THE GAP STORY 

In 2010 18 year old renee marsden was living in sydney australia with her parents and her three siblings renee was a very outgoing person who had a big circle of friends and she was also very close with her family especially her mom teresa teresa had given birth to renee when she was only 19 years old and so now that renee was a young woman because of their closeness in ages the two had become very close friends instead of mother and daughter and so because of that dynamic renee found herself always going to her mother to tell her anything going on in her life she was her confidant and that year something major had disrupted renee's life and so naturally she went to her mom and she told her about it it would turn out renee's boyfriend of nearly two years who she was madly in love with well she discovered he was cheating on her and didn't actually even care about her he had sent these text messages that basically said as much and so she confronted her boyfriend with these text messages and he denied ever sending them he said look i've never cheated on you i don't know where those came from I promise i've been faithful to you this entire time but renee just wasn't buying it and so she had felt forced to break up with him and so renee naturally had turned her mother for comfort and guidance but teresa all she could really offer her daughter was you know to remind her that time heals all wounds and that certainly someday you will meet the right person for you and amazingly only a couple of weeks after this very painful breakup renee came home from work one day and she walked into the house and she was all smiles and considering how unbelievably depressed she had been over the last couple of weeks i mean this really stood out and so when her mom saw her smiling and radiating happiness she rushed over to her and said you know what's gotten into you why are you in such a good mood and renee would tell her that actually i've met another guy and so teresa said who who did you meet who is this person and she would tell her mom that his name is braden spiteri he was 23 years old and he was a graduate of the king's school which is a really prestigious boys school in sydney and his father was this really successful business person who owned this big construction company that he was set to inherit later on and so she was just raving about how amazing this guy was and teresa was really happy if nothing else this was a very good distraction for her and so she asked her daughter at some point you know how'd you meet this guy and renee would tell her that camilla had introduced them camilla zeidan was renee's best friend they had met in high school and renee would explain to her mother that braden was actually camilla's ex-boyfriend but they hadn't dated in a really long time and there was no feelings between them they were just friends at this point and apparently you know after renee had this really painful breakup camilla had just felt bad for her and so she had gone out and found the best possible match for renee which in her mind was this guy brayden teresa knew camilla really well because she was always over the house and she knew teresa's intentions must have been good but she's thinking to herself this is bad news you don't want to have best friends one dating the ex-boyfriend of the other it's just bad news waiting to happen and so teresa couldn't even help herself and she says to her daughter do you really think it's a good idea to be dating camilla's ex-boyfriend but renee would tell her mom look camilla was totally upfront with me she just wants me to be happy she thinks braden is a good match for me they don't have feelings anymore not at all she's totally in support and so teresa still very much had her doubts that this was a good idea but she put those doubts aside and instead she said okay well can you show me a picture of braden can i see what he looks like and so renee pulls out her phone and she finds a picture of braden and she shows it to her mom and right away her mom is looking at this picture and seeing that braden is a very handsome guy big bright smile but she sees in this picture camilla is very clearly laying on his shoulder like she is his girlfriend and so again teresa's thinking to herself this is not good someone is going to get hurt but over the next couple of weeks and months renee and braden texted each other all the time i mean renee had her phone out basically 24 7 talking to braden the pair had made plans to meet up and see each other in person for the first time on several different occasions but every single time they were set to go meet one of them would have a conflict that would make it impossible to have this face-to-face meeting and so before long when they just could not get a meeting established they kind of stopped trying to have face-to-face meetings it was almost like they had built this really strong flourishing relationship all via their phones and it just was getting more and more awkward to actually go out and see each other in real life it was just more comfortable doing it all on their phones and so this digital only relationship between renee and braden continued for almost a year until january of 2012 when something horrible happened braden was in a horrible motorcycle accident he survived the accident but his passenger his best friend this guy named richie who was riding right on the back of his motorcycle he didn't survive he was killed in the accident and it was determined that braden was driving recklessly and so he was charged with manslaughter and convicted and sentenced to two years in prison even though renee's mother teresa was totally upset about this accident i mean she did understand someone had lost their life and now braden was going to jail for two years she understood the seriousness of this accident but at the same time there was a part of her her motherly protective side of her that was kind of relieved for her daughter she