“Baby Grace’s” Parents Met Through World of Warcraft
By Jonathan on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 12:44 AM PST In Blizzard, Computer, Game Platforms, Game Related Laws, Gamer Life, Games, World of Warcraft
“Baby Grace” was the big news story for the Thanksgiving holiday it seems, and it looks like even it has a video game connection of sorts. It’s now come out that the mother of Riley Ann Sawyers, recently discovered to be “Baby Grace,” met her soon-to-be husband through World of Warcraft. For those unfamiliar with the story, the remains of a two-year old child washed up on the shore of Galveston Bay in Texas a month ago, and investigators just recently discovered they belong to the child of Kimberly Dawn Trenor. The mother has said she and her husband, step-father Royce Clyde Zeigler II, abused and beat the child to death. The two are now being held in police custody.
This whole “Warcraft connection” most likely has absolutely nothing to do with the actual killing, but I doubt that will stop many people from speculating. I’m sure we’ll eventually see a psychologist or two talking about how the virtual world cut the mother and step-father off from reality enough to commit this horrible crime.
Via Aeropause [details via CBS]





Ugh, there ARE bad parents out there…that do this, yet NEVER touched a computer.
The media will turn into a frenzy saying that games are just “Killing sprees without remorse while being in a normal frame of mind, it becomes so natural, that it’s easy to replicate.
YOU WATCH, they’ll blame it on games and video game addictions.
I hope that one day the media will come of mind and learn that games don’t cause all the hooplah they say it does.
But until then, Ladies and Gentlemen of the gaming community, hold in there, it’ll all work out for the best….worse comes to worst, we move to Asia…we’ll be excepted there as gamers
- RedwirE!
Well..people who meet their spouses online are crazy.. just kidding. I met my wife online and she’s the greatest person ever. She even agreed to let me use the entire basement of the house we are buying for my personal gaming area.
I can admit that the gaming world can attract some wacked out people from time to time, but so can anything else like gambling, crack or television shows. What it boils down to is that we have a problem in society as a whole. We cannot pinpoint the problems and I’d really hate it if people tried to turn this into a WoW issue. If these 2 wackos had met at a bowling alley, would they blame the sport of bowling for it? And yeah there are shady people in bowling alleys too. I think the point that most people miss in life is the fact that there are good and bad people anywhere you look. There’s not a single social group in existence that is void of sick and twisted people.
They look like something from an issue of Dick Tracy.
Those two freaks involved in the torture and murder of baby Grace should burn in hell. WOW has no involvment in that type of thing, it unfortunatly introduces some freaks to each other. But just like all of in real life, we have to make choices and those child murderers made a seriously wrong choice. The game is not to blame. ANy decent parent would never treat their child that way. Those parents made their own choices from the meaness in their own hearts.
i’ve played WoW for 3 years now and just so ppl know there is a childrens week as a holiday were you be nice to an orphan if this is teaching scum bad traits then i don’t know what game there playing.
I remember a case where a 8 year old boy was tied hands and feet behind back and boiling water poured on him. And this was done on a daily basis all the while all 4 of his limbs were broken and he was stuffed into a closet between the boiling water episodes without food.
What caused this to happened Reality?
i think your all full of shit i just thought about playing WOW the other day and i have already smashed a baby with a sledge hammer, sexually violated 3 midgets against their will, and tore the unborn fetus out of a random pregnant bitch wrapped it in barbed wire and beat her to death with it all because i couldnt stand the thought of being a wizard or goblin or whatever the hell it is you pathetic bastards pretend to be
Why? It’s simple really. Sick minded people who cant differ fantasy from reality. While WoW may not be the cause it WILL be blamed however. People are weak in such times and usually tend to pin the blame on other things, like video games or television etc, because they’re to afraid to take it themselves.
I play everquest myself but from what ive seen from wow, it should NOT be the “cause” of the murder, it is caroonish and pretty easy to differ from reality, but like i said it wont stop the people from blaming it . They need a swift kick in the ends themselves if the nda or whatever start a ban on MMO’s.
that’s not cool at all. I actually know a couple peaceful midgets that play WoW
LOL Wy do you never hear about people meeting in wow who have a great live and relation ship or just friends…..no alway YE THEY PLAYED WOW OMFG ZOMG ITS WOW WHO MADE THEM KILL !!!!!!
I’ve played WoW for a grand total of 4 months now. It truly makes me wonder how a couple ( no matter how screwed up ) can meet each other playing that game. There’s over 10 million people that play it, I don’t know what % of that are actually girls, but I know its low. And I know the dominating percent is middle-school to high-school teenage guys, and another decent percent is grown men (some probably pedophiles!)
Not deviating from the point, the world is a breeding ground for hatred and blaming. I pray that these 2 freaks (or their attorney) blames WoW for their insanity or I might have to organize a couple marches to shut them up. (peaceful marches of course, we wouldn’t bring any high-dps mages with us
/start dramatic
WWWWWHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!
/end dramatic
It is all a conspiracy I say.
@killerDOTcom: I’d wager you’d be surprised at the number of women that play WoW. In my experience, and judging from numbers I’ve read, it’s upwards of 30% of that 10 million, and maybe more.
Maybe the question we oughta ask is whether we can identify this type of perverted thinking (and acting) through an MMO before it spirals out of control in reality. So when there are people who commmit such inhuman acts are spending more time ingame than in RL, it’s only fair to ask that there are ways at studying at their online behaviors in retrospect and create a channel that allows inappropriate online behaviors to be followed up with real investigations (not just a slap on the wrist aka banning of the account).
They must be joking, first off it was never stated -how- they “acted” in-game, second it was never stated how long they even played this game….they could’ve been the sweetest people in WoW for all we know…but that’s beside the point.
Instead people wish to link two people to a online game, regardless how irrelevant it is to the crime these two committed, and point the finger at WoW being a factor ..i’m sorry but that go so far past idiotic it can no longer be measured.
So if these two people met in a Taco-Bell, went there every day to meet and eat would the connection still be made? oh i very much doubt it….the bottom line is that people will point the finger at video games and the gaming community when it suits their purpose.
This won’t be the last time we hear about this, mark my words.
yup, this is pretty dumb. the people who brought wow up as an issue know very well that the game had nothing to do with it, but they’re also smart enough to know that most americans are stupid enough to get whipped up in a frenzy over this. just like columbine and doom. if doom had never been made, the kids who shot up that school would have been model citizens, right? whatever.
Some say the mother loved little Riley (Baby Grace). I can’t see this, the man she met, however, should have been dumped from day one, in favor of the child.
We don’t know how long this poor child suffered, and had no one to ask for help. I have cried a million tears.
Louise Castens