TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains information about suicide, which may be triggering to some.
The family of a teenage boy is speaking out after he became the victim of online blackmail. Elijah Heacock found himself at the center of a sextortion plot featuring AI-generated nudes of him and a request for money. Fearing what his parents would do if they found out, the boy shot himself. In the wake of their son’s death, Elijah’s parents found out about the darkness of sextortion.
It is something that is affecting more kids yearly, and can sometimes have deadly consequences. They are trying to save other families the pain they’re currently experiencing.
Sixteen-year-old Elijah Heacock was a typical teenage boy living in Glasgow, Kentucky. He “wasn’t depressed, he wasn’t sad, he wasn’t angry,” his father, John Burnett told CBS News. Everything changed when he got a text message containing nudes of himself generated by artificial intelligence. The person sending the pictures demanded money to keep the boy’s family and friends from seeing the pictures.
“They started asking Eli for money,” his mother, Shannon Heacock, told WBKO. “This person was asking for $3,000. $3,000 from a child, and now we’re looking at $30,000 to bury our son and medical bills.” Burnett spoke with ABC News, saying “Their intention was to convince Eli their sincerity that they could, in fact, harm him or someone he loved with pictures that they generated.”
Elijah shot himself in the head on February 27, 2025. He died from his injuries the following day. At the hospital, the Barren County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the boy’s death. After looking at his phone, they determined the case should be escalated to the FBI.
Shannon Heacock regularly checked her son’s phone, but the interaction happened at night, and likely “put him in panic mode.”
It was then that Heacock and Burnett learned about sextortion. According to the FBI, sextortion is “used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video. Once the images are received, the offender threatens to release the images unless the victim produces additional explicit material.” Financial sextortion is similar, but instead of sexual gratification, it’s financial gain. Instead of demanding more pictures, they’ll demand money to keep the pictures quiet.
The FBI stated that financial sextortion of teen is resulting “in an alarming number of deaths by suicide.” In 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion, up from 10,731 reports in 2022
An investigation into the incidents leading to the death of Elijah Heacock is still in its early stages. His parents are working with local government officials to put more laws into place to protect kids and families.
“I play a lot of ‘What if I did this? What if I did that?’ We don’t need anybody to add to our guilt because we carry it very heavily right now,” Shannon Heacock told ABC News. “It’s no longer to be scared of the white van that drives around, you have to be scared of the internet.”
Note: If you or any of your loved ones are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can always reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling 988. They are available 24/7 by phone or online chat.
