Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / HEARTBREAK: BOY, 13, DEAD IN YARD AFTER "SEXTORTION" SCHEME

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HEARTBREAK: BOY, 13, DEAD IN YARD AFTER "SEXTORTION" SCHEME · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Heartbreak. There's no other way
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to say it, heartbreak. A beautiful little boy, just thirteen,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: commit suicide in the front yard Mommy and daddy inside
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: after a horrible online sex stortion scheme.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: What is that? Now we all know what it is tonight?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: What happened?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Joining us special guest, his mom, Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Assumpter, South Carolina homeowner leaving for work think someone is
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: sleeping or passed out in the yard. He tells his
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: wife to lock the doors check on the children. As
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: he looks into what's going on and calls nine to
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: one one officers discover the person in the yard is dead,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: killed by a gunshot to the ahead.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, when I hear it stated like that, all
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I can think about are my own children.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: This boy.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Oh if I could just explain how he was just
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: totally scrubbed in sunshine, so sweet, so smart, good grades,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: everything the boy every parent would want to have. How
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: does this happen? I really want to thank you for
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: being with us tonight because this whole six stortion scheme
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that is targeting our youth our little children is vast.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I understand, and new lawsuit
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: has been filed naming six hundred other cases joining me
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and all start pedal what happened that morning inside the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: family home.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: Listen Timothy Barnett helping out around the house and is
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: taken to making his mom's cup of coffee every morning.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: At six point fifteen, Betsy Hopman is surprised that Timothy
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: isn't already in the kitchen and pours her own coffee,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: kissing her husband goodbye as he leaves for work. Moments later,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: Jeffrey Hoptman calls his wife, telling her to lock the
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: doors and check on the children because someone's passed out
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: in their front yard. As he calls nine to one one,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: Betsy Hopman goes from room to room, locating five of
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: six children.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Timothy is missing with me right now, Timothy's mom, Betsy Hoptman,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Miss Hoptman, thank you for being with us, Thanks for
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: having me inty, Betsy, I almost didn't want to even
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: play that sound, because you know, we have routines we
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: go through every morning. My daughter gets up super early.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I can hear her turning on the bath water. My
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: son sleeps late. I have to go wake him up
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: every morning and he jumps up and gives me a
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: big hug, and that is the normal routine. I'm just
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: thinking on what I just heard that every morning.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Is this true?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Your boy would come and make you a cup of coffee.
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: Most mornings, guess, ma'am. Every morning, almost every morning, he
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: would get up. He'd be the first one up, and
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: I'd walk into the kitchen and he'd be having my
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: tea kettle on for the French.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Press, Miss Hartman.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Before I go into the facts of this case, I've
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: just got to tell you we are so sorry about
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: your loss, about losing your baby.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I am so sorry. I appreciate that again with me
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: an all star pedal.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: You know a lot of people haven't even heard the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: word sextortion before and joining me in a few moments
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: is an expert in online safety to Tanya Jordan from
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Bark But Betsy, tell me what happened that morning.
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: Sure, it was a morning like every other morning.
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: My husband and I got up with the alarm.
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: He went about his day, walk up the front door.
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: A few minutes later, I get a phone call saying,
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: lock the doors and check.
• 4:21
  Speaker 6: On my kids. So I go about the kids rooms
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: check on them.
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: They're all there except for Timothy. And I was like, okay,
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: well that's not abnormal. So I checked the bathroom to
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: see if he was in the bathroom.
• 4:35
  Speaker 6: He wasn't.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: Checked the kitchen, where like I said, he normally got
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: up and turned on the kettle for my French press,
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: and he wasn't there.
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: So I walked up to the garage to see if
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: he was at our drink fridge.
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: Again, he wasn't there, and panic set in and I
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: realized when my husband told me to lock the doors,
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: something must have happened.
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: So I called my husband back and I said, what's
• 5:01
  Speaker 6: going on. He's like someone's.
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: Sleeping in her front yard and I said, I can't
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: find Timothy. And he walked me through the house again
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: and he's like, is he in the bathroom?
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: Is he in the pantry?
• 5:14
  Speaker 7: Is he in the kitchen?
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: I was like no, And at that point I realized
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: I woke up into every mother's nightmare.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Miss Houtman, it's so hard to hear what you're saying.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: It's so hard to hear it knowing what happened.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you have this strength to tell
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: this story.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: How do you keep going?
