Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
High crime jhn keys, i'm your host ashly flowers .
and i'm .
bread and before we jump in to today's episode, I just wanna take a moment and say a huge thank you. 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 for the second year in a row, which is honestly just so validating because IT continues to show us that are crime donkeys.
Just get IT you guys get what we're doing here. And the more people who listen to the show means, the more awareness and good that we can bring to these cases. So again, a huge thank you to our crime junkies.
We quite literally couldn't do IT without you. And so today I actually have two stories for you, both of which are about one rising threat, which you may not have heard of, but you need to know about sex torture. 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 that, because virtually anyone with internet access is vulnerable. And in the digital age, dangers seem to load more in your dms than in dark allies. These are the stories of asia, Anderson and Walker among gamy.
Asian an Anderson is halfway through her shift as a host at an indian apples restaurant when he gets a facebook message notification on her phone. And there is nothing strange about that. It's september of two thousand and fourteen.
Facebook is like the raining champ of social media, and eighteen year old asia has plenty of friends on the site, but this message is anything but ordinary, and it's not from one of her friends. It's from an account with a cryptic user name, something like closed door. There is 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. How many guys have you picked to? Because I have some of you. Heart racing asia rushes to the bathroom and huddle in a stalled just panic because he had sent a couple of partially closed photos to someone that SHE trusted like a year ago. But SHE doesn't see how this close door person could have gotten them.
Does he check whatever he sent them to?
Oh, immediately. And this dood swear as he never shared them, and he has no reason to doubt him. So SHE tries to think of other possibilities. Maybe his account was hacked, maybe hers was, or maybe the anonymous person has her confused with someone else.
But when this closed door person describes this sticky note that he keeps on the myr that SHE posed in front of, that hope flies out the window. Now he is just scared. He has no idea who this person is.
He assumes it's a guy. So that's what i'm going to go with. But she's not even sure. And by the way, he's not sending her just some F, Y, I courtesy message.
He says that if he doesn't send more explicit images, he is going to post the ones that he already has everywhere. So I want you to just imagine being in asia, shoes like fresh, a high school, looking forward to college, future full of promise. And now this anonymous person is threatening to ruin everything like her fear feels helpful to me, even 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 going to judge her. SHE is afraid of what her parents are gone to say if they see these pictures.
And the weight of that fear pushes her to go along with IT. Plus, this person says, shall only have to send a few pictures. Once he's had enough, he will reveal himself and then leave her alone.
嗯， that sounds like what was 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, just grow soon. Photos aren't enough. He wants videos. And these assignments, as he calls them, are downright tortures. I mean, he details step by organizing step what asia has to do when he 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, like sometimes he bombards her with messages, but then sometimes he just goes her and then just reappears out of nowhere to start the whole cycle over again. And as asia told a reporter, nina, he revels in this sick game. Me, he tells her how much fun he's having and that he's watching her.
He calls her his quote, quote, slave and other val names. And he peppers their conversations with racial slurs, constantly threatening to share her images and videos, which he thinks he might be selling. And at one point, this guy even threatens to kill her. I mean.
this is gone. So far passed just coverage is like full psychological warfare.
IT is. And what asia doesn't realize at the time is how disturbingly common this pattern is. These types of sex oration ists use their victims fear and vulnerability to get more sexually explicit content.
And the more content they get, the more leverage they have. 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 get help. And that is what happens to asia.
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. Now if we ve fast forward to december twenty fifteen, he has been dealing with the shadow tormenter for more than a year, but he's been M I, A. For a couple of months at this point.
So she's a little bit of reprieve and she's taking strides to try and reclaim her life. But just when he thinks she's escaped the storm, SHE is thrust right back into his eye. You see, SHE recently started a new job at a mall in playing field, which is the suburb just outside of indie.
And this is like a decent sized town, but it's also really close nit town. And everyone, and I do mean everyone they are, starts talking about one thing, an FBI investigation into an online predator who goes by the name brian kill. This brian kill person had started a campaign of terror centered around a then sixteen year old playing field high school girl who we're going to call maria when he is not posting sexually explicit photos and videos of her, he is lobbing graphic threat to kill and or sexually assault her.
