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'ALL AMERICAN' TEEN SUICIDE AFTER SEXTORTION: NIGERIAN GANG BUSTED · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:01
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, the suicide of an all
0:08
Speaker 1: American young man, a teen, leads to a shocking discovery
0:15
Speaker 1: of a sick online sextortion scheme.
0:20
Speaker 2: You heard me right, not extortion.
0:23
Speaker 1: Sextortion, a scheme praying on predating on young American teens.
0:34
Speaker 1: You think your child is just you know, sending an
0:36
Speaker 1: install or a snap. No, and tonight joining us the
0:42
Speaker 1: mother and father of this young boy. As I said,
0:47
Speaker 1: all Americans scrubbed and sunshine, I mean it. Who commits
0:52
Speaker 1: suicide after being sextorted online? I'm Nancy Grace. This is
1:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
1:04
Speaker 3: A Michigan high school football star receives a mysterious Instagram
1:09
Speaker 3: message from a girl claiming they have friends in common. Soon,
1:13
Speaker 3: their conversation becomes flirtatious.
1:19
Speaker 4: This kid, this boy to me, this little boy a teen,
1:25
Speaker 4: had no idea who he was really dealing with.
1:31
Speaker 1: This girl Danny, this beautiful young girl flirting with him online.
1:36
Speaker 1: Started on Insta, then she moved it to a Google
1:39
Speaker 1: chat room. It wasn't a beautiful young girl at all.
1:45
Speaker 1: And now this boy.
1:49
Speaker 2: Is gone.
1:49
Speaker 5: Listen, I saw Jordan for the last time. He came
1:53
Speaker 5: home at ten fifteen, and I believe that's when he
1:56
Speaker 5: opened up his phone and saw the first messages rate
1:59
Speaker 5: When he pulled in our driveway, and I was just
2:03
Speaker 5: about ready to go to bed because we had a
2:05
Speaker 5: long day the next morning traveling. Our other two kids
2:08
Speaker 5: were already asleep. My wife was finishing up laundry and
2:12
Speaker 5: getting ready final packing for our vacation. But I ran
2:16
Speaker 5: into Jordan outside on our patio for a brief moment
2:21
Speaker 5: as he was walking in. I was heading to the
2:23
Speaker 5: garage quick, and that was the last time I'd seen him.
2:26
Speaker 5: But looking back, that was literally minutes after he received
2:30
Speaker 5: his first message, and within ten minutes I was in
2:33
Speaker 5: bed sleeping and I never saw him again. I woke
2:36
Speaker 5: up to finding him in his bedroom.
2:39
Speaker 1: You are hearing Dad John de May speaking to me earlier.
2:45
Speaker 1: Joining me is Jean de May, Jordan's dad and his mother,
2:50
Speaker 1: Jennifer Beauta to both of you, thank you for being
2:55
Speaker 1: with us. And John, let me tell you why we
3:00
Speaker 1: were playing sound of when you spoke to me before,
3:05
Speaker 1: because I was worried that you and Jennifer would be
3:11
Speaker 1: so distraught that you wouldn't be able to speak, So
3:17
Speaker 1: I was going to use your prior words in case
3:22
Speaker 1: that happened, because when I work on this case.
3:28
Speaker 2: Sometimes when I don't know the right words.
3:32
Speaker 1: Can you and Jennifer, starting with you, John, tell us
3:37
Speaker 1: what happened that evening?
3:39
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, thank you for having us again
3:42
Speaker 6: and sharing our story. And you know, appreciate the thought
3:46
Speaker 6: of the speaking. But I know I can speak for
3:49
Speaker 6: myself and probably Jennifer as well, but we're very vocal.
3:52
Speaker 6: This is a very important issue and we're getting your
3:56
Speaker 6: voice as far and white as we can to tell
3:58
Speaker 6: Jordan's story and what happened to him and keep this
4:01
Speaker 6: as this legacy. Jordan was, you know, as you can see,
4:05
Speaker 6: an all American young man who was six two hundred
4:07
Speaker 6: and eighty five pounds of you know, handsome young young
4:10
Speaker 6: man getting ready to start his own life. He was
4:12
Speaker 6: two months away from his eighteenth birthday, just getting ready
4:14
Speaker 6: to graduate high school. And you know, this tragic thing happened.
4:19
Speaker 6: As you know we heard earlier. The first message came
4:23
Speaker 6: in late evening on Thursday night, and the messages were
4:28
Speaker 6: flirtatious and kind of meaningless in the beginning, but it
4:33
Speaker 6: kind of changed and as it progress into more sexual nature,
4:40
Speaker 6: pictures were exchanged and Jordan had sent a compromising photo
4:43
Speaker 6: himself just after midnight. And when he did that, he
4:46
Speaker 6: figured out real quick that these this young lady named
4:49
Speaker 6: Beaniey Roberts was not a young lady. She was they
4:51
Speaker 6: were extortionists trying to extort it for money. And he
4:54
Speaker 6: spent the next three to four hours in extruciating, hard,
5:01
Speaker 6: fast paced extortion and trying to pay them money and
5:05
Speaker 6: trying to figure.
5:05
Speaker 7: His way out of it. And he ultimately.
5:10
Speaker 6: Told these extortions that he was going to kill himself
5:13
Speaker 6: because of them, and their response was, good, you better
5:16
Speaker 6: do it faster. We're going to make you do it,
5:19
Speaker 6: and he did.
5:20
Speaker 1: Mister Jimay, I am so sorry. I know those words
5:23
Speaker 1: are hollow. They I just hate it for you, I
5:27
Speaker 1: hate it for him. And if there is a way
5:31
Speaker 1: to get this message to one team tonight, to one team,
5:37
Speaker 1: it will be worth everything that we're doing right now.
5:41
Speaker 2: Everything. And here's the thing. We'll never know. We'll never know.