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: How do you have this strength to tell other parents
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: about what happened tonight?
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: The only reason I can even have that is because
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: God allows me to have a voice that allows education
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: for other parents so that they're not sitting in my seat.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You get a call, there's somebody in the front yard.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Lock the door, go check on the children. You find
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: everybody but Timmy, Then what do you do?
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: Like I said, I walked through the house.
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: Making sure that he wasn't in his normal spot in
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: the morning, because, like I said.
• 6:15
  Speaker 6: He normally woke up before everybody else.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: He wasn't, And at that point I knew, but my
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: husband told me not to come outside.
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: But the cops were.
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: There and a few minutes later, and it felt like eternity.
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: My husband walked in the front door, and he still
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: hasn't told me to this day what happened and who
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: he found in the front yard. But as soon as
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: I saw his face, you can hear me yell on
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: our ring doorbell, Cameron, because at that point my heart broke.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Did you learn your baby? Your little boy?
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: And I know you have I think three boys, but
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I refer to both of my twins they're sixteen now
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: as my baby's When.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Did you learn you're sweet? Timothy?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: This tastes like dirt in my mouth. Had committed suicide.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: About six thirty six forty five in the morning on
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: April sixth of twenty twenty three.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: How did you process not just losing your child, but
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: learning your child committed suicide.
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: I couldn't believe it.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: I didn't want to believe it. It didn't make sense
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: to me because he was such a normal kid. He
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: was the kid that was the life of the party
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: and the one that always tried to make people happy.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: He's the one who would come in and cut on
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: and make sure that mom was okay. And again, it
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: just it truly didn't make sense to me because we
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: had plans. He had asked me to take him to
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: Tennessee to Gatlinburg.
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: For his birthday, and I was like, yeah, we can
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: plan a trip.
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: You and me like because I like to make memories
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: instead of do gifts, And I was like, yeah, we
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: can most certainly do that, and we were planning it.
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: So it didn't make sense at all until I found.
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: Out what happened.
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  Speaker 1: Guys, what do we know did happen? Why is this
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: beautiful boy who I keep saying it over and over.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: There were no prior mental instabilities, there were no depressions.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: He had never ever threatened suicide ever, never even intimated
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: anything about harming himself or anybody else. I'm telling you,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: this is the boy every parent wants to have.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: So why is this beautiful boy dead? What more do
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: we know? Listen?
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  Speaker 8: Betsy Helptman meets her husband at the front door, hysterically
• 9:31
  Speaker 8: explaining she can't find Timothy. With tears in his eyes.
• 9:34
  Speaker 8: Jeffrey Helpman shakes his head at his wife and she screams.
• 9:38
  Speaker 8: The body in the front yardist Timothy dead of a
• 9:40
  Speaker 8: self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Security cameras show
• 9:44
  Speaker 8: Timothy sitting in the family car in the driveway for
• 9:46
  Speaker 8: two hours the night before, frantically scrolling on a cell phone. Sumter,
• 9:50
  Speaker 8: South Carolina pde collect Timothy's phone in his school chromebook,
• 9:54
  Speaker 8: bowing to find out what drove the team to suicide.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And again, isn't it true, Betsy, that Timothy? I have
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: a nephew, Timothy, and I call him Timmy, even though
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: he's grown now. So I've now started calling your son
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Timmy because I've read so much about him. Isn't it
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: true that your son Timothy had never gone through bouts
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: of depression, had never lost appetite, was never in prolonged
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: periods of sadness, to your knowledge, wasn't bullied at school,
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  Speaker 1: none of the red flags.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: We look for.
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  Speaker 1: No bedwedding, no self mutilation, no slapping or bruising or
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: pinching himself, nothing to make you think he would ever
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: have committed suicide.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: There were no extreme signs. I mean, he was a
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: thirteen year old boy, a thirteen year old boy that
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: was going through puberty.
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  Speaker 6: What I classify him as a depressed child? Absolutely not.
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: But what teenager doesn't have the.
• 11:00
  Speaker 9: Normal Yeah, it's my place in life, the normal ups
• 11:05
  Speaker 9: and downs of going through middle school, entering high school.
