Sunbury police have not released additional details about an investigation involving a 14-year-old who attempted suicide last week. The department has said the incident may be connected to an international online-extortion scheme, according to WSYX. Police have not publicly determined whether the alleged scheme caused or directly led to the attempt.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is not investigating the Sunbury case. Sgt. Joe Smith of the sheriff’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force spoke with WSYX about broader sextortion patterns, including cases involving suspected offenders in the United States and abroad. His comments do not constitute independent findings about the Sunbury investigation.
What national data shows
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said it received more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion in 2025, an average of 137 reports per day. That was up from more than 36,000 reports in 2024, according to NCMEC.
A 2024 report from NCMEC and Thorn found that most submitted financial-sextortion victims were teenage boys and that 90% were ages 14 to 17, according to CAC Help. The FBI says financially motivated sextortion commonly involves offenders outside the United States, including in West Africa and the Philippines. FBI and Homeland Security Investigations records counted more than 13,000 reports involving minors from October 2021 through March 2023, with more than 12,600 victims and at least 20 confirmed suicides, according to an FBI public safety alert.
What national data shows about the toll
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said it is aware of at least three dozen teenage boys in the United States who have taken their lives after being victimized by financial sextortion, according to NCMEC. The figures cited in this article are national; they do not provide an Ohio-specific total of complaints involving minors.
Ohio law
Ohio’s Braden’s Law is in effect. The law, formally House Bill 531, took effect April 9, 2025, and made sexual extortion a third-degree felony. When the victim is a minor, the offense can be elevated to a first-degree felony punishable by up to 11 years in prison, according to the Ohio Judges Association.
The law is named for Braden Markus, a 15-year-old Olentangy High School student who died by suicide in 2021 after being extorted on social media by someone posing as a teenage girl, according to Benesch. The statute also requires electronic communication and remote-computing providers operating in Ohio to comply with court-issued search and interception warrants for user data, even when the relevant servers are outside the state.
Support and reporting
Sunbury police urged parents to discuss online scams and the risks of communicating with strangers through social media and messaging applications. Anyone experiencing a crisis can call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
