Family Learns Of Tragedy Over Facebook

SYDNEY – Australian twins Angela and Maryanne Vourlis learned their teenage brother had died in a car crash from reading Facebook, after a police delay in informing the family, a newspaper reported Monday.

The women logged on to the social networking site on Sunday expecting to see birthday messages -- not knowing that their 17-year-old brother Bobby, his friend Chris Naylor, 19, and another teenager had been killed.

Instead, they were baffled and upset by what friends had posted.

"I didn't get it. All these people were writing, 'RIP Chris Naylor' and 'RIP Bobby', and I thought: 'What's going on?'," Angela, who turned 20 on Sunday, told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

The mother rang her local police station to check into the reports and learned that her son was one of three teenagers who died in a crash in Sydney's west in rainy conditions early Sunday.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare to lose a child in a car accident, but to have to hear it on Facebook, then have to chase up the police yourself, is just horrifying," Bobby's uncle Peter Matelis told the newspaper.

Police said a delay occurred in informing the family because they were unable to immediately confirm the identity of the dead teenager.