Carly Ryan, from Stirling, South Australia, fell head-over-heels for her boyfriend, Brandon Kane. Investigators say that Brandon had a few dark secrets that Carly was blissfully unaware of. Detectives would learn that things would take a dark turn when Carly failed to return home from a night out with friends.
She’d been acting somewhat strange in the moments before leaving that day, repeatedly asking her mother for hugs. It seems almost like she knew something was wrong, but she was powerless to stop it. Carly’s mother certainly felt that something was a bit off that evening, but she could’ve never imagined just how terrifying things were about to become. Well… its a scary mystery.
My name is Ty Notts and I’m a freelance cold case detective who investigates unsolved mysteries, true crime recaps, and unexplained crimes. If you’re looking for interesting detective stories, look no further. Here on True Crime Stories, I cover true crime cases and true scary stories you’ve never heard of. I also post new true crime documentaries each week, so follow for more!
‘JOIN’ this channel to get new videos sooner:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXONTfGmLC7ltFgLAlHs24g/join
Hit that LIKE button!
► Instagram → https://instagram.com/ty_notts
► Grab a new TCS mug or decal! → https://tynotts.com
► Join the channel for perks! → https://bit.ly/3V6gSF7
► I also narrate for Top 5 Unknowns → https://www.youtube.com/@Top5Unknowns
► Submit a case to me! → tynottsyt@gmail.com
Backdrop created by Shreetej (Insta: @tezra3d)
Chapters:
00:00 Beginning
06:22 Brandon Kane
08:51 The Birthday Party
12:23 The Crime
14:04 To Catch a Predator
#coldcase #truecrimestories #crimestories #truecrimestories #scarystories #scarymysteries #investigation #crimedocumentary #missingperson
It was 2007 when Carly Ryan fell head-over-heels for her boyfriend, Brandon Kane. Investigators say that the two had everything in common, but Brandon had a few dark secrets that Carly was blissfully unaware of. Detectives would learn that Carly and Brandon had been dating for several months
Leading up to the crime, and everything was going well for the two. But one day in February of 2007, things would take a dark turn when Carly failed to return home from a night out with friends. She’d been acting somewhat strange in the moments before leaving that day,
Repeatedly asking her mother for hugs. It seems almost like she knew something was wrong, but she was powerless to stop it. Carly’s mother certainly felt that something was a bit off that evening, but she could’ve never imagined just how terrifying things were about to become. [intro]
Carly Ryan was born in January of 1992 in Stirling, South Australia. She was raised by her mother, Sonya, for most of her childhood, but there’s never been any mention of what happened to her father, so I suppose it can be assumed that he was simply out of the picture.
The thing about Carly is that she was growing up in the midst of a social media hurricane. By the time she was a teenager, it seemed like there was a new social media platform coming out
Every other day of the week – and this was long before Facebook was the goliath that it is today. Most of this case takes place back in 2006 and 2007, so we’re talking about the days of MySpace, Xanga, Tumblr, and the countless online instant messengers that were around. It was an incredibly
Interesting time to be on the internet, but it was also a remarkably dangerous time, because many of the safeguards that are in place today simply didn’t exist back then. Considering Carly was just a teenager around this time, her mother, Sonya,
Was pretty critical with what Carly got up to online. Carly and Sonya were remarkably close, meaning Sonya knew pretty much every detail of Carly’s life. She’d often walk by the computer and take a peek at what Carly was doing, but knowing that her daughter was a smart girl,
She trusted that Carly was being safe and cautious. Sonya says that she feels like she knew about everything going on in Carly’s life. She knew all of her friends, kept tabs on what was going on at school, and was an ever-present force in all that Carly did – not
In a helicopter-parent kind of way, but in a pretty healthy mother-daughter relationship way. You’ve got to remember, it was just the two of them, so they were understandably super close. But the main issue here is that, at this point in history, the internet was… wild,
To put it lightly. Carly was known to spend a lot of time on a website called ratemybody.com. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this site, well, it’s pretty much exactly what you would think. People post photos of themselves and anonymous users rate that person’s body.
