SERIALously - 266: Her Possessive Best Friend: “She Belongs to Me!!” | The Story of Renae Marsden

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

This week on Serialously with Annie Elise, Renae Marsden had no idea that the person she trusted most would be the one to destroy her life. What began as a romantic connection would spiral into a terrifying, twisted game that ended in heartbreak and tragedy…  🌸 SPRING MERCH IS OFFICIALLY HERE! 🌸 Patreon members get early access starting Monday 4/28 — a full 24 hours before the public launch on Tuesday 4/29! 🎉✨ (Details will be posted on Patreon). Don't miss out before your faves sell out! 🛒🌷 Sign up now at patreon.com/annieeelise to shop early! 💖👛  🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks 🔎  Join The Club: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to EXTRA deep dive episodes every week on Apple! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164 Follow Annie on Socials 📸  🩷Instagram: @ _annieelise 💜TikTok: @_annieelise 🗞️ Substack: @annieelise 💙Facebook: @10tolife ⭐️Sponsors ⭐️ Hero Bread: Go to http://www.hero.co and use code AE at checkout to get 10% off your order. Quince: Go to http://quince.com/ae to get free shipping and 365-day returns on your next order. Shop Annie’s Closet & Must-Haves! 👗 Poshmark: https://posh.mk/Tdbki6Ae0Rb ShopMY: https://shopmy.us/annieelise Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/10tolife?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_BKN1ZMCMEZHACVFQ2R75&language=en_US Disclaimer ‣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 🎙️ Follow the podcast for FREE on all podcast platforms!  Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6HdheEH8WeMTHoe5da34qU All Other Platforms: https://audioboom.com/channels/5100770-serialously-with-annie-elise Get Involved or Recommend the Case 💬  About Annie: https://annieelise.com/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Episode Sources 🔗 2GB Sydney 9Now Coroners Court New South Wales Daily Mail News.com.au NSW Courts The Guardian The Sydney Morning Herald *Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research.  •••••••••••••••••• Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

Hey everybody, it's me Annie. I wanted to quickly jump on here and let you guys be the first to know that we are launching our spring merch. You know that we run merch about twice a year. We do all the designs in-house, fulfillment in-house. We try to make it something that you all really will like. We listen to a ton of your feedback, your requests, and I am so excited about the spring merch launch. So it officially goes live to the public this Tuesday, April 29th. However, if you are a Patreon member, which if you're not, don't worry, there's still time to sign up at patreon.com slash Annie Elise. But if you're a Patreon member,

you will have access to the merch shop 24 hours before it goes public. We keep our quantities very, very limited. A couple of the items will be available for pre-order once it sells out but the pre-order will only be open for a couple of days. So I highly suggest if you are interested in snagging any of the spring merch you head to AnnieElyse.com first thing tomorrow morning or you could head over there today if you're a patreon member. All the details are in patreon of how you can get access and unlock the code. And I really hope you guys like this collection.

I'm super excited about it. We've been working on it for months and I think you guys will love it. So just wanted to give you a heads up, but remember quantities are limited and once it sells out, it is gone and we won't be back with new merch until the fall. So now's your chance.

All right, and let's get into today's episode. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. I'm your host, Annie Elise, your true crime bestie, here to break down another case for you today. I hope you all had a nice weekend. You're starting your week off right, whether you are driving into work, maybe you're cleaning, maybe you, I don't know, whatever it is you're doing, I hope you're doing something that like brings you a little bit of peace because you're about to get that all kind of shit on if I'm being honest.

I mean, this case is such a roller coaster and it kind of has all of the components that make up for something ultra toxic. I mean, toxic relationships, fake boyfriends, possessive friendships, lying, deceit, betrayal, all the workings for a true nightmare of a situation. And let's just talk about toxic relationships for a moment here. I'm sure that all of us have had at least one. If I'm being real with you, I've probably had five, okay? I think we've all

had our fair share of like either a toxic relationship or maybe even a toxic friendship. It can feel suffocating, manipulative, you might find yourself doing things that you never thought you would do in a million years like driving by their house to see if they had another girl over or I don't know what some other stuff I did go through his phone while he's sleeping before he wakes up for work at 5 a.m. To see who he's been texting which by the way Not that I would advocate for going through people's phone because I think that's obviously a sign that you're in an unhealthy relationship I was but what I will say is always trust your gut Okay, because my gut told me homeboy was cheating on me

I went through his phone at 5 in the morning and I found naked pictures of another girl and I'm gonna sidebar for a moment. Can I just tell you? Okay, this is what a Manipulative douche canoe this guy was but also Kind of shows you like what a loser I was in my early 20s because so I find these pictures Okay, and I call him out on it. I'm like, what the fuck? Like, why are you cheating on me? Why do you have naked pictures of this girl?

He's all, you're overreacting. You have it all wrong. These are old pictures. It's a girl I used to date. She sent these to me years ago. And I was like, well, then why are they at the top of your email? Which, who emails a naked picture?

Like, not even text message, I guess. But that's how deep I was going. I was like hunting, because I knew something was wrong. And he's like, because I use them to jerk off. That's what he told me. I'm like, if that makes it any better. And I was like, what? And I'm like, like, I was probably, God, how old was I? I think I was 22 at the time. And so I like freaked out, broke up with him left But then my insecure ass got back together with him like a month later and like somehow justified it to myself like okay It's just like regular porn or what like I don't know trying to make sense of it

But like all to say guys, I definitely had some toxic relationships and made some bad decisions and like what an idiot too Right, like why not just like, why not stop it? They were years old. They're a girl I used to date years ago. Why continue on and say, I use them in the moment now to jerk it? Like, I don't even know. And even funnier, like, I think that he listens

to my podcast. So if you're listening, you know who you are. We're friends now. He's married, has kids. I'm married, we have kids. And it's almost like one of those things where you can look back and laugh about it because it's like, it was just such an unhealthy relationship, but whatever. We're not friends, but obviously we're friends on Facebook and on Instagram and I don't wish

him any harm. But my whole point, and probably way too much TMI just now, is to say I feel like a lot of us have gone through toxic situations probably. That was just one of mine and a long line of many of them, which maybe that's a story time for a different day. But in the end, I feel like most of us eventually will break free from these relationships.

Whether the relationship just runs its course, whether you have your big aha moment and you get away, most of us will eventually break free and hopefully vowing to never go back to a relationship like that. However, for Renee Marsden, that was not gonna be the case because what started as this seemingly innocent friendship led her down a path of full deceit and control

and ultimately it led to a very terrible death, a death that could have been prevented if only Renee knew the truth. And a death to this day that nobody has been punished for. So let me talk about Renee for a moment, okay? Renee was born on October 15th, 1992 in New South Wales, Australia. And when she was just two years old, her parents unfortunately ended up separating, so Renee

lived primarily with her mom, Teresa. But then, just three years after Renee's parents separated, Teresa met this guy named Mark Marsden. They began with a friendship that quickly blossomed into a relationship, and then after a year of dating, they ended up moving in with each other. Then, in the year 2000, they got married, and Renee eventually even adopted Mark's last name. That's how close they were. So, the small family of three soon expanded when Teresa and Mark welcomed three children of their own. Two boys, Jake and Luke, and another little girl named Monique. Living in the suburbs right outside Sydney, Renee found herself kind of

now stepping into this role of being the oldest sibling, and she really did take pride in her position as the big sister. Renee herself too was beautiful. She had this heart-shaped face, dark brown hair, warm brown eyes, and people were just drawn to her. She always had a lot of friends. So in 2005, she started high school and she went to school at an all-girls school called Mount St. Benedict's. And it was here that she met a person who became her closest friend, her bestie, her ride or die. And her name is Camilla Zayden.

