This post has been updated. See below.

Game developer and tech diversity advocate Brianna Wu has been complaining about the lack of action by a prosecuting attorney in response to a death threat voicemail she said she received. On Tuesday, she posted a copy of the voicemail.

Wu's op-ed article at feminist pop-culture site The Mary Sue raised new questions about whether local or national law enforcement agencies were adequately responding to a wave of anonymous threats she and other women in the game industry have recently faced. The article included a recording of a voicemail left on Wu's personal phone that called her a "little fucking whore" and threatened to "slit [her] throat."

Ars was sent a copy of the voicemail with its originating Columbus, Ohio phone number attached, along with call records indicating that the threat was left on Wu's voicemail on May 12. Wu said that she received more threatening calls from the same number on Wednesday. She has not called the offending number back as per advice from her legal counsel.

In the article, Wu called upon Columbus, Ohio prosecuting attorney Ron O'Brien to issue a subpoena for the name attached to phone records. "If [O'Brien] wished, he could bring criminal charges against this man by the end of the day," she wrote. (We have updated this post with comment from O'Brien's office. See below.) Wu also hinted to a lack of criminal action taken on behalf of other threats she has received—or on behalf of similar threats sent to developer Zoe Quinn and media critic Anita Sarkeesian.

Wu acknowledged that the call may not have originated from Columbus due to all matter of number-masking techniques, telling Ars in an e-mail, "that’s something the DA will be able to determine with a subpoena. I think he just called me from a cell. These people are not CSI-level criminals."

“Radio silence” from the FBI

When asked to clarify whether she had contacted local law enforcement about the alleged voicemail threat, Wu told Ars that she had—"and the FBI," she said. "It’s radio silence from them. There’s a longer story here about my frustration with working with law enforcement. I’m trying to get anyone to bring a case to trial. I have had dozens upon dozens of meetings, phone calls, and visits from multiple law enforcement agencies—including the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, federal prosecutors, state prosecutors, Congress, and local police."

That sentiment echoed a March statement made by Katherine Clark (D.-Mass), Wu's representative in the US House, about a lack of action by the FBI in response to GamerGate-related threats sent across state lines over the Internet. In March, Clark called the FBI's response to her concerns "disappointing," adding, "This is clearly just not one of their priorities. For me as a former prosecutor, it echoed what we would see 20 years ago around domestic violence." This followed a September statement from a San Diego game developer saying she'd been approached by FBI representatives with an offer to discuss matters.

On the same day that Wu's article went live, Zoe Quinn's Crash Override online-abuse support service became an official "trusted safety resource" at Twitter. Since its January launch, CO has been updated with printable guides containing advice and best practices for anyone who has been subjected to doxings and other forms of online harassment and abuse.

[Updated Friday May 22:] Franklin County prosecuting attorney Ron O’Brien responded to Ars late Friday. “We have not received a formal complaint from her of any kind,” O’Brien told Ars in a phone interview. "The appropriate thing that should've been done was contact local police where she lives, let them do an investigation, and they’d contact us or the police here—if indeed the [threatening] call’s been made from here.” (After our phone interview, O'Brien updated Ars via e-mail to confirm he'd finally spoken to Wu later on Friday.)

In a phone interview with Ars, Wu acknowledged O’Brien’s statement as accurate: "We were under the impression we were talking to his office,” claiming that her outside legal counsel had mistakenly contacted the Columbus city attorney's office, instead. Wu eventually made phone contact with the Columbus city attorney’s office on Friday and was satisfied with that conversation. Before Wednesday's op-ed was published, Wu claims her outside legal counsel had e-mailed one FBI agent she had contacted in the past, along with Boston police, but she was unable to reproduce those e-mails for Ars Technica before the holiday weekend. The Columbus city attorney’s office could not confirm to Ars that a case had yet been opened on Wu’s behalf over the alleged death threat phone calls.