I just got this email:

Hello,

If you have received this email, it is because you were in Katie Trame's address book on her computer.

There is no easy way to say this. You may have already heard. If you haven't, I'm sorry you are hearing this from a stranger. This evening Katie was found dead in her bedroom, the victim of an apparent suicide attempt.

For more information, including funeral dates, you may contact Eric Egolf after 8am tomorrow at ********.

The only reason I'm posting it here is because in doing so, this topic will be deleted or laughed at and I'll be reassured that it's just a(nother) sick/weird game/joke. Call me a naive idiot, but this is genuinely a little bit distressing.

okay. that's all. have at it kids! :P

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

Answers

We have confirmation--it IS a hoax.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

By the way, 15shillings will be publishing a Katherine Trame Memorial Edition tonight, as a tribute to the brilliant, sparkling soul who has touched all our lives. (Yes, I mean Katie.) Stop by tonight around 9:00 EDT...

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

That's a hoax. She's online right now :)

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

And the Katie Trame memorial fund donations can be put right into her paypal account !!! she can use the money folks !!! after all....like....caskets and stuff ARE expensive .....and there's the college fund for her stuffed bears.....c'mon people....fork it over.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

Well, the memorial edition has become a one-page thing...

http:/ /www.widomaker.com/~jdwatson/feat/five/010629.html

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2001

Katie Trame........her roommate Doug said she hadnt come home from her interview at the library that cold july afternoon........Eric was going to take her out to lunch, but she never met him at the "Big K" restaurant. Her parents hadnt heard from her, so they repossesed the car, and wrote her off ( after all, it's BEEN two days now )Her computer had been TURNED OFF (very strange)...but her e mail had been checked recently from SOMEWHERE.....AND an anonymous post to her website said "The rumor of my death has been greatly exaggerated".........COULD Katie Trame have been abducted ? Some say she had REALLY liked the movie "Tron"...she may have tried the same thing...... stay tuned for the next edition of UNSOLVED MYSTERYS

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2001