A 15-year-old West Virginia teenager was discovered dead by suicide in his father’s man cave just three hours after allegedly receiving a sextortion message online, according to family members.

Bryce Tate, a sophomore at Nitro High School in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound on November 6. His father, Adam Tate, stated that Bryce received an unknown text message at 4:37 p.m. the same day and was discovered dead hours later.

Adam Tate told reporters that the incident was not suicide but murder, describing the scammers as “godless demons” who were “cowards, awful individuals, worse than criminals.” He said the perpetrators had meticulously built trust with Bryce by posing as a local 17-year-old girl and knowing intimate details of his life.

According to Adam Tate, within three hours of receiving the initial threatening message, Bryce had shot himself. The family reported that Bryce had only $30 at the time and offered it to the scammers in exchange for explicit images they demanded, but the perpetrators refused payment.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported over 33,000 cases of child sextortion in 2024 alone, with nearly that number documented in the first six months of the year. FBI public affairs specialist Bradford Arick noted a significant increase in cases where children and teens are threatened into sending explicit images.

In the final moments of Bryce Tate’s life, authorities reported he was messaged 120 times to maintain engagement, creating what Adam described as “tunnel vision” that prevented him from setting his phone down.

Adam Tate emphasized: “They acted like a local 17-year-old girl. They knew which gym he worked out at, they knew a couple of his best friends and name-dropped them. They knew he played basketball for Nitro High School.”