'Imagine the panic': A teen was catfished, extorted and took his own life. Now, his father is speaking out.

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On Nov. 30, Walker Montgomery, who had just turned 16 and gotten his driver's license, went hunting with his dad, drove home, worked out in the family barn, had dinner with his family and prayed with his mother before he went to bed.

Some time after midnight on Dec. 1, the Mississippi sophomore  took his own life after a random "sextortion" encounter on Instagram with someone who catfished him, then demanded money to keep from outing him.

His father Brian is now going public with the tragedy to warn teens and parents alike of the danger that lurks within social media apps.

"You wake up one day and life is never going to be the way it used to be," Brian Montgomery said. "The emotional roller coaster has been real, as you can imagine. But my mission now is for God to be glorified in what we do. I want people to see that God's power is greater than the power of the evil in this world. He has a plan and I want people to see that."

Parents describe teen's extortion

Around midnight, Walker was direct messaged by someone posing as a female, wanting to participate in a sexual encounter. The person on the other end of the encounter recorded the episode and then threatened to send all of his family and friends copies of the event if he didn't pay them $1,000.

After two hours of Walker explaining that he didn't have any money and then begging the person not to release the images and video, he told them he was going to kill himself.

According to Brian, the catfishers told him to go ahead and kill himself because his life is already over.

The conversation ended there around 2 a.m.

The details of that conversation came to light nearly a month later. Walker's phone had been turned over to local law enforcement and then the FBI which dumped all of the information to be able to turn back over to Walker's parents.

The IP address of the hacker has been tracked to Nigeria and Brian said the FBI is still hopeful of being able to make an arrest.

"It's so random," Brian said. "It's like he was walking down the street and ran into a serial killer."

What Brian wants now is to get the information out that no matter how desperate things might seem to a teenager, there are always options.

"Walker thought his whole life was over. Everything that he had achieved was over. That everyone would shun him, that his mother would have to view that video. In fact, he thought his mother had already received the video and that was the first thing she would see when she woke up," Brian said. "Of course I wish Walker would have avoided that situation altogether ... but the reality is once that happened, he had a perception of how people would see him after that. He couldn't bear the thought of that."

'Imagine the panic'

Brian wants people to think about their own lives and what it would be like to have their worst-ever moment exposed to the entire world. That, he said, is what 16-year-old Walker was dealing with, by himself, in the middle of the night.

"Not that everyone would have done what Walker did, but you can imagine the panic that Walker had. All of us can relate to that," Brian said.

He said he is still dealing with a lot of anger and hate toward the people who pushed his son beyond his limits that night.

"There is a person on this planet that was on the other end of that keyboard," Brian said. "That person is real. That person is living today, breathing, walking, doing something as you and I are talking."

He said his anger leads him to wanting to meet this person before the authorities can do so.

"When I learned the conversation between Walker and this person and how they did not let the pressure off and incited him to do what he did, it really took me down a road of what I can do personally," Brian said.

He said God then kept opening doors that led to him having a nationally televised interview Monday to talk about his family's tragedy. He wants to make the scam public to parents and teens to further know the dangers of how an encounter like this from social media can impact their children.

"Understand there are evil traps set out for you on your phone," Brian said. "There are things out there that are out to get you. Be vigilant. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is."

He said if it's someone you don't know on social media, don't engage with them.

If you do fall into the trap, realize that the next day is not as dark as you might think it is, he said.

"If Walker had woken up the next day and all that those people said had come true and what he believed would happen; that people would not have wanted to see his face ever again, man, we would have picked up and moved somewhere if I thought I could have my son back.

"Please understand that there are people out there that love you that much," Brian said.

He also sent a message to teens to accept guidance from parents, which is the message he will give to a church youth group on Wednesday.

"Don't let your kids go to bed with their phone," Brian said. "Don't let them go to the bathroom with their phone. Don't let them be alone with their phone in private places. Whether its pornography or social media or what happened to Walker, there are so many threats that are out there."

Brian just hopes that parents and teens can learn for this experience.

"I just want kids to know that your parents may ask you to do some things. Don't fight them," Brian said. "They love you. They are just trying to protect you. Let them guide you in life some. I get that it is natural to resist as a teenager, but resist that some and let your parents help guide you. Trust me when I say that if your phone is in your parents bedroom when you go to bed, it will be there when you wake up."

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: After MS teen takes his own life in sextortion case, a dad speaks out