- Joined
- Jul 24, 2008
- Messages
- 33,627
- Points
- 0
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>'Online wife' sheds some light on his state of mind
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
</TD><TD vAlign=bottom>
Miss Chua never met Mr Widjaja in real life but they chatted online and had each other's phone numbers. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->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 online.
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.
When Mr Widjaja, 21, first proposed to her, she initially ignored him as she was still 'married' to another player.
But when that player stopped playing the game, she dumped him and took the Indonesian student as her 'husband' instead.
Yesterday, Miss Chua took the witness stand in the coroner's inquiry into Mr 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 she had communicated with him through the game, online messaging or through SMS messages on a daily basis. Their chats were usually about the game.
Miss Chua said Mr Widjaja would spend hours each day playing the game, sometimes staying up till 4am.
Mr Widjaja's hostel mates and friends said he had become obsessed with computer games to the point that it affected his studies.
As the pair became closer, she gave him her game account password so that he could control both their accounts to accumulate points. This took place when she began schooling at Singapore Polytechnic in February.
Miss Chua said: 'When I went home after school and tried to log on to the game, I'd see that he would still be using my account to play.'
But in the weeks before he died, Mr 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.
'He didn't tell me but he posted some stuff about this in an online forum,' she said.
The day before he died, Mr 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 in to 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. SUJIN THOMAS
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Miss Chua never met Mr Widjaja in real life but they chatted online and had each other's phone numbers. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->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 online.
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.
When Mr Widjaja, 21, first proposed to her, she initially ignored him as she was still 'married' to another player.
But when that player stopped playing the game, she dumped him and took the Indonesian student as her 'husband' instead.
Yesterday, Miss Chua took the witness stand in the coroner's inquiry into Mr 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 she had communicated with him through the game, online messaging or through SMS messages on a daily basis. Their chats were usually about the game.
Miss Chua said Mr Widjaja would spend hours each day playing the game, sometimes staying up till 4am.
Mr Widjaja's hostel mates and friends said he had become obsessed with computer games to the point that it affected his studies.
As the pair became closer, she gave him her game account password so that he could control both their accounts to accumulate points. This took place when she began schooling at Singapore Polytechnic in February.
Miss Chua said: 'When I went home after school and tried to log on to the game, I'd see that he would still be using my account to play.'
But in the weeks before he died, Mr 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.
'He didn't tell me but he posted some stuff about this in an online forum,' she said.
The day before he died, Mr 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 in to 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. SUJIN THOMAS