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  Speaker 1: He is just thirteen years old. I understand that that
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: night he was scrolling. And I've seen my daughter and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: my son do this. They scroll and scroll and scroll
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: on their phones. So I'm like, what are you looking at?
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And they typically say TikTok. And I've snuck up on
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: them so many times to see what it is. And
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: it's always with my son, some crazy prank. Some boys
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: are are you know, trying to shoot a basketball from
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: a car driving by some crazy thing like that. My
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: daughter's looking at fashion or skin care, but they look
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: at it all the time. So Timothy was out in
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the car the night before, just scrolling, is that right?
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: So the security cameras show him sneaking out of his
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  Speaker 5: window about I want to say, two forty five three
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: o'clock and sitting in my car, and then you can
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: see him on his phone just scrolling through it. And
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  Speaker 5: unfortunately the cameras aren't the greatest to see. We weren't
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: able to see what he was scrolling through or what
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  Speaker 5: he was doing.
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: On his phone, but just that he was on his
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: phone scrolling.
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  Speaker 5: And then at about five o'clock, five fifteen, he goes
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: off camera, and he comes back for a short few minutes,
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  Speaker 5: and then he goes back off for the final time.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: So you had no idea he was outside in the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: car scrolling. And you know, there's something very comforting about
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: just sitting in the family car. I know when we
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: were drive home from school a lot of times in
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the afternoon, we would sit in the car in the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: driveway and listen to music and talk. It's just something
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: you know, your cocoon like in the car, and I'm
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: imagining him sitting in the car where nobody can see
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: what he's doing. He knows you're asleep inside, and he's scrolling.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Had he ever done that before? To your knowledge?
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: He did it once before from my understanding, But that's
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: not an abnormal thing, because, much like you, Nancy, when
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: I go on.
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: A trip anywhere, even if it was to the grocery store.
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: Or to go get gas, I sit in the car
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: for a few minutes and collect my thoughts because it's
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: that almost soundproof space where I can block everything and
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: anybody out. And Tim was a lot like mom where
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: he needed that clue, that sound proof space to process
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: his own thoughts.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Why is a thirteen year
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: old little boy dead?
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Why did a thirteen year old who had never threatened suicide,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: never had mental instability or problems, no prolonged depressions, nothing,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Why did.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: He commit suicide?
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And what was he scrolling ceaselessly the night before, sitting
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: in the family car. What was so secretive he did
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: not want his parents to hear about. Joining me is
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: a very special guest who I've got to say is
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: one of the bravest ladies.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I know, speaking out so.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Other parents can learn from Timothy's death. But right now
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I want to go to Titanya Jordan joining US online
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: safety expert, chief Parent officer of Bark Technology. It's an
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: online safety company that helps keep children, kids teens safe.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And I've got to tell you, my children know, the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: whole family knows that.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I have Bark.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Bark is kind of an online program you download on
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: your phone and your children's phones and you sink them
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and they're like a safety net that catches problems at
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: curse words of bullying. I don't really know how they
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: do it, but I will give you this brief anecdote.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: My son is the goalie.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: He's been a goalie forever in soccer, and when he
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: was about in the seventh or eighth grade, he made
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: this incredible save and he was really horizontal, went horizontal
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: to stop the goal and he did stop it, but
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: his arm went through the net and he got a
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: big bruise from the net and he took a picture
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: of it and he sent it to some of his
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: friends and went, look what I got saving a goal.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: He was proud of the bruies. Well, Bark caught the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: bruise and alerted me about self harm. That's how sensitive
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: it is. So that's what bark is Titania Snapchat. A
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: lot of parents think if you go on to your
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: child's scrolling history their Internet use, then you know what
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: they've been doing. That is not true. All of this
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: happened on Snapchat. Just very briefly explain what is snapchat.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: What's a snap.
• 16:51
  Speaker 10: Snapchat is an app that was launched to send disappearing
• 16:56
  Speaker 10: photos and children do not need the ability to send
• 16:59
  Speaker 10: to appearing photos. It has now expanded to offer location sharing,
• 17:04
  Speaker 10: which is problematic. It's become rife with drug dealers and
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: now sextortion scams guys.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Very often, I'll be sitting with the twins and one
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: of them will start laughing.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what what is it? And they go, it's
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: a funny snap from so and so. I'm like, let
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: me see it, and they go, it's already disappeared. Mom,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I can't show it to you.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: To Betsy Hoptman, this is Timothy's mom, Betsy, when did
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: you find out about this horrible sixtortion scheme against Timothy
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: on Snapchat?
