Teddy Joseph Von Nukem, one of the most prominent faces lit by the glow of tiki torches in what became the lasting image of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, killed himself as he was due to face criminal trial last month.
The 35-year-old skipped out on his first day of trial for a drug trafficking charge in Arizona on the morning of Jan. 30, according to court records. At the very moment a federal judge was issuing a warrant for his arrest, Von Nukem was actually still at his home in Missouri, where he had walked out in the snow behind the hay shed and shot himself.
The details were listed in an autopsy report obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast on Tuesday.
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“Suicide notes were found at the scene, left for law enforcement and his children, however handwriting was somewhat inconsistent,” the coroner’s report states.
Von Nukem gained notoriety for attending the Aug. 12, 2017 hate speech rally that aggressively revived a nativist movement in the United States. He glorified the violence, and researchers of domestic extremism suspect he was a key figure in a brutal beating of a black man that day.
Von Nukem’s sudden death was initially reported by Molly Conger, an independent journalist in Charlottesville who has become a key anti-fascism researcher in the years since the rally shook the city. An obituary said Von Nukem left behind a wife and five children aged under nine. “Some people knew Ted and understood he was a different type of fellow and had different views of things,” it noted.
Conger’s research identified Von Nukem as one of the men who attacked Deandre Harris in a parking garage. She also connected the dots to show how Von Nukem gloated about the attack in text messages to another white supremacist rally organizer, who was later prosecuted in a separate case.
Journalists, researchers, and anti-fascist activists spent months carefully examining photos and videos of the violence that day to identify white supremacists and hold them accountable. Von Nukem, who stood front and center during some of the most iconic moments of the hateful procession, was quickly outed by former classmates back in his home state. One former student told the local Springfield News-Leader that in school he was known as a “token goth kid” who had what the newspaper described as “an unsettling interest in Nazi Germany.”
At the time, Von Nukem told the newspaper he supported Donald Trump and had adopted the white supremacist worldview that whites are now “disadvantaged.”
"I don't mind showing solidarity with them," he told the newspaper then. “You have to pick your side. You have to throw your support behind the army that is fighting for you."
Von Nukem, who was born as Teddy Landrum, told the outlet he changed his name in 2012 in a nod to his German heritage and the video-game character Duke Nukem.
At the rally, Neo-Nazis raged against minorities and immigrants—whom racists accuse of harming the country. That made it all the more ironic that Von Nukem was arrested on March 17, 2021 while entering the United States from Mexico. On his way into Arizona, Customs and Border Protection agents discovered 15 kilograms of fentanyl pills hidden behind the seats and floor compartment of his 2019 Nissan Pathfinder.
According to law enforcement records, Von Nukem quickly admitted that he had been paid 4,000 Mexican pesos (around $215) to smuggle the pills into the country.
He was released pending trial and was scheduled to travel back to Tucson to appear in federal court last month. But on Jan. 30, Von Nukem was a no-show. After waiting for an hour, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Marquez issued a warrant for his arrest.
Unbeknownst to her, at that very moment 1,145 miles away, Von Nukem’s wife had just discovered his body—still warm—lying in the snow behind the shed. He still had “a faint pulse” when a sheriff’s deputy and paramedic arrived, according to the coroner’s report. Marie Lasater, the coroner in Texas County, Missouri, checked with the Department of Justice to confirm his identity.
Last Thursday, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the case. The judge closed it the very next day.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. You can also text or dial 988.
