 The story that seemingly nobody but this guy can tell we were getting kidnapped we were going to miss it To this public seeking crisis that is happening not just in Chicago, but nationwide If the police in the news can't promote health, that's okay because we can do this ourselves Basically Ken walks summed up in one photo fame can be an addiction more than money more than material possessions We all crave to be loved, but how far would you go to be loved? Would you lie? Would you harm others? It's totally gross to use tragedy to make money What if your lies spread across the internet? How far would you take it if it sounds too good to be true? It probably is and I keep thinking about that with all this stuff with Ken wax If you catch somebody lying no matter how small or how big you have learned now that they have the Predisposition to lie Ken walks is the latest internet grifter who took things too far until he was exposed due to an FBI mass-recruiting email and the smiley face game lore which resulted in an embarrassing Downfall for Ken walks to apologize for the family's impact of having overlapped this other part of my life in this In an inappropriate setting it won't happen again. And now this TikToker influencers Obsessive investigation has spiraled into fierce backlash in the loss of his job It's using the lives of people who were murdered in a way to promote an app is absolutely disgusting Before we get into this video I want to put out a quick disclaimer this video goes into some serious topics like the topics of death and Unaliving someone and I will have to censor some words But hopefully through context clues and censor text that I'll put up on screen. You'll understand what I mean Before we get into the video today's video is sponsored by Semperd. Thank you so much to Semperd for supporting the channel I love continually working with them because I always get to try new scents Semperd is a fragrance subscription service with a mission to empower each person through scent Did you have that one perfume or cologne or scent that you would always end up buying that you didn't even know if you really liked? 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And now let's get back into the video Ken walks went viral in the spring of 2023 for launching his own one-man social media investigation Into what he believed to be a string of social media Cans in his local chicago area if you are walking home alone by yourself at night in chicago a car Rolls up and rolls down the window and someone inside the car Unmarked car beater of a car asks if you need a ride do not get in that car Ken walks his tiktok page has garnered millions of views since he began posting his theory that serial Across the country are targeting young men at night with free rides home And then killing them and dumping their bodies in rivers They all go missing after leaving a bar club or a party By themselves at night and they're walking home how you ask did ken walks arrive at this conclusion that young men are being targeted As victims through free rides home Well, he arrived at this conclusion because of his own experience with a sketchy person when getting a ride home Which he ended up making a video on that went viral This has now happened to me twice People are going missing like I think this is some kind of connection and basically things spiraled from there People are going missing and then found in the river or lakes days later This is happening nationwide the cops in the media are not doing anything or covering it and ken walks Even ended up insinuating that law enforcement may even be involved in it all The cops are just not cutting it anymore. They might be involved So ken accumulated a fan base of one million followers Mainly through raising alarm on a major public safety problem I am once again trying to address a serious public safety issue All I know is that we have a major public safety crisis There's still a major security problem going on public safety crisis That is happening not just in chicago by nationwide that he claimed news outlets and police departments were completely Ignoring, I know why the cops the media are not doing anything or covering it Something has to happen before the cops can actually go do something and a lot of caring and concerned citizens Really started to care about his videos He raised a lot of concern sympathy and fear for public safety and in the process gained a loyal and trusting fan base Through his tiktok investigation and for a while ken walks went completely unquestioned But eventually ken walks posted some strange and some off-putting things that made people Kind of start to wonder what his intentions were and now fans are accusing the creator of exaggerating or outright falsifying details of his inquests to the point that ken walks was accused of Capitalizing off of actual tragedies people who have passed on all to promote his startup And his own social media platform It's totally gross to use tragedy to make money Which i'm sure I don't have to tell you is just despicable behavior But who is the man behind this investigation before he became ken walks independent social media investigator Who was ken walks? Before 2023 ken walks was already trying to be an influencer on tiktok His previous content was about things like life in tech Since ken walks has worked in tech and has a background in that topic And ken walks had had a few viral videos and some success on tiktok in that content topic Though it was nothing like what he was about to see with his investigation videos It seems like ken walks kind of branded himself as a smart trustworthy and professional person on the platform Since ken had a background in tech I think a lot of people trusted his opinion and outlook and overall saw him as a pretty smart guy I even respected ken's initial content. He called out certain scams This has to be one of the biggest scams i've ever heard about in my entire life talked about the economic State of the world the top 1% of americans have more money than the bottom 90% of