Korean couple let baby starve to death while caring for virtual child

[bijou]

Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and his partner Choi Mi-sun, 25, fed their three-month-old baby only on visits home between 12-hour sessions at a neighbourhood internet cafe, where they were raising an avatar daughter in a Second-Life-style game called Prius online, police said.

Leaving their real daughter at their home in a suburb of Seoul to fend for herself, the pair, who were unemployed, spent hours role-playing in the virtual reality game, which allows users to choose a career and friends, granting them offspring as a reward for passing a certain level.
 

The pair became obsessed with nurturing their virtual daughter, called Anima, but neglected their real daughter, who was not named.

Eventually, the couple returned home after one 12-hour session in September to find the child dead and called police. The pair were arrested on Friday after an autopsy showed that the baby died from prolonged malnutrition. ...

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[Chris]

That's sick

[jinxmchue]

"Partner?"  I know nothing of Korean names, but does this denote a gay couple?

[bijou]

"Partner?"  I know nothing of Korean names, but does this denote a gay couple?

It just indicates they are unmarried. The rest of the story makes it clear they are the birth parents of the child.