Anna Svidersky
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Anna Esther Svidersky (April 26, 1988 – April 20, 2006) was a teenager who lived in the U.S. city of
Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...
. She was murdered while working in a
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
restaurant, by David Barton Sullivan, a
schizophrenic Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...
twice-convicted
sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a Sex and the law, sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convi ...
. News of her death quickly spread worldwide, initially through the Internet friends site
MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
, where she had a personal page, and then through other similar sites. The widespread expression of grief over Anna's death by strangers around the world was compared by ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' newspaper in Britain to that seen after
Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, ...
' death.


Background

Anna Svidersky was born in Russia. Her family came from Novoorenburg, a small city near the border of
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
and about 900 miles southeast of Moscow. They moved to
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
before her second birthday. She had one older brother and two younger sisters. In 2001, her mother, Esther, moved with the children to Vancouver, Washington, where she has relatives, after a divorce from Andrew Svidersky. Svidersky was a student at Fort Vancouver High School in Vancouver and worked at the Andresen Road
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
. She had intended to go to college after her senior year, and was due to graduate in June. The year before her death, she worked up to three different jobs at a time, in addition to her school studies.


Death

David Barton Sullivan, who had previously been convicted twice of sex crimes, left his home on the day of the murder with the intention of "hurting a female", and according to police, did not know Anna Svidersky. He entered the Andresen Road McDonald's at around 8 pm and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. Sullivan was captured soon after the attack. He had discarded the knife he used, but was still covered in blood when discovered. He was charged with first-degree murder, but on June 26, 2007, he was acquitted by reason of insanity and was committed indefinitely to a mental hospital.


Aftermath

The murder dominated the news in her home town. A dedicated page put up on
MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
by Svidersky's friends received 1,200 posts in three days. Internet users on other sites such as
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
also posted tributes. The McDonald's restaurant where she worked in Vancouver held a fund-raising day for her family, trying to raise $15,000, but actually achieved nearly $85,000, as of April 28, 2006, and finally ran out of food. McDonald's Corp. matched $1.50 per dollar and other local McDonald's franchises 25 cents per dollar. The news of Svidersky's murder spread worldwide within days through internet sites, creating a phenomenon of collective grief from users, the great majority of whom were complete strangers to her. In Britain, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' newspaper compared the widespread expression of grief by strangers to that seen after the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, ...
. The paper cited the 2004
CIVITAS In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by Roman law, law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilitie ...
think-tank, which described such grief as "
mourning sickness Mourning sickness is a collective emotional condition of "recreational grieving" by individuals in the wake of celebrity deaths and other public traumas. Such traumas may be linked to hyper-attentive, intrusive, and voyeuristic media coverage, wh ...
", related to people's own emotional needs, rather than any real rapport with the deceased. ''
De Volkskrant ''De Volkskrant'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium- ...
'' likened the mass mourning to that which followed the death of Dutch singer,
André Hazes André Gerardus Hazes (30 June 1951 – 23 September 2004) was a Dutch singer and actor. As an accomplished levenslied singer, Hazes recorded 36 studio and live albums, and 55 singles prior to his death in 2004. His music is still well-known in ...
, and also pointed to existing personal loss as the major cause. Philip Rayner, Senior Lecturer in Media Communications at the
University of Gloucestershire The University of Gloucestershire is a public university based in Gloucestershire, England. It is located over five campuses, three in Cheltenham and two in Gloucester. The university is the successor of a large number of merged, name-changed ...
, saw the reaction to Svidersky's death as pointing to a change of social interactions that had occurred in the previous few years, and in particular the phenomenon of almost immediate global dissemination of information, but that in her case a significant aspect was also "the sense of community and shared emotional response". Richard Watson, in his book ''Future files: the 5 trends that will shape the next 50 years'', discussed "digital immortality" through internet records, and cited Svidersky, whose MySpace page would "remain, potentially forever" as her "digital afterlife". ''
Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' said that Svidersky was famous, albeit posthumously, in a new way—not via traditional media as in the time of
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
, but as with the ''
Star Wars Kid ''Star Wars Kid'' is a viral video made in 2002 by Ghyslain Raza
'' through the web page/blog/video and google hits. A memorial video ''In Memory of Anna Svidersky'' on YouTube, which has now been removed, was viewed more than 3,000,000 times by April 2011, five years after the incident.


References


External links


Anna Svidersky's MySpace pageAnnaSvidersky.net – online condolence book
*Adams, Kelly

''Columbian''. April 21, 2006. (Article reproduced on McMurder site, archived)
Academic study
{{DEFAULTSORT:Svidersky, Anna 2006 deaths 2006 in Washington (state) 2006 murders in the United States April 2006 crimes in the United States Deaths by person in Washington (state) Deaths by stabbing in the United States History of Vancouver, Washington Incidents of violence against girls McDonald's people Child murder in Washington (state) Myspace People murdered in Washington (state) Violence against women in Washington (state) Female murder victims