BWBRSA: Sextortion

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Speaker 1 Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Britt.

Speaker 1 And before we jump into today's episode, I just want to take a moment and say a huge thank you.

Speaker 1 Thank you all for the love and support that you have shown us literally since day one and all throughout the last year. It is because of you that we actually got named Apple Podcast top show.

Speaker 1 for the second year in a row, which is honestly just so validating because it continues to show us that our crime junkies just get it. You guys get what we're doing here.

Speaker 1 And the more people who listen to this show means the more awareness and good that we can bring to these cases. So again, a huge thank you to our crime junkies.

Speaker 1 We quite literally couldn't do it without you. And so today I actually have two stories for you.

Speaker 1 both of which are about one rising threat, which you may not have heard of, but you need to know about sextortion.

Speaker 1 And this is one of those episodes that is so important for everyone to hear, no matter your age, your gender, your ethnicity or background. I am not kidding, go grab your kids.
This is one for them.

Speaker 1 Because virtually anyone with internet access is vulnerable. And in the digital age, dangers seem to lurk more in your DMs than in dark alleys.

Speaker 1 These are the stories of Asia Anderson and Walker Montgomery.

Speaker 1 Asia Anderson is halfway through her shift as a host at an Indianapolis restaurant when she gets a Facebook message notification on her phone. And there's nothing strange about that.

Speaker 1 It's September of 2014. Facebook is like the reigning champ of social media.
And 18-year-old Asia has plenty of friends on the site. But this message is anything but ordinary.

Speaker 1 And it's not from one of her friends it's from an account with a cryptic username something like closed door there's no profile picture no personal details nothing but the words that are written send chills down her spine hi asia i have to ask you something kind of important

Speaker 1 how many guys have you sent dirty pics to because

Speaker 1 i have some of you

Speaker 1 Heart racing, Asia rushes to the bathroom and huddles in a stall, just panicking because she had sent a couple of partially clothed photos to someone that she trusted like a year ago.

Speaker 1 But she doesn't see how this closed door person could have gotten them.

Speaker 2 Does she check with whoever she sent them to?

Speaker 1 Oh, immediately. And this dude swears he never shared them and she has no reason to doubt him.
So she tries to think of other possibilities. Maybe his account was hacked.
Maybe hers was.

Speaker 1 Or maybe the anonymous person has her confused with someone else.

Speaker 1 But when this closed door person describes this sticky note that she keeps on the mirror that she posed in front of, that hope flies out the window. Now she is just scared.

Speaker 1 She has no idea who this person is. She assumes it's a guy, so that's what I'm gonna go with, but she's not even sure.
And by the way, he's not sending her just some FYI courtesy message.

Speaker 1 He says that if she doesn't send more explicit images, he is gonna post the ones that he already has everywhere.

Speaker 1 So I want you to just imagine being in Asia's shoes, like fresh out of high school, looking forward to college, future full of promise. And now this anonymous person is threatening to ruin everything.

Speaker 1 Like her fear feels palpable to me, even though I'm a full adult now, all these years later, I can imagine what she's going through. I mean, she is afraid everyone is gonna judge her.

Speaker 1 She's afraid of what her parents are gonna say if they see these pictures. And the weight of that fear pushes her to go along with it.
Plus, this person says she'll only have to send a few pictures.

Speaker 1 Once he's had enough, he will reveal himself and then leave her alone.

Speaker 2 That sounds like bullshit.

Speaker 1 Well, sure, but she figures maybe he will get bored eventually, and then that will be it. And he does get bored, but he doesn't go away.
Instead, this person's demands just grow.

Speaker 1 Soon, photos aren't enough. He wants videos.
And these assignments, as he calls them, are downright torturous.

Speaker 1 I mean, he details step by agonizing step what Asia has to do, when she has to do it, and for how long. And if he's not satisfied with it, she has to redo it.
He's also really unpredictable.

Speaker 1 Like sometimes he bombards her with messages, but then sometimes he just ghosts her and then just reappears out of nowhere to start the whole cycle over again.

Speaker 1 And as Asia told our reporter Nina, he revels in this sick game. I mean, he tells her how much fun he's having and that he's watching her.
He calls her his quote unquote slave and other vile names.

Speaker 1 And he peppers their conversations with racial slurs, constantly threatening to share her images and videos, which she thinks he might be selling.

Speaker 1 And at one point, this guy even threatens to kill her.

Speaker 2 I mean, this has gone so far past just coercion. This is like full-blown psychological warfare.

Speaker 1 It is. And what Asia doesn't realize at the time is how disturbingly common this pattern is.

Speaker 1 These types of sextortionists use their victims' fear and vulnerability to get more sexually explicit content. And the more content they get, the more leverage they have.

Speaker 1 And all the while, I mean, the perpetrator is isolating these victims from their support systems, which makes it even harder for them to resist or to get help. And that is what happens to Asia.

Speaker 1 She hides this from everyone, even her family who she's living with. And every night for her is the same.
Tears, anxiety, and just this feeling of utter isolation.

Speaker 1 Now, if we fast forward to December 2015, she has been dealing with this shadowy tormentor for more than a year,

Speaker 1 but he's been MIA for a couple of months at this point. So she's had a little bit of reprieve and she's taking strides to try and reclaim her life.

