Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - JAIL TIME FOR NIGERIAN SEXTORTION GANG AFTER SUICIDE OF 'ALL AMERICAN' TEEN

Episode Date: September 21, 2024

What began as an investigation into the suicide of a popular high school athlete uncovered an international sextortion ring. On Twitter, Jordan Demay received a message from a user named Dani Roberts, who convinced him to send explicit photos. Moments later, the situation turned dark. "Dani Roberts" demanded money, threatening to send the photos to Jordan’s family and friends if he didn’t comply. Jordan sent all the money he had, but the demands continued. Six hours later, Jordan Demay took his own life. Days after Jordan’s death, his girlfriend received one of his explicit photos and went to the police. Marquette County Sheriff's detectives, working with the FBI, traced "Dani Roberts'" IP address to Nigeria. Three Nigerian men—Ezekiel Robert and brothers Samuel and Samson Ogoshi—were linked to Jordan’s case and over 100 other victims. Five U.S. citizens are now accused of facilitating the sextortion scams, handling payments from victims, and transferring the money to Nigeria. Prosecutors allege the defendants laundered nearly $200,000 for the scammers. A jury finds them guilty and sentenced to hard time.  Joining Nancy Grace Today:  Jennifer Buta  – Jordan DeMay's Mother John DeMay  – Jordan DeMay's Father Dr. William Morrone – Chief Medical Examiner, Bay County Michigan; Author: “American Narcan: Naloxone & Heroin-Fentanyl Associated Mortality” Detective Rich Wistocki : Child Crime Expert, President of BeSure Consulting (30 years), 23-year SWAT team member; Formed the Will County Illinois States Attorney’s High Technology Crimes Unit that made over 90 sexual predator arrests in its first 3 ½ years. Elizabeth Peterson - Morning News Anchor & Reporter for WLUC TV6; Facebook: Elizabeth Peterson TV6  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. After urgent warnings issued about a sextortion gang targeting U.S. teens, a major break in the case. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. In the last hours, two members of a sextortion gang sentenced to hard time behind bars. gang, these Nigerian nationals working hand in hand with American citizens to torture and sextort American teens. It all came to light when an incredible young man, a high schooler, scrubbed in sunshine, 17-year-old Jordan DeMay was caught up in a sextortion scam and committed suicide. What happened? A Michigan high school football star receives a mysterious

Instagram message from a girl claiming they have friends in common. Soon their conversation becomes flirtatious. This kid, this boy, to me, this little boy, a teen, had no idea who he was really dealing with. This girl, Danny, this beautiful young girl flirting with him online. It started on Insta. Then she moved it to a Google chat room. It wasn't a beautiful young girl at all. And now this boy is gone. Listen, I saw Jordan for the last time. He came home at 1015.

And I believe that's when he opened up his phone and saw the first messages right when he pulled in our driveway and I was just about ready to go to bed because we had a long day the next morning traveling our other two kids were already asleep my wife was finishing up laundry and getting ready final packing for our vacation but I ran into Jordan outside on our on our patio for a brief moment as he was walking and I was heading to the garage quick and that was the last time I'd seen him but that looking back that was literally minutes after he received his first message and within 10 minutes I was was in bed sleeping and I never saw him again. I woke up to finding him in his bedroom. You are hearing dad, John DeMay, speaking to me earlier.

Joining me is John DeMay, Jordan's dad, and his mother, Jennifer Buda. To both of you, thank you for being with us. And John, let me tell you why we were playing sound of when you spoke to me before, because I was worried that you and Jennifer would be so distraught that you wouldn't be able to speak. So I was going to use your prior words in case that happened. Because when I work on this case, I sometimes run out. I don't know the right words. Can you and Jennifer, starting with you, John, tell us what happened that evening? Well, first of all, thank you for having us again and sharing our story and, you know, appreciate the thought of the speaking.

