On 5 August 2013, Renae Marsden, aged 20, drove to the Gap, the well-known Sydney suicide spot, and ended her life.
From 20-24 February 2020, an inquest was held into her death. On 20 May 2020, the coroner published her report.
Normally an inquest is into the causes of death. There is CCTV footage at the Gap which cannot have left any room for doubt as to the physical cause.
As reported in the press-formerly-known-as-Fairfax, (there are numerous other reports)
[Renae] was making wedding plans, enquiring about a honeymoon in Greece and looking forward to her 21st birthday. Her friends and family describe her as a happy, bubbly and loving young woman who had her whole life ahead of her.
But on August 5, Ms Marsden took her life at The Gap after her relationship with the man she’d been dating for two years, but had never met, came to an end.
Stop right there in case you missed it:
the man she’d been dating for two years, but had never met.
How can you date someone you have never met?
Although Renae had spoken on the phone to “Brayden,” “Brayden” never spoke to her. Replies came by SMS, other communications were via Facebook. Ostensibly “Brayden” [I can’t be bothered with systematically maintaining the ” ” or even the ‘ ” ‘ so just take them as read after this] could not speak out loud because he was in gaol and he could not risk being overheard when using a concealed phone. He couldn’t be visited there because he had traded the right to be visited for a shorter sentence.
Brayden first went to gaol because he was responsible for the death of his friend, Richie, in a motor bike accident. Apparently he came out of gaol for a while but soon was back in after some altercation with his father. (Disappointment about this seems to have led to Renae taking an overdose of medication in September 2012 – see [11] and [12] of the coroner’s report.)
Brayden had gone to The Kings School and was a bigshot in high-rise building projects. His father lived in Mosman, Brayden was doing his time in Goulburn Supermax.
Nothing but the best for Brayden!
As a heartstring-tugging bonus, Brayden’s stepmother had died.
The only person who said she had met Brayden was Camila, who had introduced Renae to him as her own previous boyfriend.
A photo of Brayden was found in Renae’s car. When published it turned out to be a picture of one Cameron Lang. The original photo, found on Camila’s phone, was of Camila and Cameron, taken at some nightclub. Cameron knew nothing of Renae or Camila: he was just a casually encountered stranger.
The police investigating Renae’s death, having the advantage over Renae of being able to check out any story about Brayden’s incarceration, quickly concluded that Brayden did not exist and that Camila was Brayden.
Renae’s cousin Stephanie had suggested to Renae that Brayden was in fact Camila but Renae had rejected the idea. Renae even knew that Brayden’s phone was in Camila’s name but presumably this was because Camila was supposed to have supplied it to him in gaol.
Camila at first denied any knowledge of any fiction involving Brayden. Eventually, after messages were recovered (she had purged her own phone and disposed of the phone used by “Brayden”) she maintained that he was a fiction shared between her and Renae for the purpose of concealing a relationship which was disapproved of by Renae’s parents.
Coroner Truscott did not accept this. She found that, by the time of Renae’s death at least, Renae and Camila did not have much of a relationship to conceal. More tellingly (to me, at least) Camila’s claim that Renae was in on the fiction was inconsistent with inquiries that Renae had made of the Greek consulate as to whether Brayden’s criminal record would be a problem for the planned honeymoon to Greece and a phone call made by Renae to Goulburn Gaol on the day of her death.
(Not that the gaol had any record of Renae’s call or what she was told when she rang. likely as not she learnt nothing. The prison system doesn’t give much away to casual callers and generally treats the friends and relatives of the incarcerated like shit.)
Camila and Renae met at high school. In November 2011, at around about the time that Brayden came on the scene, Renae designed Camila a tattoo “R 17.12.07.” In 2007 Renae was in year 9 and towards the end of the year had broken up with a boy she had been seeing for most of that year, telling her cousin Stephanie that Camila didn’t like him. Renae and Camila saw a lot of each other in 2008, by which time Renae was in Year 10. The coroner’s report does not say whether Camila was in the same year but that seems likely.