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: So? I found out Timothy passed away on April sixth,
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: and I found out from the Captain of investigations here
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: in Summer on October fourth.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Joining me now is Ashley Jones, investigative reporter and anchor
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: WIS News South Carolina. Ashley, thank you for being with us.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I want to go back to the day that Timothy
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: was killed.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Tell me what you know.
• 18:08
  Speaker 11: So from what I know as far as what Sumter
• 18:10
  Speaker 11: PD said in an incident report, on the morning of
• 18:13
  Speaker 11: April sixth, Timothy's father found his body laying outside in
• 18:18
  Speaker 11: the front yard and from there they called the Sumter
• 18:21
  Speaker 11: Police Department, who came out and began an investigation.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: However, there was some I believe.
• 18:29
  Speaker 11: Discrepancies as far as Sumter Police Department actually doing the investigation.
• 18:36
  Speaker 11: There was something about they couldn't get into Timothy's phone
• 18:39
  Speaker 11: to figure out what may have happened. There was a
• 18:43
  Speaker 11: lot of back and forth.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, Ashley, you know, it's amazing that you said that,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: because you guys have already lived through this in South
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Carolina with the Alex Murdoch trial.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Remember what all we had to get go through.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: They had to bring in the Secret Service to unlock
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: a phone in order to place Alex Murdock at the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: dog kennels where his wife.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: And some were murdered at the time of the murder.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Remember that I sat through that Secret Service guy testimony
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and it was very, very intricate about unlocking the phone. Okay,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: so what is Timothy looking at for two hours and
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: then commit suicide in the front yard?
• 19:24
  Speaker 12: Listen, just before his death, Timothy changed the passcode to
• 19:28
  Speaker 12: his phone, so detectives focus on the task of unlocking it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 12: Betsy Hoptman tells detective Kelsey Wade that Timothy mainly communicated
• 19:37
  Speaker 12: over Snapchat, and Wade issues a subpoena for the teen's account.
• 19:41
  Speaker 12: Eleven weeks go by with no answers, despite Hoptomen calling
• 19:45
  Speaker 12: twice a week. Wade finally informs Hoptman investigators are submitting
• 19:50
  Speaker 12: a second Snapchat subpoena along with a subpoena for Timothy's
• 19:54
  Speaker 12: cash app activity.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Joining me in addition to Timothy's mom, Betsy is the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: family lawyer Joe Cunningham, high profile lawyer in that jurisdiction.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Joe, thank you for being with us.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: They have to send a second subpoena to Snapchat.
• 20:12
  Speaker 13: Why well, Nancy, what we know is that the first
• 20:14
  Speaker 13: subpoena that was sent to snap Apparently from Snap's response
• 20:18
  Speaker 13: was not comprehensive enough or detailed enough to provide a response,
• 20:22
  Speaker 13: so that required them to send a second one. And
• 20:25
  Speaker 13: since then this investigation has been handed over to the
• 20:28
  Speaker 13: federal agencies of the U. S. Attorney's Office, who is
• 20:31
  Speaker 13: now handling this.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: So it's amazing to me that in light of Timothy's death,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: you have to basically threaten Snapchat in order to get responses,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and you've got the mom, Betsy Houtman, basically begging to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: get answers.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: What was my son looking at? Betsy?
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: What was going through your mind when you're having to
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: call twice a week to get answers and still not
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: getting answers?
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: What were they doing to find out why my phone
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: killed himself? And unfortunately I was told it wasn't Sumpter's police.
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: Sumpter Police Department's job to find out why he did it,
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: just said he did it.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: That is amazing to me.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to circle back in a moment, Betsy
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: about when you took the phone away from him for
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: a period of months, But right now I want to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: focus on why the local police department told you to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: just figure it out yourself. Imagine you being in Betsy's position.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: You're trying and trying to find out the cause your
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: boy committed suicide, and he believed the answer is on
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: his phone. I want you to listen to this.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Five months after Timothy's death, Betsy Hopman gets a notification
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: on Life three sixty that Timothy completed to drive. Hopeful
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: that detectives crack his passcode, Hopman calls Detective Wade with
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: no response and drives down to the police station, refusing
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: to leave until she speaks with Wade. Hours later, two
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: unfamiliar detectives informer that Timothy's phone is equivalent to a paperweight.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: They're closing the investigation and it isn't their job to
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: figure out why her son killed himself.
