Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen Boy Dead After Exchanging Nude Photos Online.

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

By all accounts, Jordan DeMay was a well-liked, sports star at his Michigan high school. The 17-year-old committed suicide last week, just hours after someone demanded money to keep a compromising photo from being sent to his parents and friends. The extortionists initially contacted DeMay over a fake social media account, posing as a teen girl who sent him a nude picture. Jordan reciprocated. The photo then became the center of a sextortion scam. The perpetrator pressured DeMay to pay to keep the photo private. The teen sent $300. The perpetrator wanted more. Police say the entire sequence of events appeared to have taken about six hours, until deputies responded to the DeMay home just after 7:30 a.m.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Dr. Justin Patchin, Ph.D. - Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, Author: "Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying”, justinpatchin.com Dan Ellis - Attorney, Herman Law (New York and Florida) Specializing in victims of sexual abuse and harassment, Hermanlaw.com, Instagram: @Dan_Ellis_Esq. Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, (Atlanta GA) www.angelaarnoldmd.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital Dr. Michelle DuPre - Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff's Department, Author: "Homicide Investigation Field Guide" & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide", Forensic Consultant DMichelleDupreMD.com Lowell A. Larson, Jr. - Detective/Lieutenant, Marquette County Sheriff's Office Kendall Bunch - Evening Anchor/MMJ, WLUC-TV6 uppermichiganssource.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A teen boy, beloved by all of his classmates, everyone in the school, the teachers, the principal, his family, most of all, is dead. By suicide. But why? A warning to all parents. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Take a listen to this. It's all short or they're almost going to break it. And throw it a little pop pass. That's picked off going the other way. Jordan DeMay read it perfectly. That's a pick six. First turnover of the game, Jordan DeMay.

He was an all-American teenager. The homecoming king, beloved by his classmates. This is one of those cases that I will remember the rest of my life. It happened when Jordan received a message on his Twitter account that appeared to come from a beautiful teenager who said she wanted to be his friend. She even asked him to send her a naughty photo. He was suspicious and even asked if it was a scam. Assured it wasn't, he sent the photo. He was suspicious and even asked if it was a scam. Assured it wasn't,

he sent the photo. Right away, Jordan realized he was being blackmailed. They threatened to send the photo to his family and all his friends at school. He had to get money. They told him $1,000. He said, I don't have that. How much do you have? $300. We'll get rid of everything, Send that $300. So he sent it. It didn't stop. It just breaks my heart. This teen boy with his whole world in front of him, basically tricked into suicide. Why and how can we protect our children? Just think about it. Think about your child, your baby. Think about your niece, your nephew, your grandchild. What if this happened to them? What if your tween girl, say 12 years old, was tricked into sending a nude shot or a topless shot to somebody she thinks is her own age. Nobody will ever find out. Mom will never know. And then they try to extort

money out of her, her frantic search to find money. How will I get it? How will I send it? Will my mom find out? Will my dad find out what's going to happen? What if they send this picture to my friends at school? What's going to happen? And like this little boy thought there was no way out but suicide. And now his parents are forever without him. Can you even imagine what they're going through right now? It's nothing we want to talk about, but it's something we have to confront. Why? So it won't happen to our children or anybody else's children. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now.

Who did this thing to Jordan John DeMay? With me, Dr. Justin Patchen, Ph.D., Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and co-founder of the Cyber Bullying Research Center. He is also the author of Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard. Dan Ellis, attorney with Herman Law in New York and Florida, specializing in victims of sex abuse and harassment. Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist joining us from the Atlanta jurisdiction. You can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Dr. Michelle Dupree, longtime friend and colleague, forensic pathologist, medical examiner, detective, and author of the Homicide Investigation Field Guide and Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide. Lowell A. Larson, Jr., Detective Lieutenant, Marquette County Sheriff's Office, and Kendall Bunch. Special guests joining us, Lowell and Kendall.

Kendall Bunch, Evening Anchor, WLUC-TV6. Kendall, I can hardly take it in. Tell me what happened. How was this boy discovered dead? So his parents, they were in the house. Jordan took his own life in his own home. They found his body and called the police. There are many modes of death.