But I know I can speak for myself and probably Jennifer as well, but we're very vocal. This is a very important issue and we're getting our voice as far and wide as we can to tell Jordan's story and what happened to him and keep this as his legacy. Jordan was, you know, as you can see, an all-American young man. He was 6'2", 185 pounds of, you know, handsome young man getting ready to start his own life. He was two months away from his 18th birthday, just getting ready to graduate high school. And, you know, this tragic thing happened. As you know, we heard earlier, the first message came in late evening on Thursday night. And the messages were flirtatious and kind of meaningless in the beginning, but it kind of changed. And as it progressed into more sexual nature,

pictures were exchanged and Jordan had sent a compromising photo of himself just after midnight. And when he did that, he figured out real quick that this young lady named Bandy Roberts was not a young lady. They were extortionists trying to extort him for money and he spent the next three to four hours um in extruciating um hard fast-paced extortion and trying to pay him money trying to figure his way out of it and he ultimately um told these extortionists that he was going to kill himself because of them and their response was good you better do it faster we're going to kill himself because of them. And their response was, good, you better do it faster. We're going to make you do it. And he did. Mr. DeMay, I am so sorry.

I know those words are hollow. I just hate it for you. I hate it for him. And if there is a way to get this message to one teen tonight, to one teen, it will be worth everything that we're doing right now. Everything. And here's the thing. We'll never know. We'll never know if we had any effect, if we saved anybody. But I know this. We'll know if we don't even try. Jennifer, thank you for being with us. What is your recollection of those critical hours?

When I woke up to get ready for work, I saw a text that came through from Jordan at 3.41 in the morning and it said, Mother, I love you. And I just texted him back and said, I love you too. I hope you got some sleep. And I started to get ready to take my kids to school. Once I got them to school, I knew Jordan should be awake. So I sent him another message saying, are you okay? And he didn't respond. So I drove to work, sat down and I was like, something's not right. He should be responding to me me I sent him a third text just Jordan and I gave it a minute and I reached out to Jordan's girlfriend at school and said is Jordan at school and she said no and in that moment I I knew something was very very wrong and I reached out to John to see if he was still at his house. John called me about nine minutes later and said,

he's gone. He's gone. And that morning was just chaos trying to figure out what happened or why he would do this. Because he was ready to go on vacation. There were literally no signs that he was in a place to take his own life. The investigation that started with the death of this incredible young man, a boy, a boy, a vast network, a gang, all around the world, extorting, sextorting teens. Joining me is Rich Wostocki, a former detective, cyber crimes detective, president of Be Sure Cyber Training. Rich, thank of Be Sure Cyber Training. Rich, thank you for being with us.

And, you know, I'm just a trial lawyer. I know how to try a murder case and I know how to work a crock pot. And that's about it. You have got to explain to everyone in understandable terms what is happening. How is this happening? Why is Jordan dead? How did it happen? Well, Nancy, my heart goes out to these parents and it's happening all over the world, actually, where these warlords have these cyber cafes and they are all sextortionists,

specifically the Yahoo boys in Nigeria who are doing this to our kids across the country. What we need to do, I train about 300,000 students a year. Last year, out of those 300,000, I have had 35 students come to me and telling me that's happening to me right now. And we have to, it starts with education of the parents, and then it goes to the education. Okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Explain what happens in simple terms. Okay.

So here we see Jordan, everything's fine. And all of a sudden this girl pops up on Insta. I believe, wasn't it originally on Insta, John and Jennifer? Correct. Yes. And she's cute, and there's a picture of her, and she's got a profile and a background. I'm 16. I go to so-and-so high school, and I'm a cheerleader, and I live in so-and-so.

What happens then? Well, our boys get so involved, and when they're by themselves, you know, in their bedrooms at night with their devices and they're like, what's the harm? It's just another girl on the Internet. What they don't understand is that if they don't know who they are, where they come from or can't see them on a webcam, it's probably a liar, probably a sextortion case. So for girls, it's about more pictures and videos. So what you're saying, you need to be able to either know the person in real life or be able to see them on a webcam. And to you, John DeMay, it just started out so innocently. She sends a picture, maybe a yearbook picture or I don't know, a picture, a cute picture. And they start flirting and talking online.

