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When Stalking Turns Deadly: 3 Disturbing True Crime Cases · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: It begins with a glance, a casual interaction, a friendly
0:03
Speaker 1: smile from across the office, or a message in an
0:06
Speaker 1: online chat room. And most of us forget these moments
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Speaker 1: the next day. But for a stalker, it's the beginning
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Speaker 1: of a fantasy. One that grows darker, more obsessive, and eventually...
0:16
Speaker 1: deadly stalking is often dismissed as harmless a joke in
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Speaker 1: pop culture or shrugged off by authorities as just someone
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Speaker 1: being weird but in truth it's a pattern of control
0:27
Speaker 1: obsession and entitlement one that can scale and escalate in
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Speaker 1: terrifying ways and in this video we'll examine three cases
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Speaker 1: where stalking didn't end with unanswered calls or restraining orders
0:40
Speaker 1: because these stalkers didn't back down They waited, they plotted,
0:43
Speaker 1: and when their illusions were shattered, they turned violent. What
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Speaker 1: you're about to hear are stories of manipulation, jealousy, and murder. Crime, conspiracy, cults,
0:54
Speaker 1: serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to
0:56
Speaker 1: consume and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, intellectually,
1:00
Speaker 1: beautifully minded freak.
1:01
Speaker 2: I think I said that wrong.
1:02
Speaker 1: Whoops. Anyway, today we are getting into three very, very
1:08
Speaker 1: disturbing cases. Cases that involve stalking and sometimes murder. So
1:14
Speaker 1: if you're sensitive to that, you can skip this video.
1:16
Speaker 1: But if you're here for it, let's unbuckle our seatbelts,
1:19
Speaker 1: go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes,
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Speaker 1: and bust through this windshield into these three stalking cases together. Also,
1:26
Speaker 1: for the only audio listeners, you won't be able to
1:28
Speaker 1: appreciate this, but for my video, what people look at... Oh.
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Speaker 2: Rupee! Rupee! Rupee! You can see Rupee down there. He's
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Speaker 2: my little true crime buddy now.
1:39
Speaker 1: I gotta get him a higher pedestal so you guys
1:41
Speaker 1: can appreciate his wonder. Anyway. It was a chilly morning
2:03
Speaker 1: in February, 1986 in Van Nuys, California. A newlywed Sherry
2:07
Speaker 1: Rasmussen woke up feeling slightly under the weather and decided
2:11
Speaker 1: to stay home from work. And her husband of just
2:13
Speaker 1: three months, John Rutten, would kiss her goodbye as he
2:16
Speaker 1: did every morning while she lay in bed completely unaware
2:20
Speaker 1: that this would be their final farewell. Because when John
2:22
Speaker 1: returned home later that evening, he would walk straight into
2:25
Speaker 1: a nightmare. He would find that their townhouse was in
2:28
Speaker 1: complete disarray with broken glass, overturned furniture, and blood staining
2:32
Speaker 1: the carpet. And in the middle of it all lay
2:34
Speaker 1: his brand new wife, Sherry, lifeless, still wearing her robe.
2:39
Speaker 1: And she had been brutally beaten and shot three times
2:42
Speaker 1: at close range. And Sherry's face would be very badly
2:45
Speaker 1: injured as well, smashed by a very heavy ceramic vase
2:49
Speaker 1: that was laying in nearby her body. But the defensive
2:51
Speaker 1: wounds on her body told the story of a very
2:54
Speaker 1: ferocious fight for survival. She had even torn off two
2:57
Speaker 1: fingernails clawing at her attacker. And there was also a
3:00
Speaker 1: deep bite mark on her inner forearm, which was just
3:03
Speaker 1: evidence of a very fierce struggle. Yet oddly, the scene
3:06
Speaker 1: bore signs of a robbery gone wrong because stereo equipment
3:10
Speaker 1: and a VCR were stacked by the front door and
3:13
Speaker 1: valuables were kind of scattered around and Sherry's new BMW
3:17
Speaker 1: was missing from the garage. So initially, the LAPD thought
3:20
Speaker 1: that Sherry might have stumbled onto a burglary in process
3:24
Speaker 1: and paid with her life. And it was a very
3:26
Speaker 1: plausible theory. But soon, deeper questions would emerge. And those
3:29
Speaker 1: questions were, who would have killed Sherry, and why had
3:32
Speaker 1: the attack seemed so intensely personal? Now Sherry Rasmussen, by
3:37
Speaker 1: all accounts, was a very vibrant, intellectual, and highly accomplished
3:41
Speaker 1: woman whose life had held immense promise. She was born
3:45
Speaker 1: and raised in Los Angeles, California, and she was known
3:47
Speaker 1: from an early age for her determination, kindness, and impressive intellect.
3:51
Speaker 1: And by the age of 27, Sherry had already built
3:54
Speaker 1: a remarkable career in nursing, recently becoming the director of
3:57
Speaker 1: nursing at a prestigious Los Angeles hospital. A very rare
4:01
Speaker 1: achievement for someone of her age. And colleagues would go
4:03
Speaker 1: on to describe her as extremely inspiring, passionate about her profession,
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Speaker 1: dedicated to her patients, and just beloved by those who
4:11
Speaker 1: worked with her. And her personal life was just as
4:13
Speaker 1: fulfilling because in late 1985, Sherry would marry John, a
4:17
Speaker 1: man she deeply, deeply loved. And they would move into
4:19
Speaker 1: a townhouse together in Van Nuys, a very comfortable and
4:22
Speaker 1: quiet neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, which was ideal
4:25
Speaker 1: for a young couple starting their married life. And the couple, again,
4:28
Speaker 1: had only been married three months at the time of
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Speaker 1: this tragedy, still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship.
4:34
Speaker 1: And friends and family said that the two seemed genuinely
4:37
Speaker 1: happy and excitedly planned their future together. And in her
4:39
Speaker 1: personal time, Sherry was very athletic and energetic. And she
4:43
Speaker 1: often spent the weekends playing tennis and staying active. And
4:46
Speaker 1: on February 24th, 1986, Sherry decided to stay home from
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Speaker 1: work because she was feeling under the weather. But that
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Speaker 1: decision placed her unknowingly in the path of a violent
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Speaker 1: attack that would shock everyone who knew her. So it
4:59
Speaker 1: just left investigators grasping to understand why would anyone kill
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Speaker 1: this young, beloved woman? So like I said before, the
5:06
Speaker 1: LAPD initially thought that this was a robbery gone wrong
5:10
Speaker 1: because all the signs were there. Sign of forced entry,
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Speaker 1: electronics stacked at the door, valuables rummaged through, and Sherry's
5:16
Speaker 1: BMW was missing. And in 1986 in Los Angeles, violent
5:20
Speaker 1: break-ins were tragically very common. But almost immediately that conclusion
5:24
Speaker 1: began to fray. And there were clues, obvious ones, that
5:27
Speaker 1: didn't quite fit a burglary theory. Because Sherry had clear
5:32
Speaker 1: defensive wounds, torn fingernails, suggesting a very prolonged and violent struggle.
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Speaker 1: The shattered vase that lay near her body, the bite
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Speaker 1: mark that was visible on her forearm, and the stacked
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Speaker 1: electronics had blood on them, meaning they were moved after
5:45
Speaker 1: Sherry had already been mortally wounded. So if theft was
5:48
Speaker 1: truly the motive, why didn't the killer actually take anything?
5:52
Speaker 1: Leads were scarce. Because DNA technology was rudimentary at the time.
5:57
Speaker 1: And the partial fingerprints and bite swab were left unanalyzed.
6:00
Speaker 1: But to those who knew Sherry best, all of the
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Speaker 1: pieces just didn't add up. And they never believed that
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Speaker 1: it was random. And Sherry's father, Nels, was one of
6:07
Speaker 1: the first to raise the alarm. Because as he comforted John,
6:10
Speaker 1: Sherry's husband, in the wake of his daughter's murder, John
6:13
Speaker 1: mentioned something unsettling. And that was that there was a
6:16
Speaker 1: woman from his past that hadn't taken his new marriage
6:20
Speaker 1: very well. So for more than two decades, Sherry's murder
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Speaker 1: sat cold in the LAPD archives, classified as a tragic
6:27
Speaker 1: but unsolved home invasion. And the grieving Rasmussen family never
6:30
Speaker 1: stopped believing that the true killer had been overlooked. But
6:33
Speaker 1: the pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears. Then in
6:36
Speaker 1: the early 2000s, a spark of hope would emerge. And
6:39
Speaker 1: not through testimony or confession, but through science. Because in 2005,
6:44
Speaker 1: advances in DNA technology gave the LAPD an opportunity to
6:47
Speaker 1: revisit evidence that had once been impossible to process fully.
