Mother reveals the heartbreaking moment she found her 13-year-old son dead in her yard after he fell victim to Snapchat sextortion scheme

A South Carolina mother has revealed the heartbreaking moment she saw her 13-year-old son lying dead in the yard after he fell victim to a Snapchat extortion scheme.

Timothy Barnett’s body was first discovered in the family’s driveway in Sumter, about an hour outside Columbia, by his stepfather, Geoffrey Hauptman, around 6:30 a.m. on April 6 last year.

Geoffery, who initially thought “someone was sleeping in the yard,” quickly called his wife, Timothy’s mother, Betsy Hauptman. In what became the worst moment of their lives, they realized that Timothy had committed suicide.

“I woke up with a nightmare,” Betsy Fox news.

About six months later, Betsy realized that Timothy had fallen victim to a Snapchat sextortion scheme, in which a perpetrator persuades a victim to send graphic videos and photos online in exchange for money or more explicit content.

Betsy and Timothy’s father, Jamie Barnett, immediately contacted Sumter police, but the case was eventually closed and labeled a suicide investigation.

The family has asked the FBI for help finding the suspect who drove Timothy to his sudden death, and on May 17, they filed a lawsuit against Snapchat for playing a role in their tragic loss.

Betsy, who said she had “no idea what sextortion was,” explained that she and her husband made sure to closely monitor their child’s social media and phone use.

“I have always tried to make sure my children are as safe as possible,” Betsy said The post and courier.

In a Facebook post about the horrific loss of her son, Betsy said that right before he killed himself, Timothy was sitting in the driveway early in the morning, pleading with someone on Snapchat not to post anything online.”

Initially, local police confiscated Timothy’s iPhone and a Chromebook issued by his school, Alice Drive Middle School.

After gaining access to the teen’s iCloud account, authorities discovered nearly a dozen composed suicide notes written to Timothy’s family and friends, as well as call history to a number with a New York area code.

Further investigation revealed that the number was sending Timothy links to Snapchat, and that the teen had another account, unknown to his parents, that was allegedly operated by a stranger.

Under that account, police discovered Timothy and a stranger discussing a $35 per day payment through the payment platform CashApp.

In exchange for the money, Timothy had asked the stranger to promise not to share a sexually explicit photo of him that he had shared on Snapchat.

Police discovered that the person Timothy was messaging was posing as a woman and that his parents and his friends had no idea of ​​their online interactions.

Snapchat is known for its fast photo sharing technology, which deletes sent images within 24 hours.

Although Betsy said she tried to be as vigilant as possible by running random “spot checks” on her children’s phones “at least twice a week,” the app’s delete function snuck past her and her husband.

“Hindsight is 20/20, and I really wish we had at least not allowed Snapchat,” she told Fox News.

Despite finding a slew of evidence linking Timothy to Snapchat, Sumter police closed the case, saying it was not their responsibility to find out why Timothy decided to take his life.

She soon gave up on local police and decided to contact the FBI herself.

“Unfortunately, I cannot trust my city’s police department to do their job properly and provide information to those who need it, to those who can actually do something,” she said.

The teen’s father, Jamie, is just as frustrated with the police department as his ex-wife.

“I will not allow these Sumter officers to simply dump your carcass without telling the FBI that you were viciously attacked by predators,” Jamie said on Facebook, along with a photo of him and his late son at a football game.

Timothy’s parents decided to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Snapchat, claiming the California-based social media platform was “defectively designed” and “unreasonably dangerous” to minors like their son.

The lawsuit added that the platform is “unsafe” because it has no age verification feature and no parental controls.

“It is well documented that sexual predators use Snap Inc.’s product. to target and exploit minors,” the lawsuit said.

“They are attracted to social media because it gives them easy access to a large group of potential victims, many of whom are addicted to the suspect’s product.”

The lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages, including funeral expenses and legal fees the family has endured.

The legal filing joins an ongoing lawsuit in the Northern District of California against multiple social media platforms that have harmed children like Timothy.

A Snapchat spokesperson told Fox News: “What happened to Timothy is devastating, and our hearts go out to his family at this unimaginable time.”

‘We have a zero-tolerance policy towards predators who abuse young people on Snapchat and we are continuously working to combat this horrific activity. We use proactive detection tools to detect and remove these types of criminals and work 24 hours a day to support investigations.

“We provide additional safeguards for teens to protect themselves from unwanted contact and do not offer public friends lists, which helps prevent predators from targeting a teen’s friends.

“We also want to help young people learn the signs of extortion and have launched in-app education to raise awareness on how to spot and report extortion,” the spokesperson said.

His parents remember Timothy as a smart and happy child who loved karate, going to the beach and playing the saxophone for his school band.

They also remembered their son as an honors student who was “the life of the party.”

“He was just a weirdo,” Betsy said.

To this day, Betsy and Jamie have done everything they can to find out who caused their son’s suicide.

“I will not rest and I will die on the hill of finding the person who did this,” Betsy said.

“I feel so sick thinking about this – the entire situation is disgusting, from the person who did this to Timothy, to the way the Sumter Police Department handled and continues to handle this case.”

In a Facebook post from March, Jamie tagged Sumter police in a newborn photo of Timothy wrapped in his father’s U.S. Air Force uniform.

“This is Timothy, who I didn’t meet until he was eight months old when I returned from Afghanistan,” he said.

“Sumter Police Say His Name!! Absolutely no child investigation should be closed this way, but you messed with the wrong guy who won’t let it go because I know what good looks like.”