americans combined Let's talk solutions. Let's make the minimum wage Little it's not money that puts you in the top 1% although you need 600k annually to be in that 1% So since ken walks his professional background is essential to his social media brand Let's get to know ken walks through his linkedin profile You know where all tech bros go to live laugh love and inspire one another with the latest thing They found that ai can do for them on his linkedin profile It says ken walks is a content creator ex google business insider new york post fortune newsweek yahoo news and more and based in chicago illinois Hey, i'm ken nine to five by day and by trade I work as a technical manager at walmart connect where i've been for three and a half years five to nine Outside of work. I'm a verified content creator aspiring to entertain audiences while simultaneously Teaching them something that makes them think videos have received a quarter billion views total roughly worked with brands like dr. Pepper click-up And zip recruiter among others i create educational content about anything and everything covering tech economics luxury fashion brand company history Children's books career content as well as food and lifestyle content. So what does this linkedin bio say about ken? Well, first off it says ken walks is a pretty cool guy a bro boss But it also says that ken walks is an aspiring content creator who seeks to brand himself as a content creator Who establishes himself as a content creator in his linkedin profile? Which is all a very important thing to know as a sort of baseline before going into the rest of this story because It will come up as we talk about ken walks's motivation for doing what he did later on in this story On march 9th tiktoker ken walks posted a video encouraging his followers to avoid what he called a terrifying encounter This happened to me two times in the last six weeks He wrote in the caption describing how he was offered a ride home by a strange car that then sped off This has now happened to me twice In the last six weeks that I can think of like people are going missing like I think this is some kind of connection like they're probably just waiting for people who are even that's an easy target like Stay safe like do not do it car by the way that rolled up on me was a late 2000s Toyota Corolla looking car beige Silver ish. I love how the car that tried to Kidnap ken walks offer ken walks a ride is a Toyota Corolla the most basic Car there is to exist car by the way that rolled up on me was a late 2000s Toyota Corolla looking car beige Silver ish the first time it was a woman the second time it was a man the most reliable I mean shout out to people who own a Toyota Corolla, but like oh, thank you That's a really detailed description you gave that really narrows down the search here be on the lookout for Toyota Corollas offering rides in the area of Chicago guys if a car does approach you Try to get the license plate number. This is organized. This is a group We need This a vision and we need to get as much information as we can but instead of I don't know seeing the experience as a stranger in a strange car offering ken a ride home Which is a concerning experience. Of course ken walks concludes that You know, of course, this was all the work of a serial killer. This is organized. This is a group We need This a vision and we need to get as much information as we can like you can send it all to me if you got anything After people filled ken walks his comment section with their own stories of being approached late at night by strange drivers Walks began posting that these strange car rides were the missing link that connected a string of fatal drownings in the Chicago river To a serial method of operating for all of these missing people is exactly the same for the most part It is guys leaving bars alone by themselves at night bar club party, whatever And then they never make it home We know what's going on. I will continue to push this story though the chicago police department ruled all the deaths accidental Each of the people found in the river were last seen leaving chicago bars These people are leaving bars Which led ken walks to believe that the only possible conclusion as to why they ended up in the river Was because they were picked up by strange drivers who unalived them and left them in the river And they are then offered a ride There's obviously no evidence of them being offered that ride and then days later They're found after they were reported missing but police don't want to investigate this because how do you prove it? How do you prove it blaming unexplained deaths on serial Is a common move on social media, which I think it's important to point out Usually when there's a true crime case it starts out with there being unequivocal Evidence or proof that there is a They're on the loose in the first place with the case of ken walks. There isn't even substantial proof that there is a They're on the loose. There isn't a pattern between victims Someone leaving clues to be followed So none of this makes any sense to me personally from the outside looking in Are you following the logic here as a viewer of why ken walks is connecting all of these deaths and and claiming that They're caused by someone offering people rides late at night. I know how they're going missing I know how they're all connected ken walks said in a tick tock I know why the cops and the media are not doing anything or covering it And I know what we can do about it. You're really gonna tell me that all these people are just falling in There's no issues for months and then all of a sudden there's four people who fall into a river or a lake in three weeks I have not just theories anymore. I have evidence I know what's going on and it's so big and it's so deep and it's really wild At least for chicago. I know what's happening nationwide All I know is that we have a major public safety crisis and nobody goes home by themselves Nobody's walking home taking uber make sure your friends get there I have to keep