He doesn't know her. She doesn't know him. And they're having a good time. And this goes on for, you know, 20 minutes. How does that go so sideways? That's what I'm trying to figure out, John. You know, I'm not I'm certainly not a professional at this yet, but I'm trying to be. And, you know, from all the law enforcement professionals from all the world that I'm meeting and talking with and learning from the majority of the same cases is the same type of situation. It's a slow boil building rapport with hacked accounts mostly.

And so a lot of these accounts that are hacked have users and followers. So when you accept the friend request, they oftentimes have mutual related friends. So they feel comfortable accepting the request right in the beginning. So that's the first step. And then as a detective state of the Yahoo boys is a particular group that was very well connected and basically put together a training platform that was all over the internet for years for these extortionists to learn how to do it effectively. Oh, dear Lord. So they have a training program, how to extort teens, American teens. Okay. This is how I think it went down. Jump in and correct me to John and Jennifer and which was stocky.

Hold on, Dr. Maroney, Elizabeth Peterson. I'm coming right to you. Listen. Social media has become a regular part of daily life for millions. And 17 year old Jordan DeMay is no exception. On Twitter, Jordan receives a message from a beautiful teen. Her name is Dani Roberts, and she's pretty and very suggestive. Dani asks Jordan to send some naughty photos of himself. But Jordan balks and asks if she's pretty and very suggestive. Danny asks Jordan to send some naughty photos

of himself, but Jordan balks and asks if she's scamming him. Danny convinces Jordan she isn't a scammer and sends a nude photo of herself. Convinced, Jordan sends a nude photo of himself. And that is how it starts. Listen. The minute Jordan DeMay is convinced by a new friend on Twitter to send a naughty photo, he knows he has been had. Right away, he knows he is being blackmailed. The so-called Twitter friend tells Jordan he needs to send money right now or the naughty photo he just sent is going to be sent to his family and all his friends at school. The blackmailer tells Jordan to send $1,000. He tells the scammers he doesn't have that much. He tells them he has $300, and they agree.

If Jordan DeMay sends the $300, they will get rid of everything. He sends the money. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This is not just a story. This is real. This is real. Jordan is dead. And you just heard one of our guests talking about training online, how these sextortionists are trained online. They even have a script.

This is part of the script that we've obtained from court filings. Quote, Hey, I have screenshots of all your followers and tags and those that comment on your posts. I can send this new to everyone and also send your nudes until it goes viral. All you've got to do is cooperate with me and I will not expose you. You can you imagine John DeMay, your boy alone up in his room thinking, oh, my girlfriend, my high school girlfriends going to get a picture of my private parts. And no, I sent it to some girl I've never even met. My parents are going to see this and the turmoil he was going through. Right.

100 percent. And they were even taking it a step further. They were pretending like they were already sending that and they were building content to try to show that they were sending this already. So they were putting that maximum pressure campaign on him to really stress him out. Remember, this is at 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. He's spiraling out of control.

He doesn't know what to do. Why did it take the suicide of this young boy, literally all Americans, scrubbed in sunshine, never been a trouble a day in his life? Why did it take that for sextortion to be investigated? His death and the investigation into its circumstances has led to the uncovering of a far-flung sextortion plot leading to the arrest of multiple grown men and uncovering a Nigerian gang with U.S. counterparts preying on our children. Joining me, Jordan's mom and dad,

