Kiwi man Reese McKee's Facebook plea to find 'Katie' bombards woman with 2000 messages; she deletes social media

A NEW Zealand man who begged the internet to help him find a mystery woman "Katie" may have found her - but it seems she's not impressed.

A NEW Zealand man who begged the internet to help him find a mystery American woman he met in Hong Kong has found his "Katie" - but it seems she's not too happy with the media attention.

Kiwi man Reese McKee’s Facebook post asking for help finding an American woman he’d spent a magical evening New Year's Eve with in Hong Kong quickly went viral, becoming a media sensation.

The 25-year-old asked internet detectives to help him track down the woman – who he says only gave him her first name Katie, was from Washington DC, and left him with a photo and the request ‘find me’ when they parted after spending hours together in Hong Kong.

However, online sleuths quickly found "Katie" and hassled her with so many messages that she has gone into hiding, deleting all her social media accounts, he told the New Zealand Herald.

"It turned into a massive 'let's stalk every Katie in the DC area'. I was trying to get people to stop that, but with 2000 plus people messaging...it got a bit out of hand," he said.

Reese McKee and 'katie'

Mr McKee admits he was naive about the amount of media attention his lovelorn plea would attract, saying things quickly spiraled "out of hand".

“We found the girl. She is from DC, she’s not there at the moment, but she’s sorta taken down all her public profiles for a bit,” he said.

Despite sparking the worldwide manhunt, Mr McKee admits he hasn’t contacted ‘Katie’ yet, and is waiting for all the attention to die down.

He says he has turned down media requests to appear on national morning TV in the US, and has deleted his own Facebook account and original post about his lovelorn search.

Reese

Mr McKee's campaign has attracted criticism of ‘online stalking’ masquerading as romantic behaviour, with some pointing out Katie chose not to give him her contact details.

In his original post, Mr McKee tells how he met Katie in Hong Kong, when he spotted her crying alone on the side of the road after becoming lost from her friends on New Year’s eve.

“I just cheered her up,” he told the NZ Herald. “I sort of have this undeniably bad sense of humour that no one can resist laughing at.”

After an evening dancing, partying and talking late into the night, the pair separated, with ‘Katie’ urging him to ‘find me’.

In his original Facebook post asking users to track down Katie, Mr McKee said he was launching the search because he was ready to take a chance on love again.

“I was hurt a long time ago,” he wrote to followers. “The hopeless romantic in me was locked away when he got hurt because it was too much. For too long, this has effected my relationships, and I’ve failed people.”

His search for Katie, he wrote, was “also about finding me, finding myself and who I know I can be. I hope to find her. And along the way, find myself.”

But it seems Katie may not be too happy about being found.