Southeast
South Carolina family of boy, 13, who died by suicide sues Snapchat over sextortion scheme
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
A South Carolina mother is suing Snapchat after her 13-year-old son died by suicide last year.
The family says young Timothy Barnett took his own life April 6, 2023, at his Sumter home after he fell victim to a sextortion scheme on the social media app.
“On April 6 … it was a typical morning,” Betsy Hauptman, Timothy’s mother, told Fox News Digital. “My husband and I were waking up. The alarm went off at about 6:15. My husband got up first. He walked out the door. I was in the bathroom, and I got a phone call, and my husband’s like, ‘Hey, do me a favor, lock the door. Make sure the doors are all locked, and check on the kids.’”
Initially, Hauptman’s husband — Timothy’s stepfather — thought “someone was sleeping in the yard” but later realized it was Timothy.
SOUTH CAROLINA LAWMAKER EXPOSES DANGERS OF ‘SEXTORTION’ AFTER TEENAGE SON’S SUICIDE
Timothy Barnett died by suicide April 6, 2023, after falling victim to a sextortion scheme on Snapchat. (Handout)
“I woke up in a nightmare,” Hauptman, a mother of three boys and four stepchildren, said.
It wasn’t until about six months later that Hauptman realized her son had been the victim of a sextortion scheme on Snapchat. The FBI describes sextortion as a criminal act in which an offender contacts a victim online and coerces the victim to send explicit images or videos in exchange for either more explicit material or money.
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“What happened to Timothy is devastating, and our hearts go out to his family during this unimaginable time,” a Snapchat spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We have zero tolerance for predators abusing young people on Snapchat and are working constantly to fight this horrific activity. We use proactive detection tools to find and remove these types of criminals and work around the clock to support law enforcement investigations.
“We offer extra safeguards for teens to protect against unwanted contact and don’t offer public friend 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 of how to spot and report it.”
It wasn’t until about six months after Timothy’s death that Betsy Hauptman realized her son had been the victim of a sextortion scheme on Snapchat. (handout)
The FBI received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion involving at least 12,600 victims between October 2021 and March 2023.
Hauptman said information about the sextortion scheme that resulted in Timothy’s suicide “was buried in the closed suicide case,” and she didn’t find out about it until her inner “mama bear” came out at her local police station.
“I had absolutely no clue what sextortion was.”
But she and her husband do not take social media lightly. They did regular and random “spot checks” on their kids’ phones “at least twice a week” to make sure they were being safe on social media. During one such “spot check” on Timothy’s phone in November 2022, Hauptman found an inappropriate video from someone Timothy did not know on Snapchat.
Betsy Hauptman and her husband did regular and random “spot checks” of their kids’ phones about twice a week. (handout)
“We talked to Timothy about the dangers of doing this. And I really kind of preached the whole sex trafficking aspect of it,” Hauptman said. “I don’t remember if we reported it or not, but I know for certain we blocked that account.”
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She also confiscated Timothy’s phone until January, during which time she saw a general improvement in his attitude. When he got his phone back, Timothy “promised” to go to his parents if he ever came across anything like that video again, Hauptman said.
“Hindight’s 20/20, and I really wish that, at least, we wouldn’t have allowed Snapchat.”
Hauptman’s attorney, Joe Cunningham, said “if these type of dangers” on Snapchat “were lurking in an apartment complex or in a neighborhood, they would be flushed out very quickly and effectively.”
About two-thirds of teen users on Snapchat said they’ve been targeted by sextortion scams. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
“Parenting right now does have its own challenges that are distinct from generations past, and to the extent that people are creating communities like Snap and then profiting off them by using children as their products, they have a responsibility to make sure that product is safe and that it does not put children in harm’s way by allowing these types of predators to contact and reach out to them,” Cunningham said.
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The wrongful death lawsuit filed in South Carolina federal court argues “Snapchat is defectively designed with features that make the platform unreasonably dangerous for minors like Timothy,” and that “[a]s a direct and foreseeable consequence of Snap’s unsafe design, lack of warnings, and inadequate parental controls, Timothy fell victim to a sexual predator who extorted him by threatening to share sexually explicit images Timothy had been manipulated into sending,” resulting in his suicide.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed in South Carolina federal court argues “Snapchat is defectively designed with features that make the platform unreasonably dangerous for minors like Timothy.” (handout)
The lawsuit notes that Snapchat allows users to send photos and messages that “disappear” as soon as they are opened, though a user can also choose to make their messages visible for a longer period of time.
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“Snapchat’s limited display time … encourages users to send photos depicting deviant behavior. Sexting is a prime example, but cyberbullying, underage alcohol consumption, and illicit use of narcotics are also commonly the subject of Snaps,” the complaint states.
“A 2016 survey of pre-teens and teens ages 12-17 found that ‘d— pics’ were among some of the unwanted content that users — predominantly females — received while using the app.”
The complaint also noted that “[d]isappearing Snaps do not operate as advertised.”
