Nigerian extradited to Mississippi in sextortion death of Starkville teenager

Federal law enforcement extradited Adebola Adekunle, 26, from Lagos, Nigeria, to Mississippi to face federal charges in the December 2022 sextortion death of Walker Montgomery, a 16-year-old Starkville teenager who took his own life as a result of an online sexual extortion scheme. Adekunle appeared in federal court in Oxford on Friday and faces a three-count indictment including sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, production of child sexual abuse material, coercion and enticement of a minor, and interstate threats with intent to extort.

Guardii's AI-driven platform is engineered to detect the coercive language patterns and threat sequences that characterise financially motivated sextortion before a child suffers irreversible harm. By monitoring direct messages in real time and flagging extortion attempts, demands for payment, or threats to distribute images, Guardii surfaces a child in acute distress to a responsible adult or professional. In cases where an offender escalates to explicit threats or a victim signals self-harm intent, the platform enables rapid escalation to an authority, providing a critical intervention point that can prevent tragedy.