Who Breck Was
Breck Bednar was born in Surrey, England, in 1999 and was what many people would call "the perfect child". He was the oldest of four siblings and his parents had conceived him after years of trying, making him a miracle baby.
Breck was well-behaved, sweet, and hardworking. He got straight As all through school and took several advanced classes. But he didn't do well because he spent hours studying. He got excellent grades with no effort - he was just super smart!
Good Relationships
Breck loved his three younger siblings and had a great relationship with his parents, especially with his mother, Lorin LaFave. The two had a special connection and adored spending time with each other.
As Breck grew older, however, he started doing the same things every boy his age was doing, mainly playing videogames. Breck loved technology and science and spent all his free time tinkering with his computer and playing games.
A Religious Family
The Bednars were very religious people. They went to church every sunday and were active members in the community. Breck made many friends his age at the church and they all shared the same interests.
Breck's church had a very interesting idea: they created a group for teenage boys so that they would hang out together and make friends. This group of boys would play online games together.
The Group
Breck's church group consisted of six boys who would all play games on the same server and talk to each other meanwhile. This server was set up by an 18-year-old boy named Lewis Daynes.
Lewis was not part of the group and was older than the rest of the boys, who were 14 years old at the time. The boys met Lewis through the games they were playing and played on the same server, but did not know him personally.
The Leader
Because Lewis was the oldest of the group and the creator of the server, the boys saw him as this cool, older-brother-like figure that they admired. Lewis would also offer the boys to buy older-rated games for them that they could not access because they were still minors.
The boys would spent hours and hours gaming and talking to each other every night. Lewis would tell them cool stories about his life, which seemed like the ultimate goal for a teenage boy, and these stories were unbelievable.
Lewis' Life
Lewis' life seemed perfect. During their gaming nights, he told the boys that he was born in England but had moved to New York City to work as a computer programmer by day while owning different businesses.
But at night, Lewis had a much cooler job: he was a secret service agent. This is why Lewis never showed his face while they were gaming, because he had to protect his identity. However, he never spared any details when it came to his stories. Needless to say, Lewis was a multi-millionaire.
All Is Well
As we've mentioned before, Breck had a great relationship with his mother, Lorin. He told her everything and even kept his bedroom door open at all times and didn't mind when his mom popped in to chat and say hi to his gaming buddies.
Lorin had no problem with Breck's gaming habits because even though he spent hours playing games, he still did well at school. Not only that, but she personally knew all the boys in his gaming group - all except but one.
Getting Suspicious
Lorin knew all the boys from the gaming group because they all went to church with Breck, but she had no idea who Lewis was. He never showed his face and was all mysterious about his life and identity.
Lorin, like any parent would, thought it was strange and was wary of Lewis. She asked Breck to show her a picture of Lewis, so Breck asked Lewis to send one. This picture showed a very attractive, wealthy-looking man and the picture seemed as if it had been taken by a professional.
Strange Signs
The picture of Lewis just didn't seem like a natural, real picture of somebody and it rather looked like a picture you would just find on Google. Lorin suggested to Breck that the picture might be fake, but Breck had an explanation for it.
Breck told his mother that Lewis used fake pictures because he could not show his real face. After all, he was working for the secret service, so he had to protect his identity. After hearing this, Lorin grew even more suspicious.
Convinced
Lorin told Breck directly that she thought Lewis was making it all up and that his stories were ridiculous. Breck, however, believed in Lewis wholeheartedly, and he had reasons to do so.
Breck had been chatting with Lewis for months and got to know him really well. After all, they spent every single night talking and playing games. Why would his friend just lie to him? Besides, all the boys in the group believed him too.
Slowly But Surely
Lewis didn't come up with these crazy stories all of a sudden. He built a relationship with Breck and the other boys slowly and gradually gave them information about his life. He carefully placed every piece of the puzzle together, so his stories made sense to the boys.
But from an outsider's perspective, it all seemed ridiculous. Lorin could not believe Breck really thought Lewis was who he said he was, but she was not in Breck's shoes.