Speaker 1 But just when she thinks she's escaped the storm, she is thrust right back into its eye. You see, she recently started a new job at a mall in Plainfield, which is this suburb just outside of Indy.

Speaker 1 And this is like a decent sized town, but it's also a really close-knit town. And everyone, and I do mean everyone there, starts talking about one thing.

Speaker 1 An FBI investigation into an online predator who goes by the name Brian Kill.

Speaker 1 This Brian Kill person had started a campaign of terror centered around a then 16-year-old Plainfield high school girl who we're going to call Maria.

Speaker 1 When he's not posting sexually explicit photos and videos of her, he is lobbying graphic threats to kill and or sexually assault her and pretty much everyone she knows, including all her classmates.

Speaker 1 Oh my God. He says he's going to bomb and shoot up her school and then a neighboring school.

Speaker 1 He promises to wipe out anyone who gets in his way, be it police, first responders, or even school officials.

Speaker 1 He even threatens to bomb and shoot up the mall that Asia works at, which has to be evacuated, and then a nearby Walmart, then a high school, and then the mall again. It is like non-stop.

Speaker 1 And social media at the time is buzzing about this. Brian Kill's racist, sexist, homophobic rants and death threats are screenshotted and then passed around over and over.

Speaker 1 And the more they roll across Asia's screen, the more she realizes these look awfully familiar. I mean, Brian Kill's mannerisms, language, tone, they are identical to Asia's tormentor.

Speaker 1 And so she starts thinking, maybe this is why he went quiet on her.

Speaker 2 Okay, but how terrifying is this? Because it's confirming all her worst fears that if she doesn't comply with her tormentor, he's going to do everything and more that he's threatened.

Speaker 1 i know and even scarier because it's not like he's just sharing these pictures and videos which is something asia was already afraid of but he is doing it and not getting caught because the fbi is struggling to find this guy like it seems this brian person is using really sophisticated methods to hide his identity i mean he's obviously no amateur he knows what he's doing yeah i mean investigators can't even tell what operating system he's using so his posts just keep coming and with that i mean mean, the more Asia sees, the more she is sure it is the same person who's been exploiting her.

Speaker 1 And she's right, because later that month, out of nowhere, her tormentor contacts her again, apologizing for his absence.

Speaker 1 He says that he's just been so darn busy trying to ruin Maria's life that he's barely had time for anything else.

Speaker 1 So he's like openly admitting it, gleefully like fills her in on his recent activities. It turns out that he had started sextorting Maria and Asia around the same time.

Speaker 1 But he tells Asia that Maria's mom had just found out. And I guess the mom had contacted him, which he'd been like fuming about ever since.

Speaker 1 And then she reported him to police, which is exactly what Asia wants to do. But now she's more terrified to do it than ever.

Speaker 2 And she probably feels more alone than ever too.

Speaker 1 She does. And again, like, I can't repeat this enough.
Like, this dude is clearly clearly not just making idle threats. He really is exposing Maria's photos and videos.

Speaker 1 And, you know, she's thinking, who knows what else this guy is really capable of. So she feels like she is almost watching a cautionary tale unfold in real time.

Speaker 2 And probably has the weight of the world on her shoulders since it's not just her that he's victimizing, that he's threatening.

Speaker 1 Right. That's what they do, because at some point, victims do get tired.
They start to realize the pattern. They see that it won't won't end without intervention.

Speaker 1 And at some point, most of them do want to reach out for help. Like at some point, you might be like, I don't care what happens to me.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? But that's when I think they start threatening other people because you're like, okay, I don't care what happens to me.

Speaker 1 My life is like over by this point, but I do care what happens to my sister, my friends, my classmates. So everyone.
in the Indianapolis area is on edge as 2016 rolls around without any arrests.

Speaker 1 And authorities decide that they're going to hold a public forum to answer questions and hopefully reassure people a little bit. But Brian Kill has a different idea in mind.

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Speaker 1 He orders Asia to go to the forum and report back on any updates that the feds give. Basically, be his eyes and ears.

Speaker 1 And she begs him not to send her, but he says it has to be her, that he can't go because he fits the profile of the perpetrator.

Speaker 1 But she doesn't because, quote, no one's going to notice a black girl with an afro, end quote. Oh my God.

Speaker 2 What profile is he talking about? Did the FBI develop something?

Speaker 1 I'm not sure. There's nothing about the feds releasing a profile in any news coverage.
And Nina couldn't find anything about it in all of like the court records that we have.

Speaker 1 We even asked Asia, but she doesn't remember hearing about any profile either. So, I mean, I'm thinking we know this dude is a master manipulator.
So it's probably just more lies. Right.

Speaker 1 So on Tuesday, January 19th, Asia and a thousand other people cram into the high school auditorium for the forum.

Speaker 1 Brian makes her audio record it and take detailed notes about everything, right down to the outfits that people are wearing.

Speaker 1 So when brian starts posting his own commentary about it everyone assumes that he was there among them so were they already thinking that he's local i guess i imagined him like kind of in far-off places pulling these strings like a master puppeteer i don't think again we can't find his servers at this point so no one really knows but the local angle is what he seems to be going with or trying to get people to believe.

