SAN ANTONIO – A father is reaching out to anyone who will listen, hoping a deadly internet game, he claims ended when his son took his life, will come to an end.
It's called the Blue Whale Challenge and it is basically a dare that has spread through social media.
Jorge Gonzales wants other parents to know what to look for, before it's too late.
He said his son, Isaiah Gonzales, was all smiles and a jokester who lit up the room.
Pictures of his smile is all he has left as he plans his son’s funeral.
"We had no signs at all. Isaiah was Isaiah," Jorge Gonzales said.
The father said on Saturday morning they found Isaiah hanging in a bedroom closet.
Next to the teen they found a cellphone propped on top of a shoe, broadcasting the act using social media.
The family believes Isiah’s death is the result of the Blue Whale Challenge.
San Antonio police said this is the first they've heard of it.
The game involves predators mysteriously contacting potential victims through cellphone apps and chat rooms.
There's been media coverage around the world, but it's unclear how many lives it's claimed or where to find it. Some reports have the administrator threatening to harm the victim's family if he or she doesn't complete the tasks.
The final task is suicide.
Having heard about the game online, Jorge Gonzales said he asked his kids if they knew about it. He said Isaiah told him he had heard of it, but would never participate.
"I want them to go through their phones, look at their social media," Jorge Gonzales said, as a warning to other parents, "If they're on that challenge already, they can catch that from happening."
With activities like listening to strange music and drinking bleach, the Gonzalez family now knows Isaiah sent pictures of him completing tasks to his friends, saying what the final outcome would be.
"They blew it off like it was a joke and if one of them would have said something, one of them would have called us, he would have been alive," Scarlett Cantu-Gonzales, Isaiah’s sister, said.
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