6:51
Speaker 1: And criminalists would re-examine that bite mark collected from Sherry's
6:54
Speaker 1: arm at the time of the crime. And this time,
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Speaker 1: the results would be definite and startling. Because the DNA
7:00
Speaker 1: profile revealed the attacker... was a woman and this revelation
7:03
Speaker 1: just shattered the long-held assumption that two male burglars had
7:07
Speaker 1: killed sherry yet even with this breakthrough the case didn't
7:10
Speaker 1: move forward so the results were logged but not pursued
7:14
Speaker 1: just following through the cracks of bureaucracy and internal disinterest
7:18
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until 2009 during a comprehensive cold case
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Speaker 1: review that Sherry's file landed on the desk of Detective
7:24
Speaker 1: Jim Nuttall. And as he combed through the evidence, something
7:27
Speaker 1: immediately caught his attention. And that was the stacked stereo
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Speaker 1: equipment near the door that had Sherry's blood on it.
7:33
Speaker 1: And that detail had been missed or ignored before. But
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Speaker 1: to Jim, this was crucial. So someone tried to make
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Speaker 1: it look like a burglary after Sherry was already dying
7:42
Speaker 1: on the floor. So from that moment, the direction of
7:45
Speaker 1: the investigation shifted. And Jim and his team now believed
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Speaker 1: that this had not been about theft at all. It
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Speaker 1: was just a personal attack disguised as a break-in. And
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Speaker 1: the DNA profile of a female suspect only deepened the mystery.
7:59
Speaker 1: Because this was a brutal case.
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Speaker 2: Attack.
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Speaker 1: So what woman would have brutally attacked Sherry and then
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Speaker 1: stage it as a burglary? So two questions now haunted
8:09
Speaker 1: the detectives. Who was this woman and why had no
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Speaker 1: one looked into her before? So as DNA results pointed
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Speaker 1: unmistakably to a female suspect, detective faced a unnerving realization
8:22
Speaker 1: because the evidence seemed to implicate.
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Speaker 2: One of their own.
8:25
Speaker 1: And that was Stephanie Lazarus. And she had long since
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Speaker 1: become a respected figure within the LAPD. And by 2009,
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Speaker 1: she was a seasoned detective in the department's elite art
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Speaker 1: theft unit. And she had decades of experience in an
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Speaker 1: outwardly spotless record. She was reliked, known for her work ethic,
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Speaker 1: and she was even featured in the department newsletter and photos.
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Speaker 1: So to most of her colleagues, she was the embodiment
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Speaker 1: of a trustworthy police officer. But behind the scenes, a
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Speaker 1: small team of investigators began digging into her background, comparing
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Speaker 1: it to what they now knew about the Rasmussen case.
9:01
Speaker 1: And their suspicions had been handled delicately. Because if Stephanie
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Speaker 1: had learned that she was being investigated, she could manipulate
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Speaker 1: the evidence, alert potential allies inside the department.
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Speaker 2: Or just flee.
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Speaker 1: And investigators also knew that she still had access to weapons,
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Speaker 1: insider knowledge, and a badge. So the risk was immense.
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Speaker 1: So they would work in secrecy. And Stephanie would be
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Speaker 1: quietly added to the shortlist of five possible female suspects.
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Speaker 1: And one by one, the others were eliminated based on DNA.
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Speaker 1: And by the end, only Stephanie would remain. And in
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Speaker 1: a carefully orchestrated operation, a surveillance team actually shadowed Stephanie
9:35
Speaker 1: through her daily routine. And one day, while she stopped
9:38
Speaker 1: at Costco, she sipped from a soda cup and tossed
9:41
Speaker 1: it into the trash. And when she walked away, the
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Speaker 1: officers would retrieve the discarded cup. And lab tests confirmed
9:47
Speaker 1: what investigators feared most, because the DNA on the straw
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Speaker 1: matched the saliva from the bite mark on Sherry Rasmussen's arm.
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Speaker 1: And that bite mark, overlooked and underutilized for more than
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Speaker 1: two decades, now revealed a horrifying truth. And that was
10:02
Speaker 1: that the killer hadn't just been an LAPD detective all
10:06
Speaker 1: this time, but also that the killer actually knew the
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Speaker 1: victim very, very well.
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Speaker 2: Personally.
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Speaker 1: So this DNA match was air tight because the odds
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Speaker 1: of that saliva coming from anyone else but Stephanie was
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Speaker 1: astronomically low. So armed with DNA evidence, the investigators knew
10:21
Speaker 1: they had their prime suspect. But the question now was why?
10:26
Speaker 1: Why did this LAPD officer Well, two decades earlier, her
10:31
Speaker 1: name had actually lingered in the background of the original investigation.
10:36
Speaker 1: Mentioned briefly by both Sherry's grieving father and Sherry's husband.
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Speaker 1: Because Stephanie had been Sherry's husband's old ex-girlfriend. A jealous
10:45
Speaker 1: one at that. But at the time, investigators dismissed the
10:49
Speaker 1: notion completely. Because the attack looked like a burglary gone
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Speaker 1: wrong and the attack was so incredibly violent, they thought,
10:57
Speaker 1: how could a woman have done this? But now with
10:59
Speaker 1: this DNA evidence, they knew that she was not just
11:02
Speaker 1: capable of it, they knew that she was guilty of it.
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Speaker 1: So who really was Stephanie? Well, She had been John
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Speaker 1: Rutten's ex-girlfriend, a college ex-girlfriend, actually. And they would meet
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Speaker 1: at UCLA, dated off and on throughout college. And eventually
11:16
Speaker 1: they would part ways romantically, but not emotionally for her.
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Speaker 1: So while John moved on, earning his engineering degree and
11:23
Speaker 1: falling in love with Sherry, Stephanie remained very close, a
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Speaker 1: little too close. She would become a police officer, which
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Speaker 1: was her lifelong dream, and was known around the department
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Speaker 1: for her outgoing personality and her dedication to her work.
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Speaker 1: But privately, Stephanie had been unable to let go of John.
11:41
Speaker 1: And in the months leading up to Sherry's murder, Stephanie's
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Speaker 1: jealousy had become more and more overt. Because she had
11:47
Speaker 1: shown up unannounced to Sherry and John's condo while Sherry
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Speaker 1: was home alone, which is terrifying. And she would be
11:53
Speaker 1: dressed in full LAPD uniform and said that she was
11:57
Speaker 1: just checking in. And Sherry would be obviously shaken and
12:00
Speaker 1: would ask her to leave because she would know at
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Speaker 1: this point that this was John's ex. And another time,
12:05
Speaker 1: Stephanie would confront Sherry at the hospital that she worked
12:08
Speaker 1: at and would issue a very disturbing warning, saying that
12:11
Speaker 1: if John's marriage didn't work out, she'd be waiting. And
12:14
Speaker 1: as we know now, these were not idle comments. They
12:17
Speaker 1: were a prelude to murder. So by early 1986, Stephanie
12:21
Speaker 1: knew her last chance with John was gone, because in
12:24
Speaker 1: an emotional moment shortly before John's wedding with Sherry, she
12:27
Speaker 1: had convinced him to sleep with her one final time.
12:31
Speaker 1: And this was a decision that John did confess to
12:33
Speaker 1: Sherry later on. And Sherry would forgive him, but Stephanie
12:36
Speaker 1: could not forgive the rejection. And then would come February 24th, 1986.
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Speaker 1: So John, as we know, would leave for work that morning.
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Speaker 1: And Sherry, feeling slightly unwell, would stay at home. And
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Speaker 1: it would be a quiet weekday in venues, as usual.
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Speaker 1: And at some point during the day, Stephanie showed up
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Speaker 1: at the condo. Most likely off-duty, but armed. And she
12:57
Speaker 1: might have knocked and claimed she just wanted to talk.
13:01
Speaker 1: And she knew that Sherry was home alone. And once
13:04
Speaker 1: she got inside, things would escalate. And the physical struggle
13:07
Speaker 1: that followed was brutal. So Sherry, taller and athletic, fought
13:11
Speaker 1: back ferociously. So much so that she managed to tear
13:14
Speaker 1: off two of her fingernails, clawing at Stephanie. But that's
13:18
Speaker 1: when Stephanie would grab that heavy ceramic vase and smash
13:22
Speaker 1: Sherry's face, completely breaking the right side and leaving it disfigured.
13:26
Speaker 1: And during the struggle, she bit Sherry on her inner forearm.