Jennifer and John. What happened that night that John and Jennifer are describing? Listen. Danny Roberts began sending more threats to Jordan, putting his naughty photos into collages with other family members and friends and threatening to send those photos out, keeping up the pressure on Jordan, not giving him a moment's rest from the threats. Jordan tells Danny he's thinking of killing himself and writes because of you. Danny responds. Good. Do that fast. Let me understand what I'm hearing. Jennifer Buda joining us, Jordan's mom. So this extortionist, this gang praying, predating upon our children can actually go into their account. And she, Danny, it's not a she, it's American grown men teamed up with Nigerian grown men. They get pictures of his friends and family and they put the, as we're calling it, naughty photo. It's, it's of him naked in the middle. And he puts all of his friends around it, proving to Jordan, I can reach all of your friends,

your mother and your father with this photo. I cannot imagine how Jordan would have reacted seeing that. Yeah, they were building the collages. Jordan might have even believed that they were sent out to some of his friends, his friend's parents or to us. It was very convincing. I can't imagine the panic he was in, being tired alone in the middle of the night. They basically tortured my son for hours before they forced him to take his own life. Listen. It has only been six hours since Jordan DeMay and Danny Roberts exchanged nude photos. At 17 years old, the homecoming king, popular, well-liked Jordan DeMay, sees no way out.

When he threatens to end his own life, he isn't met with compassion. He is met with an evil challenge. Do it. He does. In his bedroom, on his bed, Jordan DeMay fatally shoots himself. This sextortion plot, and if you're a parent, if you're an older brother or sister, an aunt, this matters. This extortion plot may never have been uncovered and we may never have known why Jordan did this. With the world at his fingertips, his life in front of him, a football star heading to vacation, loving, loving, loving parents, a beautiful girlfriend, good grades, everything. Why? It would never have been uncovered but for this. News of Jordan DeMay's death spreads fast. Jordan's girlfriend, Kyla, gets messages online from people expressing their condolences, but

there is one message from a user she doesn't recognize. This person is not offering condolences. The message is from a user with explicit photos of Jordan threatening to send the photos to her friends and family. Kyla tells her parents about the message and they go to the police. John DeMay is with us, Jordan's dad, along with Jordan's mom. John, explain the significance of his Jordan's little girlfriend getting a message from this extortionist. Well, it's really the most important piece of this entire investigation in resulting in almost 11. Well, I believe it's 11 arrests now at this point in American Nigeria. But the picture was the was the catalyst. And when we talk about the number of children that are affected by sex extortion specifically, it's literally everyone to some degree at one level to another.

But this picture was important because it allowed law enforcement to be able to get search warrants and preservation warrants into social media companies, Instagram or Meta at this point in our case. Otherwise, we would have never known. Jordan wiped his phone clean. He deleted all the messages on Instagram. So at face value, we really wouldn't have had the knowledge of what we have today. So that one picture, which is actually a little bit unlike most of the extortionists in sextortion cases, the majority of the time, these extortionists do not send the photos. They have no reason to. This was a little bit of a difference in a lot of the other extortion cases that I've been following and meeting with parents and investigators on. So we're very, very lucky that

that happened because a lot of parents know that there was some fishy stuff going on by some of the messages that are on their phone, but they don't have enough evidence to go to a court to get a warrant to go to meta because meta is just not going to release the back-end data and provide parents or investigators with information without without evidence so that one piece is what blew this all up for us so extremely important in michigan the marquette county sheriff has his detectives work with the f and subpoena Jordan's social media. Investigators track Danny Roberts' IP address to Nigeria, where many online sextortion scams originate. Three Nigerian men, Ezekiel Roberts and brothers Samuel and Samson Agoshi, are linked to Jordan DeMay's case, along with more than 100 other victims. Joining me now, Elizabeth Peterson,

Morning News anchor and reporter, WLUCTV6, UpperMichigansSource.com. Elizabeth, thank you for being with us. Now, we hear the U.S. attorney speaking out. Now, just then, we heard about a Nigerian gang, but there were American men, U.S. citizens, part of this gang, part of this plot. How did it work, Elizabeth? Yeah, as this continues to unfold, we keep learning more and more about exactly what happened. And there were five American men arrested, charged in this scheme. And essentially, through that, we learned that when Jordan sent the money, he didn't send it to Nigeria. He sent

it to one of these men who then sent it to another, they call him the plug, another man in Nigeria who then sent it to the three defendants. And I think when you really look at what happened, it started with $300. The first man here in the United States took his cut of say 20%. Then the plug takes his cut. And so by the time you go down the line, this was over $50, $60. And so as we start to learn those details, just how unnecessary this entire thing was. Oh, Elizabeth Peterson, hold on just a moment. Sure. Elizabeth, you mean some of these people, their cut, did you say was $50? Jordan is dead and their cut was $50.

