Catfisher Natalia Burgess (left) and one of the women she has used to building false profiles online. Photo / Graphic montage
Catfisher Natalia Burgess (left) and one of the women she has used to building false profiles online. Photo / Graphic montage
Natalia Burgess, known as ‘the Facebook predator’, resumed catfishing after serving prison time for fraud.
Burgess used numerous false identities, including ‘Laura Jane West’, to deceive and manipulate her victims.
Crystal Jenner, whose images Burgess used, reported the ongoing catfishing to police, but no action was taken.
Warning: This article includes references to suicide and may be distressing for some readers.
The mother of a young man who took his life after a relationship with a notorious catfisher has spoken of the pain she carries after discovering the woman never stopped her masquerade – even after being sent to prison.
“I want to know how she felt. How did she feel when my son took his life? I know how I felt. I don’t know how she felt,” said Raewyn Ford.
The podcast revisits the extraordinary fantasy world and community of false identities that led to Burgess being sent to prison in 2013 – and reveals she went straight back to catfishing when released with photographs taken from social media accounts belonging to Crystal Jenner, a New Zealander living in Surfer’s Paradise in Australia.
Catfisher Natalia Burgess (left) and one of the women she has used to building false profiles online. Photo / Graphic montage
Ford lost her son Peter Russell, 21, in October 2010 after the end of an online relationship she – and he – believed was real.
The deceit was exposed in 2011 when the Herald on Sunday revealed that the woman Russell had fallen in love with, Laura Jane West, 20, was actually Natalia Burgess, 27, who created a cluster of false online personas using other people’s social media images to form relationships with teenage boys and others across the country.
Ford spoke as part of the podcast’s investigation into Burgess, who says she adopted her first false online identity in 2001 through to the end of 2023.
“All I knew at that time was Peter was talking to a young, sexy girl on Facebook and that’s all I knew. He was talking to her a lot. He was talking to me about her and her child and how he was going to marry her. He actually even proposed to her.”
Ford said Russell had done so over YouTube where video could still be found of the proposal. He never met Burgess in real life and died believing Laura West was real.
“She was a stunning, beautiful blonde-haired girl. He actually talked to Laura’s cousins which I’ve since found out were the same person all along.”
Russell had bought clothes for “Laura’s daughter”, not realising she didn’t exist. The cousins and even the child were all Burgess, who would adopt different voices when speaking to her victims over the phone.
“It was actually all on the news, in the newspaper, about Natalia Burgess pretending to be Laura West and these other girls. That’s how I found out that it was actually Natalia Burgess, that it wasn’t Laura West at all.”
Distraught mother Raewyn Ford said her son, Peter Russell, 21, took his life after being dumped by the "Facebook Predator" Natalia Burgess.
Ford said Burgess “played games” with Russell, accepting then breaking off the engagement then claiming she had travelled to England, lost her father, then married someone else before again approaching him to form a fresh relationship.
The podcast details how a feature of the false characters invented by Burgess were dramatic plot twists shared with her victims leading to a rollercoaster of emotions.
“The things she says to these kids, the way she makes them feel – I just really don’t understand her at all. What is she lacking in her life to make her feel that she has to do this?”
“So obviously she needs help, but at the same token, she also needs to stay off the computer and leave people alone and stop hurting people because that’s all she’s doing.”
A 2012 coroner’s inquiry into Russell’s death found the cause was suicide but suppressed all other information from the inquest.
When Burgess was sentenced to prison in 2013, it was for charges connected to her catfishing behaviour. Those included a fraud charge for borrowing and not repaying money to a 16-year-old who was in a relationship with one of the false characters.
Crystal Jenner, a Kiwi living in Surfers Paradise who has had her social media photographs taken and used by serial catfisher Natalia Burgess.
Judge Gerard Winter said Burgess had caused “significant” emotional harm to the 16-year-old. “If it was not for the strong support of his parents, this young man would have taken his own life as a result of your deceptions against him,” he said.
In a new interview this month, Burgess said she believed there was nothing she could do to change Ford’s mind about who was responsible for Russell’s death. She also said it was Russell who had broken off the relationship and had “moved on” from the relationship with Laura West to someone new. “He was happy,” she said.
“I feel partly responsible. Because what I did up to the day that he broke up with me was probably not a very good idea.”
Burgess disclosed that she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia while in prison which joined an earlier finding she had borderline personality disorder. The full interview features in the final episode of the podcast, to be released on Tuesday.
The podcast investigation discovered police visited Burgess in 2019 after Jenner complained but took no action, telling her no law had been broken.
Barrister Chris Patterson questioned the police decision, saying he believed there was sufficient information available to charge Burgess under the Harmful Digital Communications Act which criminalised online behaviour that was shown to have caused harm.
Natalia Burgess, who has a decades-long history of using other people's images to create false identities online. Photo / Dean Purcell
Jenner had spoken on Chasing Ghosts – The Puppeteer about the emotional toll of being contacted by men who believed they had intimate relationships with her and having to shut down social media pages – including those used to promote her fashion boutique – for fear more images would be taken.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said cyber crime was “increasingly prevalent” and had “changed the environment police operate in greatly”. He said he had been assured by police that it was finding ways to strengthen its ability to fight cyber crime but it was not a problem it alone could solve.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he acknowledged online crime caused “emotional and financial distress” to New Zealanders. “Where we can improve, is the ability of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cybercrime.” Law changes under way would give new tools to police, he said.
Chasing Ghosts - The Puppeteer is a five-episode true crime investigation. Follow Chasing Ghosts on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episodes 1-4 are available now. The final episode is released this Tuesday and features an interview with the woman behind 23 years of false identities.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
The podcast is produced by Ethan Sills, winner of Best Podcast Producer at the Radio and Podcast Awards 2024.
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