News
Missing CoD4 Gamer Found Dead
A tragic end.
(Oh hey, where have I been?)
This morning, GamePolitics reports that its likeliest, most tragic scenario for a missing 15-year-old gamer has come true.
Brandon Crisp, a Canadian teen who reportedly ran away from home following the loss of his Xbox 360 and a fight with his parents, has been found dead.
From Toronto TV station CP-24:
Police have found what they believe is the body of missing Barrie-area boy Brandon Crisp. The body was found on Fifth Line in the north-east area of Barrie.
Investigators say that although they're in the early stages of the investigation, they believe the body to be that of the teen.
"At this point we believe it to be Brandon, and we're still obviously in the early stages of our investigation," Sgt. Dave Goodbrand told The Canadian Press.
"It's not confirmed because nothing's confirmed until we have pathology, but we believe it to be Brandon."
[...]
A massive search was underway for the teen in Shanty Bay on the Oro Medonte Rail Trail, just outside of Barrie, since his disappearance on Thanksgiving Day.
Last week, a second witness confirmed seeing Crisp on the trail the night he disappeared.
[...]
A blue-checkered jacket, tent, crackers and full bag of chips were found on the trail on Oct. 24 after more than 400 volunteers combed the swamplands and fields throughout the township.
There are unconfirmed reports that the body was found by passing hunters.
This is a sad end to what began as a teenager's conflict with his parents, something that many of us go through in those difficult years. I, personally, continue to lay money on the father's behaviour as the root of the incident, and that the father's insistence that Brandon's video game addiction was to blame is the same scapegoating we've seen since the time of dime novels.
Edited to add: I certainly do not mean to say I felt the parents were wrong in taking away his game console. That I am in complete agreement with, given his falling grades and serious net habit. My remark was meant to be in reaction to reports that the father humoured Brandon by helping him pack his knapsack, thereby becoming an accessory, however unwittingly, to his son's running away. The parents seemed to have laughed off Brandon's intentions and not paid them legitimate concern, and for that, I believe they are more culpable than his Xbox. I apologise for any misunderstanding, and while my heart goes out to the mother and father, I do feel that attacking video games is at best diverting the issue.
GamePolitics: Missing Gamer Found Dead
See also: Call of Duty 4 Player Still Missing
Comments
yeah i heard it in the news this morning...tor. star
This is a terrible end to a tragic story.
@Miss Anthropy
Really? You really blame the parents? He started getting shitty grades, so they took away a privilege, which in this case was his XBOX. OMG! WTF! Those responsible parents are assholes!
The parents are going though enough with the loss of their only son. Way to be good person by blaming them.
Gotta agree with Donny D here. We don't know his past, but they did the right thing, he overreacted, and it's all a shame.
Well i do feel sorry for the parents. They were right in what they did i have to agree with donny d.
There's no point in playing the blame game. The end result is something that should have never happened, regardless of circumstance.
I agree. At 15 you're definitely old enough to make your own decisions, and I fail to see how unbearably bad his life must have been because he couldn't play his video games.
While this is a tragic end to all parties involved and no one, I'm sure, wanted this kind of result - if the kid thought he life was so horrible without his games, maybe he should have taken a peek at the average life of some kid in one of the many poverty and illness-stricken countries across the world.. then maybe he could have saw that a few weeks without games as punishment for bad grades or what not isn't all that bad.
Like I said, either way, tragic results.
i think this is a tragedy. I think that should be the end of the discussion. For any one of us to place blame is beyond our grasp of the situation. Who is to say if the parents were abusive, if the kid had psychological problems, if his running away had something to do with other issues entirely. Theoretically blame could be presented to all parties involved. the parents for allowing the boy to play games he may have been too immature for, allowing him to play as much as he did to begin with, the boy for overreacting, the boy for not possibly understanding the circumstances of his actions. The truth is the blame is in chance, and that is a game that we all play. unfortunately some just are more unlucky than others. My thoughts are with his family in this time of need.
Anyone who choses to blame the game industry in the aftermath of all of this barking up the wrong tree. I remember as a kid playing video games all the time, and when I came home with bad games; the system went into a closet locked up. I got extremely angry, but after about 2 hrs I was over it. Though no one really knows anything yet, I have a gut feeling that there had to be something more to this tragic event.
@DonnyD: I don't blame their parenting decision to take away his console. I'm sorry if it came off that way and I've added a correction clarifying. What I meant was that it was the father's decision to "humour" his son by helping him pack his backpack to run away with, probably laughing off his son's actually very serious intentions. Deciding to run away is no laughing matter and his parents could have been more assertive than just letting him storm out of the house and assume he'd be back.
They should not of let him leave the house.
You know what though, hindsight is 20/20. My own parents said similar things to me dozens of times ("oh, you're running away? don't forget this!"), calling my bluff because I was a stupid kid. It's just tragic and unfortunate that this is the way things ended up.
This is indeed a tragedy, and there is more than enough blame to go around. Clearly there was more wrong with young Brandon that just an addiction to video games. I don't know that "the father's behaviour" is the "root" of all of this. Again, none of us knew Brandon, none of us know the family, nor the circumstances that led to this tragic end.
I didn't read the other comments on the page. This might be something repeated due to that but I'm, kind of, in a hurry before class.
No matter how you look at this situation, the gaming community will take the hit for this situation. Brandon Crisp was a young gamer that wasn't disciplined at home, and might have had outside issues as well, that had a blowout argument with his parents. I'm not saying this is fact; it's conjecture.
I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with Mss Anthropy that games shouldn't be the scapegoat for the disappearance, and later death, of young Mister Crisp.
I'm so tired of the blame game. I think it's the most played game, other than political games, played around the world and there's absolutely no time frame to which it will go away. I wonder what medium will be targeted next for all this speculation and cynicism.
when I was little, and whenever I wanted to run away my grandmother always knew for some reason (maybe cos I was packing my bags LOL) but seriously, the issue for the reason why I was wanting to run away was always talked through and then in the end, I stayed at home XD
That's awful. I feel bad for his parents, who are probably beating themselves up more than anything (unlike media outlets which will blame video games for anything if they get a chance). His dad probably realized when Brandon didn't turn up for supper that 15 is too old not to take him seriously.
Excuse me a moment, I just had to point this out. "The boy's parents, who at one point feared their son might have been lured by other online gamers, were told of the findings Friday night." (globe and mail)
"Lured" is not a verb you can use without a direct object. Lured by fellow gamers? From what? Into where? There is no way to blame this on online players, or this stupid stretch would be a full sentence, and yet they try.
wow. thats.... wow.