Sockweb Frontman Adam Young’s Stepfather Challenges Fiancé’s Claims, Implies Young Might Not Have Committed Suicide
On Saturday, we reported that Adam Young, frontman of father/daughter grindcore act Sockweb, had committed suicide by hanging himself. That post included a Facebook post from Young’s mother laying the blame of his suicide at the feet of his fiancé.
Later that day, we posted about an interview with Young’s fiancé, Ryden Armani, conducted by our friends at Metal Injection. Armani asserted that she and Adam had a happy but troubled relationship, and that his family was outwardly hostile to her and told her she’d murdered him.
Now Adam Young’s stepfather, Ahmed Atlin, who Armani claimed threatened her while wearing an open-carry pistol, has given his side of the story to Metal Injection. Not only does Atlin dispute Armani’s claims, but he questions whether or not Adam’s death was a suicide.
Here is his response in full:
Robert,
The story begins 3 years ago with almost identical accusations against my son Adam. I will explain in details. And don’t let her try to manipulate you just like she did me before on that first incident.
I always carry my gun with me with my legal carry permit. It wasn’t the first time she has seen that gun on me. It was holstered at all times and my hand didn’t touch my gun. She states I told her to get the F out of the house but I hardly cuss. And when I first arrived at Adam’s house, the coroner’s chaplains approached me and already told me that she called her dad and her dad would be there in less than 4 hours to take her home. It would be stupid of me to say such thing when I know she would already be leaving. Because approximately six – eight hours ago she also already told me that she wanted to go back and not be in a relationship with Adam anymore.
Sorry, it might seem all mixed thoughts, but she is who she is. As I mentioned, 3 years ago when she started living in my basement with Adam, she made almost the identical accusations as the last time that ended up with Adam being in Jail. The first time she was all crying and shaking made me feel awful. My wife and I took her to the hotel room until we can sort the things out and figure out what exactly was going on. I told her that we would take her to her home in Ohio if she wanted us to, and she said that would be great. I told her she had to wait until Saturday which I am pretty sure that day was Thursday. I told her specifically not to call Adam and especially not to tell him where she was. Adam was at work. Apparently, by the time he got home he already knew where she was, because she already told him almost as soon as we left. Then she came back to the house and said that she lied and that they were in a BDSM relationship and the things she said did happen were just part of their BDSM. All she wanted was to go home, basically as she admitted to later.
Come the second time, when Adam was arrested, she made almost the same accusations with even worse things. I actually have the probable cause documents that I can scan for you. Interestingly enough when she mentioned to you what happened that night she skipped lots of important points. But then again I told this to her before, when someone always lies their stories won’t match because they can’t remember the details every time. But if someone sticks to the truth, there is only one story to remember.
Even after the second incident she apologized and said she lied. Not only to me but to numerous people. And I will send you at least one screenshot of those apologies for now.
All I told her when she was in front of the house was, please to respect Adam’s belongings because they should go to his daughter Joan. So I told her to please leave them there. Later in the day, when she and her dad finished packing up her stuff and loaded the car, I asked her if she got everything she wanted. She said “Yes”. So I said “if you forgot anything please let me know and I will make sure those get sent to you by UPS. And also when we are packing everything, if we come across anything that belongs to you, I will send them to you…” You can ask her that. And if she has a shred of decency left, she will tell you the truth. God is my witness.
And as for the apology screenshot:
You are more than welcome to ask her if she ever said the things she accused him of were lies or not. She stood and said all she wanted was for him to be in jail for a night or so, so that she can go home.
That incident night we went to the house after Adam was arrested. Again she didn’t have one scratch on her. Not one bruise. Not one burn mark. Let the evidence speak for itself. I even offered to take her to Emergency Room for medical attention if she needed it. She said she doesn’t need it.
The night of Adam’s death, she did start hitting herself and banging her head on the toilet and threatening Adam with calling the police on him with stating he hit her “again.” At one point, she took the scissors and threatened to kill herself with them. When Adam tried to reach to the scissors, she tried to stab him. I have parts of that scissor conversation voice-recording on my phone and as she admitted there are also video recordings of her hurting herself. Then with the scissors, she cut her own hair and then shaved her head. I specifically asked Adam to record those because I had enough of her lies and false accusations. Later, around 3 AM I believe, I ended up going there. I talked to both of them. Adam was genuinely scared for his life but he was also scared that if he left the house she might go to police or destroy his property. He wanted to be able to stay there and show the Police Officers the videos as she was self-inflicting injuries to herself. She said she didn’t want to be in a relationship with him anymore. Adam said that was fine because he finally saw her true colors. He said he was going to take her to the doctor early in the morning and the electrician was supposed to be coming to his house in the afternoon, so he could take her back to Ohio on Saturday. When I left that night around 4AM, that was the plan.
Adam didn’t act like suicidal as far as I could tell. He didn’t even mention it. Then by 10AM he is found dead under a lot of suspicions which she never ever bothered to give us any details what so ever of those last 6 hours. Even to you I saw she didn’t mention the details of hardly anything.
And when I do send you the probable cause documents if you would like to see about Adam’s arrest, you will see the holes in her story that she told you and what she told to the Detectives. She even accused at one time that the detectives made up most of the accusations and it was them lying and not her or forcing her to say things that were not true. Something you might want to clear with the detectives who investigated.
Obviously, this is a lot to take in. Given how many different stories and pieces of stories are at play here, I would be surprised to find out that either Atlin or Armani was entirely telling the truth; one assumes that what actually happened lies somewhere between the two stories. We’ll see if the concrete truth ever comes out.
Meanwhile, we send all of Young’s loved ones, especially his daughter Joanie, our deepest condolences.
