October 12, 2024 • 8 mins
The NZ Herald’s original true crime podcast, Chasing Ghosts, is back to explore the notorious decades-long catfishing scheme conducted by one New Zealand woman.
In April 2011, a woman was found to have tricked dozens of teenage boys and young men across Christchurch with fake profiles - into starting romantic relationships online.
The perpetrator, Natalia Burgess, was eventually caught and jailed for two years and two months in 2013 - but journalist David Fisher learned that wasn't the end of the story.
He says an email from out of the blue alerted him to a new victim - who discovered Burgess had taken her likeness to resume her catfishing after she was released from prison.
"As journalists, we have to check, we have to verify everything that we do. While I considered it was a possibility, I kept an open mind until I gathered the evidence. The evidence was unequivocal - it was most definitely Natalia Burgess at it again."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Now.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
In twenty eleven, New Zealand Herald journalist David Fisher he
investigated and reported on what he discovered as the wildest
catfishing tale he's ever encountered. It centers around online predator
Natalie Burgess, who was jailed for her crimes back in
twenty thirteen. David thought the story had ended then, but
an email two years later has prompted him to revisit
(00:35):
the case. In a new season of The Herald's true
crime podcast Chasing Ghosts the Puppeteers, David Fisher is with
me now. Good morning, David, Good morning now, So why
have you revisited your investigation from twenty and eleven?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
About two years ago, I get an email from a
New Zealand woman called Crystal Jenna who's living in Surface Paradise,
and Crystal was at the end of her TeV because
she had for years and years found her profile, photographs
from social media and other content from social media had
been used by somebody else who turned out to be
(01:15):
Natalian Burgers to create false characters. And it was the
same sort of activity that Natalia had been up to
back in twenty eleven when I first reported on it,
and I'd actually thought that she would have moved on
from this, but no, she got out of prison in
twenty sixteen and got straight back into well cat fishing
(01:38):
on a quite extraordinary scale.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Was it your immediate thought that this was Natalia? Rated again.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
At the point that I came into it, when Crystaline
emailed me, Crystal was very definite that it was Natalia,
And as generalius, we have to check, we have to
verify everything that we do. And so why I considered
it was a possibility. I kept it open mind until
(02:11):
I gathered the evidence, and the evidence was well unequivocal
ready it was most definitely a Natalia Burgess at it again.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Tell us about just how deep her crimes have gone.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Well, the conviction she had in twenty thirteen that stemmed
from a three or four year period of rather intense
catfishing where she had used the social media photographs of
a handful of young women to create quite a family tree.
(02:49):
And the extent of this is quite bizarre, and I
think this is what makes it somewhat different from a
lot of cat fishing cases. I found as I investigated
a family tree of about twenty different individuals, much of
them false characters that Natalia had created, all of which
(03:11):
she was controlling as a very engaging, very social what
appeared to be a pack of teenage girls online, when
in fact Natalia was at that stage easily ten years
older and now I was about forty. With those false characters,
(03:33):
she created a sense of community. The characters would talk
to each other online and interact with each other online,
so that when the people that she was looking to
catfish encountered them but didn't realize it was just one person,
they thought it was a really social, attractive teenage girls
(03:56):
who were looking for company online. And as those relationships developed,
they became very deep and they formed very strong, boldins online,
so much so that when it moved into the next
phase of what Natalie would do what she has told
(04:18):
me she calls silly little mind games. She would introduce
moments of drama that really had an effect on the
people that she was interacting with. There would be family
developments which would be exciting, and then there would be
things that would help happen in her life that things
(04:41):
that may not have happened in her real life, but
things that were happening to her characters that were that
were rather more shocking. She would kill her characters off.