The big problem with this website is that, as we’ve already established, there were virtually no safeguards in place. The website prided itself on anonymity, and that means there was no way of knowing if the images you were looking at even belonged to the person who
Uploaded them. Worse yet, considering this website was often visited by teenagers… Well, I think you get the picture I’m painting here. This was not a safe website, and it was a major hotspot for older men who had some rather nefarious intentions. Thankfully, this website has since been shut down.
Carly has often been described as a “scene girl”. This is a bit of a vague term that most often refers to teens or young adults who are super interested in the gothic, punk lifestyle. These would’ve been the kids listening to bands such as Black Veil Brides,
Asking Alexandria, Escape the Fate, all while reading Twilight or something similar. Wearing all black from head to toe, black hoodies, black headphones, so on and so forth. And don’t think I’m saying this in a judgey or joke kind of way – I was one of those kids too. Heck, I still listen
To all those bands. Dying Is Your Latest Fashion is one of the greatest punk albums of all time. For Carly, this group of people and this lifestyle is what gave her a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging. She was known for being pretty active on the website vampirefreaks.com,
Which was another goth or emo website and store. But most of all, she would spend hours upon hours on MySpace. Her profile was pretty much everything you’d imagine it to be. It was full of gothic selfies, heaps of makeup,
Links to all of her favorite online forums, quotes from her favorite books – typical MySpace stuff. By sharing her interest in this genre of entertainment, Carly was able to make dozens of online friends. But there was one friend in particular who really caught Carly’s interest.
An 18-year-old named Brandon Kane. Brandon was a young musician who was born in Texas, but had recently moved to Brisbane, Australia – the total opposite side of the country from Carly. The two immediately became friends as soon as they met. They liked all the same bands,
Had all the same interests, it was almost like they were meant to be. Before too long, their friendship grew into something more. Carly began to share stories of her new online friend with her real life friends. It wasn’t too long after this that
Carly stopped referring to him as simply a friend, as he was now considered her boyfriend. All of Carly’s closest friends knew about Brandon, and Sonya knew about him too. It seems that, in the early days of their relationship, Sonya was happy that her daughter had met
Someone that she could be so open with. Even though Brandon was a few years older, Sonya didn’t find this too terribly concerning. She mentioned that she would look over Carly’s shoulder from time to time to see what the two were chatting about,
But she never noticed anything suspicious or anything that concerned her in any way. Before long, the two started video chatting with one another and, by all means, Brandon appeared to be the guy he claimed to be. Carly couldn’t have been happier. Even though her
Boyfriend lived over 20 hours away, she was just ecstatic to have someone she could be so close with. But it didn’t take long before things started to get… well, a little bit unusual. Brandon Kane Brandon was quickly becoming the main focus of Carly’s life. Whatever the two were up to,
The other person was immediately informed about it – they shared everything with one another. What I found particularly fascinating is that, as we all know, most teenage relationships don’t last too terribly long, especially online relationships. But Carly and Brandon managed to keep their
Relationship going for more than 18 months even though they’d never even met in person. After they’d been chatting for about a year or so, Brandon wanted to introduce Carly to his father, Shane, and he did this over a video call. As time rolled on, Carly started talking about Shane more
And more frequently. In fact, it didn’t take long before Carly was talking about Shane just as much as she was talking about Brandon. This is when Sonya started to get a little bit concerned. She asked Carly why she suddenly had such an interest in Shane,
And she explained that Brandon and Shane were incredibly close – much like Sonya and Carly were. Sonya reminded Carly to be careful, and Carly made it very clear that if anything started to get weird or uncomfortable, she’d tell her mother right away. For Sonya,
This was enough to calm her fears, so she dropped it and let it be. Sonya would later learn that Shane had a job as a security guard, and this job caused him to travel for work events every so often. In February of 2007, he was traveling across Australia for one of
These events, and on his way home to Brisbane, he offered to stop by Carly and Sonya’s home to drop off a few birthday gifts that he and Brandon had purchased for Carly the previous month. At first, Sonya thought this was a little bit strange. But when Shane showed up at the
Family’s home, he was wearing his security guard outfit, so his story seemed to check out. Shane seemed to be exactly the man he claimed to be. He was clean cut, professional, and nothing seemed unusual about him. In fact, Carly and Sonya felt so safe around him that they offered to
Let him spend the night at their home, inviting him to Carly’s birthday party the following day. But while Shane was in town, he offered to take Carly shopping. Now this, in my book, is definitely a bit strange. What would a 50-year-old man be doing taking a teenage girl shopping?
