The parents of a child who committed suicide after being the victim of sextortion are speaking out about a growing problem in the United States and other nations.
Sextortion is a scam where criminals threaten to expose explicit pictures of their victims unless they are paid or provided with other favors. Many perpetrators target young teens.
Elijah Heacock received a threatening text message with an AI-generated nude photo of himself. The sender demanded $3,000 to prevent him from sending the image to his friends and family members. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in February.
His father, John Burnett, told CBS News that Elijah “wasn’t depressed, he wasn’t sad, he wasn’t angry.” His parents found out why their son had committed suicide after finding the messages on his phone.
"The people that are after our children are well organized," Burnett told CBS News. "They are well financed, and they are relentless. They don't need the photos to be real, they can generate whatever they want, and then they use it to blackmail the child."
Elijah Heacock a happy teen committed suicide when he received a threatening text with an AI-generated nude photo of him demanding $3,000 to keep it from being sent to his family and friends https://t.co/aM24qhopQw pic.twitter.com/6lcGbMqpZv
— Priyansha | प्रियांशा (@_Priyansha__) June 7, 2025
Shannon Heacock, Elijah’s mother, told reporters that she doesn’t “want another mother to ever face this, another sibling, another father to face this.”
Heacock urged parents to communicate with their children to protect them from predators. "Talk to your kids. Don’t think for a second it wouldn’t happen to you. We checked his phone. We did it all. But it only took an hour for 150 messages to take our son," she told Townhall.
The family has set up a GoFundMe account to help with their expenses.
Sextortionists typically target children through online platforms such as social media and gaming networks. They typically pose as peers or possible romantic interests to gain their victims’ trust. The offenders tend to go after minors because they are more vulnerable to manipulation, and the threat of embarrassment or judgment can motivate them to comply.
The FBI reported over 13,000 cases of online financial sextortion of minors between October 2021 and March 2023. These involved at least 12,600 victims — mostly boys. At least 20 victims committed suicide after being targeted. The most common victim age range is between 14 and 17 years old.
The perpetrators typically operate out of foreign countries — mostly in West Africa — and Southeast Asian nations like the Philippines. This makes it harder for law enforcement to apprehend them.
@EliManning this is our son. Elijah Manning Heacock 16. 13 weeks ago he lost his life due to sextortion. Leaving his family and twin devastated! We need to stop this evil. We need to make sure no child ever has to endure this evil again. pic.twitter.com/Ecgi6fCDi2
— Shannon Heacock (@footballmum66) May 30, 2025
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported 10,731 cases in 2022. The numbers surged to 26,718 in 2023. The organization reported nearly 100 reports per day in 2024.
Dr. Rebecce Portnoff, the head of data science at Thorn, an organization dedicated to stopping child exploitation, told CBS News that perpetrators “don’t actually need any technical skills at this point to create this kind of illegal and harmful material.” She indicated that one only has to look up how to create fake nude images of another person online.
However, this doesn’t mean these people cannot be stopped. Thorn created guidance for AI companies to help them prevent sextortionists from using their services.
"There are real, tangible solutions that do exist that are being deployed today that can help to prevent this kind of misuse," Portnoff explained.