And pretty much everyone SHE knows, including all her classmates, oh my god, he says he's going to a bomb and shoot per school. And then a neighboring school, he promises to wipe out anyone who gets in his way, be at police, first responders, or even school officials. He even threatens to bomb and shoot up the mall of asia works at, which has to be evacuated, and then a nearby walmart, then a high school, and then them all.
Again, IT is like non stop, and social media at the time is buzzing about this. Brian killed racist, sexist homophily grants and death threats are screen shot and then passed around over and over. And the more they roll across asian screen, the more he realizes these look awful familiar.
I mean, brian kills man's language tone. They are identical to asia's tormenter. And so he started thinking, maybe this is why he went quiet on her.
Okay, but how terrifying is this? Because it's confirming all her world fears that if he doesn't comply with her term ter, he's gona do everything and more that he's threatened.
I know, and even scary because it's not like he's just sharing these pictures and videos which do something asia was already afraid of but he is not getting caught because the F I is to find this guy like that. Seems this brian person is using really sophisticated methods to hide his identity. I mean, obviously no amateurs.
Ws, he's doing, yeah. I an investor can even tell what Operating system is using. So his post just keep coming. And with that, I mean, the more asia sees, the more he is sure IT is the same person who's been exploiting her. And she's right because later that month, out of nowhere, her tormentor contacts her again, apologizing for his absence.
He says that he's just been so darnin busy trying to ruin maria's life that he's barely had time for anything else. So he's like openly admitting IT gleefully like filled her in on his recent activities. IT turns out that he had started sex sorting maria and asia around the same time, 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. And then he reported him to police, which is exactly what asia wants to do. But now she's more terrified to do with than ever.
And SHE probably feels more alone than ever.
too. He does, and like, I can't repeat, that is not like this dude is clearly not just making idle threats. He really is exposing maria photos and videos and know she's thinking, who knows what else this guy is really capable up. So he feels like he is almost watching a cautionary tale unfold in real time and probably has .
the way of the world on her shoulder since it's not just her that he's mixing that he thread.
That's what they do because at some point, victims do get tired. They start to real the patter and they see that IT won't end without intervention. And at some point, most of them do want to reach out for a help like at some point you might be like, I don't care what happens to me, you know I mean, but that's anything.
They start throwing other people because you're like, okay, I don't care what happens in me. 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 indian apple lus area is on edge as twenty sixteen roles around without any arrest, and authorities decide that they're gone to hold a public forum to answer questions and hopefully reassure people a little bit.
But brian kill has a different idea in mind. He orders asia to go to the forum and report back on any updates that the feds give, basically be his eyes and ears. And he begged 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. But he doesn't because, quote, no one's gonna notice a black girl with an afro and quote.
oh my god, what profile is he talking about? Did the FBI develop something? I'm not sure .
there's nothing about the feds releasing a profile in any news coverage and na couldn't find anything about IT in all like the court records that we we even asked asia, but he does remember hearing about any profile either. So I mean, I think we know this due as a master manipulator. So it's probably just more lies, right? So on tuesday, january nineteen, nineteen, asia and a thousand people cram into the high school auditorium for the forum.
Bryan makes her audio recorded and take detailed notes about everything right down to the outfits that people are wearing. So when brian starts posting his own commentary about IT, everyone assumes that he was there. amen.
So were they already thinking that he's local? I guess I imagined him like, kind in far off places, pulling these strings like a master puppeteer.
I don't think again, we can't find this server at this point. So no one really knows, but the local angle is what he seems to be going with are trying to get people to believe OK because he says that he actually goes to school with maria oh. In fact, by the time of the foreman, police had already raided three homes and brought some plain field students in for questioning.
W T H R S David mcny reports that one of them falsely claimed to be brian kill as a coin. A joke. We just like the worst joke in history. 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 he thinks that he's too tex savy to be a high school student, he thinks is older because the stuff he does is just so over the top. I mean, he's toying with police. He's tagging the police even in like post and offering suggestions on how to step up their game and catch him 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. And once the user opens, IT attracts their .
real I P address like he's just gonna en around files someone.
oh, I mean, again, he's like toying with them but he even has a solution or suggestion for that too. He recommends that they use maria as debate know like have her send him something and then once he opens IT bang bell, have his real I P address or whatever. What's interesting is, I mean, I think they were willing to try anything because according to a peace in vice motherboard by the renzo H.