The two of them met when they first started high school in ninth grade. And while I'm not sure exactly what sparked this friendship, like whether or not they had the same interests, the same hobbies, whatever it was, they were like glued to each other's hip. They were best friends almost immediately. And I think that sometimes also is kind of what happens with girls in high school. You find your friend or your clique and you are like glued and you guys walk arm in arm,

linked arms to like to class together. You hang out on the weekends. Everything is just friend, friend, friend, friend, friend. And that's kind of what was going on with Renee. Now, before meeting Camilla, Renee was your stereotypical good kid. I mean, good grades, never got in trouble, not someone that her parents really ever had to worry about.

But for one reason or another, after she met Camilla, her grades started dropping. She was always skipping school, she started smoking a lot of cigarettes, and it was kind of this like 180 from who she was before, just a complete shift. And on top of that, her personality was changing, which maybe could be attributed to being a teenage girl

and your hormones changing, but she was becoming withdrawn and shy and just very, very quiet. She wasn't the same outspoken girl that everybody knew and that her family knew. And this wasn't just a gradual change, right? Like a little bit more quiet or a little more private because you're now a teen girl and you have crushes and secrets and you're not, you know, so open with your family. No, this change was so stark that a lot of Renee's family and friends were getting very concerned because they hadn't noticed any sort of change in her activity until this new friend, Camilla, entered the scene.

So now it was kind of like, what's going on? Is she a bad influence? What's she getting you roped into? Why are you changing? So slowly but surely, Renee started confiding in some of her family members about what was going on and specifically She started confiding in her cousin Stephanie, and she was saying you know Camilla's not just a bad influence She's actually not really a nice person. She's very overbearing. She gets mad at me when I hang out with other friends She always wants to know where I'm at what I'm doing She got mad at me because I started dating somebody, just somebody who really wanted full control over Renee. Basically, Camilla wanted Renee all to herself. And apparently, she also wasn't afraid to resort to physical violence to control her. Renee confided in Stephanie that on numerous occasions, Camilla would punch her whenever she

would get mad that she was spending too much time with other people or going on a date and she allegedly hit her and punched her so hard that while Renee was confiding this to her cousin, she had multiple bruises to show for it. So her cousin Stephanie was completely shocked by this, like disturbed, shocked, and horrified, and she encouraged Renee, of course, like, you gotta stop being friends with her. You have to get away from her. However, for whatever reason, despite all of the numerous red flags, Renee continued her friendship with Camilla. And by 2008, things started to get even more complicated between Renee and Camilla, almost as though it was escalating. I mentioned before how Camilla didn't really like if Renee was casually talking to another guy or went on a date here and there.

But now she was actually like in high school growing up, going on more dates, dating more, and Camilla did not like that she didn't have Renee's full attention. It did not sit well with her at all. So as this tension just was growing and growing and growing, she started bombarding Renee with just constant phone calls and text messages. And when I say constant, I mean constant. I'm talking like stage five clinger kind of constant, relentlessly contacting her. It seemed like Renee never got a single moment of peace because her phone was just ringing back to back, non-stop. And if Renee didn't respond to Camilla quickly enough, she didn't just get upset, she would take things a step further.

She began following Renee around, showing up wherever Renee was, no matter what she was doing or who she was with. It was just like, boom, oh, here's Camilla. Camilla's showing up. Whether Renee was out with friends or out just running errands, she would just look up and she would see Camilla

just lurking nearby, keeping an eye on her. And it wasn't just a casual or even try to be a casual, like, hey, I was just in the area, like, what a coincidence, ha ha ha ha, like that kind of thing, not at all. This was full on creepy stalker-like behavior. Camilla now made Renee feel like she was just trapped inside her own life.

And honestly, it started to feel like Camilla was acting more like a jealous ex rather than a best friend. I mean, what kind of best friend wants that much control over your life? And if you're in a situation, like PSA to you guys, okay, if you're in a situation like that and your best friend acts like that, run for the motherfucking hills, okay? Like, that is not normal.

But as it turns out, for Camilla, it was almost like she was a jealous ex. Because then Renee started confiding in her cousin Stephanie again that it turns out behind the scenes, behind the scenes of the friendship, Camilla had tried to kiss her more than once. She had even attempted to seduce her, according to Renee, in her own words, and even tried to convince her to be in a relationship with her. Apparently, according to Renee though, all of this just made her feel extremely uncomfortable. So it was almost like Camilla was two completely different persons, right?

I mean, one moment Camilla would be attempting to kiss Renee, but then the next, she was physically assaulting her, punching her, pushing her, shoving her if things didn't go her way. It was confusing, it was twisted, and it was definitely a toxic relationship slash friendship that Renee was stuck in. Now Renee's cousin Stephanie is hearing all of this information from her firsthand, right? And she's of course very concerned. Yet for

whatever reason, Renee still isn't distancing herself from Camilla. And Stephanie starts to get worried at this point. She's like, you know what? I need to reach out to Teresa. I need to reach out to Renee's mom because I'm worried that she needs more help. I don't wanna just keep watching her spiral and be in this toxic friendship and something go from bad to worse. So I need to get Teresa involved.

And after hearing everything from Stephanie, Teresa went directly to Renee and confronted her. And there was a bit of a tense back and forth, but eventually Renee admitted that she was scared of Camilla. She was scared what she might do to her further, whether it be something physical or even emotional. She said it felt like Camilla had this hold on her that she just could not escape from.

So it's safe to say that Theresa was pretty concerned about this situation. So she turned to her husband, Mark, and then together they started devising a plan. And they decided that they would set up a meeting with the school counselor. They would also set up a meeting with Camilla's parents, hoping to just resolve this issue, nip it in the bud, and then put some distance between the two girls. However, despite their efforts, nothing changed.

And it isn't clear what the school did, if anything, or if Camilla's parents were any help in this situation, but Renee didn't stop being friends with her. And with that, her behavior didn't improve, her school performance just slid even further, and she started pulling away even more from her family and friends, now really getting isolated with Camilla. Her parents were desperate to separate the two of them. They saw what a slippery slope this was becoming and how toxic and dangerous it was becoming. So they ended up taking Renee's phone away from her. Not necessarily just as a punishment, but as a way to where it's like, now you can't

even contact Camilla. Like, we need to create some separation here. But Camilla was not having that. So she just went out and she bought Renee a brand new phone, a secret phone, so they could use that to communicate with one another. But then over time, it was almost like something within Renee finally started to shift and like she began to see Camilla for who she really was and recognized how unhealthy the friendship truly had become. Renee now felt determined to take more control

with her own life, start separating herself and creating some distance. So in 2009, Renee finally decided it was time for a change. And she ended up transferring to a cosmetology school so that she could pursue her dream of becoming a hairdresser. And this was great because this new school really gave her the space that she desperately needed.

She wasn't gonna be seeing Camilla every day anymore. She finally started feeling some peace, which she hadn't felt for a very long time, and she was starting to be a little independent. But then, right as it seemed like Renee had finally found some sort of semblance of relief, things took a very unexpected turn. Months after Renee started at this new cosmetology school, a new student arrived. And sure enough, this new student was Camilla. She had followed her to this cosmetology school.

And right when that happened, Renee started slipping back into old patterns. For a while, things had been looking up, things were good. Renee was getting good grades, feeling more confident, actually starting to get her life together. But now, the moment that Camilla stepped back into the picture, it was almost like a switch just flipped. Renee started falling back into this toxic dynamic. The progress that she made was just gradually slipping away. And again, she was pulling away from her friends and family. But what was great about it is this time around Renee recognized what was happening.

So she identified it and she started pulling away a little bit. She wanted to distance herself even just a little bit from Camilla. So she was taking some space. She wasn't hanging out with her every day. She wasn't texting her constantly or spending all of her free time with Camilla like she used to.

