One of the prevailing dictums of the internet age has been “The Internet is not real life”. It is also true, however, that real people with real lives use the internet. The intersection of these converging ‘realities’ can be a scary place. Nowhere is this more evident than the tragic case of Brandi Worley and her husband, who took to reddit for advice under the username ‘u/Jasoninhell’.
The man took to the site in 2016 to seek advice about his terrible home life – a cheating manipulative wife who had cuckolded him, even chiding him to be kinder to his neighbour, with whom she had been having the affair. Jason, after taking the advice of reddit users, filed for divorce and sought custody of their two kids.
Three days later, Jason’s wife waited until he was asleep (he was sleeping in the basement, out of her reach), before stabbing her children to death and attempting to take her own life. She was convicted of the murder of 7-year-old Tyler and 3-year-old Charlee and sentenced to 120 years in jail.
In 2018, Jason returned to reddit to give an update, stating that although he was still in mourning at the loss of his kids, he was doing better. Further he gave advice to always take the time to tell your loved ones what they mean to you and cherish your time with them, finishing with –
“Always make sure they know how much you love them, I had the fortune that the last thing my children ever heard me say was, “I love you, good night. I will see you in the morning.”