YouTube creator Mikayla Raines and her husband, Ethan Frankamp, uploaded a new video one day before her death was announced.
In the Sunday, June 22, Instagram video, Frankamp shared a glimpse of their home life, which included an animal running loose in their house.
“Do you ever marry an animal lover and you just think it’s going to be cats and dogs and then they kind of go off the rails a little bit and now you’re not sure what to expect and they’re calling you saying, ‘Don’t be mad when you get home.’ And then you do get home and I don’t know what I’m looking at right now,” Frankamp said as he switched the camera to show a lemur trying to get out of a door inside their home. “Are you kidding?”
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Raines kneeled beside the animal and assured her husband that he is “nice,” before smiling at Frankamp. “Are you mad?” she asked, to which Frankamp replied, “Not happy. Why is this happening to me?”
Frankamp began laughing as the lemur scrambled around the kitchen and hung from a window. At one point, Raines pet the animal as she fed him.
“Perfect, just what I wanted to come home to,” Frankamp quipped, while Raines smiled for the camera and clapped. “When you’re married to an animal lover, and things get out of hand 
,” the caption read.
Frankamp announced on Monday, June 23, that Raines died by suicide. He shared in a YouTube video uploaded via the SaveAFox Rescue’s channel that his wife dealt with “ridiculous claims and rumors” being spread about her online for a “few years.” He noted that this included from rival animal sanctuaries.
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“And being the sensitive human that she was, Mikayla took it all to heart,” Frankamp said, noting that Raines “ended her life” a couple days prior after allegedly facing “rude words, accusations and name-calling” from people whom “she considered close friends.”
Raines — who had depression, borderline personality disorder and autism — allegedly took the criticism to heart, with Frankamp noting that it made her feel “as if the entire world had turned against her.”
“She couldn’t bear what she was feeling any longer and she ended her life,” Frankamp said. “It breaks my heart that someone who is selfless and devoted her life to animals could have so much negativity pointed at her.”
He continued, “And to those of you that pushed her to this, every one of you that had been responsible for making her feel this way, I wish you had to see me find her and I wish you had to watch me perform CPR on her for 15 minutes until the first responders arrived. And I wish you had to watch helplessly as paramedics attempted to revive her lifeless body. And I wish you had to hear the screams and the cries of her family.”
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Frankamp, who shared daughter Freya with Raines, noted that he wished his wife could see their “tiny heartbroken” child “try to understand why she could never see her mommy again.”
“I wish you understood what you were doing before you did it before it had to go this far and I wish you understood that words do have real and terrible consequences,” Frankamp said, telling fans that he plans to continue her mission with the rescue organization. “I will not let Mikayla’s light be extinguished. I’m going to continue to push to rescue the remaining fur farm foxes and, after that, save as many animals as possible.”
He concluded the video by saying, “I love you, Mikayla. I will always love you so much and I miss you.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
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