Christopher Doyon

Doyon was arrested in September 2011[1] for using the High Orbit Ion Cannon to make a DDoS attack on servers belonging to Santa Cruz County, California. The attack, which occurred in December 2010, was triggered by a new law affecting the homeless community of which Doyon was a part, and it affected Santa Cruz servers for just 30 minutes. The government claimed only a few thousand dollars in damages for investigation and remediation, but the amount was just enough to clear the $5,000 threshold of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, making the DDoS a federal crime.

Helped by his pro-bono attorney, Jay Leiderman,[2] Doyon jumped bail in February 2012 and fled across the border into Canada.[3][4] He spent around seven years there and in Mexico issuing press releases, hanging out on Twitter, writing a self-published memoir,[5] appearing in documentaries, and meeting up with journalists without apparent response from the US government.

On June 11, 2021, several armed, uniformed, Mexican men identifying themselves as DEA agents attempted to gain entry to the community where Doyon lived but were turned away. They returned dressed as civilians, with representatives from the US Embassy, scaled the walls of the compound and took Chris away in the early evening. This was confirmed by a press release from the US Attorney for the Northern District of California, where Santa Cruz was imprisoned, though no details were provided.[6][7]

In 2022 Doyon pled guilty to his 2011 charges.[8]

Doyon has not been heard from since January 2023,[9] when he and his dogs were spending a week of hiking in Big Sur. Heavy rainfall in the area caused severe flooding.[10]