So pointless. Jennifer, did you have any idea that some of these extortionists get $50 and Jordan is dead? When they shared that information at the last press conference and I did the math in my head, I thought this is absolutely disgusting that I lost my son over someone getting 50 or 60 dollars. Completely unnecessary. And my son could be alive. I would have paid a million times that to have him here. And all they wanted was 50 bucks. I didn't know that.

But my stomach is just clenched thinking that they would go along with this. And it's easy to say, oh, Nigeria is so far away. You can't relate to someone in a different country. Who are they? We don't know them. U.S. citizens are preying on our children, our Jordan. Listen. Over the course of a short conversation, Samuel Ogashi, pretending to be this young woman, persuaded Jordan to send a sexually explicit image of himself.

Once Samuel Ogashi had that sexually explicit image in his hand, he then turned to extort Jordan DeMay for money, threatening to reveal the image to Jordan's family and friends if he did not comply. So let me understand, Rich Vistoc me, how were these texts and messages, some of them on Insta, some of them in a Google chat room? How were they traced back all the way to Nigeria? And how were the U.S. counterpart, the gang in the U.S., how were they traced? So what happens is when these happen, we have to have five pieces of evidence. One of those pieces of evidence are the screen captures.

We have to do what's called in the first step, the preservation order, which holds the information for 90 days. Then we go on to subpoena or search warrant. Part of that, we ask for the history of IPs for as long as the account existed. And what you're going to see, not only in the social media accounts, how do they send the money? Was it Zelle? Was it PayPal? How is it? So when we get every single social media or banking system that they're using, we get the user ID and we get all the IPs that are connected to it. So when you have all the players connecting with their IPs into these accounts, that is traceable. When I teach in the schools and tell the kids, there is no one online is anonymous when it comes to social networking and gaming,

and no one has the right to make you do something you know you're not supposed to be doing. And we can make your pain stop because we can trace it. Rich Vistocchi is talking about how this case was cracked wide open. John DeMay, Jennifer Buda, the mom and dad of Jordan. Most of these transactions were through Apple Pay or Zelle. Was that how it was traced in Jordan's case? Correct. In Jordan's case, it was an Apple Pay to a United States bank account.

And then, unfortunately, these extortionists need players in the United States because you can't just send American currency to Nigeria. It has to be converted. So typically what's happening is the money's coming in through Apple Pay Zelle and then it goes into a bank account. The bank account then uploads it into a crypto wallet through a crypto exchange, United States Exchange, and then it's converted into Bitcoin or some sort of cryptocurrency.

Then it's easily transferred into any wallet on the planet and then the receiving end of that crypto wallet, our case in Nigeria, they were able to run it through an exchange in Nigeria and convert that cryptocurrency back into their own home currency. Today, I'm announcing a separate but related case charging five individuals, all U.S. citizens located in the United States now and at the time of the alleged criminal activity. These individuals, we allege, facilitated this extortion scheme by receiving payments from the victims and transferring the money to Nigeria, ultimately to those carrying out the scheme that resulted in the death of Jordan DeMay and victimized many others.

That is the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Mark Totten, speaking about the arrests in the last hours. Part of a Nigerian sextortion gang sentenced to hard jail time, nearly 20 years behind bars in a U.S. federal prison, guilty to sexually extorting teen boys all across the U.S., including a teen boy, just 17 years old, Jordan DeMay from Michigan. Hard jail time for two of the men, part of a bigger conspiracy, including American citizens to sextort, sexually extort, teen boys and girls across the country. Nearly 20 years. Frankly, I'm glad they caught them, but I don't think 20 years is enough. But can I talk about the reality to John and Jennifer? All of this happened in just six

hours from the time your baby got this message, the first message from Danny, six hours later, he was gone. He was gone from this earth and in heaven to six hours, John. That's right. And there's two dozen parents and families that I know that I speak with that have lost their children to sex torsion. And a lot of their stories are very similar. These all these young boys and some girls, we could put them all in the same room together. And they could all be brothers and sisters. And the the feed on them. And, you know, it's a tragedy. Jennifer, it's so hard to take in that all you've raised him for years, 18 years. And in six hours, you lose him. They took one of the most precious things to me.

