Here’s the situation: A relative has fallen in love with someone online. They are planning to marry, but they have never met. Every time they are scheduled to meet, some huge health crisis or other awful event happens. No money to speak of has been spent, except perhaps a ring. The mystery girl is a wealthy orphan. Clueless boy is in the military and not free to just pick up and travel at will right now. Girl has Facebook page, and has even changed her last name to his in anticipation of their marriage. The latest plan was she would drive up to see him, and get married a few days later. She has health problems, and didn’t show because she was in the hospital. Didn’t contact him the whole time she was ill.
I know! It sounds so fishy, even with those few details…the details of all the horrendous things that happened each time she tries to visit him would make your head spin, including a best friend’s uncle committing suicide by driving the wrong way on a highway and killing a pregnant motorist!
Thing is, the boy is crazy in love, parents live too far away to snoop. So aunt wants to do some investigating online to see if she can find out if this girl is for real. She’s not sure if this is her place, but she feels compelled to help stop a train wreck. Since calling the hospitals involved wouldn’t work, and checking news reports for a pregnant motorist killed wouldn’t provide a link to the mystery girl…I mean, anyone can take a headline about a tragedy and pretend they are best friend’s with a relative of one of the people.
You hear about people investigating their dates online all the time. What online tools are used to do this when all you know is a name and location? Are there free sites for this, or does everything require money? Is there truly anything the aunt could research to discover if this girl really exists, or if she’s just a fake identity created by some crazy middle-aged obese handicapped woman tucked into a trailer in the hills?
And one would hope that members of this boy’s military unit would dopeslap him into reality when he informs them he’s planning to marry someone he’s not met yet who keeps avoiding meeting him.