Missing YouTuber Desmond “Etika” Amofah Found Dead at 29

Police confirmed on Tuesday that the body of the missing YouTuber Desmond “Etika” Amofah has been recovered and that Amofah has been declared dead. The YouTuber went missing several days ago after sharing a video which showed the content creator apologizing to his fans, a video that worried his followers as it appeared to resemble some sort of suicide note. Amofah was 29 years old.

The New York Police Department had been sharing information on Amofah’s disappearance and looking for assistance from others prior to confirming the news that the YouTuber had been found dead. In a tweet which included the original post when the NYPD first asked for help in locating Amofah, the police said he had been found deceased.

Amofah had been missing since Wednesday after posting a video where he spoke to his fans about his life and his struggles with mental illness. Some of his personal belongings were found on the Manhattan Bridge, though Amofah’s condition was unclear at that time. In his video that’s since been deleted from his accounts, Amofah spoke of suicide and said he “wasn’t suicidal before.”

“You know, I wasn’t suicidal before. I really wasn’t,” the YouTuber said in the deleted video. “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 always push it too far.”

Amofah amassed a following of several hundreds of thousands of fans across various social media platforms as he created gaming content that often pertained to Nintendo products. The YouTuber began making his mental health struggles public recently and had altercations with the police amid concerns of suicide.

Reached for comment by Kotaku, the NYPD provided more details about the situation and said that Amofah’s body was found on Monday.

“At approximately 18:18 hours [yesterday], police responded to a 9-11 call with a person floating in the water in the vicinity of the South Street Seaport in the confines of the 1st Precinct,” the NYPD told Kotaku. “Upon arrival, officers discovered an unresponsive, unidentified male at that location. The NYPD harbor removed the male to Pier 16, where EMS pronounced him deceased. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death and the investigation is ongoing.”