Gaming couple lets real-life infant starve to death
Couple obsessed with raising virtual 'avatar' child let real-life infant starve to death: police
BY Maria Fugate
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A South Korean couple who became obsessed with raising a virtual child in an online video game has been arrested in the starvation death of their premature 3-month-old daughter, police said.
Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and his partner, Choi Mi-sun, 25, fed their infant only during visits home between 12-hour sessions at a suburban Seoul Internet cafe, where they focused on raising "Anima," an avatar daughter they had in a virtual reality game called Prius online, police said.
In September, they went home after a marathon session of vigilant online nurturing and found their real-life infant dead. Police arrested the two on Friday when autopsy reports show the girl died of malnutrition.
The unemployed couple "seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life, because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Chung Jin-won, a police officer in Suwon, a Seoul suburb, told the Yonlap news agency.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/03/05/2010-03-05_end_game_internetobsessed_south_korean_couple_accused_in_starvation_of_premature.html#ixzz0hbHIY6IL
