Though Ken Waks made a name for himself as one of TikTok’s leading true crime influencers, amassing more than 1 million followers with his videos analyzing patterns among murder and missing person cases in cities including Austin, Texas, and his hometown Chicago, Illinois, the former Google Engineer has recently transformed from the investigator to the investigated.
Over the past several days, Waks has become the subject of TikTok’s latest controversy after several fans questioned whether his alleged links, which some say don’t add up, were fabricated with the intention of promoting Forsyte, a lifestyle planning app he co-founded last year.
Rising to prominence early last month after he began extrapolating similarities between the four bodies discovered in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake between mid-February and mid-April, Waks shot to viral fame on TikTok after alleging that these respective cases were "not the work of a single person but of a team working together."
“You’re really gonna tell me that all these people are falling in, [and] there’s no issues for months, and then all of a sudden there’s four people fall[en] into a river or lake in three weeks?” he questions in one of his viral clips, a skepticism he carried into other murder and missing person cases across the country.
“I have not just theories anymore, I have evidence, I know what’s going on and it’s so big and it’s so deep and it’s really wild,” he explained.
“Nationwide, all I know is that we have a major public safety crisis,” Waks continued, noting that at the time, he was attempting to get in touch with the FBI, having already spoken with reporters from NBC News, TikTok’s Under The Desk News, and local police, who he proclaimed were “not cutting it anymore” as they “might be involved” in these cases.
Not everyone shared Waks’ skepticism. Local police stated that there was no proof of foul play in these four cases, per Newsweek. Furthermore, in an article entitled “Reality Check: There’s Almost Certainly No Serial Killer in Austin,” Texas Monthly’s Peter Holley reported that “many of the claims spreading online supporting the serial killer theory simply aren’t true.” On the contrary, he wrote, “amateur investigators” like Waks were prompting widespread fear and actually hindering authorities’ efforts to look into these cases.
Even with these vocal skeptics, Waks pushed forward his armchair investigation, an effort rewarded with hundreds of thousands – and in several cases, several million – of views. Yet, these concerns recently reached a fever pitch after Waks began peppering in mentions and promos for Forsyte, the app where he currently serves as the Chief Marketing Officer.
Earlier this week, Waks uploaded a “Paid Partnership” video for project management software Basecamp, a local nonprofit he’d been working with alongside the investigations, in which he set up pages for his startup.
“Basecamp lets me manage all my projects separately, add the people who are working on each of them, upload the documents for each, and keep track of all the deadlines/to-dos for each,” he wrote in the caption for the clip.
“The feeling of relief I have not managing all of these things separately by myself is truly something I can’t put into words,” he continued, adding that “Basecamp is the real deal.”
Considering the grave nature of Waks' serial killer hunting, these self-promotional videos and paid sponsorships didn’t jive well with his audience, several fans accusing him of exploiting the aforementioned tragedies for personal gain, a sentiment several fans detailed in his comments section.
“Ahhh so all this (the investigation lol) was a marketing scheme ☠️,” commented @Zach.
“I’m ashamed to admit that I fell for his videos and believed he was doing something [sic] important,” added @Emily.
But it’s not just Waks’ fans who began questioning the investigation. Fellow citizen journalist and detective influencer @alfonsoweb took to the platform with a video speculating Waks’ motivations and bold proclamations, ones that notably clashed with authorities’ findings.
“You know, my mom loved saying when I was a kid ‘If it sounds too good to be true it probably is’ and I keep thinking about that with all this stuff with Ken Waks,” he explained, arguing that even though these findings were “so fascinating,” he had doubts about the accuracy of his information and theories.
“This guy just like me or you has cracked the case, he may have found the missing link that connects all of these really terrible crimes,” he explained. “I’m a little worried that maybe it’s not legit, maybe he has some kind of ulterior motive and he’s just making things up, I really don’t know.”
Though Waks ultimately issued an apology – “I acknowledge that it was insensitive to reference my startup on those two occasions in posts relating to this case,” he said, admitting that he “made a mistake by intersecting those two parts of my life” – several of his fans were less-than-convinced, doubling down on grifting claims and even likening him to a used car salesman.
“The ‘Ambient-style emotional piano’ sound and the “#kencontroversy” tag really made me fully believe this heartfelt #apology ,” wrote @KRoburrito, with user @joseph detailing how Wak’s clip embodied “every gaslighting start-up boss I’ve ever had.”
We guess the truth behind Waks’ motivations will remain unsolved. But remember this, anytime someone starts to sell you, tell them you ain’t buying.
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