Even if he was the father of her boyfriend, this seems a bit strange, considering the two had only just met, and there’s been no indication that Carly’s mother was present during their trip. But the following day, at Carly’s birthday party, that’s when things really started to get bizarre. The Birthday Party
When Shane showed up at Carly’s birthday party, it was immediately clear that something strange was happening. When Carly’s friends and family members started showing up, Shane started to get visibly uncomfortable. There wasn’t any particular moment that you could point to and say, “See that? That’s weird.” But Sonya started to notice that Shane,
For lack of a better word, seemed possessive over Carly. It seemed almost as if Shane and Carly were glued at the hip. He didn’t let her wander off too terribly far, and he hung around Carly throughout the entire party,
Rarely ever speaking to anyone other than her for more than a few simple sentences. But the following morning, that’s when things really started to get weird. As Sonya passed by Carly’s bedroom, she noticed that Shane and Carly were lying
On Carly’s bed. In one report, it was claimed that Shane was actually lying on top of Carly, and Carly was clearly uncomfortable. Sonya immediately sprang into action and told Shane that he needed to leave immediately. It doesn’t seem like he put
Up too much of a fight either – he knew he’d been caught. He grabbed his things and left. As soon as he was gone, Carly revealed that he’d made a few passes at her, but that she had
Repeatedly rejected his advances, insisting that she was in love with his son, not him. Carly then told her mother about the birthday presents that Shane had shown up with. Now, because of YouTube’s terms of service, I can’t really explain the full extent of these gifts. But let me just say, one of
Them was an… outfit, that no 50-year-old man had any business gifting to the girlfriend of his son. This was the moment that Sonya truly understood what was happening here. She made all the right moves in the coming days, taking away Carly’s access to social media,
Banning her from using her cell phone, keeping a much closer eye on her online activity, and calling Shane and telling him that he was never allowed to speak to her daughter again or she’d report him to the police. Mind you, this may all sound a bit harsh,
But this wasn’t done as a way to punish Carly in any way – this was all done in a bid to keep Carly safe – and based on Sonya’s statements since then, it seems that she likely did a good job
Explaining this to Carly. It’s awful that Carly lost so many of her freedoms because of this guy, but when it comes to the safety of your child, all bets are off. You do what you have to do.
But the problem is that, well, we’ve all been teenagers at some point. We all know that, regardless of what your parents do, regardless of what they tell you, if you want to do something, you’ll find a way to do it, and Carly wasn’t willing to let Brandon go. She admitted that what
Happened with Shane was pretty insane, but Brandon wasn’t to blame. No sooner than her mother forbade her from speaking with Brandon, Carly was right back up to her old antics, speaking to Brandon every chance she could get. Only this time, she was keeping it a secret. Her mother had no idea.
A few weeks passed by and it was February 19th, 2007 when Carly told her mother that she was going to be spending the night out with a group of her friends. She got dressed up in her best outfit,
Then headed for the front door. But strangely, Sonya says that, it was at this moment, that Carly’s behavior began to change. She turned to her mother and asked her for a hug, then another, then another, and another. It was almost as if she was afraid to leave. Her
Demeanor had changed without any rhyme or reason. Sonya didn’t really know what this was all about, but what kind of mother would turn away hugs from her daughter? Carly’s last words to her mother before she left were simply, “Love you, mom.” The door closed, and Carly was never seen again. The Crime
Carly never returned home from her outing with her friends that evening. When she still hadn’t shown up by the following morning, Sonya knew something had gone terribly wrong, and that’s when she called the police to report her daughter missing – every
Parents worst nightmare. But for Sonya, her nightmare was about to get far, far worse. Sonya would be subjected to something that no parent should ever have to face. As she was pacing around the home, pleading for some sort of news about her doctor,
She heard a knock at the door, followed by two police officers with sullen expressions. As we all know, this never means anything good. Carly had been found, but not the way her mother had hoped. Investigators revealed that, early that morning, detectives had come across a victim who’d been floating in Horseshoe Bay.
The victim was identified as Carly Ryan. When she was taken in for further forensic analysis, it was determined that Carly had endured at least 19 injuries before she lost her life, each of which was more haunting, heinous and heartbreaking than the last.
