Ghost of Easterville: Shelly Chartier

Shelly Chartier (born 1985) is an indigenous Canadian woman of the Chemawawin Cree Nation.

Chartier was most well known for her online involvement in a catfishing scandal involving NBA basketball player Chris Andersen and a teenage aspiring model, Paris Dunn.

Early life

Shelly Chartier led an isolated life as a self-proclaimed "hermit" for years, caring for her sick mother inside their small home in the tiny town of Easterville, Manitoba. Chartier obtained only a 6th grade education and had had little to no contact with the outside world, saying “I went through a period where I didn’t leave my house for 11 years” Chartier utilized the internet to facilitate connection and communication but had little real world experience.

Chris Andersen catfishing

When Chartier was 27 in 2012, Paris Dunn, 17, an aspiring actress, commented on a public status posted by NBA player Chris Andersen, 33, leaving her cell phone number. Seeing this, Chartier messaged Dunn as the NBA player and engaged in an online relationship. Chartier proceeded to set up fake social media accounts for Andersen and Dunn, as well as reach out to the real Chris Andersen from the 'Dunn' account.

"Tom Taylor" (another fake account), a fictional friend of Andersen's, was used to facilitate a meeting between the real Andersen and Dunn, in Denver. It is unclear if Chartier is behind this account as she states she is not multiple times. During the in person meeting the 33-year-old NBA player engaged in sexual contact with a then 17-year-old Dunn. The online relationship continued after the meeting but fizzled out. Subsequently, Dunn continued to message the 'Andersen' account and Chartier claims that in an attempt to stop the 'annoyance' the Tom Taylor account was utilized in a blackmail scheme that threatened to release the explicit images Dunn sent, at which point the police were involved. Chartier disclosed in the episode of Catfish: The TV Show based around the case that the "Tom Taylor" profile was never her and was the creation of another participant who the police were aware of.

The nude photographs of the teenager considered child pornography, necessitating an investigation into Andersen. Andersen engaged in an online and in-person relationship with a 17-year-old, as she had given him the impression that she was a legal adult. Although the relationship was initiated through the profile created by Chartier, Andersen and Dunn did have an in-person meeting where the 33-year-old had a sexual encounter with the teenage—who had lied about her age—in an incident Dunn labels as a "kiss" in the Catfish: The TV Show episode where she is continually sympathetic to the adult man. Andersen was not charged with any crimes.

Chartier was arrested on 15 January 2013. Chartier eventually pleaded guilty to various charges of impersonation, extortion and making threats, stating that she was pregnant and told if she pleaded guilty she would get house arrest. Chartier was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and served a year of the sentence including 50 days in solitary confinement. Following the arrest, she would come to be known as the “Ghost of Easterville” and has repeatedly expressed a desire to be allowed to move on with her life after serving her time. Chartier is remorseful for the incident but has not changed her story involving another participant. The incident was called “the biggest catfish [case]... ever solved”.

The case inspired the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Intent". Further, a 2017 episode of Catfish: The TV Show included both Dunn and Chartier. Dunn wrote into the show after Chartier served her sentence in an attempt to reinvigorate attention surrounding the incident, continuing to frame Chartier as a master manipulator. Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier, a 2017 CBC documentary by Shane Belcourt and Lisa Jackson which aired as an episode of CBC Docs POV, has refocused the conversation around the case to center the isolated indigenous woman whom the media portrayed as the villain.

Personal life

In 2014, Chartier married Rob Marku from New York on Christmas Day. A documentary of her life was produced by the CBC in 2017 and she was the subject of Season 6 Episode 12 of Catfish: The TV Show.