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Speaker 1: And this was the deep, aggressive wound that would later
13:32
Speaker 1: carry the damning DNA. And seeing that Sherry was completely
13:35
Speaker 1: subdued at this point, Stephanie would stand up, pull out her.
13:39
Speaker 1: 38 caliber revolver, likely her off-duty weapon, and fire three shots,
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Speaker 1: execution style, into Sherry at close range. And the grouping
13:48
Speaker 1: of the wounds and the muzzle imprint on her skin
13:50
Speaker 1: confirmed how close the shooter was. And then to cover
13:54
Speaker 1: her tracks, Stephanie would stage the scene. She stacked stereo
13:58
Speaker 1: equipment by the door, ransacked drawers, and stole Sherry's BMW,
14:02
Speaker 1: making it look like a burglary gone wrong. And it
14:06
Speaker 1: was a coverup that unfortunately worked for decades, and no
14:10
Speaker 1: one had seriously suspected her. And the LAPD obviously had
14:13
Speaker 1: not considered their own. Even though Sherry's husband and father
14:17
Speaker 1: brought it up, it was completely dismissed. But luckily, DNA
14:21
Speaker 1: sealed her fate decades later, and now the real story
14:24
Speaker 1: of Sherry Rasmussen's death was out. It was a love
14:27
Speaker 1: triangle turned deadly and a jealous ex who used her
14:30
Speaker 1: badge to hide a brutal, brutal crime. So on June 5th, 2009,
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Speaker 1: investigators would lure Stephanie into an interview room under the
14:39
Speaker 1: pretense of consulting her on a case involving a suspect.
14:42
Speaker 1: Because they didn't really want to tip her off right away,
14:45
Speaker 1: because she knew she was armed, they knew she could flee,
14:47
Speaker 1: they knew she could do something to potentially get away.
14:51
Speaker 1: So they had to trick her, basically. So she would
14:53
Speaker 1: come into the room, unarmed and unsuspecting, and inside the
14:56
Speaker 1: interrogation room, two detectives would tell her that they wanted
14:59
Speaker 1: to ask her about an old incident. And that old
15:02
Speaker 1: incident was the death of Sherry in 1986. And at first,
15:06
Speaker 1: Stephanie just laughed off the question, just brushing them aside.
15:09
Speaker 1: But as the conversation deepened and the detective said that
15:12
Speaker 1: they had physical evidence of her trying to murder her,
15:15
Speaker 1: her demeanor completely shifted. And she started to become very
15:19
Speaker 1: visibly nervous, then combative, and eventually tried to deflect. Saying
15:23
Speaker 1: stuff like, you're accusing me of this? am I on
15:26
Speaker 1: candid camera or something? She said, dumb bitch. And that's
15:29
Speaker 1: when the tension in the room would escalate. And for
15:32
Speaker 1: a few more minutes, Stephanie stood up and demanded a lawyer,
15:36
Speaker 1: but it was too late. And as she exited the room,
15:38
Speaker 1: officers were waiting and she would be immediately arrested for
15:41
Speaker 1: the murder of Sherry Rasmussen. And this arrest would send
15:43
Speaker 1: shock waves through the LAPD because the seasoned officer who
15:47
Speaker 1: had had decades of experience was now being let out
15:50
Speaker 1: of headquarters in handcuffs. And in 2012, Stephanie would stand
15:54
Speaker 1: trial for first degree murder. And the prosecutors would lay
15:57
Speaker 1: out the full timeline, her obsessive fixation on John, her
16:01
Speaker 1: confrontations with Sherry, the brutal slaying and the staged burglary.
16:05
Speaker 1: And they would just walk jurors through the overlooked warning signs.
16:09
Speaker 1: which was the ignored pleas of Sherry's father and the
16:11
Speaker 1: DNA that had ultimately broke the case wide open. So
16:14
Speaker 1: the evidence was just overwhelming. And John, Sherry's husband, was
16:19
Speaker 1: devastated but determined. And he would take the stand to
16:22
Speaker 1: recount the past with Stephanie and the loss of his wife.
16:25
Speaker 1: And the courtroom would fall silent as he would describe
16:28
Speaker 1: how he warned police back in 1986 that, about stephanie's
16:31
Speaker 1: presence in their lives and how no one had listened
16:34
Speaker 1: at the time or taken it seriously and sherry's family
16:36
Speaker 1: especially her father nels sat through the trial with a
16:39
Speaker 1: heavy heart because for four years nels had insisted that
16:43
Speaker 1: stephanie was the killer even personally begging the lapd to
16:47
Speaker 1: investigate her but in 1986 his pleas were just brushed
16:50
Speaker 1: aside and now in court justice finally had a face
16:53
Speaker 1: And it was the same woman the system had once protected.
16:56
Speaker 1: So in March of 2012, the jury had its verdict.
16:59
Speaker 1: And that was that Stephanie Lazarus was guilty of first-degree murder.
17:02
Speaker 1: And she would be sentenced to 27 years to life
17:04
Speaker 1: in prison. And she would appeal multiple times, claiming the
17:07
Speaker 1: delay in prosecution was unfair. But the courts consistently upheld
17:12
Speaker 1: their conviction, thank God. And years later, in 2023, at
17:15
Speaker 1: a parole hearing, Stephanie finally confessed to the murder and
17:18
Speaker 1: offered an apology. Wow. So big a view. And luckily
17:22
Speaker 1: her parole would be revoked and she remained incarcerated. And
17:25
Speaker 1: for Sherry's family, the long-awaited conviction brought both closure and sorrow.
17:30
Speaker 1: Because justice had come, but it had taken two decades
17:33
Speaker 1: and only after a persistent advocacy, DNA advancements, and a
17:37
Speaker 1: fresh pair of eyes on a cold case file. And
17:39
Speaker 1: the LAPD, for its part, was forced into reflection. And
17:43
Speaker 1: investigations were launched into how Stephanie had evaded scrutiny. And
17:47
Speaker 1: questions arose about whether colleagues had ignored, minimized, or even
17:50
Speaker 1: buried evidence in the original case. And ultimately, the case
17:53
Speaker 1: of Stephanie became one of the most haunting examples of
17:57
Speaker 1: what can happen when obsession, jealousy, and insider access converge.
18:02
Speaker 1: And when institutions fail to look inward. But today, Sherry's
18:05
Speaker 1: legacy lives on. Not just in memory, but in the
18:08
Speaker 1: systemic changes her case helped trigger. Because it is now
18:11
Speaker 1: a story that's told in classrooms, policing seminars, and true
18:15
Speaker 1: crime documentaries. And it's a stark warning that the greatest
18:18
Speaker 1: threats aren't always strangers lurking in the dark. Because sometimes
18:22
Speaker 1: they're people we once trusted. And sometimes they wear a uniform.
18:25
Speaker 1: And sometimes they just sit down the hall. It was
18:32
Speaker 1: a quiet night in Buffalo, New York. The hum of
18:35
Speaker 1: the evening shift at the Dynabraid factory had faded, and
18:38
Speaker 1: most of the workers had clocked out. But in the
18:40
Speaker 1: shadowy corners of the employee parking lot, a figure waited.
18:44
Speaker 1: Brian Barrett, a 22-year-old college student and factory worker, had
18:48
Speaker 1: stayed late helping to close up. And after he was
18:51
Speaker 1: done closing up, he would climb into his truck, unaware
18:53
Speaker 1: that someone was watching him from the darkness. And this
18:57
Speaker 1: figure would approach him silently, camouflaged, masked, and armed with
19:01
Speaker 1: a military grade 30 caliber rifle. And in a moment,
19:05
Speaker 1: the silence was completely shattered because three shots rang out,
19:08
Speaker 1: fired at point blank range through the truck window. And
19:12
Speaker 1: Brian never had a chance. And the killer would vanish,
19:15
Speaker 1: leaving the young man bleeding to death in his own
19:17
Speaker 1: front seat. And for two days, Brian's truck sat in
19:20
Speaker 1: the corner of the lot, completely unnoticed. And it was
19:23
Speaker 1: only when a coworker actually reported the vehicle hadn't moved
19:26
Speaker 1: and the police discovered Brian's body. And this wasn't a robbery.
19:30
Speaker 1: It was a cold, calculated, personal ambush. So the detectives
19:34
Speaker 1: would arrive at the scene and find no immediate motive
19:37
Speaker 1: because Brian was really well liked. He was bright and
19:40
Speaker 1: he was known to have no enemies and nothing was stolen.