Security cameras and witness reports would soon reveal that Carly was last seen on the beach in the Horseshoe Bay area at around 9:30 the previous evening. She was in the company of what appeared to be two men, but it would later come to light that this had
Been one man and a teenage boy. They had arrived in the area in a blue vehicle, and it was this vehicle description that was used to track them down later on. As it would turn out, the two males who were seen in the CCTV security footage
Were none other than Shane and Brandon… except, that’s not entirely true. See, that’s because Shane and Brandon… they didn’t exist. …To Catch a Predator 11 days after Carly was discovered in Horseshoe Bay, police closed in on Garry Francis Newman as well as his teenage son. His teenage son has never been named,
Due to laws in Australia that prevent the names of young offenders from being revealed. It would quickly become clear that Garry was, in fact, both Shane and Brandon. He’d created an alter-ego online to lure teenage girls and cause them to fall in love with him,
Faking interest in everything they loved and stalking them both online and in the real world. What makes this situation so much worse is that Garry had either convinced or forced his teenage son to play a part in the scheme as well. Considering there’s
Virtually zero information available about Garry’s son, we don’t know if he was a willing accomplice or if he was just as much a victim as Carly was. Basically, Garry was the one who was chatting with Carly for more than a year online. But anytime he needed
To schedule a video call with Carly, he would ask his son to step in to make things seem more realistic. All the photos that had been shared between the two were also of his son. When Shane – of Garry – was forced to leave Carly’s home after being
Caught lying in her bed, he was understandably upset. After all, he’d been concocting this plan for more than a year and a half, and in the blink of an eye, it was all over. But he couldn’t let this be the end. He needed to see Carly one final time,
And this time, he would bring his teenage son along to help finish the job. Carly was lured out of her home that evening under the promise of finally being able to meet her online boyfriend in person for the first time. She lied
To her mother and explained that she’d be going out with friends, but in reality, she was due to hang out with her boyfriend… or so she thought. The thing is, Carly knew that something was fishy about this situation. She had seen all the red flags,
Her mother had warned her about both Shane and Brandon, but she chose to risk it all anyway. We know that Carly knew about the potential dangers because of how apprehensive she was to leave her home that evening. Her mother knew something was a bit off too,
But considering Carly lied about her intentions that evening, there was little her mother could do – she was blissfully unaware of the level of danger her daughter was about to put herself in. Now don’t think for one second that I’m blaming this on Carly,
She was never anything more than a victim of this awful, heartless monster. I merely bring up the fact that she ignored all of the obvious signs of danger, as a warning to parents – or teenagers – that, when your gut tells you something is unsafe,
It’s probably because it’s unsafe. If you smell smoke, there’s probably a fire. We’ve been given the gift of gut-feelings for a reason, and you should pretty much always trust them. But, if you could imagine, this story is about to get a whole lot worse. If you remember,
It was nearly two weeks after Carly was found in Horseshoe Bay that Garry’s home was finally raided by the police. When detectives showed up at his home, Garry was actually in the middle of chatting up another teenage girl online. When his home was searched and investigators
Combed through every square inch of the place, they found a notebook that had documented at least 200 different aliases that Garry had been using online. From what I can tell, he used this notebook to help keep his stories straight so that his victims wouldn’t see right
Through his charade. Brandon and Shane had been just two of his names – less than 1% of his total list of characters. In this notebook, investigators found names, ages, occupations, interests, everything that related to each and every one of these characters he had created.
If you consider that Garry used 2 aliases when speaking with Carly, that means that he could’ve had another 100 victims, assuming he pulled the whole father and son card for each one of them. In reality, this number of victims could be substantially higher – there’s just no way to know for sure.