And on that day, part of me left this earth too. And there's always going to be an emptiness and a heaviness, not having Jordan here with me. To Elizabeth Peterson, joining us us WLUC TV6, it's so difficult to hear John and Jennifer talk about how much they love Jordan and how everything changed in just a few hours. This investigation turned on its ear and it got to be very extensive and much bigger than anyone imagined. Yeah, it really, you know, as I've been covering this for a couple of years now and I've gotten to know Jennifer and John and I've listened to the community talk about who Jordan was. Everyone explains him as this big, big presence, this big spirit. And I think as we look at this investigation and see how big

it's gotten, the reach that it's gotten, his story is being told not just here in Michigan, but across the country, across the world. And every time it's told, there's an opportunity there for us as parents, for us as the community, for us as legislators, law enforcement, across the board to do better, to do right by Jordan, by his family. And I think that's exactly what's happening. And I can't help but think that, you know, it's hard for us as adults sometimes, I think, to relate to a 16-year-old and what they're thinking, what they're feeling. But they haven't lived life yet. They haven't matured yet. They don't have that wherewithal to say, you know what, in a year, I'm going to look back on this and laugh.

And so as adults, we can't understand, but we can open that open space. You know what, that's a really good point, Elizabeth, as is true in so many suicides. To you, Jennifer Buta, Jordan's mother, if they could just get through that one dark moment. Yeah. If he had just made it through the night, the next morning, everything is different. Explain. Absolutely. You know, their brains aren't developed enough to see past that very moment.

They're just seeing what's in front of them right now and how devastating this is and how they might have hurt someone or disappointed someone. very moment, they're just seeing what's in front of them right now and how devastating this is and how they might have hurt someone or disappointed someone. I actually had a teenager reach out to me yesterday and say, this is happening to me and because of Jordan's story, I know that this is going to pass. And that brought tears to me knowing that sharing Jordan's story is helping others and it is saving lives. Jordan DeMay, a teen, literally just king of the world, his life in front of him, commits suicide because of a sextortion plot against him. And it's happening to teens all over our country. I want you to hear what Danny the cute girl he thought he was talking to said. Dude, now goodbye. Enjoy your miserable life. And victim two says, why? And Danny, I'll make this go viral. I'll make you regret your life. I'll make you commit suicide.

I promise you, I swear. That is what these teens are up against. They think they're going to get ridiculed, shamed, shunned, bullied, mistreated, grounded by parents, friends, family, and they feel they have no other choice. Very quickly, Dr. William Maroney has conducted so many autopsies on teen suicide victims. Your message? My message is that we need to have resilience coming from the parents, but we also need the taxpayers to hear that message in the schools because the kids spend so much time in school that the schools should redirect children back to their parents for questions and there should be early education about feeling insecure and suicide and downplay those messages in the media and refer

children back to communication with their parents. That's exactly what you do, Rich Wistocki, train in schools. Yeah, we need to be teaching parents how to have that technology talk because so many times parents say, if you do this, if you do that, we're going to do this to you, we're going to do that to you, and that shuts down the communications. Instead, I teach something called the golden ticket, and we need to have parents give that kid a pass, because parents are responsible for their kid's technology, and we need to do a better job allowing no matter what you do, we are here for you, and we will fix it for you. You don't have to suffer in silence. And what is so ironic to Jennifer and John, Jordan's mom and dad, Jordan was not under any threat.

