A Skyrim username error involving one missing underscore sent Brandon Klayme, an innocent man from Halifax, Canada, to prison for 18 months. The mistake was small enough to overlook on a screen and serious enough to survive police work, prosecution, a trial and sentencing before anyone caught it.
Klayme was ultimately acquitted after his appeal lawyer reviewed the original request for account information. By then, he had served his entire jail term for crimes the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal said he did not commit.
How did one underscore identify the wrong person?
The investigation began in Dane County, Wisconsin, in 2018 after police recovered 125 sexual messages from the Kik account of a 12-year-old complainant. The account investigators wanted was named “fus__ro_dah,” with two underscores after “fus.”
The name referenced “Fus Ro Dah,” the well-known Dragon Shout from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. But when police sent a subpoena to Kik, they requested information for “fus_ro_dah,” using only one underscore.
That second username belonged to Klayme. Kik responded with details linked to his account, including his email address, and investigators followed that information to Nova Scotia.
Halifax police searched Klayme’s home in February 2020 and seized phones and laptops. Yet the devices contained none of the conversations or images found on the Wisconsin child’s phone. Investigators also could not establish that Klayme had used Kik during the relevant period, from August through December 2018.
The lack of supporting evidence did not stop the case. Apparently, one incorrect character had already acquired more authority than the devices sitting in front of investigators.
Why was Brandon Klayme convicted anyway?
Klayme’s case went to trial in April 2023. He was convicted of child luring, providing sexually explicit material to a minor and possessing child pornography.
He received an 18-month prison sentence in 2024 and served it in full. He was also given 18 months of probation, which remained in place while his appeal proceeded.
The failure was broader than the original Wisconsin subpoena. The incorrect account information was relied upon in turn by investigators in Wisconsin, Halifax police, prosecutors, defence counsel and the trial court. Meanwhile, the most direct potential check, the evidence extracted from Klayme’s own electronics, did not connect him to the messages.
The correct username information was available during the trial, according to the appeal court. However, the record offered no explanation for why the extra underscore was never noticed or brought to the trial judge’s attention.
That makes the case more than an unusual typo story. It shows how an early technical error can harden into an accepted fact when each institution assumes someone earlier in the process verified it.
What finally overturned the convictions?
Lawyer Zeb Brown discovered the discrepancy while preparing Klayme’s appeal, which had been pending since at least October 2024. Brown compared the username in the original evidence with the one listed in the subpoena and found the missing underscore.
Klayme later described it as “a subtle mistake that changed the course of my life.” He explained that police had sought records for “fus_ro_dah” instead of “fus__ro_dah,” and that the discrepancy had gone unnoticed throughout his trial.
A correct request for the double-underscore account would have pointed investigators elsewhere. According to the appeal record, it identified a person named Jay whose internet protocol address appeared to be in California.
After the error came to light, prosecutors agreed that Klayme’s appeal should be allowed. On July 23, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned all three convictions and entered acquittals. The ruling also ended the remaining probation order.
The appeal panel was unusually direct: “Mr. Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted.”
No credible reporting has identified an update concerning the California account holder or any further investigative action in Wisconsin.
Could Klayme receive compensation?
No compensation claim, civil lawsuit, disciplinary inquiry or police apology has been publicly announced. That leaves Klayme’s legal vindication clear, but the practical response unresolved.
Canada does not provide an automatic statutory right to compensation for wrongful convictions. Instead, governments rely on nonbinding federal-provincial guidelines adopted in 1988. A person seeking payment may still face a separate and uncertain process, even after a conviction has been erased.
The Court of Appeal’s explicit finding that Klayme was factually innocent could strengthen any future request. It does not, by itself, return the 18 months he spent in custody or require authorities to compensate him.
For Klayme, the emotional stakes are plain. He was searched, charged, convicted and imprisoned despite the absence of the incriminating material on his devices. His acquittal corrects the legal record, but it also arrives after the punishment was completed.
The missing underscore explains how the investigation reached the wrong man. It does not explain why so many safeguards failed to turn back and check.