Renae’s parents considered Camila a bad influence (jigging school, poor results, cigarettes). Renae’s mother discovered “love letters” from Camila in Renae’s room. Attempts were made to break up the friendship. When Renae left school for TAFE to study hairdressing, Camila followed her there. Renae said she wanted to bring the friendship to an end at at one stage. They met at a cafe with their mothers and Renae told Camila this. Yet the friendship persisted. Just before Renae took her life she sent three text messages. The first was to Camila. (The second was to her mother and the last to Brayden.)
The coroner found the relationship was marked by abusive possessiveness on Camila’s part and that by August 2013 Renae was ready to break it off entirely and had again told Camila so. Throughout July 2013, when Camila had been away in the USA, Renae had not heard from Brayden, though she had texted him daily. She was expecting to receive news of his impending release. Instead, on 5 August 2013, Brayden texted Renae that they needed a break.
For some years now, reporting of suicides has been suppressed or lightly coded (death “not suspicious”. Public inquests are rare and the publication of a coroner’s report is exceptional (see s 75(5) of the Coroners Act). So why an inquest and published report in this case?
In her report from [51] to [53] the coroner explains:
51. Renae’s family pressed for an inquest with the hope of learning the truth about what had happened to Renae and particularly about what was said between her and Brayden on 5 August 2013. Given that only Camila Zeidan would be able to tell them the answers to the many questions they had they were most anxious for her to give evidence.
52. Renae’s family believe that Renae’s death was due to having been “catfished” which is a term used to describe a deceptive activity where a person creates a fake identity on a social network account usually targeting a specific victim for abuse, deception or fraud including romance scams, whether it is for financial gain, to compromise a victim in some way or simply as a form of a wish fulfilment.18
53. There is no specific offence in NSW for this conduct other than where the conduct falls within an already defined offence such as conduct such as financial fraud or deception or stalking and harassment or extortion. Where ‘catfishing’ is without threat or intimidation or is not for monetary gain, then the conduct appears to be committed with the intent to coerce and control someone for the purpose of a wish fulfilment or some other gratification. Though such conduct may cause the recipient mental and or physical harm because it is not conduct committed with the necessary intent it falls outside the parameters of a known State criminal offence. Given the mental harm and anguish occasioned to Renae, her family press for such behaviour to be criminalised
Taking things a bit further in the next two paragraphs:
54. There is an offence whereby the use of a telephone service (known as a carriage service) in a way (be it method or content or both) that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, menacing, harassing or offensive. This is found at s474.17 Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) which carries a penalty of 3 years imprisonment. It is unclear whether a Catfish situation such as this would be captured by this legislation.
55. If Renae discovered that her relationship with Brayden was but a fiction and she took her own life as a consequence, the community might consider that Catfishing is an act with should be prohibited. Even if Renae did not discover that Camila had committed the deception and was simply heartbroken because Brayden had ended the relationship, she has taken her life about a person who does not exist. That consequence is of such gravity that the community would expect to be sanctioned.
At [263] of her report, the coroner concluded that Renae “likely” did not discover the deception, at [260] that Renae was “upset that Brayden was not wanting to continue the relationship.” At [269] she states that Renae’s life “ended all too soon in unnecessary emotional turmoil and trauma.”
At [257] the coroner found that, despite the disposal (by Camila) of evidence of what was said or communicated on 5 August 2013, there is no basis to think that Camila incited Renae to take her life. This suggests to me that such an accusation was raised, at least implicitly.
At [70] of her report, the coroner concludes that the advantages to Camila of Renae’s “relationship” with Brayden were that Camila was free of any actual rival for Renae’s affections. She could be Renae’s best friend without this aggravation and also, in a twisted way, maintain a vicarious relationship via “Brayden.” But this was far from a forest-dappled impersonate romance. Camila was even capable of expressing jealousy of Brayden – ie, of herself in that guise. At other times “Brayden” counselled Renae to behave better towards Camila. Brayden himself was constantly jealous and possessive. Renae could also hit back at times, but eventually yielded. The observation by the coroner (at [167]) of one two-day argument rings all too true:
Reading the exchange, like most of their hostile exchanges, is a crazy moving landscape of bitter control and manipulation and this one had Renae apologising in appeasement.