The Boiling Frog
This kind of situation is known as "the boiling frog". When frogs are cooked, they are usually boiled alive. But how can they be boiled alive and not jump out of the pot?
Well, frogs are usually thrown in the water while it's still cold. Then, the heat is gradually turned up, and the frog does not realize the water is getting hotter and hotter. By the time the frog realizes it is in danger, the water is already boiling and it is too late to jump out.
Tactics
The boiling frog is a typical tactic used by manipulators and predators. Instead of "throwing their victim into the boiling water", they gradually turn up the heat, and they don't even notice.
Breck had believed every word that came out of Lewis' mouth because he gradually told him small lie after small lie, until a huge web of lies was created and Breck had no idea. Luckily, his mother knew something was wrong.
Grooming
After months and months of grooming the church boys through online gaming, Lewis realized that Breck would be the one boy he would focus on because Breck seemed to be the one who trusted him the most.
Lewis had told Breck that he owned several companies, and one of them was a computer programming company. Breck's dream was to become a computer programmer one day, so Lewis used this to his advantage.
The Job Offer
Lewis offered Breck a job in his programming company, which would earn him a six-figure salary. He told Breck that this job would be reserved for him until he was 18 and then he could start working with him.
Breck was ecstatic and told his mother about it, who was completely concerned about this situation. Lorin told Breck that Lewis was lying to him and that it all seemed ridiculous. Instead of believing his mother, Breck got resentful towards her.
Changing
Breck told his mother everything, but after seeing her concerned reaction, he started shutting her out. He quickly changed from an open, well-behaved boy to a lonely, irritable teenager that did not want to talk to his mother anymore.
Lorin knew that she had to handle this situation carefully, or else Breck would start hiding things from her. Meanwhile, Breck stopped going to his after-school activities and stopped going to church regularly. Instead, he spent his time online.
A Different Boy
Breck's grades also started slacking and he stopped helping out around the house. This really worried Lorin and Barry, his father. Lorin and Barry were divorced, but they still communicated almost every day to talk about their children.
Lorin mentioned to Barry that she was very concerned about one of Breck's online friends, but there wasn't much Lorin and Barry could do. How do you tell a teenage boy in 2013 to get off the internet and stop using his computer? That would be a challenge for any parent in this day and age!
Calling The Police
Lorin had no idea what to do or how dangerous Lewis could be, so she decided to call the police. In her call, she told the police: "I have a 14-year-old son and there's this 18-year-old person, and I feel like he's being groomed."
This wasn't a case of a parent not seeing the signs and not caring about their children. Breck's mom saw it for what it was: her child was being groomed by a mysterious online predator. But would the police take her seriously?
Not Enough Evidence
The police told Lorin that they would look into it, but did nothing. After all, telling fake stories about being a millionaire is not a crime. They could not arrest Lewis just for being a liar.
However, if they had at least looked up his name on their database, they would have been able to stop the horrors that would eventually happen. Instead, they did nothing, even after Lorin filed a formal police report against Lewis.
Easy Prey
The other boys in the church group also grew suspicious of Lewis. They asked him for a real picture of his face and he refused, which was awfully suspicious. Not only that, but he claimed to have no social media, which sounded like a bad lie coming from an 18-year-old "technology entrepreneur".
Breck was the only one who still believed in him and even defended him, so Lewis knew he was the right target. Breck believed everything he said, and Lewis had him wrapped around his little finger.
Enough Is Enough
The police couldn't help her and Breck would not listen to her, so Lorin had to try a different approach. She decided that the best thing she could do would be to completely remove Breck from the internet, so she took all his electronics away and told him he was not allowed to use them.
But Lewis was one step ahead of Lorin. He had actually bought Breck a mobile phone and sent it to him so that they could still communicate if his electronics were taken away. Breck kept this phone in secret and talked to Lewis every day.