some of these cards close to my chest until I can get the fbi Involved because the copter is not cutting it anymore. They might be involved I mean, of course it would be easy for viewers to get caught up in the excitement and thrilling aspect of ken walks's tick tock videos like watching a thriller in real time But let's take a step back here and analyze the facts that ken walks is really claiming in his tick tock videos And let's keep in mind that ken walks is talking about real people who are found in the chicago river This isn't fun and games. These are real people ken walks is deducing that there is a serial unalive In the city all from him and other people in his comment section being offered Unsolicited rides and all of a sudden because of that there's a serial unalive loose in chicago And that's enough proof for ken walks to make videos like this that are going viral and getting millions of views With no regards to these victims or their family members With no forethought into how that would make them feel or whether he should look into it a little bit more And be 100 certain that that's the case Before claiming something like that So all of these videos about the alleged serial unalivers in the chicago area went viral And then ken walks widened his fan base even more on april 4th when he stitched an austin-based creator named nick Casablanca's Casablanca's video explains that multiple bodies have been found in lady bird lake a lake in austin ken walks explains that the same thing that's happening in chicago With the unsoliciting of rides at bars and dumping bodies in water is happening in austin The same thing is happening in chicago in minneapolis in wisconsin in parts of ohio in pittsburgh And of course you have the smiley face in austin so people in austin Saw this video and now began following ken walks to stay updated on this alleged serial Unaliver or according to ken walks this group of serial unalivers This isn't one person. This is a team. This is organized. This is a group There is a chance that you are almost a victim of an organized crime right who are operating in both austin and chicago Over the course of seven weeks ken walks shared his findings on tiktok posting homemade maps charting each death Expanding his research to major cities across the country Also expanding his following to major cities. There's a serial in chicago, and I was almost one of the victims Hey mark, my name is ken and I'm sorry we're meeting like this, but I've probably been tagged in your video over 100 times I'm not sure if you've seen these comments yet. I actually already messaged you on instagram But I have been investigating this and covering this since I was almost taken twice just this year So there's a couple things that I think you can help me with I've been building a map and this is you now on my map. So most Most of ken walks's investigative work that he does where he's looking into the serial On the livers is just putting points on a map in certain cities like houston, austin and chicago And these points on a map are you know Unfortunately bodies found people who've reported rides being offered and at what point those rides were offered at what point People were reported leaving bars in certain areas This is my map. I made a map at the data that I have for chicago black is where bodies have been found in blue is where people They're missing and orange is where people were attempting to be picked up I also have made one for austin where blue is where people are missing from It's all concentrated truly on the same street and black is where they are found You can see I have all of it keyed out over here And that's his investigative work, but what does that do what does that mean for real though? What does that help solve with anything? What true crime case has there ever been where A person was found because points on a map that were color coded all led to like one specific area For real though for re on a real note What does this solve like does he think all these points on this map are eventually going to spell out the Name or something it means nothing. There is so much. This is bigger than just chicago or austin walks wrote Nationwide men are going missing under the same circumstances and found days or weeks later Ken walks even posted a video alleging that he went to the police station and they did nothing I am on my way to the meeting with the police. They're trying to stop this meeting from happening. I don't know Why update the cops knew who I was knew I was coming If the police and the news aren't going to do anything to increase public safety about this and raise awareness I'm going to do it myself. Whether or not it's all organized. We don't know yet But for the first time we can actually do something within a few months of starting his mystery series ken walks made a name for himself as one of tiktok's leading true crime influencers Amassing more than one million followers ken walks also alleged that these respective cases Were not the work of a single person but of a team working together hindsight 2020 hindsight 2020 You know, what can you do? But there's just there's one guy Who millions are trusting? who's saying basically mass Is happening around the state and it's a group of people Who are offering free rides to people late at night dumping them in bodies of water Around the country and it's this like ring of people who are doing it and now law enforcement also might be involved And we're all trusting this one guy who's giving out this information You know, it just all gets to a point where it's all a little too much You know, there's a rule of thumb for keeping secrets basically and it's how many people have to keep the secret Starts to limit how long the secret can be kept So if there's like a big group of people who are all in on this Who are doing this around the country and a group of people in law enforcement might be involved in this For how long can all of those people keep this under wraps and keep it a secret? And yet one guy with a tiktok profile was able to