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The Disturbing story of the 'Scream killers' who fatally stabbed their classmate just for fun
In September 2006, a brutal crime stunned the community of Bannock County, Idaho. Two teenagers had fatally stabbed their 16-year-old classmate Cassie Jo Stoddart in a macabre plot inspired by the movie "Scream." Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper murdered Stoddart as part of their plan to become infamous serial killers — and they captured the grisly aftermath on camera. After stabbing Stoddart 30 times, Draper filmed himself saying, "We just left her house. This is not a f—ing joke. I stabbed her in the throat… Dude, I just killed Cassie."
Adamcik and Draper were arrested five days after the murder, though Draper initially denied his involvement. He first said that he simply watched Adamcik stab Stoddart, but he later changed his story to claim that Adamcik forced him to participate. Draper ultimately led police to Black Rock Canyon, where the teens had ditched their clothing, masks, weapons, and the video camera that contained the proof of their crimes. Learn more about the horror movie-inspired murder that was captured on film by clicking the link in our profile.
High school student Cassie Jo Stoddart had the world ahead of her when her life was cut short by two of her classmates, Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper, who wanted to become world-famous killers.
Mimicking what they’d in the cult horror classic Scream, the two boys stalked and filmed Stoddart before stabbing her to death in September 2006. The killers even had the gall to document their crime on video — a move that would later come back to haunt them.
The Night Cassie Jo Stoddart Was Killed
On Sept. 22, 2006, 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart was house-sitting for her aunt and uncle just a few miles away from her own residence in Pocatello, Idaho.
Stoddart was known to family and friends as a responsible, straight-A student. “She didn’t do anything but attend school,” the sheriff responsible for her case later said. “She didn’t do anything but be friends with somebody else, and just about everybody.”
That night, Stoddart invited her boyfriend, Matt Beckham, to join her at the house. Beckham, in turn, invited his friend Torey Adamcik who brought along Brian Draper. The two boys were Pocatello-born and, unknown to anyone, were keeping a “death list” that contained the names of several of their friends and classmates.
One such name was “Cassie Jo Stoddart.”
The two boys spent about two hours at the house before leaving. But unbeknownst to Stoddart, Draper had unlocked the basement door so that he and Adamcik could sneak back in later that same evening.
The Brutal Murder
When the two boys returned, they parked down the street, put on dark clothing, gloves, and masks. Then, they snuck back into the residence through the basement door while Beckham and Stoddart watched TV in the living room.
Draper and Adamcik proceeded to make loud noises in an effort to lure Stoddart and Beckham down to the basement “to scare them.” But when that didn’t work, the pair located the circuit breaker and turned off all the power in the house.
This frightened Cassie Jo Stoddart, whose boyfriend later remarked that one of the family dogs kept staring down the basement stairs, barking and growling at what seemed to be nothing. Beckham consequently called his mother, hoping to get permission to spend the night so Stoddart could be at ease.
But Beckham’s mother refused and offered, instead, to have Stoddart spend the night at the Beckham house. But ever responsible, Stoddart declined, saying she needed to be there for the pets and the home left in her care.
This decision would ultimately prove fatal.
At around 10:30 p.m., Beckham’s mother picked him up, leaving Cassie Jo Stoddart at the house alone. On his way home, Beckham called Adamcik’s cell phone to see where he and Draper had gone, hoping to meet up with them later that night.
But Beckham could barely hear Adamcik when he answered as he was talking in a low whisper on the phone. Beckham assumed that meant they were out watching a movie.
Of course, they were still in the basement below Stoddart. For a second time, the boys threw the circuit breaker and waited, hoping Stoddart would come downs to turn the lights back on. When she didn’t, the killers went upstairs.
Draper was armed with a dagger-style weapon, and Adamcik had a hunting-type knife in his hands.
Draper opened and slammed a closet door hoping to scare Stoddart, who was asleep on the couch. When this attempt to frighten her failed, Draper and Adamcik attacked. The two stabbed her approximately 30 times, 12 of which were fatal.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Garrison later testified that most of the fatal wounds struck the right ventricle of Stoddart’s heart.
The killers left her body to bleed out and fled.
The following day, Beckham and Adamcik met up while Beckham repeatedly tried to call Stoddart. Her body wasn’t recovered until two days after her murder on Sept. 24, 2006.
The responding officers noted that Stoddart’s body was covered in blood and riddled with deep lacerations and stab wounds.
It didn’t take long for investigators to determine that Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper were the last people to see Cassie Jo Stoddart alive.
Torey Adamcik was interrogated that same day, and he initially told detectives that he and Draper had gone to the house at approximately 8:30 p.m. to attend a party. When the party never materialized, he and Draper left the house to catch a film, after which both boys slept at Adamcik’s house.
But when the detectives probed Adamcik about the movie he had reportedly seen that night, he couldn’t remember anything about it.
Three days later, Brian Draper led law enforcement to a stash of evidence he’d buried in the Black Rock Canyon area. The evidence included two dagger-style knives with sheaths, a silver and black-handled knife with a smooth blade, a folding knife, a red and white mask, latex gloves, and a damning videotape that contained footage of both killers explicitly planning Stoddart’s murder.
The tape also included footage of them later reacting to having killed her.
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