A. And cheque buki, the FBI does try that, although I don't know exactly when, but they can't tailor whatever this code is to his Operating system since they don't know what IT is. So he doesn't work.
Now eventually, things do calm down in playing field, and brian, who clearly loves an audience, start sharing more with asia. And she's listening carefully for any hint that might help her. I D this guy, but this dude is cautious.
He just likes to brag about his other victims. And he learnt 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 verge of maine was the the name he was using. And he talks to her about his dream of becoming the worst cyber terrorists that ever lived. And in all of this, asia actually confides in him too.
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. He is the only person who knows what's really going on in her life, which he has made an absolute living hell.
right? I was to say, what's going on in her life is him?
Yeah, I know it's a vicious cycle. And that's the other thing that I want listeners to hear, because I think that would be easy for someone to say, well, I send the pictures. I responded to the messages.
No one's gonna 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.
SHE thinks that that might be the only way to get away from this guy. But then just is, she's having those thoughts. Something changes.
Brian kill sets his sites on asia's little sister, threatening that if asia doesn't ob ham, he is going to target her instead. And that is the motivation asian needs to keep going. SHE has to protect her sister.
Plus she's worried that he's going to to find even more girls to destroy. So he wants to help stop him. And if that day comes, he wants to be the one to tell her story.
And that day comes on monday, August seventh, twenty seventeen, that when authorities announced that they've arrested the man behind brian, kill the verge of main and god knows what other allies. He's twenty six year old buster j. Hernandez, and surprise. He lives more than two thousand miles away from plainfield, inDiana in bigger field, california.
What's his connection to inDiana?
He doesn't seem to have one. The U. S. Attorney says he's never even stepped foot in the state, that is, until he was extradited here on federal charges of threats to use an explosive device, threats to injure and sexual exploit of a child. Now, at first, asia can't believe that.
I mean, there have been so many false alarms. Then SHE reason article detAiling how buster made one of his victims, who authorities called victim three, go to the forum. She's a quote on, quote, black girl with an arrow and out when IT hits her like this really is IT.
After nearly three years of pure hell, SHE is free from this mean, so that when he dies, the number for the local FBI office listed in the article, and her heart, I mean, actually is making the call, feels like it's going to blow. And when someone answers, SHE just burst into tears and the whole story comes pouring out of her. IT turns out that even though investigators haven't identified most of buster's victims yet, they actually know who asia is.
Then why didn't they contact her?
Well, it's a really complex situation. So agents knew that catching this guy was going to be like finding a needle in a hay stack, mean he is essentially built a digital fortress around himself. And his victims were all over the map.
So IT was a massive nationwide effort, were talking wiretaps, surveilling, a hundred search warns and more than two hundreds of opens. But he just kept slipping through their fingers. IT wasn't until the spring of twenty seventeen that he finally got slopping.
And do you wanted, know what I was that screw dom up a freaking screen shot 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. And in a totally unprecedented move, facebook actually helped them do IT because, according to the vice motherboard article, people at the company considered him the worst criminal to ever use their platform.
They literally had a the employee just to track activity from his accounts. So facebook paid a cyber security firm to develop a new hacking tool. But there was a catch by the time the FBI had this tool.
And the legal Green light busters Operating system was days away from undergoing a routine update. So after that, the network investigative technique would be useless, and they would be back to square one. And the chAllenge was finding a victim to send this thing to him without that secret code.
In the picture of video, whatever. Everyone was scared, and some, like asia, had these trauma ones. So investigators didn't want to approach them premature ally, in case someone would tip him off.
So luckily, and just in time, they learned about a Young woman in michigan who he had been terrorizing for years. 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. But IT was actually footage of her basically telling him to golf.
Now, he retaliated immediately, but he was too late. The trap was set. The F, B, I traced the I, P, address right to busters place in Bakers field, where he lived with his long time girlfriend and her eighty five year old grandmother. 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 that was him.
Okay, but IT wasn't grama.
We know that yet. No, it's not grama at the house or the girlfriend who apparently didn't know anything about what he was doing, although I also don't think he was very CoOperative once the FBI comes in. Now was on August third 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.