5:46
Speaker 1: If we had any effect, if we saved anybody, But
5:49
Speaker 1: I know this, we'll know if we don't even try.
5:53
Speaker 2: Jennifer, thank you for being with us.
5:56
Speaker 1: What is your recollection of those critical hours when I
6:00
Speaker 1: woke up.
6:00
Speaker 8: To get ready for work.
6:02
Speaker 9: I saw a text that came through from Jordan at
6:04
Speaker 9: three point forty one in the morning, and it said mother,
6:07
Speaker 9: I love you, and I just texted him.
6:11
Speaker 8: Back and said I love you too.
6:13
Speaker 9: I hope you got some sleep, and I started to
6:16
Speaker 9: get ready to take my kids to school.
6:19
Speaker 8: Once I got them to.
6:21
Speaker 9: School, I knew Jordan should be awake, so I sent
6:23
Speaker 9: him another message saying are you okay?
6:26
Speaker 8: And he didn't respond. So I drove to work, sat down.
6:32
Speaker 9: And I was like, something's not right. He should be
6:34
Speaker 9: responding to me. I sent him a third text, just Jordan,
6:39
Speaker 9: and I gave it a minute, and I reached out
6:41
Speaker 9: to Jordan's girlfriend at school and said, is Jordan at school?
6:45
Speaker 8: And she said no, And in that moment I.
6:49
Speaker 9: Knew something was very, very wrong, and I reached out
6:52
Speaker 9: to John to see if he was still at his house.
6:55
Speaker 8: John called me about nine minutes later.
6:59
Speaker 9: And said he's gone. He's gone, and that Marning was
7:07
Speaker 9: just chaos trying to figure out what happened or why
7:10
Speaker 9: he would do this because he was ready to go
7:14
Speaker 9: on vacation.
7:15
Speaker 8: There were literally no.
7:16
Speaker 9: Signs that he was in a place to take his
7:18
Speaker 9: own life.
7:19
Speaker 1: The investigation that started with the death of this incredible
7:27
Speaker 1: young man, a boy, a boy, Jordan DeMay, a boy,
7:33
Speaker 1: has led to the uncovering of a vast network, a
7:41
Speaker 1: gang all around the world extorting sex, storting teens. Joining
7:49
Speaker 1: me is Rich Wstak, former detective cyber crimes detective president
7:55
Speaker 1: of be Sure Cyber training with Rich, thank you for
8:00
Speaker 1: being with us. And you know, I'm just a trial lawyer.
8:03
Speaker 1: I know how to try a murder case and I
8:06
Speaker 1: know how to work a cross pot, and that's about it.
8:09
Speaker 2: You have got to explain.
8:10
Speaker 1: To everyone in understandable terms, what is happening, How is
8:16
Speaker 1: this happening, Why is Jordan dad?
8:19
Speaker 2: How did it happen?
8:20
Speaker 10: Well, Nancy, my heart goes out to these parents, and
8:24
Speaker 10: it's happening all over the world actually where these warlords
8:29
Speaker 10: have these cyber cafes and they are all sextortionists, specifically
8:33
Speaker 10: the Yahoo boys in Nigeria who are doing this to
8:36
Speaker 10: our kids across the country. What we need to do.
8:40
Speaker 10: I train about three hundred thousand students a year. Last year,
8:44
Speaker 10: out of those three hundred thousand, I have had thirty
8:47
Speaker 10: five students come to me and telling me that's happening
8:50
Speaker 10: to me right now, and we have to It starts
8:54
Speaker 10: with education of the parents, and then it goes to
8:57
Speaker 10: the education.
8:58
Speaker 2: Okay, whoa, whoa.
9:01
Speaker 1: Explain what happens in simple terms. Okay, So here we
9:07
Speaker 1: see Jordan, everything's fine, and all of a sudden, this
9:11
Speaker 1: girl pops up on Insta. I believe, wasn't it originally
9:14
Speaker 1: on Insta? John and Jennifer correct, Yes, And she's cute
9:20
Speaker 1: and there's a picture of her and she's got a
9:23
Speaker 1: profile and a background. I'm sixteen, I go to so
9:28
Speaker 1: and so high school.
9:29
Speaker 2: And I'm a cheerleader and I live and so and so.
9:32
Speaker 2: What happens then, Well, our.
9:34
Speaker 10: Boys get so involved and when they're by themselves, you know,
9:39
Speaker 10: in their bedrooms at night with their devices, and they're like,
9:42
Speaker 10: what's the harm. It's just another girl on the internet.
9:46
Speaker 10: What they don't understand is that if they don't know
9:50
Speaker 10: who they are, where they come from, or can't see
9:52
Speaker 10: them on a webcam, it's probably a liar, probably a
9:56
Speaker 10: sextortion case. So for girls, it's about more pictures and videos.
10:00
Speaker 1: You're saying, you need to be able to either know
10:03
Speaker 1: the person in real life or be able to see
10:06
Speaker 1: them on a webcam and to you, John, to May,
10:09
Speaker 1: it just started out so innocently. She sends a picture,
10:13
Speaker 1: maybe a yearbook picture or I don't know, a picture,
10:17
Speaker 1: a cute picture, and they start flirting and talking online.
10:21
Speaker 1: He doesn't know her, she doesn't know him, and they're
10:23
Speaker 1: having a good time and this goes on for you know,
10:25
Speaker 1: twenty minutes.
10:28
Speaker 2: How does that go so sideways? That's what I'm trying
10:31
Speaker 2: to figure out.
10:31
Speaker 7: John.
