From the Complaint in Robertson v. Upchurch (M.D. Tenn.), simply filed as we speak (paragraph numbers and a few paragraph breaks deleted); recall, after all that these are all simply the plaintiffs’ allegations:
Ryan Upchurch is a media character, musician, and prolific “YouTuber” who has roughly 3,110,000 subscribers on YouTube as of the date of this submitting.
Upchurch started posting concerning the disappearance of Kiely Rodni, the granddaughter of Plaintiff David Robertson and the daughter of Plaintiff Daniel Rodni, after Kiely’s disappearance in August 2022 turned a viral worldwide information story…. Upchurch had not beforehand participated in so-called “true crime” YouTube however started to take action because the Kiely Rodni case turned “information.”
Kiely Rodni disappeared after a celebration close to Tahoe Nationwide Forest on August 6, 2022. Within the weeks following her disappearance, quite a few on-line posters started wildly speculating as to “what actually occurred” to Kiely Rodni. (As it could finally prove, Kiely died of drowning when her car crashed into the Prosser Reservoir and have become submerged under fourteen ft of water. No foul play was suspected.)
Ryan Upchurch was a outstanding determine on this wild After Kiely’s Rodni physique had been discovered, and after authorities had publicly acknowledged that an post-mortem had confirmed her id, Upchurch uploaded a number of movies making outlandish claims, together with that Kiely Rodni, Daniel Rodni, and David Robertson had been “not actual” and that your complete tragic episode was a “rip-off” by Kiely’s household to boost cash on a GoFundMe web site. Upchurch additionally revealed photos of David Robertson and additional revealed Daniel Rodni’s former house tackle to his 3 million subscribers.
Upchurch has a loyal following of viewers who discuss with themselves because the “creek squad.” Upchurch directed the “creek squad” to seek for Kiely Rodni’s car and posted google earth photos of Daniel Rodni’s former house, falsely stating that he had “discovered” Kiely’s automotive there. Whereas producing a whole bunch of thousand views on his movies regarding Kiely Rodni’s disappearance, Upchurch promoted his personal music, typically importing new music content material between movies on the Kiely Rodni case. Daniel Rodni basically went into hiding, and made substantial investments in house safety, surveillance, cameras, and so on.
A number of “creek squad” members made outlandish movies of their very own. One self-admitted creek squad member, named “Julio,” made a number of movies below the moniker “An All American Cartel LLC.” Julio posted movies of the Misplaced Path Lodge, a trip resort operated by David Robertson.
In one in every of these movies, Julio speculated that the Rodni / Robertson household was performing little one sacrifices on the lodge as a part of a non secular cult. A number of creek squad members flooded the Lodge’s web profiles with detrimental on-line critiques. The detrimental consideration directed to David Robertson and his lodge brought on him to undergo monetary losses.
David Robertson and Daniel Rodni have every skilled excessive emotional misery attributable to Upchurch’s postings, compounding their already profound grief on the tragic lack of their granddaughter and daughter.
This lawsuit seeks to carry Upchurch accountable for his tortious actions and intentional misconduct, as outlined under….
For the same (however, after all, completely different) case, see University of Idaho Murders Yield Libel Lawsuit Against “Internet Sleuth.”
