‘They’re godless demons’: West Virginia teen found dead after becoming latest victim in vicious sextortion scheme

On November 6, 15-year-old Bryce Tate was found dead in his dad’s man cave. The cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, Bryce’s father insists that this wasn’t a suicide but rather a murder as his son was actually the victim of a predatory sextortion scheme.

Bryce received a text from an unknown number around 4:37pm on Thursday November 6. Around three hours later he was dead according to an article from the New York Post. He is just one of many victims of child sextortion as the number of cases is on the rise with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children claiming that there were 33,000 reports in 2024 alone and just as many in the first half of 2025.

What happened to Bryce Tate?

Adam, Bryce’s father, explained that the scammers had posed as a local 17-year-old girl in order to contact his son. The scammers had scoured social media and found out all they could about the teen so they were pretty convincing.

“They knew which gym he worked out at, they knew a couple of his best friends and name-dropped them. They knew he played basketball for Nitro High School,” Adam explained. He also added, “they built his trust to where he believed that this was truly somebody in this area.”

Bryce had received photos from the supposed girl although it appears they were not A.I. generated but rather they were real photos of another victim of the scammers. The 15-year-old boy was then asked for explicit photos in return. Once the scammers have that they move on to the blackmail phase.

Bryce was asked to send $500 but as he was a young teen he didn’t have that much money. “My son had 30 freaking dollars and he’s like, ‘Sir, I’ll give you my last $30.’ And these cowards wouldn’t take it,” Adam told the post, labeling the extortionists, “godless demons.”

He was bombarded with texts

The exchange between Bryce and the scammers continued with the unknown number threatening to leak the photo of Bryce to his friends and family unless he sent the money through some untraceable method. Threats of violence and encouragement of suicide are also common from extortionists all in an attempt to manipulate the victim as was the case with Bryce.

Prior to his death, the scammers sent 120 texts within the space of 20 minutes which is a common tactic to put pressure on the victim and prevent them from thinking clearly. Unfortunately the vicious tactics were effective in causing Bryce to panic enough to take his own life.

This isn’t the only sextortion case to have a devastating ending. In 2022 Walker Montgomery, a 16-year-old football star from Mississippi, took his life after being contacted by a Nigerian scam artist posing as a girl. 3 more teens met similar fates that same year. Some extortionists are even using A.I. and targeting even younger kids in some cases.