This notebook was also a gold mine for investigators because it even documented usernames and passwords for each of his fake online profiles, giving them every last piece of evidence they needed to get this man behind bars. But we have to remember that… putting someone behind bars does little to help calm the pain
Of the family who are now left with one less person at the dinner table each night. Worse yet, in Sonya’s case, she’s now left with no one at her dinner table each night. Sonya’s world ended the day that she lost her daughter. Her purpose,
Her goals, her ambitions, they’re gone, and she can never get them back. Thankfully, Garry was sentenced to life in prison. Unfortunately, he will still be eligible for parole after 29 years, but considering he was 50 when
This crime took place, the man will likely be 80 before he ever has the slightest chance of seeing natural sunlight again – though we can all hope that this day never comes for Garry. In the wake of Garry’s sentencing, Garry’s ex-wife came out and explained why the two
Had gotten divorced many years before this. She explained that Garry had been shockingly aggressive toward her, assaulting her multiple times, forcing her against her will on many occasions. When he then turned his attention to his own teenage daughter,
That’s when she knew that she needed to get herself and their three children out of there. Unfortunately, this wasn’t even a wake up call for Garry. He would later adopt a son of his own – the one he would use in his online schemes – and he simply repeated
The cycle. After all was said and done, Garry’s son was cleared of all charges, which pretty much secures the idea that his son was likely just as much of a victim as Carly was. In the aftermath of such a tragedy, Sonya felt that she needed to do something,
Anything to help parents whose children may end up in similar situations. This led her to form the Carly Ryan Foundation, a foundation that offers certified online safety programs and conducts regular seminars to help educate children and parents about the dangers of online predators.
If this wasn’t enough, Sonya also helped to establish Carly’s law – an Australian law that allows prosecutors to both charge and convict online predators before they ever lay a hand on a child. They can do this by establishing intent based on chat logs, as well
As convict an adult who misrepresents their age to a minor. This law has already saved so many lives, and Sonya was the driving force behind this law every step of the way. If not for her, there’s no telling how many other children may have ended up just like Carly.
If you are a parent, or even if you’re a teenager, I would strongly urge you to visit carlyryanfoundation.com to better understand everything that the foundation has to offer. The resources page has heaps of valuable information that’s been updated for modern times to help
Keep kids safe on more modern platforms, such as Roblox, Fortnite, and the various other online social media or gaming platforms that are predominantly aimed towards children. There’s nothing that any of us can do to bring Carly back, but if Sonya has it her way, every
Child across the globe will become better educated about internet safety so that stories like this, will one day, be a thing of the past. No one should ever have to go through what Carly
And Sonya dealt with – and it’s our job – you and me – it’s our job to keep these kids safe. — Thank you guys for tuning into another episode of True Crime Stories. If you enjoyed this video, check out this other interesting case I covered – and don’t forget to subscribe.
It’s totally free and keeps you up to date with all my future videos. You can also click that ‘JOIN’ button below to support the channel and see new videos long before everyone else does. But my name is Ty Notts, and I’ll catch you guys in the next one.
42 Comments
First here I feel special thank you TY Notts for an upload❤
Thank you Sonia & Carly 💕
I have a 10 & 15 year old daughters & 7 years old son.
I will definitely be making this a priority to show them how important it is to keep safe ♥️
Wow, as an Australian I hadn't heard of this case! Thanks Ty for bringing it to our attention. So tragic and sad.😢❤
I think it's worth remembering that your teenage boys are just as vulnerable as teenage girls. Make sure that they are aware of this – many of them aren't.
Blows my mind that a teenage girl could be so nieve and just totally trust a man she doesn't know. How does any girl not know what men are after and they need to be on their gaurd always. Sad but true. This should have never happened. I feel so bad for the mother who tried so hard to teach her child, who was just so selfish and dumb.
Always trust your gut! No matter your age, a woman KNOWS. And they KNOW they know!
Thank You Ty Notts 🇮🇪💚
loving that shirt ty.
You have a great narrative voice. I really like your channel 🏴
WTF is with the background music??? Entirely too loud.
What a perverted psycho.
Great cover of this case Ty – thank you. I hope it helps many people.
I think all those extra hugs may have been because Carley felt a little guilt mixed with excitement that she was finally meeting this boy she had been connecting with for so long but was telling a fib to her mum about where she actually was going to be .
It’s so sad & sickening that such monsters exist.