More Measures
But Lorin wasn't done. She called a meeting with all the parents of the other church boys and expressed all her concerns about Lewis. She felt that the meeting went very well and that they were all on the same page about not letting their kids talk to Lewis anymore.
Sadly, she did not know that Breck had told Lewis about this meeting. Lewis then convinced Breck to bring a recording device to this meeting and record everything, which he then sent to Lewis.
Back To Normal
After a couple of months, Lorin decided that Breck was ready to have all his electronics back, under the condition that he could not communicate with Lewis in any way. Breck agreed, and everything seemed to get back to normal.
But that was not the case. He still communicated with Lewis in secret. After a whole year of talking to Breck, Lewis came up with one final crazy story: he only had a few months to live and wanted to leave all his money to Breck.
Meeting In Person
Because his parents were divorced, Breck was staying with his father for the week on December 13, 2014. He asked his dad if he could sleep over at a friend's house on the 16th, and he said yes.
Breck had told his father that he was going to visit a friend from school, but this was a lie. He was actually planning on traveling to Essex to finally meet Lewis Daynes in person after a whole year of being groomed.
The Last Goodbye
Breck thought he would finally meet Lewis, his longtime internet friend. Lewis was dying of a rare disease and would sign over all his assets to Breck, making him a millionaire. But Breck knew that his parents wouldn't approve, so he lied to them.
Lewis actually gave Breck a whole script on what to tell his parents, and he followed it perfectly. That day, Breck left his father's house and that was the last time his father would ever see him. Lewis booked a taxi for Breck, and this taxi took him from his home in Surrey all the way to Essex, where Lewis was.
The Call
A few hours after he arrived at Lewis', everything seemed be going well because Breck actually called his father to let him know that he had arrived safely to his friend's house and that they were having a great time. However, at some point during the night, things took a turn for the worse.
On December 17 at 11:00 am, the police received a call from a clearly distressed man saying that he needed police and a forensics team at his house. This mysterious man said: "My friend and I got into an altercation and I'm the only one who came out alive."
Confessing
The phone operator asked the caller directly: "Are you telling me that you killed someone?" to which the caller replied: "Yes, I am." This man was none other than Lewis Daynes.
Although he seemed a bit nervous, he was calm for the most part. Lewis told the phone operator that he grabbed a knife and stabbed 14-year-old Breck Bednar one time in the back of the neck and then slashed his throat. He had no emotions in his voice as he told police this grim story.
The Crime Scene
Within minutes, the police arrived at Lewis' flat. Although Lewis implied that this murder had been in self defense, the police quickly realized that this hadn't been the case. Lewis had destroyed several pieces of evidence, such as hard drives, that could never be recovered.
Lewis had also tried to clean up some blood, but failed to do so. One horrible thing that Lewis did before calling the police, however, was taking pictures of Breck's body and sending it to Breck's church friends.
A Horrible Discovery
The police discovered that Lewis had bound Breck's arms and legs with duck tape and sexually assaulted him. This was further confirmed after the police looked up Lewis' criminal history. They discovered that he had been accused of assaulting another young boy and had also been accused of grooming a 13-year-old American boy on the internet.
If the police had looked into Lewis back when Breck's mom called the police several months earlier, Lewis would have been arrested and Breck would probably still be alive. But because they did not take Lorin seriously, Lewis managed to fulfill his plan to lure Breck into his home and kill him.
Guilty
Even though he had confessed to the crime on the phone, Lewis maintained his innocence all the way up until his trial was set up. Then, he finally pleaded guilty. Breck's family felt that Lewis did this to play with them and the police and waste their time and resources up until the last moment.
But Lewis' reign of terror did not end once he was behind bars. He actually put up posts on a blog from inside the prison saying awful things about Breck and his family. It is not known how he accessed the internet from prison.
The Breck Foundation
Breck's parents created the Breck Foundation to spread awareness about online grooming and to prevent other children from becoming victims of predators online.
Lorin actually travels all around the UK to give talks at schools and educate both children and adults on these issues. The foundation also offers help to those who believe that a loved one may be a potential victim.