There's accident, homicide, natural causes, undetermined, and suicide. A cause of death would be, for instance, gunshot wound, drowning. What was this little boy's cause of death, Kendall? So when I talked to the sheriff, Sheriff Greg Viber, Marquette County Sheriff, he didn't disclose that information for me because of how this case is still under investigation. There's just some information that he wouldn't disclose to me. Kendall Bunch is joining me, special guest, the evening anchor, WLUCTV6. Kendall, tell me, where did this happen? This is Marquette, Michigan. Is it rural? Is it urban? Is it suburban? What is it? Marquette, Michigan is in rural is it urban is it suburban well what is it Marquette Michigan um is in the UP upper Michigan um the UP upper peninsula is considered a rural area now you know what's

interesting about that Kendall bunch and I'm so glad you said that because there is an incorrect stereotype. Well, of course, all stereotypes are incorrect. There is a stereotype that crime cannot happen in a rural area, and that is absolutely not true. My fiancé was murdered in a rural area. There's nothing as far as the eye could see. He was out on a construction site, working construction, and left to go get soft drinks and came back in and somebody shot him in the middle of nowhere. So I'm glad you're bringing that up, Kendall Bunch. Let me go to

Lowell A. Larson Jr., Detective Lieutenant, Marquette County Sheriff's Office. Lieutenant Larson, can you back me up on that or do you disagree? People wrongly think crime is not going to happen. It's not going to touch your lives in rural areas. We see people from the city move to rural areas because the crime may be lower. The crime rate may be lower, but it reaches everywhere. Absolutely. Crime has no borders. And now when you mix in technology, you are now potentially a victim for anyone in the world. That's a really good point. And it can occur very quickly. I mean, before we talked about communities and trying to make our communities safe.

But now with these devices in our hands, we can communicate with anyone across the world. We can send them money. We can do it all on a very fast timeline where no one has time to think. Just like in this case. Guys, we were talking about the death of a beautiful young boy, a teen boy. And we started our program with sound of the Michigan High School Athletic Association sports, where Jordan DeMay did it again. It's picked off.

It's going the other way. Jordan DeMay read it perfectly. That's pick six. Talking about Jordan DeMay getting a turnover, the first turnover of the game. And now he's dead. It's hard to say he's dead when you're talking about a teen boy. In every picture, it just gave me chills because in every picture, I put my, as I call him, big boy, who's now 6'6". Did you know that, Jackie? He's 6'6". He's 14. He's in the middle of every picture with his arm around his sister.

And I look at those pictures, and my husband David and I are on either side, and we are just beaming. We're so proud of John David and Lucy. Just I can't keep it in. And in every picture of him with his family, they're just beaming. They're so proud of this boy. Then you're hearing our friend Les Trent at Inside Edition talking about his death. Take a listen to our cut eight, Les Trent.

The pressure kept up to send more money. He said, you win. I'm going to kill myself. And they're like, go ahead. So they actually responded when he said that he was going to kill himself. They responded, go ahead. Yes. From the time Jordan got the message until his death, just six hours had passed. Sheriff Greg Zybert has a message for teens. This can happen to you. And if it does, you need to reach out.

It's not the end of the world. It's not worth taking your life. You know, to Dr. Justin Patchen joining us, author of Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard, when you're hearing the words, it's not the end of the world, from the sheriff, of course, us saying it's not the end of the world from the sheriff. Of course, us saying it's not the end of the world because we're adults. But for teens or tweens, it feels like the end of the world. Yeah, it does because this is our lives. And unfortunately, when it comes to these explicit images, we've been telling teens now for 15 years, if you share these images, you're peddling in child pornography. So now kids share these images and then people have a lot of control over them

because they can't turn to the police because they're afraid if they go to the police, they're going to be arrested for the image that they shared. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, I think that to you, Lowell Larson, Jr., and everybody on the panel, this is not a tea party. We're not at Windsor Castle with Queen Elizabeth. So jump in when you have a thought. I can't read your mind over the airwaves. Talking to you, Dr. Angie Arnold, because I know you've got plenty. At least Dr. Michelle Dupree will wait her turn.

Don't wait your turn. Jump in. Lola Larson, I don't think that this boy, of course, what Dr. Justin Patchen just said is absolutely correct. Of course, they're afraid. They're afraid to go to the police because they know they did something, quote, wrong. But I don't know that they think the words, wow, I just peddled child pornography. I don't think those words seep in. But they know they did something, quote, unquote, wrong.

But I think it's the fear and the shame. I mean, if somebody got a hold of a naked picture of me, which Jackie, just so you know, I don't know one that exists ever, but let's just pretend there was, I would be mortified, mortified. Imagine how a child would feel. Oh, do you remember when Erin Andrews, she's gorgeous, some perv spied on her through the peephole at her hotel when she was working, and she was mortified. She said she went into a funk, was just laying around her house. I think her parents talked her out of it. She was devastated, and that is a grown woman, much less a child.