And she was starting to just create a little bit of a healthy distance. Nothing that would be too alarming for Camilla, but enough to where they weren't constantly attached at the hip. But then that confidence and that independence started growing. And one time when Camilla went on vacation, Renee sent her a text message saying, Camilla, I'm done for good with our friendship. When you come home, please do not contact me." And she thought that it was a good idea

to send this text message while Camilla was away because it could give her the time and the space to cool down, she wouldn't be able to immediately retaliate and that it would hopefully be, you know, kind of like a little bit of a buffer. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case. This just catapulted Camilla's jealousy to like new heights, new psychotic unhinged levels.

Because now she just started showing up wherever Renee was. It would be at her work, at her family's house, at school, with friends, on a date, wherever Renee was, there was Camilla, just watching her. Just like she used to do, just not letting her go. And there was one very particularly freaky incident when Renee and her mom, Theresa, were at the library

because out of nowhere, Camilla just appeared seething with anger. And she looked at Renee and she screamed, "'As long as you refuse to answer my phone calls, I will continue to follow you.'" So now Renee was starting to realize that Camilla's behavior was crossing a line. It wasn't just, not that it hadn't crossed a line earlier, but it wasn't just following her, watching her from a safe distance, or texting her relentlessly, although that's obviously

clear indications of stalking, right? And like a precursor to something worse. But now she was realizing that this was kind of turning into a genuine danger for her. So now fearful of what could potentially happen, she didn't want to spook Camilla further. She didn't want to involve the police. She didn't want to make things worse to where she would like lash out even harder. So she's like, you know what, I'm just going to try and continue distancing myself from the situation.

Just have it be like a slow burn out. Just slowly start to back away and put as much distance between us as possible. She started changing her work schedule, her routines, hoping to kind of just like get Camilla off of her trail. She even asked Camilla to meet her at a cafe so that she could tell her that their friendship was done. And her hope in doing this was that Camilla wouldn't be able to make a scene or react crazy in public, that it would be a safe environment. She even had her mom, Teresa, with her at the cafe for support. However, it didn't go quite as planned.

Because in spite of all of the precautions that Renee took, having her mom there, being in a public setting, the conversation about ending their friendship with Camilla was just a disaster. And Camilla physically grabbed Renee at one point and he started yelling at her, you don't mean it, you don't mean it, just losing grip of everything. I mean, just truly starting to spiral. So Theresa, of course, intervened and pulled her daughter

away and started almost acting like a human shield between Renee and Camilla. And then she started like walking with Renee to the car, like shuffling in front of her, trying to shield her from this lunatic who was lashing out. But Camilla wasn't ready to let go. She followed them the entire way, continuing to demand that Renee take back what she had said. And the whole drive home afterward, Camilla just kept calling and texting Renee over and over again. She was bombarding her with messages, again, relentlessly. But then finally, in the spring of 2011, something shifted.

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That's AE at H-E-R-O dot C-O. Hero.co code AE. So Camilla is still just stalking, harassing, and not willing to let go of Renee. But then something shifted in 2011, because for the first time in a long time, Camilla was starting to back off. She started dating a guy that she had met at a nightclub. His name was Brayden Spittery. He was in his early 20s, he worked in construction,

and by all accounts, he seemed like a pretty decent guy. And Camilla seemed to really like him. And for a while, the intense feeling of possession that she had over Renee, it was finally easing up. But it's not like she started respecting Renee's boundaries or distancing herself from her. It was almost like the possession aspect and that kind of behavior took a different turn. Because now she was talking to Renee and kind of surprising her by saying like,

look, this new guy who I'm dating, Brayden, I actually think he'd be better suited for you. Him and I aren't clicking the way that I thought that we would. And Renee was single at the time as all of this was going down. So Camilla said, you know, I'm gonna officially break up with him

and I'm gonna introduce him to you. I just think that you guys would be a better fit. So that's what she did. She introduced Renee and Brayden digitally. They didn't meet in person right away, but Camilla gave Renee's phone number to Brayden and vice versa. So they started texting one another. And from there, things took off pretty quickly. They began texting each other non-stop, every day, all day, and they were just completely attached to each other. It was like Camilla had said, they were better suited for each other.

They were a better match. And Renee thought that Braden was just incredibly attractive. He was muscular, he had dark eyes, this really sharp defined jawline. And on top of that, she also found out he wasn't just a construction worker. He had actually attended an elite private school in Sydney. He was set to inherit an extremely lucrative construction business that his dad owned. I mean, he was perfect on paper. He checked all the boxes.

And Renee really admired how he had a plan for his life. He had goals. He was driven. Like, this was so nice of Camilla. Like, she sacrificed her own relationship so that Renee could be really happy with this dreamboat of a guy. However, this new fairy tale romance was about to come to a screeching halt. Because two months into their relationship, Braden dropped some devastating news on Renee, and quite honestly, a bomb dropped on her as well. He told her he had been involved in a motorcycle accident, and his best friend Richie had died

as a result of this crash. Because of his involvement in the crash, Braden was charged with manslaughter. He had to serve time in prison. So this news hit Renee very hard. I mean naturally, she had these deep, very intense feelings for Braden and now he was going to spend years behind bars just as they were starting this relationship.

She had just officially become his girlfriend days or weeks earlier, and now it was almost like their whole life was gonna have to be put on hold. But despite the initial shock, Renee decided she was gonna stick by Braden. She told him she would continue to support him, she would find ways to stay in touch with him,

and that she still wanted to be his girlfriend, even if he was in prison. Now the little hiccup in all of this was that she wasn't really sure how she was gonna be able to talk to Braden still wanted to be his girlfriend, even if he was in prison. Now the little hiccup in all of this was that she wasn't really sure how she was going to be able to talk to Braden while he was in prison, because writing letters, of course, it's like snail mail. It's too slow, right? You send it to them, the jail has to review it, then it gets passed in the mail carrier, then they respond, it goes back through approval, gets to you. Like, it's not really as great as texting back and forth and the

instant gratification that that gives. And Braden had also forfeited his rights to visitation in exchange for a shorter sentence. So she couldn't go there and visit him. It was going to be tough. But luckily, Camilla came through with a plan. She was fully supportive of their relationship and she really wanted to help. So she actually ended up getting in contact with Braden's lawyer. And his lawyer

said that if they bought Braden a phone, he would figure out a way to get it to Braden in prison. A burner phone, a small phone, whatever it is, he's like, I'll get it into him so that they can talk. So on November 7th, 2011, Camilla and Renee went over to an electronics store and they bought a cell phone for Braden. And they didn't want to waste any time. So that same day, Camilla registered the SIM card in her name, activated the phone, and told Renee that she was gonna bring the phone to Brayden's lawyer. So while Brayden was in the Goldburn jail

in New South Wales, his lawyer somehow got him the phone. Which is kind of crazy because, I mean, I know that lawyers are sketchy and can be slimy, but like outright doing something illegal, that seems really reckless, especially for what? Like teen romance or early 20s, I guess he was. Like for young romance, but maybe he's just, you know, a love bird and that it pulled on his heartstrings. I don't know. So Brandon has the phone now and they are back to texting nonstop all day. He was really nervous about being overheard talking in the prison in his cell by the prison guards.

