The Mystery of Jean Pormanove’s Death

An autopsy has confirmed that French streamer Jean Pormanove did not die from trauma following his death during a 12-day livestream on Kick.

The internet personality, whose real name was Raphaël Graven, was found dead in his sleep on Aug. 18 in an apartment he was renting in Contes, a village near Nice in France. He was 46.

Graven, who was often “humiliated and mistreated” by a group of other men live on camera for thousands of viewers, was discovered with unexplained bruises on his body, according to the New York Times.

Forensic doctors ruled out immediate causes such as blunt force trauma or head injury. Yet the marks remained—dark, oddly patterned, almost as if they had been inflicted deliberately but with a method designed to leave no traceable damage. Toxicology tests, still pending, may reveal more, but the initial results already hinted at something troubling: traces of an unfamiliar sedative compound in his system, one not commonly prescribed or sold.

Police began rewatching the archived streams, frame by frame. In the hours leading up to his death, Graven appeared exhausted, his voice slurred, his movements slowed. At one point, he whispered, “They won’t let me stop… if I log off, I’m done.” Viewers dismissed it as part of the act, a tired man exaggerating for effect.

But investigators are no longer certain.

Several of the men who often appeared on his streams vanished from public view the day after his death. Their accounts have gone silent, their channels wiped clean. Digital traces suggest coordinated deletions—timed within minutes of one another, as though someone had given a signal.

Neighbors in Contes later reported seeing two unfamiliar cars outside the rented apartment in the early hours of Aug. 18. One neighbor recalled hearing muffled shouting, then silence. By dawn, the vehicles were gone.

Now, French authorities are left with chilling questions:

• Were the bruises accidental, or evidence of calculated abuse masked as “content”?
• Was Graven’s death the tragic collapse of a man pushed too far—or was it orchestrated?
• And why, in his final broadcast, did he look directly into the camera and whisper, almost inaudibly:
  “If something happens to me… don’t believe it was sleep.”

The case remains open, and viewers across the world are left replaying the final moments, searching for clues in every blurred frame.