CHRISTINA LONG - INTERNET PREDATOR MURDER VICTIM

CHRISTINA LONG WAS ONLY 13 YEARS OLD WHEN SHE WAS MURDERED BY AN INTERNET PREDATOR!Hello. My name is Rose. This site is dedicated to the memory of 13 year old Christina Long. Chrissy, as her family and friends called her, was a bright young girl with an amazing future ahead of her. She was a straight A student on the Honor Roll, a Alter Girl at ST Peter Catholic School in Danbury, CT, and a beautiful, loving child whom her family and friends adored. She had many dreams and aspirations. She wanted to be a singer and a dancer among other things. But her life was taken from her on May 17th, 2002. Exactly two months after she celebrated her 13th birthday. She was murdered by an internet preditor.**PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, AS THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION**Here is some of Chrissy's story through her aunt as well as others. This story was printed in the July 7th, 2002 Newstimes paper in Danbury.Love didn’t alter her destiny Christina Long’s aunt recalls the struggleBy Robert Miller THE NEWS-TIMES DANBURY — Shelley Riling sleeps now in her niece’s narrow twin bed. There’s a poster of a rapper over the bed, and school project artwork on the walls. Across the room is Christina Long’s bookcase full of Beanie Babies. On the desk, there’s a computer.“I feel closer to her this way,’’ Riling said.She still does not want to think or talk about her beloved Chrissie in the past tense. She says with unshakable faith that she was put on Earth to help Christina. And by all accounts, she did.“The two were inseparable,’’ said family friend Michael Shames of Woodbury. “As an outsider, it was really something to see.’’“It was clear Christina really loved her aunt, and Shelley really loved Christina,,’’ said Andrea Cappiello, who taught Christina at St. Peter School in Danbury.“My friends would tell me ‘You need to go out more on your own.’’ said Riling, who would stay by the phone when Christina was out with friends. “I’d tell them ‘I don’t care. This is what I’m supposed to do.’’’But Riling cannot keep from crying when those vivid memories come face to face with what happened to Chrissie.On May 17, the 13-year old exuberant cheerleader was killed at the Danbury Fair mall. Police say she died at the hands of a 25-year old man she’d met on the Internet — on the computer next to her Beanie Babies.That man, Saul dos Reis, of Greenwich, is now in jail on $1 million bond, charged with manslaughter, first degree sexual assault and risk of injury. He is also charged with the federal offense of using the Internet to entice a minor into sexual activity.Investigators said the two had met at least once before their fatal encounter, and that Christina had met other men on the Internet for sex as well. Police say dos Reis has confessed to his part in Christina’s death, even telling police that after strangling her, he drove her body to Greenwich and dumped it in a ravine. Dos Reis has pleaded innocent to all charges.Riling’s life has become one of incomprehension, shock and mourning. She does not see that changing anytime soon.“People keep saying in time the pain will go away. But it seems like I just feel the pain more — the first few days I was just numb,’’ Riling said. “I miss her so much. Every night, I’d give her a goodnight kiss and a hug and those hugs were so wonderful. I don’t get those hugs any more. I come home and she’s not here. I don’t believe it’s going to get better. I was supposed to protect her. And I didn’t.’’It is six weeks past Christina’s death. Now, Riling said, she knows what she’d do differently: vigilantly check her niece’s e-mails; move the computer into an open space in her house; never allow Chrissie to go the mall alone; be tougher about the movies she saw and the music she listened to.But Christina, she said, was such a wonderful kid — funny and well-behaved and cooperative — she had no reason to distrust her.“She never lied to me,’’ Riling said. “Except about this.’’Riling, 52, lives in a duplex on Peace Street in Danbury. Christina moved in with her in 2000 after a childhood most people describe as troubled.Christina is the child of Bruce Long and Joyce Owens — Joyce is Shelley’s sister. Joyce also has an older daughter, Shawna, now 21, the child of a previous relationship. Riling has no children of her own, but increasingly became Christina’s de facto mother.