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Teenage killer confesses crime in World of Warcraft chat, sentenced to life in prison

by Justin Olivetti on Nov 5th 2011 12:00PM

World of Warcraft, Culture, Legal, Miscellaneous

Two teenage boys who raped and murdered a fellow classmate in Victoria, British Columbia recently received a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for 10 years. They weren't very smart about covering it up, however, as one of the killers confessed his crime to a guildmate in World of Warcraft chat. He did so because he assumed that those chat logs were less likely to be saved.

Kruse Wellwood and Cameron Moffat spent time planning the assault beforehand, and Wellwood even mentioned his desire to do the crime to a guild friend in WoW. Following the 2010 crime, Wellwood logged back in World of Warcraft to talk about the murder to his online girlfriend in Halifax, sending her links of the news reports as proof of his story. Amazingly, his girlfriend mildly chided him to "just don't do it again."

The in-game chat logs were part of the mountain of evidence collected by the police. The pair pleaded guilty to the crime.

Source: MSNBC
More coverage: World of Warcraft official site

Tags: blizzard, Cameron-Moffat, chat-logs, crime, evidence, Kruse-Wellwood, murder, rape, watch-how-the-media-blames-wow-for-this, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (80)

@Rayve So you are saying is rape and murder are awesome? I can only hope that you never feel that level of awesomeness being applied directly to you .... can't say it would bother me if the two freaks who went to prison did though.

@Balraw

I think the most tragic part of this story was the "life in prison with no possibility of parole for 10 years." 10 YEARS? They rape and murder a person, get sentenced to life in prison, but can possibly be paroled in as soon as 10 years? That is ridiculous. They're young and would still have most of their lives left after only 10 years.

I would be ashamed if that was my country and they allowed that.

@SnarlingWolf

so what happens to rapists and kiddie molesters in prison? come on you wont hear from this scum (and that is the truth they are scum) ever again, they will become some one's girlfriend or if they are unlucky they will get passed around... with any luck they will die in the next 10 years. They should have learned the first rule about getting caught by the police which is "YOU WILL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!".

I do not understand how can someone plan a to rape and then murder someone that has done nothing to you?

@SnarlingWolf i saw a true crime story about a girl that was beaten and drowned in Canada and the kids involved did minor time and after they became of age one was completely released and the other had to do basically community service for the rest of his life and was on semi-house arrest... Canada is strange like that..

I think it's interesting that he told people on World Warcraft. Generally, people who commit crimes of this scale have a few things in common (a profile, if you will). Some of those things include social status - they usually are loners, quiet, and somewhat intelligent, and they want someone to know what they've done, for bragging purposes more than likely and probably related to the fact that they're loners and shunned by their peers.

Since he told people on WoW, it seems plausible that he may have, quite literally, had no one in his life that he wanted to impress more than the people he played the game with.

I'm just making conjecture, of course, but it's an interesting view of the situation to think about, in my opinions.

@Ebaon

The person he told was his girlfriend. I think WoW just happened to be the most convenient way for him to chat with her at that moment.

@JuliusSeizure His "online" girlfirend. I don't know for sure (just firing off of what the news piece says) but that means someone he wooed while online, not in real life.

Funny still because it shows how people often do maintain virtual relationships and value them just as much as real life ones.

In the end, this is a story of tragedy, period. It makes me sick to think of the victim and the families involved on all sides.

Beau

@JuliusSeizure

The article says it was his online girlfriend and guild members. He may have met his online girlfriend before since she apparently lived relatively close, but depending on these children's age, it's also plausible that they couldn't drive or find the means to make the travel to have ever met.

@Ebaon

Even if only online, girlfriend/boyfriend tends to mean a lot more than other relationships, especially to teenagers. To me, that term being used to define the relationship is the part that's significant, not the media involved in keeping them in touch. If it had been simply an online friend, -that- would be something to speculate on.

Also, it's quite clear that he did have an RL friend to confide in, his accomplice. :\

@Ebaon

Just FYI, Halifax and British Columbia are on opposite sides of the country.

@Ebaon

Geographically Halifax, Nova Scotia is near to Maine, while British Columbia is due north of Washington state and California.

The chances that the killer and the girl had ever met in real life are slim.

@Ebaon

The funny thing is the profile for killers like this is also very close tot he same profile as gamers.

@anyone commenting about whether they met or not.

If you read the full Vanity Fair article you will see that Kruse did, in fact, meet his in-game girlfriend in person.

I really hope those 2 pieces of trash get to taste their own medicine in prison repeatedly.

@Faith

"Hey, can u pick up that soap for me?"

@Faith
Eye for an eye is fun! Keep the cycle of hate malice and evil going!!!!

*rolls eyes*

@Faith

Yes, but wishing rape on anyone, even on those sick *bleeps*, just justifies rape. The idea is not to encourage anyone to rape again at all. And that rape is bad not matter whose doing it or whose it been done too. Just saying.

@Faith
People are sent to prison to be removed from society as punishment for their crimes. Being raped in prison is not a part of their sentencing. No one should be raped, ever, for any reason. Please stop this endorsement of inmate abuse as it's nothing more than a perversion of justice.

@Faith

...and what Laephis said.

Yeah, some justice. Why should these 2 wastes of life get what they deserve? It's much nicer to give them a free education and hopefully they can get out and be better gamers in 10 years out on parole. Please, these little nerds wanted to be big bad criminals, well now they'll get their wish and have to deal with the consequences every other criminal has to. Don't play with fire if you don't want to get burned.

The fact that people are actually showing any kind of sympathy for these idiots is really disturbing.

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Teenage killer confesses crime in World of Warcraft chat, sentenced to life in prison

Reader Comments (80)

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:19PM Balraw said

Posted: Nov 7th 2011 10:57AM SnarlingWolf said

Posted: Nov 7th 2011 12:32PM arodriguezc said

Posted: Nov 9th 2011 8:47AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:22PM Ebaon said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:34PM JuliusSeizure said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:16PM Beau Hindman said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:17PM Ebaon said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 1:31PM JuliusSeizure said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 5:19PM Randomessa said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 6:01PM mysecretid said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 12:46AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 8:41AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 12:26PM Faith said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 3:05PM Tyrang said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 5:43PM Alph said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 7:19PM Utakata said

Posted: Nov 5th 2011 10:44PM Laephis said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 12:51AM Utakata said

Posted: Nov 6th 2011 12:09PM Faith said

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