19:44
Speaker 1: And his truck was clearly undisturbed besides the shell casings
19:48
Speaker 1: that were around it. And there were no signs of
19:50
Speaker 1: a struggle and security footage offered really little evidence because
19:53
Speaker 1: the killer had moved under the cover of night and
19:56
Speaker 1: left no witnesses so the crime appeared very professional like
20:00
Speaker 1: someone who had planned this down to the last second
20:03
Speaker 1: but who would do this to a quiet well-liked college
20:07
Speaker 1: kid and why So as police dug into Brian's personal life,
20:11
Speaker 1: something strange surfaced. His co-workers described him as friendly and outgoing,
20:16
Speaker 1: but also mentioned that he had recently been caught up
20:19
Speaker 1: in an unusual online relationship. Because Brian had been spending
20:23
Speaker 1: a lot of his time, hours upon hours, chatting with
20:27
Speaker 1: a woman online. And this was someone that he had
20:29
Speaker 1: never actually met in person, but who called herself tall, hot, blonde. Subtle.
20:35
Speaker 1: And his friends would say that he was just completely infatuated.
20:38
Speaker 1: But this wasn't just any harmless fling.
20:41
Speaker 2: There was... tension. Jealousy, even.
20:44
Speaker 1: It was a love triangle of sorts that had emerged online,
20:47
Speaker 1: including Brian, whose username was Beefcake, and the mysterious Tall
20:51
Speaker 1: Hot Blonde, and then the third name was Tommy, who
20:54
Speaker 1: used the screen name Marine Sniper. It's a terrifying username,
20:58
Speaker 1: but okay. And the chats between the three were intense
21:01
Speaker 1: and very emotional, and sometimes even aggressive. So investigators began
21:05
Speaker 1: to suspect that this digital romance had spiraled out of
21:08
Speaker 1: control somehow. But to understand how we got there, they
21:12
Speaker 1: needed to start at the beginning. So who really was
21:15
Speaker 1: Brian Barrett? Brian was from Western New York and he
21:19
Speaker 1: was a digital student and he was attending Buffalo State
21:21
Speaker 1: College while working part-time at Dynabraid, which was a local
21:25
Speaker 1: manufacturing company that made abrasive power tools. And by all accounts,
21:28
Speaker 1: Brian was friendly, popular, and driven, as we know. And
21:31
Speaker 1: he played sports in high school and kept close ties
21:34
Speaker 1: with his family. And he had big aspirations beyond the
21:37
Speaker 1: factory work that he currently did. But like many adults,
21:39
Speaker 1: Brian also spent time online, in forums and chat rooms,
21:43
Speaker 1: connecting with people beyond his small town world.
21:46
Speaker 2: And that's when he would meet Brian.
21:48
Speaker 1: Her. And it would start with a simple message, a
21:50
Speaker 1: playful exchange. In Tall, Hot, Blonde, the screen name of
21:54
Speaker 1: a flirtatious 18-year-old girl named Jessie caught his attention on
21:58
Speaker 1: an online gaming platform called pogo.com. And she claimed to
22:02
Speaker 1: be a softball-playing teenager from West Virginia. And she was blonde, athletic, bold,
22:08
Speaker 1: and she would send photos, and they would flirt, and
22:10
Speaker 1: they just hit it off quite seemingly right away. So
22:13
Speaker 1: the messages would start to turn more and more romantic.
22:16
Speaker 1: And over time, Brian just fell for her completely. But
22:20
Speaker 1: he wasn't the only one. Because in the same chat room,
22:23
Speaker 1: Jesse had also been talking with Tommy. And he was
22:27
Speaker 1: a Marine stationed overseas. And he was charming, tough, and
22:31
Speaker 1: just full of confidence. So Jesse's conversations with both men
22:35
Speaker 1: kind of overlapped, and Brian found himself caught in a
22:38
Speaker 1: bizarre rivalry. Because at first, the chats between the trio
22:41
Speaker 1: were kind of playful, but soon things would escalate and
22:45
Speaker 1: people would get jealous. So as investigators would just pour
22:48
Speaker 1: through the archive chat logs and emails, they saw how
22:52
Speaker 1: the situation had become dangerously intense. Because both Brian and
22:56
Speaker 1: Tommy had written long, heartfelt messages to Jesse. And she
23:00
Speaker 1: had returned to both in kind. But something about Tommy
23:03
Speaker 1: specifically was off. Because the man was very possessive, even obsessive.
23:09
Speaker 1: And Tommy didn't take too kindly to Brian's interest in Jesse.
23:13
Speaker 1: And their conversations quickly started to become very hostile. And
23:16
Speaker 1: Tommy would even go to say that Brian had made
23:19
Speaker 1: a deadly enemy. So taunts and threats and ultimatums were exchanged,
23:23
Speaker 1: just escalating into a full-blown digital war over Jesse's affection.
23:28
Speaker 1: But it wasn't just words anymore. Because Tommy had allegedly
23:31
Speaker 1: sent Jesse photos of himself, and he was young and fit,
23:35
Speaker 1: and he described his military life in vivid detail. And
23:39
Speaker 1: Jesse just ate it up, or at least she appeared to.
23:42
Speaker 1: So she would kind of egg on both of them,
23:44
Speaker 1: just flirting with each of them and playing them off
23:47
Speaker 1: one another. But to Brian, it seemed like there was
23:49
Speaker 1: no competition really, because Jesse had told him that Tommy was.
23:53
Speaker 2: Just too intense.
23:54
Speaker 1: And she would even share screenshots of their chats together,
23:57
Speaker 1: portraying Tommy as completely unstable. But Tommy was not backing down.
24:02
Speaker 1: And he would warn Brian to stay away, and he
24:04
Speaker 1: claimed that Jesse belonged to him. Creepy. And he hinted
24:09
Speaker 1: that he knew things about Brian's workplace and his schedule.
24:13
Speaker 1: So the tone would shift from romantic rivalry to something much,
24:17
Speaker 1: much darker. But that's when the messages would completely stop.
24:21
Speaker 1: And the silence, investigators would later realize, wasn't peace.
24:26
Speaker 2: It was a countdown.
24:27
Speaker 1: So with the chat logs and photos in hand, investigators
24:30
Speaker 1: were close to determining the real identity of Tommy. With
24:33
Speaker 1: the emotional intensity, the jealousy, and the threats, it all
24:37
Speaker 1: pointed to someone very unstable and someone possibly very dangerous.
24:41
Speaker 1: But Tommy had claimed to be in the military, possibly
24:44
Speaker 1: even stationed overseas, so... Was he real or was it
24:47
Speaker 1: a lie? And it turns out there was no marine
24:51
Speaker 1: named Tommy involved in these chats at all. In fact,
24:54
Speaker 1: Tommy didn't exist at all. And behind the bravado was
24:59
Speaker 1: a 47 year old man named Thomas Montgomery. So I
25:04
Speaker 1: guess there was technically a Tommy because his name was Thomas,
25:06
Speaker 1: but it wasn't the Tommy we're talking about. Because Thomas
25:08
Speaker 1: was not a soldier. He was a middle aged married
25:11
Speaker 1: father of two teenage daughters. And he wasn't stationed overseas.
25:15
Speaker 1: He lived and worked in the same factory as Brian Barrett.
25:20
Speaker 1: He was Brian's co-worker. And he had been catfishing both
25:24
Speaker 1: Jesse and Brian the entire time. So the web just
25:28
Speaker 1: started to unravel quickly. And Thomas Montgomery had created this
25:32
Speaker 1: fake Tommy persona years and years earlier. Initially just to
25:36
Speaker 1: escape his midlife crisis and dissatisfaction with his own personal life.
25:41
Speaker 1: And he'd chosen the name Marine Sniper and invented a
25:44
Speaker 1: full-blown backstory. A young, youthful, battle-hardened Marine with years of service, courage,
25:50
Speaker 1: and masculinity. And when he met TallHotBlonde in the chat room,
25:54
Speaker 1: the lie just blossomed into obsession. And at first, it
25:57
Speaker 1: was just harmless flirtation. Well, not harmless because he was.
26:01
Speaker 2: Frickin' married!
26:02
Speaker 1: And then that flirtation would evolve into Jesse's attention becoming
26:06
Speaker 1: his entire life. And Jesse would actually even send him gifts, pictures,
26:11
Speaker 1: even lingerie as a token of her devotion. But unfortunately,
26:15
Speaker 1: or actually luckily, his wife would eventually discover the gifts
26:19
Speaker 1: and was completely horrified. And she was horrified not just
26:22
Speaker 1: at the complete infidelity, but at the childlike nature of
26:26
Speaker 1: the woman Thomas was obsessing over because she's 18 years old.
26:30
Speaker 1: And she would send Jesse a photo exposing her husband's
26:34
Speaker 1: true identity. Boss-ass move. But the digital affair wouldn't end there.