So they felt like just so that he doesn't get caught and it doesn't get taken away and they can't lose their communication privileges, they should just stick to texting each other, which Renee felt like that was the safest bet too. I mean, as long as she had a way to communicate with Brayden, she was totally happy. So as Brayden serving his prison sentence, as Renee's continuing her life, she's still living at home with her family, and they started to notice that there was another change in her because as the months went on, Renee was now becoming anxious, withdrawn, distant. And like I said, Renee had always been this outgoing, fun-loving person, but now it was like, almost like she was trapped inside her own head with her own thoughts,

always preoccupied, constantly checking her phone, wanting to talk with Braden. So Theresa finally asked Renee, you know, like, what's going on? And Renee confessed everything. She said, Braden's in prison, I'm secretly texting him, but I'm in love with him, like, please don't judge me. It was an accident, but he was charged with manslaughter. Like we're in love and this is what's happening. But needless to say, the whole story really set off a lot of red flags for Teresa.

Because she definitely did not like the idea of her young daughter dating somebody who was in prison. She also didn't love the idea that she was dating somebody who Camilla had set her up with, because she remembered how toxic Camilla had always been. So she wasn't exactly thrilled by that. It was kind of just jarring. She didn't want to tell Renee what to do or how to live her life, but she was definitely concerned. Renee told Brayden all about her mother's concerns, but said, you know, it's not going

to stop us. We're still going to be together. I'm standing by you. And Brayden understood Teresa's concerns. He understood that she was just a worried mother. So he decided he was going to reach out to her personally, try to put her worries at bay. He introduced himself, he reassured her that he cared about Renee, that he was in it for the long haul, that he loved her, and that he was a good person. And Teresa was really hesitant at first, but the direct contact from Brayden kind of seemed to put her at ease a little bit.

She felt like, wow, this is a really mature move for this guy to be reaching out to me directly, to try to put me at ease, and you know, maybe it's not as bad as I think. So she accepted the relationship for the time being, although she did still have some concerns, you know, lingering in the back of her mind, but she wasn't too worried. But then that ease started to shift. Because in the spring of 2012, Braden created a Facebook account. And once he had this account up and running, he started messaging a lot of Renee's friends, and not really in a friendly kind of way of like, hey, I want to get to know my girlfriend's

girlfriends, or things like that. But he was actually like hitting them up and sliding into their DMs flirting with them. Now obviously this caused a lot of fights between Renee and Brayden. She was pissed that he was flirting with her friends, yet he would always be like, you're overreacting, you're being ridiculous, you're making way too big of a deal out of this, but whenever she was angry he would buy her these gifts too and try to appease her that way and he would have his lawyer deliver them to Renee. And Camilla all the while was like, look Renee, don't overreact. Yeah, it's flirting.

It's cause he's in prison. It's harmless. He's a great guy. When he's out, you guys are gonna have a fantastic life together. She would just make excuses for Brayden saying like, look, you should do anything you need to do to keep him. He's a huge catch.

And Renee listened. She always would take Brayden back. She would always forgive him. Ultimately, Brayden ended up deleting his Facebook account, but it didn't solve the issues. Because now he was the one who was incredibly jealous. Anytime Renee would mention an ex-boyfriend or even a casual friend, he would just resort to insulting her or ignoring her and not responding to her text messages, trying to like isolate her. Renee would ask if she could just talk to his lawyer so that she could find out if there was any way

she could come visit him in jail, explain things in person and like work on their relationship. But Braden always had an excuse. It was too complicated and quite frankly to him, he said, it's not worth it. And anytime she started pushing the issue, he would just get very angry with her. And he was becoming more and more unhinged and jealous.

For example, one time Renee had set Camilla up with one of her coworkers, but when he heard about that, he flew off the handle because he's like, no, you're not really setting her up with a coworker. You're cheating on me. You're the one going out with that person. Just constantly panicked and worried about what she was doing.

But in spite of all of these red flags, not only was Renee still all in, but Camilla was championing the relationship saying, he's a great guy, you guys will make it through, don't mess up the relationship, like it's all gonna be okay. Then in July of 2012, Braden told Renee that he was going to be released early, possibly even by the end of the month. And Renee was over the moon, just eagerly anticipating the day that they would finally be reunited which I also should mention finally meet in person because at this point remember their relationship was only going on for two months before he went into prison and that full two month

relationship was strictly over text messages so now he was gonna be released they could start their relationship they would be in person together and it seemed like it was gonna be a whole new world for them. However, her excitement didn't last long because Brayden did get early release and he was out on parole, but almost immediately he got into a physical fight with his father and it landed him right back in jail, all before he could ever meet Renee. So Renee was now reaching a breaking point. I mean the hope of seeing Brayden, this seemingly constant emotional stress, it just finally became too much for her to bear. So in September, in a moment of just pure frustration and despair, she took an overdose of medication. Now thankfully

she did not pass away but for three days straight she was vomiting, she couldn't keep anything down, not even water. It was like her body was rejecting everything. And she knew that she needed to go and get some help. So she confided in her mom, Theresa, and she told her what was going on and everything that had happened, which Theresa then rushed her daughter

to the emergency room. While she was there, Renee spoke with a psychologist and she explained how Braden had just let her down, how he devastated her. That on top of pressure from her job where her performance had once again been slipping, it all just kind of came together and pushed her over the edge. She told the psychologist she was grateful to be alive, she didn't want to harm herself any further, but she had a moment of weakness according to her. So after that it was was kind of like a wake up call for Renee.

She decided she needed to officially take a break from Braden, this was not healthy for her. So she even started dating a coworker named Ian. And for a while, it started to feel like this perfect fresh start, the fresh start that she needed. Ian and Renee became pretty serious, pretty fast, and by January 2013, they were already engaged. Which that's really quick right? She just had this suicide attempt in September of

2012 and what September October November December January in January she's already engaged? That seems like in five months that seems really fast so maybe she's somebody too who just becomes obsessed and connected really fast. I don't know. Now even though she was trying to move forward in this relationship with Ian, she still couldn't fully sever ties with Brayden. She was still emotionally connected to him.

And despite the fact that she was now engaged to Ian, Brayden remained a significant part of her life. Brayden, of course, knew about Renee's new relationship, and he didn't like that. It definitely didn't sit well with him at all. And rather than accepting that she had moved on, he just became increasingly possessive, even so much as sending Ian threatening messages, telling him, you know, don't mess with Renee. I'm watching you despite being in jail. I have people who are watching you.

You need to back off. She's mine. And once while Renee and Ian were attending an out of town award ceremony for work, Renee ended up taking a photo of herself in the hotel mirror, posting it on social media, a little selfie in the mirror and then posting it. However, in this photo, Ian's shoes were in the background. They were right there, hidden away.

And apparently when Braden saw this photo, he noticed those shoes and he lost his mind and started harassing both of them over it. And to make matters worse, Renee was also having issues with Camilla again. Instead of supporting her new relationship with Ian and this new engagement, Camilla seemed to do everything possible to just make it more difficult. She also wasn't shy about letting Renee know that she did not like her new relationship with Ian, she didn't even like Ian. She encouraged Renee to leave Ian and go back to Braden. So basically, Renee was getting

pressure from every direction. Braden was harassing her and Ian. Camilla was pressuring her to go back to Braden. And Ian, understandably, didn't like the fact that Renee still talked to Braden, especially because Braden was like rude to both him and to Renee, his fiance. So a couple of months into being engaged, in March of 2013, he gave Renee an ultimatum. She had to choose between him and Brayden. Who do you want to be with? And in the end, unfortunately, Renee chose Brayden. So with that decision, Brayden was now happy again. Camilla was of course happy again, so Camilla and Renee's relationship was repairing.

