My daughter, 18, was brutally murdered by her ex. Then I got a Google alert and made a horrifying discovery online

A devastated father has told how his murdered daughter was turned into an AI chatbot by a sick stranger.

Drew Crecente’s daughter Jennifer was 18 when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Justin Crabbe.

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Crabbe was sentenced to 35 years in prison after shooting Jennifer in the back of the head with a sawed-off shotgun in the woods near her home in 2006 – months before she was set to graduate from high school.

Now, almost twenty years after her brutal murder, Drew is fighting for justice for his daughter for a second time.

Last month, the father, from Austin, Texas, made a gruesome discovery online after… Googling alert.

Drew discovered that his daughter’s name and yearbook photo had been used to create an AI chatbot, which allowed users to chat with her.

He said the initial confusion turned to “fear and anger” after he realized his beloved daughter’s identity was being used.

Drew branded the creation as “unacceptable” on the website Character AI – one of the largest platforms of its kind.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, he said he is considering legal action against the company after being “re-traumatised”.

He said: “It wasn’t something I was behind, or anyone who would love and care about, Jennifer, who was behind the creation of this.

“Jennifer was an amazing person. She is missed every day and she is my only child. I have not lost a child, I have also lost my identity as a parent.”

Drew now faces the “unnecessarily painful situation” of trying to protect his late daughter from online exploitation.

Character AI told The Sun that the chatbot was “user created” and “was removed as soon as we were made aware of this character”.

As Drew struggles with why someone would turn Jennifer into a chatbot, he fears it could have been done by “an unhealthy person.”

Perhaps someone “who spends a lot of time being very focused on people who have died, especially people who have been murdered,” he said.

To rub salt in the wound, Drew received a “tone deaf” response when he filed a complaint to remove the bone and ensure it couldn’t be recreated.

Two weeks after he filed a complaint titled “Murdered Child Remade on Character AI,” he was thanked for bringing the issue to their attention and told that the team would “investigate it further.”

“We appreciate you making our platform safe for everyone, cheers!” The company’s message ended.

“That cheer with the exclamation point behind it tells me everything I need to know about Character AI, I think. This response was incredibly tone-deaf – shockingly enough,” Drew said.

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“It’s disturbing and it’s tempting to let the anger take over… the anger is empowering and the rest of it, being sad, upset and re-traumatized, is exhausting.”

Drew also received a message from the company’s interim CEO two days after filing the original complaint that was picked up by the press.

“It wasn’t a real apology,” Drew said.

“He expressed his condolences for the tragic loss of my daughter.

“He also apologized for the disturbing memory this week. He did not say they were responsible, but said he was sorry to be reminded of my daughter’s death.”

The CEO told the distressed father that the bot was not created by the platform itself, but by one of its users, and that it was immediately removed when the problem came to light.

Drew hasn’t heard from Character AI again, but an attempt by The Sun to create a bot in Jennifer’s name showed it was still possible.

This remains true after Character AI told The Sun that her “name had been added to our block list”.

“It’s disturbing to know that it’s still possible, but at the same time it’s helpful because it just highlights the need to continue to fully investigate this,” Drew said.

The platform claims that it “takes safety seriously” and aims to “provide a creative space that is engaging, immersive and safe.”

However, it has now been reported by The Telegraph that chatbots of two other dead teenage girls from Britain have also been created on the site.

Brianna Ghey was 16 years old when she was stabbed to death by two teenagers in 2023.

Molly Russell, 14, took her own life in November 2017 after viewing content online about self-harm and suicide.

A foundation set up in Russell’s memory called the chatbot “sickening” and a “completely reprehensible lack of moderation.”

Meanwhile, Brianna’s mother Esther Ghey told The Telegraph it showed how “manipulative and dangerous” the online world can be.

“It is also a reflection of how our society views victims crimeespecially murder victims,” which society views as “entertainment,” Drew added.

“It shows how little time (Character AI) has spent actually considering the potential harm of this service they are providing to the public.”

He said such companies have a “social responsibility” to prevent harm when creating and launching their businesses technology.

A lawsuit has been filed in Florida against Character AI by the mother of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who took his own life after becoming obsessed with a chatbot.

The teen reportedly spoke to the bot about death and also had highly sexualized conversations while isolating himself from the real world.

Setzer shot himself moments after the bot he allegedly fell in love with told him to “come home,” the lawsuit alleges.

Character AI told The Sun that it does not comment on pending litigation and is “implementing additional moderation tools to prioritize community safety.”

Drew confirmed that it is “likely” that he will also take legal action against the multi-billion dollar company.

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‘WORST OF US’

He believes that taking action now is the only way to prevent this future cause harm, as he predicts this problem will “increase exponentially” as “bad actors” use AI chatbots to cause harm.

“There’s no doubt about it,” says Drew, who has an engineering background.

The father hopes that quick legal action can change the laws surrounding AI.

He noted the level of uncertainty surrounding AI programming – which is less about coding and more about transferring a “vast library of data” that you want AI to learn from.

“That data library could have some really bad, unhealthy stuff in it, including material that is absolutely illegal,” he said.

“We shouldn’t be surprised if there is one race to the bottom through the use of AI.

“It could represent some of the best of us, but unless it’s really profitable to do so, I think it’s more likely that it will be used to represent the worst of us.”

He believes what happened to Jennifer is just the beginning of the problem.

“We can’t wait for politicians,” Drew said.

“The reality is that public sentiment will be very important… in helping to prevent future harm.”

When considering AI and the laws surrounding it, Drew urged people to identify with Jennifer as a friend, sister and daughter.

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