“Once, in fifth grade, she looked at me and said, ‘I really believe you were meant to be my mother.’’’ Riling said.As Christina grew up, Owens and Long separated, then divorced in 1992. Court documents in Litchfield Superior Court show the two had a rocky relationship, marred by threats of violence.Riling said Owens was impulsive, prone to destructive relationships, often in debt and always on the move, so that Christina never had a settled home life. Riling said Owens was also manipulative, pitting one family member against another, so the whole family never cohered. Owens, who no longer lives in Connecticut and did not attend Christina’s funeral, was unavailable for comment. Bruce Long, who lives in New Milford, did not return phone calls.From the first, Shelley said, she adored Christina. She lived with Owens when Christina was a toddler, potty-training her and caring for her when she was sick. When she got older and fell behind in school, Shelley said she visited her every day to help her with her homework.“We got to be very close,’’ she said.When she was 9, her mother began performing in local bars with a karaoke machine. Rather than see her sister leave a 9-year-old alone, Riling began caring for Christina on weekends. By fourth grade, Christina was spending three days with her mother, four with Riling.Things finally came to head in 2000, Riling said, when Owens decided to move to Arizona to be with Shawna and her husband, At first, Christina said she was ready to move as well.“I told her ‘I can’t go with you. I’m the one who helps you when you’re sick, who helps you with your homework.’ And I saw in her eyes she wanted to stay.’’ Riling said.Christina moved in with her aunt — who became her legal guardian — and enrolled in St. Peter School. She was baptized as a Roman Catholic and became an alter girl. She was a good student, a cheerleader, and Shelley attended the school’s games to cheer the cheerleaders.“I can remember when she was awarded guardianship,’’ Cappiello said. “She came to school and said ‘Can I talk to Christina?’ She told her in the hallways and they were both so happy.’’When Riling — a computer webmaster, who now works in the health insurance field — was briefly out of work, she paid for Christina’s braces out of her own pocket. She bought her a camera, a computer. Although she owns a dog, Snow, she bought Christina her own dog, Prince. She gradually let Bruce Long back into his daughter’s life so the two could repair their relationship.“She was just so positive,’’ Cappiello said of Riling.And the two were happy“Every weekend, she’d ask, ‘What are our social plans?’’’ Riling said. “Once or twice she stayed at a friend’s house, and would call me up and ask ‘Can I come home?’“I’m the adult,’’ she said. “I’d get to worrying about bills, or Joyce trying to take her back. Chrissie would always know something was wrong and she’d ask and I’d end up telling her. She’d finish my sentences for me.’’When she got home from school, Christina would walk Prince and Snow, or play with the neighborhood kids. until her aunt got home from work. She was a good kid, who seemed as comfortable with adults as with children her own age.“I can remember a Halloween party when Chrissie was 12,’’ Stames said. “Here she was a kid, talking to adults and she had so much poise — she wasn’t intimidated by being a third of our age. We were just enthralled by her.’’“She just had an aura,’’ Riling said. “And as beautiful as she was on the surface, she was 10 times more beautiful inside.’’Riling bought Christina a computer in July 2001.“I thought it was good she was staying home, using the Internet,’’ she said. “We had our rules. On weekdays, she’d do her homework, then she could use the Internet until 9:30 p.m. On the weekends, it was until 11 p.m., but we were usually out of the house, doing things together, so she didn’t go on the Internet much then.’’But that computer use went awry, disastrously so.At her death. Christina’s website was titled ‘sexyme4utosee’. On it, there were typical adolescent musings But she also described herself as “dancing a little sexier than most girls’’ — a girl who likes fast cars and never backs out on a bet and who tells viewers “maybe if I can get to talk to ya, u can here more about my dead sexy body.’’ There was also a list of several boys she said she knew “and a whole hell of alot of guys I can’t think of.’’Dos Reis’ attorneys, James Lenihan and Peter Tilem of White Plains, N.Y. said last week they find it “shocking’’ that Riling — who once worked as a webmaster at IBM — did not thoroughly check what Christina was doing on the Internet, The two said there was other, more sexually explicit material involving Christina at other places on the web. In newspaper reports Danbury police have said Christina used other webnames including “badgirl6969’’ and e-mailed sexually explicit photographs of herself to men.“She’s a webmaster,’’ Lenihan said “How can she possibly not have known?’’In her defense, Riling said some of the lines Christina used on her web site were inside jokes and catch phrases from movies like “Austin Powers — The Spy Who Shagged Me’’ with Michael Myers and the “Back to the Future.’’ films with Michael J. Fox.The list of boys was a simply list of kids she knew from school. The “ghetto talk’’ of the site came from rap music, which Riling said she was trying to wean Christina away from. She also said she had told Christina to change the “sexyme4utosee’’ webname and Christina agreed. Riling said she had no idea her niece had other websites.Riling said while she wanted to respect Christina’s privacy, she would sometimes stop by Christina’s room while she was on the Internet“She was just chatting with friends,’’ she said. Once, she said, Christina told her how frightened she was when a older man had contacted her on the Internet.“I hugged her and kissed her and told her I’m so proud of you for telling me that,’’’ Riling said.But because Christina was such a good, cooperative child, Riling said, she had no reason not to trust her.“It’s not like she was rebellious or breaking the rules,’’ she said. “When she was talking on the phone, I always knew who she was talking to.’’Likewise, Riling said, Christina earned her trust by going to Danbury Fair mall with her, but doing her shopping by herself — first a half-hour for Christmas, then an hour. They’d always meet up together at the pre-arranged time and place.When Christina decided she wanted to go to the mall herself, Riling said she would drive her and watch to make sure she was with friends. Then she’d drive home and wait by the phone because, regularly, Christina would call early and ask to come home. While she talked about having boyfriends to her, Riling said, Christina described teen-age hand-holding, flirting relationships and nothing more than that.“She told me once ‘I’m not ready for anything more than a kiss on the cheek,’’’ Riling said. “That made me feel better. But I told her. ‘You’re pretty. I’m worried about you.’’’On the night of May 17, she took Christina to the mall — her niece was dressed like a typical teen-ager, in sweatshirt and jeans. Riling, went home and waited — unlike other nights, she didn’t worry.“I don’t know why my sixth sense didn’t kick in,’’ she said.She went back to the mall to pick her niece up at 9:15 p.m. and couldn’t find her. By 9:50 p.m., she was talking to the security guards, fighting her anxiety. By 11 p.m., she became hysterical with fear and contacted Danbury police. Although it took several hours for America Online to clear their way to see Christina’s website, police were finally able to gain access to it and its e-mail. That led them to dos Reis; he led them to Christina’s body.Although dos Reis has been charged with manslaughter, Riling said she considers him a murderer.“If it was an accident and he had hurt her, why not call the mall security or get her to a hospital?’’ she said. “Instead, he threw her into a ditch in Greenwich.’’In the end, there are no easy answers in Christina’s death. Riling said she knows now — too late — that in today’s world, where sexual imagery is everywhere, you cannot trust the world to leave teen-agers alone“You have to read their e-mail, no matter how much you love your child,’’ she said. She knows now that, even surrounded by friends, young girls shouldn’t be out by themselves on a Friday night.But she is also angered by talk she neglected her niece.“This could happen to any child, especially a child that’s loved and trusts the world,’’ she said. “I gave her that love, that confidence.’’Her friend, Michael Shames said — considering the confusion and neglect Christina endured in her younger years — Riling came very close to knitting together the loose ends of her niece’s life.“She turned her life upside down to support Chrissie,’’ Shames said. “She only wanted the very best for her. If she’d had a year or two more, she would have done it.’’*****************************************