Starkville father shares result of son’s suicide, warns parents about sextortion scams

On December 1, 2022, 16-year-old Walker Montgomery, a Starkville Academy student, committed suicide. Two months later, his father tells Fox News his son's passing was the result of sextortion.

Sextortion is a type of blackmail used by offenders to obtain sexual content or money from a child, or to coerce them into engaging in sexual activity. With more children online, it's a rising concern for parents across the country. A recent report from the FBI shows an increase in sextortion cases, specifically targeting young boys.

During the interview on America's Newsroom, Brian Montgomery, Walker's father, said individuals from Nigeria extorted money from his son over a video he had made. He said the perpetrators threatened to share the video if they did not receive $1,000 from him.

"The information we collected shows that the pressure Walker was under was unbearable to the point that during this exchange, Walker finally tells them, 'Hey, I'm going to commit suicide. I'm going to kill myself,' and they respond with, 'Go ahead, because you're already dead,' and as a parent, obviously, you hear that, and it's heartbreaking," Montgomery said.

As a parent grieving the loss of his child, Montgomery is calling on other parents to be more watchful of their children, especially ones who have access to smart devices such as cell phones, tablets, and computers.

“Don't allow your children, by themselves, in a bedroom, in a bathroom, or anywhere with these phones without supervision, because they are not capable of understanding the dangers on the other side of it,” said Montgomery. “As a parent, that's something that I'm going to have to live with as a regret, because Walker had a cell phone in his room by himself. I'm saying that just because I want other parents to heed that warning because it's something you can do today to guard yourself against this.”

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“Our job [as engineers] is to find the problem and fix it,” Wofford said.“we do modeling and testing for how things work now and where we need to be for future growth.”

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