This Is Scary New But Turned Out Good.

[Tara]

'MySpace' Teen Returns From Middle East
By DAVID N. GOODMAN, Associated Press Writer
3 hours ago



DETROIT - A 16-year-old girl who tricked her parents into getting her a passport and then flew to the Mideast to be with a man she met on MySpace.com has returned to Michigan.

U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded Katherine R. Lester to turn around and go home before she reached the West Bank. Lester arrived at Bishop International Airport in Flint late Friday and was taken to a private area to be reunited with her family.

She disappeared Monday after talking her parents into getting her a passport by saying she was going to Canada with friends, sheriff's officials said.

She apparently planned to visit a man whose MySpace account describes him as a 25-year-old from Jericho, Undersheriff James Jashinske said.

MySpace.com is a social networking Web site with more than 72 million members that lets users post photos, blogs and journals. There have been scattered accounts of sexual predators targeting minors they met through the site.

Lester apparently contacted the man from Jericho about three months ago, Jashinske said. Jericho, a city of 17,000, is a relatively calm area of the volatile West Bank.

The FBI traced the teenager to a Wednesday flight from New York's Kennedy Airport to Tel Aviv, Israel. At a scheduled stop in Amman, Jordan, U.S. officials persuaded her to return home, FBI agent Robert Beeckman said.

"Thank God she was returned safely," Lester's father said Friday afternoon while awaiting her arrival.

Terry Lester said his daughter is a straight-A student and student council member. "She's a good girl. Never had a problem with her," he said.

MySpace forbids youngsters 13 and under from joining and provides special protections for those 14 and 15 _ only people on their list of friends can view their profiles. Older users also have the option of restricting certain personal data so it can be seen only by people they have identified as friends.

Shawn Lester told The Saginaw News that her daughter has "never given me a day's trouble. ... I just don't understand with all these new laws protecting America how a 16-year-old kid could get out of the country." She said her daughter never had a boyfriend and seemed to be content with that.

Katherine and her mother live in Gilford, a village about 80 miles north of Detroit in Michigan's agricultural Thumb region. Her father lives in Grand Blanc Township.

Jashinske said deputies confiscated the family's home computer and were taking it to the FBI's Bay City office for analysis. He said it remained unclear whether any laws had been violated because of Lester's age. The age of sexual consent in Michigan is 16; Katherine turns 17 on June 21.

"I'll be honest with you, we don't know if a crime's been committed," Jashinske said.

Her picture is included in the article.

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2006/06/10/410436.html&cvqh=itn_myspaceteen


I totally blame the parents here.  Do you think for one minute that I would let a child of mine at 16 get a passport and say they were going to Canada and end up in the Middle East?  How the hell could that even happen?  Who bought the ticket?  How does a underage child go to a complete different country across the world?  Unfriggen real.

[hades]

lmao.why go all the way there just to meet a man? some girls are beyond desperate.  :-X

[ClingFree]

My girls are young, dont get me wrong - but Im the nosey parent type. And Im gonna stay that way, Just like my Ma did.

[Lynne]

I'm nosey too, hopefully when I have kids I will still be that way. Some parents should never had been parents.  >:(

[Tara]

lmao.why go all the way there just to meet a man? some girls are beyond desperate.  :-X

She's 16!  That's why.  Question should be... How could you as a parent put your child on a plane to go out of the U.S (even if it is Canada, which apparently she had never been before or she would have had a passport) And your child end up in the Middle East?  Come on, whose fault is that?

Has not everyone alive seen the movie " Not without my daughter"? That's enough to scare the hell out of me about going to some other country for a man or no man. I will just keep my happy azz planted right here.

[hades]

even at sixteen you should have enough sense not to do that tho.lol

[Tara]

even at sixteen you should have enough sense not to do that tho.lol

Yeah, but just like a 16 year old male. Hormones start raging right?