expose it to light Because he was offered a sketchy ride from someone at night one time. That doesn't make much sense I mean, it's not completely impossible, but it's pretty impossible. You know, we're talking now about probability First possibility also on top of that this guy can walks keep saying I have all the information I've got all the information. I've got it all figured out, but he's not telling anyone all the information He's like, I'm going to the police with this information. I'm going to the FBI with this information That's why I can't tell all of you guys So it feels like he's stringing everyone along Making himself out to be the hero of the story But you can only do that for so long until people start to question like do you really have a story here? Or are you like I said, just stringing us along if it sounds too good to be true. It probably is And I keep thinking about that with all this stuff with kin wax And if you are unfamiliar with the tiktoker ken walks before this video, you may be thinking How could people tie together random people offering rides and bodies showing up in bodies of water to be this massive Thing of serial unalivers across the country. Well, my friend My theory at least is that this has happened not only because of how prevalent true crime has become on social media And the excitement and thrill of the idea of a new true crime story happening in real time But also because of the concept of confirmation bias The story of ken walks completely capitalized off of both true crime and confirmation bias The true crime community is massive. It's a huge influence. There's a lot of positives to it and negatives So ken walks's videos really took off and went viral because it really latched on to the true crime community And a lot of people's interests in true crime and true crime stories Especially if you lived in the cities where this was happening, of course, you're going to care about it If you're going to be concerned, you're going to want to know what's happening And ken walks made himself out to be the only person who knew the truth and the true story I know how they're all connected. I know why the cops and media are not doing anything And I know what we can do about it So of course you're going to want to follow him to stay updated on what's happening He made himself out to be a trustworthy person who was uncovering the truth But ken walks also heavily capitalized on confirmation bias Confirmation bias is our tendency to cherry pick information that confirms our existing beliefs or ideas And it's important to be cautious of data that immediately confirms or supports our beliefs and views For example, if bodies are showing up in bodies of water, there are probably a multitude of reasons for why they ended up there The confirmation bias is so fundamental to your development and your reality that you might not even realize it's happening We look for evidence that supports our beliefs and opinions about the world But excludes those that run contrary to our own So basically ken walks himself may have been more willing or wanting to believe that there was a true crime story To be had here and his audience may have wanted to believe that as well So they saw evidence and a connection between drivers offering unsolicited rides and bodies showing up in bodies of water They saw a link there where it might not have existed Another important thing to know is ken himself in one of his ticktocks says he talks to a police officer buddy of his Who literally says that many people have been known to get drunk and accidentally fall into bodies of water for a very long time And that this has just been a known thing I talked to my friend who's a copper an hour today And the reason that foul play isn't suspected is because I hate to say if there has been a long history Of people who get to fall in the river. They have video of people. I'm not sure any of these people Following down to the river and falling in and because they're they're in such a shock state That's how they they pass away Is it related? I don't know and yet ken himself just completely ignores this information And still continues on with his idea that even so there is this organized group That's planning attacks out across the country Is it related? I don't know. We're talking now about probability versus possibility. Is it possible? Yes, it's possible. Is it probable? My friend whose cop says it's less probable There are three types of confirmation bias But the two main types ken walks and his audience participate in either knowingly or unknowingly Our biased attention when you selectively focus on information that confirms your views While ignoring all information that doesn't confirm your views Like any evidence that could confirm that these men were not killed by an uber driving Lake throwing serial killer and biased interpretation Which is when we consciously interpret information in a way that confirms our beliefs And I mean the entire way this conclusion of a gang of Serial unalivers spreading across the country was reached is an example of biased interpretation in my opinion So ken walks through in my interpretation Capitalizing off of the true crime community and confirmation bias developed a loyal fan base who felt he was a respected and trustworthy source For information regarding the facts of what was happening to missing people around the country His followers were seeing the facts that ken walks was presenting to them But they weren't seeing all the holes that was in his stories and let's just say His stories were like swiss cheese His stories were standing up on a foundation made of sand and eventually things started to crumble Doubts about ken walks is sleuthing Lurking and investigative theories first started to blow up on tiktok in late april as ken walks began claiming He was working with the smiley face unaliver Investigator this guy is a private investigator who had been working a case about unsolved Unalivers in chicago and is known as gannon and famous for his smiley face Unaliver theory going