10:32
Speaker 6: You know, I'm certainly not a professional at this yet,
10:35
Speaker 6: but I'm trying to be. And you know, from all
10:37
Speaker 6: the law enforcement professionals from all the world that I'm
10:39
Speaker 6: meeting and talking with and learning from, the majority of
10:43
Speaker 6: the same cases is the same type of situation. It's
10:47
Speaker 6: a slow boil building rapport with hacked accounts mostly, and
10:54
Speaker 6: so a lot of these accounts that are hacked have
10:56
Speaker 6: users and followers, so when you accept the friend request,
11:00
Speaker 6: they oftentimes have mutual related friends, so they feel comfortable
11:03
Speaker 6: accepting their cross rate in the beginning.
11:05
Speaker 7: So that's the first step.
11:06
Speaker 6: And then as a detective, State of the Yahoo Boys
11:09
Speaker 6: is a particular group that was very well connected and
11:13
Speaker 6: basically put together a training platform that was all over
11:17
Speaker 6: the Internet for years for these extortions to learn how
11:20
Speaker 6: to do it effectively.
11:21
Speaker 1: Oh, dear Lord, So they have a training program how
11:25
Speaker 1: to six stort teens. American tains Okay, this.
11:31
Speaker 2: Is how I think it went down.
11:34
Speaker 1: Jump in and correct me to John and Jennifer and
11:37
Speaker 1: witchress s doockey? Hold on, Doctor Moroney, Elizabeth Peterson, I'm
11:40
Speaker 1: coming right to you.
11:41
Speaker 2: Listen.
11:42
Speaker 11: Social media has become a regular part of daily life
11:44
Speaker 11: for millions, and seventeen year old Jordan to May is
11:47
Speaker 11: no exception. On Twitter, Jordan receives a message from a
11:50
Speaker 11: beautiful team. Her name is Danny Roberts and she's pretty
11:53
Speaker 11: and very suggestive. Danny asked Jordan to send some naughty
11:57
Speaker 11: photos of himself, but Jordan box and asks if she's
12:00
Speaker 11: scamming him. Danny convinces Jordan she is in a scammer
12:03
Speaker 11: and sends a nude photo of herself. Convinced, Jordan sends
12:07
Speaker 11: a nude photo of himself, and.
12:08
Speaker 2: That is how it starts. Listen.
12:11
Speaker 12: The minute Jordan de May is convinced by a new
12:13
Speaker 12: friend on Twitter to send a naughty photo, he knows
12:16
Speaker 12: he has been had right away. He knows he is
12:18
Speaker 12: being blackmailed. The so called Twitter friend tells Jordan he
12:22
Speaker 12: needs to send money right now or the naughty photo
12:24
Speaker 12: he just sent is going to be sent to his
12:27
Speaker 12: family and all his friends at school. The blackmailer tells
12:30
Speaker 12: Jordan to send one thousand dollars. He tells the scammers
12:33
Speaker 12: he doesn't have that much. He tells them he has
12:35
Speaker 12: three hundred dollars, and they agree. If Jordan de May
12:38
Speaker 12: sends the three hundred dollars, they will get rid of
12:40
Speaker 12: everything he sends the money.
12:42
Speaker 1: This is not just a story, this is real. Jordan
12:47
Speaker 1: is dead. And you just heard one of our guests
12:51
Speaker 1: talking about training online. How these sex storageists are trained
12:56
Speaker 1: on line. They even have a script. This is part
13:00
Speaker 1: of the script that we've obtained from court filings. Quote, Hey,
13:03
Speaker 1: I have screenshots of all your followers and tags and
13:07
Speaker 1: those that comment on your posts. I can send this
13:10
Speaker 1: new to everyone and also send your nudes until it
13:13
Speaker 1: goes viral.
13:15
Speaker 2: All you've got to do is cooperate with me, and
13:17
Speaker 2: I will not expose you.
13:21
Speaker 1: Can you imagine John de May, your boy alone up
13:26
Speaker 1: in his room, thinking, oh, my girlfriend, my high school
13:31
Speaker 1: girlfriends going to get a picture of my private parts,
13:35
Speaker 1: and no, I send it to.
13:36
Speaker 2: Some girl I've never even met.
13:38
Speaker 1: My parents are going to see this and the turmoil
13:42
Speaker 1: he was going through, and they.
13:45
Speaker 7: Were even taking a step further.
13:46
Speaker 6: They were pretending like they were already sending that, and
13:50
Speaker 6: they were building content to try to show that they
13:52
Speaker 6: were sending this already. So they were putting that maximum
13:55
Speaker 6: pressure campaign on him to really stress them out. And
13:58
Speaker 6: remember this is that, you know, to three o'clock in
14:01
Speaker 6: the morning, he's spiraling out of control.
14:04
Speaker 7: He doesn't know what to.
14:05
Speaker 6: Do, and you know, he put himself. They put him
14:09
Speaker 6: into the situation that he just felt he couldn't.
14:12
Speaker 7: Get out of.
14:17
Speaker 3: Things heat up in an exchange between a Michigan high
14:20
Speaker 3: school football star and a mysterious girl. Soon she begins
14:25
Speaker 3: demanding money to keep his private photos from being leaked
14:30
Speaker 3: on the internet.
14:32
Speaker 1: Why did it take the suicide of this young boy,
14:37
Speaker 1: literally all Americans scrubbed in sunshine, never been in trouble
14:41
Speaker 1: a day in his life. Why did it take that
14:45
Speaker 1: for sextortion to be investigated? His death and the investigation
14:52
Speaker 1: into its circumstances has led to the uncovering of a
14:56
Speaker 1: far flung sextortion plot, leading to the of multiple grown
15:02
Speaker 1: men and uncovering a Nigerian gang with you as counterparts,
15:10
Speaker 1: praying on our children. Yes, when I say good night
15:15
Speaker 1: to the twins, they shut their doors and I go
15:18
Speaker 1: to sleep. Yeah, they're in there with their phones. They're
15:21
Speaker 1: in there with their phones, introducing them to a world
15:26
Speaker 1: of hurt. Joining me, Jordan's mom and dad, Jennifer and
15:33
Speaker 1: John to doctor William Morony, renowned medical examiner, toxicologist, pathologists,
15:41
Speaker 1: author of American Arcan Doctor Moroney, you have conducted so
15:47
Speaker 1: many autopsies, but there's something different about a teen a
15:54
Speaker 1: child autopsy, and I know you've seen way too many
15:58
Speaker 1: of them.