But they had gathered a lot to take to trial, a trial that asia was going to have to be a part of. So as SHE preps with federal prosecutor, SHE learns more about the depths of his deprivation and he doesn't have a criminal record, but he claims to have pulled up various cyber crimes for years before he started sex orating girls as a so called the game in twenty twelve. And he had an extensive victim list.
How did he even find asia, or a maria for that matter? Like what made him target certain areas?
Well, this dude was casting a wide net, and he actually kept stats to track his success. Yeah, he like to pray 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.
And he said he always introduced himself with the same, like cutt and paste to script. And usually, if you remember how he introduce themselves to ages, like I have these pictures of you, usually he didn't actually have any photos of these girls. IT was just a love.
yes. So if you remember, he convinced as asia, he knows about the picture because he talks about a sticky note on her mere. And what he ends up realizing is that he must have just looked at her facebook and lifted that detail from other picture.
Oh my god, how much time did he spend doing this stuff? I mean, sounds like more than a full time job.
Give this so investigators say that he put in twelve to sixteen hour days. IT is more than a full time job. now.
Lots of people never responded to him, but when they did, he essentially held them hostage, sometimes for years with endless mine games and domains. And the same as with asia, he threat to expose them or to kill them in their loved ones. He even encouraged some to take their own lives.
And ebay resisted him or didn't answer him quickly enough. How sometimes if he just got bored, he would share their photos and videos. Anyway.
i'm so flared at how much time he was spending doing this that did not have like a real job. How do you spend twelve to sixteen hours a day just torturing people?
He was supposed to be taking care of his girlfriend's grandma, like that was supposed be the thing he was doing, because this isn't like a formal job OK. And he actually had never been officially employed. So this would had plenty of time on his hands.
And with that time, he left so much destruction in his awake for asia. After that initial euphoria, lief SHE was struggling to cope. SHE was feeling like her body was a crime scene.
SHE was haunted by nightmares, that buster wasn't really arrested and that her phone is still buzzing with his messages. SHE was anxious and depressed. And in August of twenty nineteen, after he is arrested and she's dealing with all of this, SHE again contemplates taking her own life.
But thankfully he was able to get help. Jeans are going through an intensive mental health treatment program and is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ptsd. SHE joins a support group, SHE talks to a therapy, meets with a victim advocate, and SHE becomes an essential piece of the puzzle in the case against buster hernandez.
By early twenty twenty, he is facing forty one charges involving coercion, extortion, threats to kill, kidnap or injured people in a variety of ways, sexual exploitation of minors, child sex abuse material and obstruction of justice. The government says they know about one hundred or so victims who have complied with buster's demands, but most of them are uni dense fied. They are still working to locate others across the glow.
So what's this guys defense?
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 these got. 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. And his storage drives are so well encysted that the FBI still hasn't been able to crack them. But then in late january, agents find child sex abuse material of another victim on one of his uncracked phones, a thirteen year old girl from Virginia. And you wanna something .
infuriating?
You can tell the Virginia girl had sent busters some nude photos back in october of twenty fourteen. He then contacted her from another account, threatening to post them. SHE in her mom reported this. Two police and some depth officer accused her of lying, threatens her with juvie, and told her he was just as guilty as the person threatening her.
Are you kidding me?
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, 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 specializes in this.
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. He eventually realizes that.
And on february six, less than a week before his trial is set to begin, he throws in the towel and pleaded guilty to all forty one charges, no medial, just to rate up guilty plea. And after that, he voluntarily decrepit some of his devices. So in march of twenty twenty one, he was sentenced to seventy five years in prison.
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.
He took what was supposed to be in the most pivotal years of my life. He told them in that this time I will never get back. He tried to destroy me and diminish me, and he also succeeded almost. But I am here standing as tall as i've ever been speaking. My true.
I wish this could be a true and final ending, but at the end of the day, there are one that will never heal, and psychological damage and trauma that will thought me to my grave, to my fellow survivors. I pay, find a closure you need and know that this is not the end. This is Justin, beginning of us reading the lives we deserve, owning our bodies and becoming the beautiful women we are destiny to be.
Despite what he said, you are enough. You are not alone. You are alone.
You are worthy, and you did not deserve IT. From here on, you are no longer a victim. We, you survive.