on to publish a book in 2014 and a recent six-part oxygen series Called smiley face killers the hunt for justice Basically, he is a true crime big time celebrity and ken walks claimed on his tiktok that he's working with this guy to uncover Even more about the what i would like to call drive and dive That private investigator that showed up in my door sunday night By the way was sent by this man detective kevin again, and if you're familiar with the smiley face theory Then you probably know exactly who he is in a tiktok about the smiley face Investigator ken walks told viewers that the private investigator showed up to his residence Unannounced to ask him to be part of the team Suggesting that the man had validated all of his theories about the murders Somebody just knocked on my door and it's 8 30 at night on sunday And so I go and I check it and it's not someone I know and so I open I'm like what's up And they're like hey, my name's x and I'm a private investigator looking into the smiley face Group um, and they asked me if I'd been in touch with a different detective that someone had put me in touch with so He actually just went back downstairs to secure his parking and uh, he's gonna come back He's in a full black suit and everything so on april 26 walks shared a tiktok video saying he and gannon were now teammates and working together to use his data My team has officially joined his and as they open their investigation into the smiley face ken wrote in the caption with all of us working together We will finally be able to bring these people to justice and get answers for those families I think this is about to get uh, very interesting So i'm just gonna post this now as like evidence that somebody just came from the house at 8 30 at night on a sunday night literally had not contacted me previously just to put it out there that Something's going on and uh, looks like we're moving fast. So i'll uh, i'll try to update you guys after with what i can I can't believe this just came to my house This is also so sad too because some of the families of the deceased probably didn't know how their family member passed Their family member just showed up in this body of water They didn't have a lot of answers and when ken walks's Investigation went viral. They may have heard about it probably did hear about it I wonder if ken walks was really thinking about that if he genuinely thought in his mind that he was going to uncover something big and give the families an answer Actually find a massive king of serial unalivers Or if he knew the entire time that this was a farce and that he would let down a ton of people And the family members of these deceased people And if so, how can you do something like that knowingly because the thing is these tick talks about this investigator Visiting ken walks's home is when fans and audience members really really Started to question ken walks Now i know a lot of people are being swept up by what's occurring in the chicagoland area or whatever other areas that kin Is investigating but the thing is you guys have to do your own due diligence to the end of the day When families are grieving the last thing that we want to do is pretend that we have evidence to help solve a case When we may not and viewers begin to become suspicious about whether or not these events actually happened A big reason why is because ken walks never posted a video with this investigator. He was never like hey guys This is the investigator. I'm now working with him. Say hi. All right. We're working together It was just him alone being like hey This guy's in the bathroom, but he's here in my apartment He actually just went back downstairs to secure his parking and uh, he's gonna come back or like hey This investigator just left you just missed him But he was here. Believe me. Trust me, bro The pi private investigator just left So of course viewers were like that seems a little suspicious in response to these doubts ken walks began posting screenshots and email exchanges as Evidence that he was engaging with a real detective. He also shared a business card that this detective supposedly gave to him I am apparently Now part of the team and help them a lot with their tech stuff with the map building Which also just further sketched out viewers because the business card looked unprofessional It had like a eye of aura. Is it called aura or horror? I feel like it's called horror But i'm sorry if I mispronounce it and it just it did not feel like a legit detectives business card this Card that he has this is his proof It looks like a card that he got at like a corporate work outing when they had a psychic or something on april 26th ken walks also told viewers that he had cracked the case last night at three in the morning I cracked the case over time. I was able to isolate One guy's experience leaving a bar where he was able to get a license plate of a car How in what way is able to get a license plate of a car? That's all that's all the information you're going to give However, the tide had already began to turn against walks and viewers became more and more skeptical There is something wrong with ken wax if it sounds too good to be true It probably is And I keep thinking about that with all this stuff with kin wax You know in the one hand, it's so fascinating this guy just like near you has cracked the case He may have found the missing link that connects all of these really terrible crimes But on the other hand i'm i'm a little worried that maybe it's not legit Maybe he has some kind of ulterior motive and he's just making things up I really don't know the big red flag for me was when he mentioned getting contacted by a private detective because I make detective content too and from my experience private detectives don't look into crimes like this If you catch somebody lying no matter how small or how big you have learned now that they have the predisposition to lie around this time ken wax was also claiming that he was being recruited by the FBI And shared the email that showed that he was being