15:58
Speaker 13: When you have a baby, when you have somebody's five, six,
16:02
Speaker 13: seven years old, when you have a teen that's still
16:05
Speaker 13: in school, the autosposy room is almost reverent. We take it,
16:13
Speaker 13: I mean we take all autopsies serious. But when something
16:18
Speaker 13: like this happens, the feeling is that you're trying to
16:23
Speaker 13: make things better because you don't have good answers. And
16:27
Speaker 13: even though this is a suicide, it's a very young
16:30
Speaker 13: person and you're trying to give back to your customer,
16:34
Speaker 13: law enforcement and you're trying to give back and serve
16:37
Speaker 13: your community, the family to give them answers, and you
16:42
Speaker 13: don't know what started this at the other end, but
16:45
Speaker 13: you know it's extremely tragic, and it's just, I don't
16:50
Speaker 13: want to say it's church like, but it kind of is.
16:54
Speaker 13: You have the same lights, you have the same smell
16:57
Speaker 13: of the disinfectant, but it's very reverent, and it's a
17:02
Speaker 13: special time to try to make sense of what happens
17:07
Speaker 13: in a place that sometimes deals with tremendous tragedy. But
17:12
Speaker 13: the autopsy of children, babies and teenagers is very special
17:18
Speaker 13: and it touches you every.
17:20
Speaker 1: Day, especially a lot of your children being seventeen and
17:24
Speaker 1: just turning twenty, my own about to turn seventeen. What
17:28
Speaker 1: happened that night that John and Jennifer are describing listen.
17:34
Speaker 11: Danny Roberts begin sending more threats to Jordan, putting his
17:37
Speaker 11: naughty photos into collages with other family members and friends
17:41
Speaker 11: and threatening to send those photos out, keeping up the
17:43
Speaker 11: pressure on Jordan, not giving him a moment's rest from
17:46
Speaker 11: the threats. Jordan tells Danny he's thinking of killing himself
17:49
Speaker 11: and writes, because of you. Danny responds, good, do that fast.
17:55
Speaker 1: Let me understand what I'm hearing. Jennifer Beda joining us
18:00
Speaker 1: Jordan's mom, So this extortionist, this gang praying, predating upon
18:06
Speaker 1: our children, can actually go into their account.
18:11
Speaker 2: And she Danny, it's not as she is.
18:15
Speaker 1: American grown men teamed up with Nigerian grown men. They
18:22
Speaker 1: get pictures of his friends and family and they put
18:26
Speaker 1: the as we're calling it, naughty photos of him naked
18:31
Speaker 1: in the middle, and he puts all of his friends
18:34
Speaker 1: around it, proving to Jordan, I can reach all of
18:38
Speaker 1: your friends, your mother, and your father with this photo.
18:42
Speaker 1: I cannot imagine how Jordan would have reacted seeing that, yeah.
18:45
Speaker 8: They were building the collages.
18:48
Speaker 9: Jordan might have even believed that they were sent out
18:51
Speaker 9: to some of his friends, his friend's parents, or to us.
18:56
Speaker 9: It was very convincing. I can't imagine the panic he
18:59
Speaker 9: was in, being tired alone in the middle of the night.
19:03
Speaker 9: They basically tortured my son for hours before they forced
19:07
Speaker 9: him to take his own life.
19:08
Speaker 14: Listen, it has only been six hours since Jordan de
19:11
Speaker 14: May and Danny Roberts exchanged nude photos. At seventeen years old,
19:15
Speaker 14: the homecoming King popular well liked, Jordan de May sees
19:19
Speaker 14: no way out. When he threatens to end his own life,
19:22
Speaker 14: he hasn't met with compassion. He's met with an evil challenge.
19:26
Speaker 14: Do it he does in his bedroom, on his bed,
19:30
Speaker 14: Jordan de May fatally shoots himself.
19:32
Speaker 2: This sixtortion plot.
19:34
Speaker 1: And if you're a parent, if you're an older brother
19:38
Speaker 1: or sister, an aunt, this matters. This sex stortion plot
19:43
Speaker 1: may never have been uncovered, and we may never have
19:46
Speaker 1: known why Jordan did this.
19:49
Speaker 2: With the world at.
19:51
Speaker 1: His fingertips, his life in front of him, a football
19:55
Speaker 1: star heading to vacation, loving loving, loving parents, a beautiful girlfriend,
20:01
Speaker 1: good grades, everything why it would never have been uncovered
20:06
Speaker 1: but for this.
20:08
Speaker 11: News of Jordan de May's death spreads fast. Jordan's girlfriend
20:11
Speaker 11: Kyla gets messages online from people expressing their condolences, but
20:15
Speaker 11: there is one message from a user she doesn't recognize.
20:19
Speaker 11: This person is not offering condolences. The message is from
20:22
Speaker 11: a user with explicit photos of Jordan, threatening to send
20:26
Speaker 11: the photos to her friends and family. Kyla tells her
20:28
Speaker 11: parents about the message and they go to the police.
20:31
Speaker 1: John de May is with us, Jordan's dad, along with
20:34
Speaker 1: Jordan's mom, John explain the significance of his Jordan's little
20:40
Speaker 1: girlfriend getting a message from this extortionist.
20:45
Speaker 6: Well it's really the most important piece of this entire
20:48
Speaker 6: investigation in resulting in almost eleven or well, I believe
20:52
Speaker 6: it's eleven arrests now at this point in American Nigeria.
