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- [00:03]
Katie Ring
Hi Crime House Community. It's Katie looking for another Crime House original podcast to add to your rotation. You will love Clues with Morgan Abshur and Kaylin Moore. Every Wednesday, Morgan and Kaylin dig into the world's most notorious crimes, clue by clue, from serial killers to shocking murders. They follow the trail of clues, break down the evidence and debate the theories. It's like hanging out with your smart and true crime obsessed friends. Listen to clues on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [00:45]
This is Crime House. Tonight's case and ones like it make me absolutely furious with our justice system and the lack of protection for victims of stalking. A Hollywood actress and her young daughter were subjected to relentless stalking for over a decade as someone going by the name Freddy Krueger sent them letters containing extremely graphic and violent threats. Now both women are speaking out about the realities of stalking and the all consuming impact it has on victims lives. Let's get into it. Emmy Award winning actor Eva Larue says she was at the pinnacle of her career starring in the hit CBS show Miami when her world came crashing down. Larue and her daughter Kaya endured 12 years of terror at the hands of a relentless stalker. Even the FBI can't figure out who's behind them.
- [01:43]
Hi, welcome to Crime House Daily. I'm your host Katie Ring. Here we follow the cases making headlines now where justice is still unfolding. Follow us wherever you're listening and if you want ad free episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide, guilt or innocence. So everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
- [02:24]
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- [03:01]
Katie Ring
Tonight we're covering a case about a Hollywood dream that turned into a nightmare in 2005. Eva LaRue was at the height of her career. She had just landed a role on the hit show Miami after a successful soap opera run on the show All My Children. But. But with this new role that skyrocketed Eva into the spotlight, she started getting some unwanted attention in the form of threatening letters from a man calling himself Freddy Krueger. On her show, Eva was helping solve cases with her character's expertise in DNA analysis. But in real life, it wasn't so easy. Despite having DNA evidence and fingerprints from the letters from her stalker, nothing was showing up. And for years, this stalker became an invisible, faceless man, impossible to prepare for. He could be anywhere at any time. And the fear of the unknown left Eva and her daughter constantly fearing for their lives. They were forced to move three times over the course of 12 years to try and escape the torment, until finally, in 2019, the stalker was caught. Since then, Eva and her daughter have used their platform to spread awareness of the dangers of the effects of stalking related crimes. And on November 13, 2025, they shared their story with the world in an original documentary that's streaming on Paramount. So where did it all begin? Let's get into it. Eva LaRue was born in Long Beach, California on December 27, 1966. As the oldest of four children, they grew up in a town called Norco, which Eva describes as a cowboy horse town, an hour and a half away from la. When she was young, her parents started having constant huge fights and her mom ended up fleeing with the kids. Eva said that she grew up in a stressful environment and her family was on welfare, but that her mom was always very loving and supportive because of her situation. Growing up, Eva knew from a very early age that becoming a star would be her ticket out of poverty. She started acting in commercials at 6 years old and participated in teenage beauty pageants, including winning Miss California Empire 1984 when she was 17. She graduated from Norco High School the following year and began a career in modeling, including for the iconic lingerie brand Fredericks of Hollywood. Eventually, though, Eva wanted to be known for more than just her looks, so she started her acting career. She worked on shows like Candid Camera, but it wasn't until she began auditioning for soap operas that her career really took off. In 1993, when Eva was 26, she was cast in the role of Dr. Maria Santos Grey on All My Children, one of the most iconic soaps of all time. Eva's role on the show launched her into stardom, and Dr. Maria Santos Grey became one of the show's most popular characters. Eva was even nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Best supporting actress in 1997, the year after joining the show, Eva's on screen romance moved into her real life when she fell in love with her co star John Callahan, the actor who played her character's husband. The chemistry between the two was undeniable. But at the time, Eva was married to the actor John o', Hurley, who was best known for his role as Jay Peterman on Seinfeld. But her feelings for John Callahan wouldn't go away and soon she and o' Hurley split up. Two years after their divorce was finalized, she and Callahan tied the knot. And this new chapter came with some other big changes in Eva's life as well. Around the same time, she decided to leave All My Children and transition into other roles. She booked some starring roles in sitcoms and TV movies. But she was also about to step into another big role. In December 2001, 35 year old Eva and her husband John welcomed their daughter Kaia. And after taking a few months off from acting to enjoy new motherhood, Eva and John brought their relationship back to the small screen. Eva returned to All My Children where she and Callahan's characters resumed their on screen romance. But in real life, their romance was falling apart at the seams and in 2005 they ended up getting a divorce. However, after a short period of awkwardness, right after the divorce, they remained good friends and continued to become great co parents to their daughter Kaia. Meanwhile, Eva shifted her career focus once more. She left All My Children again, but this time she landed a life changing role as the DNA investigator Natalia Boavista on the hit show Miami. Eva's starring role gave her legions of new fans and a lot of attention, but not all of this was wanted and some of it turned dangerous. In 2007, partway through Eva's second season on the show, Eva received a handwritten letter sent to her through her manager and publicist. The letter described gruesome things that the writer wanted to do to Eva. In graphic detail, he wrote things like My master Satan and I will use your beautiful body for our twisted ways. The letter was signed Freddy Krueger after the villain of the horror films Nightmare on Elm Street. Eva was extremely disturbed by the letter and went to talk to Mike Scott, who had been the head