Speaker 1 Okay. Because he says that he actually goes to school with Maria.
Oh. Oh.

Speaker 1 In fact, by the time of the forum, police had already raided three homes and brought some Plainfield students in for questioning.

Speaker 1 WTHR's David McInally reports that one of them falsely claimed to be Brian Kill as a quote-unquote joke, which is like the worst joke in history.

Speaker 1 But I think that the prevailing theory at the time is that the guy is local. And Asia's kind of leaning that way too, although she thinks that he's too tech savvy to be a high school student.

Speaker 1 She thinks he's older because the stuff he does is just so over the top. I mean, he's toying with police.

Speaker 1 He's tagging the police even in like posts and offering suggestions on how to step up their game and catch him.

Speaker 1 Like he tells them to hack his system using a controversial tool known as a network investigative technique. And it's like a small piece of code hidden inside a file.

Speaker 1 And once the user opens it, it tracks their real IP address.

Speaker 2 Like he's just going to open a random file someone sends him.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. I mean, again, he's like toying with them, but he even has like a solution or a suggestion for that too.
He recommends that they use Maria as the bait.

Speaker 1 You know, like have her send him something. And then once he opens it, bam, they'll have his real IP address or whatever.
What's interesting is, I mean, I think they were willing to try anything.

Speaker 1 Because according to a piece in Vice Motherboard by Lorenzo Franceschi Bakirai, the FBI does try that, although I don't know exactly when,

Speaker 1 but they can't tailor whatever this code is to his operating system since they don't know what it is. So it doesn't work.

Speaker 1 Now, eventually, things do calm down in Plainfield and Brian, who clearly loves an audience, starts sharing more with Asia.

Speaker 1 And she's listening carefully for any hint that might help her ID this guy, but this dude is cautious. He just likes to brag about his other victims.

Speaker 1 And she learns that he'd actually been doing the same thing to girls on the East Coast, only that time he was using a different online persona. The Purge of Maine was the name he was using.

Speaker 1 And he talks to her about his dream of becoming the worst cyber terrorist that ever lived. And in all of this, Asia actually confides in him too.

Speaker 1 And that might seem odd, but it is actually a common response within an abusive dynamic called trauma bonding. I mean, she has no one else to talk to.

Speaker 1 He is the only person who knows what's really going on in her life, which he has made an absolute living hell. Right.

Speaker 2 I was going to say, what's going on in her life is him.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, it's a vicious cycle.
And that's the other thing that I want listeners to hear, because I think it would be easy for someone to say, well, I sent the pictures.

Speaker 1 I responded to the messages. No one's going to believe me.
but you are still the victim. Asia is the victim.
And this cycle often leaves her feeling hopeless and even wanting to die.

Speaker 1 She thinks that that might be the only way to get away from this guy. But then, just as she's having those thoughts, something changes.

Speaker 1 Brian Kill sets his sights on Asia's little sister, threatening that if Asia doesn't obey him, he is going to target her instead. And that is the motivation Asia needs to keep going.

Speaker 1 She has to protect her sister. Plus, she's worried that he's going to find even more girls to destroy.
So she wants to help stop him. And if that day comes, she wants to be the one to tell her story.

Speaker 1 And that day comes on Monday, August 7th, 2017. That's when authorities announce that they've arrested the man behind Brian Kill, the Purge of Maine, and God knows what other aliases.

Speaker 1 He's 26-year-old Buster J. Hernandez.
And surprise, he lives more than 2,000 miles away from Plainfield, Indiana in Bakersfield, California.

Speaker 2 What's his connection to Indiana?

Speaker 1 He doesn't seem to have one. The U.S.
attorney says he's never even stepped foot in this state.

Speaker 1 That is until he was extradited here on federal charges of threats to use an explosive device, threats to injure, and sexual exploitation of a child. Now, at first, Asia can't believe it.

Speaker 1 I mean, there have been so many false alarms.

Speaker 1 But then she reads an article detailing how Buster made one of his victims, who authorities call victim three, go to the forum because she's a quote unquote black girl with an afro.

Speaker 1 And that's when it hits her. Like, this really is it.

Speaker 1 After nearly three years of pure hell, she is free from this man. So that's when she dials the number for the local FBI office listed in the article.

Speaker 1 And her heart, I mean, as she's making the call, feels like it's going to explode. And when someone answers, she just bursts into tears and the whole story comes pouring out of her.

Speaker 1 It turns out that even though investigators haven't identified most of Buster's victims yet, they actually know who Asia is.

Speaker 2 Then why didn't they contact her?

Speaker 1 Well, it's a really complex situation. So agents knew that catching this guy was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
I I mean, he's essentially built a digital fortress around himself.

Speaker 1 And his victims were all over the map. So, it was a massive nationwide effort.
We're talking wiretaps, surveillance, 100 search warrants, and more than 200 subpoenas.

Speaker 1 But he just kept slipping through their fingers. It wasn't until the spring of 2017 that he finally got sloppy.
And do you want to know what it was that screwed him up?

Speaker 1 A freaking screenshot that he sent to some victims in Maine. So, apparently, the data in it revealed his operating system.
So the FBI decided to try and hack him again.

