[3][4] Ames alleged that she was routinely sexually abused by her paternal grandfather as a child, but her father refused to believe her and she was sent to live in a group home at 12 years old.

[16][17] Weeks prior to her death, Ames said that she had a history of bipolar depressive disorder and dissociative identity disorder due to her traumatic childhood, saying: "Some days I'll be fine and if I'm not doing anything I'll get these awful flashbacks of my childhood and I get very depressed and I can't get out of bed and cancel my scenes for like a week or two.

[18] In December 2017, Ames was due to perform in a scene, but withdrew when she learned that the co-star was a man who had appeared in gay pornography.

On December 3, 2017, Ames wrote on Twitter:[19] whichever (lady) performer is replacing me tomorrow for @EroticaXNews, you're shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let cha know.

[21][22] According to an article subsequently published in Rolling Stone, the tweet and its response revealed a "schism" in the porn industry between those who believed that there was a lower chance of sexually-transmitted infections for women who film with straight male partners than with males who perform with women, other men, or trans people and those who believed the standard to be flawed and homophobic.

[25] Upon her autopsy, toxicology results revealed that she had cocaine, marijuana, the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft) and the anxiolytic alprazolam (Xanax) in her system at her time of death.

[30][18] Her brother and Ronson suggested that violence by Markus Dupree toward Ames during pornographic filming could have triggered traumatic memories or contributed to the suicide.

[30] An investigation into her death was covered in the podcast series The Last Days of August by journalist Jon Ronson, who has a history of writing about both cyberbullying and the porn industry.