A distraught mother is searching for answers after her son, 25, passed away a few days after she saw fresh video purporting to capture and torture the so-called “crypto king,” Aiden Pleterski.
Video of Pleterski shrinking to the size of a squint and red bruises covering his eyes first surfaced in July 2023, six months after he was reportedly kidnapped, assaulted, and subjected to torture by a group of people demanding $3 million in ransom.
The 12-minute video, which was posted on an unidentified social media platform, has Pleterski rocking back and forth in front of an unremarkable wall and apologizing to investors in a hoarse voice.
But according to Tracy Collins, the late Clayton Soyka’s mother, those movies were only a taste of the raw material shot over the three-day tragedy.
Collins claimed he told her he had seen the unedited version in the weeks before she lost her baby, saying it sounded more like a Netflix movie than the genuine thing.
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Aiden Pleterski in a video published in July 2023 after he was supposedly abducted, tortured and abused six months earlier.
Soyka had firsthand knowledge of the $40 million investment scam that the supposed “crypto king,” Pleterski’s pal, was reportedly orchestrating.
In an exclusive interview with W5, Collins stated, “There was hog tying, there was water torture, and there was shooting a gun near his head.”
Collins claimed she asked her son to play the video for her, claiming it featured degrading images of Pleterski strapped up in a truck at a McDonald’s. However, she said that he said he was no longer able to access it. Rather, he sent his mother a screenshot of Pleterski’s broken face.
He appears swelled and changed, hardly recognisable.
“His concern was Aiden,” Collins remarked. Text exchanges that W5 was able to get indicate that, in the weeks following his alleged captors’ release, Pleterski “went into hiding” at Soyka’s Toronto residence.
Collins, though, was concerned about her own son. She claimed he informed her that he knew who was behind the kidnapping and that they were “bad people,” but he was “protected” because of his excessive knowledge.
He passed away two days later. Police are not looking into his death since they think he committed suicide.
Mom says, “It doesn’t make sense.”
Collins described the terrible day that Soyka died on March 20 and how his computer and phone vanished from his residence within hours of her passing.
That is illogical. How could everyone be aware that he had passed away so quickly?
Regarding the fate of Soyka’s personal belongings, which they eventually located and confiscated from an unidentified place, the Toronto Police Service declined to comment.
Collins has not received the phone or computer back from the police nearly a year later.
Detectives told W5 that while they are not looking into Soyka’s death, they are keeping his equipment as evidence in case Pleterski is kidnapped, they added.
Collins admits that her son had mental health and drug usage issues, but she still thinks there’s more to the tale of his passing.
“It’s not adding up.” Should it have been a suicide, how come everything occurred in a matter of hours?
With security guards on either side, Collins had additional questions after the funeral. One of the details stood by the coffin; she had not hired them. Investigators were also in attendance, interviewing witnesses and photographing license plates.
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She remarked, “The funeral was just ridiculous.”
Collins claimed Pleterski attended the funeral and wrote a note explaining how her son had always put others before himself, even if she didn’t see him.
She tried to find out what happened the day her son died by getting in touch with Pleterski and many others after the funeral.
Pleterski responded, although many others did not.
“I am not exactly sure what transpired because I was not present,” a message from Pleterski’s phone that W5 was able to access says. Quite honestly, unless I personally saw something, I don’t trust a word that people say. I’m not even sure that I will be able to fully move past what transpired. For me, that’s the most difficult thing.
Collins is precisely seeking closure. “I want to know what happened to my son,” she murmured.
Pleterski: “I really miss the kid.”
Pleterski, 25, often streams his life online for a tiny audience, so he started a live stream as W5 was airing an investigation on him on Saturday night.
A viewer inquired about Soyka almost 1 hour into the show. Pleterski stepped away from a virtual casino game to lean toward the camera and added, “I was literally around him almost every single day.”
“They believed there was evidence there that could lead to the kidnapping and what happened to me,” he stated.
The observer then seemed to touch a nerve, questioning Pleterski about the demise.
Pleterski went on, “You don’t know him like I knew him.” You’re not as familiar with him as his parents were. You’re not familiar with him the way his pals f-ing were. You have no idea who the kid was.
It’s quite depressing. I miss the kid so much,” he murmured.
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