Lowell Larson Jr., Lieutenant Larson, tell me when you first got the call and your involvement in the case chronologically. Yeah, actually, I'd like to back up real quickly. I wanted to touch on a point of, I think we have to change the narrative a little bit as we talk about we often tell juveniles or kids not to do these types of things but we stop right there I think we also need to have the conversation but if you do you have to be able to trust your parents or or someone else to go to and help you out with the situation you know what you're're right. We don't want people thinking, I just produced child pornography, and I don't know of a prosecutor in the country

that would prosecute something when you have a situation like this and they got themselves in a bad situation. I don't know a prosecutor in the country that would try to prosecute a case like that. So I think it's very important for us to change that narrative and make sure we spread the message that if you get yourself into a problem, and it's not just about sexortion, any type of problem, that suicide is not the answer and that you need to be able to go to people for help.

I've told mine a million times, Lieutenant Larson. If you do something wrong, it doesn't matter. Just tell me. We'll deal with it. We'll deal with the consequences. And I'm on your side. And I don't care what you do. Of course, I don't want you to do anything wrong.

But if something happens and you end up doing something wrong, whether it's your fault or it's not your fault I'm on your side I'm behind you 300% we will get through it I promise Nancy I think that we also have to always I'm just so upset dr. Angie because we're talking about Jordan to me but I keep putting my my son and my daughter's head on his body and thinking about. Of course you do. They're so close in age. And we never, Nancy, we never really know what our kids are thinking. We never know what they're thinking. And oftentimes they're not even honest with us if we try to grill them and talk to them about what they're thinking. But as parents, we always have to

remember these kids that are 17, 18 years old, their little brains are not fully developed. So they're still very concrete. Oh my gosh, I did this horrible thing. There's no way out. I'm going to kill myself. And I see it as a terrible culmination of there's so much out there in the world right now about suicide. There are movies. There are TV shows. They can get their hands on everything about suicide. And then we also have this, oh, my God, oh, my God, are you dealing in child pornography? These two things come together in their undeveloped mind and they think that suicide

is the only way out of this they're so ashamed and so embarrassed so i want to circle back to where we were lieutenant larson tell me about your involvement with the case when you first got the call what happened well you hear it over the radio um and that there was the age and was told that it was a suicide and your heart just sinks. And looked at my partner and we grabbed the camera, our big camera that we use for scenes and went together and went to the scene. And, you know, I've been to these scenes before and and you just, it's just very uncomfortable to be there. But, you know, you got a job that you got to do. Very difficult when I would go to crime scenes and still do to separate your job, what you're there to do, with your emotions. Was his family there when you got there?

Yes. Yes. How are they doing now? Um, I, I really don't know how you can, uh, say how they're doing. I, I can't put myself in their shoes. Um, I can only guess. Um, but, uh, the funeral was just, uh, last week. Um, and there's just a tremendous outpouring from the community. And I believe as of right now, they're very happy that they've come forward with the information on the case to potentially save others. A Marquette Township boy is dead. The community mourning the death of a high school senior. Investigators believe just hours before teen boy Jordan DeMay died, he was the victim of blackmail through social media.

I want to go out to a special guest joining us, Dr. Justin Patch. And I understand that he received a picture of a girl his age. And everybody correct me if I'm wrong. She may have sent him or someone sent him a naked or partially naked photo of a girl. And said, hey, send me a naughty photo. So at first he was suspicious. But because he got a semi-naked photo of a girl, he thought, oh, hey, send me a naughty photo. So at first he was suspicious, but because he got a semi-naked photo of a girl, he thought, oh, okay, this is real. It's not some 65-year-old guy in another

country trying to get a naked photo of me. This is real. Is that typically how it happens, Dr. Patchen? That is typically how it happens. And in our research, we've actually surveyed over 5,000 middle and high school students in 2016, and we did it again in 2019. And we found that about 5% of these kids have experienced sextortion. And that's a big number when you think about the millions of kids. And most of the time, they share an image with somebody they know, a friend or a former romantic partner or romantic interest. And then it turns negative and that person asks for more or money or threatens to share it. But then there are some times where it's just somebody they meet online. You know that this scenario is less common now because of the availability of sort of video chat.