Speaker 1 And in a totally unprecedented move, Facebook actually helped them do it.

Speaker 1 Because according to that vice motherboard article, people at the company considered him the worst criminal to ever use their platform.

Speaker 1 They literally had a dedicated employee just to track activity from his accounts. So Facebook paid a cybersecurity firm to develop a new hacking tool.
But there was was a catch.

Speaker 1 By the time the FBI had this tool and the legal green light, Buster's operating system was days away from undergoing a routine update.

Speaker 1 So after that, the network investigative technique would be useless and they would be back to square one.

Speaker 1 And the challenge was finding a victim to send this thing to him with like that secret code in the picture or video or whatever. Everyone was scared and some, like Asia, had these trauma bonds.

Speaker 1 So investigators didn't want to approach them prematurely in case someone would tip him off.

Speaker 1 So luckily and just in time, they learned about a young woman in Michigan who he had been terrorizing for years.

Speaker 1 And she was the one to send him the booby trapped file, which he opened, thinking it was the most recent video that he had ordered her to make.

Speaker 1 But it was actually footage of her basically telling him to f ⁇ off. Now he retaliated immediately, but it was too late.
The trap was set.

Speaker 1 The FBI traced the IP address right to Buster's place in Bakersfield, where he lived with his longtime girlfriend and her 85-year-old grandmother.

Speaker 1 And when they did that, that's when they were able to tap his computer. That's when they were able to do some surveillance to really make sure it was him.

Speaker 2 Okay, but it wasn't grandma. We know that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, it's not grandma at the house or the girlfriend who apparently didn't know anything about what he was doing. Although, I also don't think she was very cooperative once the FBI comes in.

Speaker 1 Now, it was on August 3rd that agents made their move, which was something Buster had obviously prepared for, because as they stormed his bedroom, he managed to quickly destroy some evidence.

Speaker 1 But they had gathered a lot to take to trial, a trial that Asia was going to have to be a part of.

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Speaker 1 So as she preps with federal prosecutors, she learns more about the depths of his depravity.

Speaker 1 And he doesn't have a criminal record, but he claims to have pulled off various cyber crimes for years before he started sextorting girls as a so-called game in 2012.

Speaker 1 And he had an extensive victim list.

Speaker 2 How did he even find Asia or Maria for that matter? Like what made him target certain areas?

Speaker 1 Well, this dude was casting a wide net and he actually kept stats to track his success.

Speaker 1 What the f ⁇ ?

Speaker 1 Yeah, he liked to prey on girls or young women who had really bright futures, who cared about their images, their grades, family, friends. That way, they would be more likely to comply.

Speaker 1 And he said he always introduced himself with the same like cut and paste script. And usually, if you remember how he introduced himself to Asia, he's like, I have these pictures of you.

Speaker 1 Usually he didn't actually have any photos of these girls. It was just a bluff.
Yes.

Speaker 1 So if you remember, he convinces Asia he knows about the picture because he talks about a sticky note on her mirror.

Speaker 1 And what she ends up realizing is that he must have just looked at her Facebook and lifted that detail from other pictures.

Speaker 2 Oh my God. So how much time did he spend doing this stuff? I mean, it sounds like more than a full-time job.

Speaker 1 Get this. So investigators say that he put in 12 to 16 hour days.
It is more than a full-time job.

Speaker 1 Now, lots of people never responded to him, but when they did, He essentially held them hostage, sometimes for years with endless mind games and demands.

Speaker 1 And the same as with Asia, he threatened to expose them or to kill them and their loved ones. He even encouraged some to take their own lives.

Speaker 1 And if they resisted him or didn't answer him quickly enough, hell, sometimes if he just got bored, he would share their photos and videos anyway.

Speaker 2 I'm so floored at how much time he was spending doing this. Did he not have like a real job? How do you spend 12 to 16 hours a day just torturing people?

Speaker 1 He was supposed to be taking care of his girlfriend's grandma. Like that was supposed to be the thing he was doing, but it wasn't like a formal job.
Okay.

Speaker 1 And he actually had never been officially employed. So this dude had plenty of time on his hands.
And with that time, he left so much destruction in his wake.

Speaker 1 For Asia, after that initial euphoric relief, she was struggling to cope. She was feeling like her body was a crime scene.

Speaker 1 She was haunted haunted by nightmares that Buster wasn't really arrested and that her phone is still buzzing with his messages. She was anxious and depressed.

Speaker 1 And in August of 2019, after he's arrested and she's dealing with all of this, she again contemplates taking her own life. But thankfully, she was able to get help.

Speaker 1 She ends up going through an intensive mental health treatment program and is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD.

Speaker 1 She joins a support group, she talks to a therapist, meets with a victim advocate, and she becomes an essential piece of the puzzle in the case against Buster Hernandez.

Speaker 1 By early 2020, he is facing 41 charges involving coercion, extortion, threats to kill, kidnap, or injure people in a variety of ways, sexual exploitation of minors, child sex abuse material, and obstruction of justice.

Speaker 1 The government says they know about 100 or so victims who have complied with Buster's demands, but most of them are unidentified. So they are still working to locate others across the globe.

Speaker 2 So what's this guy's defense?

