Body Believed to Be Gaming-Addicted Teen Found
Ontario boy addicted to Xbox ran away after parents withheld gaming system.
Nov. 5, 2008— -- The body of a boy, believed to be a gaming-addicted teenager who has been missing since he ran away from his Barrie, Ontario, home more than three weeks ago, was found today not far from where the boy was last seen.
Brandon Crisp, 15, ran away on Oct. 13, when his parents took his beloved Xbox away, and he has not been seen or heard from since.
Barrie Police Service Sgt. Dave Goodbrand said a deer hunter came across the body near a trail in a town north of Barrie, and the coroner has been on the scene since early afternoon.
"At this point we believe it to be Brandon, but we can't confirm," Goodbrand said.
Brandon's father, Steve Crisp, told ABC News today that his son was dead and "it's over."
In response to the boy's disappearance, Microsoft Canada had chipped in $25,000 Canadian toward a reward for help in finding Crisp. The Microsoft donation matched the $25,000 Canadian raised by local organizations. The reward totaled $41,776 in U.S. dollars.
The outgoing message on the Crisps' answering machine was still targeted to Brandon this afternoon, pleading with him to come home or contact the authorities.
"We need to know you're safe," Steve Crisp said on the message. "We love you dearly."
The teen had once been a competitive hockey player who got good grades and enjoyed video games with his friends in typical teenage fashion, his father told ABCNews.com Tuesday, and the 10th grader's disappearance on Oct. 13, Canada's Thanksgiving holiday, has left the family sick with worry.
When the family signed up about a year ago for a subscription to Xbox Live, which allows players to interact with gamers all over the world, Brandon's hobby turned into an obsession that ultimately led to his fleeing his Barrie home after his father took away the system for good, his father said.
"We'd be asleep and he'd be up at two or three in the morning, playing this thing," Crisp said before today's discovery, adding that they also had a hard time getting him to leave the game to eat dinner with the family.
On Friday, Oct. 10, the Crisps learned the boy, whose grades were slipping, had skipped school the day before, and they decided to take away his Xbox temporarily, as they had about 20 times before, Steve Crisp said. But when Crisp saw that Brandon had found the system and resumed playing it while his father was out fishing that weekend, he said he decided to take it away permanently.
"He was very angry," Crisp said. When the father and son sat down to talk about Brandon's obsession with the system, the game "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" in particular, Brandon's response was "OK, I'm going to leave home then."
Calling his son's bluff, Crisp said he advised him to take warm clothes when he saw Brandon loading things into a backpack. He then watched as his only son rode away on his bicycle. The family, which includes Brandon's twin sister and older sister, figured he'd blow off some steam with friends and be back that evening.
"I didn't think anyone would run off for a game," Crisp said.
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