DEAD OF WINTER
They were a couple over 5,500 miles apart and only able to message or video call, but their romance had got serious, very quickly.
William Hargrove was in Albany, Oregon while Anna Repkina lived in Moscow, Russia.
They’d never met in person, but a few months after connecting online, William and Anna were already talking about taking a leap of faith at Christmas so they could make a start on their future together.
It was 2016, and Anna, 27, had fallen hard for William.
She was so smitten that she had agreed to travel to the US to spend the festive season with him, too.
After splitting from her boyfriend of seven years, caring Anna had been looking for love, when she met William, then 26, online on a Russian social networking website.
Anna worked hard in her office job, but she also dreamed of
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