26:39
Speaker 1: And after that revelation, Tommy disappeared and a new character
26:44
Speaker 1: would enter the chat.
26:45
Speaker 2: And that was Tommy's father. father.
26:48
Speaker 1: Supposedly a remorseful man contacting Jesse on behalf of his
26:53
Speaker 1: disgraced son. Guy's an Oscar-winning Chad actor, because this obviously
26:58
Speaker 1: was just Thomas trying to be someone else again, grasping
27:01
Speaker 1: at any excuse to maintain contact with Jesse, his obsession.
27:05
Speaker 2: And that's when Brian would enter the picture.
27:08
Speaker 1: And Brian, as we know, was young and real, and
27:12
Speaker 1: Jesse seemed to like him a lot. And they quickly
27:14
Speaker 1: began to show off their relationship all over Pogo, and
27:18
Speaker 1: they were even hostile to Thomas. Because Jesse at this
27:21
Speaker 1: point would paint him as a predator, and she revealed
27:23
Speaker 1: his true identity to Brian. So for Thomas, this wasn't
27:26
Speaker 1: just jealousy, it was humiliation. Because his fantasy life was
27:30
Speaker 1: unraveling in front of his face, and the person replacing
27:33
Speaker 1: him wasn't an imaginary rival. It was a real person,
27:37
Speaker 1: a colleague no less. A threat that he couldn't just
27:40
Speaker 1: block or delete. And even though Jesse continued to seem
27:44
Speaker 1: against him in public view, she would still message him privately,
27:48
Speaker 1: occasionally still flirting. So in his mind, he believed that
27:52
Speaker 1: she still wanted him. Even after all this f *
27:55
Speaker 1: * * ing fiasco, she still wanted him. Or at
27:57
Speaker 1: least pretended to. So for Thomas to fully live out
28:00
Speaker 1: his imaginary relationship that he had in his head, he
28:04
Speaker 1: needed to remove the one thing that was in his way.
28:07
Speaker 1: And what began as a fantasy had now evolved into
28:10
Speaker 1: something funny. far more dangerous. And this is some of
28:13
Speaker 1: the chat between Thomas and Jesse shortly before Brian's murder.
28:17
Speaker 2: Marine Sniper.
28:18
Speaker 1: On Friday or Saturday, you can say goodbye forever to
28:21
Speaker 1: me and Tommy.
28:22
Speaker 2: Jesse.
28:23
Speaker 1: Why?
28:23
Speaker 2: Marine Sniper. We're leaving for good. Jesse.
28:26
Speaker 1: No.
28:27
Speaker 2: Marine Sniper.
28:28
Speaker 1: Yes, Jesse, you are having fun in your life now,
28:30
Speaker 1: so it's time for us to leave.
28:32
Speaker 2: Jesse. No, Tom. Marine Sniper. So it's time for Tommy
28:36
Speaker 2: to be put to rest. Jesse. I will leave.
28:38
Speaker 1: Marine Sniper, I wish I had a perfect life like
28:41
Speaker 1: you and Brian do. So while all of this is
28:44
Speaker 1: happening and coming to a head and the twists seem
28:48
Speaker 1: like they have come to a close, a new twist emerged.
28:52
Speaker 1: And it was the final blow. Because the woman who
28:55
Speaker 1: initially drove both men to obsession wasn't who she said.
29:00
Speaker 2: She was anymore.
29:01
Speaker 1: Either.
29:02
Speaker 2: Who are these people?
29:03
Speaker 1: Because Jesse, the supposed 18-year-old blonde softball player, was in
29:08
Speaker 1: fact Mary Sheeler, Jesse's mother.
29:13
Speaker 2: What in the mother?
29:14
Speaker 1: So Mary, Jesse's mother, had been using her daughter's photos
29:18
Speaker 1: and identity to pose as tall hot blonde in online
29:22
Speaker 1: chat rooms, which is so disgusting. And obviously, Jesse knew
29:27
Speaker 1: nothing of the online romances that were happening online. So Mary,
29:30
Speaker 1: a middle-aged woman, had manipulated both men for her own amusement, gratification,
29:36
Speaker 1: and just general loneliness.
29:38
Speaker 2: Take a walk, Mary. Go to a coffee shop.
29:41
Speaker 1: Don't pretend to be your daughter online and use her image,
29:45
Speaker 1: you psycho. So when authorities finally confronted her, she admitted
29:49
Speaker 1: to the deception completely. But there would be no criminal
29:52
Speaker 1: charges filed against her. But her actions were pivotal in
29:55
Speaker 1: stoking the emotional firestorm that led to murder. I don't
29:59
Speaker 1: understand how she got off scot-free because she was quite
30:02
Speaker 1: literally using someone else's image and pretending to be them.
30:05
Speaker 2: There has to be a law somewhere in there that
30:08
Speaker 2: that's illegal. I'm pretty sure it is, but whatever.
30:10
Speaker 1: So now with all of the identities finally exposed, investigators
30:14
Speaker 1: turn their attention to the night.
30:15
Speaker 2: Of the murder, which was September 15th, 2006.
30:18
Speaker 1: And Brian had worked a late night shift at the factory,
30:22
Speaker 1: helping to shut down the factory for the weekend. And
30:25
Speaker 1: he had parked in his usual spot in the far
30:27
Speaker 1: corner of the lot, away from the building's main entrance.
30:30
Speaker 1: And unbeknownst to him, Thomas Montgomery, his co-worker, had spent
30:35
Speaker 1: the day preparing. And he would dress in full camouflage
30:39
Speaker 1: and a ski mask to obscure his identity. And he
30:42
Speaker 1: would bring with him a. 30 caliber military-style rifle and
30:45
Speaker 1: waited in the shadows. And at approximately 10 p.m. as
30:49
Speaker 1: Brian sat in his truck, Thomas would approach him. And
30:52
Speaker 1: that's when he would raise his rifle and fire three
30:55
Speaker 1: shots at close range through his window. And Brian would
30:58
Speaker 1: be hit in the neck and in the arm. And
31:01
Speaker 1: the young man would unfortunately die instantly. And that's when
31:04
Speaker 1: Thomas would flee the scene, slipping away completely undetected. And
31:08
Speaker 1: it wasn't until two days later, as we know, that
31:10
Speaker 1: the coworker noticed Brian's truck hadn't moved at all. And
31:13
Speaker 1: that's when police were called and they found the grisly
31:15
Speaker 1: scene inside. And as we know, investigators would quickly piece
31:19
Speaker 1: together all of this madness after Brian was murdered. And
31:23
Speaker 1: coworkers immediately would point the detectives toward Thomas Montgomery, recalling
31:28
Speaker 1: his obsessive behavior and escalating animosity for Brian in the
31:32
Speaker 1: weeks prior to the murder. And with all the chat logs,
31:34
Speaker 1: threatening messages, and online exchanges between the trio, investigators were
31:39
Speaker 1: faced with an overwhelming amount of proof and Thomas was arrested.
31:43
Speaker 1: And in custody, Thomas would admit his guilt. And his
31:46
Speaker 1: explanation was tragic. He claimed he'd become lost in the fantasy,
31:50
Speaker 1: describing the online romance as like an addiction. But even then,
31:54
Speaker 1: he still continued to say that he was manipulated emotionally,
31:58
Speaker 1: positioning himself to remain the victim as well.
32:01
Speaker 2: Just pathetic.
32:02
Speaker 1: And luckily, prosecutors were not sympathetic at all. And they
32:05
Speaker 1: depicted Thomas Montgomery as a dangerous, calculating man who had
32:09
Speaker 1: spun an elaborate conspiracy and deadly web of deception. And
32:13
Speaker 1: after weighing his options, Thomas would accept a plea deal
32:16
Speaker 1: and avoid trial completely. So in 2007, he pleaded guilty
32:19
Speaker 1: to first degree manslaughter and received the maximum sentence, which
32:22
Speaker 1: was 20 years in prison. And in court, Thomas appeared resigned,
32:26
Speaker 1: offering only a brief and half-hearted apology to Brian's family.
32:30
Speaker 1: And the judge sharply rebuked him, highlighting the senseless and
32:33
Speaker 1: disturbing nature of his crime. One born of online fantasy
32:37
Speaker 1: that spiraled into real world violence. But Thomas wasn't the
32:40
Speaker 1: only person at the heart of this tragedy, because Mary,
32:43
Speaker 1: the woman behind Tall, Hot, Blonde, faced intense public scrutiny
32:48
Speaker 1: and condemnation once her deception was revealed. And although she
32:51
Speaker 1: committed no legally defined crime, which I find so hard
32:55
Speaker 1: to believe, but okay, the damage she inflicted was incalculable.
