost her
phone signal.
At around 2:08 am we got her back on the phone
and she was in a town and in custody with a police
officer. After she was questioned by a police officer
there, our local police drove over to Tumwater to also
question her along with my wife. In the end our
daughter lied about her kidnapping and being raped.
She met this 26 year old on a chat line and after
hearing how fun his life was she wanted to experience
it. In turn after she got over there she found out
that it was not like he said and wanted to come home
but did not know how to tell us what happened so she
made up this story so she would not be into so much
trouble.
It was not until she got home did she realize by
her lies on how much our police, family, friends and
other people who we did not even know, did everything
they could to find her and that this was something she
would have to face up to. There are pending charges,
she faces for making false reports and she could see
the inside of a juvenile detention center, as she
should. This situation happened because my wife and I
gave her access to the Internet. Even though we
monitored her we did not think that a chat room could
be a place that she could be exposed to danger, how
wrong we were. Two men 18 and 26 were able to lure her
out of our house and could have done things to her
that parents only see on the TV. She could have never
been found much less alive.
We are sharing this story because this is
happening all over because these kids can create their
own little world and being exposed to someone that can
tell your child everything and anything they want them
to hear, just to get them to go with them. My wife and
I have always protected our kids however; we did not
see this as a problem. If anything positive that can
come out of this is that we can share this with every
parent and kid on how dangerous it is to let them be
exposed to Internet chat-rooms. We would sit there and
see some of the people she was talking to but on the
Internet you can not put a face much less age to these
people. I thank God everyday that my child was
returned to me alive, even now she could face
incarceration, at least we can hold her and work with
her to put this past us.
We would have not been able to get through this
without the support we received from the Odessa Police
Department, other Law Enforcement Agencies, family,
friends and complete strangers that showed up to help
me and my wife. Please do not let your child be the
next victim to these Internet chat-rooms.
Sincerely,
Mike and Melissa Janssen
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