‘I feel like someone encouraged her’: Girl, 12, found dead at her Argentina home after practicing viral TikTok ‘blackout challenge’ – aunt says she was found hanging by a rope and friends watched her kill herself on livestream
- Milagros Soto died at her home in Santa Fe, Argentina, on Friday after doing the viral TikTok ‘blackout challenge’
- The 12-year-old girl is said to have received a link from a classmate before participating in the dare
- Soto placed a rope around her neck while she held her breath and twice tried to remove it and failed
- She tried a third time and was unable to get the rope off before she died
- The child’s death was caused by ‘mechanical asphyxia by hanging’ and ‘there are no signs of abuse or third party intervention’
A 12-year-old girl was found dead inside her northeastern Argentina home after practicing the viral TikTok ‘blackout challenge’ that was being lived streamed to her school friends.
Milagros Soto had a rope wrapped around her neck when her father arrived from work on Friday and discovered her lifeless body in her bedroom, her aunt Laura Luque told TV station TeleNueve.
Luque said her niece received a link to the TikTok dare, which is also known as the ‘choking challenge’ or ‘pass-out challenge,’ via a WhatsApp message from one of her classmates at School No. 223 Lieutenant General Pablo Riccieri in Capitán Bermúdez, Santa Fe.
Soto attempted twice to remove the rope from her neck and failed on the third try and later died as her friends watched.
The distraught aunt believes ‘someone encouraged’ Soto to go through with the sickening challenge and revealed that her niece had been ridiculed by classmates at her school.
Milagros Soto was found dead Friday at her home in Santa Fe, Argentina, after participating in the viral TikTok ‘blackout challenge.’ The 12-year-old had a rope around her neck and held her breath and failed to remove it on two attempts as the dare was live streamed to her school friends. The tried a third time to remove the rope and failed before dying
An autopsy showed that Milagros Soto’s death was caused by ‘mechanical asphyxia by hanging’ and that ‘there are no signs of abuse or third party intervention’
‘We have a lot of doubts about everything that happened. She was a very smart girl. She suffered a lot of bullying,’ Luque told TV station El Trece.’She told us that nobody liked her at school because they said she looked pretty, because she was blonde and had light blue eyes.’
‘She was a happy person. unbelievable. An excellent niece, granddaughter, daughter,’ Luque said. ‘A very studious girl because we have nothing else to say because everyone here knew her as the girl who smiled with those big eyes.’
A copy of the autopsy obtained by newspaper Clarín indicated that Soto’s death was caused by ‘mechanical asphyxia by hanging’ and that ‘there are no signs of abuse or third party intervention.’
In a statement, officials at School No. 223 Lieutenant General Pablo Riccieri remembered Soto as ‘a great student, classmate, sweet, good and kind.’
Laura Luque (pictured) said her brother-in-law found his 12-year-old daughter, Milagros Soto, dead inside her bedroom Friday after the had
Milagros Soto (pictured) was reportedly bullied by her classmates, according to her aunt, because of her blonde hair and light blue eyes
12-year-old Milagros Soto died Friday inside her northeastern Argentina home after taking part in the viral TikTok ‘blackout challenge’ in which a person has to hold their breath until they pass out and then share show they felt when they are conscious
Authorities recovered Soto’s cellphone and are investigating if any of the students at the school were involved in the deadly challenge.
‘We are in a society where if you don’t do this you’re not part of the group, if you don’t do what we tell you, you’re (worthless),’ Luque said, as quoted by Clarín. ‘This is ongoing, it’s being investigated, and I’m not going to stop until I know what happened to Milli. All I know is that she wouldn’t have been able to take her own life.’
The viral ‘blackout challenge’ consists of a person recording themselves holding their breath for an a long as they can before they pass out and then explain what they felt in a separate video.
According to People, the challenge dates back to 2008 and made an appearance again on TikTok in 2021.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has attributed at least 80 deaths to social media users who accept the dare.
Bloomberg Businessweek found in November 2020 that at least 15 children under the age of 12 had died from the challenge over the last 18 months. An additional five deaths were reported for children between the age of 13 and 14 during the same period.
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