And so when these kinds of exchanges are made, sometimes they'll get on video chat so you can kind of see who it is versus being, you know, some random person in a foreign country. But it's just heartbreaking. You know, Dan Ellis, another fact here to throw in, everybody, Dan Ellis, attorney with Herman Law. They practice all around the country at hermanlaw.com. He specializes in victims of abuse and harassment. In this case, Jordan actually sent some money to the perp to try to stop the perp from sending out the naked photo of him. But believe it or not, just hours after Jordan's death, we have learned one of his friends got the photo.

The perp actually did send out the semi-naked photos of Jordan. They did it. Yeah, that's absolutely right, Nancy. And, you know, there's the old cliche that you can't negotiate with terrorists. And when it comes to cases of extortion, it's really difficult, but you can't give in to the extortionist demands. You must report it to the police or an adult that you trust immediately because there's no amount of money you can pay.

There's nothing you can do to get them to stop once they have their claws in you. You really just become a human ATM machine for these criminals. So that's why education is so important in these cases, and kids need to know that if they are the victim of a crime, they need to report it immediately. And the reality is once you put it on the Internet, it's there. One of the twins' little friends that had gone off to another school, we heard from like three years later, and she was just a little girl, had sent somebody a naked photo, and it was everybody in the whole community now knows that she sent a naked

photo it's just Nancy you know that once you put it out there it's out there Nancy the problem is these kids are believing that that's not the case with the photos staying out there on the internet because they utilize snapchat they believe that once a person views it it goes away and you will be notified if you screenshot it. So they trust the technology. In this case, they were utilizing Instagram with what's called the vanish mode, meaning that the picture is supposed to disappear after the person views it. Well, a simple hack to get around that is to take another device and you take a picture of the screen. So they often trust

technology thinking that it's not going to stay out there, but people have easy ways to get around that technology. Guys, we are learning that this so-called sextortion plot on a teen ends in his suicide. Take a listen to our friends at WLU CTV six. Jordan tried to avoid the exploitation. He sent them money. He did send the money out and it wasn't enough. They wanted more. These are not empty threats. Money is sent and there is agreement that they will erase all the photos and all the information, but it doesn't happen. Zybert says a friend of Jordan's received one of the compromising photos. The friend contacted Jordan's parents.

Jordan's parents told investigators. crime stories with nancy grace to lieutenant larson lieutenant larson when will the cod be released? That will be with the final medical examiner's report. And I'm not sure if that will be put out in a press release or not. Obviously, we're trying to be mindful of the parents and the loved ones. And so it will be up to the parents if they wish to release them. Kendall Bunce joining us from WLUCTV6. Kendall explain to me how this happened. Was the family at home when he took his life? I know it was early in the morning, and of course, this situation happened over a six-hour time span. Now, we had information, Lieutenant Larson, that this occurred on a Friday night. Is that not correct?

Well, the extortion started, well, the conversation with the suspect started around 10 p.m. on Thursday night, and then it continued into the morning until roughly 3.45 a.m. So I would assume the parents were home and probably asleep. Yes. Another thing I'm trying to figure out. Okay, wait a minute. So you said the texts and so forth started around 10 o'clock on Thursday night, and he was found dead early in the morning? We received a call about 7.30 in the morning on the 25th of Friday. Sounds like they were trying to wake him up to go to school.

Yep. Yeah. Because if you're saying 7.30 and you get the call at 7.30, I mean, just as a mom, when I go in to, of course, Lucy gets up early, but I have to go in and wake up John David. And that sounds like they had just gone in and tried to wake him up. That tells me a lot about the COD cause of death. It tells me they did not know what had happened until they went in to wake him up. Take a listen to our new friend, Kendall Bunch, WLUCTV.

I don't know how they target. This guy was very popular. He was athletic. He looked like homecoming king. Jordan received messages on social media from an account portraying someone else. They target an individual on social media and then they gain their trust over a period of time. Then the victim ultimately sends compromising photos or information about themselves and that's when they key in

on it. It's called sextortion. The perpetrator blackmails the victim into sending money by threatening to send the photos to family, friends, and social media contacts. And they prey off fear, these sextortionists, these predators. Take a listen to Hour Cut 6 from our friend Monique Lopez at Fox 11. Sextortion predators can prey on young children and teens just for explicit photos. In the case of Deme, officials say it was a manipulation to get money, which Demay did send, but it wasn't enough. If they fail the first time, they won't actually do anything about it, right?