recruited. What's funny is that the FBI didn't try to hire me They actually tried to recruit me twice To the troll my comments that said that that never happened at proof We want you to be a part of the next generation of police special agents. That was 2021 But when people looked at the email they saw that this was just like a mass email that the FBI would send out So let me explain what you just saw he reached out to the FBI probably put an application in online And he never completes his application So they keep sending him follow-up emails because they want him to finish his application It says do not reply. It's an automatic pre-send email and he started doing this in 2019 Which just reinforces my point that he's wanted to be an investigator or some type of investigative work Since 2019 it was just like one of those spam emails that you get from any sort of company And had no significance whatsoever. It did not mean he was far along in the recruitment process of the FBI By any means and so people were just like if he Was exaggerating that saying that basically this kind of spam email by the FBI or just you know Marketing email by the FBI was a recruitment email and he was being recruited by the FBI If he was exaggerating that how much else of this is ken walks exaggerating I have a gut feeling bro is playing make believe a commenter wrote this seems off another weighed in It's like he's role-playing lol But ken walks maintains that these accounts are true to reality and that he's been in touch with local police and private Investigators and he told insider in a statement I began diligently collecting information and sharing it online as well as with law enforcement private investigators And other authorities in an attempt to bring awareness to these crimes The biggest tragedy of all though is families are still grieving the losses of their sons And ken allegedly charged one of the parents 30 dollars for a private meeting and never showed Though the accounts of this event are spotty and have just been reported online So I do want to put that out there Allegedly one of the victims uncovered in the lake Unaligned themselves as well and ken was saying that this person was the victim of a serial Which is just Traumatizing the family it really is despicable So gradually more and more people became skeptical that really anything was going on at all Which I feel like people should have felt from the first place But again hindsight 2020 and more and more people began to realize that maybe ken walks Was really just making this whole thing up the entire time and more tick talkers began to post videos about ken walks kind of saying um Does anyone else think this guy is Maybe full of shit Tiktoker meredith lynch has been at the forefront of attempting to debunk ken walks's claims in her tick talks about ken walks She says he's writing fan fiction about his life I think this man is writing fan fiction about his life lynch also showed a screenshot That ken walks posted on his instagram story where he claimed that he caught two Already ken goes on to claim that he has caught two already I don't believe that I don't think that's true. I don't think that is rooted in reality. It is awful That people are being murdered but ken is not has not caught two I don't buy it and You know I'm allowed to not buy it I don't have to buy it and I wanted to shout out meredith lynch in this video because that's where I Personally first heard about ken walks in depth and where I really started to look into him And I could not believe what a mess this all was So after people started to figure out that a lot of this probably is not real people started to wonder Why did ken walks post about this in the first place and really there are two main theories The first one is that ken walks did all of this for social media attention And the second reason is that ken walks's mental health is struggling He's having a manic episode and delusions of grandeur Now, of course, I am not a mental health expert So I have no grounds in diagnosing or saying whether or not he was going through anything Mentally, so I'm not even going to touch number two with a 10-foot pole But I do strongly believe that ken walks was strongly motivated to gain social media attention If you remember on his linked in profile ken walks described himself as a social media content creator Who was aspiring to educate others and do something big on social media His instagram reads as someone who wants to brand himself wants to be something It doesn't necessarily read as someone who's unstable or not in a good place mentally Or doesn't have it all together. It reads as someone who is very carefully Curating and crafting their social media image same thing with his tiktok Same thing with his linkedin. He's very carefully curating all of his social media profiles Building his social media branding So I personally believe that ken walks's prime motivator for his true crime Investigative series was to make a big and go viral. I don't think he necessarily planned it all out I think he made a video about a sketchy ride Saw a lot of people in his comment section had similar Experiences that video went viral He saw an opportunity to kind of jump down that rabbit hole and took it And it got to a certain point where it just went absolutely out of control It got way too far and he had no idea how to reel it back in to the point where the backlash got so massive And ken walks idiotically continued to try to profit off of it The social media tide turned on ken walks overnight Ken has been receiving massive backlash on his videos and claims Especially after authorities cleared the air Authorities said they found no signs of foul play in the cases of the bodies found in the lake Social media users said the search says ken walks manic. I'm done My mans is full-blown manic right now and you all think he's Sherlock Holmes I too am schizophrenic me when I have a manic episode and no one clocks it delusions of grandeur Still crying and laughing at I cracked the case TLDR nothing was cracked to