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Murder of Anna Svidersky

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Anna Svidersky
Anna Svidersky: one of the photos on her MySpace web page
Born(1988-04-26)April 26, 1988
Novoorenburg, Russia
DiedApril 20, 2006
Vancouver, Washington, USA

Anna Esther Svidersky (April 26, 1988 – April 20, 2006) was a teenager who lived in the U.S. city of Vancouver, Washington, and was murdered while working in a McDonald's restaurant, by schizophrenic sex offender David Barton Sullivan. News of her death quickly spread worldwide, initially through the Internet friends site MySpace, where she had a personal page, and then through other similar sites. This created an effect of mass grief and mourning for her around the world, dubbed "mourning sickness" by the news media, mostly from people who had previously known nothing about her. It has led to the creation of memorial web pages and memorial online videos, one of which has been viewed over 3,000,000 times.

Background

Anna Svidersky was born in Russia. Her family came from Novoorenburg, a small city near the border with Kazakhstan and about 900 miles southeast of Moscow. They moved to California before her second birthday. She has an older brother, Peter, by one year, and sisters, Christina, one year younger, and Elizabeth, seven years younger. In 2001 her mother, Esther, moved with the children to Vancouver, Washington, where she has relatives, after a divorce from Andrew Svidersky.

Anna was known since an early age as fun loving and caring among her family and friends. At elementary school a written reprimand (which was discovered only after Anna's death by her mother) shows her as "disrupting class, singing/dancing not doing her work." She then attended Fort Vancouver High School in Vancouver, where the principal called her "a smart, hard-working, cheerful student" in a press release issued after her death. She had intended to go on to college after her senior year, and was due to graduate in June. For the year before her death, she worked at up to three different jobs at a time, in addition to her school studies. During this period, she sent $24 every month to a Vietnamese girl via the Christian Children's Fund. When she had her long hair shortened, she donated the shorn locks to a charity that makes wigs for children who have lost their hair from cancer treatment.

All of the above information about Anna's background was published online and was available to the Internet community after her death.

Death

David Barton Sullivan, who had previously been convicted twice of sex crimes, left his home on the day of the murder with the single intention of "hurting a female", and according to police, did not know Anna Svidersky. He entered the Andresen Road McDonald's, where she was working the 2–9 pm shift, at around 8 pm and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. The knife penetrated her side and reached her heart. Michael Block, a friend and co-worker, witnessed the event. He stated she "screamed and kinda jumped out of her seat" and that she also "didn't see him coming". Block ran after the killer and dialed 9-1-1 with his cell phone as he chased him. Svidersky remained conscious and one of her fellow workers reported her last words as "Tell my family that I love them. Tell Christina that everything will be all right." She died that night in Portland's Legacy Emanuel Hospital. She would have turned 18 just 6 days later.

Her mother reached the McDonald's after 9 p.m. to pick up Svidersky from her shift, only finding out about the attack when she arrived there. The last time she had spoken to her daughter was an hour before it, when Svidersky had phoned her to ask for a lift.

Sullivan was captured soon after the attack. He had discarded the knife he used, but was still covered in blood when discovered. He was charged with first-degree murder, but on June 26, 2007, he was acquitted by reason of insanity and was committed indefinitely to a mental hospital.

Aftermath

The murder dominated the news in her home town. A dedicated page put up on MySpace by Svidersky's friends received 1,200 posts in 3 days. Internet users on other sites such as YouTube also posted tributes: an example which captures the tone of these is by "Shelby", aged 17, who put a video tribute on the site and said, "Me and my friends were crying". It soon received over 2,000 views, and another video tribute received over a million views. Some online gamers used Svidersky's image in role-playing games, which upset those who knew her personally.

The news of Svidersky's murder spread worldwide within days through internet sites, creating a phenomenon of collective grief from users, the great majority of whom were complete strangers to her. Alex Milnes, an 18-year-old living in Oxfordshire, England, was one of tens of thousands of British online users to receive the news. Following a MySpace bulletin of her death, he posted his own tribute. He said, "Although we hear about murders every day, somehow it seems worse when you hear about it over MySpace. Something that feels quite safe to teenagers has made people realise that life isn't all about how many 'friends' you have on your page."