Camilla was kind of getting exactly what she wanted. And on Camilla's birthday, on March 28th, 2013, shortly after that decision had been made, Renee sent Camilla a message. And this message read, There are two things that I am absolutely grateful for, and I would always be thankful and grateful for the rest of my life. And that is allowing me and Brayden to start a relationship together. You don't understand, babe, how much it truly means to me, and if it wasn't because

of you, I wouldn't have met the one person that means more than the world itself to me. And secondly, for always being there no matter what happens. I only want the best for you, and I hope one day you can find your everything and you're someone that will mean more than life itself. And more than anyone or anything in the world, I'd kill anyone that would hurt you. Learn from your mistakes, babe, especially the last few months. But you have pushed yourself, showing how strong you truly are, and I admire you for that. I'll do anything I can to make sure that I give you what I found and make sure that the person is your everything. It's my

life mission to see you happy and my life won't be fully complete until I see the day that you have everything that you have ever dreamt of." Which let me just say, that is a really thoughtful and nice message, but also kind of a very intense message, right? Especially for somebody who treated you like dog shit over and over and over again for years. But maybe Renee is just the bigger person and just, you know, wanting to express, I am thankful for you, I hope you get everything you want in your life, and I won't rest until I see that you do. And I don't want you to think that this message meant that everything was just sunshine and roses with Renee and Camilla Because it wasn't they were still trapped in a cycle of fighting ending the friendship getting back together again

Just like they had done in high school and Renee's relationship with Braden was still just as toxic as ever His jealousy was relentless. He didn't like if she posted pictures where other guys were in it He was texting her all the time and if she didn't text back right away or quickly enough, he would start jumping to conclusions, accusing her of cheating. I mean, it was just, ugh, toxic through and through. But Camilla was invested in making sure that Renee was a good, loyal girlfriend to Brayden.

She didn't want Renee to screw this relationship up. Now, at one point, Renee had made plans to catch up with Ian at a bar, her former fiance, not to get back together, but just as friends. But Camilla told Renee, you're going to ruin your relationship with Brayden if you do this. And she apparently became so angry that she started punching Renee. She was pulling her hair. She even grabbed the steering wheel while Renee was driving. She left bruises and red marks all over her, which again, who gets this angry over somebody else's boyfriend?

One that you set them up with, I don't know, it is beyond weird. One time, another ex who Renee was still friends with sent her a really harmless text message, just wishing her well, but Camilla saw it. And she immediately went and told Braden. So the next day, Bradayden texted Renee saying, you know, our relationship's over. You've cheated on me with your ex. I don't trust you. You're

scum. Which obviously she hadn't, but the fight that they had, it dragged on for days. Then anytime Renee would send Brayden photos of herself, whether she was in a nice dress or a cute outfit, he would come back being like, these are too revealing. Who are you trying to impress? Just so, so possessive. Yet despite all of these cheating accusations and all of this possessive behavior coming from Brayden, Brayden apparently didn't mind if Renee cheated on him so long as it was with a girl. All right, if you're anything like me,

I always stress about what to get my mom for Mother's Day. I mean, she's always the person who says, don't get me anything. And I'm like, okay, but I want to get you something and I know I need to get you something and it needs to feel special. And this year, it was like a light bulb went off in my head because I didn't overthink it. I just went straight to my go-to and the problem was solved. And that go-to is Quince.

I've talked with you about Quince before. I live and die by Quince. I order so much stuff from them, but I ended up getting her this beautiful cashmere wrap that was under $100, yet looks and feels like something that is way more luxurious. I mean, the quality of their cashmere is truly insane. It is so soft. It comes in this elegant packaging and it honestly feels like something that you would see from a designer label. And Quince also has the most thoughtful gift options in general. I mean, cashmere sweaters starting at just $50,

14 karat gold jewelry, Italian leather bags, even perfume. It's all so elevated, and the best part is everything is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. And they do this by working directly with top factories, cutting out the middleman, and then passing those savings on to us. And they're also super intentional about only partnering with factories that are ethical and use premium materials. So it's guilt-free gifting, which I love. Also, if you feel like you need an item, but you don't want to commit to apparel, let me just tell you, their cashmere thrill blanket,

not only for yourself, but a great gift item for anybody. I have two, three, I have three of them now. They are so good, I cuddle up with them every night. So if you're still looking for a Mother's Day gift or just want to treat somebody or yourself, spoil yourself without breaking the bank, Quince is it. Thoughtful, timeless, totally her, shop Mother's Day at Quince, and go to quince.com slash AE for free shipping on your order and for 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash AE to get free shipping and 365 day returns.

Quince.com slash AE. Now this next detail I wish I was kidding about, but unfortunately I'm not. So one time, Renee started sending Brayden some dirty pictures, some nudes. Yet he wasn't reciprocating, he wasn't sending any back, and she was kind of teasing him saying, I need something to like tide me over until you get out of prison, like send me something. Which he just responded saying, well well don't wait until I'm out of prison go have sex with Camilla which Rene was like uh absolutely not like I'm not into girls like that like I'm not gonna go have sex with Camilla but he insisted telling her that if she needed something like that

while he was in jail it would be okay she had his permission for her to go sleep with Camilla saying, you know, it's fine if Camilla keeps you quote satisfied until my release, which is kind of crazy, right? Because this is the same guy who like was blowing up Renee's phone over a simple photo of her in a red dress or her going out for coffee with a friend. Like, and now he's saying you can go have sex with somebody else as long as it's a girl and I don't care. I mean, maybe people think that way. I've never been in a relationship like that,

but what do I know? It was just really weird. The whole dynamic, the whole situation was odd, and it was about to get even weirder. Despite the emotional chaos between Renee and Brayden, they were talking about getting married when he got out of prison. And at that point, he was set to be released around the fall of 2013.

Renée's 21st birthday was in October of 2013, so they decided, you know, we should get married shortly after that. And Renée was full steam ahead. She started looking at dresses. She even set an appointment with a wedding photographer. She was calling state officials asking them if like a felon could obtain a visa so that they could go to Greece for their honeymoon. I mean, she was planning a future with Brayden.

No matter how bad things were between them, he was her guy, she wanted to marry him, and she was planning the wedding. She was also trying to just be a good supportive girlfriend. She wanted to understand his release, his court dates, the charges, everything so that they could start their life fresh when he got out. She just wanted to have some peace of mind

about his future. However, whenever she asked Braden how she could get in touch with his lawyer, he just like freaked out, got incredibly defensive. He would start sending her these angry text messages that were full of profanity, just kind of like, "'Leave me alone, I'm handling it. "'I don't need your help.'"

And one time he even said he didn't know how to get in contact with his lawyer saying, "'I don't even know where he works, which that made zero sense because he had supposedly been meeting with this guy a lot. So how do you not know how to get in touch with your lawyer? But basically it was like Brayden was turning something simple, something that should have been

a normal conversation with transparent information exchange into this like really odd power struggle, making Renee almost feel like she was in the wrong for asking questions about the future, the future they were supposed to share together. I mean all she was doing was trying to support him, right? So trying to get him to understand where she was coming from, she sent him a text message which read, I fight for you, Brayden. Through court, through meetings, I fight for you. When they hurt you, I stayed by your side, talking to you. Every situation we've been through, I've for you. When they hurt you, I stayed by your side, talking to you.

Every situation we've been through, I've been there, and not once have I complained. Braden, you will never get it because you're a male, but to a girl, finding that perfect someone is everything, and I found that with you. I truly thought you were everything, and I could never let you go. I saw my future with you, and I was going to do whatever it took to give it to you. Just sit there and imagine this man that was your everything, that you would do anything for, ask you to marry him. Then on top of that, he wanted to be the father of your child and you talked about it every day. Then you make the worst mistake of your life and fuck it up.

You always say you love me, but actions speak louder than words, Brayden. You know, sometimes I ask for simple things and it's like you don't want me to have it or no. It's simple things. I always feel you have an excuse though, no matter what I ask. I have nothing of you, Brayden. Seeing a car of yours would even make me feel much closer to you. But I feel like you just hide things from me. But you just can't let me in when I ask for simple things. It's not fair." And Braden, responding to that, even though he had just insulted her and called her a bitch, sent her a text message in return that said, I love you, Renee. You changed my life from day one. I adore you. So all in all, it's almost like he always knew what to say to just keep her invested enough, keep her on the hook.

