Dying for clicks: Influencers whose bids for fame ended in tragedy – from gorging themselves to death to leaving a newborn to starve by ‘feeding it only sunlight’

Scaling a 700ft skyscraper, leaping into a reservoir, and ghost hunting in rural Italy are just some attempts influencers have made to shoot exciting, fresh social media content for their swathes of followers.

But the consequences of each resulted in similar outcomes – they all ended in death.

And while social media remains a playground of competition between wannabe stars and online icons, the lengths some content creators are willing to go to for the most likes is becoming chillingly extreme.

From dying after gorging on 10kg of food in one sitting, to being jailed for forcing a newborn baby into a sunlight only diet, several online personalities have paid the ultimate price for digital success, popularity, and fame.

MailOnline has looked at some of the most tragic endings to failed attempts at becoming the most iconic internet sensation.

Ten-hour Mukbang 

A 24-year-old binge-eating live-streamer died while broadcasting a 10-hour food binge on cake, chicken fingers, and seafood to thousands of her followers.

Pan Xiaoting, from China, died in July 2024 from a suspected stomach tear while gorging on 10kg (22lbs) of food, including what appeared to be chocolate cake.

Autopsy results revealed that her stomach had become severely deformed and filled with undigested food, suggesting that her stomach could have burst, causing stomach acid and food to leak into her abdomen.

Pan Xiaoting, from China, died in July from a suspected stomach tear while gorging on 10kg (22lbs) of food, including what appeared to be chocolate cake

Pan Xiaoting would livestream her mukbangs to get around the Chinese government’s ban on videos

Dr Andrew Harris , a senior lecturer of psychology at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, said: ‘Mukbang videos center around consumption and indulgence, potentially reinforcing a cycle of overeating or unhealthy food relationships.’

China has such an all-out ban on mukbang videos, but it has not stopped content creators from live-streaming their binges.

Pan Xiaoting live-streamed her food marathon on July 14 before she collapsed.

Viewers reportedly tried to provide remote help, but it wasn’t enough.

Pan Xiaoting had suffered bleeding in her stomach caused by the trauma of overeating

She entertained fans by live-streaming herself gorging on huge plates of food including seafood and cake

She had been hospitalised just before her death with stomach bleeding though it was not clear how soon before the incident she was discharged.

When she died, most of the food she ate had not been digested yet and was sitting in her stomach.

Trio die in Canada waterfall plunge

A YouTube vlogger died in 2018 after plummeting down a waterfall in Canada while trying to save his friend who slipped and fell before him.

Adrenaline-junkie Ryker Gamble, then 30, was with his channel co-creator Alexey Andriyovych Lyakh and Lyakh’s girlfriend Megan Scraper when the three of them tragically plunged 100ft to their deaths at Shannon Falls in British Columbia.

YouTuber Ryker Gamble (left) died after plunging 100ft over a waterfall, along with his channel co-creator Alexey Andriyovych Lyakh (right) and his girlfriend Megan Scraper (center)

The three were a part of YouTube channel High On Life SundayFundayz where they posted exotic travel videos and daring adventures, Gamble pictured above

Lyakh, pictured above with girlfriend Scraper, co-founded the channel with Gamble. The three were hiking and swimming at Shannon Falls when the tragedy took place

The trio were a part of YouTube channel High On Life SundayFundayz which posted exotic travel and adventure videos. 

One of their stints landed Gamble and Lyakh in jail for seven days for trespassing at Yellowstone National Park.

The group of three hiked and swam in a series of pools that fall along the 1,100ft height of the waterfall then ‘walked along the ledge shortly there after’, when Scraper suddenly fell, police said at the time.

Gamble and Lyakh attempted to save her but they also fell and got swept into the currents.

The victims were all in their 20s and 30s.

The Canadian vlogger and Lyakh plunged into the water after trying to rescue Scraper who had slipped, pictured above in video from 2014

A rescue helicopter pictured scouring the falls after the trio were reported missing 

French daredevil who plunged from 68-storey Hong Kong skyscraper

French daredevil Remi Lucidi, 30, died last year after falling off a skyscraper in Hong Kong.

A maid saw him knocking on the window of a penthouse on the 68th floor of the 721ft Tregunter Tower in July.

Lucidi reportedly entered the tower at around 6pm and told a security guard he was visiting a friend on the 40th floor. 

He was reportedly spotted on CCTV leaving the lift on the 49th floor and again on the staircase to the top floor, where a door had been forced open. 

French photographer Remi Lucidi  became trapped outside the top floor penthouse of the Trengunter Tower complex while posing for photos last year

Lucidi fell from the top of a 721ft, 68-story Hong Kong residential skyscraper (pictured center)

The young adventurer had been seen by a maid knocking on the windows of the penthouse to get back inside the building, but fell to his death before any help could arrive

The maid called police after spotting the man at around 7:30pm while he attempted to seek help before losing his footing.

