Inside porn’s dirty secret: How spate of female adult stars are suffering horror deaths as actress Kagney Linn Karter becomes latest to take her life

Peruvian adult actress Thania Fields would go home and cry in the bath after being sexually abused. 

Harassed on the streets and online, the traumatised porn star was left needing psychiatric treatment. 

She revealed last May in a raw TV interview of still having therapy sessions following the ‘very strong’ sexual abuse she suffered when she started her career in the adult industry. 

Eight months after her appearance on Emojis TV she was found dead at her home in Peru, aged just 24.

It came on the back of claims from friends of British actress Sophie Anderson that she was ‘stabbed, abused and trafficked for sex’ by her ex-Crystal Palace footballer boyfriend Oliver Spedding before she died.

The 36-year-old died on November 18 from unconfirmed causes – two weeks after fellow adult entertainer, Spedding, 34, was found dead at a motorway services hotel.

With the industry still reeling, tragedy struck again in January when adult star Jesse Jane and her boyfriend Brett Hasenmuller were both found dead at her Oklahoma home of a suspected overdose. She was 43.

Then just last week, well-known porn performer Kagney Linn Karter, 36, killed herself, according to friends of her family, having ‘struggled with mental health issues as the years passed by’.

Four deaths in four months in an industry that already has for years had questions hanging over its head over the treatment of female adult performers. 

This is not the first time a rapid succession of deaths has rocked the industry to its core. 

Six years ago, Shyla Stylez, 35, died suddenly in her sleep, and August Ames, 23, killed herself after a social media backlash when she refused to work with a man who had done gay or ‘crossover’ porn.

Then Yurizan Beltran and Olivia Lua, who both suffered an overdose and Olivia Nova, who battled sepsis, all died within weeks of one another.

Ames’ widower and husband Kevin Moore blamed cyber-bullying for taking her life.

While Lua, 23, was found dead in a California rehab centre a day after she posted a chilling tweet quoting lyrics from Lana Del Rey hit Summertime Sadness: ‘I feel it everywhere, nothing scares me anymore.’ 

Moore told Rolling Stone magazine in 2018 there had been a lack of support following Ames’ death.  

‘The business side doesn’t want to acknowledge it because it’s not sexy,’ he said.

‘The industry wants to stick its head in the sand and just hope it all goes away.

‘We’re either a real business that takes care of our [performers], or we are the very thing the outside world thinks we are.’ 

Retired adult performer Aurora Snow told aspiring porn actors to enter at their own risk as she laid bare the pitfalls of working in the industry.

In an article for Fortune in 2016, Snow suggested performers ‘face a lifetime of potential negative consequences’ with many hiding their real names behind pseudonyms. 

She told of gruelling long shifts that can last up to 22 hours on set with little punishment for those who step over the line.

‘In the mostly self-regulated world of adult films, there are few clear rules of conduct and even fewer consequences for bad behavior,’ she wrote. 

Others have also given an insight into the dark world of porn. Adult industry icon Amber Lynn told CBS in 2019 ‘the actors of today, we lose a lot of them, because there’s a lot of suicides, for many different reasons’.

Tanya Burleson, known as Jersey Jaxin who appeared in more than 200 movies in three years, was previously quoted as saying ‘you are viewed as an object – not as a human with a spirit’ and said stars will ‘do drugs because they can’t deal with the way they’re being treated’.   

The emergence of platforms such as OnlyFans has seen performers be able to wrestle back control of their own content and finances, but accusations of abuse in the porn industry still persist.

Sophie Anderson ‘stabbed by boyfriend before death’

The alleged abuse Anderson suffered came at the hands of her partner and co-star Spedding.

According to her friends the mother-of-one was subjected to savage physical and mental abuse.

They said the footballer-turned porn star would stab Anderson, leaving her with gaping bloody wounds on her body, as well as hit her head against the wall, steal her phone and cash and even stop her seeking medical attention.

