Popular YouTuber Etika goes missing after posting cryptic video claiming to be suicidal and citing mental health issues
A popular YouTube star Desmond Amofah, who goes by the name Etika online, has reportedly gone missing after posting a cryptic video claiming he was suicidal and apologizing for leaving behind a "stained legacy".
According to the NYPD, Amofah was last heard on a phone call around 8 pm on Wednesday, June 19. The 29-year old from Brooklyn has around 131,000 followers on YouTube where he posts game reviews. He recently put up a video that runs close to eight minutes where he profusely and repeatedly apologizes.
As reported by the New York Post, the star said: "I’m sorry for leaving such a stained legacy." The video was deleted but reposted by others.
"I hope that my story maybe helps to make YouTube a better place in the future where people know boundaries and limits and how far things should go," he added. "You know I wasn't suicidal before — I really wasn't. But one thing I didn't realize was that the walls were closing around me so fast. I really had no intention of killing myself but I'd always push it too far," he added. "I guess I am mentally ill."
According to the video, Amofah apparently seemed to suggest that he was tired with keeping up online appearances. "Let my story be one that advises caution on too much of the social media s**t, man," he said. "It will f**k you up and 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."
Previously, Amofah has posted about killing himself on Twitter, where he has close to 313,000 followers. On April 16, he had tweeted, "Savonarola! I’m going to kill myself! You lot certainly have already. Shame on you all, silly humans." On April 29, the police received an anonymous 911 call for an emotionally disturbed person at Amofah's Brooklyn home after which he was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital for further examination.
Amofah's Twitter and Instagram pages were flooded with comments from concerned fans on Friday, June 21. "Etika just take a long break for social media, people do care about u, pls just focus on yourself," wrote one of the fans. Another fan traced Amofah's position in his most recent video to Lower Manhattan near the Brooklyn bridge.
Following his disappearance, online personalities like the news YouTuber Daniel "Keemstar" Keem began publicly searching for Amofah (an NYPD tweet broadcasting their investigation tags Keem among other gaming YouTubers and streamers). Keem, whose DramaAlert channel has over 5 million subscribers, reported that gaming monitors were missing from Amofah's home, too. "Me and the #DramaAlert news team have used all our resources to contact @Etika to find out if he's ok," he wrote on Twitter. "Checked with Friends, local police, hospital, etc... We can not locate Etika!"
When Kotaku, a gaming review website, reached out to the NYPD, there was no info shared on the efforts undertaken to find Amofah. A representative said, "The NYPD is seeking the public's assistance in locating a missing person within the confines of the 84 Precinct," adding, "Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782)."
Amofah is described as 6 feet tall, about 160 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt.