Cassie Jo Stoddart was a 16-year-old high school student with her whole life ahead of her. She was a straight-A student who took school seriously. She didn't do much in the ways of extracurriculars, but was a friendly girl who was on good terms with just about everybody. Unfortunately, on September 22nd, 2006, her promising life was cut short.
That day, Casie had been house-sitting for her aunt and uncle, several miles away from her own house in Pocatello, Idaho. She invited her boyfriend, Matt Beckham, over for some company. Matt brought along two friends—Torey Adamcik and Brian Draper. Unbeknownst to Matt, these friends would become savage killers in a matter of hours.
Adamcik and Draper had been classmates of Cassie, but they had big aspirations. They wanted to become world-famous killers, known for clever killings like they'd seen in the movie Scream. The boys devised a "death list" that contained the name of several peers. That night, Cassie would find herself at the top of the list.
The four high schoolers spent roughly two hours together before Adamcik and Draper left the house. However, Draper had secretly unlocked the basement door so he and Adamcik could sneak back in to carry out their fame-making crime.
When they returned later that evening, the boys parked down the street and got dressed up in dark clothing, gloves, and painted masks. They crept back into the home through the unlocked door as Cassie and her boyfriend watched TV upstairs, and proceeded to weave hours of terror for the young couple. They made loud noises in the basement, trying to lure the others down to scare them. When that failed, they tracked down the circuit breaker and cut all the power to the house.
Beckham reported that during these fear-striking attempts, one of the family dogs kept post at the basement stairs, barking and growling at what appeared to be nothing. Cassie was rattled, and Beckham called his mother to ask if he could spend the night with her to soothe her nerves. His mother denied his request, but offered to let Cassie come over to their house for the night, instead. Feeling responsible for the home and the dogs, Cassie refused this offer—a fatal decision.
Cassie was left alone in the house at around 10:30 PM. As Beckham was on the way home with his mother, he called Adamcik with hopes of meeting up with him and Draper later. Adamcik answered his cell, speaking in a whisper so low Beckham could barely hear him. The strange communication had Beckham assuming that the boys were out at a movie theater.
Of course, they were actually still hunkered down in the basement, waiting to bring a movie of their own to life. Once again, Adamcik and Draper cut the lights, hoping Cassie would make her way down stairs to restore power. When she stayed up in the living room, the boys stalked their way upstairs, Adamcik with a hunting knife and Draper with a dagger.
Cassie was asleep on the couch, and Draper hoped to scare her awake by slamming a closet door. When the scare tactic failed, the two boys pounced. Adamcik and Draper stabbed Cassie approximately 30 times. A dozen of those wounds were fatal. When they were done, they simply left Cassie to bleed out.
Beckham hung out with Adamcik the day after the murder. He tried to get into contact with Cassie, but his constant calls went unanswered. Her body wasn't found until two days after her death, on September 24th.
It was relatively apparent to investigators that Adamcik and Draper were the last people to ever see Cassie alive. Adamcik was brought in for questioning the same day Cassie's body was discovered, and he spun a tale that he and Draper had arrived at the house for a party, but left when things never kicked into action. He said that, instead, he and Draper went to see a movie before crashing at his house. However, Adamcik couldn't recall any details about the movie they'd allegedly seen just two nights prior.
Shortly after this, Draper was interrogated. He claimed that he had been in the room when Adamcik killed Cassie, but denied taking part in the stabbing. He changed his story to admit that he had stabbed her, but only under orders from Adamcik. He guided the authorities to evidence he'd stashed in the Black Rock Canyon area, which included four knives, a mask, latex gloves, and the videotape that contained not only footage of the boys planning Cassie's murder, but continuing on to react to it after her death.
A transcript of the tape was used in court to demonstrate the cold nature of this premeditated murder. It displayed how the boys had hoped to make history by becoming serial killers. In the tape, they referenced several real life serial killers like the Hillside Strangler, the Zodiac Killer, and Ted Bundy, as well as Columbine mass shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Brian Draper was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder on April 17th, 2007. Torey Adamcik was convicted on the same charges on June 8th, 2007. The both of them got life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 30 years to life.