And interestingly, he also would defend Camilla anytime Renee would bring up a concern. Anytime Renee would be like, I think I'm going to pull away from this friendship or it's getting toxic again. He'd be like, no, no, no, no, no. You need to make up with her. She's a good friend. Like she's the one who got us together, make things right. But by the summer of 2013, Renee was ready to end her friendship for good, but Brayden wasn't having it. He pushed Renee to make up with Camilla again. And this is the woman who hit her, who went behind her back to manipulate her, who had just been terrible to her for so long. But Renee, to her credit, was seeing through all of it. She wasn't blind to Camilla anymore. She knew that she couldn't have Camilla in her life anymore, yet she was

afraid of how Camilla would react if she said that she wanted to end the friendship. So then instead, she just started making excuses about being busy whenever Camilla wanted to hang out. She didn't go to any parties or any other events if she thought Camilla might be at them. She even used to be involved in a soccer league, but she stopped going because she knew that Camilla was usually there.

She just really was trying to distance herself once and for all. Then in July of that summer, Camilla was going to distance herself once and for all. Then in July of that summer, Camilla was going away on vacation for about a month. So Renee saw this as being the perfect opportunity to finally break free from their toxic friendship once and for all for good. And frankly, she kind of also needed more time to be able to focus on her own needs as well, because at that same time, Braden was going through a whole host of issues on his own. He had multiple upcoming court dates and these dates were going to determine if he was going to be released

or if he was going to have to remain in jail. He was going to be really busy and he had to avoid any communication that could mess with his chances of getting out. So he was trying to stay in the good graces of the prison system. He didn't want to risk being caught with a phone that could jeopardize his release. Remember, he's not allowed to have the cell phone in prison. So for that entire month, both Camilla and Brayden were essentially out of Renée's life. She had zero communication with either of them. And she finally now had some space to focus on herself. For the first time in a while, she wasn't constantly being pulled in different directions. She threw herself into work.

She started making plans for her future. She even moved ahead with some of the wedding prep. Though to be honest, her excitement was a little bit tempered by all the uncertainty surrounding Braden's release and if he would actually be able to have a wedding or not. And she was confiding in her coworkers just how much of a struggle it was being away from him, saying she felt like there was this huge void in her life. She had just been anxiously waiting to hear from him, to get the news. And on August 5th,

she finally got the long-awaited answer. She was so excited, thinking, okay, maybe he's bringing good news. Maybe he's going to be released soon. We can start moving forward with our life together. But of course, that wasn't the case. His message wasn't filled with excitement, but instead his messages were blunt and were harsh. His release was not going to be happening anytime soon, and on top of that, he was now being pretty rude to her. His tone was cold, and his words just hit Renee really hard. Now when she received this message, she was at work that day, and her coworkers really

noticed that her mood just took this full nosedive. I mean, it was clear that something was wrong. So at around 1pm, Renee went to lunch with a coworker, hoping that a change of scenery would maybe help take her mind off of things. But halfway through the meal, everything seemed to just unravel, because Renee suddenly started crying just uncontrollably. She was shaking and she showed her coworker a message that Brayden had sent her that just fully set her off. It said, quote, I think I need a break and so do you. So Renee continued crying through lunch, so much so that the wait staff had to bring over some tissues for her.

And the thing was they had been separated before, but this time was different. It made this message stand out from all the times before. Because for whatever reason, Renee could feel that Braden was serious this time. Something about it just felt final. So after lunch, Renee went back to work, but she quickly told her supervisor she had to go. She needed to leave. Braden wasn't responding to her messages.

She needed answers. So she was going to try calling the prison, hoping to find out what was really going on here. So she left work at about 2.45pm and she made the call as soon as she got home. However, whatever was said on the other end of that line is still a mystery to this day. Sometime around 4 or 5pm that same day, Theresa, her mom, arrived home after picking up Renee's younger siblings at the bus stop. She went right up to Renee's room to check in on her, and she saw Renee sitting there doing her hair, putting on makeup, putting on a nice outfit. Teresa could tell that something just wasn't quite right though. She knew her daughter. She knew something was upsetting her despite her getting ready and like getting dressed up for something. Now around that same time, Theresa received a really weird message from Braden of all people.

And the message said, quote, sort your daughter out. She's thinking of killing herself. Theresa was shocked at this message, obviously, and she showed it to Renee. But Renee assured her that everything was fine. Braden was just angry. He was trying to take it out on her. She said, you know, there's nothing to worry about. I Braden was just angry. He was trying to take it out on her. She said, you know, there's nothing to worry about. I'm going out with friends. He's just pissed off. Ignore him.

I'm fine. I'm definitely not going to be killing myself. Like, it's all fine. Now Teresa needed to take the younger kids to swimming lessons. So she asked Renee to drop her youngest sibling off at their grandma's house before she headed out with her friends for the night, which Renee agreed. And by around 5pm, she dropped this sibling off at the grandma's house before she headed out with her friends for the night, which Renee agreed, and by around 5pm she dropped this sibling off at the grandma's house and then was on her way out to go meet up with friends. But then, while Teresa was at the swimming pool with the kids, she got a very unusual

message from Renee. This message came in at 5.49pm and it read, I love you so much. I'm sorry for everything and the pain I will now cause you. But I'll be okay. I'll still be here and be around when you need to talk to me. Just call my name and I'll be there. You're the most amazing person and mother ever and my very best friend.

I wasn't happy and I need you to understand that, that it's okay. Don't let this ruin everybody else that you need to take care of. I need you to be strong for me." Which can you imagine receiving that kind of message from your daughter? I mean, it didn't make any sense, and it gave Teresa this lingering, unsettling feeling. So she texted Renee back, asking her what's going on, but Renee didn't reply. So she tried to focus on picking up the kids from swimming lessons and then driving to get the youngest from the grandma's house. But her mind just kept drifting back to that strange message that Renee sent her. It wasn't like Renee to send something like

that, and Teresa just couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something felt off. So later Teresa showed a friend this message, hoping to get her opinion. And as soon as her friend read it, her face dropped. She turned white as a ghost and she feeling any longer, so she called the police and they arrived at her house at around 7.50pm. Teresa quickly explained everything—how Renee had sent her that strange message, how worried she was, how something just didn't feel right, how now Renee wasn't answering any of Teresa's phone calls or text messages.

In fact, anytime she called, Renee's phone just went straight to voicemail. It was almost like she had turned her phone off entirely. So the officers listened carefully, and they asked a few more questions to make sure that they really understood everything that was going on. Then, without hesitation, they left and went searching for Renee, hoping to just track her down or find her friends and figure out what the heck is going on here. Teresa ended up texting Camilla at around 818 PM, asking, you know, hey, have you heard

from Renee? Which Camilla said, yeah, she messaged me a while ago, why, is everything okay? And she said that the last time that she had heard from Renee was at 547 PM, which, like Teresa, the message that Renee had heard from Renee was at 5.47pm, which, like Theresa, the message that Renee had sent was apparently very weird. Renee had told Camilla as well that she loved her and that she was sorry. And the message she had sent to her mom was at 5.49pm, so two minutes later. So it's almost like she sent this goodbye message to Camilla, then sent it to her mom,

and then, I don't know, maybe sent it to Braden? So Theresa explained to her that nobody had heard from Renee and that she was really worried. Camilla suggested that Teresa come over so she and Teresa could go drive around and look for Renee together in her car, which happened to be a red Mazda 2. So Teresa went over there.

