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Kagney Linn Karter had retreated from the red-light world of porn to the rust belt safety of Ohio.
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But the mental health battles she struggled with in Los Angeles tragically followed her east.
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Reports say the 36-year-old actress and exotic dancer took her own life at her home on Feb. 15.
“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 wrote on a GoFundMe page, which aims to raise funds for her mother to cover her funeral.
“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.”
Born in Houston, Texas, Karter entered the business when she was 21. She appeared in more than 900 videos with titles such as All About Kagney Linn Karter, Bad Girls 4, and Diary of a Nanny 6.
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She was nominated several times for the Adult Video News awards, including Top Female Performer of the Year and Best New Starlet.
In 2015, the star claimed controversial rapper Chris Brown paid her $2,500 for an escort gig. TMZ reported that she included a photo of Brown’s genitals on Twitter, getting her suspended.
She wrote: “I WILL NEVER F*** A WOMAN BEATER EW DISGUSTING. HE IS PURE EVIL”
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She retired in 2019 and moved to Akron, Ohio where she opened up a pole dancing studio called Alchemy Pole Fitness.
Her last Instagram post came on Feb. 10 when she posted a photo of herself on a beach. “Hi from Florida,” she wrote as the caption.
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Her friends wrote: “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.
“Her students and staff remember her incredibly fondly, both as an intelligent and intuitive instructor and as an owner who did all she could to build a little community of her own, something of which she could be proud, somewhere she could feel safe and wanted.”
Sadly, Karter isn’t the first adult performer to die by their own hand.
Other porn industry suicides include Dakota Sky and Canadian August Ames, who had refused to have sex with a co-star who did gay porn citing HIV fears.
Soon she was hounded on social media and slammed as homophobic. It reached a fever pitch and the native Nova Scotian took her own life in 2017.
@HunterTOSun
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