Pals said police ‘did not take them seriously’ when they made reports about the abuse the sex worker was suffering, allegedly at the hands of ‘manipulative’ Spedding, The Sun reported.

Friends even claimed she was trafficked for sex across the country by Spedding, who pimped her out in a ‘urine-soaked’ camper van, despite Ms Anderson having lost one of her breasts to multiple sepsis infections.

Sick pictures, reportedly too graphic to publish, appeared to show Anderson’s blood-soaked leg with a deep 5in gash above her left knee, The Sun said.

In a heartbreaking message to a friend in August, she sent the picture and wrote: ‘That’s what he’s done to me tonight. Another cut, U know what babes I’ve had enough. Cut me with a Stanley blade.’

Thania Fields ‘sexually abused many times’

For Fields the alleged abuse came from clients. She told Emojis TV: ‘I have suffered sexual harassment and abuse after starting to create adult content. It’s very strong.

‘At first I said that I couldn’t sue and many thought that by hiring me they could do what they wanted with me, but then I came home, took a bath and cried.

‘He told me that I had to be strong and I let it go. It happened to me many times.

‘It is very difficult to be a woman and create adult content when society is literally in s***.’

Fields was famous for her erotic roles in blue movies made by production company Milky Peru like ‘Horny Teacher’ and ‘New Boss’.

Content creator and close friend Alejandra Sweet said: ‘Thaina, beautiful, from where you are, you shine like a star and I am sure of that, I can’t say more.

‘I was just hoping that you would respond to my last message. A kiss to heaven.’

Milky Peru said in a statement: ‘We can’t believe this, we refuse to be without you, we would like to see you one more time.

‘We hope someone wakes us up from this bad dream, you will always be in our hearts. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your life.’

Jesse Jane found dead of suspected overdose

As for Jane, her run-ins with the law, drugs and alcohol were well documented before her untimely death.

Her rap sheet included accusations of biting and punching her then-partner in 2020; and being charged in 2018 with public intoxication when police found her soaked in urine. She claimed at the station she was drugged. 

The exact cause of death is currently unknown, with an investigation by the Medical Examiner now underway to make a final determination.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Jane signed a contract in 2002 with Digital Playground, and went on in to star in hit adult films Pirates and Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge.

TMZ reported that the movies cost around $8 million to produce, and are considered the most expensive adult films to date.

This exposure launched her into stardom, appearing on the cover of magazines including FHM, Maxim, and Front.

Her success saw her make an appearance in the TV show Entourage alongside the likes of Kevin Connolly and Adrian Grenier.

Jane would later make her way to Playboy, and worked on their popular live show called ‘Night Calls,’ and hosted their ‘Naughty Amateur Home Videos.’

Her work in the industry saw her inducted into the AVN and XRCO Hall of Fame.

Taylor was married to fellow porn actor Rick Patrick for seven years, but the couple divorced in 2012. She has a son who was born in 2000.

Kagney Linn Karter had struggled with mental health

Linn Karter reportedly took her own life in her home, according to a GoFundMe page set up by her friends on behalf of Kagney’s mother to raise funds for the funeral.

‘Unfortunately, despite all of her many impressive accomplishments and talents, Kagney struggled with mental health issues as the years passed by,’ her friends Rachel and Megan said.

‘Even in her darkest days, however, she still showed up to the studio, always ready to learn, contribute, better herself in whatever small way she could manage.’

‘As alone as she undoubtedly felt within the confines of her own head, she continued to make an effort to show up for her friends and the community who cared about her. She fought her own battles with the same tenacity and drive she showed in every other area of her life, with as much strength as she could,’ they said.

Karter started in the pornography industry in the early 2000s and starred in films such as the Official Silence of the Lambs Parody and Not Married with Children XXX.

The star had been nominated several times for Adult Video News awards, though she had not won. She was nominated in 2011 for top female performer of the year. In 2010, she was nominated as best new starlet.

In 2015, Karter claimed musician Chris Brown paid her $2,500 to be his escort. Her claims also include a picture of Brown’s genitals, which eventually got her Twitter account suspended, according to TMZ.