be honest I'm not a huge fan of making fun of a possible mental health crisis Like let's not do that Though it does bring up a good point that for weeks and months people were hyping up this guy Making him viral on tiktok taking his word very seriously as if everything was factual And spreading and sharing his misinformation Not thinking for a second about whether or not he's legit Whether or not his mental health is in a good state Whether or not the information he's sharing is backed up by any science or A factual basis or just like anything beyond what he's stating as if it's true And it's fascinating. I mean people say that tiktok is great for spreading important information And it can be but this story shows that tiktok can also spread misinformation very very quickly So always be careful and think critically about what you're seeing Even if everything makes sense a person seems logical and trustworthy You don't know the person behind the screen You don't know the full story of what they're presenting And if someone is presenting an over sensationalized story and making themselves into the hero of that story And some sort of vigilante at the center of it There's probably a selfish motivation behind why they're doing that On top of that in chicago police and authorities have reiterated that none of the nine bodies Pulled out of the lake had any suspicious marks or links to foul play in austin texas Local police stated that there was no proof of foul play in these four cases per newsweek Furthermore in an article entitled reality check There's almost certainly no serial unalive in austin texas monthly's peter holly reported that Many of the claims spreading online supporting the serial unalive theory simply aren't true On the contrary he noted amateur investigators like ken walks were promoting widespread fear And actually hindering authorities efforts to look into these cases But the biggest backlash of all against ken walks came after ken walk started making more frequent posts About his social media app foresight that he is or was the chief marketing officer and i think co-founder of Thank you so much everyone for supporting me while i do this really important work trying to help these families get answers by Checking out the app of the company that i work for foresight. It's super cool. It's free It helps you actually plan stuff better with your friends It helps you budget for trips and big events and we have a huge update coming later today So I really appreciate everyone who's checked it out. I'm the co-founder and the chief marketing officer of a travel tech fintech Sort of called foresight and today I closed our first preferred partner And many people became suspicious that he was just creating this true crime narrative As a way to market his app or at least that he saw it as a great opportunity To capitalize off of his viral fame through continually pushing his app onto his audience I do believe that he is taking these tragic and missing person cases and using them to Plug his app It's totally gross to use tragedy to make money period the end. I would never mega cringe To ken it's gross. I thought it was gross when I was like is that chicago? Promoting an app as well That's weird and on top of that the app was bragging about his tik tok social media presence As a part of their marketing strategy, which is a weird thing to be associated with as a professional company You know the smiley face gang and all of that According to reddit user lord of the pings from their app start engine page where they're seeking funding They specifically call out tik tok as a primary driver of engagement in app downloads I keep wondering how this guy with a prominent role at a startup finds time to be so heavily into tik tok It's like he got a little too desperate for followers and views and creeped over into this unethical space Our serviceable global available revenue is valued at 3.9 billion That doesn't sound accurate at all with 80 million total target customers in the us alone Our cmo has a prominent tik tok following of 709 thousand followers as of march 14th 2023 foresight produces 600 weekly average installs and tik tok is a key driver behind the $2.47 cost per install in addition to the efficiency driven by tik tok The product has also seen an exciting recent uptick in word of mouth growth Over the past month with 255 referral invitations haven't been sent out by satisfied users Ken walks who's their chief marketing officer. He's the chief marketing officer His job is to market the app. He goes viral On tik tok obviously his main priority is going to be promoting the company that he's the co-founder in chief marketing officer of his main role is marketing and it just feels like in all of that the deceased People found in bodies of water were really not the priority of ken walks at all And that's really the saddest part of all of this and on top of that unfortunately Extremely Exist and tweets were found from ken walks's past. I have to issue a strong trigger warning for extreme And i'm not even exaggerating Exhibit A Exhibit B I'm sure he probably didn't wish for this on 11 11 11 Ken last but certainly not least so This is what happens when you don't create content with integrity And I think we can start a real big conversation around ethics in content Meaning the fbi would never even try to recruit ken walks in the first place if he said this stuff so Ken walks went from internet detective to yet another internet downfall After ken walks lost the trust of his audience ken walks also lost the job with the app He co-founded in a tick tock ken walks posted on may 3rd ken apologized for overlapping mentions of his startup with the Investigation instead he'd gotten lost in the sauce over the topic as many of you know This investigation has been my all-consuming passion over about the last month and What started as my honest effort to bring more awareness to a serious public safety matter My reporting on this topic has since turned into a contentious subject And I now realize that it's not my place