Lucidi had plunged to his death before officers arrived.

Police said a 30-year-old man’s body was found on a patio in the city’s Mid-Levels area.

‘A preliminary investigation suggested the man was an extreme sports enthusiast,’ a source said at the time.

‘It is possible that he got trapped outside the penthouse while practising an extreme sport in the building, and he knocked on the window for help, but accidentally fell to his death.’ 

Many of the photos posted to Instagram saw Lucidi clinging to poles of tall buildings

Lucidi was rarely seen using safety harnesses or other climbing equipment

The Frenchman was known for his extreme stunts and his Instagram account served as a visual diary of his adventures. He is pictured here in Colombia

Falls into reservoir while filming daring stunt

A Brazilian influencer died in April after falling into an enormous reservoir while filming an ambitious stunt for his fans in an accident investigators called ‘suspicious’. 

Diego Kaua Oliveira Santos, 20, slipped into Lake Salto Grande in the Brazilian municipality of Americana, where the social media star and his friends were hanging out and taking pictures. 

Santos’ friends hurried to help him, but the influencer was quickly swept away by the water. 

Earlier in the day, Santos, who was also a musician, assured his followers that he would give them ‘something live’ during his sojourn at the artificial lake.

Diego Kaua Oliveira Santos slipped into Lake Salto Grande in the Brazilian municipality of Americana, where the social media star was planning on filming a stunt for his followers. Pictured: Santos in an image he uploaded to Instagram

Witnesses attempted to save Santos but were unable to retrieve him from the water. He later drowned in a death that investigators have termed ‘suspicious’. Pictured: Santos smiling in the company of women in skimpy bathing suits. The picture was uploaded to Instagram a week before his death

In one of the last pictures he uploaded to Instagram, Santos regarded the camera stoically while a woman in a bikini struck a sultry pose in front of him

According to Brazil’s Public Security Secretariat, witnesses who were with Santos ‘tried to save the young man, without success’.

Unable to help the influencer, the witnesses ‘then called the Fire Department, which could not rescue the man alive’.

Civil police stated that Santos was recording content for his social media accounts when he died.

Fruit only diet ends in death

Vegan, raw food influencer Zhanna Samsonova died last year from starvation and exhaustion after living on an ‘extreme’ diet of exotic fruit.

Originally from Russia, Samsonova had been on the raw plant-based diet for ten years that consisted of fruits, sunflower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies and juices. 

There were also periods when the 39-year-old would practice ‘dry fasting’ – where she would refuse to eat or drink anything for days.

Samsonova, who hadn’t drunk water for more than six years and instead replaced it with fruit and vegetable juices, died on July 21 in Malaysia.

The influencer, who had over 10,000 Instagram followers and had been travelling across Asia for the past 17 years, reportedly died from a cholera-like infection that was exacerbated by her extreme restrictive eating, her mother said. 

Food influencer Zhanna Samsonova (pictured) who ate a strict raw food vegan diet allegedly died of ‘starvation and exhaustion’ on July 21 last year

Originally from Russia, Zhanna had been living in South-East Asia eating a raw vegan diet consisting of ‘fruits, sunflower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies and juices’ for the past five years

Her eating habits became worryingly restrictive in the last few months of her life according to her friends

Samsonova moved from veganism to a purely raw food diet consisting of vegetables and fruit, with the influencer sharing what she described as ‘healthy’ recipes on her Instagram profile. 

She had claimed that her ten years on a raw plant-based had meant she was ‘in perfect health’ and ‘never got the usual seasonal cold’.

But in 2021, Samsonova travelled back to her native Russia for the first time in nine years but immediately fell ill with coronavirus.

Samsonova said she had ‘ignored’ all Covid precautions before becoming infected and bizarrely claimed she ‘cured’ herself of the virus by dry fasting – where she did not drink or eat anything for more than ten days.

Her friends and family warned her against her extreme diet, but she refused to listen and it ultimately proved fatal.

Diet of sunlight

A lifestyle blogging father was jailed for eight years in April for causing the death of his newborn son by demanding he should live on sunlight instead of food and milk. 

Maxim Lyutyi, 44, and his partner Oxana Mironova, 34, failed to properly feed their baby Cosmos, who tragically died from ‘pneumonia and emaciation’ when he was less than one month old.

He took the baby away from his mother for a day at a time ‘dousing him with cold water to harden him’, reported Mash news outlet at the time.