Speaker 1 Well, it's not one you're going to be impressed by. To sum it up, when they get to trial, it wasn't me.
That's all he's got.

Speaker 1 Now, the prosecution has lots of dirt on him, but they still haven't dug up that huge stash of photos and videos that they are sure he's got all over the web.

Speaker 1 And his storage drives are so well encrypted that the FBI still hasn't been able to crack them.

Speaker 1 But then in late January, agents find child sex abuse material of another victim on one of his unencrypted phones, a 13-year-old girl from Virginia. And you want to know something infuriating?

Speaker 1 Oh, not very good. You don't, but I'm going to tell me, aren't you? Yep, you got it.
The Virginia girl had sent Buster some nude photos back in October of 2014.

Speaker 1 He then contacted her from another account threatening to post them. She and her mom reported this to police and some diphthong

Speaker 1 accused her of lying, threatened her with Juvie and told her she was just as guilty as the person threatening her.

Speaker 2 Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 I wish I was because This is one reason people don't come forward. So I hope two groups of people hear this.
Victims, you can take your case to the FBI who understands this problem and who can help.

Speaker 1 But I also hope local law enforcement is listening to this and understanding the complexity of these situations and realizing there are other agencies that they can bring in who specialize in this.

Speaker 1 So just because they might not understand it or don't have experience with it doesn't mean it's not a crime that like needs to be addressed. So long story short, they have enough on this guy.

Speaker 1 He eventually realizes that. And on February 6th, less than a week before his trial is set to begin, he throws in the towel and pleads guilty to all 41 charges.

Speaker 1 No plea deal, just straight up guilty plea. And after that, he voluntarily decrypts some of his devices.
So in March of 2021, he was sentenced to 75 years in prison.

Speaker 1 And Asia finally gets to tell her story. She actually read a piece of her impact statement for us, and I want you guys to hear it in her own voice.

Speaker 1 He took what was supposed to be the most pivotal years of my life. He stole them, and that is time I will never get back.
He tried to destroy me and diminish me, and he almost succeeded, almost.

Speaker 1 But I am here standing as tall as I've ever been, speaking my truth.

Speaker 1 I wish this could be a true and final ending, but at the end of the day, there are wounds that will never heal and psychological damage and trauma that will haunt me to my grave.

Speaker 1 To my fellow survivors, I pray you find the closure you need and know that this is not the end.

Speaker 1 This is just the beginning of us living the lives we deserve, owning our bodies and becoming the beautiful women we are destined to be. Despite what he said, you are enough.
You are not alone.

Speaker 1 You are loved. You are worthy and you did not deserve it.
From here on, you are no longer a victim. You survive.
We are survivors. We are strong, a storm to be reckoned with, and he is nothing.

Speaker 1 Asia actually reached out to us once the case was over. And she did that because she says she hopes her story can be a beacon for anyone else struggling.

Speaker 1 And she also wants to spread the word about something. By the time Buster was sentenced, his victim count was hovering around 375.

Speaker 1 Most were between 12 and 15 years old, but the vast majority had still yet to be identified by name.

Speaker 1 So you might be out there still living in fear, totally unaware that the monster behind the screen is now behind bars.

Speaker 1 We have a list of hundreds of aliases and screen names that he's used on our blog post, along with a number that you can call if you think you might have been one of his victims.

Speaker 1 So I highly recommend if anything similar like this has happened happened to you, that you go check that out.

Speaker 1 Now, Buster Hernandez is considered to be one of the most prolific sextortionists in American history, which I hate saying since it's probably a badge that he wears proudly.

Speaker 1 But you've got to remember that perpetrators don't always use the aggressive approach that he favored.

Speaker 1 Many pose as potential friends or romantic partners, luring victims into thinking that they're in safe, consensual situations. And some do it just for that twisted sense of satisfaction.

Speaker 1 Others are looking for a payday or sometimes both. And they're not just targeting young girls and women.
Boys are targeted at alarmingly high rates, along with transgender and gender-expansive youth.

Speaker 1 The financial sextortion of minors, primarily boys, has increased exponentially from previous years, and the results are devastating, sometimes deadly, like in the case of Walker Montgomery.

Speaker 1 Thursday, December 1st, 2022, starts out like any other day in Starkville, Mississippi, home of the Montgomery family.

Speaker 1 Brian and his wife Courtney share a quiet early morning moment sipping some coffee before the usual hustle to get their kids ready for school.

Speaker 1 With their firstborn away at college, 16-year-old Walker is the oldest in the house. And since he just got his driver's license, he has been happily ferrying his younger siblings to school.

Speaker 1 So Courtney goes upstairs to wake him up. But when she opens his door, she is met with a sight that quite literally stops her in her tracks.
Her son Walker is lying motionless on the edge of his bed.

Speaker 1 And for a second, like the briefest of seconds, she wonders if he's playing some sort of joke, because they do. They love trying to prank each other.

Speaker 1 But then she sees all of the blood and she screams out for her husband who comes running. They call 911 in a panic, but there is nothing that first responders can do.
Their son is dead.

Speaker 1 Walker's dad, Brian, told Nina that the whole morning is just so foggy in his mind, to say the least.

