An Indiana man died after falling from a cliff in Puerto Rico while trying to make a video for TikTok, according to his family.
According to a news release from the US Coast Guard, Edgar Garay, 27, of Indiana, was on a recreational day trip to the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico on January 29 when he fell off a 70-foot coastal cliff near the lighthouse in Cabo Rojo.
The fall was reported to the Coast Guard that evening and Garay’s body was recovered the next day by a Puerto Rico Emergency Dive Unit.
Edgar’s brother, Carlos Garay, called his sibling a “daredevil”. Carlos was not in Puerto Rico and said a cousin had taken his brother sightseeing along the cliffs at that time.
Carlos said,
My brother has a TikTok account that he loved to upload videos to… Unfortunately, that was what he was trying to do when he was closer to the edge than he should have been.”
The cousin walked away from the edge and glanced back but did not see Edgar.
A GoFundMe has been set up to cover the costs of transporting Garray’s body back to Indiana.
Accidents are one thing, but TikTok challenges can be deadly dangerous, especially among very young teens.
The “blackout challenge”, which encourages users to hold their breath until they pass out due to a lack of oxygen, has been around since at least 2008, but it’s making headlines in again.
In late November of 2022, a Bloomberg Businessweek report linked at least 15 deaths in children 12 and under to the challenge in the last 18 months, and another five deaths in children aged 13 and 14.
- The family of 9-year-old Arriani Arroyo found their son dead in February of 2021 after participating in the blackout challenge, and are suing TikTok in hopes of keeping other kids safe
- Joshua Haileyesus was found by his brother in March of ’22 after taking part in the challenge
- In January of 2023, Milagros Soto, 12, died in Argentina after allegedly attempting the challenge
- A month earlier, the family of 12-year-old Tristan Casson says he died in Ohio after attempting the “blackout” challenge
- 12-year-old Archie Battersbee died in August in the UK after trying the challenge and spending months on life support
- Lauryn Keating found her 14-year-old son, Leon Brown, unresponsive in their home in Scotland
(Photo, GoFundMe; via CNN, Women’s Health)
