Edited production script for this episode. Case descriptions and allegations reflect the supplied script; this is not a transcript independently checked against the final audio.
Robert Riggs
The teenage girl thought she had found a sympathetic friend online—someone who understood her anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
For months, he cultivated the relationship, gradually earning her confidence and trust.
Methodically, he collected personal details: where she lived, where she went to school, who her parents and friends were, and which social-media accounts she used. He persuaded her to share intimate photographs and deeply personal secrets.
Then he sprang the trap. He used the photographs and personal information to blackmail her into harming herself and carving his online name into skin hidden beneath her clothing.
Within 764, this was known as a “cut sign”—evidence, in the group’s warped status system, that a member could force another person to bleed on command. Members called images and videos of such abuse “blood content.”
The network known as 764 began in Stephenville, Texas, about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Stephenville is known as the “Cowboy Capital of the World,” but it was also home to the teenager who created one of the internet’s most disturbing exploitation networks.
In early 2021, 15-year-old Bradley Cadenhead created a Discord server called 764, named for the first three digits of Stephenville’s ZIP code.
According to court records, Cadenhead had been placed on juvenile probation at 13 after threatening a school shooting. He later assaulted his mother and resisted efforts to place him in counseling. By his early teens, he was spending extensive time in online communities devoted to graphic violence.
Through Minecraft and other online spaces, he connected with people active in gore and exploitation communities. He modeled 764 on an exploitation network known as CVLT—pronounced “cult”—whose perpetrators manipulated minors into producing sexually explicit material and then used it to blackmail them.
Under 764, sexual coercion became intertwined with forced self-harm, animal abuse, humiliation, and suicide coercion. Some participants embraced a nihilistic ideology that glorified violence and sought to sow fear and chaos. Others appear to have been motivated by sexual gratification, status, belonging, or a mixture of motives.
Cadenhead was arrested in 2021. In May 2023, he was sentenced to 80 years in a Texas prison after being convicted of possession with intent to promote child pornography.
His arrest did not end the threat. The original network splintered, and its methods spread internationally through loosely connected offshoots. The FBI now notes that “764” is often used as shorthand for a broader category of violent online networks rather than one unified organization.
The FBI describes some of these actors as nihilistic violent extremists. Their accelerationist goals may include intensifying social disorder and hastening the collapse of existing institutions, including the United States government. But the FBI also cautions that motivations vary widely and are not always ideological.
Federal investigators identified Prasan Nepal, known online as “Trippy,” as a founding member and alleged leader within the broader 764 network. Nepal was arrested in North Carolina on Apr 22, 2025. Six days later, authorities arrested Leonidas Varagiannis, known online as “War,” in Greece.
Federal prosecutors announced charges against both men on Apr 29, 2025, accusing them of operating an international child-exploitation enterprise. Criminal charges are allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
According to the criminal complaint, the men operated a subgroup called 764 Inferno through an encrypted messaging platform. Investigators allege that Nepal published instructions for locating vulnerable minors in online self-harm communities, posing as a supportive friend, and exploiting their distress.
The FBI says Inferno members also circulated “Lorebooks”—digital collections of recorded abuse that functioned as propaganda and recruiting material. Investigators described videos of minors being coerced into severe self-harm and statements by participants who treated abuse as proof of standing within the group.
Investigators further allege that Nepal and co-conspirators created a guide teaching members how to groom victims and produce material for the network. The guide advised members to target young people experiencing depression, mental illness, or social isolation, including girls associated with alternative fashion, anime, or gaming communities.
The perpetrators viewed those interests as pathways to minors seeking acceptance online. They gathered personal information and intimate material, then used exposure, shame, and fear to demand increasingly abusive content.
The complaint alleges that the defendants exploited at least eight minors. It describes additional abuse that is too disturbing—and unnecessary—to recount here.
The danger extends beyond groups carrying the 764 name. In 2026, the FBI offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Austin Jan Sy Yatco, who has ties to Plano, Texas, and the Philippines.
Yatco, who holds a computer science degree, is accused of helping exploit minors through an online group whose activities preceded 764 and were similar to those later associated with it. A federal arrest warrant was issued on Jan 23, 2026. The allegations against him have not been proven in court.
In May 2026, FBI Dallas said the bureau was investigating more than 450 people tied to 764 and other violent online networks.
On Jul 8, 2026, 19-year-old Alexis Aldair Chavez, also known online as “Zack” and “Zack8884,” was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, lifetime supervised release, and $10,000 in restitution. Federal prosecutors described him as an administrator and online leader of 8884, a network related to 764.
According to court documents, Chavez and co-conspirators coerced minor victims into attempted suicide, self-harm, sexual exploitation, and animal cruelty. They recorded or shared the abuse to gain status and exert control. Chavez pleaded guilty to racketeering, distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.
After Chavez’s sentencing, U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons urged parents to remain involved in their children’s online lives, ask difficult questions, and never assume that a child is “just playing games” or “just talking with friends.”
FBI investigations have uncovered an international collection of offenders who seek victims through messaging apps, social media, and gaming platforms.
The tactics are familiar: identify a vulnerable young person, earn her trust, collect compromising material, and use shame and fear to control her. What makes this form of exploitation especially insidious is its reach. A perpetrator can enter a child’s life from anywhere in the world and remain present through the device in her hand.
For decades, parents taught children about “stranger danger.” Today, a stranger does not need to approach a child on the street. That person can reach a child at home through a phone, game, messaging app, or social-media account.
For an adolescent who feels invisible in the physical world, attention online can be intoxicating. That is why curiosity and open communication are more effective than shame or surveillance alone.
Parents and caregivers should watch for sudden withdrawal, mood changes, unexplained injuries, secrecy around online contacts, unexpected calls or messages, and abrupt changes in behavior, sleep, eating, or appearance.
If a child discloses exploitation, remain calm. Do not blame the child or confront the suspected offender. Stop contact when it is safe to do so, preserve usernames, messages, images, links, and other evidence, and report the threat. Call 911 if anyone is in immediate danger. Reports can also be made to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, tips.fbi.gov, or the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
The most important message for a victim is simple: This is not your fault, and you are not alone.