Speaker 1 But he remembers that at some point in the chaos, they noticed that his gun, Brian's gun, which he keeps secured in a safe, was near Walker's bed.

Speaker 1 And the realization comes almost in waves, you know, like first they have to absorb that their son is dead and then that he took his own life. And it's just unfathomable to them.

Speaker 2 And they didn't hear a gunshot?

Speaker 1 No, Walker has his own room. And I guess with the layout of the house, Plus, they're all heavy sleepers.
They have like fans, white noise, all of that. They say that night they didn't hear a thing.

Speaker 1 Now, when detectives ask his parents for insight, they truly don't even know what to tell them. I mean, this came out of nowhere.
Walker was a happy kid. He had everything to live for.

Speaker 1 He was thriving academically and on the football field at his private high school, you know, loving family, good friends, active in his church. For Brian and Courtney, this just was not making sense.

Speaker 1 And listen, sure, people who appear to have it together can be dealing with a lot of inner turmoil, but it's really the timeline here that baffles them so much.

Speaker 1 Because the day before, which would have been Wednesday, November 30th, it seemed like the most ordinary of days. Walker went to school, came home, worked out.
They all ate dinner.

Speaker 1 They prayed together as a family like they always did. And they joked around about Walker's truck and some big tires that he wanted to like jack it up with.

Speaker 1 They say that outwardly he was totally fine when he went into his room at around 9.30 or 10.

Speaker 1 They just don't understand what could have happened literally overnight.

Speaker 1 Yeah, all they know is that whatever it was must have been catastrophic. So they turn to the only thing they think might hold some answers, which is Walker's phone.

Speaker 1 It's the only tangible lifeline to a world outside his bedroom. Like he doesn't have a computer in his room.
This is it. But Brian and Courtney give the phone to police, along with his passcode.

Speaker 1 And after that, all they can do is wait and see if investigators find anything.

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Speaker 1 In the meantime, this family is trying to process their grief together, mourning while police attempt to extract any clues they can from Walker's phone.

Speaker 1 But after a full month of waiting, they are no closer to understanding what happened. It's not until January of 2023 that the sheriff's office comes through with some shocking news.

Speaker 1 They've pulled data from Walker's phone, and while the full picture isn't clear yet, what they've found is chilling. Walker had been messaging someone on Instagram before he died.

Speaker 1 Walker and this other person had shared some explicit videos with each other. And whoever was behind the account was trying to extort Walker for $1,000.

Speaker 2 You said before he died. What exactly is before?

Speaker 1 So I don't think they really know much about the circumstances at this point, like if it had been happening for a while or what. Like the information is pretty limited.

Speaker 1 But local police are connecting some dots because there have actually been other recent reports of this happening in the area.

Speaker 1 So what they're doing is they're trying to find out if there's any connection between the cases. And so they bring the FBI on board, which opens its own investigation.

Speaker 1 And in February, the agent assigned to Walker's case sits down with the Montgomeries, and that's when they're able to really lay it all out for them.

Speaker 1 It turns out Walker was not involved in some long-term ordeal. In fact, his death was actually precipitated by events that unfolded over just three or four hours.
What?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it started just around midnight on December 1st. That's when he got a direct message from someone on Instagram who appeared to be a pretty girl around his age.

Speaker 1 And he didn't know her, but they seemed to have some mutual friends. So they began talking about school and football, innocent stuff.
And then the conversation turned flirtatious.

Speaker 1 And she convinced him to go on video chat with her and perform a mutual sex act.

Speaker 1 Now, what he didn't know was the so-called pretty girl was actually a criminal group in Nigeria using a video that they lifted from somewhere else. And they secretly recorded the whole encounter.

Speaker 1 And once it was over, they pounced. They told him that unless he paid them $1,000, they would send the video to all of his Instagram contacts.
And Walker's 16, he didn't have that kind of money.

Speaker 1 And when they urged him to steal his parents' credit card, he refused. So for the next couple of agonizing hours, he pleaded with them, begging them not to share it.
But they were ruthless.

Speaker 1 They told him that everyone was going to disown him. They told him his life was going to be ruined.

Speaker 2 I mean, you have to imagine he's just in this spiral. And I remember being a kid online and meeting people online, not telling my parents about it, and then to have it turn into this.

Speaker 1 And you, your world is so small then that you, you do, you think it's over

Speaker 1 i mean i remember being 16 especially right the way our parents you know we grew up in a very religious home i can't imagine really strict really restrictive yeah there would be so much shame and i think i would be so consumed with shame and forget all the love you know what i mean now these people didn't just stop there they started sending him screenshots which made it look like they had already sent the video to various family members and friends like literally going through his list of instagram contacts one by one which again, like if this is what he's feeling inside is making this worse and worse.

Speaker 1 And it's, yeah, it's when they got to his mother's name that he totally broke down. He was trapped.
He felt overwhelmed. He was believing that there was no way out of this.

Speaker 1 He told the scammers in that moment that he was going to end his life. And they basically told him, go ahead because your life is already over.

Speaker 1 Now, the FBI did a deep dive into Walker's phone, and there were no other red flags.

Speaker 1 So when his family hears this, there's part of them says there's a sense of relief, like he hadn't been suffering in silence. There's not some glaring issue that they overlooked.