20:56
Speaker 6: But the picture was the catalyst. And when we talk
20:59
Speaker 6: about the number of children that are affected by sextortion specifically,
21:05
Speaker 6: it's literally everyone to some degree at one level to another.
21:08
Speaker 6: But this picture was important because it allowed law enforcement
21:11
Speaker 6: to be able to get search warrants and preservation warrants
21:14
Speaker 6: into social media companies. Instagram are meta at this point
21:17
Speaker 6: in our case. Otherwise we would have never known Jordan
21:21
Speaker 6: wiped his phone clean, he deleted all the messages on Instagram,
21:25
Speaker 6: so at face value, we really wouldn't have had the
21:29
Speaker 6: knowledge of what we have today. So that one picture,
21:31
Speaker 6: which is actually a little bit unlike most of the
21:34
Speaker 6: extortionists in sextortion cases, the majority of the time, these
21:38
Speaker 6: extortionists do not send the photos.
21:40
Speaker 7: They have no reason to.
21:42
Speaker 6: This was a little bit of a difference in a
21:44
Speaker 6: lot of the other sextortion cases that I've been that
21:47
Speaker 6: have been following and meeting with parents and investigators on
21:50
Speaker 6: So we're very very lucky that that happened because a
21:53
Speaker 6: lot of parents know that they're with some fishy stuff
21:56
Speaker 6: going on by some of the message they're on their phone,
21:58
Speaker 6: but they don't have enough evidence to go to a core,
22:00
Speaker 6: to get a warrant to go to Meta because Metta
22:03
Speaker 6: is just not going to release the back end data
22:06
Speaker 6: and provide parents or investigators with information without evidence, so
22:11
Speaker 6: that one.
22:11
Speaker 7: Piece is what would blew this all up for us.
22:14
Speaker 7: So extremely important.
22:15
Speaker 14: In Michigan, the Marquette County Sheriff has his detectives work
22:18
Speaker 14: with the FBI and subpoena Jordan's social media. Investigators track
22:22
Speaker 14: Danny roberts IP address to Nigeria, where many online sextortion
22:27
Speaker 14: scams originate. Three Nigerian men, Isehil Roberts and brothers Samuel
22:31
Speaker 14: and Sampson Negoshi are linked to Jordan Demae's case, along
22:36
Speaker 14: with more than one hundred other victims.
22:38
Speaker 1: Joining me now, Elizabeth Peterson morning news anchor and reporter
22:43
Speaker 1: WLUCTV six, Uppermichigansource dot Com, Uppermichiganssource dot Com.
22:51
Speaker 2: Elizabeth, thank you.
22:52
Speaker 1: For being with us now we hear the US attorney
22:56
Speaker 1: speaking out now just then we heard about a Nigerian gang,
23:02
Speaker 1: but there were American men us citizens, part of this gang,
23:10
Speaker 1: part of this plot.
23:12
Speaker 2: How did it work? Elizabeth?
23:14
Speaker 9: Yeah.
23:14
Speaker 15: As this continues to unfold, we keep learning more and
23:17
Speaker 15: more about exactly what happened. And there were five American
23:21
Speaker 15: men arrested, charged in this scheme, and essentially through that
23:29
Speaker 15: we learned that when Jordan sent the money, he didn't
23:32
Speaker 15: send it to Nigeria. He sent it to one of
23:34
Speaker 15: these men, who then sent it to another they call
23:38
Speaker 15: him the Plug, another man in Nigeria, who then sent
23:42
Speaker 15: it to the three defendants. And I think when you
23:47
Speaker 15: really look at what happened, started with three hundred dollars.
23:52
Speaker 15: The first man here in the United States took his
23:55
Speaker 15: cut of say, twenty percent, then the Plug takes his cut,
23:59
Speaker 15: and so by the time you go down the line,
24:02
Speaker 15: this was over fifty dollars, sixty dollars. And so as
24:07
Speaker 15: we start to learn those details, just the how unnecessary.
24:12
Speaker 8: This entire, this entire thing was.
24:14
Speaker 1: Oh, Elizabeth Paterson, hold on just a moment, sure, Elizabeth,
24:18
Speaker 1: he meane, some of these people, their cut, did you say,
24:21
Speaker 1: was fifty dollars.
24:23
Speaker 2: Jordan is dead and their cut was fifty.
24:25
Speaker 1: Dollars, So pointless, Jennifer, did you have any idea that
24:30
Speaker 1: some of these six stortionists get fifty dollars and Jordan
24:38
Speaker 1: is dead.
24:38
Speaker 9: When they shared that information at the last press conference
24:42
Speaker 9: and I did the math in my head, I thought,
24:43
Speaker 9: this is absolutely disgusting that I lost my son over
24:47
Speaker 9: someone getting fifty or sixty dollars. Completely unnecessary, and my
24:54
Speaker 9: son could be alive. I would have paid a million
24:56
Speaker 9: times that to have him here, and all they wanted
24:58
Speaker 9: was fifty bucks.
25:00
Speaker 1: I didn't know that, but my stomach is just clinched
25:04
Speaker 1: thinking that.
25:06
Speaker 2: They would go along with this.
25:08
Speaker 1: And it's easy to say, Oh, Nigeria so far away,
25:12
Speaker 1: you can't relate.
25:13
Speaker 2: To someone in a different country. Who are they? We
25:15
Speaker 2: don't know them.
25:17
Speaker 1: Us citizens are praying on our children, our Jordan.
25:26
Speaker 2: Listen.
25:26
Speaker 16: Over the course of a short conversation, Samuel Ogashi, pretending
25:31
Speaker 16: to be this young woman, persuaded Jordan to send a
25:35
Speaker 16: sexually explicit image of himself. Once Samuel Ogashi had that
25:40
Speaker 16: sexually explicit image in his hand, he then turned to
25:45
Speaker 16: extort Jordan de May for money, threatening to reveal the
25:49
Speaker 16: image to Jordan's family and friends if he did not comply.
