Storage Wars star Rene Nezhoda is revealing new details about the cyberbullying he says Darrell Sheets endured before his untimely death.
“He was impersonating him with phone calls, messages, emails, websites … He flat out said, ‘I’m gonna ruin you.’ I mean, all you have to do is go to Darrell’s last few messages on Facebook,” Nezhoda, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, April 24. “He kind of withdrew from social media.”
Nezhoda continued, “He even said, I think on March 9, ‘Hey guys, I’m happy. Everything is great — if anything happens to me, look at these people. These are the people.’ And then he posted a bunch of messages [about it]. And a month later we find him dead … I am 50/50, if he even did that [to himself]. I don’t know.”
On March 11, Sheets claimed two individuals were targeting him online and that “if anything happens to [him]” the individuals may be responsible.
“This has been going on for 3 years and the things he says are very damaging,” Sheets claimed via Facebook. Us has not independently confirmed the allegations.
Us confirmed on Wednesday, April 22, that Sheets died by an apparent suicide. He was 67.
A spokesperson for the Lake Havasu City Police Department told Us that authorities responded to a call in the early morning hours on Wednesday. Officers were dispatched to an Arizona residence, where they discovered the reality star’s body.
An official cause of death has not been confirmed as the incident is under active investigation.
“We also had Mark Balel0 on the show [die by suicide], and when that happened Darrell was very against what he did,” Nezhoda continued. “He’s like, ‘You can’t do that. That’s not an out. He can’t go to heaven, none of that stuff.’ So it’s hard for me to believe that he did that.” (Balelo was found dead of an apparent suicide on February 11, 2013, at the age of 40.)
Nezhoda added, “You don’t know what’s in someone’s head and what pushed them over the edge. I’m not saying he did it because of the cyberbullying. But if you’re down and out and somebody steps on your throat for fun or because they think they’re entitled to do that because you’re famous … I don’t think that helps the situation.”
Nezhoda and other Storage Wars cast members have been candid about their own experiences with cyberbullying in the wake of Sheets death.
“We’ve all had a little bit of that,” Dave Hester exclusively told Us on Friday. “We’ve been at this 16, 17 years, and so there’s always people [who] want to get on the internet and say rude things, but I don’t even pay attention to it. I don’t understand cyberbullying because when people have something bad to say, I don’t even waste my time. If you wanna support me, that’s great. You don’t want to support me, that’s fine too. It doesn’t bother me.”
Nezhoda also described the type of online bullying he endures.
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“Every day, we have people telling us we’re fat, we’re not good enough, we’re broke,” he explained. “Our wives are cheating on us, like — pretty much whatever you can imagine”
He added, “Honestly, I didn’t take it that serious, because that’s something we all deal with every day. So when we hear that, we take it with a grain of salt. But he did tell me that this person is really doing a lot of stuff, but I just didn’t take it as serious, or was as concerned, because it’s just part of it.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