Speaker 1 He was exactly who they thought he was, a happy, healthy young man.

Speaker 1 But they are heartbroken to think of how scared he must have been and furious that everything they did as parents to protect him, the private school, the church, the keeping him in good circles, all of it was obliterated in a few hours by someone who came into their home and stole their son without ever actually stepping foot inside.

Speaker 1 And part of this, too, that it's important to say the sextortionist didn't actually send the video to anyone, at least not that we know of. And to Brian,

Speaker 1 he says that kind of makes their actions worse. Not that he wanted the video out there.
It's just...

Speaker 2 No, no, I get it. Like Walker's gone all because of this empty threat.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you want to like reach out and tell your kid, like, no, they're lying to you.

Speaker 2 It just makes the whole tragedy more senseless. I mean, once the scammers realize they weren't getting the money, why keep pushing? What's the point? Why?

Speaker 1 Why?

Speaker 1 And Brian told Nina he doesn't think for a second that his son really believed that his family would disown him or abandon him or anything like that, but that he probably saw the video as just this insurmountable problem that even his parents couldn't fix.

Speaker 2 And you said the FBI knows who did this?

Speaker 1 Well, at the time, they tracked the IP address to this group in Nigeria, like I said, although I'm not sure if they know exactly who threatened Walker.

Speaker 1 Brian says that they're optimistic that someone will be held accountable, but he also realizes that This is a bigger issue than one group of terrible people who went after his son.

Speaker 1 Walker is actually part of a devastating trend. According to the FBI, sex tortion is on the rise, specifically financial sextortion.

Speaker 1 In fact, federal agencies and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued a public safety alert about it just 18 days after Walker took his own life.

Speaker 1 Because last year, more than 3,000 minors were victimized, mostly boys between the ages of 14 and 17. And more than a dozen victims died by suicide as a result.

Speaker 1 And while young people are more at risk, plenty of adults get caught up in this trap too.

Speaker 1 Case in point, according to an article in the Army Times by John Simpkins, prisoners in South Carolina scammed more than half a million dollars from U.S. service members from 2015 to 2018.

Speaker 1 They did it by pretending to be young women.

Speaker 1 They would exchange nude photos with them, and then a different inmate would hop in the conversation and be like, hey, that's my underage daughter you're exchanging photos with.

Speaker 1 Pay up or you're going to jail. And a lot of them did.

Speaker 1 Plus, thanks to advancements in AI, scammers can slap someone's face onto another person's body or manipulate regular photos and videos to, I mean, look true to life. They can look sexually explicit.

Speaker 1 And the FBI has noticed an uptick in those types of cases, especially involving content taken from social media.

Speaker 1 Actually, when we spoke with Brian last September, he had just gotten a call from a parent whose child had fallen victim to something just like this.

Speaker 1 And look, there is no measure that is 100% foolproof. Online predators are constantly evolving their tactics, but we can evolve our defenses too.

Speaker 1 It is all about being informed, staying aware, and taking proactive steps to safeguard our online activities.

Speaker 1 In that FBI public safety alert that went out earlier this year, you can find a bullet point list of steps to take if you find yourself or your child being sextorted.

Speaker 1 And first things first, if you discovered your child has suffered some kind of online sexual abuse, it's recommended that you make it your very first step to remind your child who's actually at fault here.

Speaker 1 The person committing the abuse is the only person to blame here. And by victim shaming ourselves or our kids, we are only creating more harm.
I mean, I have made plenty of my own mistakes.

Speaker 1 A lot of those when I was younger. And I am grateful that I have parents who loved me through them.

Speaker 1 Now, it's also recommended that if you find yourself in a situation where someone is trying to extort or threaten you or your children, do not pay them. Do not negotiate.
Don't delete anything.

Speaker 1 You've got to go straight to the authorities. Remember, these scammers are banking on your silence and shame, but the crime is on them, not you.
You are not the one at fault.

Speaker 1 You should not feel shame. If for whatever reason you get stonewalled, do not stop there.
Contact a different agency. If local law enforcement won't help, go to the FBI.

Speaker 1 And if the FBI won't help, go to a nonprofit organization. Now, not sending stuff is the easiest way to prevent it, no doubt.
But I don't want us living in a bubble. It's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 You're not a bad person if you've done that. You shouldn't feel shame about sexuality.
We all make mistakes. We all do something we later regret.
You know, I mean, like, I'm 30, what, almost 35?

Speaker 1 Like, I've got regrets, you know? Right, right. I've trusted the wrong people before.
A situation like this does not define or devalue who you are as a person.

Speaker 1 Now, we have a ton of resources about sextortion available on our blog posts and in our show notes for this episode. So please take a moment to check those out.

Speaker 1 Whether or not you or someone you know has been affected by sex stortion, knowledge is power.

Speaker 1 But crime junkies, there is only so much we can do over here at AudioChuck to arm people with ever-evolving information needed to hopefully protect ourselves and our loved ones from sextortion.

Speaker 1 So on that note, You know, Britt and I could never forget that December 18th is National Crime Junkie Day.

Speaker 2 Absolutely never forget that.

Speaker 1 And just a friendly reminder, the whole point of National Crime Junkie Day is to do what I know our crime junkie community does best, and that is to give back to the people and organizations doing the work.

