Crime Time ~ Your Worst Nightmare ~ “When the Lights Go Out”

#CrimeTime with Alicia Dean ~ 

 

Your Worst Nightmare, Season 1 Episode 2, When the Lights Go Out

Pocatello, Idaho, September 22, 2006

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart is house-sitting for her aunt and uncle one weekend. On Friday night, her boyfriend comes over to hang out with her, and he invites a few friends over. The friends only stay for a brief time, then decide to go to a movie. Later, Cassie and Matthew are watching TV, and the lights go out. Matthew searches the house but finds nothing amiss. The lights come back on, and the teens decide it’s just the wiring, since the house is old. Cassie is a little freaked out and wants Matthew to stay, but his mom will not let him. She tells him that Cassie can come stay at their house, but Cassie refuses. She’s made a commitment to her aunt and uncle, and she’s going to go through with it.

The family comes home on Sunday, and Cassie’s 13-year-old cousin discovers Cassie’s body in the living room. She has been stabbed repeatedly. The police begin the investigation. They start with her boyfriend, and he tells them the details of that night. The police then speak with the two friends, Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper, both sixteen. They state they were at a movie. The detective asks what actors were in the movie, they can’t answer. He asks what the plot was about, and they can’t answer. These two boys are obsessed with movies, especially horror movies, and it’s rather suspicious that they are clueless about a movie they supposedly watched two days prior.

The police turn up the heat and Brian Draper cracks. He comes into the station and begins crying, telling the police that they did it, but it was Torey, not him, and he thought they were just going to scare her. He takes them to a spot where they buried evidence. Police recover several articles of black clothing, three knives, two masks and a homemade videotape. When they play the tape, they are horrified to discover that it is of the teens, planning and laughing about the murder, then afterward, discussing it.

Here is a partial transcript of the tapes:

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Before the murder, Adamcik told Draper, “we’re not going to get caught,” to which Draper replies, “we’re going to make history,”

The transcript includes conversation between Adamcik and Draper referencing horror-slasher films like “Scream” and comparing themselves to serial killers like Ted Bundy, the Hillside Strangler and the Zodiac Killer.

“Those people were mere amateurs compared to what we are going to be,” Adamcik said.

In another segment of the transcript, Draper says “I feel like I want to kill somebody. Uh, I know that’s not normal, but what the hell.”

Adamcik replied, “I feel we need to break away from normal life.”

Adamcik and Draper were laughing while the camera was rolling, and during one segment, Draper said the two had tried, unsuccessfully, to kill on eight or nine previous occasions.

“But they’ve never been home alone,” Draper said.

And Adamick replied by saying, “Or when they have, their parents show up.”

Draper said he and Adamcik identified Stoddart as their victim the day before the murder, despite claiming she was their friend.

“We’ll find out if she has friends over, if she’s going to be alone in a big dark house out in the middle of nowhere. How perfect can you get?” Draper said.

“I’m horny just thinking about it,” Adamcik replied.

***************

How sickening is this? The sorry bastards. Catching these monsters most likely saved a lot of lives.

The two are arrested, tried and convicted of first degree murder. They are sentenced to life without parole. They have attempted over the years to have their sentences overturned. Adamcik claimed he had ineffective counsel and that his sentence was cruel and unusual punishment. What an evil little weasel. What about the cruel and unusual punishment Cassie suffered at his hands? It is irrelevant that they were only sixteen. They were certainly old enough to know what they were doing was so wrong. And, they did it with malicious glee.

The entire family has suffered so much. The aunt and uncle could not go back into the home. They moved away, and the house wouldn’t sell because of the horror that took place there. Cassie’s cousin who found her was a mess and later attempted suicide. Such a shame and a tragedy.

[I love true crime shows, and I watch them every night. (Since I write suspense, thriller, and mystery, it’s not a waste of time…it’s research, right? 🙂 ) I love Investigation Discovery and watch many of the various shows, although some are a little too cheesy. However, there are plenty of shows that are done well enough to feed my fascination with murder. Each week, I’ll blog about some of the recent episodes I’ve seen and I’d love to know your thoughts.]