For example, one of those false characters back around twenty
eleven was a girl called Laura Jane West who died
in a car crash apparently, but there was no Laura
(05:05):
Jane West, the no car crash, So, David, was.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
She just messing with people or did she to get
money off people? How far did it go?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
The better for that she seems to get from it
is forming the relationships with individuals and then as they
go through this roller coaster of emotions, depending on the scenario,
she introduces to the relationship some sort of affirmation that
the relationship is important to them. Because the suffering and
(05:35):
she suffers. There's very very little sign of any money
changing hands. It's not a fraud scam or even a
romance scam in the way that we would usually interpret
these things.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Horrible manipulation. I mean, what impact did this have on
her victims?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
The impact was horrendous. But I've spoken to people who
years and years down the track, are still suffering. Incredibly.
I interviewed a mum whose son took his life back
at the end of twenty ten, and that woman Raymond Ford,
(06:15):
blames Battalia for her son Piece's death, which I should
cave it by saying that in my experience in covering
such things, almost always more than one reason for somebody
self harming to that degree. But he wasn't the only
young man to do that. There was When the case
unfolded in court in twenty thirteen, the judge made reference
(06:40):
to another teenager, a boy who's sixteen, who the judge
had said would have taken his life if not for
an intervention by his parents. That impact, it is extraordinary,
and that impact rolls on to Crystal Jenny that the
person who Natalia has used the image of for what
(07:03):
Crystal says is about ten years and Crystal's business has
been hugely impacted. She runs a fashion boutique on the
Gold Coast. When she has a new product line coming out,
she really struggles to advertise that on social media because
with a day or two, all the new images of
(07:25):
her friends group, even if French kids, will be taken
and incorporated into this extraordinary masquerade that Natalia is operating.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
David, is it strange to be talking about this case
again after so long.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It is strange. It's as a journalist you cover so
many different types of cases as the years roll by,
and more often than not, you think they're done. When
they're done, you know, serious sort of runs out of
steam and people get on with their lives and go
and do different things. So when I first heard from Crystal,
(08:04):
my immediate impression was, oh, yes, I remember that I've
written that story before. But as I got into it,
I'd realized that there was a lot of the story
that I hadn't told back in twenty eleven, coming at
it from just a different perspective, perhaps with the benefit
(08:26):
of a little bit of time to gave an ability
to put a different lens on things, and realized that
there was so much more going on than anybody had
previously realized previously realized.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Oh David, look, thanks so much for talking us through that.
If you enjoy your true crime podcast, the first episodes
of Chasing Ghosts the Puppeteer are available now on iHeartRadio
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks edb Now.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
In twenty eleven, New Zealand Herald journalist David Fisher he
investigated and reported on what he discovered as the wildest
catfishing tale he's ever encountered. It centers around online predator
Natalie Burgess, who was jailed for her crimes back in
twenty thirteen. David thought the story had ended then, but
an email two years later has prompted him to revisit
(00:35):
the case. In a new season of The Herald's true
crime podcast Chasing Ghosts the Puppeteers, David Fisher is with
me now. Good morning, David, Good morning now, So why
have you revisited your investigation from twenty and eleven?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
About two years ago, I get an email from a
New Zealand woman called Crystal Jenna who's living in Surface Paradise,
and Crystal was at the end of her TeV because
she had for years and years found her profile, photographs
from social media and other content from social media had
been used by somebody else who turned out to be
(01:15):
Natalian Burgers to create false characters. And it was the
same sort of activity that Natalia had been up to
back in twenty eleven when I first reported on it,
and I'd actually thought that she would have moved on
from this, but no, she got out of prison in
twenty sixteen and got straight back into well cat fishing
(01:38):
on a quite extraordinary scale.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Was it your immediate thought that this was Natalia? Rated again.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
At the point that I came into it, when Crystaline
emailed me, Crystal was very definite that it was Natalia,
And as generalius, we have to check, we have to
verify everything that we do. And so why I considered
it was a possibility. I kept it open mind until
(02:11):
I gathered the evidence, and the evidence was well unequivocal
ready it was most definitely a Natalia Burgess at it again.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Tell us about just how deep her crimes have gone.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Well, the conviction she had in twenty thirteen that stemmed
from a three or four year period of rather intense
catfishing where she had used the social media photographs of
a handful of young women to create quite a family tree.