33:00
Speaker 1: And Jessie, her real daughter, was completely blindsided and horrified
33:05
Speaker 1: when she learned that her own mother had appropriated her
33:07
Speaker 1: identity to engage in sexual and emotional manipulation online.
33:12
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine. Like, my mom pretending to be...
33:15
Speaker 2: Oh my, I don't want to imagine it. I've got
33:16
Speaker 2: to push it out of my brain. Oh my god,
33:18
Speaker 2: that's terrible.
33:19
Speaker 1: And as for Brian's family, they were devastated by grief
33:23
Speaker 1: and left with haunting questions. Because their son's life was
33:26
Speaker 1: not ended by a traditional adversary, but by an anonymous
33:30
Speaker 1: stranger's twisted game. Just a cruel manipulation built entirely from
33:35
Speaker 1: pixels and deceit, but determined that Brian's death wouldn't be meaningless,
33:40
Speaker 1: they took to speak publicly, warning others about the hidden
33:43
Speaker 1: dangers lurking in online relationships. And they would push for
33:46
Speaker 1: greater awareness, trying to ensure no other family would experience
33:49
Speaker 1: the kind of pain that they had endured. And in
33:51
Speaker 1: the aftermath, this case became a dark and chilling cautionary tale,
33:55
Speaker 1: a reminder that digital fantasies can quickly escalate into deadly realities.
34:04
Speaker 1: Laura Black was bright, ambitious, and just beginning to chase
34:08
Speaker 1: her dreams. And Laura stood out not only for her
34:10
Speaker 1: technical skills, but for her unshakable focus. Because after graduating
34:14
Speaker 1: from college, she landed a coveted job in Silicon Valley
34:17
Speaker 1: at ESL Incorporated, which was a defense technology company in Sunnyville, California. Now,
34:22
Speaker 1: this job was a huge milestone. It was a very
34:25
Speaker 1: promising start in a high-paying, prestigious industry. And at only 22,
34:30
Speaker 1: she was one of the few female engineers in the company,
34:32
Speaker 1: and she would carry herself with professionalism, committing to succeeding
34:36
Speaker 1: in a challenging environment. But what Laura didn't know is
34:40
Speaker 1: that she had caught the attention of someone working just
34:42
Speaker 1: a few feet away from her. Someone who over the
34:45
Speaker 1: next four years would slowly and methodically turn her life
34:49
Speaker 1: into a waking nightmare. And this someone was Richard Farley.
34:53
Speaker 1: So when Laura Black first joined ESL Incorporated in 1984,
34:56
Speaker 1: the environment seemed very welcoming. Because ESL was a major
35:00
Speaker 1: defense contractor and the company's Sunnyville office was filled with engineers, analysis,
35:05
Speaker 1: and researchers. And they were all working on highly classified
35:08
Speaker 1: government projects. So the atmosphere was intense, but also very collaborative.
35:13
Speaker 1: And employees shared long hours and tight deadlines together, often
35:16
Speaker 1: working in very tight quarters. And that's where Laura would
35:19
Speaker 1: meet Richard Farley. And Farley was a computer technician at ESL.
35:24
Speaker 1: And he would be older than most of his coworkers,
35:26
Speaker 1: being in his mid-30s when Laura started. And he had
35:29
Speaker 1: joined ESL after a brief stint in the Navy, doing
35:31
Speaker 1: several tech support roles. So to outsiders, he probably just
35:35
Speaker 1: seemed like an average middle-aged employee who was quiet, competent,
35:39
Speaker 1: and maybe a little awkward. But Farley harbored deeper issues.
35:43
Speaker 1: Because when Laura Black arrived, young and new to the company,
35:47
Speaker 1: she became Farley's fixation. And it would start with just
35:50
Speaker 1: mere glances, and then it would start to be excuses
35:54
Speaker 1: to be closer to her. And then it was Farley
35:56
Speaker 1: becoming completely obsessed with her. Because he truly believed that
35:59
Speaker 1: Laura was supposed to be his. And at first, Laura Black,
36:03
Speaker 1: being kind and polite and just wanting to do really
36:05
Speaker 1: good at her job and not tip anybody off, just
36:08
Speaker 1: brushed Richard Farley's behavior off as flirtation. But then he
36:11
Speaker 1: would start to bring her gifts. Notes, candy, even homemade
36:16
Speaker 1: baked goods. And when he did this, he would ask
36:18
Speaker 1: her out repeatedly. And Laura would always decline, but she
36:21
Speaker 1: would decline politely but firmly, saying she wasn't interested and
36:25
Speaker 1: she barely even knew him. But Farley did not take
36:28
Speaker 1: the hint. In fact, he didn't take notes. at all
36:31
Speaker 1: and his behavior just escalated. And the escalation started when
36:35
Speaker 1: he began appearing in places that he shouldn't have been.
36:38
Speaker 1: Such as standing in hallways right outside her office during
36:41
Speaker 1: weird hours. He left personal notes on her desk and
36:45
Speaker 1: then he even started sending her letters. and they were
36:47
Speaker 1: long rambling messages, just professing his love and obsession for her.
36:52
Speaker 1: And he would repeatedly call her office phone. She just
36:55
Speaker 1: could not get a break from this guy. And it
36:57
Speaker 1: was to the point where every time her phone would ring,
37:00
Speaker 1: she would dread that it was him. So Laura would
37:02
Speaker 1: try to set boundaries repeatedly. She would tell Farley she
37:06
Speaker 1: was uncomfortable and she would ask him to stop contacting her.
37:09
Speaker 1: And when that didn't work, she finally reported his behavior
37:12
Speaker 1: to human resources, but it didn't matter. Because though ESL
37:16
Speaker 1: was a major defense contractor with clear policies about harassment,
37:20
Speaker 1: the company did little, if anything, to protect her. Which
37:24
Speaker 1: is just so incredibly sad. Because at the time, workplace
37:28
Speaker 1: stalking was not taken seriously at all. Especially when there
37:31
Speaker 1: was no physical threat yet. So Farley would barely get
37:35
Speaker 1: a slap on the wrist and he would not even
37:38
Speaker 1: get fired. He was simply directed to attend psychological counseling,
37:42
Speaker 1: but that wasn't even followed up. And Laura was just
37:44
Speaker 1: told to avoid him. But Farley had no intention of
37:48
Speaker 1: being avoided and Laura unfortunately knew it. So every time
37:52
Speaker 1: Laura walked the halls of ESL, she felt the weight
37:55
Speaker 1: of his presence. Just watching her and following her and
37:58
Speaker 1: studying her every move and each day, the signs became
38:01
Speaker 1: more alarming. So Richard Farley's fixation on Laura Black didn't
38:05
Speaker 1: just persist, but it metastasized into something much darker and
38:09
Speaker 1: more unstable. And after she rejected him and involved HR,
38:13
Speaker 1: he began to completely unravel. performance began to decline and
38:17
Speaker 1: co-workers noticed he seemed agitated, volatile, and sometimes even mumbling
38:22
Speaker 1: to himself. And his obsession with Laura just consumed him.
38:25
Speaker 1: And he would even start keeping bizarre personal records such
38:28
Speaker 1: as doctored photos, notes about her schedule, and imagine romantic
38:33
Speaker 1: milestones that never happened between them. And Farley would consistently
38:37
Speaker 1: send Laura messages that became more and more disturbing. And
38:40
Speaker 1: these messages would be long letters claiming that they had
38:43
Speaker 1: a relationship, and insisted that she owed him a chance.
38:47
Speaker 1: He was just delusional at this point and thought they
38:50
Speaker 1: were destined to be together. And when Laura didn't respond
38:53
Speaker 1: and she avoided him as the ESL staff told her to,
38:57
Speaker 1: he completely went nuts. He would accuse her of betrayal.
39:01
Speaker 1: He would say that she was so cruel and said
39:04
Speaker 1: he would never forget what she had done to him.
39:06
Speaker 1: And Laura, who is now growing increasingly frightened and scared,
39:10
Speaker 1: contacted HR again. And she would also reach out to
39:13
Speaker 1: management and security. And then in 1986, he was finally
39:18
Speaker 1: let go from ESL. Took you long enough. And for
39:21
Speaker 1: a time, Laura had hope. And she hoped it would
39:24
Speaker 1: be over and things would just go back to normal.
39:26
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, they didn't. Because even after being fired, Farley
39:30
Speaker 1: continued to stalk her. And by now, Farley was no
39:33
Speaker 1: longer pretending to be a heartbroken romantic. He was angrier,
39:38
Speaker 1: more erratic, and more threatening. And he just fixated on
39:41
Speaker 1: what he believed Laura had done to him, which was
39:44
Speaker 1: ruining his life, costing him his job, and ignoring his love.
