Distraught mom says son, 14, shot himself dead 10 days after he began talking to stranger on TikTok
Morgan Moore said her son Caleb, the oldest of five children from Mississippi, was just weeks away from starting the 8th grade when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in June.
'He died terrified, scared and ashamed,' his mother told Fox8.
Caleb had been messaging with someone he believed was another teenager on TikTok, his mom explained.
The exchange quickly moved to text messages and without his parents knowing, he was soon allegedly pressured into sending explicit images.
Then the threats began.
Police say the scammer used the compromising material to blackmail Caleb.
He allegedly threatened to expose the photos unless he paid or sent more content, which is a growing form of cybercrime known as 'sextortion.'
Morgan Moore (pictured left) said her son Caleb (right), the oldest of five children from Mississippi , was just weeks away from starting the 8th grade when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in June
On June 10, Moore's four younger children discovered their brother's dead body in their home.
'I just hit the floor in the kitchen,' Moore told the outlet. 'The police didn't want me to see it. Well, all four of my kids saw it.'
'I believe that my son was murdered and that he was manipulated into doing something he did not want to do,' she added.
Moore described her son as a joyful, mild-mannered boy who loved sports.
'I couldn't have asked for a better son,' Moore told the outlet. 'He was very funny and mild-mannered, so he got along with everybody.'
The FBI has issued repeated warnings about the rise in sextortion scams targeting boys between 14 and 17.
The scams are often carried out by predators in Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and the Philippines.
There have been at least 12,600 victims from between October 2021 and March 2023, according to federal investigators.
And at least 20 victims tragically committed suicide.
In June, a Kentucky teen took his own life after being targeted in a cruel 'sextortion' scam that used AI-generated nude images to try to blackmail him.
Elijah Heacock, 16, of Glasgow, was getting ready for bed on February 27 when he received a chilling text demanding $3,000 to keep an AI-generated nude photo of him from being shared with friends and family, KFDA News reported.
Only hours later, his family found him inside their home's laundry room gravely injured by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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