Police detectives in Seattle, Washington are exploring Dungeons and Dragons and video games as potential motives for a brutal rape and slaying.
On Aug 17, aptly named 18 year old Tyler Savage reportedly strangled and raped his neighbor, Kimberly "Kimmie" Daily and then dumped her body in a thicket of bushes. Daily was 16 and developmentally disabled.
Savage, who had no previous criminal record, told police that he played Dungeons and Dragons Online after the crime to forget what he had done. Police are looking into the game to see if he was "acting out a violent fantasy from Dungeons and Dragons."
"The defendant admitted some kind of connection between the murder and the video game," Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.said. "I'm not clear at this point what exactly that connection is. The defendant himself said he went to play video games to forget."
Some friends and neighbors of Savage report that he seemed like a "normal" teenager.
"I don't believe he went out onto the streets with the intention of killing somebody. He wasn't that kind of person," said Rusty Sebring, a friend of Savage. "I have no idea what his home life was like or what he could have possibly been going through at this time to have left him in such a mentally unstable state."
While it features plenty of combat, D&D Online isn't a particularly violent video game. It takes place in a fantasy world, and the focus is not on blood and guts, and I'm certain there is no rape in the game. I think detectives are barking up the wrong tree here. Everyone I've ever known who plays Dungeons and Dragons in any form is an upstanding, usually shy person. The opposite of cold-blooded killers.
But the crime itself is so strange -- kid with no record suddenly commits the worst possible crime with no discernible motive -- that it makes sense that investigators are looking into strange motivations here.
Anyway, Savage has been charged with first-degree murder, but has pleaded not guilty. He could be given the death penalty. I imagine as more details become available, we'll find a much less esoteric reason behind the crime, like, say, mental illness.
Source: Seattle PI
Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 41–55 of 55
2123
CNCOMICS
Sounds like a reboot of the news reports from the 70's and 80's. D&D boardgames were the root of evil then and now D&D video games for today. +1 to History's revolving door.
Griever2112
Another case of Police looking for an easy out motive...Oh, he played a game, that must have driven him to do this... he listened to rock music...he watched a movie...What if he didn't play D&D what if he played Kirby or Little Big Planet or Guitar Hero...would they look to games at that point...
Shuklar
Let's go kill the cops that arrested this guy. Then they can write an article about how we went on a killing spree because of articles...
Humanity fails.
JustTheBeginning
Its a sad tragedy but this is pathetic. Do police investigate when a psychopath watches TV, surfs the internet, listens to music, or reads a book after his crimes? NO!
rochin
It is funny how it is never reported that some murderers go to a church after their murders to confessional. So using the logic of this case, church must make you a crazy murderer as well. Total joke. DDO is about as violent most PG rated movies, better ban them too. Heck lets ban everything and make kids 6+ do hard labor everyday for 16 hours so no one has any time to murder anyone. I am sure that will work.
Luck702
Millions of people play video games. Its only logic that a few in any given million will end up a violent fellon. I love Greibach's point. If he had done any activity to cope with the murder, would that be the cause? no. Hes obviously just F---ing crazy. plain and simple. Sick kcuF deserves to die like the pig he is. A disabled girl, come on....
CLFresh
P.S. It's NEVER his upbringing or his parents or his friends or his enemies... let's scapegoat something we don't understand... YES VIDEO GAMES!! They are indeed violent SO BLAME THEM!! AH HAH!
CLFresh
'Police are looking into the game to see if he was "acting out a violent fantasy from Dungeons and Dragons."'
'The defendant himself said he went to play video games to forget."'
Hmm okay? Maybe he just played the game to forget the fact he just killed/raped someone because he knew how horrible of a crime it was and knew he had to get his mind off of it. I hardly see how the video game MADE him commit the crime. The only thing a video game could be accused of is getting his mind off his horrible deed, that he clearly knew was a bad thing. These news articles saying games make kids kill people are absolutely ridiculous. At most video games desensitize people to violence... but to say it MAKES them commit violence is absurd.
westraz
it is all ways video games hum?
Greibach
Yeah... he basically said the same as "I went home and got really drunk to help cope with what I had just done..." and then saying it was an "Alcohol Related Crime". Talk about barking up the wrong tree, as you put it.
Variand
They could have been a bit more clear on that statement and not give people like Jack Johnson and his kin more crap to misconstrue. I'm sick of people thinking I'm some kind of murdering psychopath because I play video games. I only murder Noobs who deserve it, not actual people... even though most probably do deserve it.
MaelStrom_
he cant do the insanity plea, cuz if he tried to forget it. he knows he did something horrible
tehblessed
Do you know how many violent crime offenders brush their teeth? If you want clean teeth it's a risk you pretty much have to take, but is it worth letting your kids do it when they could become murderers?!
Considering how many millions of people play any of the games people try to blame in these cases, the odds of any one player doing something like this are so minutely small any normal person would consider it a margin of error. Unfortunately, people with agendas rarely appeal to normal people for support.
sirrogue2
Seriously? "DDO made me kill my neighbor!?" Police department needs to go back to Detectives for Dummies 101.
OpWildRabbit
He told the police that he played the game to forget what he had done but they're seeing if it inspired him?! Logic dictates that if it had actually spurred him to do it, he probably wouldn't play it again to try and forget about it.
Displaying 41–55 of 55
2123