In Britain The Guardian newspaper compared the widespread expression of grief by strangers to that seen after the death of Princess Diana. The paper cited the 2004 Civitas think-tank, which described such grief as "mourning sickness", related to people's own emotional needs, rather than any real rapport with the deceased.

Logo and photo of Anna Svidersky from the memorial site, annasvidersky.net

The McDonald's restaurant where she worked, at 2814 N.E. Andresen Road, Vancouver, held a fund-raising day for her family, hoping to raise $15,000, but actually achieved nearly $85,000, as of April 28, 2006, and finally running out of food. McDonald's Corp. matched $1.50 per dollar and other local McDonald's franchises 25 cents per dollar.

Her mother, Esther, has said about Sullivan, "He's not healthy ... You can't change anything. I'm very sad. I'm not angry at him." Sullivan was reported as saying, "I should have stayed home with my stuffed animals instead of doing what I did. This is all evil stuff that I've done. This is too much."

By three months after Svidersky's death one memorial web site condolence book had over 7,000 individual entries. A memorial video In Memory of Anna on YouTube has been viewed more than 3,000,000 times as of June 2007. and another In Loving Memory of Anna Svidersky more than 1,880,000 times; Svidersky's MySpace page had over 2,500 messages from other MySpace users. The president of MySpace, Tom Anderson has stated the site's policy in these circumstances is that nobody else is allowed to access the user content, but that the page would be removed if the deceased's family wished it to be. Over 115 other MySpace members who have died are recorded on an independent dedicated site.

MySpace page

As the information on Svidersky's MySpace page is protected by her private password, it remains as she left it, and is "full of risque comments and goofy phrases". The theme song she had selected was Scene for Dummies, by Hollywood Undead, a band little known outside MySpace. Her real name is shown, as well as the nickname " IS LEGAL IN 6 DAYS". Next to her photo is the text "gimme a smooth talkin black boy" and "I hate Vancouver". The "About me" section says "make me smile. i'm a foreign girl from RUSSIA♥ and i'm definitely your type. i'll judge you and stereotype you, then shove you in a category. so prove me wrong. ps. i love shaun white". She commented, "i like to read love stories", and listed her hero as "the Lord Jesus Christ. everyone else will only let you down". The "Schools" section says: "Graduated: 2006", "Degree: High School Diploma", "Major: HxC dancing", "Clubs: duh, cool kids don't get involved with school :)".

Notes and references

  1. ^ Adams, Kelly (June 27, 2007). "Sullivan acquitted due to insanity". The Columbian. Retrieved 2007-07-12. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Jonze, Tim (May 15, 2006). "Death on MySpace". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
  3. ^ "In Memory of Anna", Youtube.com statistic. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
  4. ^ Adams, Kelly (April 21, 2006). "Promising life cut short for Vancouver teen". The Columbian. Retrieved 2006-06-24.
  5. ^ Kelly Adams (April 28, 2006). "Family: Fallen teen was beautiful, funny, caring". The Columbian News (on archive.org). {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. For example, via Google and other search engines
  7. ^ Carinci, Justin (April 27, 2006). "Thousands flock to fundraiser for slain teen's family". The Columbian. Retrieved 2006-06-24.
  8. KATU.com Web Staff (April 21, 2006). "McDonald's stabbing suspect is arraigned". KATU News (ABC). Retrieved 2006-06-24.
  9. ^ Huff, Steve (2006)"Schizophrenic Sex Offender Slays Anna Svidersky, Vancouver Teen" crimelibrary.com, April 24, 2006. Accessed July 12, 2006
  10. ^ St. John, Warren (2006) "Rituals of grief go online" The New York Times, April 27, 2006. Accessed on July 12, 2006
  11. "Memorial Site Condolences". www.annasvidersky.net. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
  12. Accessed on July 12, 2006
  13. ^ Anna Svidersky MySpace page Retrieved on July 12, 2006. The spelling, typography and punctuation of quotes are shown as on the MySpace page.

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