• 22:15
  Speaker 12: A month later, Betsy Hoptmann discovers Sumter PD unearthed dozens
• 22:20
  Speaker 12: of suicide notes addressed to family and friends. They also
• 22:24
  Speaker 12: found an extensive call and text record with an unsaved
• 22:28
  Speaker 12: phone number with a New York area code. The text
• 22:31
  Speaker 12: includes links to a second Snapchat account Timothy used. Messages
• 22:35
  Speaker 12: on that account revealed Timothy sent a stranger thirty five
• 22:39
  Speaker 12: dollars a day to prevent them from posting an explicit
• 22:42
  Speaker 12: photo of him online. One of Timothy's last messages begged
• 22:47
  Speaker 12: the stranger to stop reading. Quote please, I'm just a child.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Sextortion, That's what's happening. That is why this little boy
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: belt there was no way out and killed himself. Sextortion.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: To Tanya jordan Bart.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Child safety expert, what is sextortion?
• 23:10
  Speaker 10: Sextortion is a combination of the words sex and extortion,
• 23:14
  Speaker 10: and extortion is using threats are forced to coerce someone
• 23:17
  Speaker 10: into doing something, and so in the case of sextortion,
• 23:20
  Speaker 10: a child, a person is threatened that they're nude photos
• 23:24
  Speaker 10: or videos will be released unless they provide valuables, money,
• 23:28
  Speaker 10: or release more sexual photos or videos too.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Ashley Jones joining us WIS News t in South Carolina, Ashley,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: what was the threat on Timothy?
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: What was the sextortion?
• 23:40
  Speaker 11: Well, so from what we know is that this person,
• 23:42
  Speaker 11: whomever it was, was basically telling Timothy unless he sent
• 23:47
  Speaker 11: them thirty five dollars a day via cash app, then
• 23:50
  Speaker 11: they would post this nude photo of him online.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Oh my stars, Oh my stars.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: To think this boy is gone because some evil person
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: is extorting a little child. To Joe Cunningham, the family lawyer.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: What more do we know about the plot, who was
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: behind it?
• 24:12
  Speaker 13: Well, this is still under investigation by the US Attorney's Office, Nancy. Unfortunately,
• 24:18
  Speaker 13: what we know is this is not an isolate incidents.
• 24:21
  Speaker 13: A lot of these originate from the Ivory coast of Africa,
• 24:25
  Speaker 13: where people pose as young teenage girls and befriend teenage
• 24:32
  Speaker 13: boys and engage in a flirtatious manners soliciting nude pictures,
• 24:38
  Speaker 13: only to later on comeback, screenshot the list of their
• 24:41
  Speaker 13: friends and family members and extort them for money, otherwise
• 24:46
  Speaker 13: they'll release these particular pictures. This has become very common.
• 24:50
  Speaker 13: I want to thank you for shining a light onto
• 24:52
  Speaker 13: this because here's a statistic that your viewers need to know.
• 24:56
  Speaker 13: Snapchat did a survey a while back and said that
• 25:00
  Speaker 13: two thirds of gen Z teens or young adults, either
• 25:05
  Speaker 13: themselves or people they knew, had been victims of sex
• 25:08
  Speaker 13: stortion two thirds. So this is Unfortunately, it's non isolated incidant.
• 25:14
  Speaker 13: This is the worst case scenario though for any family
• 25:18
  Speaker 13: to have to go through.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Guys, it is by far not the first time a
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: teen boy or girl has been targeted in sex stortion.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: For instance, in a case I recently investigated. I mean,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: a superstar kid much like Timothy, is online chatting with
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: a beautiful girl his age and the girl gets the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: boy to send a nude photo. Well, it turns out
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the girl as not a young girl his age at all.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Listen.
