Charged, yes. Convicted? We’ll see. I suspect that if there was evidence of sexual contact between them it would have been mentioned in the article.
For all we know, this whole thing could be an interstate LAN party gone horribly wrong… 
Wouldn’t that make four? You(1) +Her(1) +(2) friends=4…
I bet before online gaming, guys in their mid-20s never picked up jailbait.
See, this bothered me too. The case, itself is interesting enough, why do they need to specifically mention anything about WoW and then, of all things, call it a science fiction game. It adds nothing to the story, since saying they met online is sufficient, and it just gives people who think online gaming is bad more fuel for the fire. :rolleyes:
As for the article itself, considering he met her online, there really isn’t enough information to know whether or not he believed she was older or knew she was 14. Yes, I’m sure he was planning for sex or something, but I just can’t imagine some guy driving that far, intending to take her camping, and not having at least attempted sex with her, and not believing she was legal. That just doesn’t strike me as the behavior of a sexual predator. I’d be interested to see how the case unfolds.
There’s got to be somebody to hold the donkey.
For the record, I’ve been playing MMORPGs for 5 years and was semi-single for 3 of them. The problem for most other gamers is, we gamer girls don’t stay single for long. 
On WoW, the ratio of girl gamers to girl characters is like 1:25, or seems like - but on The Sims Online (my first online game) it was totally 1:25 male characters. :smack:
When I first started playing WoW and it was discoverd that I was really a girl, I would get umm - “offers” all time. But heck, after hours of TSO and having my toon play the piano for talent points, all I wanted to do was kill stuff . . . 
But seeing her pic, I can totally see where a guy would be that silly as to assume she’s legal and drive 2K miles with these gas prices.
Seriously? She looks 18-19 to some of you? Maybe since I’m around 14 year olds all the time they just look different to me. She’s 5 feet tall and 90 pounds…with the braces I just can’t see mistaking her for an 18 year old. Look at the second picture there…
Girls vary pretty widely in appearances at different ages. I could believe as old as 21ish based on those two pictures. You’ve never know a girl that looks much younger or older than her age?
She looks like a kid to me…she looks like a freshman, not a senior. What can I say…
There definitely isn’t any internet access at Palouse Falls State Park. Washington’s pretty connected, but not at remote campsites like this. In fact, there’s only a couple ways to entertain yourself there – I suspect they were there for the bird-watching.
That second picture wasn’t in the original story. I can definitely see 14 in the second picture, but I still see 18-19 in the first one.
The guy drove 2000 miles to meet her, then took her camping in yet another state in a “very remote” campground. Obviously we don’t have all the facts, but it sounds to me as though he was trying to keep from being found, which points to an understanding that she was underage.
And yeah, that second picture definitely looks early teens to me.
Daniel
I agree, but then I’m a mother of an almost ten year old, not a guy in his 20s trying to get a girlfriend.
I’ve dated two women-- in their early twenties-- who were under five feet tall and 90 lbs. And they had rounded, “young” faces; the one photo of this girl on the news site looks older than they were. There’s no one specific look for teens vs. women.