Viswa Vanapalli
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Web of Lies: Cruel Intentions’ details the death of 20-year-old Renae Marsden from Sydney, Australia. The young woman died by suicide after her boyfriend of more than a year ended things with her. But to her family’s horror, the guy she had been seeing never even existed. He was a persona created by one of Renae’s friends. So, are you wondering what exactly happened to Renae and the story behind this friend? Well, we’ve got you covered.
How Did Renae Marsden Die?
Renae Marsden was born in 1992 to Teresa Marsden and Jamie Deathe. Her parents separated shortly after, and then Teresa met Mark Marsden. Renae was described as a bright and bubbly girl with an infectious smile. She was a trained hairdresser and a receptionist. At the time, she had been dating a guy named Brayden Spiteri, who was introduced to her by one of her friends, Camila Zeidan.
On August 5, 2013, Teresa received a text from Renae saying sorry for the pain that she would cause and that she loved her. A worried Teresa tried calling her daughter, but there was no answer. After a search for her turned up fruitless, the police were involved. Somewhere close to 8:45 PM the same night, police found Renae’s car at The Gap, a cliff overlooking an ocean in Sydney. Teresa found Renae’s shoes over there, but Renae herself was nowhere to be seen. Security footage from there showed Renae climbing down the cliff face and then disappearing. In essence, she “deliberately slipped from the clifftop with the
intent to end her life,” as per the official inquest. Her body was never recovered.
Where is Camila Zeidan Now?
As Renae’s parents reeled from these events, they tried to make sense of what really happened. There were question marks about her relationship with Brayden. She started talking to him in 2011, and Camila told her that Brayden was her ex-boyfriend. Renae was infatuated with Brayden, and they talked to each other all the time. At the start of 2012, Brayden had apparently been charged with manslaughter and sent to prison. But Brayden still had a phone that was smuggled in, and he would keep texting her.
Renae was very much in love with Brayden despite the fact that she never met him. In fact, she hoped to marry him once he got out of prison. She had even looked up wedding photographers and enquired about potential honeymoon plans. But the relationship was not without its pitfalls. Brayden was constantly jealous of the people Renae spent time with. Sometime in mid to late 2012, Renae told her mother that she would end the relationship with Brayden. In September 2012, she overdosed on some medication but fortunately survived.
Things seemed to get better when Renae started dating a colleague of hers, Ian. They got engaged in January 2013 but Renae still talked to Brayden during this period. When Ian asked her to choose between the two, she went with Brayden. On the day of Renae’s death, Brayden had seemingly broken up with her, asking for some time away. As the police got involved, it was revealed that Brayden never existed at all.
They believed that it was Camila who had been impersonating this person in order to stay close to Renae. The two of them were friends since school when Camila claimed they had been in a relationship. But Renae had chosen to distance herself from Camila. They started to talk again in 2011 when Camila introduced Renae to Brayden. But Camila’s behavior was far from normal. Renae told her mother in July 2013 that Camila had punched and pulled her hair and that she was scared of her.
When questioned, she told the police that both she and Renae had come up with Brayden to cover their own lesbian affair. A search warrant was executed, and it did not lead to the discovery of the phone that was used for the conversations between Brayden and Renae. However, phone records showed that the messages sent by Brayden pinged off the same tower as Camila’s phone, and that was nowhere close to the prison where Brayden was supposed to have been.
The person whose photo was being used as Brayden’s didn’t even know what was being done with them. Renae’s family asked for an inquest into her death. Evidence revealed that Renae did not know that Brayden wasn’t real, given their text exchanges. In July 2013, she texted Brayden about ending her friendship with Camila.
In the meantime, Camila had started dating another man called Michael, whom she later married. Furthermore, evidence also included messages from Camila and Renae’s time together back in school showed that she was an obsessive friend. It included messages like, “…only I’ll own you and only I’ll have you forever,” that were sent by Camila to Renae back in the day.
In the end, the Deputy State Coroner found that Camila’s behavior and actions led Renae to kill herself. The coroner also added, “Camila freed herself of the jealousy and possessiveness she felt by Renae being in a relationship with a man. She no longer needed to compete with one of Renae’s boyfriends … (she could) exercise coercion and control of Renae as Brayden.” Camila was never charged in relation to Renae’s death since catfishing is not technically a crime in Australia. She seems to have maintained a low profile given the nature of the events, and her current whereabouts are unknown.
Read More: Where Are Renae Marsden’s Parents Now?