• 25:51
  Speaker 14: Over the course of a short conversation, Samuel Ogashi, pretending
• 25:55
  Speaker 14: to be this young woman, persuaded Jordan to send a
• 25:59
  Speaker 14: sectionally explicit image of himself. Once Samuel Ogashi had that
• 26:05
  Speaker 14: sexually explicit image in his hand, he then turned to
• 26:10
  Speaker 14: extort Jordan de May for money, threatening to reveal the
• 26:14
  Speaker 14: image to Jordan's family and friends if he did not comply.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: This kid, Jordan de Maay high school superstar, and you
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: are hearing the US attorney Mark taught and speaking.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Listen.
• 26:25
  Speaker 14: Jordan de Maay paid what he had, which was three
• 26:29
  Speaker 14: hundred dollars, but Samuel Gashi continued his threats, demanding more
• 26:34
  Speaker 14: from Jordan. A few hours later, Jordan told Samuel Ogashi
• 26:40
  Speaker 14: that he was now taking his life, and Samuel Ogashi,
• 26:44
  Speaker 14: responding through the Instagram persona of Danny Roberts, told him
• 26:50
  Speaker 14: do that fast, or I'll make you do it.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Jordan de Maay, who committed suicide after sixtortion. His father
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: spent to me and depth, listen.
• 27:02
  Speaker 15: If things happen, you know, it's not the end of
• 27:04
  Speaker 15: the world either. You know, Jordan's story is so tragic,
• 27:08
  Speaker 15: and this is something that probably would have been laughing
• 27:11
  Speaker 15: about in ten or fifteen years after he's graduated college
• 27:14
  Speaker 15: and gotten married and had kids and bought his first
• 27:16
  Speaker 15: home and you got a career job and did all
• 27:18
  Speaker 15: the things. You'd look back and kind of like that
• 27:20
  Speaker 15: was stupid, right, But in that moment, you can't. They're
• 27:24
  Speaker 15: not old enough to understand that. They're not developed enough
• 27:26
  Speaker 15: to understand.
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: Betsy Hotman takes Sumpter PDS findings to the FBI and
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: Homeland Security. A federal investigation is immediately opened, and detectives
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: find that the cash app account Timothy sent money to
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: belongs to a woman in Los Angeles County. A suspect
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: has yet to be identified, but Timothy's family is encouraged
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: by how seriously the FEDS are taking their son's case.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: Both Betsy Hotman and Jamie Barnett have criticized Sumter pd
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: for closing their investigation, but the parents' focus lies on
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: finding justice for Timothy.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Joining me, is Timothy's mom? Howkman?
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: So getting fed up with no answers from the local PD,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: you take your case to the FBI and they take
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: it on.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: Yes, Miam.
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: I called the national Hotline for Missing and Exploited Children
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: myself after I found out from Captain Lloyd Timothy was
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: sex started because it took them so long to.
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: Even do anything.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Joining me right now is special guest, former detective cyber Crimes, detective,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: child crime expert, and president of b Sure Cyber Training.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: You can find them at Besureconsulting dot com. Rich with
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Stocky Rich. Thank you so much for being with us.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Explain to me what you should do to protect your
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: child and how we can crack this case and determine
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: who started Timothy.
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: Nancy, It's unbelievable everything that I'm hearing today, because you
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: know why, it's typical every week I get calls from
• 29:24
  Speaker 7: parents and law enforcement all over the country. I teach
• 29:27
  Speaker 7: about three hundred thousand children. I teach about four thousand
• 29:30
  Speaker 7: cops and police departments are ten years behind cybercrime investigations.
• 29:36
  Speaker 7: So what happens is when I go talk to kids
• 29:38
  Speaker 7: in schools, I tell them when no one is allowed
• 29:41
  Speaker 7: to make you feel bad about yourself online, no one
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: is allowed to make you do something you know you
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: shouldn't be doing. If you're sitting here watching me and
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: suffering in silence because this is happening to you, I
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: can make your pain stop. Because when it comes to
• 29:55
  Speaker 7: social networking and gaming online, Nancy, no one online is anonymous.
