Thelma Krull: Facebook 'cyberbullying' angers family

A new Facebook page framed around the disappearance of missing Winnipeg woman Thelma Krull has devolved into "cyberbullying," Krull's family says.

Krull, 57, has been missing since July 11. She went out on a walk from her home in north Transconain the morning and never returned.

The search is ongoing, but police have admitted they are struggling to locate Krull.

Recently, the "Where isThelmaKrull-uncensored"Facebook pageappeared online.People discussKrull'scase on the page, but LisaBesser,Krull'sdaughter, saidcommentersare defaming her family and making the ordeal much worse for them.

"It's just cyberbullying now at this point and I don't know why," said Besser."We've never done anything to these people, we don't even know them, who started up the sites, so it's really sad in that sense.

"You know, you hear about kids getting cyberbullied and this is happening."

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Bessersaid people have postedphotoshoppedimages of Krull andaccusations implicating family members in herdisappearance.

She said shereported the page toFacebook administrators, but they responded saying it doesn't violateprivacy policies.

"Facebookdoesn't allow you to put a comment or reasoning or any information," said Besser. "It's a click of a button saying, 'I want to report this page,'and they come back saying that it's not doing anything with regards to their privacy policy."

The various search efforts in the last two months haverestoredBesser's"faith in people," but the page is starting to get to her.Besser said further criticism on the page leveled at fundraisers associated with search efforts "put a sour taste in [her] mouth."

"We're going through the worst thing we've ever gone through in our whole lives and then we have to worry about this on top of it," said Besser."We don't need extra stress and backlash, and I try to stay away from the site, but people still let me know."

Administrators from the page released a statement Monday claiming to have reached an agreement about what they would or would not allow to be posted.

Bessersaid she has not come to any such agreement with the page's administrators and wants it pulled down immediately.

She has gone to police about the page.

"Unless people are specifically advising of information that might lead us in a wrong direction, then perhaps a public mischief, but for people to put their theories out there and surmise, that's something were not there to police," said Const. Eric Hofley with the Winnipeg Police Service.

CBC contactedFacebook, who said they are looking into the page.

Anyone with information about Krull's whereabouts is asked to call investigators at(204) 986-6508or Crime Stoppers at (204) 786-TIPS (8477).