Oof, you guys. This hit home.

Carly Ryan was a bright, loving young girl who had a solid relationship with her mum, Sonia. Carly was a typical teenage girl in 2006 – she loved emo music, alternative fashion, and she was heavily invested, like we all were back in the glory days, in her MySpace profile. On MySpace, she met a guy – Brandon, who liked all the things Carly liked, and most importantly, liked Carly.

Carly and Brandon began an online relationship, but Carly found out that Brandon was not who he said he was in the worst way.

EPISODE NOTES:

Carly Ryan was murdered in February of 2007, by the person that claimed to be her online boyfriend’s father. In reality, he was a man in his fifties by the name of Garry Newman, who had been catfishing Carly for eighteen months, pretending to be a teenaged muso named Brandon. Carly fell for Brandon, big time, and was upset when he couldn’t travel from Melbourne to South Australia for her birthday party. Brandon’s dad, Shane, would be in SA on business at the time though, so he popped in to the party to meet his son’s girlfriend.

Or so the story went. In reality, Garry was finally gaining access to the teenage girl he’d groomed for months, and he wasted no time getting his hands on Carly. Carly’s mum Sonia caught Garry interfering with her daughter and kicked him out of the house, and banned Carly from social media. But Carly was in love with Brandon, so when he said that he could finally come to Adelaide and meet her, she couldn’t say no. There, Carly met Garry, and his real son, posing as “Brandon”. Carly would never come back home to her mother after this meeting.

Carly Ryan was murdered by a twisted predator, who preyed on her totally normal, 15-year-old desire to be loved and cared for. When the media got hold of the story, they latched on to Carly’s involvement in the emo subculture, which of course has nothing to do with the fact that she was the victim of a murderous pedophile.

Sonia created the Carly Ryan Foundation in Carly’s memory, which is committed to educating parents and children about online safety. You can access their website here https://www.carlyryanfoundation.com/

You can listen to an interview with Sonia here https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/south-queensland-drive/mum-of-murdered-teen-carly-ryan-speaks-out/11371764?fbclid=IwAR3c0igLl37OuMSrC4hrz40kI4C-yDtPVpflgN2xIz1LqwKR2ewEjGcIxe8

Mysterious, enigmatic podcast overlord Casey Casefile also covered Carly’s case, which you can listen to here https://casefilepodcast.com/case-91-carly-ryan/?fbclid=IwAR3KsbkyVjTVss0gl-dNL_4MrK6ZK7uCa1uxsBuxI24AzecXXEqnt4ni5gY

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