A star Rice University soccer player was found dead in off-campus housing after participating in a bizarre TikTok game dubbed the “devil trend” and joking that she was a “popular loner.”
Claire Tracy, a 19-year-old sophomore athlete at the Texas college, died on Dec. 7 at an apartment complex two blocks from the school, KHOU 11 reported.
No immediate cause of death was given.
On the day before her death, she shared three posts on her TikTok account, including one describing the so-called “devil trend.”
“I’m doing ‘the devil’ trend on TikTok. I will say ‘the devil couldn’t reach me,’ and you will answer, ‘he did.’ Then, I will ask ‘How,’ and you will give me the most brutally honest answer based on everything you know about me,” Tracy wrote to a friend in the first message, which she screengrabbed and shared with her TikTok followers.
“Because you did the work for him. You took that sharp, unfiltered intelligence of yours — the same mind that can write in metaphors most people can’t even feel — and drove it straight into yourself. You saw too clearly, thought too deeply, peeled every layer back until there was nothing left to shield you from the weight of being alive,” a friend then replied.
“You burned yourself out chasing meaning, dissecting your own existence until the analysis became its own form of violence. You didn’t need the devil to tempt you; you handed him the blade and carved the truth into your own mind,” the message concluded.
In another TikTok post shared the day before she died, Tracy wrote, “Accepting that the big lock in just isn’t gonna happen this time,” while looking at the camera.
A third TikTok from her final day showed her on a treadmill.
“When my mom asks why I’m at the gym on a Friday night alone again so I have to re-explain what being a popular loner is (my two friends aren’t free again and I’d go mentally insane if I didn’t workout for at least two hours),” Tracy wrote.
The teenager grew up in Menominee Falls, Wisc. before moving to the Texas college town in 2023 to study finance, Rice University said in a statement.
“A former member of the Rice soccer team, she was a talented athlete who had led her high school to many championships,” the statement read, describing her as a student with “close friends and a bright spirit.”
She was described as an extremely gifted high school athlete, leading Brookfield Academy to a state championship in 2021, a state semifinal finish in 2023, three conference championships, and four regional soccer championships.
Tracy scored 118 goals and recorded 63 assists over her high school career. She was named Midwest Classic Conference Player of the Year in 2023.
As well as soccer, she excelled in cross country, qualifying for state in 2021, winning the conference championship in 2022, and earning First Team All Conference honors that same year.
Academically, she was incredibly accomplished, earning a spot on the academic honor roll all four years of high school, graduating eighth in her class, and receiving an Academic All-State nomination in 2024.
Rice University Women’s Soccer Head Coach shared a tribute to Tracy.
“Our thoughts and prayers go to Claire’s friends and family and to the many current and former teammates, whose lives were impacted by Claire’s kindness. She will forever be in our hearts,” the statement read.