39:49
Speaker 1: so he had become convinced that she deserved to suffer
39:52
Speaker 1: and in 1988 that conviction turned into something far more
39:55
Speaker 1: dangerous so by the start of 1988 laura black had
39:59
Speaker 1: done everything she could think of to protect herself she
40:02
Speaker 1: had reported richard farley to her employer she had filed
40:05
Speaker 1: complaints she had begged her workplace to intervene she had
40:09
Speaker 1: documented his obsessive behavior She had changed her life routines,
40:14
Speaker 1: and she just lived in ultimate fear. But still, no
40:18
Speaker 1: real protection ever came. So on February 2nd, 1988, she
40:22
Speaker 1: took the most serious step yet. And Laura would file
40:25
Speaker 1: a temporary restraining order against Farley, citing the years of
40:29
Speaker 1: harassment and her escalating fear for her life. And the
40:32
Speaker 1: court would grant this restraining order. And this restraining order
40:35
Speaker 1: forbid Farley from contacting her or coming near her home
40:38
Speaker 1: or workplace. And the hearing was set for two weeks
40:41
Speaker 1: later on February 17th to determine whether the order would
40:44
Speaker 1: become permanent. So this was a very bold move on
40:48
Speaker 1: Laura Black's part, but extremely, extremely necessary. But for Richard Farley,
40:53
Speaker 1: this was the final. trigger. Because after being served this
40:56
Speaker 1: restraining order, Farley did not back off. He just snapped completely.
41:02
Speaker 1: Because in his mind, Laura had now fully betrayed him,
41:05
Speaker 1: and he began preparing for violence. So despite the restraining order,
41:10
Speaker 1: Farley legally purchased a new shotgun. And at the time,
41:12
Speaker 1: California law didn't automatically block firearm purchases because of someone
41:17
Speaker 1: having a restraining order. Which is f * * *.
41:19
Speaker 1: insane to me and he would also gather weapons he
41:22
Speaker 1: already owned which was rifles with scopes handguns semi-automatics and
41:27
Speaker 1: amassed more than a thousand rounds of ammunition so his
41:30
Speaker 1: plan was already forming and he would actually send a
41:33
Speaker 1: package to laura's lawyer and inside that package he claimed
41:36
Speaker 1: there was evidence to their supposed relationship and this Evidence
41:41
Speaker 1: was doctored photos of him and Laura together with bizarre
41:45
Speaker 1: receipts and rambling letters. Just a complete crazy person. But
41:50
Speaker 1: included in the package was Laura's garage door opener to
41:54
Speaker 1: her home. So it wasn't just a deranged package. to
41:57
Speaker 1: the lawyer, it was very deliberate and terrifying. He just
42:01
Speaker 1: wanted Laura to know that she was not safe. And Laura, meanwhile,
42:05
Speaker 1: was absolutely terrified. And she would tell her friends and
42:08
Speaker 1: coworkers that she was super anxious for this upcoming court
42:11
Speaker 1: hearing and that she just felt super alone and watched.
42:14
Speaker 1: And worst of all, she felt that no one could
42:17
Speaker 1: stop him if he tried to do anything. And she
42:19
Speaker 1: would have no idea that Farley was not planning on
42:23
Speaker 1: showing up to that hearing. He was planning something far,
42:25
Speaker 1: far more devastating. So the day before the restraining order
42:28
Speaker 1: hearing on February 16th, 1988, Laura Black was at work
42:33
Speaker 1: like every other day, just trying to hold herself together
42:36
Speaker 1: through all this fear-ridden anxiety that was building up within her. Meanwhile,
42:40
Speaker 1: Richard Farley was preparing because he wasn't going to fight
42:43
Speaker 1: the restraining order in court. He wasn't going to let
42:46
Speaker 1: the system decide his fate. he was going to end
42:49
Speaker 1: it violently. So that morning, Farley would climb into his
42:53
Speaker 1: motorhome and drive to Sunnyville, California, and he would park
42:56
Speaker 1: outside ESL Incorporated. And he had come prepared for war
43:00
Speaker 1: because Farley wore a bullet resistant vest. He would be
43:04
Speaker 1: armed with two shotguns, a rifle, and several handguns on
43:07
Speaker 1: his body or within reach. He would also have knives
43:10
Speaker 1: tucked into his belt and magazines of ammunition just bulging
43:14
Speaker 1: from his fatigue style jacket. And his pockets overflowed with
43:17
Speaker 1: a thousand rounds of extra cartridges and shells. So it
43:21
Speaker 1: wasn't just a mass killing that he was planning. It
43:24
Speaker 1: was targeted vengeance because he was only looking for one person.
43:28
Speaker 1: And that one person was Laura Black. And he would
43:30
Speaker 1: tell himself later that he had planned to confront Laura Black.
43:34
Speaker 1: And if she rejected him again, he would take his own.
43:37
Speaker 2: Life in front of her.
43:38
Speaker 1: But the arsenal he carried and what followed told a
43:41
Speaker 1: completely different story. One with premeditated slaughter. So just before
43:45
Speaker 1: 3 p.m. that day, Farley approached the entrance to ESL's
43:49
Speaker 1: M5 building. But a security door blocked his path. So
43:52
Speaker 1: he would raise his shotgun and fire through the glass.
43:55
Speaker 1: And that's when the building would just erupt into chaos
43:58
Speaker 1: with screams, echoing through the halls, and phones ringing, and
44:02
Speaker 1: workers would dive under their desks and sprint for exits.
44:05
Speaker 1: And others would freeze, unsure if what they heard was
44:08
Speaker 1: actually real. And that's when Farley would step through the
44:10
Speaker 1: door and fire his shotgun at Lawrence Kane, which was
44:13
Speaker 1: a 46-year-old employee walking to his car. And Kane would
44:17
Speaker 1: unfortunately die instantly. And that's when Farley would turn and
44:19
Speaker 1: point his weapon towards another employee nearby. And he would
44:23
Speaker 1: wound him as he fled for cover behind his car.
44:25
Speaker 1: And inside the building, 23-year-old Buddy Williams was near the
44:29
Speaker 1: front desk. And Farley would walk up to him and
44:31
Speaker 1: fire at him in point-blank range. And Williams would be
44:34
Speaker 1: killed instantly. And this was just the beginning because with
44:37
Speaker 1: every step that Farley took, he would get closer and
44:40
Speaker 1: closer to Laura Black, taking people's lives during the process.
44:44
Speaker 1: So as Richard Farley stormed into the ESL building, the
44:47
Speaker 1: halls were filled with terror. And he moved methodically through
44:50
Speaker 1: this building because he knew it at the back of
44:52
Speaker 1: his hand. And in the stairwell, he encountered another employee
44:55
Speaker 1: and would shoot them without hesitation.
44:56
Speaker 2: Any hesitation.
44:57
Speaker 1: And then would come the next four victims, which were
45:00
Speaker 1: two men and two women, and all gunned down in
45:03
Speaker 1: the hallway as Farley moved closer to Laura's wing. And
45:06
Speaker 1: at this very moment, Laura was inside her office and
45:09
Speaker 1: she heard those gunshots and she was absolutely terrified because
45:13
Speaker 1: she was hearing the screams outside her office. She was
45:16
Speaker 1: hearing the shotgun shells go off and and she knew
45:19
Speaker 1: exactly who it was. It was a person that she
45:22
Speaker 1: had warned people about, the person that made her beg
45:25
Speaker 1: for help, but nothing happened, and now he was coming
45:28
Speaker 1: down the hallway. So terrified and unable to move, Laura
45:32
Speaker 1: would just sit in her office and wait, and she
45:34
Speaker 1: would know for sure that it was Farley, when he
45:37
Speaker 1: shouted her name down the hallway. And at this point,
45:40
Speaker 1: Laura would scramble to barricade the door in her office
45:42
Speaker 1: and she would wedge furniture against it. But it wouldn't
45:45
Speaker 1: be enough to stop Farley because he would get to
45:47
Speaker 1: his door and he would raise his 12-gauge shotgun and
45:50
Speaker 1: fire directly into the wooden door. And that blast towards
45:53
Speaker 1: the door would shoot into Laura's left shoulder and it
45:56
Speaker 1: would throw her back on the floor completely and shrapnel
45:59
Speaker 1: and pellets ripped into her chest. And unfortunately, some of
46:02
Speaker 1: that shrapnel would puncture her lung and blood would spread
46:05
Speaker 1: across the carpet. She didn't die. Because barely conscious, Laura
46:10
Speaker 1: lay still, pretending to be dead. And this was a
46:12
Speaker 1: decision that may have actually saved her life. And Farley,
46:16
Speaker 1: seeing what he had done, he had actually hit Laura Black,
46:19
Speaker 1: the obsession, his whole world. He decided that that was enough,
46:24
Speaker 1: that she didn't necessarily need to die now. And he
46:27
Speaker 1: would later state that he wanted her to remember what
46:29
Speaker 1: she had caused. which is so f * * *
46:32
Speaker 1: ed up. So he would not fire at Laura again,
46:35
Speaker 1: but he would continue his rampage. And more employees would
46:39
Speaker 1: be wounded, and some were even shot through doors, while
46:42
Speaker 1: others hid in closets and under desks. A few people
46:45
Speaker 1: even jumped from windows to escape Richard. But Farley was
46:49
Speaker 1: still inside, armed and mobile. Meanwhile, Laura Black was bleeding, dazed,
46:54
Speaker 1: and gasping for breath. So she would clutch her shoulder
46:57
Speaker 1: to slow the bleeding, just drifting in and out of consciousness.
