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By Marni Rose McFall
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After a missing teenager was found alive after more than 500 days, the FBI had warned of a crackdown on online “gore groups” used to harm and exploit children.
Kylie Arellano, 17, was found in Oregon on Sunday afternoon after going missing from her home in Utah on May 29, 2025.
Though the FBI has not yet clarified what the role of “gore groups” may have been in Arellano’s disappearance, the bureau has made tackling the phenomenon a priority in recent months and has put a particular emphasis on the 764 network, a violent child sextortionist group.
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FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement after Arellano was found, “Tonight, local police in Oregon brought a minor who had been missing for a year and a half to safety, acting on information provided by our FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. We are grateful she can return home, and we will continue working with our partners to hold those responsible accountable."
"To anyone using gore groups to target and exploit children: the FBI and our partners are coming for you. We are using every tool at our disposal to combat nihilistic violent extremism, bring offenders to justice and protect America's children,” he said.
Arellano was found alongside a 39-year-old man, whom local law enforcement has since taken into custody.
Newsweek has reached out to the FBI for further information.
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What Are “Gore Groups”?
“Gore groups” are online extremist networks whose members use graphic violence, sexual exploitation, blackmail and psychological manipulation, particularly against minors.
According to the FBI, these networks can operate across social media, messaging services, gaming platforms and online communities.
Members may:
- Approach vulnerable children online and establish trust.
- Obtain personal information or sexually explicit images from them.
- Use that material to blackmail or coerce victims.
- Pressure victims into escalating acts including self-harm, animal cruelty and sexual abuse, sometimes demanding that these acts be photographed or streamed.
- Circulate extremely graphic material involving murder, suicide, mutilation and other violence.
The FBI has said victims are often children and teenagers.
What Is "764"?
764 is an online sextortion network that emerged in 2021.
The FBI has described it as a “nihilistic violent extremist network,” and said that the network had engaged in a “wide range” of criminal conduct, both in the U.S. and abroad, and “including coordinated efforts to exploit minors, extort vulnerable victims, and inflict psychological harm as part of an organized ideology promoting chaos and societal destabilization.”
The FBI said that 764 is built upon an extremist ideology that embraced social collapse and celebrated violence. It states that members of 764 used encrypted applications to identify vulnerable minors, manipulate them into compliance, coerce individuals with threats and intimidation, distribute extremist and exploitative content and promote members based upon the severity of the material that they helped to generate.
“In multiple instances, defendants threatened and caused their victims to engage in self-mutilation, online and in-person sexual acts, harm to animals, sexual exploitation of siblings and others, acts of violence, threats of violence, suicide, and murder,” the Bureau said.
Some victims have been reported to be as young as 13 years old.
764 leader Prasan "Trippy" Nepal, 21, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child following his arrest by the FBI last month.
Nepal, who is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2027, faces a minimum penalty of 15 years and a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Patel said in a statement on October 9, "This is the latest victory in the FBI's work with partners to dismantle the violent 764 network.”
"Prasan Nepal, a leader of 764, pleaded guilty for his role in exploiting juveniles—not only breaking the law himself but recruiting others to participate in the heinous conduct targeting kids online through sexual assault, pornography, animal crushing, and more,” he said.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual violence, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673, or contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) helpline via their website rainn.org.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly, Gray R. Thomas
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