Blogger Maxim Lyutyi, 44, pleaded guilty to torturing his son by insisting the child survived on sun-rays instead of food

Oxana Mironova admitted her guilt and repented over the tragic death of her son

Lifestyle trainer Maxim Lyutyi (pictured) wanted to raise the newborn on prana-eating — a diet in which people go without food and water for a long time and ‘feed on the sun’, it was alleged

‘The little body could not withstand the abuse: exhaustion developed and breathing problems appeared. But even in this condition, the child was not shown to doctors.’

Lyutyi caused ‘intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm’ to Cosmos by insisting the baby be nourished mainly on sunlight, the court in Sochi heard.

He admitted his guilt in a court appearance in April after previously trying to pin the blame on Mironova.

The dad had claimed she had an iron deficiency which caused the death of the baby weighing three-and-a-half pounds.

The court was told Lyutyi wanted to raise the newborn on prana-eating – a diet in which people go without food and water for a long time and ‘feed on the sun’.

He was accused of barring Mironova from breastfeeding the child, and was described as a ‘radical raw food fanatic’.

‘He wanted to experiment on the child, feed him purely with the sun, and then advertise it to others that this is how you can eat,’ said one source.

Lyutyi had delivered his child at home, refusing to let Oxana go to a maternity hospital.

They eventually decided to take the emaciated child to doctors, but medical staff could do nothing to save the horrendously malnourished baby.

Lyutyi has long campaigned for highly restrictive diets consisting of raw ingredients

Lyutyi had delivered his child at home, refusing to let Oxana go to a maternity hospital

Waterfall plunge 

In July, a travel influencer fell to her death after slipping at the top of a waterfall while shooting social media content.

Aanvi Kamdar, 27, from Mumbai, tragically tumbled down a 300ft-tall gorge as she filmed her picturesque surroundings at the Kumbhe Waterfall in Manjurne, India.

The content creator had been recording an Instagram reel alongside six friends when she slipped and fell down the waterfall on July 16 during the local monsoon season.

Emergency services were called immediately by her friends who witnessed the horrific accident.

First responders rushed to the scene and began efforts to rescue Kamdar, with one rescuer reporting: ‘As soon as we reached the spot, we realised that the girl has fallen nearly 300 to 350 feet.’

A travel influencer fell to her death after slipping at the top of a waterfall while shooting social media content

Emergency services were called immediately by her six friends who witnessed the horrific accident

The content creator had been recording an Instagram reel alongside six friends when she slipped and fell down the waterfall (pictured), which occurred during the local monsoon season

Shantanu Kuveskar, a rescuer, said: ‘She fell on the hard, slippery patch of rocks around 300 ft into the valley and couldn’t be spotted initially. Six rescuers climbed down the hill, while another 50 assisted atop the hillock’

They added: ‘Even after reaching her, it was difficult to get her up, as she was injured and it was raining heavily. So we decided to get her out using a vertical pulley.’

Shantanu Kuveskar, a rescuer, said: ‘She fell on the hard, slippery patch of rocks around 300 ft into the valley and couldn’t be spotted initially. Six rescuers climbed down the hill, while another 50 assisted atop the hillock’. 

Kamdar was alive and responsive when she was finally pulled from the gorge after a six-hour rescue operation.

She was transported to a hospital in nearby Mangaon on ventilatory support, but tragically succumbed to her injuries shortly after admission

Ghost hunting ravine fall

A fitness influencer died after falling into a ravine while he filmed a video of him and his pals exploring an abandoned ghost town in Italy.

TikTok star Giorgi ‘Tzane’ Janelidze, 23, tragically died in Roghudi Vecchio, Calabria.

The content creator’s death was confirmed by his friend and fellow influencer Chris Kogias, who had been with him on the ill-fated trip.

Giorgi ‘Tzane’ Janelidze, 23, tragically died after plummeting into a ravine while exploring an abandoned village in Italy

The ravine was so deep that firefighters struggled to reach his body. A helicopter was called in to transfer the body to the authorities

The fitness influencer had been filming a video for his social media, alongside two pals, when the tragedy took place

The accident took place while Janelidze and his two friends were shooting a video for the star’s social media.

The trio were exploring an ancient mountain village that had been abandoned in the 1970s following a severe flood.

As the group stood on a balcony with no railings, the tattooed influencer suddenly slipped and fell into a deep and rocky ravine.

Fire brigade teams from the Melito Porto Salvo detachment and the SAF unit dashed to the scene but it was too late.

Firefighters struggled to climb the steep slope and were forced to call in a helicopter from the Lamezia Terme del Corpo flight department with a secured stretcher to recover the body, local media reported.

Janelidze’s body was transferred by air to the coastal town of Saline Joniche, and left in the hands of the local authorities.

Further details on why the fitness influencer – who boasted over 103,000 followers on Instagram – risked stepping onto the unprotected balcony remain unknown. 

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