Like you hear parents saying, hey, I'm going to take away your car keys. I'm going to take away your cell phone if you fill in the blank. This boy, Jordan, this was a prison of his own making out of fear, embarrassment, not because you had disciplined him or fussed at him about being online, but because of what the defendants did. Grown men in the U.S. and Nigeria targeting this teen boy in the middle of the night. Jennifer, you guys did everything right. And parents need to know that too. You can do everything right. And you still have a hard time protecting your child online. Yeah. Jordan had a loving family. He had a great life, a huge support system within his friends in this community. And he was just the target that night. And they were relentless and did not give up until Jordan finally took his own life

because he couldn't take the pressure. And I think it's so important for parents to hear Jordan's story and sit down with their families and have open conversations about what happened and that there's absolutely nothing that they can't come to you with for help because people want to help you if you see yourself going down that tunnel. John DeMay, Jordan's dad, I want to tell you how you've affected my family, you and Jennifer and Jordan. When you first told me about Jordan, I pulled up Jordan's picture online on my iPad and I blew it up and I waited for the twins, my children to come home from school. They sat down. We had no conversation, which we normally do. And I held up the picture. I said, you see this boy, he's a star football player. He was going to go to college. He's dead. And this is

what happened. This is what happened. And now his mom and dad don't have him any more. And I told them point blank what happened. Please help us, John, help all the parents listening right now. What is your message? I think the most important thing really is kind of elementary, but it just boils down to we have to really watch what our kids are doing on devices and specifically social media. One thing that I think is really important, and as a detective touched on it, was having a device in their bedrooms in secluded areas at night without other people around. I think that's a really bad recipe, especially when something like this goes down. There's no way for anybody to intervene. So I think parents need to be really, really cognizant about that. Keep the devices in open areas, keep them out of their bedrooms, put them on the phone chargers, put them away at night. And then speaking to their

kids and having the conversation, this is stuff that's really happening. Look at Jordan's story. This thing is real. There's people from other parts of the world that came into my house and murdered my son that night. And there's 11 people in custody right now because of it. So this this isn't something that just is a whim. There's two dozen other families and there's probably thousands, if not tens of thousands, maybe even millions of kids that are being affected by this to some level. So we have to be diligent parents and pay attention to what's happening and be a little bit more strict and forthcoming with the phone usage. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Nearly 20 years hard prison time for two Nigerian brothers after the suicide of an incredible young man, a teen boy, Jordan Demay.

John Demay is with me. This is Jordan's dad. What is your recollection of that night and the following morning when Jordan lost his life? The night before was pretty normal, chaotic, trying to get everything ready to leave on vacation for two weeks kind of night as anybody with three kids and two dogs is trying to do. So it was a pretty normal evening in that sense. Obviously, in the morning, I woke up. um, my two younger girls were getting up, uh, and my wife had gotten up and we're just kind of milling around trying to get ready for the day. And, uh, uh, Jennifer Jordan's mother had sent me a text

message and asked me if Jordan, uh, was, um, you know, if he was still home. And at that point it was like 7.30 in the morning, which was really strange. And I looked out the window and I saw, I saw his car still in the driveway. And I thought that was awfully strange because he never misses school, ever. So at that point I went downstairs to his bedroom. I opened up the door, I went downstairs to his bedroom. I opened up the door, and I found him in his bedroom.

I guess when you first saw him, you couldn't believe it. I was stunned, shocked, numb. My whole body was just failing me. I could barely stand up. Oh, Mr. DeMay, I'm so sorry. I guess every person listening to your voice right now is thinking of that moment. They go in and my daughter sets a clock and I can hear it. It sounds like some kind of a sitar, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, playing some kind of song. Some ungodly early hour she gets up and I always go in and check on her in case she goes back to sleep.

Then my son could sleep through a Mack truck coming through his window and I have to go literally get him up and I've done it a million times. I'm just thinking about that moment when you open the door and you see him. What did you do? I just stood at his feet and started shaking and I think I wasn't even trying to talk to him like, why Jordan? Why? What happened? And I remember I just slowly turned around and slowly walked back upstairs and my wife and my two and my one daughter was sitting on the couch.

