Feldon UPDATE: We are sorry to report that, due to some detective work and communication with Ms. Masson’s parents, her disappearance fits a known pattern of behavior and illness. At this time, the chances that she is “missing” are extremely remote. It’s very disappointing to hear just how much time was wasted by police, her guildmates, and friends trying to find someone who, it turns out, didn’t want to be found. Read more here.
The original article:
An EverQuest II player, who was in Las Vegas this past weekend for business (she did not attend SOE Live) has been reported missing by her guild as she has not been heard from for over 48 hours since an ambitious trip home from Las Vegas to New Hampshire.
From her guild’s (The Raven-Mythic) forum thread:
Katherine “Kate” Masson was last known to be at a rest stop near Albany NY of I-90 heading towards Boston.
The hotel Katherine was staying at in Vegas has been called in order to verify that she did indeed check out, and hospitals have been contacted around the area she was last known to be. It is also known that she did not drive her own car to Vegas but was in a Hertz rental car provided by her employer. At this point, they have no information on the make or model of the car and are making attempts to acquire it.
- Height: 5’2″ to 5’4″
- Weight: approx 180lbs
- Hair: dark brown
- Eyes: brown
- Identifying marks: mole on chin and small cat tattoo on back of one shoulder
While Katherine wasn’t at SOE Live, she is still member of the EverQuest 2 family of players.
Read More… @ The Raven-Mythic
This news has hit Massively, TenTonHammer, GameBreaker, and Zam. Initially, it had been reported that she attended SOE Live, but she did not.
On behalf of the entire Raven community, and Kate’s friends, I would like to thank you all for the well wishes, and thank EQ2 Wire for posting the article and getting the word out. The Raven Mythic is a small little gaming community, in a small corner of a really big universe of MMORPG players. I’ve never been prouder of our user base than when we come together to help out in real life tragedy, and I’m very proud of the larger community for sending their thoughts and wishes in a time when we really need the support. We’ll be sure to keep EQ2 Wire updated one way or another when more news comes in.
A little inconsistency and I’m not sure which is correct here, even some of the posted images differ: the image you posted says she was 5’2″-5’4″, and so does TenTonHammer, but Zam’s picture says she was 5’8″-5’9″. I’m guessing 5’2″-5’4″ is correct, since that’s what the original post in the Raven-Mythic thread says.
The 5’2″-5’4″ is correct, and the updated photo can be found here:
http://www.raven-mythic.com/images/gallery/14615/Things/images/Katmasson.jpg
Obviously, we’ve been a little rushed getting these out. 🙁
If you can get the car info from Hertz you could possibly post an Amber Alert. Sending good thoughts.
Wonder if Hertz has some sorta GPS tracking on the rental? May help you locate the car and hopefully her.
If she was in a Hertz car they do have a Gps system in there cars and Suvs. I really hope you all find this member of our EQ2 Family hope to see some updates on this matter
Godspeed,I sure hope she turns up ok
48 hours is not a very long time for someone to be out if contact. Is there something more that raised suspicion?
48 hours is an eternity for a missing person.
I seriously hope if I’m offline for two days, my guild doesn’t put up a bunch of personal information about me all over the place wondering where I went.
This wasn’t being offline for 2 days.
This was someone missing a pre appointed arrival after a very long distance solo drive across the country. I hope you can see the difference.
This was the information missing from the initial post on this matter. Hence my comment about someone out of contact for 48 is not a very long time. This additional information you just posted would have been an appropriate response to my initial query. Your response that “48 hours is an eternity for a missing person.” is factually incorrect since time is constant and unhelpful towards any reader who is curious about this issue. Maybe people like Zish and myself would have seen the difference had this pertinent information been provided in the first place. I was a cop for about 5 years before I went opened up my own business. A grown adult being not being heard from in 48 hours on a cross country trip with no additional factors involved such as missing a pre determined appointment is not an unusual circumstance even in this age of cell phones.
The fact that they have all this personal information to begin with is at least some indication that she was very close to her online friends. I’m sure they’ve interacted in person and are more tight-knit of a group than your regular group of guildies.