25:54
Speaker 1: So let me understand rich with Stokey joining US Cybercrimes detective,
25:59
Speaker 1: how was it? In a nutshell in simple terms for me,
26:04
Speaker 1: how were these texts and messages some of them on Insta,
26:11
Speaker 1: some of them in a Google chat room? How are
26:13
Speaker 1: they traced back all the way to Nigeria? And how
26:17
Speaker 1: were the US counterpart the gang in the US?
26:21
Speaker 2: How were they traced?
26:22
Speaker 10: So what happens is when these happened, we have to
26:25
Speaker 10: we have to have five pieces of evidence. One of
26:27
Speaker 10: those pieces of evidents are as screen captors. We have
26:30
Speaker 10: to do what's called in the first step the preservation order,
26:33
Speaker 10: which holds the information for ninety days. Then we go
26:36
Speaker 10: on to subpoena or search warrant. Part of that, we
26:39
Speaker 10: asked for the history of IPS for as long as
26:42
Speaker 10: the account existed. And what you're going to see not
26:45
Speaker 10: only in the social media accounts. How do they send
26:47
Speaker 10: the money?
26:48
Speaker 1: Was it zell?
26:49
Speaker 10: Was it PayPal? How is it? So when we get
26:53
Speaker 10: every single social media or banking system that they're using,
26:58
Speaker 10: we get the user ID and we get all the
27:00
Speaker 10: IPS that are connected to it. So when you have
27:03
Speaker 10: all the players connecting with their IPS into these accounts,
27:07
Speaker 10: that is traceable. When I teach in the schools, and
27:09
Speaker 10: tell the kids there is no one online is anonymous
27:13
Speaker 10: when it comes to social networking and gaming, and no
27:16
Speaker 10: one has the right to make you do something you
27:18
Speaker 10: know you're not supposed to be doing. And we can
27:21
Speaker 10: make your pain stop because we can trace it.
27:24
Speaker 1: Which with Stocky is talking about how this case was
27:27
Speaker 1: cracked wide open, John de May Jennifer, but of the
27:31
Speaker 1: mom and dad of Jordan because of his death and
27:36
Speaker 1: investigation was launched. It you went through heul to even
27:42
Speaker 1: get access to Jordan's phone. That was hard enough. And
27:47
Speaker 1: because of you, a new law has been passed regarding
27:51
Speaker 1: parents and loved ones getting access to the deceased child's phone.
27:56
Speaker 1: Because of you, you never let it go.
28:03
Speaker 2: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, John to May, Jennifer, but
28:09
Speaker 2: to the mom and dad of Jordan.
28:11
Speaker 1: Tell me, was Jordan most of these transactions were through
28:16
Speaker 1: Apple Pay or zell. Was that how it was traced
28:20
Speaker 1: in Jordan's case?
28:22
Speaker 7: Correct?
28:23
Speaker 6: In Jordan's case, it was an Apple Pay to a
28:26
Speaker 6: United States bank account. And then unfortunately, these extortionists need
28:31
Speaker 6: players in the United States because you can't just send
28:33
Speaker 6: American currency to Nigeria.
28:35
Speaker 7: It has to be converted.
28:36
Speaker 6: So typically what's happening is the money's coming in through
28:39
Speaker 6: Apple pay Zel, and then it goes into a bank account.
28:42
Speaker 7: The bank account then uploads it into a.
28:44
Speaker 6: Crypto wallet through a crypto exchange United States Exchange, and
28:48
Speaker 6: then it's converted into a bitcoin or some sort of cryptocurrency.
28:52
Speaker 6: Then it's easily transferred into any wallet on the planet,
28:55
Speaker 6: and then the receiving end of that crypto wallet our
28:58
Speaker 6: case in Nigeria, they were able to run it through
29:01
Speaker 6: an exchange in Nigeria and convert that cryptocurrency back into
29:05
Speaker 6: their own home currency.
29:07
Speaker 17: Today, I'm announcing a separate but related case charging five individuals,
29:13
Speaker 17: all US citizens, located in the United States now and
29:18
Speaker 17: at the time of the alleged criminal activity. These individuals
29:22
Speaker 17: we alleged facilitated this sextortion scheme by receiving payments from
29:28
Speaker 17: the victims and transferring the money to Nigeria, ultimately to
29:33
Speaker 17: those carrying out the scheme that resulted in the death
29:37
Speaker 17: of Jordan DeMay and victimized many others.
29:41
Speaker 1: That is the US Attorney for the Western District of Michigan,
29:45
Speaker 1: Mark taught in speaking about the arrests, and yes, it
29:50
Speaker 1: is an achievement and it was an extensive investigation to
29:54
Speaker 1: track down these predators all around the world. But can
29:58
Speaker 1: I talk about the reality to John and Jennifer all
30:04
Speaker 1: of this happened in just six hours from the time
30:09
Speaker 1: your baby got this message, the first message from Danny.
30:15
Speaker 1: Six hours later, he was gone. He was gone from
30:19
Speaker 1: this earth and in heaven, just six hours.
30:23
Speaker 2: John, that's right.
30:25
Speaker 6: And there's two dozen parents and families that I know
30:29
Speaker 6: that I speak with that have lost their children to sextortion,
30:33
Speaker 6: and a lot of their stories are very similar to these.
30:36
Speaker 6: All these young boys and some girls. We could put
30:38
Speaker 6: them all in the same room together and they could
30:40
Speaker 6: all be brothers and sisters and the feet on them
30:45
Speaker 6: and you know, it's a tragedy.
