The strange story of Marina Joyce, the YouTuber who people thought was kidnapped in 2016, and now blames it on her brain 'dying'

• YouTuber Marina Joyce was embroiled in a bizarre conspiracy theory in July 2016.
• People thought she had been kidnapped after she released a series of odd videos.

A frenzy swept the internet in July 2016 when casual viewers and YouTube's biggest stars alike were all consumed by the same question: What happened to Marina Joyce?

Joyce, then a popular 19-year-old creator known for her emo style and makeup tutorials, uploaded a video that many thought was odd.

Speculation mounted, developing into a kind of mass hysteria including the theory that she had been kidnapped by ISIS.

Joyce didn't respond to Insider's multiple attempts to reach her for this article.

The video was normal enough — it was an ad for a fashion brand, so she was showing off some outfits in her garden.

But people became convinced that Joyce's demeanour was a call for help. She was unblinking, unnatural, and seemed to keep looking away from the camera for guidance, they said.

At one point, a person's hand was visible and seemed to coach her on where to stand. Fans were also certain that they heard Joyce whisper "Help me."

Conspiracies quickly spread

Conspiracy theories spread as viewers analysed every second of the video in detail, with some concluding Joyce was being held hostage. Others perceived some sort of breakdown.

Regardless, their mission was the same and took on the form of the hashtag #SaveMarinaJoyce, which started trending worldwide.

Things only got weirder when Joyce started advertising an event in London, and tweeted her fans asking them to party with her.

Theorists ran wild with this information, concluding that Joyce was working with ISIS, and putting on an event to capture more unsuspecting victims.

British police confirmed she was safe after visiting her home, but conspiracies continued to spread for some time.

The video is now removed from Joyce's channel, but according to screenshots obtained by the YouTuber Primink, the frenzy drove some 50 million views across her whole catalog of content.

"I don't know if there was any case quite like that before Marina Joyce, especially breaking through to where the mainstream media was covering it," expert Todd Grande told Insider.

Grande, PhD, is a mental-health counselor who runs a YouTube channel where he discusses the behavior and actions of popular internet creators.

Conspiracy theories have always been around, Grande said, as has magical thinking — believing one has connected the dots in the way the rest of humanity has been unable to.

"I think what's curious is that if you look at who becomes a conspiracy theorist, you wouldn't think they'd be very interested in Marina Joyce," Grande said.

"I think what happened is that a few connect-the-dots-type people saw her behavioral change, which was pretty drastic to be fair to them, and then they started thinking, well, there must be a wider explanation."

YouTubers and news outlets were transfixed

Joyce started her internet career in 2012, making videos like many did at the time: makeup looks, Q&As, and skits. She took inspiration from other creators in the early YouTube days including Eugenia Cooney, Shane Dawson, and Zoella, and quickly earned 600,000 subscribers.

Four years later, viewers started to realize Joyce was repeating herself, seeming to move in strange, stiff motions, and making some unusual content choices. Then, #SaveMarineJoyce happened, and viewers became convinced she needed help, citing unexplained bruises on her arm, and the person behind the camera.

Some of YouTube's biggest creators at the time, including Keemstar, Jenna Marbles, and Alfie Deyes, weighed in, discussing the theories about a potential kidnapping. Deyes urged his fans not to attend her event.

The story hit mainstream news headlines, and Joyce gained over a million subscribers while people tried to solve the mystery.

"They put all these pieces together, that it had to be these terrorists who kidnapped her, and it just led to a frenzy," Grande said.

Joyce didn't directly address the theories. When she story died down, she continued posting like nothing had happened. Some then started accusing her of creating a hoax on purpose.

Grande described the YouTube channels covering the story as a "pack of hyenas" — once one channel covers a story, the rest are likely to follow suit.

"It is a very low standard for what causes a critical mass," Grande said. "And Marina, I think, checked all the boxes: She's attractive, she was young, there was a kidnapping angle, there was a behavioral change, she was a fairly popular content creator even before the scandal. So she was a perfect mark for the drama channels."

Grande said he doesn't believe Joyce made it up, and it was clear she couldn't do anything to stop it once the storm was in motion.

The furore died down within a few weeks, and people moved on. But after three years, in August 2019, Joyce was in the center of another mystery when she went missing for 10 days. She was found safe, but yet again, there was no explanation.

Joyce opened up a few years later

That was until December 9, 2022. Joyce gave a rare insight into what happened back in 2016 and beyond in a video titled "SAVING MARINA JOYCE - My Story." She started by welcoming her fans, who she calls "beautiful sacred moon kitties," then said she was going to explain a lot of what happened over the past few years.

She said she had never gone missing, but that her parents had been worried about her and phoned the police. She said she seemed so "weird and laggy" in her content in 2016 because she had been partying a lot, which had led her down "a really dark path."

Grande said the video seemed to be a stream of consciousness, which didn't actually answer many questions about Joyce's past.

"I think it was a window into her thought process, which is kind of a scattered high energy, and I think very oriented toward new age religion and philosophy," he said.

Joyce said she had seen the Akashic records — a philosophical theory about accessing all the memories of the universe that have ever existed — and had been exploring "auras and loads of magical things."

Joyce also pointed to a myriad of long-standing mental-health problems, as well as an apparent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis which affected her vision.

She said she went through a period where she thought she was dying because she was suffering painful headaches that debilitated her.

"I was suffering deeply in secrets, so I did not tell anybody how much I was suffering apart from my boyfriend, and he was helping me through it," she said. Insider sent Joyce's boyfriend an email but did not hear back. He does not appear to have posted publicly on social media since 2021.

Joyce said that teachings from the Hare Krishna movement cured her MS symptoms. She also said cannabis is a "cure" for MS.

"I was dying, my brain was dying," Joyce said. "I'm so much happier now. My life is so good and I'm really happy. There's no reason to worry about me now."

There is no cure for MS, according to the Mayo Clinic, but there are many treatment options for its symptoms. According to MS Society, cannabis is among them, and can ease muscle spasms and stiffness.

A cautionary YouTube tale

Joyce is still posting on YouTube. Her last video was uploaded a month ago where she tried on festival outfits. She did not respond to Insider's requests for comment via social media, and emails sent to her account bounced back.

However, in a community note on her YouTube channel, and in a post on X, she said she had been recently hospitalized after losing her vision. She said it had returned and she was currently in recovery, hoping to post more videos soon.

Joyce's story is a cautionary tale of the internet age, where social media can be an accelerant for irrational, far-fetched beliefs.

Conspiracies about kidnapping are always going to be more attractive than the reality that a young woman who likes makeup may be struggling with her mental health, Grande said. So people just ran with it — "they thought she was a victim and they made her a victim."