All they want is that threat, and they stir up that fear hormone inside people, and they say, you know, I'm going to post it to your friends and your family, and they give them a list of all the websites they're going to use, right? And they'll send screenshots of maybe things that they've already sent to them and say, this is what I'm going to use and send to people. But a lot of times they don't end up sending it out to anybody at all. However, hours after Jordan's death, a friend of Jordan's did actually receive one of the compromising photos.

Back to Kendall Bunch joining us, evening anchor, joining us from Michigan at WLUC-TV6. In this case, Jordan did pay the blackmailers $300, and then they immediately wanted more. How much more did they want, Kendall? They wanted $1,000 from Jordan. You know, I'm just looking at his pictures right now, and it's just heartbreaking. He says, quote, you win. I'm going to kill myself. And their response, Kendall Bunch? Their response was, go ahead.

Go for it. Go ahead. Yep. And this boy did. You know, I'm trying to figure out how this case is going to be cracked to Lieutenant Larson. It seems as if the perp is someone that knew Jordan DeMay, the teen boy. Or was it someone that somehow got access to his friend list? Or could they have gotten that off Instagram?

How do you think the perp got names and contacts of Jordan's to send the photos to? All the information off of Instagram and Facebook was open to the public to view. So the friends list and the follower list are available to just about anyone with access. So that's how it happened. Agree or disagree, Dan Ellison? No, I agree, Nancy. And, you know, it's just become such a growing problem because of the ubiquitousness of social media. And you can commit these crimes from anywhere in the world. Anybody in the world can look up your friends list if you have it open. So scammers are always looking for easy targets. Children become easy targets, especially, you know, unfortunately when they aren't taught social media literacy

and how to protect themselves from predators online. Justin Patchen, it seems to me that the IP address of who IG'd, Instagrammed Jordan could be easily obtained. Is that correct? Probably. Again, it depends on the sophistication of the nature of the attack. Even more than that, every device that connects to the Internet has a unique device ID that can be tracked and so for your run-of-the-mill case like this it is pretty easy for authorities to track down but you know for for every creative person online there are ways to cover their tracks and so my suspicion is with enough resources the

authorities will be able to track back where these threats came from and whether or not we have the ability to hold the offender or offenders accountable remains to be seen. But typically things online can be tracked pretty easily. Lieutenant Larson, how do you crack a case like this? Well, you have to first start with what evidence that you got. Obviously, we've immediately were steered toward Instagram. And so we have to send out requests for Instagram. There's a couple ways you can do it. One under emergency exception, meaning that you believe that someone is in danger, which I attempted and was denied, which I'm still kind of shocked about because I...

Whoa, Instagram denied you? Correct. Because I was under the assumption that this person was also possibly doing this to others. I explained the situation that we already have one suicide due to this account, and they would not give me emergency exceptions. So I obtained a search warrant for the suspect account and put in preservation requests for other information online. So when you deliver a subpoena like that, subpoena duke is taken for documents. A, how long does it take to get the answers?

And B, what do you actually get? Do you get the IP address? A, explain what an IP address is. And then when you get it what can you do with it the well first you have subpoenas and you also have search warrants in this case I did a search warrant so you get you have the ability to get more information including content of that account so when you put in your request you have to be very specific of what you're asking for.

You're looking for registration information, IP addresses, you're looking for content, messages, a whole variety of different things that may assist in the case. The IP address, think of it as a telephone number, I guess maybe this simple way to think of it and your internet traffic gets routed through these different switch points and it gets assigned these different switch points have different IP addresses some of those are dynamic meaning that they're changing all the time other ones are static meaning that they stay locked in at the same IP address all the time. So the IP address will lead you to another location in the internet, and then you have to then do a search

warrant for that location on the internet. And then it's just like an onion, you just keep peeling back the layers and getting more IP addresses. And investigations with this type of case are very heavily laden with search warrants because you're trying to follow the next breadcrumb in the trail. But when you finally do get the information from Instagram, you will see the IP addresses of who was contacting Jordan. And then, like you said, it's like a phone number. Everything, my iPad, my laptop, if you're sending from your cell phone, everything has an address. And that can go straight back to who owns the device, whatever device it may be. And then you find out where that person lives and the rest is really simple from that point on. You just have to get it from Instagram, correct?

Well, that's the starting point, and then it can lead to other places. So, for instance, you have your device, which is going to be assigned a number off your router, and then your internet service provider is going to have an IP address, and then anything else that's within that chain to get to Instagram. So think of a big onion, and you're trying to get to the center, and you've got to just keep peeling back these layers of IP addresses. Dr. Michelle Dupree, joining us, forensic pathologist and medical examiner. Dr. Dupree, we have learned from many, many people that attempted suicide that there is a point where they want to turn back.