This is an absolutely beautiful beach & surrounding areas …….it is always PACKED with visitors, tourists, locals ……it’s just a beautiful place ………but going to Horseshoe Bay does always remind me of Carley 😢
Poor young lass………
💚🙏
I'm pretty sure the fellas in jail will make sure Gary doesn't see much daylight after his sentence
The mother whose very idiot, more than Kathy, supost be conddned too, for imbécil y cumplice. Well, is a perfect blonde RIP
Love your videos. Sad but true. 😢
My son's mother has still not returned my son since November 25th. Somebody on East Coast Florida that's reading this help me please I'm losing faith I'm losing hope and I can't keep crying everyday
how about the telecoms- did they not know this guy was doing identity theft and had a violent plan? One thing that is scary is how Australia along with many other nations including the USA is a "19 hijacker"nation- they official support the ludicrous 19-hijacker fraud explanation of 9/11- so its going to be a long long time until the public sees their first d2bw window. Note that the prevailing voice in Carly's head had her going out the door and believing the lies the guy told- hook line and sinked her
As a parent, a 50 year old stranger WOULD NOT BE STAYING IN MY HOME!
❤❤❤❤❤
Most of will understand
Won't understand
All Ty-fans and followers of other top presented, well researched, and personally narrated channels like this one: Please spare a thought of support for Disturban who got demonetised due to YT's poor treatment of genuine, hardworking creators.
Omg on behalf of Australia thank you Ty for making sure the world hasn't forgotten poor Carly and her devasting story. RIP.❤
He’s sick…..but she needs to own the F up to her part in this too. She wasn’t abducted…she went willingly, she could’ve told someone/anyone on any one of those days, but she lied and manipulated.
Good work, team 👍🏿
Hey Ty ❤
The fact that he adopted that boy makes me sick, like that was his sole purpose 🤢
I remember this story.
I think after the Father showed up at the house that would've been it.
I thought someone had said the Mother had let him stay at the house. IF so, that's EXTREMELY odd. Could be a rumor though.
I watch a lot of horror & true crime.
IMO, NOTHING is more terrifying than another human and what they are capable of inflicting on another.
What happened to compassion and loving your fellow man.
I know computers/video games don't cause crimes but, I think it can cause some to grow up living a "virtual" life and being so uses to seeing gore it doesn't affect them like past generations that didn't grow up the same. Plus, FAR too many absent parents these days doesn't help either.
At least she had a Mother who loved her unconditionally, even though she couldn't protect her in the end.
Hopefully other parents learn from tragic cases like this.
I would NEVER date someone I met online. Face to face, knowing someone, etc..are very important.
Hope you are well Ty.
Take Care/Stay Safe ✌
Thank you Ty. ❤ from Australia
I like the way you covered what her mom was doing to prevent this from happening to others. I love true crime channels. But sometimes I feel like the people who lost there lives and there love ones deserve more from these channels. Great Job on humanizing them and giving them a voice for the victims and family.
😢 I feel so much pain for Carly's mom. My daughter had done so many scary things as a teenager and she definitely scared the life out of me with her off the wall behaviors. I just can't help but think how grateful I am that she didn't have this happen to her. Sounds like Carly was a very good teenager where my teen took risks all to often. My deepest condolences go out to her mom. I'm so glad she was able to deal with her grief in such an amazing way because I don't think I would have been that strong. God bless. 🙏❤️😢💕
A lot of young girls have weak boundaries. I should know I was one and there but for the grace of God go I
Many of us grew up in the advent of the internet and social media. I’m sorry, but to live a safe and happy life you need to have a good head on your shoulders. The mother and daughter clearly did not.
Letting a 50 year old man you’ve never met from the internet hang out with your teenage daughter, stay the night, and let him be alone and writhe on top of her in your home? That’s borderline negligence honestly
Unfortunately even parent's intuitions cannot always save your Children that have been groomed online for months. As parent's I constantly tell my teen son and his friends you Stay together on nights out, You Don't ever meet up with Strangers especially ones that some how invite themselves into your friends group chats etc… The internet obviously has come along way but still alot more needs to be done to help safeguard Children from Predators.
Hi Ty Notts!! I’ve seen another video on this case. Still so sad.
Great videos I’m so glad I found your channel 👏🏼 keep up the great work!
Rest in peace Carly 🙏
Thanks for sharing this. I've been a teen girl and can imagine this happening so easily. Feel so bad for her mother as well.
Dude looks like he lives in mums basement an plays online games 24/7 just sayn wot ur thinkn😅
Thai Knotts
The lengths some guys will go to for some teen p__ 🙁