Snapchat allows users to send photos and messages that “disappear” as soon as they are opened. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto)
“Although designed to disappear after an allotted time, recipients possess the ability to save or record them at will,” the lawsuit says. “This is particularly harmful to adolescents, who rely on Snap’s representations when taking and sending photos, and who only learn after the fact that recipients have the means to save photos or videos. In many cases, this leads to sexual exploitation.”
GROWING SNAPCHAT ‘SEXTORTION’ SCHEMES TARGET YOUNG BOYS, EXPERT WARNS
South Carolina State Rep. Brandon Guffey, who lost his 17-year-old son to suicide after a sextortion scheme in July 2022, has spoken to Hauptman about their similar circumstances. Guffey sued Meta earlier this year after his son met a sextortionist posing as a girl on Instagram.
“Snap, along with these other social media companies, are allowing kids below 18 to agree to these contract terms. Snap even says it themselves that two-thirds of all of their teen [users] have been targeted for sextortion, and yet they have no protections in place. And not only that, they double down by adding AI, which has amplified the issue.”
South Carolina State. Rep. Brandon Guffey encourages those who may be the victim of sextortion to contact police. (Brandon Guffey)
“I really just want parents to stand up, stand together and voice their concerns,” Guffey said. “And if the big tech companies can’t listen by our voice, then we need to start making moves with our wallets. Stop investing into these companies. … Maybe it needs to be a social justice campaign to make them realize I don’t want to have to legislate all this. I believe in less government. I want the companies to do what’s right. And right now, they are not acting like companies that really give a damn.”
“[T]hey are not acting like companies that give a damn.”
An investigation into Timothy’s death remains ongoing.
Hauptman remembered her son as “a 13-year-old rugged and tough, tumbling boy.” He was “the life of the party,” she said.
“He was always the one to light up the room when he walked in. Typical middle child that craved attention. I remember when he was an infant … when his daddy was deployed, and he needed to sleep face to face with mom for those nine and a half months that Dad was gone,” she recalled.
Hauptman remembered her son as “a 13-year-old rugged and tough, tumbling boy.” (handout)
He loved baseball and playing the saxophone. At one point, he declared himself “the man of the house” to his mom and asked her how she took her coffee. From that point on, he took it upon himself to make her coffee in the morning, Hauptman said.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created a free service called Take it Down, which is meant to help victims of sextortion erase explicit images of victims or get bad actors to stop sharing them online. The tool can be accessed at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.
The FBI encourages anyone who believes they may be the victim of sextortion or know someone who may be a victim to immediately contact local law enforcement or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or online at tips.fbi.gov.
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Pope Leo XIV has announced a pro-immigration pastor as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, which is home to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
On Friday, Pope Leo named Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Queens, New York, as the new bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.
Rodríguez, born in the Dominican Republic and ordained a priest in 2004, has been described as a supporter of immigrant rights.
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Pope Leo XIV has named a pro-immigration pastor as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, which is home to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)
In an interview with the Associated Press, Rodríguez said, “I never, never, never expected anything even close to this,” and added, “I’m even a little bit scared. But I trust in God’s assistance. One thing I can tell you is that this diocese is a diocese of hard-working priests and hard-working people, and I’m here to help.”
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is located in the Diocese of Palm Beach, and Rodríguez said he wants to “help” Trump when it comes to immigration.
“The president is doing really good things, not only for the United States, but for the world. But when it comes to the migrant, the immigration policy, we want to help,” Rodriguez told the AP. “We want to assist the president as a church because we believe that we can do better… than the way we’re doing this right now.”
Rodríguez said he believes it isn’t appropriate to enforce immigration policy on minors.
“When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, we shouldn’t be enforcing them by focusing on deporting 5-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 9-year-old kids, people that have never committed any crime,” Rodriguez said. “So, we’re here to help. We’re willing to help, and God willing, we will.”
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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. (Alex Brandon/AP)
In November, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a “special message” on immigration, which said in part: “Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants. We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of good will work together.”
It added, “We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good. Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks.”
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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for nations to respect the human dignity of immigrants while acknowledging nations must enforce their borders. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
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Boca Raton, Florida’s Republican Mayor Scott Singer announced a run for Congress last week and spoke to Fox News Digital about his case to voters that Washington needs more local, common-sense leadership and fewer policies that he says have fueled inflation, weakened border security and slowed economic growth.
Singer announced his run against Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District with a launch video referencing New York City’s onerous taxes and referencing Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s “radical left policies” while contrasting the economic and tax landscape with Florida, where many New Yorkers have fled to in recent years.
“I love public service,” Singer told Fox News Digital. “It’s been the honor of my life to serve as mayor. We have an opportunity to keep America going in the right direction and reverse some of the policies from the past four years that led to porous borders, high taxes, higher inflation and have hurt our economy.”
Singer, who joins a race where several other Republicans have also declared, praised recent Republican-led efforts in Washington, including what he described as historic tax relief and policies aimed at boosting wages and lowering costs for working families.
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Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer has announced a run for Congress in Florida. (Getty)
“The Republican Party has become the party of the middle class,” he said, pointing to proposals to eliminate taxes on overtime and tips, strengthen domestic manufacturing and bring jobs back to the U.S. “These are the things that are helping the middle class, higher wages, lower inflation and lower costs.”