Wow, sounds like a stalker.
Why not try the POLICE?! Instead of EQ2…….
Most likely a simple reason….
According to the other articles and forum posts, that was the first thing they did.
Asking the EQ2 community is bound to draw more eyes to the search over a larger area. Hopefully between us and law enforcement they can be found without much delay.
Idiotic post is idiotic.
Why is his post “idiotic” when no information as to police involvement was posted in the article on your site?
You know Sandain, I was going to just leave your posts alone, but since you keep coming back at me…
I posted a relatively small amount of information about this situation because the facts of the case could rapidly change and I did not want to have inaccurate info on my website for any length of time. New details were being added throughout each day as this wore on, and having an inaccurate article would be a disservice to all involved. So instead, I stuck to the absolute minimum and encouraged people to go to the Raven-Mythic website to get the whole story. You clearly didn’t do that.
If someone decides not to get the facts and chooses to speak out of ignorance, then I am not quite sure they should be treated with kid gloves.
“You know Sandain, I was going to just leave your posts alone, but since you keep coming back at me”
First of all no one is “coming back at” you. You seem to be overly sensitive and misinterpreting my statement and questions as personal attacks. In none of my previous posts have I engaged in a personal attack. You on the other hand have engaged in personal attacks by calling your readers “idiotic” and “ignorant”. Calling readers of your website “ignorant” is certainly galling since ignorant simply means a lack of knowledge and the readers lack of knowledge was due to the lack of facts posted on your website. Also everything I posted had to do were either questions and one statement pointing out you were in possession of a proper answer to my query yet you thought a causal remark was the appropriate response.
Secondly I have no problem with the fact you thought posting the minimum information on your website was the correct way to proceed in this case. It is your website and you are free to handle news you post in whatever manner you choose. What I thought was a disservice to your readers and the “missing” woman was your flippant response to my question about the lack of information in the article concerning any additional factors which might have led someone to believe she was “missing”. While I also believe it is your right to respond in any manner you wish to people who post here I found the utterly meaningless remark “48 hours is an eternity for a missing person.” to be rather frivolous as well out of character for someone who is supposedly concerned about a missing person.
“So instead, I stuck to the absolute minimum and encouraged people to go to the Raven-Mythic website to get the whole story. You clearly didn’t do that.”
You clearly did not bother to read the post you linked to yourself because at no point was there ever any mention of Kate missing a predetermined meeting with someone . I know that you are not a real journalist in any way shape or form but anyone who posts news should expect readers to question when information is missing or incomplete. Such inquiries come with the territory.
The reason I posted my initial question was because every single “missing person” I have dealt with where the person was a grown adult turned out to be a case where the “missing” person did not want to be found. In the cases where adult women have gone missing it was usually because they were trying to get out of an abusive relationship or they had lovers that they ran away with or they were stressed out and wanted to get away. I actually have real world experience with this sort of thing which was the one of the reasons I asked.
In closing I would like to reiterate I have no problem with the way you decide to handle inquiries from readers of you site however in the case of missing people perhaps if you are truly concerned about the welfare of the victim you would respond intelligently and with information rather than lashing out, even posting a response compelling readers to visit the Raven-Mythic would have been appropriate from someone who actually gave a damn about finding a missing person.
The police ARE involved. This is in addition to that. These are people who know her. Not just online, but face to face. This is not a stalker situation. These are people who love her and are worried, because she drove across country and never made it home.
Wow I hope they find her, my family is praying for her to be found safe and sound.
There is an update to this article which can be found here:
http://www.raven-mythic.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31977&sid=06c86801f22cf35b4f7ada76f46774ee&start=125
Dear Friends;
I have just about the second-worst sort of news to relay on the matter of Kate’s disappearance. We have more details about Kate’s past and background, and they are leading us to the near-unavoidable conclusion that Kate has not gone missing, so much as she has chosen to vanish.