47:00
Speaker 1: But for the moment, Richard Farley was still in control
47:03
Speaker 1: of this building. So at approximately 3.15 p.m., alarms blaring
47:07
Speaker 1: and the building under siege, Richard Farley called the police himself.
47:11
Speaker 1: And what he did, he picked up the phone and
47:13
Speaker 1: his voice was calm. And he would say to 911 dispatcher,
47:17
Speaker 1: I'm the one who's been wasting people. And he would
47:19
Speaker 1: describe what he had done. And he would blame Laura
47:22
Speaker 1: Black and the restraining order for pushing him over the edge,
47:25
Speaker 1: which is... insane and then would come the threat and
47:29
Speaker 1: that was that if the police came any closer than
47:32
Speaker 1: 300 yards he would begin killing hostages and thus began
47:36
Speaker 1: a five hour standoff with SWAT team position snipers and
47:41
Speaker 1: Farley in the building ready to wreak havoc and snipers
47:44
Speaker 1: would try to find Farley in the building but he
47:46
Speaker 1: kept moving through the building so it was very difficult
47:49
Speaker 1: to find a clean shot But Lieutenant Ruben Grialva, a
47:53
Speaker 1: trained police negotiator, made contact with Farley by phone. And
47:56
Speaker 1: for hours, Ruben engaged the killer in conversation, navigating his
48:00
Speaker 1: mood swings from rage to self-pity to eerie detachment. And
48:04
Speaker 1: Farley never expressed any remorse during these hours. And he
48:08
Speaker 1: would claim that the people he shot, besides Laura Black,
48:11
Speaker 1: were simply in his way. But he did say one
48:13
Speaker 1: thing that stood out. And that is that he had
48:16
Speaker 1: hoped that Laura Black had actually survived because he wanted
48:19
Speaker 1: her to remember what she had caused. Meanwhile, Laura had
48:22
Speaker 1: actually gained consciousness despite the immense pain and a collapsed lung.
48:26
Speaker 1: But she would stay in her office, quiet and hidden,
48:29
Speaker 1: just terrified that he might return to finish her off.
48:32
Speaker 1: But eventually, other survivors would actually help Laura Black move
48:35
Speaker 1: to a safer location. But the standoff would just drag on.
48:38
Speaker 1: And by 4.30, negotiators would actually convince Farley to let
48:42
Speaker 1: a rescue team into the building to help wounded survivors.
48:45
Speaker 1: And several people, including Laura, were rushed out to waiting ambulances.
48:49
Speaker 1: And still, Farley f * * * ed.
48:51
Speaker 2: F * * * ing yapped. And he would mention sluerslide.
48:54
Speaker 1: He said that he wanted to gloat a little before
48:57
Speaker 1: giving up and even bragged about having enough ammo to
49:00
Speaker 1: fight for two more hours. On top of being a
49:03
Speaker 1: psycho stalker killer, he's also narcissistic as hell. But finally,
49:08
Speaker 1: as darkness fell, Farley would make an unexpected demand and
49:11
Speaker 1: that would be, quote, I'll come out if you get
49:13
Speaker 1: me a number 26 sandwich from the deli, turkey, ham,
49:18
Speaker 1: and cheese and a diet pepperoni.
49:20
Speaker 2: And the police would agree.
49:22
Speaker 1: Just....
49:24
Speaker 2: I have no words.
49:25
Speaker 1: So at 8.30 PM, Richard Farley would lay down his
49:28
Speaker 1: weapons and exit the building with his hands raised. And
49:31
Speaker 1: SWAT officers would swarm him and arrest him on the spot.
49:34
Speaker 1: But inside ESL, the aftermath just looked like a complete
49:38
Speaker 1: war zone because seven people now were dead. and four
49:42
Speaker 1: others had been shot. But Laura Black was alive, and
49:45
Speaker 1: now finally, so was the truth. So in the weeks
49:48
Speaker 1: and months following the massacre at ESL, the community struggled
49:52
Speaker 1: to process what had happened. Because the name Laura Black
49:55
Speaker 1: became known far beyond the walls of Sunnyville Office Park.
49:59
Speaker 1: She wasn't just a survivor, but a symbol of resilience,
50:02
Speaker 1: of missed warning signals and of a system that failed
50:05
Speaker 1: to act in time. And Laura would spend 19 days
50:08
Speaker 1: in hospital, recovering from the gunshot wounds, and she would
50:11
Speaker 1: undergo multiple surgeries. But despite all of the fear and trauma,
50:15
Speaker 1: she decided to actually testify at Farley's trial. And Richard
50:18
Speaker 1: Farley would ultimately be convicted on seven counts of first
50:21
Speaker 1: degree murder, among numerous other charges and sentenced to death
50:25
Speaker 1: in 1991. And he still remains on California's death row
50:29
Speaker 1: to this day, having exhausted most of his appeals. And
50:32
Speaker 1: throughout this whole process, he never expressed any sort of
50:35
Speaker 1: genuine remorse, continuing to blame his actions on everyone but himself.
50:40
Speaker 1: Just a genuine piece of shit. But Farley's violence had
50:44
Speaker 1: a consequence he could never have predicted, and that was
50:46
Speaker 1: that it actually changed the law. Because at the time
50:49
Speaker 1: of the shooting, stalking was not a specific crime. And
50:53
Speaker 1: restraining orders were often ineffective. Because in Farley's case, the
50:56
Speaker 1: restraining order had not even prevented him from legally purchasing firearms.
51:00
Speaker 1: And that oversight and the overwhelming public outrage that followed
51:04
Speaker 1: sparked rapid change. And in 1990, California became the first U.S.
51:08
Speaker 1: state to pass an anti-stalking law, making credible threats and
51:12
Speaker 1: repeated harassment criminal offenses. And that law soon became a
51:16
Speaker 1: model for the nation. And within just a few years,
51:18
Speaker 1: every state in the US had passed similar legislation. And
51:22
Speaker 1: as one court commissioner bluntly put it, quote, Pieces of
51:25
Speaker 1: paper do not stop bullets. So the new laws aim
51:28
Speaker 1: to give those pieces of paper some teeth, providing legal
51:31
Speaker 1: recourse for the victims and earlier intervention for authorities before
51:35
Speaker 1: violence could erupt.
51:36
Speaker 2: I think that they need to be encouraged to take
51:40
Speaker 2: action if in fact they're being stopped.
51:42
Speaker 1: And in the years since the attack, Laura Black rebuilt
51:44
Speaker 1: her life. She actually returned to ESL, then later continued
51:48
Speaker 1: her engineering career elsewhere. And quietly, but persistently, she actually
51:52
Speaker 1: became an advocate for workplace safety and stalking awareness, sharing
51:56
Speaker 1: her story to help train law enforcement, employers, and mental
52:00
Speaker 1: health professionals on the warning signs that were missed in
52:02
Speaker 1: her case. So in the end, Laura Black's case is
52:05
Speaker 1: not just one of survival, but transformation from targeted victim
52:09
Speaker 1: to national advocate. And her experience helped ensure that future
52:12
Speaker 1: victims might not have to suffer the same fate and
52:15
Speaker 1: that stalking would never again be dismissed as, harmless infatuation.
52:20
Speaker 2: So that is the end of the video.
52:23
Speaker 1: Please let me know any other cases you want me
52:25
Speaker 1: to deep dive in down below. I always read your
52:28
Speaker 1: comments and also just be safe out there and know
52:32
Speaker 1: that I appreciate you so so much and I will
52:35
Speaker 1: see your beautiful face in the next video.
52:37
Speaker 2: Okay, bye!