Mark and Teresa Marsden lost their 20-year-old daughter Renae in 2013 after a cruel catfishing deception.
The story unfolded like a Hollywood thriller, but for the Marsden family it has been an all too real nightmare.
Their daughter Renae fell in love with who she thought was Brayden Spiteri, a young man doing time behind bars after being involved in a motorbike accident. The pair dated online for 18 months, exchanging more than 11,000 text messages.
But the person at the other end of the line wasn't "Brayden" at all. It was Renae's obsessive friend Camilla Zeidan, who had stolen a young man's image to create the fake persona.
For the first time, the man who found himself at the centre of the scandal has come forward to tell his side of the story.
Cameron is the real life "Brayden Spiteri". But he said he has never met either Renae or Ms Zeiden and has no idea why his image was used.
"It is me in the photo, but I personally had nothing to do with any of the girls, neither of them," Mr Lang told A Current Affair.
He said he had no idea about the catfishing deception until he saw his own face on the news.
"Just shocked in a way because I've now got an image that's put out there. That's an image nobody wants to be associated with," he said.
Renae's family said she believed in fairy tales, and thought she'd found her Prince Charming. Renae's mother, Teresa, remembers the day Renae told her about "Brayden".
"She said, 'Oh mum, actually Camila's introduced me to somebody.'"
She explained "Brayden" was supposedly Camilla Zeiden ex-boyfriend. When her mum asked whether that wasn't crossing a boundary, Renae assured her that Ms Zeiden said "Brayden" was better suited to her anyway.
The two never met because according to Ms Zeiden, "Brayden" was behind bars. She told Renae "Brayden" had managed to sneak a phone into prison, and that he couldn't call, but would send messages in secret.
"At the time, it seemed ok, it seemed plausible, seemed somewhat rational. There were signs there that something wasn't quite right but we didn't pursue it," Renae's father told A Current Affair.
Renae and "Brayden's" relationship was tumultuous. In texts Brayden was jealous, he'd bite back when Renae suggested visiting him in jail or when she wanted to speak to his solicitor, but he always managed to reel her back in.
"I f--king love you more than you know, that's why I get so angry when you question me," one of "Brayden's" text messages read.
Mark said while neither he nor her mother, Teresa, were comfortable with the relationship, they understood that their teenage daughter didn't necessarily want to listen to their love advice.
"As her mum, I honestly thought I had time while he was in jail to change her mind, to get her to move on. I thought I had time," Teresa said. "Brayden" had told Renae he would be out of jail by her 21st birthday.
But, of course, "Brayden" would never appear.
The person behind the text messages had been Ms Zeiden all along.
"She had us all fooled," admitted Teresa.
Renae and Ms Zeiden met at school in Year 9. The girls were 14 when they had a short sexual relationship the school put down to girls experimenting.
When Renae left school in Year 10 and started dating a boy, Ms Zeiden was furious.
"There was something wrong with Camilla [Zeiden]," Mark said.
"Renae said that she'd follow her to work because she stopped taking her phone calls," he recalled.
"She wanted to be number one and she couldn't come to terms with anyone else being in the relationship that Renae had."
Ms Zeiden then created "Brayden", and for the next 18 months, she would play the part of best friend and boyfriend.
But Renae was fed up with her friend's possessiveness, so when Ms Zeiden went on holiday overseas she used the opportunity to severe ties.
"She sent her a message saying 'Camilla I'm done for good with our friendship, when you come home please don't contact me'," Teresa explained.
The rejection, Renae's parents believe, prompted Ms Zeiden to take revenge in the form of a breakup message from "Brayden".
"I think I need a break and so do you," the text from "Brayden" to Renae read.
Teresa then recalled receiving her own message from "Brayden" saying: "Sort your daughter out, she is threatening to kill herself."
"I walked up to Renae's room and I sat beside her on her bed and I showed her my messages and I said, 'Renae, what's this?'"
Teresa said Renae assured her she was fine.
"She said to me, 'mum you don't have to worry about it anymore, I found out what he is all about.'
"To this day I don't know what that meant, I don't know if she found out he wasn't real, if he was Camilla [Zeiden]," Teresa said.
Mark and Teresa later discovered from her phone records Renae had called Goulburn Jail, presumably searching for "Brayden".
"If I honestly thought Renae would have done something, I never would have got off that bed, I never would have left her," Teresa said.
Renae's story ended on the 5th of August 2013.
She was last seen at the gap at Watsons Bay, her mobile phone in her hand.
"I feel like my job as a mum, I was supposed to protect her and I've failed her," Teresa said through tears.
"That's something I have to live with. I would have never of let her go."
To this day, only Ms Zeiden knows what unfolded that afternoon. But she's chosen to remain silent, discarding the phone she used to pose as "Brayden."
While the "Brayden" Renae fell in love with was make believe, his image was real.
Cameron unwittingly became the literal face of the catfishing deception.
"I'm not Brayden Spiteri," he told A Current Affair.
Cameron said the photo Ms Zeiden used to pose as "Brayden" was likely taken at a bar or club on a night out years ago, but he has no recollection of the photo being taken. He said he has never met either of the girls.
For him, the worst part of all is that he was the face of Renae's turmoil. A tragic story, and one that he never expected to be caught in.
Mark and Teresa are now calling for catfishing to be considered a crime.
"The unfortunate thing about catfishing is that whilst it involves deceit, it is deceit that is not sought to gain anything financially," criminal lawyer Elias Tabchouri told A Current Affair.
"The law is based on gain of some type. If you're not getting a financial gain, then you are not guilty of an offence so far as catfishing goes.
"If you are not stalking someone by use of that false persona, you are not guilty of an offence.
Unfortunately, catfishing, in most circ*mstances is probably best defined as a crime of the heart," she said.
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