If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA: A sextortionist reportedly sent a message to a South Carolina lawmaker after driving his son into taking his own life by threatening to publish his naked pictures. South Carolina State Representative Brandon Guffey's son, Gavin, unknowingly fell victim to sexual extortion, frequently referred to as "sextortion," a crime the FBI warned was increasingly targeting young boys.
The message, which was sent to Guffey, was accompanied by an emoji of a grinning face and read, "Did I tell you your son begged for his life," according to CNN. According to a new safety advisory released in collaboration with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, sextortion crimes increased in 2022 and it was a factor in an alarming number of suicides nationally.
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In April, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to enact a state bill that would make sexual extortion a crime the kind of swindle that killed his son illegal. Under this bill, anybody who extorts a minor or an at-risk adult in this way will face five years in prison for the first time they commit the offence.
How did Gavin Guffey die?
Gavin died by suicide in July 2022, shortly after graduating from high school. He had fallen victim to the scam, in which conmen pretended to be girls and convinced the 17-year-old to send an intimate picture. Later, they demanded money to not release it. In addition to pleading for additional time, Gavin had given them $25, all he had in his Venmo account. However, it wasn't sufficient. He shot himself at his family's residence in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on July 27, 2022.
Six months later, his father, who became State House Representative, had briefly thought about leaving, but he did not as he pledged to help save other youngsters from the same crime. Guffey dons Gavin's white Vans, which have a Spider-Man sketch on them when he needs an energy boost. He said, "I feel like he (Gavin) would want me trying to save additional kids from ever having to feel the way that he felt at that time." He added the shoes gave him a sense of invincibility.
Gavin texted his younger brother and a few of his friends before he ended his life in the bathroom at home. It had a heart-shaped love symbol on a dark black ground. As per his father, the noise resembled someone slamming a bowling ball to the floor. The grieving family tried desperately to figure out why their son had killed himself and looked for any warning signs they might have overlooked. It was then that they discovered what had happened, per the Daily Mail.
'Did I tell you your son begged for his life?'
In the weeks after Gavin's death, the con artists then focused on the teenager's family, bombarding them with Instagram messages and threatening to disclose the naked photographs unless they were paid. The fraudsters sent the family a message on August 20, 2022, which would have been Gavin's birthday, saying, "Did I tell you your son begged for his life." An FBI spokeswoman in Columbia, South Carolina, told CNN that almost a year later, no arrests had been made and no additional information has been made public.
Gavin's family is still haunted by the tragedy. Guffey remembers cuddling his son as he thought the boy had fallen and struck his head in the bathroom. He recalls smelling the gunpowder and seeing his revolver lying on the ground. He said he won't ever forget the hurt and bewilderment he felt upon learning that his son had killed himself. "I was a basket case, I didn't know what to do," he said, adding, "My initial thought was, this is my fault -- I left the gun out," per ABC7.
