Editing Christine Weston Chandler (section)

== History ==

=== Early life ===
Chandler was born in February 1982, in Ruckersville, Virginia to parents Robert and Barbara.

According to a 2004 intake survey done by a doctor at the University of Virginia Health System that Chandler shared with trolls, he was diagnosed with "autism at around age five or six." He attended Manchester High School in Midlothian, Virginia, describing the four years in a 2013 Facebook post as the best days of his life.

In 2000, he created Sonichu for a high school project, a cross between the Pokemon Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonichu has become Chandler's most long-lasting creation, with him making over a dozen comics that he's posted online. For the majority of her time online, Chandler wore a Sonichu medallion around his neck at all times.

While attending Piedmont Virginia Community College in 2003, Chandler chronicled his "Love Quest" in his own online diary, where he carried around a large sign that read "Seeking an 18-21-Year Old Single Female Companion," approaching women and asking for a date. After weeks of holding the sign on campus, the Dean of Students banned Chandler from using it while on school grounds, according to Chandler's edits on the CWCki.

Undeterred, Chandler continued to use the sign and technique at the Charlottesville Fashion Square mall throughout 2004 to no success, according to journal entries from the year. Mall security guards, which Chandler had dubbed "jerkops," banned her from the location without a parent present according to transcripts from his diary. After the ban, Chandler moved his "Love Quest" online, inviting trolls into his life.

=== Sonichu and attracting the interest of trolls ===
In 2004, Chandler created his own Sonichu website where he started posting comics of the character. The work went relatively unnoticed until 2007, when a forum user on the Something Awful forum posted about how they had seen Chandler's sign and started to dig into his online persona. Soon, other forums like 4chan picked up on Chandler and started to dig into his history.

One of these users created a page on Encyclopedia Dramatica, a hate-website dedicated to NSFW trolling, that quickly became the most popular page on the platform. It featured unauthorized pictures and conversations about him and in a 2007 email, Chandler described his discovery of this site as the "worst weekend" of my life.

In response, Chandler updated the page himself, calling it "information overload" and eventually posting five nude drawings. The interaction just encouraged the trolls to try to get a response out of Chandler, which sometimes worked.

For the next decade, trolls pretending to be girlfriends would encourage Chandler to do and share videos of inappropriate content.

=== Death of his father and house burning down ===
In 2011, Chandler's father Robert died of heart failure, devastating him. Another life-changing event would happen in 2014, when an extension cord fire burnt down the Chandler family home, Chandler would post about the fire on Facebook, sharing that he "lost our home and our memories." A CBS 19 report said that the house fire started around 3 a.m. and that it started in a first-floor bathroom.

Financial burdens stemming from the house fire and debt accrued after the passing of Robert, as well as legal fees from the assault trial(see Other Arrests), caused Chandler to have to sell off belongings and create sculptures, comics, and art to be bought by fans on Patreon, eBay, and Etsy.

=== Claiming that fictional universes are real ===
Throughout this period, trolls continued to fester in Chandler's life. Chandler has said in videos and on Twitter that fictional universes are real and can be reached through a "dimensional merge."

Over the past three years, Chandler has continued pushing the idea of the "dimensional merge" on his social media. In November 2020, Chandler posted a video on his CWCVilleGuardian YouTube channel, saying that "portals have been appearing between worlds, causing dimensions to collide." He states that the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters are a sign that all life on earth will be "extinguished" when the dimension of Sonichu characters collides into our reality. He also says in the video that six months ago he "merged" with Sonichu, shares a body with the character and has "every power you can think of in this dimension and then some, no exceptions." He has stated that he is in a "polyamarous relationship" with fictional characters from his own Sonichu world, as well as the Pokemon Mewtwo.

=== Arrest for charges of incest ===
On July 30, a call and texts were shared on the Kiwi Farms forum, of someone purported to be Chandler saying that he had had a sexual relationship with his mother Barbara. The texts showed Chandler molesting his mother after Barbara said no and performing oral sex on her after telling his friend Barbara was getting used to being touched by Chandler. The call quickly spread throughout social media, with users disgusted by Chandler's actions. 

On August 1, Chandler was arrested at a hotel in Richmond on charges of incest, with the arrest being live-streamed on YouTube.<ref>[https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/a-timeline-of-chris-chanaposs-incest-charge-and-the-yearslong-online-troll-interest-in-the-apossonichuapos-creatoraposs-relationship-with-her-mother/slidelist/85054017.cms A timeline of Chris Chan's incest charge and the yearslong online troll interest in the 'Sonichu' creator's relationship with her mother], ''Business Insider India''</ref> On Wednesday, Chandler was transferred to the Central Virginia Jail from Henrico County where he was being held. On Monday, the Henrico jail confirmed he was being held without bail and no court date had been established. It was reported that he was detained in the women's jail, however this was later determined to be false. On August 6, Chandler appeared in court, he requested that he be allowed to pick up his personal belongings, and upon being refused, angrily stamped his feet, claiming he would not feel safe without them. Chandler will be held without bond until his next court hearing, following grand jury hearings to determine felony charges. Starting from September 19, Chandler would begin to write letters from jail; One thing that remains consistent about all four of them is that he believes himself to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He also claimed in one of the letters that he was curing his mother from all her "past sins and regrets" by committing incest with her. Chandler even states in multiple letters that he will be released soon, when this is clearly unlikely at this point since he continues to be held without bail.  

In February 2022 Chandler was transferred to Western State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Staunton, Virginia and returned to CVRJ in May. He had been transferred there to be restored to competency so he could stand trial or plead guilty. While there, he had some sort of outburst and had to be restrained, which he compared to a similar incident from elementary school (even claiming in a letter that it gave him PTSD to that incident).

Following this stay, Chandler claimed in another letter that he had not committed the acts of which he was accused.  Many have suggested that this may make it impossible for him to plead guilty, forcing the prosecution to bring the case to trial. As of July 2022, the case has been sent to a grand jury, possibly confirming this theory.