But very often, it's too late. They don't have the strength or the ability to turn back. Is that true? Yes, Nancy, that cannot, can be true. And, you know, again, it depends on the person. If they are so determined, they may not have that last minute regret. They may go full force and just do it. In this case, we don't know that yet. There's, there's one thing that I wanted to point out, and that is that, you know, people, whether it's adults or children, when they think about suicide and try to commit it, they think

that there is no other option. They cannot see another choice beyond this. And I think that's where support from family and friends and others can try to help someone in this situation. Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened right here in our own country, where we have hotlines like the Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK. That's 800-273-8255, where there are counselors online 24-7 on hotlines to help you. But still, it's happening, and it's happening to children. To children. I mean, this looks like the all-American family.

They just look so happy with their son, Jordan. The mom and dad had a storybook relationship. Then they have the family, Jordan. The mom and dad had a storybook relationship. Then they have the family, sisters, just one big seemingly happy family. And now it's destroyed. I can't help but wonder if the perp that did this to Jordan was somebody he knew. He's very active in sports. He loved all sports. He played all sports. He was homecoming king. His name was bandied about on radio and sports coverage. Was someone there in the community or the high school jealous of him?

Was this a prank? And then it led to, oh, let's try to get money. Or was it just an internet ghoul preying on a child? Listen to our cut nine. 15 year old Riley Bassford got sex started the day he joined Facebook. The blackmailers demanded $3,500 or they'd spread his provocative photos around town. His parents, Darren and Mary spoke to Inside Edition. I was a 15-year-old boy at one time, and, you know, you get curious, and if some beautiful lady is, you know, texting you. But just like Jordan DeMay, it became too much. Riley shot himself.

Our friends at Inside Edition, and it's not just Riley and Jordan. Girls, too. Take a listen to our Cut 11 from WWNY 7. Shilin Dixon was a farm girl. She was full of life, loved being with the animals, loved being with her friends, loved being on a farm. The Hilton High Junior did sports, hung out with friends, even liked to hang out in trees, made the honor roll at BOCES in criminal justice, knew how to work hard. That's why it was such a shock. Shailene took her own life March 3rd, the victim of an internet blackmailer on Facebook. In a note she

left, she said the blackmailer tricked her into sending embarrassing photos, threatened to send them to classmates and friends I'm just very curious lieutenant Larson do you believe the person that's extorted Jordan knew him I don't believe so why I don't want to get into the details of the investigation but it was very evident when I received the information that he wasn't the only victim in this extortion. So don't say any more, and I respect that you don't want to injure the integrity of the investigation.

Your words could be used against the case. Mine, however, won't. What that little bit, and I'm extrapolating to Dr. Angela Arnold, is that somebody else somewhere got the same photo of the girl. Because the pros don't bother changing photos, which means somebody is targeting kids online, on Insta, on Snapchat, whatever they can see. They're targeting someone of a certain age. Why? Because they are very vulnerable.

Kids that age, I mean, think about it, Nancy. You're 17 years old. In all likelihood, he could be applying to college. Kids are anxious and nervous right now after this whole COVID situation that we've been through. I am seeing it in my practice. I can't keep up with the number of kids that need to come see me. Well, hold on. Teens are anxious and nervous all the time. Yes. All the time. Much less with COVID to boot. Yes. It is an epidemic in itself. This is completely an epidemic in itself. You know, another thing to Dr. Justin Patchen, joining us from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire,

is the teen or the tween, as in many cases, feels like it's so awful they can't tell their parents. They can't tell anybody. That's 100% true. You know, we did a study, and only about a third of the people of the kids, the 12- to 17-year-old kids, only about a third who had experienced sextortion had told either a parent or somebody at school or the police. So many don't tell anybody. Some confide in a friend, but then the friends don't know what to do.

So these kids just feel trapped. And like was talked about earlier, they feel like there's no way out. And that's up to us as adults who care about kids, who work with kids, to express to them that we're here no matter what happens. As you mentioned, Nancy, no matter what them that we're here. No matter what happened, as you mentioned, Nancy, no matter what happens, we're here to help. Guys, we are talking about a teen boy, Jordan John DeMay, that committed suicide after some Internet ghoul sextorted him.

The tip line, 1-800-273-TALK, 1-800-273-8255. Please heed the warning. Jordan DeMay's parents want his story broadcast to warn other families to help them. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye for now. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. with.