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: No one. Now, these Yahoo boys who are out doing this,
• 30:05
  Speaker 7: we can track them, but they have no fear because
• 30:07
  Speaker 7: they know US law enforcement. Local law enforcement doesn't have
• 30:12
  Speaker 7: the training to take to track this stuff. And I
• 30:16
  Speaker 7: will tell you over the three hundred thousand students that
• 30:19
  Speaker 7: I have worked with across the country this year alone, Nancy,
• 30:23
  Speaker 7: I had thirty five students come to me after the
• 30:26
  Speaker 7: presentation telling me this is happening to me. I had
• 30:30
  Speaker 7: to start twenty eight criminal investigations through the Internet Crimes
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: against Children Task Force across the country.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Rich I'm trying to think of ways to help parents,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and Betsy is speaking out today.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: If you had to give.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Parents one piece of advice to protect their children from
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: six stortion schemes like this one, what would you tell them?
• 30:52
  Speaker 7: There are actually three things Nancy. The first one is
• 30:54
  Speaker 7: you need to be monitoring your kid's devices.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: If we're talking about Snapchat, which is what Betcy Howton's
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: tell about today, those images disappear immediately.
• 31:03
  Speaker 7: They don't actually Snapchat has them for thirty days.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: But how is a parent supposed to know that? You say, parent,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: you look.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: At the phone, but on the phone it disappears. No
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: parent knows to call Snapchat has says, hey, what has
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: my son been looking at in the last two days.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: That's not gonna happen. Give me something I can hold
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: on to.
• 31:25
  Speaker 7: Parents need to keep their children's phones out of their devices,
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: out of their rooms at night. That's number one. And
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: then what happens. Parents don't know about Snapchat and they
• 31:34
  Speaker 7: need to be checking their my eyes only in Snapchat.
• 31:38
  Speaker 7: This is a private cloud based service that Snapchat has
• 31:43
  Speaker 7: called My Eyes Only, and most of our children are
• 31:47
  Speaker 7: hiding their most horrible pictures of themselves and others in
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: it now. Number one, Nancy. Number one is that parents
• 31:55
  Speaker 7: need to have the access code to their kid's device
• 32:00
  Speaker 7: and spot check that that's something you can hold on to.
• 32:03
  Speaker 7: And if at any time a child changes their device
• 32:07
  Speaker 7: because they're hiding something, you know something wrong. So imagine
• 32:11
  Speaker 7: in this case, if the parent knew the access code
• 32:15
  Speaker 7: to the phone, we could have unlocked that phone and
• 32:18
  Speaker 7: trace that within hours of where it came from. And
• 32:21
  Speaker 7: that's what I trained my law enforcement osters to do.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing, though, Betsy, you knew the code,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: and you had actually found long before a naked photo
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: of a woman. Any No, we're not having this, and
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: you talked to him, You reprimanded him, you counseled him
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: about it. You took the phone away for a period
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: of months, and you gave it back. You knew his code,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: you didn't know he had changed his code. That would
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: be like twenty four to seven monitoring on your child
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: to find out if they sneak off to the closet
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: and in three minutes changed their code to their phone.
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: Exactly.
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: I mean I got on Snapchat myself because my fourteen
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: year old niece at that point was like.
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: Auntie, get on Snapchat.
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: It's got a lot of filters and we can snap
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: back and forth and whatnot.
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: I never imagined.
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: Sending anything because as an adult, I knew when you
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: send us stuff on the internet, it never quote unquote.
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: Truly goes away.
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: So Timothy was on Snapchat because that's what kids these
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: days do.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: That's what they all do, Betsy, all of the preteens
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and teens and a lot of adults are on Snapchat.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Nobody is on Facebook at that age, and many many
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: other platforms.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Text me yes exactly and joining me. I don't want
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: to forget about this. Cunningham is with us, and that
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: is Betsey's family lawyer.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I've got in my hands a big fat lawsuit.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 34:09
  Speaker 13: Joe pre file a lawsuit against Snap for wrongful death
• 34:13
  Speaker 13: for the damages that Betsy's family has gone through and
• 34:18
  Speaker 13: suffering this unimaginable loss. And the basis of that lawsuit
• 34:23
  Speaker 13: is negligence. Is negligence per se. But it's also centers
• 34:26
  Speaker 13: around Snap putting out a defective product. They've put out
• 34:30
  Speaker 13: a product, as you mentioned, that has the images disappeared.
