Teen boy shoots himself dead after 'sextortion' scam that's every parent's worst nightmare

Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

A Kentucky teen took his own life after being targeted in a cruel 'sextortion' scam that used AI-generated nude images to try to blackmail him.
Elijah Heacock, 16, of Glasgow, was getting ready for bed on February 27 when he received a chilling text demanding $3,000 to keep an AI-generated nude photo of him from being shared with friends and family, KFDA News reported.
Only hours later, his family found him inside their home's laundry room gravely injured by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Despite efforts to save him, Elijah died in the hospital the next day.
It wasn't until the teen was in the hospital that his parents discovered the AI-generated photos on his phone, uncovering the disturbing reality behind his suicide.
The digital evidence revealed that he had fallen victim to a sextortion scam - where criminals target young people online, threatening to release explicit images unless they pay up or comply with potentially harmful demands.
Now, more than three months after the tragedy, Elijah's family is channeling their grief into action - fighting to make it a federal crime to post both real and generated sexually-oriented images of someone online without their consent.
'The people that are after our children are well organized,' Elijah's father, John Burnett, told CBS News. 'They are well financed, and they are relentless.'
'They don't need the photos to be real, they can generate whatever they want, and then they use it to blackmail the child,' he added.
'It's kind of like a bullet in a war. It's not going to win the war. No war is ever won by one bullet. You got to win battles. You got to win fights. And we're in it.'
On the night of February 27, Elijah's mother, Shannon, urged him to get to bed early, reminding him of the district basketball playoff game the next day in their hometown, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Elijah - known to his parents as 'their tornado' for his bold spirit and relentless ambition - seemed excited for the events planned the next day, WLKY reported.
Just before 10:30pm, the teen texted his mother about grabbing coffee before the game the next morning, the WSJ reported.
An hour after Shannon went to sleep, her daughter jolted her awake with gut-wrenching news no mother ever wants to hear.
Elijah was found in the laundry room, bloodied, after shooting himself.
The 16-year-old 'wasn't depressed, he wasn't sad, he wasn't angry,' Burnett told CBS News about his son.
Now, more than three months after the tragedy, Elijah's family is channeling their grief into action - fighting to make it a federal crime to post both real and generated sexually-oriented images of someone online without their consent
The grim truth began to unravel as Elijah's parents searched his phone, ultimately discovering a series of AI-generated nude photographs.
'They started asking Eli for money,' Shannon told KFDA of the blackmailer. 'This person was asking for $3,000.'
'Three-thousand dollars from a child,' she added. 'And now, we're looking at $30,000 to bury our son and medical bills.'
After being alerted to the disturbing images, the Barren County Sheriff's Office arrived at the hospital, where a deputy reviewed its contents firsthand.
In the final hour before Elijah took his own life, he exchanged more than 150 text messages with the person threatening him, the WSJ reported.
If he didn't send the $3,000, the person warned, a fake nude image of him would be sent to friends and family.
It quickly became clear the case needed to be escalated to the FBI.
Elijah's case wasn't a rare occurrence, but rather part of a growing trend in the age of advanced technology and chatbots.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), more than 500,000 sextortion cases targeting minors were reported last year alone.
At least 20 young individuals have taken their own lives since 2021 after falling victim to sextortion scams, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
'You don't actually need any technical skills at this point to create this kind of illegal and harmful material,' Dr. Rebecca Portnoff, head of data science at a non-profit focused on preventing online child exploitation, told CBS News.
In January 2024, 15-year-old David Gonzalez Jr. died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after becoming the target of the sex scam, the WSJ reported.
The Utah teenager was contacted by what appeared to be a teenage girl on the social media app Wizz, and the conversation quickly moved across Instagram, Snapchat and iMessage - continuing throughout the day.
Eventually, one of the perpetrators told the boy they knew where he lived and threatened to release screenshots from a live video call he had participated in with the supposed girl.
Junior didn't have the $200 they demanded - and just hours later, his parents were shattered by the sound of a gunshot from upstairs.
A bill introduced in the Kentucky Senate this year aims to criminalize sexual extortion, set penalties for offenders, and implement measures to tackle the growing problem.
'This is a problem that our young people and others are facing that is devastating,' said Steve Riley, State Representative for Barren County.
'Can you imagine the pain that a parent has to go through in this situation?'
On March 7, Riley spoke about Elijah on the Kentucky House floor, sharing that he had spoken with Shannon following her son's death.
The bill now awaits Governor Andy Beshear's signature to become law.
'We have to do everything as a body and as a state to deal with this situation,' Riley added.
'What kind of lowlife human being would use sexual extortion to devastate another person, both emotionally, mentally, and financially? That's what we're dealing with.'
On a larger scale, the government is stepping up efforts to combat extortion, including the recently passed 'Take It Down' Act - championed by Melania Trump and signed into law by President Trump.
Elijah's parents also fought for the change with hopes that the recently signed measure will make a difference.
The 'Take It Down' Act not only makes sharing fake/real explicit images online without consent a federal charge, but it also requires social media companies to remove the images within 48 hours of the victim's request.