The mayor drew a sharp contrast with today’s Democratic Party, arguing it has moved too far to the left to deliver practical solutions.
“Unfortunately, the Democratic Party of today is not our parents’ Democratic Party,” Singer said. “With an increasingly out-of-touch, far-left progressive party, it’s hard for common-sense solutions to come out of that.”
Singer said his experience in local government has shown him what effective governance looks like — and what Washington is missing.
“At the local level, we’ve excelled because we have to,” Singer said. “We have balanced budgets. We can’t shut down the government. We have to pick up the trash every day and deliver essential services. And we do that by finding common ground.”
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The United States Capitol building is seen in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16, 2025. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
That approach, Singer argued, is increasingly absent in Congress, where partisan gridlock often stalls progress.
He also voiced strong support for President Donald Trump’s policy agenda, particularly efforts to combat antisemitism on college campuses, reduce the size of government and roll back federal regulations.
“Our campuses have been unsafe for years,” Singer said. “President Trump has stood up to antisemitism by holding universities accountable. We need to codify those gains, not just rely on executive orders.”
Singer pledged he would also push to restore more authority to states and local governments, particularly on education and environmental policy, and continue efforts to rein in federal spending.
“Harmful regulation has killed jobs and increased costs,” he said. “We need long-term solutions that put power back in the hands of states and communities, not Washington bureaucrats.”
Singer told Fox News Digital one of his day one priorities if elected to Congress will be legislation to “ban individual stock trading by members,” which he called an “important” issue.
The Cook Political Report currently ranks the race as “Lean Democrat” as House Republicans will try to buck historical trends and hold their razor-thin majority in the House next November.
“What Americans want is a strong economy, a strong national defense and common-sense solutions,” Singer said. “That’s what I’ve delivered as mayor, and that’s what I want to bring to Congress.”
Earlier this year, shortly before Mamdani’s victory, Singer told Fox News Digital that the socialist candidate’s rise in New York City is likely to spark an exodus of businesses to Florida, a move he said he has already started to see in his conversations with business owners.
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Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks to members of the media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s hard to predict how bad the economic situation is going to be, but Mamdani doubled down at last week’s debate and said it’s about time we raised taxes, and he was grateful for it,” Singer said. “When he’s proposing a 17% marginal tax rate for New York City residents between state and local taxes, that’s 17% that they can simply give up by moving here and with jobs more mobile because of technology and with companies finding great office space here, there’s less and less reason for people to stay there.”
Singer continued, “I think one year out, you’re going to see a substantial exodus of companies that are able to move. Two years out, we’re going to see depressed values, more unemployment, higher crime. And four years out? We don’t know. I think at that point, they’ll be ready for a new mayor if what we expect to happen in November happens.”
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Southeast
3 Georgia jail escapees allegedly force Lyft driver to Florida before capture by authorities
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Three inmates who escaped a DeKalb County, Georgia, jail on Monday were captured without incident in Miami, Florida, after a multistate manhunt led by the U.S. Marshals Service and regional fugitive task forces.
The inmates – 24-year-old Stevenson Charles, 31-year-old Yusuf Minor and 25-year-old Naod Yohannes – escaped the DeKalb County Jail in Decatur, a northeastern suburb of Atlanta, early Monday morning.
The inmates were facing felony charges, including murder, arson and armed robbery, and were considered dangerous and possibly armed, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators learned Charles contacted his girlfriend in Florida, and about 2:30 a.m., a Lyft driver picked up all three suspects at the home of Minor’s girlfriend.
‘ARMED AND DANGEROUS’ INMATE ESCAPES ATLANTA HOSPITAL, STEALS GUN AND SUV: POLICE
DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said three inmates escaped from Dekalb County Jail. (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office)
The driver then took the suspects to a vacant address in Stone Mountain, Georgia, associated with Minor.
Investigators identified the Lyft driver and began efforts to locate her.
Authorities later determined the fugitives allegedly forced the driver to take them to Florida along a route toward the Miami area, where Charles’ girlfriend was located.
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The inmates were considered dangerous and possibly armed, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office)
At about 9:30 p.m. Monday, investigators learned the fugitives had rented an Airbnb in Miramar, Florida.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office spotted the Lyft vehicle about 10:45 p.m. and attempted a traffic stop, but Charles and Yohannes fled.
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The three inmates were captured without incident in Miami, Florida, after a multistate manhunt. (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office)
By 11:40 p.m., all three fugitives were apprehended without further incident.
The Lyft driver was located and treated by emergency responders.
A Lyft spokesperson told Fox News Digital the company is working with law enforcement in any way it can.
“We are deeply concerned by this incident and relieved that the driver is safe,” the spokesperson said. “Our hearts are with the driver, and we have reached out to offer support.”
The investigation into the escape remains ongoing.
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According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Charles was convicted of federal weapons violations and sentenced to 10 years to life in prison. Minor was convicted of murder in 2024 and is serving a life sentence, while Yohannes was being held on arson and criminal damage charges. All three now face additional charges.
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