{"id":520726,"date":"2026-07-11T09:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/520726\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T09:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:31:11","slug":"looksmaxxer-connor-murphys-death-could-have-been-result-of-gold-injections-friend-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/520726\/","title":{"rendered":"Looksmaxxer Connor Murphy\u2019s death could have been result of gold injections, friend claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LooksmaxxerLooksmaxxer and influencer Connor Murphy was said to be injecting gold into his bloodstream as an extreme looksmaxxing method.<\/p>\n

He said while he saw some benefits to Murphy\u2019s unconventional use of gold, he warned Murphy about the practice because it could have unknown consequences. <\/p>\n

Gold can be injected as a medical treatment for some types of arthritis but it can cause gold toxicity. <\/p>\n

Symptoms of gold toxicity include gastrointestinal bleeding, headaches, dermatitis, vomiting and inflamed lung tissue. <\/p>\n

Huge said Murphy thought gold would enhance the colour of his skin and give him \u201csuperhuman\u201d traits. <\/p>\n

He remembered Murphy seemed more bold, courageous and energetic following the usage. <\/p>\n

Huge believed the gold altered Murphy\u2019s mindset and led him to pursue extreme measures for his looksmaxxing goals and social media content creation. <\/p>\n

He thought this altered state may have eventually led to his friend\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

Another well-known looksmaxxer and close friend of Murphy\u2019s, known online as Androgenic, also spoke out about Murphy\u2019s gold \u201cfixation\u201d. <\/p>\n

In a video posted to social media, the influencer said Murphy believed gold was \u201csome gatekept mineral by the higher-ups that basically gives you special powers if you ingest it\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said Murphy referenced an unnamed study done on five people that showed ingesting gold could increase a person\u2019s average IQ level by 15 points. <\/p>\n

Androgenic did not believe that was possible. <\/p>\n

Once he began injecting gold into himself, Androgenic said Murphy\u2019s friends described him as \u201cdescending into complete madness\u201d, with discoloured skin. <\/p>\n

The day he died, Androgenic said he was \u201ccovered in his own blood\u201d and was \u201crunning around the neighbourhood screaming\u201d before police \u201cchased him down\u201d, at which point he entered the lake and eventually drowned. <\/p>\n

\"PopularPopular looksmaxxing influencer, Clavicular, has been criticised for promoting the dangerous trend called “bone smashing”, in which people hit their faces with a hammer to make them appear sharper.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reported that, according to Thai media outlets, Murphy behaved erratically in the hours before his death. <\/p>\n

Thai authorities have not yet announced a cause of death beyond drowning, and full autopsy and toxicology results remain pending, the outlet confirmed.<\/p>\n

Androgenic said he missed his friend \u201cdeeply\u201d and hoped he was \u201cliving in some blissful afterlife\u201d. <\/p>\n

Murphy was producing a documentary about looksmaxxing and biohacking before he died.<\/p>\n

Biohacking is the practice of trying to optimise physical and mental performance through common methods that are scientifically proven, like exercising and eating well, to more extreme methods that verge on pseudoscience. <\/p>\n

Huge said Murphy also voiced interest in becoming a spiritual leader.<\/p>\n

Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looksmaxxer and influencer Connor Murphy was said to be injecting gold into his bloodstream as an extreme looksmaxxing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1558,9218,2741,2562,15118,124,634,6179,3602,1444,12632,1445,4241,305,42,8235,47251,81025,296,48934,196389,12597,157393,43,1118,12229,1961,40,38,41,39,258147,686],"class_list":["post-520726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-been","tag-before","tag-claim","tag-claims","tag-connor","tag-could","tag-death","tag-died","tag-earlier","tag-famous","tag-friend","tag-friends","tag-gold","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-influencer","tag-injecting","tag-injections","tag-into","tag-liquid","tag-looksmaxxer","tag-murphy","tag-murphys","tag-news","tag-of","tag-result","tag-this","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-veins","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}