Sara Gilson, a 43-year-old American influencer, was killed on the evening of July 23 in her home in Owasso, Oklahoma. According to the authorities’ reconstruction, her husband Jeremiah Duffey, 48, reached the woman’s house and shot her, then turned the gun on himself and took his own life. A few days earlier, the woman had publicly accused her husband of pedophilia, sharing a video on her highly followed TikTok profile. Investigators are still reconstructing the dynamics of the facts, but at the moment the hypothesis is that of a murder-suicide.
The reconstruction of the facts
The alarm was raised around 11.15pm, when a call to the emergency number reported domestic violence. During the call, the operators heard the screams of a woman followed by what appeared to be a shot. Shortly after, a minor called 911, saying that his stepfather had shot his mother. The young man, who lived with his mother, is one of two children that Sara Gilson had from a previous relationship. When the police arrived at the scene, they found both lifeless, with gunshot wounds to the head. Sara’s ex-husband, the father of her children, said the relationship with Duffey was problematic, with several incidents of domestic violence and control by the man, and that he had tried for years to convince her to leave.
The video of accusations on TikTok
Sara Gilson’s death comes less than two weeks after the publication of a video in which the woman accused her husband of pedophilia, via a TikTok shared on her profile by over 30k followers. The woman, who generally posted videos of fashion, lifestyle and moments of everyday life on the platform, had decided to publicly share the accusations made against her husband through a popular trend that imitates interviews in Netflix documentaries. The text overlay reads: “I’m preparing for the moment Netflix releases a documentary about my soon-to-be ex-husband, who I just discovered is a pedophile.” In the description, the influencer added: “I wish I was joking.” The public accusations come after an affair dating back to June 10, the date on which the woman requested and obtained a restraining order against Duffey. The day before, Sara Gilson had learned of a complaint of molestation against her husband by a minor.
The investigations continue to clarify every detail of the story, while the video of Sara’s accusations has exceeded 25 million views, remaining a symbol of domestic violence and the complaint of a woman who had decided to make part of her story public precisely through the platform that had made her known.