Tuesday, May 26, 2009

He 'married' online wife

Their online friends from the game, attended the wedding ceremony and Miss Chua Jia Yu became David Hartanto Widjaja virtual wife. --PHOTO: ST

UNDERGRADUATE David Hartanto Widjaja 'married' an 18-year-old girl in popular online video game Destiny Online last December, barely a month after getting to know her.

Their online friends from the game, which involves killing monsters, attended the wedding ceremony and Miss Chua Jia Yu became his virtual wife.

The couple, though, never met in real life although they chatted frequently online and also had each other's phone numbers.

On Monday, Miss Chua took the witness stand in the coroner's inquiry into Widjaja's death to shed some light on his state of mind in the days leading up to his death on March 2.

Miss Chua said Widjaja would spend hours each day playing the game, sometimes staying up until 4am. Widjaja's hostel mates and friends said he had become obsessed with computer games to the point that it affected his studies.

But in the weeks before he died, Widjaja became frustrated with the game, said Miss Chua, as he had already attained a high level and he felt it was not being developed fast enough for him.

The day before he died, Widjaja told her in an online chat that he had to submit some homework two days later.

Later that evening, he sent her an SMS message saying that he could not log into his Destiny Online account. He did not say if he was upset or stressed.

That was the last time she heard from him. She later found out he had died from the online forums and when the police called her.

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