How could this ever have ended? The coroner concludes that by 5 August 2013 Renae had made clear to Camila that she was no longer prepared to continue their friendship. At the same time, Camila’s need to maintain the fiction of Brayden was abating as she was embarking on a new relationship with Michael, whom she subsequently married. So she pulled the plug, not, as Renae’s family maintained she might have, by “coming clean,” but brutally. At [255] and [257]:
Camila did know that Renae had left messages on Brayden’s phone every day for a month and no doubt those messages were of love support and hope for his release so they could be together. Camila did know that terminating the relationship would leave Renae devastated. That knowledge did not translate to having any care and regard for the consequences of deceiving Renae over the preceding 20 months and the impact that deception was having.
I do not think that Camila as Brayden extended any kindness, comfort or support to Renae on 5 August 2013.
The formal finding as to manner of death (at [270]) is:
Renae Marsden deliberately slipped from the clifftop with the intent to end her life after the termination of a relationship with a person whose identity and intent were, unbeknown to her, a fabrication created and perpetrated for the purposes of exercising coercion and control over her by a known person, who engaged in conduct known as “Catfishing”.
“Coercion and control” reads to me suspiciously like a legal doublet. Control is clear enough, but I’m not so sure as to coercion. Surely some distinction must remain between coercion and deceit?
One possible reason why “coercion” crops up is because it is preparatory to the coroner’s recommendation. What “sanction” should there be in accordance with community expectations foreshadowed at [55]?
The coroner’s recommendation was:
That the Domestic Violence Death Review Team undertake an in-depth review and provide that review to the Department of Community and Justice to inform any action taken to progress Recommendation 9 of the DVRT 2017/19 Report.
This is explained by the coroner at [271] to [273]:
271. Renae’s family are seeking to have a discrete and distinct criminalisation of the conduct called Catfishing. I hope these findings provide some support and assistance in that regard; there are complex matters which were not canvassed at the inquest which need to be taken into account before any coronial recommendation involving the introduction of criminal legislation. Accordingly, I do not make such a recommendation.
272. On 24 March 2020 the “Domestic Violence Death Review Report 2017-2019” was tabled in both houses of the NSW Parliament. Recommendation 9 of that Report is
That the Department of Communities and Justice examine the extent to which existing NSW laws (criminal and civil protection orders) respond adequately to nonphysical forms of domestic and family violence and to patterns, rather than incidents, of violence. This examination should include:
1. a qualitative review conducted with NSW police about what forms of behaviour are being targeted under the offence of ‘stalking or intimidation’, whether such charges are laid on their own or in combination with other offences, and the relationship context of such offences; and 2. monitoring the progress and implementation of offences of coercive control and domestic abuse in other jurisdictions.273. The monitoring and progress and implementation of offences of coercive control in other jurisdictions relate to a widening of the definition of domestic (and personal violence) which would capture the conduct Camila engaged in by Catfishing Renae but are laws not currently implemented in NSW though through this recommendation are being considered. Renae’s case should be included and considered to inform the Department of Communities and Justice examination.
The coroner’s account, especially of Renae’s final afternoon, must be a harrowing read for Renae’s family. Camila’s conduct towards Renae was horrible and the outcome of it even more so.
Renae was obviously susceptible to such conduct and even worse Camila must have been well placed to exploit that susceptibility. Yet I’m cautious about using this case as an example to create a fresh offence, or to extrapolate from such manipulation arising from an adolescent relationship where one party was unable to let go to law about coercion and control between adult partners or extrapolation back in the opposite direction.
When you talk about creating new offences you have to think about consequences for conduct which is on the edge of or adjacent to the posited new offence. If Brayden was real (as Renae believed) would he too have committed such an offence? What about, to take a tired old trope, men who tell women they will leave or are leaving their partners, and then don’t?
Other commentary is:
here (including the suggestion that Camila’s conduct could amount to manslaughter by recklessness- which strikes me as opening a whole can of worms – recklessness – and involving difficulty and therefore undesirable uncertainty of conviction. Renae herself told so many lies about Brayden that there could still be room for reasonable doubt as to her complicity in the fiction);
here (cautiously supporting the creation of new offences); and
here (more cautious – “more law is not the answer”).
A more detailed account from the family’s perspective which joins some more of the dots – published after the inquest but before the report – here.
Stumbling on melons 