30:47
Speaker 1: Jennifer is so hard to take in that all you've
30:51
Speaker 1: raised him for years, eighteen years, and in six hours
30:57
Speaker 1: you lose them.
30:58
Speaker 9: They took one of them, all precious things to me,
31:01
Speaker 9: and on that.
31:02
Speaker 8: Day, part of me left this earth too.
31:05
Speaker 9: And there's always going to be an emptiness and a
31:08
Speaker 9: heaviness not having Jordan here with me.
31:11
Speaker 1: To Elizabeth Peterson joining us WLUC TV six, it's so
31:19
Speaker 1: difficult to hear John and Jennifer talk about how much
31:24
Speaker 1: they love Jordan and how everything changed in just a
31:29
Speaker 1: few hours. This investigation turned on its ear and it
31:34
Speaker 1: got to be very extensive and much bigger than anyone imagined.
31:39
Speaker 15: Yeah, it really, you know, as I've been covering this
31:43
Speaker 15: for a couple of years now and I've gotten to
31:45
Speaker 15: know Jennifer and John, and I've listened to the community
31:47
Speaker 15: to talk about who Jordan was. Everyone explains him as
31:50
Speaker 15: this big, big presence, this big spirit. And I think
31:55
Speaker 15: as we look at this investigation and see how big
31:57
Speaker 15: it's gotten, the reach that it's gotten, story is being
32:01
Speaker 15: told not just here in Michigan, but across the country,
32:04
Speaker 15: across the world, and every time it's told, there's an
32:07
Speaker 15: opportunity there for us as parents, for us as the community,
32:10
Speaker 15: for us as legislator's law enforcement across the board, to
32:13
Speaker 15: do better, to do right by Jordan, by his family.
32:17
Speaker 15: And I think that's exactly what's happening. And I can't
32:20
Speaker 15: help but think that. You know, it's hard for us
32:22
Speaker 15: as adults sometimes, I think, to relate to a sixteen
32:25
Speaker 15: year old and what they're thinking, what they're feeling. But
32:28
Speaker 15: they haven't lived life yet, they haven't matured yet, they
32:31
Speaker 15: don't have that wherewithal to say, you know what, in
32:34
Speaker 15: a year, I'm going to look back at on this
32:36
Speaker 15: and laugh. And so as adults we can't understand, but
32:39
Speaker 15: we can open that open space.
32:41
Speaker 1: And that's a really good point, Elizabeth, as is true
32:45
Speaker 1: in so many suicides to you, Jennifer, but to Jordan's mother,
32:53
Speaker 1: if they could just get through that one dark moment, yeah,
32:59
Speaker 1: if they had just made through the night, the next morning,
33:02
Speaker 1: everything is different.
33:05
Speaker 8: Explain absolutely.
33:08
Speaker 9: You know, their brains aren't developed enough to see past
33:11
Speaker 9: that very moment. They're just seeing what's in front of
33:13
Speaker 9: them right now and how devastating this is and how
33:16
Speaker 9: they might have hurt someone or disappointed someone. I actually
33:21
Speaker 9: had a teenager reach out to me yesterday and say,
33:25
Speaker 9: this is happening to me, and because of Jordan's story,
33:28
Speaker 9: I know that this is going to pass. And that
33:32
Speaker 9: brought tears to me, knowing that sharing Jordan's story is
33:36
Speaker 9: helping others and it is saving lives.
33:39
Speaker 1: Jordan de may Attain, literally just king of the world,
33:45
Speaker 1: his life in front of him, commits suicide because of
33:49
Speaker 1: a sextortion plot against him, and it's happened to detains.
33:54
Speaker 2: All over our country.
33:56
Speaker 1: I want you to hear what Danny, the que girl
34:00
Speaker 1: he thought he was talking to, said, dude, now goodbye,
34:05
Speaker 1: enjoy your miserable life. And victim too says why and Danny,
34:14
Speaker 1: I'll make this goat viral. I'll make you regret your life.
34:19
Speaker 1: I'll make you commit suicide. I promise you, I swear.
34:23
Speaker 1: That is what these teens are up against. They think
34:28
Speaker 1: they're going to get ridiculed, shamed, shunned, bullied, mistreated, grounded
34:34
Speaker 1: by parents, friends, family, and they feel they have no.
34:39
Speaker 2: Other choice very quickly.
34:41
Speaker 1: Doctor William Moroney has conducted so many autopsies on teen
34:47
Speaker 1: suicide victims.
34:49
Speaker 18: Your message, my message is that we need to have
34:53
Speaker 18: resilience coming from the parents, but we also need the
34:57
Speaker 18: taxpayers to hear that message.
34:59
Speaker 13: In this schools because the kids spend so much time
35:02
Speaker 13: in school that the schools should redirect children back to
35:07
Speaker 13: their parents for questions, and there should be early education
35:12
Speaker 13: about feeling insecure and suicide and downplay those messages in
35:18
Speaker 13: the media and refer children back to communication with their parents.
35:23
Speaker 1: That's exactly what you do, Rich with Stocky try in schools.
35:28
Speaker 10: Yeah, we need to be teaching parents how to have
35:30
Speaker 10: that technology talk because so many times parents say if
35:34
Speaker 10: you do this, if you do that, we're going to
35:36
Speaker 10: do this here, We're going to do that to you,
35:37
Speaker 10: and that shuts down the communications. Instead, I teach something
35:41
Speaker 10: called the Golden ticket, and we need to have parents
35:44
Speaker 10: give that kid a pass because parents are responsible for
35:47
Speaker 10: their kids technology and we need to do a better
35:50
Speaker 10: job allowing no matter what you do, we are here
35:52
Speaker 10: for you and we will fix it for you. You don't
35:55
Speaker 10: have to suffer in silence.