(02:49):
And the extent of this is quite bizarre, and I
think this is what makes it somewhat different from a
lot of cat fishing cases. I found as I investigated
a family tree of about twenty different individuals, much of
them false characters that Natalia had created, all of which
(03:11):
she was controlling as a very engaging, very social what
appeared to be a pack of teenage girls online, when
in fact Natalia was at that stage easily ten years
older and now I was about forty. With those false characters,
(03:33):
she created a sense of community. The characters would talk
to each other online and interact with each other online,
so that when the people that she was looking to
catfish encountered them but didn't realize it was just one person,
they thought it was a really social, attractive teenage girls
(03:56):
who were looking for company online. And as those relationships developed,
they became very deep and they formed very strong, boldins online,
so much so that when it moved into the next
phase of what Natalie would do what she has told
(04:18):
me she calls silly little mind games. She would introduce
moments of drama that really had an effect on the
people that she was interacting with. There would be family
developments which would be exciting, and then there would be
things that would help happen in her life that things
(04:41):
that may not have happened in her real life, but
things that were happening to her characters that were that
were rather more shocking. She would kill her characters off.
For example, one of those false characters back around twenty
eleven was a girl called Laura Jane West who died
in a car crash apparently, but there was no Laura
(05:05):
Jane West, the no car crash, So, David, was.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
She just messing with people or did she to get
money off people? How far did it go?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
The better for that she seems to get from it
is forming the relationships with individuals and then as they
go through this roller coaster of emotions, depending on the scenario,
she introduces to the relationship some sort of affirmation that
the relationship is important to them. Because the suffering and
(05:35):
she suffers. There's very very little sign of any money
changing hands. It's not a fraud scam or even a
romance scam in the way that we would usually interpret
these things.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Horrible manipulation. I mean, what impact did this have on
her victims?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
The impact was horrendous. But I've spoken to people who
years and years down the track, are still suffering. Incredibly.
I interviewed a mum whose son took his life back
at the end of twenty ten, and that woman Raymond Ford,
(06:15):
blames Battalia for her son Piece's death, which I should
cave it by saying that in my experience in covering
such things, almost always more than one reason for somebody
self harming to that degree. But he wasn't the only
young man to do that. There was When the case
unfolded in court in twenty thirteen, the judge made reference
(06:40):
to another teenager, a boy who's sixteen, who the judge
had said would have taken his life if not for
an intervention by his parents. That impact, it is extraordinary,
and that impact rolls on to Crystal Jenny that the
person who Natalia has used the image of for what
(07:03):
Crystal says is about ten years and Crystal's business has
been hugely impacted. She runs a fashion boutique on the
Gold Coast. When she has a new product line coming out,
she really struggles to advertise that on social media because
with a day or two, all the new images of
(07:25):
her friends group, even if French kids, will be taken
and incorporated into this extraordinary masquerade that Natalia is operating.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
David, is it strange to be talking about this case
again after so long.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It is strange. It's as a journalist you cover so
many different types of cases as the years roll by,
and more often than not, you think they're done. When
they're done, you know, serious sort of runs out of
steam and people get on with their lives and go
and do different things. So when I first heard from Crystal,
(08:04):
my immediate impression was, oh, yes, I remember that I've
written that story before. But as I got into it,
I'd realized that there was a lot of the story
that I hadn't told back in twenty eleven, coming at
it from just a different perspective, perhaps with the benefit
(08:26):
of a little bit of time to gave an ability
to put a different lens on things, and realized that
there was so much more going on than anybody had
previously realized previously realized.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Oh David, look, thanks so much for talking us through that.
If you enjoy your true crime podcast, the first episodes
of Chasing Ghosts the Puppeteer are available now on iHeartRadio
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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