[pugsly™]

i have to reply too this i was a victim at one time i was 22 and met a guy and his wife in a chatroom this lady didn't care what her husband did at all she was soo ill she was in bed on so many meds sleeping all the time i was asked to come to fl to help care for her while her hubby worked i thought that all it was going to be soo i moved 2000 miles not thinking of the dangers when i got there i felt i wasn't needed cause i wasn't doing nothing but sitting there then when she slept her hubby tried several times to force me into sex (this is no joke) i got tired of the battle and couldn't face my family at that time after hurting them the way i done soo so i took a real dare and called another guy i met online to come get me (witch is my hubby now) i didn't plan on falling in love with him the way i did i was just going to stay with him a few days to get back home but never went we got married moved out of his mom n dads house i been with him for 4 years now but i did make up with my family but i still hurt inside everyday for my poor choices in the beginning and how i hurt my family

i just hope someone can learn from me....and not make the same poor choices like i done

[bubblegum]

Why in the world would a parent let their 16 yr old kid go to a another country (Canada or not) all by themselves?  That's pretty stupid on their part.

[flgal]

'MySpace' Teen Returns From Middle East
By DAVID N. GOODMAN, Associated Press Writer
3 hours ago



DETROIT - A 16-year-old girl who tricked her parents into getting her a passport and then flew to the Mideast to be with a man she met on MySpace.com has returned to Michigan.

U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded Katherine R. Lester to turn around and go home before she reached the West Bank. Lester arrived at Bishop International Airport in Flint late Friday and was taken to a private area to be reunited with her family.

She disappeared Monday after talking her parents into getting her a passport by saying she was going to Canada with friends, sheriff's officials said.

She apparently planned to visit a man whose MySpace account describes him as a 25-year-old from Jericho, Undersheriff James Jashinske said.

MySpace.com is a social networking Web site with more than 72 million members that lets users post photos, blogs and journals. There have been scattered accounts of sexual predators targeting minors they met through the site.

Lester apparently contacted the man from Jericho about three months ago, Jashinske said. Jericho, a city of 17,000, is a relatively calm area of the volatile West Bank.

The FBI traced the teenager to a Wednesday flight from New York's Kennedy Airport to Tel Aviv, Israel. At a scheduled stop in Amman, Jordan, U.S. officials persuaded her to return home, FBI agent Robert Beeckman said.

"Thank God she was returned safely," Lester's father said Friday afternoon while awaiting her arrival.

Terry Lester said his daughter is a straight-A student and student council member. "She's a good girl. Never had a problem with her," he said.

MySpace forbids youngsters 13 and under from joining and provides special protections for those 14 and 15 _ only people on their list of friends can view their profiles. Older users also have the option of restricting certain personal data so it can be seen only by people they have identified as friends.

Shawn Lester told The Saginaw News that her daughter has "never given me a day's trouble. ... I just don't understand with all these new laws protecting America how a 16-year-old kid could get out of the country." She said her daughter never had a boyfriend and seemed to be content with that.

Katherine and her mother live in Gilford, a village about 80 miles north of Detroit in Michigan's agricultural Thumb region. Her father lives in Grand Blanc Township.

Jashinske said deputies confiscated the family's home computer and were taking it to the FBI's Bay City office for analysis. He said it remained unclear whether any laws had been violated because of Lester's age. The age of sexual consent in Michigan is 16; Katherine turns 17 on June 21.

"I'll be honest with you, we don't know if a crime's been committed," Jashinske said.

Her picture is included in the article.

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2006/06/10/410436.html&cvqh=itn_myspaceteen


I totally blame the parents here.  Do you think for one minute that I would let a child of mine at 16 get a passport and say they were going to Canada and end up in the Middle East?  How the hell could that even happen?  Who bought the ticket?  How does a underage child go to a complete different country across the world?  Unfriggen real.

My girls are young, dont get me wrong - but Im the nosey parent type. And Im gonna stay that way, Just like my Ma did.

Why in the world would a parent let their 16 yr old kid go to a another country (Canada or not) all by themselves?  That's pretty stupid on their part.

You know this hearing about this stuff plucks my nerves. How could you get ur 16 yearold get a passport so she can leave the country? i am very nosey which i hope one day i am thanked for it. (if not oh well) The partents are fully responsible for this they played a major role into this by making it easy for her.... Parents be nosey check up on them. The world has changed from when we where kids.