She reportedly tweeted things like ‘I WILL NEVER F*** A WOMAN BEATER EW DISGUSTING’ and ‘HE IS PURE EVIL’ about Brown.

Karter also featured on the Louis Theroux documentary Twilight of the Porn Stars which aired in 2012.

Paying tribute to the adult star this week, Theroux said: ‘Very sad to learn of the death of porn star Kagney Linn Karter. 

‘I interviewed her in 2012 for a BBC documentary she was kind and thoughtful and very honest.

‘My thoughts are with her friends and family.’

Dakota Skye found dead in trailer after drugs battle

On May 3 2021, Dakota Skye – real name Lauren Scott – posed topless in front of a George Floyd mural Santa Barbara. The post saw the award-winning porn star trolled online.

Social media users took exception to the controversial image, with one writing: ‘This is some serious disrespectful bulls*** Lauren.’

Another said: ‘wtf what does flashing have to do with George Floyd death.’

The porn star defended the tone-deaf photo by claiming that she was ‘celebrating BAD cops being checked with abusing there authority against human beings … hello.’

She added: ‘No human being should die getting arrested.’

Weeks later on June 9 she was found dead in a trailer aged 27 with a coroner ruling her death as accidental with the cause as ‘acute multidrug intoxication’. 

Born to an alcoholic mother and a father she didn’t know, she once harboured dreams of becoming a marine biologist. 

However, she was sexually abused as a child and had a ‘very bad upbringing’, her husband Zachary Lecompte-Goble told Rolling Stone in 2021, and had struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.

Her aunt told the Sun that her niece had struggled with alcohol and fentanyl addiction.

She said: ‘Her real life story and how she came to be in that industry, has truly been a tragedy.

‘She died almost exactly two years after her mother, my baby sister’s, death which was caused by addiction and alcoholism.

‘Lauren was a product of a highly dysfunctional family involving drugs, alcohol, physical, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse.’

Skye, who was originally from Tampa Bay, Florida, was well known in the adult film industry and was the recipient of numerous industry awards.

In 2017, the adult entertainer was arrested for hitting her then-boyfriend in the face when he asked her to leave his apartment.

Her aunt Linda added: ‘She was stalked by demons like no one will ever understand unless you’ve lived it.

‘She no longer has to walk through this world in pain in her own prison and that gives me comfort to know she no longer has to fight the voices and images that haunted her.’

Dhalia Sky 

Dhalia Sky had been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer when she was found with a fatal gunshot wound to her head in 2021. 

The 31-year-old had reportedly been battling depression when she was discovered dead in her car in California’s San Fernando Valley.

Sky, who would have celebrated her 32nd birthday next month, reportedly had been diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.

According to the description in a GoFundMe campaign launched at the time on behalf of Sky’s mother, the cancer-stricken actress was homeless and had been living in her car.

Colleagues in the pornography industry remembered the veteran performer as ‘a beautiful soul.’

JHP Films owner Hans told AVN that Sky’s years-long battle with cancer had taken a toll on her.

‘During her last year I spoke to her several times about life. It was not an easy ride for her,’ Hans had said. ‘This will take a long time to get over, if it’s even possible. Dahlia Sky, you beautiful soul, you funny, complicated and warm-hearted friend. I am going to miss you so much.’

Sky was part of the adult entertainment world for a decade and had around 600 credits to her name, with some of her performances earning her industry awards and nominations.

‘She was a really sweet girl,’ said film director Axel Braun in a statement to AVN. ‘I shot her dozens of times and not only did she always bring her A game as a performer, but she was also a very talented actress and a real trooper.’

Stormy Daniels, the porn star who infamously alleged she had an affair with Donald Trump and was paid $130,000 in hush money, mourned Sky in a tweet.

‘I had the opportunity to direct many many talented performers during my time with Wicked,’ she wrote.

Anyone affected by the themes discussed in this story can call Samaritans for free on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.