35:56
Speaker 1: And what is so ironic to Jennifer and John Mom
36:00
Speaker 1: and dad, Jordan was not under any threat like you
36:04
Speaker 1: hear parents saying, Hey, I'm going to take away your
36:06
Speaker 1: car keys, I'm going to take away your cell phone if.
36:08
Speaker 2: You fill in the blank.
36:11
Speaker 1: This boy, Jordan, this was a prison of his own
36:17
Speaker 1: making out of fear embarrassment, not because you had disciplined
36:22
Speaker 1: him or fussed him about being online, but because of
36:26
Speaker 1: what the defendants did, grown men in the US and Nigeria.
36:32
Speaker 2: Targeting this teen boy in the middle of the night.
36:36
Speaker 1: Jennifer, you guys did everything right and parents need to
36:40
Speaker 1: know that too. You can do everything right and you
36:44
Speaker 1: still have a hard time protecting your child online.
36:48
Speaker 8: Yeah, Jordan had a loving family.
36:51
Speaker 9: He had a great life, a huge support system within
36:54
Speaker 9: his friends in this community, and he was just the
36:58
Speaker 9: target that night. And they were relentless and did not
37:02
Speaker 9: give up until Jordan finally took his own life because
37:06
Speaker 9: he couldn't take the pressure. And I think it's so
37:08
Speaker 9: important for parents to hear Jordan's story and sit down
37:12
Speaker 9: with their families and have open conversations about what happened
37:16
Speaker 9: and that there's absolutely nothing that they can't come to
37:19
Speaker 9: you with for help, because people want to help you.
37:22
Speaker 8: If you see yourself going down that.
37:23
Speaker 2: Tunnel, John to May, Jordan's dead.
37:26
Speaker 1: I want to tell you how you've affected my family,
37:30
Speaker 1: you and Jennifer and Jordan. When you first told me
37:34
Speaker 1: about Jordan, I pulled up Jordan's picture online on my
37:39
Speaker 1: iPad and I blew it up and I waited for
37:42
Speaker 1: the twins, my children, to come home from school. They
37:45
Speaker 1: sat down, we had no conversation, which we normally do,
37:49
Speaker 1: and I held up the picture.
37:50
Speaker 2: So you see this boy.
37:52
Speaker 1: He's a star football player, he was going to go
37:54
Speaker 1: to college. He's dead, and this is what happened. This
37:58
Speaker 1: is what happened. Now his mom and dad don't have
38:01
Speaker 1: him any more. And I told him point blank, what happened.
38:07
Speaker 1: Please help us, John, help all the parents listening right now.
38:12
Speaker 2: What is your message?
38:13
Speaker 6: I think the most important thing really is kind of elementary,
38:16
Speaker 6: but it just boils down. So we have to really
38:19
Speaker 6: watch what our kids are doing on devices and specifically
38:22
Speaker 6: social media. One thing that I think is really important,
38:25
Speaker 6: and if the detective touched on it, was having a
38:27
Speaker 6: device in their bedrooms in secluded areas at night without
38:32
Speaker 6: other people around. I think that's a really bad recipe,
38:34
Speaker 6: especially when something like this goes down. There's no way
38:37
Speaker 6: for anybody to intervene. So I think parents need to
38:39
Speaker 6: be really really cognizant about that. Keep the devices in
38:41
Speaker 6: open areas, keep them out of their bedrooms, put them
38:43
Speaker 6: on the phone chargers, put them away at night, and
38:46
Speaker 6: then speaking to their kids and having the conversation. This
38:49
Speaker 6: is stuff that's really happening. To look at Jordan's story,
38:51
Speaker 6: this thing is real. There's people from other parts of
38:54
Speaker 6: the world that came into my house and murdered my
38:55
Speaker 6: son that night, and there's eleven people in custody right
38:58
Speaker 6: now because of it. So this this isn't something that
39:00
Speaker 6: just as a whim. There's two dozen other families, and
39:03
Speaker 6: there's probably thousands, if not tens of thousands, maybe even
39:06
Speaker 6: millions of kids that are being.
39:07
Speaker 7: Affected by this to some level. So we have to
39:11
Speaker 7: be diligent parents and pay attention to what's.
39:13
Speaker 6: Happening, and be a little bit more strict and fors
39:18
Speaker 6: coming with the phone usage.
39:20
Speaker 2: If you or someone you know believe that you are,
39:25
Speaker 2: or have been.
39:27
Speaker 1: Or currently a victim of sextortion, toll free eight.
39:33
Speaker 2: Hundred two two five four to three two four.
39:38
Speaker 1: Repeat eight hundred two two five four three two four
39:43
Speaker 1: that's one eight hundred, call FBI, and if you are
39:48
Speaker 1: considering or thinking about committing suicide, please text nine eight
39:57
Speaker 1: eight just text nine to eight eight or dial toll
40:01
Speaker 1: free eight hundred two seven three eight two five five
40:08
Speaker 1: nine eight eight text or eight hundred two seven three
40:12
Speaker 1: eight two five five because I promise you, if you
40:17
Speaker 1: can get through that dark hour and see the sunrise
40:22
Speaker 1: the next morning, you'll change your mind. We stop and
40:27
Speaker 1: remember an American hero, Deputy Sheriff Isaiah Cordero, Riverside County Sheriffs.
40:34
Speaker 1: Just thirty two, Deputy Sheriff Isaiah shot. Deputy Sheriff Isaiah
40:42
Speaker 1: Cordero shot and killed in the line of duty, survived
40:47
Speaker 1: by his mother, father, and brother, American hero Deputy Sheriff
40:54
Speaker 1: Isaiah Corderio.
40:57
Speaker 2: Thank you to Jordan's parents, John and Jennifer. So difficult
41:05
Speaker 2: to speak about Jordan, yet they are trying their best
41:10
Speaker 2: to be empowered and help you. Nancy Grace signing off,
41:16
Speaker 2: good bye friend,