Reece McKee's online search for mystery girl Katie comes to an end

Boy meets girl

Boy dances with girl

Boy loses girl

Boy decides he loves girl and wants to track her down with the help of Facebook.

Social media right across the world start searching for the girl.

The girl feels stalked and shuts down.

Boy hosts a press conference about the entire situation.

The love story we were all hoping would light up our Christmas hasn’t had the happy ending we wanted.

When New Zealander Reece McKee launched an online appeal to find the mystery woman he danced the streets of Hong Kong with last New years Eve he never expected it to get quite so out of control. He never expected it to go quite so viral.

Across the world it was reported:

From the New Zealand Herald:

 

“Find me,” she said, before slipping away into the dawn of New Year’s Day.

“Yeah, I’ll find you,” he said, before realising all he had to go on was her first name, Katie, and the fact she was from “DC” – presumably Washington.

Reese McKee, 25, is hoping the magic of Christmas and the power of social media will reunite him with the mystery woman he met in Hong Kong last New Year’s Eve.”

Mamamia reported on it last week with a variety of reactions. Some calling him a stalker, some saying it was intriguing and romantic.

His online plea to find his soul mate went viral. All he had was a photo and the briefest of information.

His Facebook event he created said:

 This is a call to arms,

For those with a romantic soul,

Or simply believe in a little magic (and a LOT of luck) around this time of year.

This is a plea for your help from this frequently lost boy.

(Hell if you simply like jumping on board Facebook things I’ll take it! It all helps)

Reece says he fielded calls from media across the world including Good Morning America, the Daily Mail and the Today Show – but after seeing the impact his Facebook plea had he turned them all down.

He admitted he was “a little naive” after the campaign went viral and “Katie” was found by thousands of aspiring romantics, resulting in her pulling down all her social media profiles.

“It turned into a massive ‘let’s stalk every Katie in the DC area’. I was trying to get people to stop that, but with 2000 plus people messaging … it got a bit out of hand,” he told the New Zealand Herald.

Online commentators started criticizing him for stalking – and called for his behavior to be condemned.

Slate blogger Amanda Hess called him ‘creepy’ and cried ‘Run, Katie, Run.’

And it turns out that Katie did indeed run.

She was unearthed living in the US.

Katie was bombarded with so many messages that she deleted every single one of her social media accounts within hours.

‘The Facebook thing was getting out of hand. They were starting to infringe on other people. They tracked down every Katie in the DC area, which is a bit much,’ Reece from Wellington, told the New Zealand Herald.

Reece himself has now gone to ground.

Deleting his Facebook page and the original event.

His romantic search for his mystery girl gone sour.

His Christmas dreams shattered by a horde of online skeptics.

And while we think its probably time for Reece to move on from Katie ( it has been 12 months Reece, ) we do hope that Reece doesn’t give up his search for love.

And when he finds love we look forward to reading about it on Facebook.