They did drive around together for a few hours, but they couldn't find Renee anywhere. Then at around 8.45 PM, the police managed to locate Renee's car. It was near an area known as The Gap, a cliff overlooking the ocean right in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. And this did not sit well with the police because The Gap was a notorious place where people would go to take their own lives. But despite finding the car, there was no sign of Renee. Inside the car, though, the officers discovered a Valentine's Day card from Brayden.

They also found Renee's wallet and a clodge of photos of Brayden. I love you, Brayden was also written on the car's windshield. So the car ended up being towed to the police station for further investigation. But this was scary. It seemed like it was a cry for help, right? Like this young girl, heartbroken, distraught, wants to take her own life. So she sends these messages to her best friend and her mom.

Then she writes, I love you, Brayden, on the windshield at this cliff. I mean, it does not look good. So the next day, the police continued their search for Renee, but still nobody had heard from her. So police and Renee's family decided to nobody had heard from her. So police and Renee's family decided to comb the area where her car had been found, searching for any sort of clue or evidence. And eventually, they discovered Renee's shoes near a path leading to a cliff.

The search then expanded and even had divers going into the water, planes scanning from the sky, but nothing turned up. Then a break in the case came in the form of CCTV footage. The cameras had caught Renee walking in the area of the gap. They saw her taking off her shoes, sitting on the edge of the cliff, sending some text messages, and then the footage showed Renee throwing her phone into the water. After that, she stood up, walked off, and the cameras lost sight of her. Now, at this point, it was pretty obvious to everybody

what Renee had done. It was impossible to ignore what people were starting to suspect, right? Renee had jumped off the cliff and ended her life. But the police couldn't find her body, and they feared it had been swept into the ocean. But Teresa was having a really hard time believing that Renee would take her own life. She had been talking with her about her future.

She was excited for her upcoming birthday. She was talking about moving to the city. She also couldn't shake the feeling that Braden was somehow involved in some way. So she needed answers. She texted him, demanding to know what had happened and if he knew anything. But Brayden wasn't responding to anyone. He was ghosting everyone. Teresa then reached out to Camilla, asked it, you know, have you heard from Brayden? He's ghosting me. He's not answering me. And Camilla said, yeah, Brayden had been talking to her because he was upset that

people were blaming him for Renee's disappearance, but that was really it. So Camilla suggested, you know, maybe the family needs to ease up on Braden a little bit, implying it's not entirely his fault. She also sent Teresa a message which read, Renee has always been like this. It's not Braden's fault. We can't blame one person. Apparently they didn't fight. She said to him that no one accepts him and that they love each other. In a situation like this, we can't blame anyone. She always said she hated being at home before she met Braden, and then after she always said that she would do this for many different reasons. Renee complained about home, yes, but she promised me that she would never do

anything like this. And yes, she always did complain about home. She wanted to move out and she always said that Mark would abuse the kids or you and that she couldn't handle it. The truth is, it was never about one person. It didn't have anything to do with Brayden. I think Renee was just an upset person to be honest. She did something similar to this at school. She always felt like everyone was against her. Which what really stood out to me in this text message is how many times she says Renee complained about home. Over and over she says that almost like she was trying to blame Renee's parents and home life for whatever Renee did. The following week the whole family banded together. They came to our place every day

and to sit with us to wait for some news because we were told after the third day that we would have the body. So the family sat there and waited and Camilla was part of that and she started to drop subtle things that she said that just didn't make sense. Like if you guys are hurting so it was Braden and first thing we said well, how do you know that? I was spoken to him. Well, can we have the phone number and of course? There's no answer to that phone number that she provide Renee's family immediately pointed the finger at Braden when they spoke with the police Renee's family immediately pointed the finger at Braden when they spoke with the police. So the investigators tried to reach him, but when they did, they found out he was not an

inmate at the prison. He also did not attend the high school that he had told Renee he went to, and they basically could not find a trace of this guy anywhere. So they of course started to begin to believe that Braden didn't even exist at all. In fact, one day early in the relationship, Braden had randomly texted Renée's cousin Stephanie—the same Stephanie from earlier in this episode that Renée would confide in all the time—and she noticed that there was something really odd about Braden's ways of texting, something that almost felt familiar.

The use of punctuation, the spelling mistakes, the way certain phrases were worded, it all had a strange resemblance to the way that Camilla texted. So Stephanie had compared the messages from Brayden with the ones that Camilla had texted. And it was clear that the similarities were way too much to be a coincidence.

So Stephanie broke the news to Renee. She told Renee early on into the relationship that she thought that Braden wasn't who he said he was and that this was actually Camilla behind all of these text messages. She explained her reasoning, but when Renee heard it, she just refused to believe her cousin. And she became visibly upset at this suggestion, just like even insinuating it was off the table. Like she was very angry, except now, fast forward several months later, and the police were noticing the same similarities.

They also, of course, learned that Brayden's phone was registered under Camilla's name. So all to say one thing was becoming clear. Camilla had way more to do with Renee's disappearance and death than anyone realized. And at that point, everything started to unravel. The police called Camilla and asked her to come in and speak with them. Yet the interrogation went nowhere. The next day, though, Camilla was committed to a hospital.

Her family was concerned about her mental state, and they feared that she might be at risk of self-harm. Now during her stay, she told the hospital staff all about Renee, but she never mentioned Brayden. Then, she was released a few days later. And on September 13th, 2013, the police executed a search warrant at Camilla's home, hoping that they would be able to locate the phone that she had been using to send those text messages that she posed as Brayden. They were sure that this phone was the key to unraveling the mystery around Renee's death. Now, they never did find that specific phone, but they did find multiple other phones.

One was Camilla's personal phone, another was a phone that she used when traveling abroad, another was just an old phone that she still had. And the police found a few other interesting items during their search. There were tons of letters from Renee to Camilla, and even a few letters that Renee had written and sent to Braden. Toward the end of the search, one of the officers approached Camilla, and he flat out asked, anything you want to talk to me about? I'm happy to listen.

Camilla, clearly on edge, finally broke her silence. She admitted, I was sending the text messages to Renee before I left for America in March. Renee asked me to, she wanted me to pretend that I was Brayden, which what? So then the officer asked why, but Camilla said she didn't know. She said, I just did it because she wanted me to. I didn't do anything else though,

what's going to happen to me? Camilla didn't offer much else, and she declined to any further interviews with the police. And sadly, years went on, and the case went nowhere. All while Renee's family and the police continued to believe that Camilla was behind this, that she had catfished Renee pretending to be Braden, who never existed, and that ultimately it led to her death. Yet the problem was there weren't any laws against catfishing. Look, let me go on record as this. Pure evil would be about the best way to describe her. And it's just a shame that she wasn't locked up over it.

Still, Renee's family pushed for an inquest into Renee's death. The legal process was long and slow, and at times it felt like they were getting nowhere. But then in the spring of 2020, nearly seven years after Renee's death, an inquest was finally set. And by this point, technology had made huge leaps forward.

So while Brayden and Renee's phones had never been found, investigators were able to recover most of the messages that were exchanged between Brayden, Camilla and Renee. And Camilla was subpoenaed to testify at the inquest. And predictably, she wasn't exactly thrilled about it. So she hired lawyers, she tried to fight the entire process. But then in February of 2020, she was finally forced to give her testimony.

And right from the start, she admitted that Brayden wasn't real. Which at this point, that wasn't too surprising, right? But they were finally hearing it from her firsthand. And then came the part that really started raising eyebrows. Camilla claimed that she and Renee had made up Braden together. She claimed that she and Renee

were actually in a romantic relationship, but they had to keep it a secret because her parents would never approve of her being with another woman. Which, this was so far-fetched. I mean, people in the courtroom were just listening to this in complete disbelief. Meanwhile, Renee's parents completely denied this, saying we would have always

been able to accept her no matter who she was with. That would never have even mattered to us. Why would they set this character up? Wouldn't they? Your daughter, Lauren? Plus, Renee certainly hadn't acted like she knew he wasn't real. She called the prison where he was supposedly locked up. She tried to send him gifts.

