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