Horrific Teen Death: “They Say It’s Suicide, But It’s 100% Murder!”

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A really sad and disturbing story to share with you…

I wish I wasn’t covering it, but I’m going to use this platform to reach out and help and save as many people as possible.

In a horrifying story, a West Virginia teen committed suicide just three hours after being subjected to online “sextortion.” Tragic and this should never have happened.

NY Post Shared heartbreaking details:

The afternoon that 15-year-old Bryce Tate was sexually assaulted started out normal Thursday.

Cross Lanes, W. V.A. The sophomore came home from the gym on Nov. 6, wolfed down a plate of tacos prepared by his mom, then went outside to shoot hoops. At 4:37 pm he received a text message from a strange number.

Three hours later, Bryce is found in his father’s cave – dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“They say it’s suicide, but in my book it’s 100% murder,” Bryce’s father Adam Tate told The Post. “In my opinion, they are godless monsters. Absolutely cowardly, terrible people, worse than criminals.”

According to his father, Bryce was apparently the latest victim of a vicious sextortion scheme targeting teenage boys — one that law enforcement says is growing.

A representative for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told The Post that the group tracked more than 33,000 reports of child sexual abuse in 2024 alone — about the same number recorded in the first six months of this year.

Online scammers scour a teen’s public social media profiles to learn more about them, then pose as a flirtatious partner.

Adam said, “They treated me like a local 17-year-old girl. They knew what gym he worked out at, they knew some of his best friends and passed along their names. They knew he played basketball for Nitro High School.” “He built up his trust to the point where he believed this was actually someone in the area.”

Reportedly within three hours of receiving the first threatening text message, Bryce had shot himself.

The post explained that the photos Bryce found were not AI-generated, but were likely of a real girl, another victim.

The scammers then ask for illicit photos in return and once they have the photos, they extort money from the victim by threatening to reveal the photos to family and friends.

For Bryce, that amount was $500.

“My son had $30 and he said, ‘Sir, I’ll give you my last $30.’ And these cowards will not tolerate this,’ a tearful Adam said, telling The Post about his son’s final incident.

Adam Tate said of the scammer who allegedly lured his son online, “They acted like a local 17-year-old girl. They knew what gym he worked out at, they knew some of his best friends and they took down his name. They knew he played basketball for Nitro High School.”

“The FBI has seen a huge increase in the number of sextortion cases, in which children and teens are being bullied and forced to send explicit photos online,” FBI public affairs specialist Bradford Eric told The Post about the cases.

If the target doesn’t have money to send via gift cards, cryptocurrencies or untraceable methods like apps like Cash App or Venmo, the extortionists threaten violence and, in Bryce’s alleged case, encourage the victim to kill themselves “because your life is already over.”

In the last 20 minutes of Bryce’s life, he was texted 120 times, a tactic to keep the teen engaged — “creating a tunnel vision where you can’t set your phone down,” Adam said authorities told him.

Now, I told you I’m sharing this because I want to help prevent this from happening to anyone else.

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So here’s the part…

Please help me reach this to all of you.

Share with friends, family, everyone!

Let’s save lives and prevent this from happening to another person!

Here’s exactly what you need to do – do it now:

If you have children or grandchildren, change these settings now!

Why is a large old photo of John Rich the main image in this article?

Because all credit for this article and the life-saving tips I’m about to show you goes to him.

Here’s a quick summary… A few months ago, John Rich attended a small local event where some DHS agents were explaining how perverts groom children online and then eventually meet with them and molest them. Or even kidnap them.

And we’re not just talking about a few events, we’re talking thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of times every year.

As John Rich says, as parents we will never let anyone come into our house and do whatever they want with our family, we will fight them or shoot them on the spot!

But that’s exactly what we do by giving them phones, iPads, and social media. And most parents and grandparents have no idea this is happening.

After learning of this and being impressed by its scope and depravity, Rich immediately teamed up with DHS to get it out to their larger audience (Bravo sir, I have so much respect for you!) and now I’m going to partner with both Rich and DHS to help get this message out to our 5+ million monthly readers!

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Please help me by sharing this far and wide in your network!

Below are two links where you can watch the full presentation on X or YouTube (whichever is your preference) and then since I know not everyone has an hour to watch a video, below I’m going to put a summary of the cliff notes on what you can change immediately (a checklist).

Don’t do it tomorrow, do it now!

View on X:

Watch on YouTube:

Now here is your summary checklist:

The live stream you just shared is the entire December 3, 2025 broadcast, hosted by country singer John Rich along with DHS Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Dennis Fetting (23+ years fighting child exploitation) and opening remarks from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

It has already become one of the most-viewed child-online-safety presentations in American history (hundreds of thousands of views live, now many millions of views across all platforms).

Here are the key tips and immediate actions every parent, grandparent or teen needs to take tonight (they’re all free and only take a few minutes):

Immediate 5 minute protective action

(Do this tonight – literally right now)

Make every social-media account private

Instagram → Settings → Account Privacy → Private Account
tiktok → Profile → Settings & Privacy → Privacy → Private Account
snapchat → Profile → Settings → “Who can contact me” → Only my friends

Remove strangers from followers/friends list

Sit down with your child and go line by line:
“Do you know this person in real life?” → If No → Delete/Block

Turn off location services on camera (A photo stops predators from getting the exact address of your home)

iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera → Never
Android: Settings → Location → App Permissions → Camera → Deny

Turn off Snap Map/Ghost Mode on Snapchat

Snapchat → Snap Map → Gear icon → Ghost Mode = On (no one sees real-time location)

Use Apple Family Sharing or Google Family Link So parents can control app downloads, screen time, and remotely approve/reject apps.

biggest red flags

(Beauty and Extortion)

The unknown “friend” gives gifts, Robux, V-Bucks, skins, money, etc.
Anyone asking to move away from gaming platforms to Instagram/Snapchat/Discord/Kik
Anyone asking for photos (even “harmless”) or turning on a webcam
Sudden mood change, hiding the phone, depression, fear of losing the phone

If your child is currently being sexually abused:

Don’t Pay (It Never Stops)
Block account immediately
Do not delete anything (evidence)
Tell a trusted adult → Call the HSI Tip Line at 1-866-347-2423 or visit Know2protect.gov and report

resources (Bookmark these tonight)

Know2protect.gov – DHS official hub (request videos, tip sheets, live agent presentations)
Report directly to Homeland Security: 1-866-347-2423
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or report.cybertip.org
Take It Down service (helps remove leaked nude photos): takeitdown.ncmec.org

This isn’t about scaring parents – it’s about simple, free, 5-minute solutions that make your child a “hard target” that predators simply give up on and move on.

Thousands of families who watched the stream shut everything down that same night and later wrote that their children actually thanked them after realizing the danger.

You now have the exact playbook that predators use and the exact playbook law enforcement uses to stop them.

Take out 10-15 minutes tonight and protect your children. Then repost/share the video so all the other parents you know can do the same.

I will end with this…

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On a related note, Rich got so excited about this that he wrote a new song called “The Righteous Hunter” and let’s just say it’s amazing!

See here:

And their second song that’s going viral right now is called “Revelation,” which is, as you might expect.

See here:

Also like this version:

Please share this article everywhere possible.

Thank you!

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