We are survived. We are strong. A storm to be reckon with and he is nothing.
Asia actually reached out to us once the case was over, and he did that because he says he hopes her story can be a beacon for anyone else struggling. And SHE also wants to spread the word about something by the time buster was sentenced, his victim count was hovering around the three hundred seventy five. Most were between twelve and fifteen years old, but the vast majority had still yet to be identified by name.
So you might be out there still living in fear, totally unaware that the monster behind the screen is now behind bars. We have a list of hundreds of allies, es 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. So I highly recommended anything similar like this has happened to you that you go check that out.
Now, buster hernandez z is considered red to be one of the most prolific sex, tortuous in american history, which I hate saying, since it's probably a badge that he wears proudly. But you've gotta remember that traders don't always use the aggressive approach that he favored, many pose as potential friends or romantic partner Loring victims into thinking that they're in safe, consensual situations. And some do IT just for that twist, ted, sense of satisfaction.
Others are looking for a payday, or sometimes both. And they're not just targeting Young girls and women. Boys are targeted at alarmingly hike rates, along with transgender and gender expensive youth. The financial sex oration of miners, primarily boys, has increased exponentially from previous years, and the results are devastating, sometimes deadly, like in the case of Walker amount.
Thursday, december first, twenty twenty two, starts out like any other day in stark film mississippi, home of the montgomery family. Brian and his wife courtine share a quiet early morning moment, sipping some coffee before the usual hustle to get their kids ready for school with their first borne away at college.
Sixteen year old Walker is the oldest in the house, and since he just got his driver's license, he has been happily fearing his Younger siblings to school. So courtney goes upstairs to wake him up. But when he opens his door, SHE has met with a site that quite literally stops her in her tracks.
Her son Walker is lying motionless on the edge of his bed. And for a second, like the briefest of second, SHE wonders if he's playing some sort of joke. Because they do.
They love trying to prank each other, but then SHE sees all of the blood and SHE screams out for her husband who comes running. They call nine one one in a panic, but there is nothing that first responders can deal. Their son is dead Walkers. Dad brian told nina that the whole morning is just so foggy in his mind, to say the least, but he remembers that at some point in the chaos, they noticed that his gun, bryans gun, which he keeps secured in a safe with near Walker's bed, and the realization comes almost in waves. You know, like first they have to absorb that their sun is dead and then that he took his own life and it's just unfair able to them and .
they didn't hear a unshot.
No, Walker has his own room and I guess with the layout of the house plus they're all heavy sleepers that they like, fans, White noise, all of that. They say that night, they didn't hear a thing. Now, when detectives asked his parents for inside, they truly don't even know what to tell them.
I mean, this came out of nowhere. Walker was a happy kid. He everything to live for, he was thriving academically and on the football field, that is private high school, you know, loving family, good friends, active in his church.
For brian and cortina, this just was not making sense and isn't sure people who appeared 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. Because the day before we would have been wednesday, november thirty, IT seemed like the most ordinary of days.
Walker, when the school came home, worked out they all dinner. They prayed togethers, a family like they always did, and they joked around about Walkers, truck and some big tires that he wanted to, like, get up with. They say that outward, he was totally fine when he went to his room at around nine, thirty or ten.
You just don't understand. And what could have happened literally, of, yeah, all they know is that whatever IT was must have been catastrophic. So they turned the only thing they think might hold some answers, which is Walkers phone.
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. Brian and courtney give the phone to police along with his pass code.
And after that, all they can do is weight and see if investigators find anything. In the meantime, this family is trying to process their grief together, mourning while police attempt to extract any clues they can from Walkers phone. But after a full month of waiting, they are no closer to understanding what happened.
It's not until january of twenty twenty three that the share of office comes through with some shocking news. They've pull data from Walker's phone. And while the full picture isn't clear yet, what theyve found is chilling. Walker had been messaging someone on instagram before he died. Walker and the other person had shared some explicit videos with each other, and whoever was behind the account was trying to extort Walker for a thousand dollars.
You said before he died, what exactly is before?
So I don't think they really know much about the circumstances at this point. Like if I had been happening for a while or what like, the information is pretty limited, but local police are connecting some dots because there have actually been other recent reports of this happening in the area.