Kate’s rental car was returned in Las Vegas, and there’s nothing currently to indicate she rented another one. Her credit card activity indicates she was still in Vegas after the date she claimed to be on the road home. It’s quite likely her last text message was not sent from Albany, NY, as she said. Worse yet, we have confirmation from her parents that this is a repeating pattern due to a serious mental illness for which she was supposed to be receiving treatment and medication.
Last August Kate vanished, and in that case her parents also filed a missing persons report. We did not know this sooner because we had not yet managed to track down her parents. Once they were contacted, this new information came to light.
When she left for Las Vegas, she took everything of importance with her, leaving behind just enough to make it seem as though she intended to return, but no papers or personal possessions of value. We must sadly report that this all fits the same pattern she wove one year ago.
Right now, the possibility that Kate is legitimately missing is extremely remote. I think it’s time we stop considering Kate a victim of accident or malice and instead consider her to be a victim of her own untreated issues. It’s Dan, the player of Tasha – her roommate, host, and the person left behind – who is truly suffering the most here, and most in need of comfort and support right now.
If the past is prologue, we have every reason now to believe that Kate is with someone else in Las Vegas, but as of this moment we cannot confirm her location or her status. If you do have any contact with her, please inform Dan. By all accounts, Kate has some serious psychological issues and needs help of her own.
Dan and all of us who were involved with this deeply appreciate your help and support. As a community we came together admirably to get the word out. We mobilized on social media, the gaming web sites responded quickly with their own articles, respected industry members took the time to spread the word. At every turn the community was exactly what it was supposed to be… a community, a caring group of people.
Being bound together by a shared love of games and gaming is really a thin thread to unite people. We’re of different genders, faiths, wildly divergent politics, and incomes. We’re spread all over the nation, and even all over the world. Yet, when confronted with a serious problem, we responded admirably. One of our own was in trouble, and we all did what we could to help.
By all accounts, Kate’s issues caused her to use Dan, and by extension, use a lot of us. And that’s terrible on many levels. Please don’t let that diminish the fact that, as a community, we proved our worth in spades. It’s late for me tonight, but on Monday I will formally contact every web site that posted about this event with news of what happened. We will, of course, continue to post any further updates we receive.
Thank you again sincerely for all your support.
Dear Lyah,
Thank you so much for the update on Kate. My heart goes out to Kate and all who still care for her and worry about her. Many years ago a co-worker felt strong enough to discontinue medication and, well, due to a series of unfortunate events, is no longer with us. The death was treated as a joke among some co-workers. Showing that idiotic, boorish, incredible insensitivity has been around for decades.
The gaming community, especially EQ2, has shown its strength and solidarity in many instances. This is one such instance. No time, effort or energy has been wasted. It is all good. All can come away from this experience knowing that ‘you’ve done good!’
Level 1-9, if they even are aware of anything outside of their, blinkered, miserable little world, will make fun of the situation. Just realize making others unhappy is what makes those ‘people’ happy and move on.
If, and when, Kate comes back, welcome her with few recriminations and let her explain on her own time. Changing medications and situations is scary.
Blessings to all.
Misplace a bridge to dwell under, San?
lol
LOL! Good one! No way I could match your wittiness and insight sir! Touche!
My thoughts and prayers are with Kate’s friends and family.
Please come back safe and sound a you have folks who care about you and who are concerned for you.
Hang in there Lyah…..
Did they check the local dairy queen’s?
Probably time to make like a Republican and shut this thing down. 😉
So, disallowing additional comments hides ALL comments in a post. That’s the dumbest thing ever, and a feature reversion.
IMHO, the people conned by her should get together, write a book, get movie rights, and make a pretty penny (As long as they can cut the con-artist out of the deal). >.> But i get a bit blunt on issues like this. :\
Why was her picture taken down? The next sucker that falls for her shenanigans needs to be warned…
thats a dick move to dump your boyfriend in that manner.
actually that is not stong enough language, thats being an a-hole.
far too often ppl blame circumstances/illness/disability for choices. there is no reason to abandon someone like that unless they are abusing you.
clearly she premeditated this, and chose to end it like that.