Grace Anne Sparks was 19 when she died in her Knoxville, Tennessee home on September 29, 2019. Born March 22, 2000, she was described as artistically talented and fond of animals. Her death was first treated as a suicide, but investigators later reclassified it as a homicide after reviewing electronic evidence.

Investigators say Grace had a long-distance relationship that began when she was a teenager with a 29-year-old man from Indiana, Hayden Berkebile. He called 911 reporting she had shot herself while they were on a video call and told police she had been suicidal for years. Police uncovered extensive communications alleging a controlling, coercive relationship in which Berkebile, who described himself as a BDSM sexual master, urged dangerous acts. On the day of her death, prosecutors say he encouraged Grace over video chat to shoot herself with a .357 revolver and she complied.

A jury later convicted Berkebile of criminally negligent homicide and he was arrested and sentenced.