Popular YouTuber Expressed Suicidal Thoughts Then Went Missing

By
Victor Fong
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I don’t get reaction videos.

Not to say reaction videos are completely useless. For many people, reaction videos create a bond by sharing emotions with another human being beyond the screen. There is a sense of seeking agreement, like “hey I feel like that too!” that makes it enjoyable and easily digestible.

For the watchers of these content, they gain entertainment and uplifted from these videos, sometimes because of the exaggerated reactions being funny and other time because they feel a connection.

And I have to admit, they make very good reaction gifs.

Image: Giphy

But it’s just not for me.

If I see them in my YouTube feed, I feel slight annoyance and usually wished for them to be gone. Not, of course, in the manner of the story today.

Etika, one of these YouTubers, has gone missing since 19 June 2019. Just yesterday, 23 June 2019, his phone, backpack and other things were found at Manhattan Bridge in New York.

No one knows what actually happened to him.

Who is Etika?

Etika, real-life name Desmond Amofah, is a YouTuber with over 800,000 subscribers known for exaggerated reactions in particular to Nintendo gaming. He joined YouTube in July 2012, and other than YouTube subscribers also has over 320,000 Twitter followers and around 250,000 Instagram followers.

So… yeah. Not a small following.

There were 3 public mental breakdowns: First, he deleted his channel

Note: this isn’t meant to be a comprehensive breakdown of everything that happened. Reading about him from his fans and social media accounts will probably give you a better understanding if you need it.

The first actually started on 25 Oct 2018, when Etika deleted his account and posted the deletion screenshot to his dedicated subreddit with the headlines:

“And now, it’s my turn to die. I love you all. Keep fighting for me, ok? I’ll miss yall :* make the world better for your own kids, and REMEMBER TO STARGAZE. These last 6 years have been an HONOR.”

And he did this by deliberately uploading hentai (animated porn) into his channel. This happened out of nowhere, so people began questioning if Etika was mentally ill or if this was some sort of publicity stunt, or perhaps he was hacked.

To which he replied on the subreddit that he was fine, to which many fans replied that they don’t believe him. Though, some of his close friends confirmed that Etika was safe.

Which doesn’t make a lot of sense to do, since it was like deleting 3 Goody Feeds and he went on to stream on Twitch the next week. And on Twitch he once again got terminated.

The second breakdown, police came to his house to restrain him

On 16 April 2019, Etika started another breakdown, this time on Twitter.

It was a series of tweets, and some conversations between his close friends both online and in real life happening before his close friend called the police to restrain him and place him in an ambulance on 29 April.

Video of him getting restrained:

The day afterwards, he had an interview with Keemstar in which he said things like “Hey guys, what’s going on it’s me, the antichrist. I’ve come to purge the planet of all human life.” That he “will be dropping missiles very very soon on every single human being” and “Death means nothing, why are you all so scared of death for?”

1st May, he assaulted a cop in public:

3rd breakdown: releases an apology video and disappeared

On 20 June, Etika released the following video (the original got deleted, this is a re-upload by another user):

Here, it genuinely seemed like a suicide note by saying he is sorry for pushing fans away, and that “there will be games, movies, technology I’ll never see. I’ll never see Attack on Titan” and “the world will be better off without me.”

The New York Police Department tweeted looking for Etika:

23 June 2019, Etika’s wallet, laptop bag, Nintendo Switch, cell phone and a change of clothes was found at Manhattan Bridge.

He is not found yet, but I would like people to know about his last wishes which he said on stream long ago:

Over in TikTok, there’s a drama involving property agents that’s caused by us. Here’s what happened:

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Victor Fong
Email: [email protected]