So what they're doing is they're trying to find out there's any connection between the cases, and so they bring the FBI on board, which opens its own investigation. And in february, the agent assigned to Walkers case sits down with the montgomery. And that's when they are able to really late all out for them.
IT turns out Walker was not involved in some long term or deal. In fact, his death was actually precipitated by events that unfolded over just three or four hours. White, yeah, he started just around midnight on december first.
That's when he got a direct message from someone on instagram who appeared to be a pretty girl around his age and they didn't know her, but they seem to have some mutual friends. So they began talking about school and football, innocent stuff. And then the conversation turned flattish, and he convinced him to go on video chat with her and perform a mutual sex act.
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. And once IT was over, they pounced.
They told him that unless he paid them a thousand dollars, they would send the video to all of his instagram contacts. And Walkers, sixteen, didn't have that kind of money. And when they urged him to feel his parents ts credit card, he refused.
So for the next couple of organizing hours, he pleaded with them, begging them not to share IT. But they were less. They told him that everyone was gonna just own him. They told him his life was gonna ruined.
I mean, you have to imagine in my, and I remember being a kid online and meeting line, apparently about IT. And then to .
have a turned into this, and you, your world is so small then that you, you do you think it's over? I mean, I remember being sixteen, especially great the way our parents we know, we group in a very religious home.
I can't image strack literally restrict of.
yeah, there would be so much shame and I think I would be so consumers shame and forget of the love you know, I now these people didn't just stop there. They started sending him screen shots, 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.
And it's 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. He told the scammers in that moment that he was going to a end his life. And they are basically told him, go ahead, because your life is already over.
Now, the F. B, I did a deep dive into Walkers phone, and there were no other red flags. So when his family here is this, there's part of them says there's as a sense of relief like he hadn't been suffering in silence.
There's not some glaring issue that they overlooked. He was exactly who they thought he was, a happy, healthy Young man. But they are hard broken to think of how scared he must have been. End of.
See, you very, is that everything they did as parents to protect him, the private school, the church, that 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. And part of this two that's important to say, the sex portion is didn't actually send the video to anyone, at least not that we know of. And to brian, he says that kind of makes their actions worse, not that he wanted the video out there.
It's no, no, I get IT like Walkers gone all because of this empty threat .
yeah you wanna like, reach out and tell your kid like, note they're lying to .
you IT IT just makes the whole tragedy more sense. I mean, once the realize they weren't getting the money, why keep pushing?
What's the point? why? why? And ran on nana. He doesn't think for a second that his son really believed that his family would disown him, abandon him or anything like that, but that he probably saw the video as just this insurance table problem that even his parents couldn't fix.
And you said, the F, I knows who did .
this well at the time. They track the I, P. Address to this group in nigeria, like I said, although i'm not sure if they know exactly who threatened Walker, bryant 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.
Walker is actually part of a devastating trend, according to the FBI sex ocean is on the rise, specifically financial sex oration. In fact, federal agencies and the national center for missing and exploited children issued a public safe dealer about IT just eighteen days after Walker took his own life, because last year more than three thousand miners were victimized, mostly boys, between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, and more than a dozen victims died by suicide as a result. And while Young people are more at risk, plenty of adults get caught up in this trap too.
Case in point, according to an article on the army times by john simpkins, prisoners in south CarOlina has scammed more than half a million dollars from U. S. Service members from twenty fifteen to twenty eighteen.
They did IT by pretending to be Young women. They would exchange nude photos with them, and then a different inmate would pop in the conversation and be like, hey, that's my underage daughter. Your exchanging photos with pay up or you're going to jail and a lot of them did.
Plus, thanks to advancements in A I scammer can slap someone's face onto another person's body or manipulate regular photos and videos to, I mean, look true to life, can look sexually explicit. And the FBI has noticed in uptake in those types of cases, especially involving content taken from social media. 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.
And look, there is no measure that is one hundred percent full proof. Online predators are constantly evolving their tactics, but we can evolve our defenses too. IT is all about being informed, staying aware and taking proactive steps to safeguard our online activities in that FBI public safety alter 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 sex started. And first things first, if you discovered your child has suffered some kind of online sexual abuse, is recommended that you make IT your very first step to remind your child who's actually at fault here. 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, a lot of those when I was Younger, and I am grateful that I have parents who loved me through them. 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.