at all to continue chasing this story despite my own Personal connection to it with those two attempts on me I've been off a lot I haven't been sleeping as much as I should I've burnt myself out and I Frankly got a little bit lost in the sauce over this story I acknowledge that it was insensitive to reference my startup most two occasions and post pertaining to this case I'm a passionate guy Who's passionate about the stories that I follow and of course about the content that I make? But I made a mistake by intersecting those two parts of my life And I want to apologize for the families impacted for having overlapped this other part of my life in this In an inappropriate setting it won't happen again And the information about the suspects that my team and I Were have been able to find has been passed to the proper authorities I've decided to no longer post about this story publicly to prevent further conflict I I hear so much about this case I really do but I realize that I can't report on it while balancing this other pursuit and my life So thank you In a statement to insider ken walks added He never planned to promote the app and the references just happened organically sure To be honest, I don't buy that for a second. Oh, no, I'm not Promoting adventure time. It just happened to be sitting here organically A spokesperson for foresight told insider that it was initially excited by the potential increase in visibility After ken walks's armchair sleuthing went viral. I love that phrasing armchair investigator armchair sleuthing The company had apparently not only promoted ken walks's TikTok viral marketing efforts on their own personal pages on posts in star engine But also in their LinkedIn posts, which meredith lynch also made tiktok videos about ken is not alone in using this Reprehensible tactic for marketing the app. Check out this boy boss, steven eddie He's actually the ceo of foresight and I want to show you his linkedin post the other day So here's a linkedin post from steven where he brags about the fact that the app has gone viral because of ken's marketing techniques So clearly ken is not like Manufacturing this all on his own He has a whole team of people who are like, yes, go for it And so basically it goes on to say the same thing that we saw on that startup website But it explains how, you know, ken took an unrelated video and then he Promoted foresight at the end and then it goes on to say that ken plans to start mixing a foresight reference into the end of every other post Considering how viral ken knew he was going Like this is so strategic And if you watch the video over the first time that he mentions foresight, you will see it is a video talking about a tragic Of someone in chicago. So ken and steven, by the way, who I feel like is not innocent in all of this have created a marketing strategy where they are profiting Off-going viral by talking about People's absolute tragedies that they don't really have anything to do with Other than the fact that they want people to download. They're in my opinion Not very exciting app The linkedin posts have since been deleted. The company added that since it's learned the fuller details of the situation It will ensure that employees no longer intermingle personal matters with those of the company While ken brought energy and ambition to our team as cmo the unrelated developments that have unfolded in his private life Over the last couple of weeks require both parties to move forward in other directions The company said we wish him the best in his transition which like also Gives me a leaves me a bad taste in my mouth about the company too Because like yeah ken is a crummy guy But also like when he was poppin you totally rode with him Promoted him stuck by him, but the second he has backlash. You're like, oh, whoa, whoa No, we no we don't associate with that No, we did not agree with the way that he was promoting the company not at all No, like we actually had no idea that was happening even though we promoted it on like our linkedin and star engine It's just like, okay, sure And now ken walks has stopped making videos on the drive and dive That are most likely a thousand percent not actually happening He lost his brand as the trustable and respectable tech bro And he lost his role as cmo in his app foresight And if only he had the foresight to see that all of this would happen I'm sorry. I had to within the span of a few months ken walks lost almost Everything that he's been working towards all because he got carried away with the story and the excitement of viral fame And now it's unknown where ken walks will go next We all want to feel loved. We all want to achieve something great We all want to save people and feel like a hero So ken walks created that life for himself in his own story He was a beloved hero who was solving a mystery saving victims and becoming a true crime sensation But ken walks was living a lie part of me sympathizes for ken walks because I know deep down we all can relate to that feeling of wanting and needing to be loved But I empathize mostly with the people who were found in the lakes And with their families the families who needed closure and whose closure was prolonged because of ken walks I hope more wannabe influencers do not try to copy ken walks by creating fake true crime scenarios Because this is a dangerous way to become famous not only because you will crash and burn But also because you will hurt so many families of the deceased in the process And so that's all for today's video on the story of ken walks Even though this was not the most joyous video. I hope it was at least enlightening and informative If you made it to the end. Thank you so much for making it to the end I always appreciate people who do since I put so much time and effort into my videos And if you did make it to the end comment armchair investigator Thank you so much to semperd for sponsoring this video Definitely check out the links below for an awesome discount And I hope you are doing well and I'll see you in the next video. Bye