While the creator of OnlyFans was focused on filming a BDSM session for his fans – gluing women’s boots to a man’s feet and tying him in Saran Wrap – he was suffocating to death.
Michael Dale lay in his Escondido home with a plastic bag tied around his head and taped shut for at least eight minutes as Michaela Rylaarsdam, vibrator in hand, kept the cameras on, according to an arrest affidavit filed in San Diego Superior Court.
She only called 911 when she started turning blue. By then, it was too late to save him.
The “Black Mirror”-esque killing sent shock waves through the Escondido suburb, raising questions about the extreme lengths creators will go to in the name of compelling content.
Rylaarsdam, 32, was arrested in February 2025 and charged with murder. Last week, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, which means he acted with reckless disregard for another person’s life but not with intent to kill, according to a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney’s office.
He is expected to receive the maximum sentence of four years in state prison on June 8, the spokesman said.
Rylaarsdam is currently being held at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in San Diego County, where he has been held without bail since his arrest, according to inmate records.
Dale died at the age of 56 in April 2023. He had met Rylaarsdam the previous month on Eros.com, a website often used for escort and stripping services, according to the affidavit.
Over the course of several weeks, he paid her more than $11,000 to interview her, come to her home and perform acts of slavery, according to the affidavit.
The requests he had for him turned out to be quite dangerous. He asked Rylaarsdam to “wrap her in saran wrap like a mother,” the affidavit said. He also wanted to pour Gorilla Glue in her eyes and stick a dildo in her mouth.
After lengthy online conversations about her witchcraft aspirations, she arrived at his home in Escondido at 6 p.m. on April 17, 2023. While there, she withdrew at least $1,000 more from Dale, following the encouragement of her husband, who urged her in a text to continue receiving money from him through occultism, according to the affidavit.
Dale appeared drunk, but the 29-year-old OnlyFans creator continued to record several hours of BDSM-focused content.
When detectives searched his phone, they found “numerous disturbing videos of Dale with a plastic bag over his head and tape over his face and head, apparently restricting his breathing,” according to the affidavit. One video of him masturbating next to her wrapped body was taken “just minutes” before she called 911 at 10:10 p.m.
When Escondido police arrived, Rylaarsdam was performing CPR on Dale. He was unresponsive and not breathing.
Escondido Fire Department paramedics rushed him to Palomar Hospital. There, he was declared brain dead, and, a few days later, he was taken off life support.
The San Diego County medical examiner’s office ruled the cause of death as asphyxia and ruled the manner a homicide.