She tried to get in touch with his lawyer. So why would she do all of that if she knew that he wasn't real? Why would she need to sell the lie further to herself? It makes no sense. There was also a staggering number of text messages between Braden and Renee. I am talking over 30,000 text messages. And on top of that, there were thousands more between Renee and Camilla. So again, if Renee knew that Brayden wasn't real, if he was just this safety net character

made up so that she could be in this romantic relationship with Camilla, why would she have texted him 30,000 times? That makes absolutely no sense. I mean, people wouldn't have to see her texting him to believe the relationship was real, so why bother? It just doesn't add up. Now, when Camilla was asked about this, she claimed Renee just liked to be, quote, in character.

Then Camilla claimed that they both had agreed that this constant back and forth was all becoming way too much to handle. It was becoming confusing and toxic and just too much. So they decided that they were going to stage a breakup so that they could end all of it. But Camilla claimed that she could have never predicted that by ending this fake relationship that they had both set up together, that it would cause Renee to end her own life. Camilla also admitted that the pictures

that she had been using to portray Braden were photos of a guy that she had met at a club years earlier. His name was Cameron Long, and he said that until Renee's death had hit the news, he had absolutely no idea what was going on. Yet now with his name and picture being splashed all over TV news, people were starting to treat him like a criminal, thinking, you know, he was Brayden or was somehow involved

in this. Renee's family also spoke during the inquest, and they didn't hold back when they were talking about the issues that Renee had faced with Camilla in the past. They made it clear that, looking back, they had always felt like Camilla wanted more than just a friendship with Renee. They suspected that Camilla had created this persona of Braden all as a ruse and a way to get exactly what she always wanted, a romantic relationship with Renee. She could have given us peace. She's chosen not to. As a father, I think to some extent today's proceedings are worse than losing Renee. At the end of the inquest, the coroner reached her conclusion.

She did not believe that Renee had helped Camilla make up this Braden character and did not believe that Renee and Camilla were in a secret relationship. She also pretty much agreed with everything Renee's family said. That Camilla was obsessed with Renee, that she wanted a relationship, but she couldn't get it. So she created this fake person to give her the feeling that she was in a relationship with Renee, that she wanted a relationship, but she couldn't get it. So she created this fake person to give her the feeling that she was in a relationship with Renee. The coroner ruled that Renee had ended her life as a result of Brayden breaking up with her. So she recommended that a domestic violence team review Renee's case to decide if they should bring

criminal charges against Camilla. However, since this inquisition, nothing has happened. Camilla has not faced any criminal charges against Camilla. However, since this inquisition, nothing has happened. Camilla has not faced any criminal charges. She has had no accountability. She's just out there living her life. She still lives near Renee's family as well, and they even still bump into her every once in a while, which can you imagine how frustrating that must be?

Meanwhile, Renee's family is pushing for catfishing to be considered a crime and naming the law Renee's Law. Camilla was condemned by the courts, but she was still allowed to walk free. I mean, that in itself is heartbreaking. Currently, there are no laws that make catfishing illegal. What are your hopes for legal reform? Tell us about Renee's Law. Yeah, well, at the moment, New South Wales government's looking at coercive behavior legislation, mental abuse legislation. But catfishing is not a crime.

You can assume a fake identity, and you can go online, and you're perfectly legal, perfectly lawful to do what you want as we understand it. So we want that specific catfishing law. We want that to be criminalized. So this sort of thing can't happen again. They created a petition that now has almost 18,000 signatures. And part of the petition reads, imagine if your child's best friend led them to take their own life.

It's every parent's worst nightmare, but for us, it's a painful reality. Our daughter was emotionally catfished by her best friend. Our daughter is gone, but her friend has not been charged. There have been no legal consequences for her. We made a promise to our daughter that we will do everything we can to have catfishing

criminalized to try to protect others from falling victim to the same fate as Renee. We will not let Renee leave us in vain. Help us make a change in our community to stop others suffering the loss of their loved ones like our family has. Innocent people need to know that they are protected by the law from the cruelty of catfishers. Please join our fight, make a difference, and sign this petition. Help share Renee's story. We never want another family to suffer the same torment that our young daughter endured and the pain that we feel every day." I mean, extremely powerful, obviously.

So the thought, of course, is that Renee was so devastated by this breakup from Brayden that she went and took her own life. But I still have some questions with that. Why was she getting ready, doing her makeup, getting dressed up, putting her mom at ease to go? Why did she care what she looked like when she went to go take her own life? Unless that's something people do. I don't know. Also the goodbye text messages, the I will always love you Brayden on the windshield. It does seem like she's distraught,

but the thing that I still have a question about that has not been answered after she left work that day when he broke up with her, she called the prison and there was a phone conversation that was had. We don't know who was on the other end of the line, right? I would imagine though, whoever it was said, we don't have an inmate here by that name. There's nobody here. So could she have then started piecing it all together since her cousin Stephanie had warned her months earlier that she thought that that was the case? Like could she have started realizing that and putting it together realizing oh my god this was Camilla the whole time? Which if that's the case why not confront Camilla? Or did she and we don't have that on record? I don't know. Or could it have been that she put it all together and there

was a ton of shame in it and that's what made her want to take her own life? I don't know. I have a lot of questions and I wonder too like who was she getting dressed for? Did she meet up with Camilla at any point? Was there a conversation in person maybe where she confronted her and that's why there's no digital trail of it where then Camilla admitted to everything and like she sent those goodbye texts even to Camilla like because she couldn't bear it? I don't know. There's a lot of theories in this case and so I am interested to know what you guys think, but it's unfortunately not the first and will not be the last case where we talk about a catfishing situation that ends in death, whether it's murder or suicide, whatever it may

be, and it really does show the dangers of catfishing. Something that a young person might think is innocent and attention-grabbing and fulfilling for whatever emotional need they have, but can end disastrously. So like Renee's family is saying, they want her story heard. They want to share her story and they want this petition to get signed. So we will link the petition in the episode show notes as well. Please go take a look at it. Please share this episode. Share this link, get Renee's story out there because the more people who are aware of catfishing and the dangers that can come with it, the more likely I think any stigma can be taken away from it and people can just be on alert and know what to look for. I just can't believe that at 20—not even 21 years old, her birthday

was just about to hit—at 20 years old, this young girl's life was ended and cut short because of this weird, possessive, territorial relationship with her best friend who felt like she was entitled to all of Renee's attention, love, affection, everything, and she was gonna do anything to get it, even if it meant making her best friend go into a full-on tailspin. It's horrific. And let's hope that there is actual justice for Renee and that this

psychotic bitch Camilla is held accountable because this is crazy to me and the fact that she is just out there gallivanting without any repercussions. She is just out there gallivanting without any repercussions. How frustrating, right? Like the audacity. So thank you so much for hearing Renee's story today. It's very sad, but unfortunately with technology, all too common and especially now to guys with AI

and how insane that is becoming. It's easier now more than ever to not only create these fake profiles and fake text messages, but fake photos, fake voices, everything to like sell the lie. It's very scary. So educate your kids on it, yourself on this, take away the stigma. It's really dangerous. All right.

Thank you guys again. I will be back with you Thursday with headline highlights and then again on Monday with an all new deep dive. But until then be nice. Don't kill people, don't catfish anybody, and just don't be a possessive freakazoid of a friend. I mean give your friends some breathing room, alright? Alright guys, bye. you you