You got ta go straight to the author. I S remember, these scams are banging on your silence and shame, but the crime is on them, not you. You are not the one at fault.
You should not feel shame if, for whatever reason, you get stone wall, do not stop there, contact a different agency, if local law forceful won't help, go to the FBI, and if the FBI won't help, go to a non profit organization. Now, not sending stuff is the easiest way to prevent IT, no doubt. But I don't want living in a bubble.
It's gonna happen. 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, not like thirty, almost thirty five, like I got regret. I've trusted the wrong people before. A situation like this does not define or devalue who you are as a person.
Now we have a ton of resources about sex oration available on our blog post and in our show notes for this episodes. So please take a moment to check those out whether or not you or someone you know has been affected by sex organ knowledge is power crime junkets. There is only so much we can do over here audio truck, to ARM people with ever evolving information needed to hopefully protect ourselves and our loved ones from sex oration. So on that note, you know, britain could never forget that december eighteen th is national crime junky day.
Absolutely never forget that.
And just a friendly reminder, the whole point of national crime junky day is to do what I know our crime junky community does best, and that is to give back to the people and organizations doing the work.
You can visit audio chucked out comm flash advocate to see what organizations audio truck has supported in the past, and see where you may want to a give your time or money to like the but I helped found season of justice and this year for national crime junky day audio truck is excited to add sosa to that list. So as stands for safe from online sex abuse, 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, the work sources found a repower and her entire team are doing is seriously next level.
You can even see some of IT for yourself on their series undercover under age on investigation discovery. According to the social team, our support is going to allow salsa 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. The survivors that they work with and their immediate families as much as they're able to so much .
more yeah rule and our team are seriously super hero heroes. I had the absolute privilege of getting together with rule for interview as we were you putting together this episode. And SHE shared with me how and why SHE started sosa, how online sex of views has evolved and is really becoming more and more sophisticated over the years. And I really appreciated that he got really into the weeds on specific ways kids are finding themselves in vulnerable situations and how we can protect ourselves from those situations. And you can listen that conversation right after you finish the episode.
Yeah, we're posting that whole conversation with brit and rue as an expert on then. We've done that a while. And this one again, is so important for person to listen to every parent, to listen to.
to have your kids listen. I took so many notes just talking to her IT was incredible. yeah.
And it's it's all everyone out there. If you 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, 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, 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.
There are consequences for all of our actions. But I never want my daughter red to feel so embarrassed or so ashamed or trap that he does see me as her way out. So ruse interview with brit is available right now, and IT is loaded with information and pointers from rule herself. So after you're done listings here, please be sure to check that out. Check out so that again, their information is linked in our show nodes and help us in showing them all the crime junk y love on this national crime junky day, which by the viBrant, happy six years, I can have been doing the six years, it's amazing.
Absolutely bunkers, wild, amazing, incredible all the things.
And this, like this episode, I think, is just such a great way. Like, I don't know this are not ringing in the new year ring in our six year. This is what we want to do.
This is the the information we want we bringing to hopefully make a difference. Now, listen, I 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.
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.
Let's just pop that shame bubble right now. There's this line from one of my favorite ite songs by no a read. That kind of encompasses what you learn as an adult and you like, don't have the perspective for IT when you're Young.
It's gona sound funny out of context. You should listen to the songs called tiff song. The line is, I was Young men. How could I know 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.
And if you or someone you know is thinking about suicide support is available, call or text the suicide and crisis lifeline at nine eight eight or call the national suicide prevention lifeline at one eight hundred two seven three talk. That's one eight hundred, two, seven, three, eight, two, five, five. We love you. Crank junkets. Be weird, the road, and most importantly, stay alive.
You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crime junky pod test dot com.
And you can follow us on instagram at a crime .
junky podcast. And next week is the holidays. So i'm not even going to mess with you guys.
We're going on code taking IT off, but I wouldn't leave you guys hanging. We have never left you hanging in the last six years. You're going to get a couple of special precedent episodes. And then britain, I will be back the monday after that. So we'll see you in the new year.
Crime junky is an audio check production. So what do you think, chuck, do you prove?