Youtuber, age 26, shot and killed moments after being kidnapped and had his body dumped in the sea, say police

26-year-old Elliot Eastman, who was originally from America but had moved to the Phillippines to marry a local girl, was kidnapped in October.

He was reportedly shot in the leg as he tried to resist being taken on the night of Thursday October 17, after his kidnappers burst into his home, before he was forced on to a speedboat in a southern Philippine coastal town called Sibuco.

Two police reports said that a resident of Sibuco, Abdulmali Hamsiran Jala, reported to police that four men in black clothing who were armed with M16 rifles and introduced themselves as police officers forcibly took Eastman, who tried to escape. One of the gunmen shot Eastman in the leg before dragging him into a speedboat then fled by sea further south toward the provinces of Basilan or Sulu, the police reports said.

Local police and FBI launched an investigation in to the star’s disappearance at the time, and police now say they believe he died shortly after being placed on the boat. Speaking earlier today (Thursday December 5), Lieutenant Colonel Ramoncelio Sawan, the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Zamboanga Peninsula acting spokesman, said: “Sometime late October, during our investigation, we encountered one witness who claimed Eastman had been shot during the abduction.

“On their way to escape by sea, the abductors noticed that Elliot Eastman was already dead. They threw his body into the water.”

He added that officials had treated the testimony as speculation at the time, but then this this week that account was verified by a suspect allegedly involved in the abduction. He continued: “But then later on, sometime in November, we caught a suspect linked to the kidnapping. He himself confirmed what happened. He confirmed Elliot had been shot and that the man was dumped overboard.

“This suspect was able to execute an extrajudicial confession and then we submitted it to the Prosecutor's Office where we filed the complaint. The prosecutors accepted it.”

Eastman's family has been informed through the US Embassy, the police spokesman added. Police said they are yet to find Eastman's body and have not clarified the motive behind the abduction. The former Sibuco Mayor Norbideiri Edding said at the time of the incident that the kidnappers may have targeted the American because they thought he was a rich foreigner.

Just weeks before he was abducted, Eastman then said on a Facebook livestream, however, that he was afraid of living in the area, according to local police.

“As long as I'm here, my life is still at risk, you know,' Eastman said on Sunday September 22. “That's the reality, especially the area that I'm in. . . . It's not even just the Philippines. This area that I'm in is like the most dangerous area in the country so it's literally like the red zone.”

The social media star added that “of course he was scared” but not as much as he was at the beginning of his time in the Asian country. “There's nights I'm afraid, there's times I'm afraid. . . but it's gotten better. In the past, I've had a hard time sleeping at night time.”

Eastman had been living in the Phillipines for 18 months after meeting his wife Karisha Jala. The couple had only been married for a few weeks before his death.