• 34:34
  Speaker 13: Now anyone can imagine what the anticipated use of a
• 34:37
  Speaker 13: product like that actually will be. And it's welcomed predators
• 34:42
  Speaker 13: onto their platform and without the proper guardrails in place,
• 34:47
  Speaker 13: the monitor to make sure that people are of age
• 34:50
  Speaker 13: or getting on but also to prevent predators from accessing
• 34:55
  Speaker 13: the website and communicating with children.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: The day after a winning football game, Marcus fifteen spends
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: the day inside playing video games with his friends. Just
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: after eleven am, a pretty girl messages Braiden on Instagram.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: In the two exchange flirtations messages for about five minutes.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: The girl request they moved the chat to Google Hangouts
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: and sends Braiden lude photos, asking for photos of him.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: In return, Braiden is hesitant, but caves and sends several
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: explicit photos. The girl then reveals herself as a scammer
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: and threatens to release the photos unless Braden sends them
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: eighteen hundred dollars. By eleven twenty eight am, Braden took
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: his own life.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: This boy, just fifteen commits suicide after a sixtortion plot. Guys,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I've got so many files here on my desk of
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: children committing suicide after sextortion. To Betsy Houtman joining us,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: this is Timothy's mom. Did you have any idea how
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: widespread SI extortion on even preteens? I know you heard
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: me talking about to Todd, who was just twelve, sex
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: stortion plots on our preteens and teens.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: Did you have any idea how rampant it is?
• 36:10
  Speaker 12: No?
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: Ma'am, I definitely didn't. One of the only reasons I
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: ever heard of sextortion was.
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: A few short months after Timothy passed when South Carolina
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: and stated Gavin's Law where our representative Guffy his son
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: back in I believe August of twenty twenty two took
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: his life because of it too. And South Carolina now
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: it's an aggravated felony.
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: If in fact a minor hurts.
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: Themselves or commits suicide because of sextortion.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Well, you're absolutely right. Take a listen to South Carolina Rep.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Brandon Guffey.
• 36:51
  Speaker 16: Gavin was being blackmailed. That was all the information that
• 36:55
  Speaker 16: I knew was that he was being black now, but
• 36:57
  Speaker 16: what happened was Gavin was he got caught up in sextortion,
• 37:03
  Speaker 16: and this is a major crime. They took looks like
• 37:07
  Speaker 16: Hunter Biden headlines and put pictures of Gavin and put
• 37:10
  Speaker 16: my name and his name on the headlines, and we're
• 37:15
  Speaker 16: threatening to release it. And it was pictures to this
• 37:18
  Speaker 16: girl that he was talking to online.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: That boy is dead because of sextortion. Betsy, I've got
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: to ask you something. Do you feel Timothy's presence with
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: you always?
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: When he first gotten allowing Sancy.
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: He bought me a horror like a stuffy stuffed heart
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: from the dollar tree. And now I'll find leaves that
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: are shaped in hearts on my doorset or when I'm
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: cleaning the pool, one will drop in front of me.
• 37:56
  Speaker 6: I'll find hearts randomly on sidewalks. I know that my
• 38:00
  Speaker 6: son's with us.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Betsy, what is your message? Your message to other parents
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: out there today?
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: Have those tough conversations, Be open to those tough conversations,
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: and just remember that the Internet isn't something that we
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: had back then. And unfortunately I was naive enough to
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: not think that predators. Well I knew that there were
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: predators out there, I didn't think that there were predators
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: so bold that.
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: Would want to hurt a thirteen year old.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: And there are, Betsy.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Somehow, some way, we're going to find who did this
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: to Timothy. Somehow, some way, they're going to be brought
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: to justice. And I want to say thank you for
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: speaking out tonight. I know I am speaking to my
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: twins tonight about this. I've done it before, I'm doing
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: it again, and I beg all the parents to spread
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Betsy's message. If we can just save one child from
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: six stortion. It's all worth it, Betsy, Thank you, godspeed friend.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: We remember police Officer American Hero Jamal Mitchell, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: thirty six. He was trying to assist what he thought
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: was a wounded victim when he was shot multiple times.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Officer Mitchell survived by fiance Tory, their children Cohen, Jalen,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Caden and Mason. American Hero police Officer Jamal Mitchell. Thank
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: you to our guests for being with us. Thank you
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: for joining us tonight and every night, but especially thank
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: you to Betsy sharing her son Timothy's story. You know
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: how hard that was for her to talk in her
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: effort to help just one child. Nancy Gray signing off,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: good night friend,