The Twitch community is in mourning as popular streamer Byron “Reckful” Bernstein has been confirmed dead, aged just 31. The cause of death cited by the limited sources is suicide.
Reckful was a popular figure in the Twitch community, especially with World of Warcraft fans – the game his streams focused most on. With nearly a million followers, Reckful left plenty of sad faces behind with this tragic news.
The story that’s been pieced together by the information available is that Reckful had been struggling with his mental health for a very long time and everything escalated real fast on the night of July 2. He tweeted a series of confusing messages, the first of whom was a marriage proposal to former girlfriend Becca Cho:
i know i'll always be a little too crazy... and this is proof... but at least you'll never be boredwill you marry me, becca? pic.twitter.com/Xpmz3IlRqv
— Reckful (@Byron) July 2, 2020
Half an hour later, more tweets followed which were progressively worrying:
ahh, i feel bad for anyone who has to deal with my insanity
— Reckful (@Byron) July 2, 2020
Sadly, this didn’t end up being a simple Twitter meltdown, but ended in human tragedy. Apparently, that same night Reckful put an end to his life.
Becca Cho claimed she hadn’t even seen the proposal before it was way too late:
RIP july 2, 2020Read: https://t.co/B70pWw96iR
— Becca (@BeccaTILTS) July 2, 2020
Another former girlfriend – Blue Sandoval, also chimed in with some heartbreaking input. She was reportedly one of the first to find out about Reckful’s death.
Yes, it's him. He's gone.
— Blue Madrigal (@BlueGoesMew) July 2, 2020
Many, many people have expressed their sadness and regret over the tragic way this young man left us. All we can do now is pay his due respects and hope he’d made it to a better place.
Rest in peace, Byron!