New Brunswick mother speaks out about son's death linked to sextortion
CBC
WARNING: This story contains details about suicide and sexual extortion.
William Doiron was energetic, hard working and deeply involved in his small community on New Brunswick's Acadian Peninsula. The teenager was a competitive hockey player, a referee and an aspiring carpenter.
His mother, Stéphanie Thériault, said William was a happy 16-year-old until he began exchanging messages on Snapchat with someone he thought was a young woman.
"Everyone knew him. He was a ball of energy," said Thériault in French.
On October 29, 2022, his family returned to their home in Saint-Léolin from his sister's hockey game and found William had taken his own life. They later learned he had been a victim of a global sextortion scheme, where he was convinced to send explicit sexual images of himself and then blackmailed.
Thériault said her son is missed by many in this small community near Caraquet, including his two siblings, his classmates, teammates, co-workers and people he helped.
"He was involved in everything. He looked out for the kids at his school. Even on the bus, there was a friend that was getting bullied and it was William that helped him," she said.
More than 500 people attended William's funeral and some had to stay outside because the church was full, Thériault said.
William was hard-working and had an entrepreneurial spirit. At 14, he worked in a haskap-berry field and bought a snow blower to clear driveways. He also worked part-time at Maisons Supreme in Tracadie building mini-homes, with the hope of eventually becoming a professional carpenter.
"The days that they had snow days at school, he went to work with the neighbour. He worked the summer, every day. He never stopped," Thériault said.
After William's death, Thériault said she was in complete shock and had no idea what had led him to take his own life.
She eventually learned he had been targeted by sextortion after several of his friends' parents alerted RCMP after receiving sexually explicit videos. The father of one of those children contacted Thériault to let her know what had happened.
She said like many teenagers, William always had his phone in his hand, texting friends and sending messages.
In reality, William was receiving explicit images of what he thought was another young woman. He was then asked to send images of himself, in return.
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