Overview
- Wakefield Coroner’s Court recorded hanging as the medical cause of death and returned a conclusion of misadventure.
- Investigators said an image of a hanged character from Squid Game was on Sebastian Cizman’s phone and was shared to a WhatsApp group on the day he died.
- Police reported no evidence that he searched for dangerous challenges on TikTok, noting earlier public speculation was unsupported by their findings.
- Phone activity showed he had viewed Squid Game content and searched YouTube for a first-aid video about “surviving choking alone.”
- Detective Sergeant Paul Bayliss outlined a hypothesis linking the boy’s prankster behavior with the imagery, as family and school described him as happy and without known mental health problems.