Dawn Brancheau: Real Story of SeaWorld Trainer Killed by Orca Killer Whale
However, there was a real marine trainer who died after an attack by an orca at SeaWorld. Her name was Dawn Brancheau. There does not appear to really be a trainer named Jessica Radcliffe. What happened to Brancheau, though, is just as horrific as the fake video, which circulated widely on social media in August 2025.
Dawn Brancheau Was Killed by a Killer Orca Named Tilikum
A report from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Commission outlines exactly what happened to Brancheau.
On Feb. 24, 2010, SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau "was interacting with Tilikum, a 29-year-old male killer whale, in a pool at Shamu Stadium," the report says.
"Ms. Brancheau reclined on a platform located just a few inches below the surface of the water. Tilikum was supposed to mimic her behavior by rolling over onto his back. Instead, Tilikum grabbed Ms. Brancheau and pulled her off the platform and into the pool. Ms. Brancheau died as a result of Tilikum's actions," the report says.
Dawn Brancheau's Autopsy Report Says She Died of Drowning & 'Traumatic Injuries'
The autopsy report for Brancheau details her extensive injuries, saying she drowned and died of traumatic injuries, including dislocated extremities, a fractured jaw and other horrific wounds.
It notes that Brancheau was in the pool during the attack for 45 minutes.
Furthermore, it wasn't the first death associated with Tilikum, "a killer whale with known aggressive tendencies and who was involved in the 1991 death of a whale trainer at a marine park in Vancouver, British Columbia," the report says.
A video emerged showing Brancheau interacting with the killer whale before it killed her.
The U.S. government issued three citations against SeaWorld in Orlando as a result of the trainer's death. One of the citations was for allegedly "failing to equip two stairways with standard stair railings on each side of the stairways," the report says.
Two citations accused SeaWorld of "exposing animal trainers to struck-by and drowning hazards when working with killer whales during performances." SeaWorld denied the accusations.
Tilikum Weighed 12,000 Pounds & May Have Grabbed Dawn Brancheau's Ponytail
According to the report, the orca was the park's star attraction and weighed "approximately 12,000 pounds" and was 22 feet long.
SeaWorld "uses a technique called water desensitization, or de-sense, to acclimate the killer whales to the trainers' presence in the pools with them," the report said.
There was some debate about whether the orca grabbed Brancheau by her arm or ponytail.
She performed a "behavior called a layout mimic. She lay on her back, parallel to Tilikum, with her head near his head. Tilikum was supposed to mimic Ms. Brancheau and roll onto his back," the report says. Instead, Tilikum "grabbed Brancheau and pulled her into the pool."
SeaWorld "repeatedly states in its post-hearing brief that Tilikum grabbed Ms. Brancheau by her ponytail. This was not established as a fact at the hearing, and it is in dispute," the report continued. "One witness, spotter John Topoleski, testified he saw Ms. Brancheau get up on her knees and put her hands to her ponytail: 'She could not break free. She had both hands on her ponytail being pulled toward the water,' he said."
Another witness, however, "testified Tilikum grabbed Ms. Brancheau by her arm and not her hair," the report adds.
Trainers ignited a "call-back tone" and slapped the water in an attempt to get Tilikum to stop the attack, but it didn't work.
The whale died in 2017, according to BBC.
Two Other Deaths Were Associated With the Killer Orca
According to the BBC, two other deaths were associated with Tilikum. In the Canadian death in 1991, "Tilikum and two other whales had prevented a trainer from leaving their tank after she fell in," BBC reported.
And, while the whale was at SeaWorld Orlando, a man snuck into the park at night in 1999 and "was found dead alongside the whale the next day," according to BBC.
He died of hypothermia, but it appeared Tilikum "had bitten the man and torn off his trunks," according to BBC.Dawn Brancheau: Real Story of SeaWorld Trainer Killed by Orca Killer Whale first appeared on Men's Journal on Aug 11, 2025
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This includes cases where officers label an allegation as 'unfounded' with little or no subsequent investigation, or they misclassify the incident as a lesser offense. In other instances, officers may fail to file any report at all after interviewing a rape victim. All this may contribute to artificially low statistics in different locations in the U.S., including New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, which have all been highly scrutinized. Journalist Soraya Chemaly, for instance, reported in 2014 that Baltimore had 'a suspicious 80 percent decline' in rape statistics over 15 years starting in 1995 (compared with a 7% reduction nationally during the same period). In his 2014 report, entitled 'How to Lie with Rape Statistics,' Yung noted that the number of jurisdictions that appear to be undercounting had increased by 61% during the time period studied, prompting him to warn about systematically misunderstanding the scope of America's 'hidden rape crisis.' 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A more recent estimate from 2022, published by Utah's Public Health Indicator Based System, found that '27% of rape or sexual assaults were reported to the police in Utah,' which is closer to national reporting rates, which typically range from 21% to 40%, depending on the year. How Utah compares with other states in willingness to report is almost impossible to know, since there is no comprehensive, state-by-state data showing how often rapes are reported to police. National crime surveys simply haven't been designed to provide reliable state-level reporting rates. Furthermore, officials from Utah's Bureau of Criminal Identification told the Deseret News that they 'only receive data on crimes that are reported to law enforcement' and do not have access to any information that would indicate how many rapes go unreported or that reveal broader reporting trends. Wide variation in measuring assault across the nation States vary widely in how accurately they capture data on sexual violence. Ironically, those states that do a better job of reporting may appear worse in FBI statistics simply because they're more comprehensive, diligent and transparent. All this again explains why the FBI has 'strongly discouraged' comparing locations on their crime data — something that happened again last week when national and local media touted new rankings of 'America's Most Dangerous Cities' drawing exclusively on FBI data. Sexual violence data is even more fraught. This is different from suggesting that false reports are commonly being made in a way that inflates sexual violence rates. In fact, professor Julie Valentine, a sexual assault researcher at the University of Utah, told the Deseret News that if she could dispel one myth, it would be the widespread belief that 'there's a lot of false reports of rape.' 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