[Tara]

I know I don't understand how this could of happened either.  This isn't like your daughter saying shes going skating and leaves and goes somewhere else.  This is a different country!!  Good gawd. >>:D

[foxx]

i have to reply too this i was a victim at one time i was 22 and met a guy and his wife in a chatroom this lady didn't care what her husband did at all she was soo ill she was in bed on so many meds sleeping all the time i was asked to come to fl to help care for her while her hubby worked i thought that all it was going to be soo i moved 2000 miles not thinking of the dangers when i got there i felt i wasn't needed cause i wasn't doing nothing but sitting there then when she slept her hubby tried several times to force me into sex (this is no joke) i got tired of the battle and couldn't face my family at that time after hurting them the way i done soo so i took a real dare and called another guy i met online to come get me (witch is my hubby now) i didn't plan on falling in love with him the way i did i was just going to stay with him a few days to get back home but never went we got married moved out of his mom n dads house i been with him for 4 years now but i did make up with my family but i still hurt inside everyday for my poor choices in the beginning and how i hurt my family

i just hope someone can learn from me....and not make the same poor choices like i done

Note to self:  Don't marry someone you meet online.  Thanks.

[swissmissy63]

Actually the bridge to canada isn't that far from detroit. Kids and adults go there all the time but I think she had her parents fooled into thinking she was a good girl. I also think she got her own plane ticket and had her friends drive her to the airport.  :oo

[hades]

thats still a long way to go over hormones.  :ll

[ClingFree]

Actually the bridge to canada isn't that far from detroit. Kids and adults go there all the time but I think she had her parents fooled into thinking she was a good girl. I also think she got her own plane ticket and had her friends drive her to the airport.  :oo

The bridge to Canada is in Detroit. I agree that kids and adults go there all the time - but in my experience? Only time 'teens' want to go is once theyre 19 and can drink legally in Canada. I think thats even more reason why my 16 year old would NOT be heading over the border... drunk 19 year olds (And yeah I was one of em back in the day)

[ClingFree]

"His Side"


JERICHO, West Bank - The Palestinian man who befriended a 16-year-old Michigan girl through the MySpace.com Web site and invited her to join him in Jericho said he is heartbroken by U.S. authorities' decision to send her back home.

Abdullah Jimzawi, 20, told The Associated Press that his love for Katherine Lester, of Gilford, Mich., was pure and they planned to marry. The music buff, who spends at least 10 hours a day on the Internet, decried attempts to portray him as an Internet predator.

"We love the same things, the same songs and we have similar dreams. I fell in love with her because she is innocent and goodhearted. We found ourselves as soul mates," he told the AP on Sunday at his family's comfortable house.

Jericho, a town of 17,000, is largely immune from the violence and mayhem plaguing the rest of the West Bank.

Jimzawi, a high school dropout with close-cropped hair, a two-day beard and large, dark eyes, said Katherine was willing to convert to Islam and that the pair remain in close contact, speaking to each other at least five hours a day via Internet phone calls.

MySpace.com is a social networking Web site whose enormous popularity with teenagers has raised concerns among U.S. authorities, with scattered accounts of sexual predators targeting minors they meet on the site.

Jimzawi works in his father's business delivering goods to minimarkets and has never gotten into trouble.

Earlier this month, Katherine boarded a flight to Israel after slipping out of her mother's house. At a stopover in Amman, Jordan, U.S. authorities seized her passport and sent her back home.

Had Katherine made it to Jericho, Jimzawi said, she would have slept in his sister's bedroom, not his. He said he would have walked with her through the tree-lined streets of Jericho, and his family would have celebrated her 17th birthday together on June 21.

"When I realized she wasn't coming I felt my whole world collapse," he said. "My tears didn't stop and I couldn't sleep for three days."

[Tara]

Thanks for posting Clingy.

[foxx]

wow...

Different culture...perhaps the age was not such a big deal to him as it IS here.

Huh.

[Tara]

The part that got me was when he said " she was willing to covert to Islam"  That chick has no idea what that means.  No man would ever talk me into moving over there and converting nothing. I'm keeping my happy azz over in America !!

:**

[Libra]

The part that got me was when he said " she was willing to covert to Islam"  That chick has no idea what that means.  No man would ever talk me into moving over there and converting nothing. I'm keeping my happy azz over in America !!

:**

Yeah, she's not old enough to make an informed decision about that kind of thing.