"World of Warcraft" Behind Brutal Child Murder in Houston

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December 3, 2007—The Houston Chronicle has been covering the story of an unidentified body of a little girl found in Galveston Bay. She had been brutally beaten. Last week, she was identified, and her mother and step-father were arrested, and charged with her murder.

On Sunday, the Houston Chronicle ran a lengthy profile of the case, presenting evidence that the mother - who had been a top student in her high school in a Cleveland suburb - had become obsessed with the online video game, World of Warcraft (made by Blizzard, now part of Activision Blizzard), spending hours at a time online, all this after giving birth to her daughter. She met her future husband, and baby killer, online, while playing the game. He was her "warlock teammate," and convinced her to move to Texas, with her daughter. According to the Chronicle, the man she met online, Royce Ziegler II, "was a powerful warlock, a character not unlike a mage gone bad [a 'mage' is a 'magic-caster' who 'could summon spells or open escape routes for members of her guild']." The article continues: "The game's warlocks tap into the evil side of magic and rule over demonic minions that do their bidding. A warlock's spell can do damage immediately to an enemy or damage over time, eroding an enemy's power slowly."

Police have charged the couple with beating her two-year old daughter with a belt, crushing her skull, hiding the body in a box, then dumping the body into Galveston Bay. They allege that the mother was told by her husband that her daughter had to be taught to mind them, as she had been "disobedient."