figured with braden being out of contact for two years in prison that their relationship would end and renee could go pursue somebody else who was not an ex-boyfriend of a close friend and was someone that she could actually see in person and not just have to text with all the time but surprisingly after braden was transferred to goldburn prison which is where he'd be serving his two-year sentence it's located about two hours to the south of sydney his family smuggled a phone somehow into this jail and he was able to continue texting with renee and so after he was incarcerated they just picked up their relationship like nothing had changed now renee's family did not like this development and they told her as much they thought this was a bad idea that this was the wrong path for her but renee didn't care she was totally in love and in fact over the first couple of weeks that he was in goldburn prison their relationship only intensified they actually agreed to get married as soon as he was released at the end of 2013 and in fact renee had already begun making wedding preparations she had gone on ebay and found this beautiful tiara she would wear on her wedding day and she had contracted a wedding photographer and she had even contacted the greek consulate to ask if it would be okay if braden were allowed to enter their country because they were planning to have their honeymoon in greece and braden was going to be a convicted felon and so she needed permission for him but in august of 2013 just two months before braden's expected release date something changed renee's mother teresa got a text message from braden something she had never gotten before and it said you need to check on your daughter she's talking about killing herself and so teresa is totally taken aback by this message and she goes right into renee's bedroom where she is sitting on her bed and her mother sitsdown next to her and says honey are you okay you know what's going on and renee would look up at her mom and say yeah you know i'm fine what's going on with you and then teresa would hold out the phone and show her the text message from braden and as soon as renee saw it she kind of sighed and looked at her mom and said i'm not going to hurt myself we just broke up our relationship is over theresa knew this was going to be an extremely hard stretch of time for her daughter with another painful breakup here but at the same time teresa thought to herself this is probably for the best that relationship just had bad news written all over it from the start and so now she can begin to heal and move forward with her life and so teresa and renee would sit in the room for a while just chatting on the bed and theneventually renee would tell her mom that her plans that night were to go out with her friends and cut loose and kind of just forget about this whole thing and so theresa sat in her bedroom on her bed as her daughter stood in front of the mirror and got ready and then once renee was ready she and her mom hugged and kissed and then renee told her mom she'd be back soon and then she left the house a few hours later teresa received a text message from her daughter and it started with mom i love you so much and i'm sorry for the pain i'm about to cause you you can still talk to me though just call out my name and i'll be there teresa read this message and didn't really know what to make of it she knew her daughter was almost certainly very upset about this breakup but she didn't really understand the context of this message and so she called her daughter she didn't pick up so she called her again and after that second time her daughter didn't answer she sent her a text message that just said please call me back but she sat there kind of waiting for her daughter's call but it never came and so teresa is starting to feel a little bit worried about her daughter she called camilla and she asked her you know hey have you talked to renee tonight because i can't get in touch with her and camilla would tell theresa that actually yeah i just got a very strange text message from her that just said i love you i'm sorry and so at this point the two women understood that there could be something very wrong with renee and so they met up and drove all around sydney going to all the places that renee was known to go to but after several hours of looking and not hearing back from renee they really didn't know what to do and so the two women drove back to teresa's house so renee's house and they went inside and they sat down and at that point teresa's husband and the rest of renee's siblings they were all there and everyone's just kind of sitting around wondering what to do next when around 9 9 30 at night they heard a

knock on the door and it was the police coming to inform them that they had found renee's car parked in an area that it shouldn't have been but renee wasn't there and so they were coming to ask if they knew where she was and why her car might be out there and so at this point the family is totally terrified they tell the police about these strange text messages and then before long the parents just rush outside they hop in their cars and they drive out to where their daughter's car is and where renee's car was parked was in an area called the gap it basically was this sheer cliff overlooking the ocean the parents got out and they searched their daughter's car but there was no sign of where she had gone based on the car and so they began running up and down the cliffs there was a sidewalk that kind of ran parallel to the edge of the cliff and they're running up and down hoping they're going to find their daughter but there's no sign of her and then at some point teresa climbed up to one of the highest points of the cliff and when she got up there she found her daughter's black flat shoes and they were placed neatly together on the ground right in front of the fence that was there to prevent people from getting too close to the edge of the cliff but