And I told my wife that Jordan shot himself and my youngest daughter freaked out and my wife freaked out. And everything started to happen from there. Life changed that morning. Mr. DeMay, what do you mean life changed that morning? I mean, obviously losing a child is the worst thing that can, one of the worst things that can happen to anybody. But it sent a lot of, well, it started a lot of different things in our life, personally, outside from learning about this extortion

and going public and doing all those great things. But, you know, we lived in a home that was going to be our forever home that we never went back to that night after that date. We went back to finish things, but we ended up putting on the market shortly after sold it. And now we're building a new home. So just things like that and the way we interact with our kids and the way that we, you know, just go about daily lives, there's, it's just, um, it's just a different, it's a different world for us. And, you know, Jordan's always in our, in our thoughts and how we, in how we navigate the world. And, and it's even heightened more now with, with being able to come forward with what happened and share the story and

really create this message that Jordan would be proud of as well. Mr. DeMay, what is your message? Our message is there are a lot of folks, and we talked a little bit here with some very professional people about the suicide and the rates and it's it's actually absolutely tragic uh to see to hear that those numbers are so high um but you know let's be honest you know social media is not doing any favors for anyone not children certainly and not adults um and i think the message needs to be that um for parents it needs to be we need to pay more attention to what's happening online and start understanding a little bit more. And for kids, younger people, I shouldn't say kids, young people and young adults even need to understand the nature of what social media is doing to you mentally.

Just in our story is so left field. I mean, it's, it doesn't happen to everybody, right? But let's boil it down into simple things. You know, I'm sure you've had a lot of podcasts about bullying and body shaming these young ladies and trying to get likes and feel goods and all the things. I mean, all that stuff is not healthy. It's just not healthy for people at all. So I think the message needs to be we need to slow down with that stuff. I think we need to go back to having real relationships with people, having real conversations, trying to get young people away from sending pictures and messages as sexual content. Have real relationships with people. Be out and about.

Be alive. Enjoy the air. Look around. But at the end of the day, we have to tell people that if things happen, you know, it's not the end of the world either. You know, Jordan, Jordan's story is, is so tragic. And this is something that probably would have, would have been laughing about in 10 or 15 years after he's graduated college and gotten married and had kids and bought his first home and, you know, got a career job and did all the things, you'd look back and kind of like, that was stupid, right? But in that moment, you can't. They're not old enough to

understand. They're not developed enough to understand that with their life as they know it in that moment, that may be over. In their world, they don't understand that tomorrow you're going to feel better and when you just said mr demay that one day when he you know graduated and gets married he's buying his first house that you would laugh about a nudie that he took when he was 17 just i know you talked to him i know you talk to him. I know you talk to him because I talk to my dad all the time. What do you say to Jordan now? I try to talk to Jordan just about daily stuff, how his sisters are doing and what we're up to and things that we've done that we wish he would have been part of. You know, it just, it helps keep the,

keep the message alive and keep Jordan live and helps us heal, helps us move on. Do you ever feel that he answers you in some way? I do. I think, I think that's natural for those feelings. I oftentimes great things happen and, and, you know, I do. I think that's natural for those feelings. Oftentimes, great things happen and you'll get a rush of wind or the rain will just suddenly stop and it'll be a beautiful rainbow. Those weird things that just happen in those moments, sometimes you just feel that presence.

It's hard. It's good. It's refreshing. But I think those are the wins. Those are the good feels that we need to hold on to to keep us strong and keep our head up and keep pushing forward with everything. I hope and pray that your message is furthered today. If you or someone you know believe that you are or have been or currently a victim of sextortion, toll free 800-225-4324. Repeat, 800-225-4324. That's 1-800-CALL-FBI. And if you are considering or thinking about committing suicide, please text 988. Just text 988. Just text 988 or dial toll free 800-273-8255. 988 text or 800-273-8255.

Because I promise you, if you can get through that dark hour and see the sunrise the next morning, you'll change your mind. 20 years behind bars. Some consolation. Our prayers for the family of Jordan DeMay. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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