Heartbreaking: YouTuber Etika Confirmed Dead After Revealing He Was Struggling With Mental Health
YouTuber Etika, whose real name was Desmond Amofah, has been found dead less than a week after he was reported missing.
According to the New York Police Department, Amofah has been confirmed to be dead. A body was found in New York’s East River on Monday (June 24) but the NYPD did not confirm it was Amofah. A backpack and phone believed to belong to Amofah were found on the Manhattan Bridge on Sunday, police sources say.
According to Buzzfeed News, the 29-year-old was reported missing after he was last heard via phone on June 19.
A cause of death has not yet been released.
There were previous concerns about Amofah’s mindstate before he disappeared. During a nearly 80-minute video he posted on YouTube prior to his disappearance, he described his mental health, apologized for pushing people away and discussed the dangers social media has on mental health.
“I really had no intention of killing myself,” Amofah said in the now-deleted video. “But I’d always push it too far. I guess I am mentally ill.”
Amofah’s videos, which were broadcast to over 130,000 subscribers, were largely about video games. One of his final comments however, had some worried. “I hope that my story maybe helps to make YouTube a better place somehow in the future,” he said in his final vlog.
In his video before he went missing, Amofah repeatedly apologized for “betraying” people.
“I’m sorry to those of you who I betrayed,” he said. “I’m sorry for leaving such a stained legacy. I hope that my story maybe helps to make YouTube be a better place somehow in the future, to where people know boundaries and limits and how far things should go.”
“Let my story be one that advises caution on too much of this social media s**t, man,” he continued. “It can f**k you up. It can give you an image of what you want your life to be and it can get blown completely out of proportion, dog. Unfortunately, it consumed me.”
On April 29, The NYPD responded to a 911 call for an emotionally disturbed person at Amofah’s home in Brooklyn while he was live on Instagram. During the livestream, Amofah refused to open his door when police told him they were concerned about his safety.
According to the New York Post, officers eventually restrained him on a stretcher and transported him to an ambulance. He was reportedly then taken to the New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital for evaluation.
