Family learns of teenage son's car crash death through Facebook
source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/death-on-facebook-first-teen-twins-online-find-out-the...
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When Angela and Maryanne Vourlis woke up yesterday, their 20th birthday, they logged on to Facebook expecting to read well wishes and greetings from friends.
Horrifically, the twins were confronted with the devastating news their brother Bobby, 17, had been killed in a triple-fatal accident.
He and two friends died when the car they were in crashed in heavy rain in Sydney's west early yesterday.
"I didn't get it. All these people were writing, 'RIP Chris Naylor' and 'RIP Bobby', and I thought: 'What's going on?'," Angela said.
Desperate for reassurance there was a mistake, she tried over and over to ring her brother.
"I kept ringing and messaging but couldn't get on to him. So I rang Mum and said: 'Chris Naylor must have died - I just read it on Facebook. But where's Bobby? People are writing 'RIP Bobby' too.'
Online social networking had delivered the mother and daughter the worst possible news.
Heartbreakingly, a police delay in notifying the family meant Mrs Vourlis had to ring St Marys police to ask about her son's death - almost six hours after he had been killed.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/death-on-facebook-first-teen-twins-online-...
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dershope
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I know, we should create a Social Sphere Czar to monitor/approve all posts. That's it, that's what we need. Go Red Team!!!
- 1 year ago
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dershope
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sophosthegreat
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Blame the police service or even the people whose first thought was to put condolences online rather than going direct to the family rather than the social networking site per se, at the end of the day its individual people who choose what goes on there.
- 1 year ago
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sophosthegreat
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Orkhaic
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Okay, so they were drink driving, speeding or plain unlucky?
All these networking sites are just a mound of data for companies to use as market research to help segregate and shape todays spineless people. Just be aware of what you put out there.
- 1 year ago
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Orkhaic
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common_sense_please
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Yes this is a horrible way to find out your loved one died--but it is not shocking or "messed up" per se because we live in a culture where people can access twitter or access social media websites long before the police have a chance to even sort out the crime scene or make notifications in person.
- 1 year ago
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common_sense_please
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mr_tibbles
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Wow, that's horrible. My heart goes out to the family.
- 1 year ago
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mr_tibbles
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bailey78
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Thats messed up in every was posable.
- 2 years ago
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bailey78