despite an extensive search that night they couldn't find any sign of renee she was nowhere to be found however the police would discover the following day that there was actually a camera that was looking at that section of the cliffs and so they reviewed this footage and they found renee they saw what happened to her and in this camera footage you see renee walking up the trail in the middle of the night and she stops and she takes off her shoes and she puts them down and then she hops over that fence now the fence was not right up against the very edge of the cliff it was set back maybe three or four feet and so she hops over the fence and then she steps very carefully to the edge of the cliff and she kind of peeks over the edge and then looks visibly terrified and she moves backwards a few steps until her back is pressed up against the fence and then she pulls out her phone and she sends three text messages one was to her mother which is the text about how she loved her and she was sorry for the pain she was going to cause her and then the other two text messages were to camilla and also to braden however to this day we don't actually know what either of those text messages said and then after sending these three text messages renee takes her phone and she throws it off the cliff into the water and then she sat down and began kind of shimmying herself forward towards the edge now the camera did not actually pick her up falling off the cliff but it's assumed when she went out of frame that she had fallen off the cliff to her death her body would never be recovered renee's death was ruled a suicide however her family in addition to being totally devastated by this horrible loss they felt totally confused they had no idea why this had happened but they were certain it had to have something to do with this recent breakup with braden spateri and so they tried to get in touch with braden but he wasn't getting back in touch with them and so the family contacted the police and said can you reach out to the prison where he is and set up a meeting and so the police obliged them and they called goldburn prison and when they spoke to the prison they said who braden who yeah we don't have a braden spateri here we never have and the reason was braden spateri wasn't real renee's friend camilla had made him up he was a fictitious person that picture of braden spateri where camilla is laying on his shoulder that was just some random person she had met in a club camilla had always been very possessive of renee ever since they had met in high school and at some point she had just decided that she wanted even more control over renee and so the first thing she did is she convinced renee that her earlier boyfriend the one she'd been dating for two years before braden she convinced renee that he had been cheating on her the whole time he was unfaithful that he didn't love her and then she had created those text messages and given them to renee and convinced renee that that was something he had said and before long renee totally believed it she approached her boyfriend he denied it but Camilla the whole time is telling renee he's lying to you he's been doing this this whole time i know he's a bad guy and so renee had listened to her best friend and she had severed that relationship and then almost immediately after that camilla swoops into the rescue and connects renee with this brayden guy camilla's supposed ex-boyfriend who really was just camilla on the other side of the phone and for nearly two years camilla kept this charade up and renee completely believed this was a real person that braden was her boyfriend she loved him and eventually in june of 2013 so two months before renee died she confided in braden aka camilla that her friend camilla was toxic and mean and controlling and she didn't want to be her friend anymore and so camilla she's reading this and she's furious and so she decides the only way to get revenge on renee and regain control of her is to have braden break up with her and so two months later on august 5th 2013 so on the day that renee died she was out to lunch at around 1 p.m with a co-worker when she gets a text message from brayden that just kind of comes out of the blue and it says i need a break from you now this is around the time that they're planning their wedding and so renee is totally heartbroken and she's trying to get in touch with him and call him he's not picking up and then fast forward to about 2 45 pm that afternoon we know renee called goldburn prison it was the first time she had done that now we don't know who she spoke to or what they actually talked about but it's nearly guaranteed that she learned braden spateri was not being held there and so almost certainly she would have realized that braden is either not real or braden had been lying to her in such a huge way that the relationship could never work and so no matter what this chapter of her life was totally over and so later that day when she was sitting on her bed in her bedroom and her mom came in and she asked her how she was doing it's very likely that renee was devastated she was crushed and probably kind of embarrassed about how badly she'd just been duped by this braden person whoever that was and so even though normally renee would tell her mother everything her mother was her confidant she loved her mother it was like she just couldn't bring herself to discuss what was happening to her it was just so enormous it was so overwhelming that she hid it from her mother and instead she just got dressed up said goodbye to her mom and then she headed out to the cliffs no charges were ever brought against camilla because catfishing which is exactly what she was doing which is using a fictitious online persona to lure people into relationships well that's not considered a crime in australia and camilla despite being pressed by the police and renee's family has never taken responsibility for this and has never apologized..