Renae Marsden catfished by jealous friend, coroner rules
Renae Marsden, 20, fell in love with a fake man who was created by her ex-best friend in an act of “bitter control and manipulation” before she died, a court has been told
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A catfishing victim fell in love with a fake man created by her ex-best friend in an act of “bitter control and manipulation” before she died, a coroner said yesterday.
Sydney woman Renae Marsden, 20, took her own life at The Gap, Watsons Bay, in August 2013.
Coroner Elaine Truscott yesterday said she deliberately slipped from the clifftop after a breakdown in a relationship with a man whose identity was made up.
But Ms Truscott stopped short of recommending catfishing be made a criminal offence.
In Lidcombe Coroners Court, Ms Truscott said a distraught Ms Marsden was seen crying and shaking the day of her death after the man she intended to marry, Brayden Spiteri, sent a text message saying he wanted a break.
In reality, Ms Truscott said, Brayden — who was supposedly a prisoner at Goulburn jail — had been created almost two years earlier by Ms Marsden's former best friend, Camila Zeidan, so she could maintain a romantic relationship with her high school girlfriend.
Ms Zeidan has not been charged with any offence.
Ms Truscott told the court that reading one of their thousands of online exchanges was like viewing “a crazy moving landscape of bitter control and manipulation”.
“Renae did not want to be in a relationship with Camila Zeidan,” Ms Truscott said.
“Camila was unable to tolerate Renae being in an intense relationship ... and had complained to Renae she didn’t like being second best.”
Ms Truscott acknowledged Ms Marsden’s family wanted catfishing to be criminalised but she said she would not make that recommendation.
“Renae’s family are seeking to have a discrete and distinct criminalisation of the conduct called catfishing,” Ms Truscott said.
“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.”
Ms Marsden's attachment to Brayden even led her to break off her engagement to another man in early 2013.
Other than a text Ms Marsden showed a co-worker, the communications between Ms Marsden and Brayden on the day she died remained unknown to all but Ms Zeidan, Ms Truscott said.
“She gave evidence to the inquest over two days — her evidence can only be described as disingenuous at best and ultimately nothing but a pack of lies,” the coroner said.
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Ms Zeidan told the inquest Ms Marsden was in on the ruse because their families would not approve of their lesbian relationship.
But Ms Truscott said there was no evidence the women were intimately involved at the time.
The evidence instead demonstrated the catfishing allowed Ms Zeidan to free herself of the jealously she felt whenever Ms Marsden was in a relationship with a man.