Speaker 1 You can visit audiochuck.com slash advocacy to see what organizations AudioChuck has supported in the past and see where you may want to give your time or money to, like the nonprofit I helped found Season of Justice.

Speaker 1 And this year for National Crime Junkie Day, AudioChuck is excited to add SOSA to that list. SOSA stands for Safe from Online Sex Abuse.

Speaker 1 And as their website states, SOSA's mission is to provide information and care in every step of the online sex abuse process, from prevention to intervention and support for those who have experienced this type of abuse.

Speaker 1 The work SOSA's founder Rue Powell and her entire team are doing is seriously next level. You can even see some of it for yourself on their series, Undercover Underage on Investigation Discovery.

Speaker 1 According to the SOSA team, our support is going to allow SOSA to provide therapy for their employees, purchase decoy phones and phone plans, rent more office space, develop their survivor fund so they can continue offering therapy services for the survivors that they work with and their immediate families as much as they're able to, and so much more.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Rue and her team are seriously superheroes.

Speaker 1 Heroes.

Speaker 2 I had the absolute privilege of getting together with Rue for an interview as we were, you know, putting together this episode.

Speaker 2 And she shared with me how and why she started Sosa, how online sex abuse has evolved and it's really becoming more and more sophisticated over the years. And I really appreciated that she got.

Speaker 2 really into the weeds on specific ways kids are finding themselves in vulnerable situations and how we can protect ourselves from those situations.

Speaker 2 And you can listen to that conversation right after you finish up this episode.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we're posting that whole conversation with Britt and Rue as an expert on thing. We haven't done that in a while.

Speaker 1 And this one, again, is so important for every person to listen to, every parent to listen to, to have your kids listen.

Speaker 2 I took so many notes just talking to her. It was incredible.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's, it's all everyone out there, if you're a parent, it's your turn to take notes and get prepared to have tough conversations with your kids about the dark corners of the internet.

Speaker 1 Because it's your job to maintain open lines of communication with your kids, to have these conversations and then have them again and then have them again and have them again.

Speaker 1 And above all else, let them know that they can come to you with any problem, any mistake, and you will love them and help them through it. It may not be easy.

Speaker 1 There are consequences for all of our actions, but I never want my daughter to feel so embarrassed or so ashamed or trapped that she doesn't see me as her way out.

Speaker 1 So Rue's interview with Britt is available right now and it is loaded with information and pointers from Rue herself. So after you're done listening here, please be sure to check that out.

Speaker 1 Check out Sosa. Again, their information is linked in our show notes and help us in showing them all the crime junkie love on this National Crime Junkie Day.
Which, by the way, Britt, happy six years.

Speaker 1 I can't believe we've been doing this six years. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 Absolutely bonkers, wild, amazing, incredible, all the things.

Speaker 1 And this, like, this episode, I think, is just such a great way to like, I don't know,

Speaker 1 not ringing in the new year, ringing in our sixth year. This is what we want to do.
This is the information we want to be bringing to hopefully make a difference.

Speaker 1 Now, listen, I know I've said a lot today, but I do want to end on one note. I want you to trust that there is life after images.

Speaker 1 I know it feels all consuming in the moment, but this incident does not define you. Your life is so much bigger than this one thing.
Do not let anyone take that from you.

Speaker 1 Let's just pop that shame bubble right now.

Speaker 1 There's this line from one of my favorite songs by Noah Reed that kind of encompasses what you learn as an adult and you like don't have the perspective for it when you're young.

Speaker 1 It's going to sound funny out of context. You should listen to the songs called Tiff Song.
The line is, I was young then. How could I know?

Speaker 1 that the mistakes I made would fade away like names pissed in the snow. And it's true.
Trust. Again, there is life after images.

Speaker 1 And if you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, support is available. Call or text the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988

Speaker 1 or call the national suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK. That's 1-800-273-8255.

Speaker 1 We love you, crime junkies. Be weird, be rude, and most importantly, stay alive.

Speaker 1 You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com.

Speaker 2 And you can follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast.

Speaker 1 And next week is the holidays, so I'm not even going to mess with you guys. We're quote unquote taking it off, but I wouldn't leave you guys hanging.

Speaker 1 We have never left you hanging in the last six years. You're going to get a couple of special precedent episodes, and then Britt and I will be back the Monday after that.

Speaker 1 So we'll see you in the new year.

Speaker 1 Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Speaker 3 Have you ever experienced something truly unexplainable?

Speaker 3 A moment that felt almost like a vivid dream, leaving you with a lingering sense of wonder, leaving you questioning everything you thought you knew?

Speaker 1 Perhaps it was a fleeting glimpse of something extraordinary, a chilling whisper in the dead of night, or an undeniable premonition that comes to life.

Speaker 1 I'm Yvette Gintile, and I'm her sister, Rasha Pecarrero.

Speaker 3 Each week on our podcast, So Supernatural, we partner with the one and only Ashley Flowers, host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie, to take you on a journey of the world's most mystical mysteries.

Speaker 1 Ready to explore the unknown? Join us every Friday for a new episode of So Supernatural, available wherever you listen to podcasts.