Hey guys. I need some help finding information about something that happened on 10/3 in or around Cheektowaga, NY. It (supposedly) involves someone very, very near to me. Some of my friends have made a post on Reddit (which I'll copy and paste here), but we're not having much luck there so far- so now, Escapist, I turn to you.
"Throwaway because lol, internet drama.
/r/Buffalo, I am enlisting your aid in finding an obituary which would have been published on or around October 3rd or 4th. The circumstances are unusual, and Google has failed to turn anything up, but the deceased would have been a 22-year old female, first name Sara, killed in a car accident with a semi. She lived in Cheektowaga, New York, and worked at a bakery in Buffalo, according to her roommate.
So you can see why it's notable I didn't find anything. The reason why I am looking is because Sara was a guildmate in a certain notable MMO. On October 3rd, someone claiming to be her roommate informed the guild that Sara had died, and has been obstinate in providing Sara's friends with any information about her death. Being unable to turn up an obituary and lacking reliable means of out-of-game contact for either Sara or her family, to either discover the truth or offer our condolences, send flowers, etc., casts aspersions on the truth of the "roommate's" claim. After all, it wouldn't be the first nor the last time someone on the internet faked their death, and some of us have learned better than to trust anything without a cited source.
It's possible I'm not looking in the right places. But if I can't find it, and Buffalo natives haven't heard about something that would seem to merit some sort of news coverage, then it becomes less likely user error is involved.
Thank you in advance for your support.
EDIT, 2 PM: For those asking the date and time of the accident, Sara's roommate informed the guild on the afternoon of the 3rd, shortly after the accident. She said it took place on an overpass near Cheektowaga. I am not a Buffalo native myself, and have been trying to use the power of internet and the Buffalo news websites to my best advantage.
Sara had been playing the game for almost three years in the guild. She was gone for several months before she resurfaced, using a new account, claiming her old one had been hacked and banned. Shortly after her return ? about two weeks in ? she supposedly moved in with the roommate that reported her death. The roommate was also a member of the guild, but only for three or four months before this occurred ? she had not been a member at the time Sara quit the game previously, but Sara was reasonably well-known on the server. It was less than two months after she moved in that she was allegedly killed in the wreck."
We've been looking now for several days and have found nothing at all. It makes us suspicious that there's no report at all, anywhere, of a fatal accident in or around Cheektowaga, NY. One would think a young woman, in her early twenties, being involved in a fatal accident on an overpass near the town would be news. It would be reported somewhere. The police would file a report. The paramedics would.
SOMETHING has to be SOMEWHERE to say this happened, if it did. I don't want to call anyone a liar just yet. I don't want to say this is all a cruel hoax, but this is a LIFE we're talking about here. I'm taking a report of a death of a close friend very, very seriously and I'm finding it INCREDIBLY suspicious that there's nothing out there to be found.
That combined with the fact that her roommate (at this point another former friend) is being combative about giving any sort of contact information for the family for us to send our condolances, flowers, etc, is making me even more suspicious. When questioned on ANYTHING, her first response is to deflect, attack, then be defensive right away. To me, that's a big red flag.
All we want, friends at the Escapist, is the truth- one way or the other.
EDIT: Have called the Cheektowaga Police department. No reports of a fatal accident in the month of October. We'll be trying the Erie County sheriffs on Monday.
"Throwaway because lol, internet drama.
/r/Buffalo, I am enlisting your aid in finding an obituary which would have been published on or around October 3rd or 4th. The circumstances are unusual, and Google has failed to turn anything up, but the deceased would have been a 22-year old female, first name Sara, killed in a car accident with a semi. She lived in Cheektowaga, New York, and worked at a bakery in Buffalo, according to her roommate.
So you can see why it's notable I didn't find anything. The reason why I am looking is because Sara was a guildmate in a certain notable MMO. On October 3rd, someone claiming to be her roommate informed the guild that Sara had died, and has been obstinate in providing Sara's friends with any information about her death. Being unable to turn up an obituary and lacking reliable means of out-of-game contact for either Sara or her family, to either discover the truth or offer our condolences, send flowers, etc., casts aspersions on the truth of the "roommate's" claim. After all, it wouldn't be the first nor the last time someone on the internet faked their death, and some of us have learned better than to trust anything without a cited source.
It's possible I'm not looking in the right places. But if I can't find it, and Buffalo natives haven't heard about something that would seem to merit some sort of news coverage, then it becomes less likely user error is involved.
Thank you in advance for your support.
EDIT, 2 PM: For those asking the date and time of the accident, Sara's roommate informed the guild on the afternoon of the 3rd, shortly after the accident. She said it took place on an overpass near Cheektowaga. I am not a Buffalo native myself, and have been trying to use the power of internet and the Buffalo news websites to my best advantage.
Sara had been playing the game for almost three years in the guild. She was gone for several months before she resurfaced, using a new account, claiming her old one had been hacked and banned. Shortly after her return ? about two weeks in ? she supposedly moved in with the roommate that reported her death. The roommate was also a member of the guild, but only for three or four months before this occurred ? she had not been a member at the time Sara quit the game previously, but Sara was reasonably well-known on the server. It was less than two months after she moved in that she was allegedly killed in the wreck."
We've been looking now for several days and have found nothing at all. It makes us suspicious that there's no report at all, anywhere, of a fatal accident in or around Cheektowaga, NY. One would think a young woman, in her early twenties, being involved in a fatal accident on an overpass near the town would be news. It would be reported somewhere. The police would file a report. The paramedics would.
SOMETHING has to be SOMEWHERE to say this happened, if it did. I don't want to call anyone a liar just yet. I don't want to say this is all a cruel hoax, but this is a LIFE we're talking about here. I'm taking a report of a death of a close friend very, very seriously and I'm finding it INCREDIBLY suspicious that there's nothing out there to be found.
That combined with the fact that her roommate (at this point another former friend) is being combative about giving any sort of contact information for the family for us to send our condolances, flowers, etc, is making me even more suspicious. When questioned on ANYTHING, her first response is to deflect, attack, then be defensive right away. To me, that's a big red flag.
All we want, friends at the Escapist, is the truth- one way or the other.
EDIT: Have called the Cheektowaga Police department. No reports of a fatal accident in the month of October. We'll be trying the Erie County sheriffs on Monday.