of homicide at the LA County Sheriff's Office and had become the tech advisor for CSI Miami. In his time as a police officer, he had seen a lot of stalking cases and he knew the unfortunate reality how basically nothing is done in our legal system to protect victims of stalking. He told her to call the police, to notify them of the situation, but that they probably wouldn't do anything. She called, and Mike was correct. They noted the incident and said, unless you were raped, assaulted, beat up, or your house was broken into, there's nothing we can do. But then, over the next week, Eva received three more letters like this, all postmarked from different cities in Ohio and all containing graphic and violent threats. By this point, Eva made the terrorizing realization that that not only was someone stalking her, he was coherent, the violence was escalating, and they believed the stalker was capable of carrying out these threats. Eva kept receiving letter after letter, lying out the graphic details of what he was going to do to her and her young daughter. The contents were so graphic, Mike started to get worried how this was escalating. And since the letters were coming from Ohio, this could become an interstate investigation. So he reached out to his contacts in the FBI. Luckily, due to the violent nature of these letters, the FBI took this extremely seriously. They had Eva's publicist, who had been the person receiving the letters, handle the letters with latex gloves, put them in a plastic bag, and send them to the FBI lab for forensic testing. They were able to get both his DNA and fingerprints, but there were no hits on aphis, which is the National Database for Fingerprints, or codis, the National Database for DNA. The only time I laughed in the documentary was when Mike said that, yeah, csi had a 100% solve rate. And it's true, every episode ended with them catching the killer. But now Eva faced a strange contradiction. Every day she'd show up to work on CSI Miami and pretend to solve crimes. But the real life crime she was facing wasn't so easy to crack. She felt completely powerless when it came to her own situation. But all she could do was try to keep living her life. She felt some safety in the fact that Kaya stayed with her dad in Palm Desert on the weekends. But the fear was still overwhelming, and especially without a face. Anyone could be her stalker. It could be a fan at an event, or even someone at the grocery store or in the parking lot. She had to be hyper aware of her surroundings at all times. When she would get home, she would get out of her car and search any hiding spaces in the garage and then in the house. The CSI Miami set was one place she felt safe. But once she left that lot, the fear of someone following her home or someone attacking her and her daughter loomed over her. Luckily, back when she was buying her house, her friend, whose name you may recognize, Sarah Michelle Geller, advised her to buy it under an LLC so that if she ever got a stalker, the address wouldn't be linked to her. And although this gave them some semblance of safety, the stalker consumed her and her daughter's lives. In the documentary, Eva said that terror seems like such a small word when you're having a full body breakdown. This affected every part of her life, but she had to put it in a box every day when she showed up for work. She even started losing her hair. Eva was devastated when her daughter started having nightmares. She could feel how her stress was seeping through to her daughter and it left her feeling completely helpless.
- [12:44]
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- [14:08]
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- [14:32]
Katie Ring
Try now@windows.com copilot In 2007, Eva LaRue's success on the hit show CSI Miami was overshadowed by horrifying letters she was receiving from a stalker who identified themselves as Freddy Krueger. It was consuming her and her daughter's every waking moment and even started haunting them in their dreams. So when one of Eva's friends invited her and Kaya to come live with them in Italy for a few months while they were on a hiatus from filming CSI Miami, she jumped at the opportunity. She thought her stalker wouldn't be able to find her in Italy, and it was a time she could finally relax and unwind. However, that sense of protection and ease slipped away. A day and a half after landing in Italy, Eva woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of her bedroom door opening. The hallway light was on and Eva noticed someone standing in their doorway. She thought it was her friend, so she went back to sleep. But in the morning she learned that the house had been broken into. Thankfully, though, the burglar wasn't her stalker, and in a strange way, this made Eva feel empowered. She felt like this was her sign from God that she had been waiting for. She believed this was God's way of saying that he was going to keep her safe. So when CSI resumed filming, Eva and Kaya returned to the United States. But Eva was determined not to let anything happen to her family, and she did everything she could to prevent the stalker from finding them. Unfortunately, the FBI still hadn't been able to identify Eva's stalker. So she installed security cameras, gates, and listened intently to every safety tip Mike gave her. She felt empowered and like she had created a little fortress that gave them some protection. Until something transpired that Eva refers to as gate. Gate. Eva had put up two gates in front of her house to add an extra layer of protection. They were only six feet tall, but the town ordinance was that fences couldn't be above 5ft 8 inches or so. Despite explaining her entire situation and the seriousness of this stalker to her neighbors, she had to go to a town hall meeting to fight to keep her two gates. The town meeting was televised and one of the people on the board read her address out loud. Even after her explaining the entire situation, panic immediately set in. Paparazzi showed up at her house the very next day and they knew that if the paparazzi could find her, so could her stalker. So her brother, who owned a Moving company was able to move her out in two days. Luckily, at this time, she had just gotten engaged to Joe Cappuccio. And her and Kai were able to move into his home that was in a gated community and which gave them an added sense of security. She thought that once she had gotten engaged, the letters would calm down and the stalker would realize that she was now taken. But the stalker escalated even more. He sent letters to Joe's work. Eva and Kaya said that their time with Joe was the time they felt the safest. But three years later, the couple ended up getting a divorce. And although there were other contributing factors that led to the breakup, the stalking played a large role in their relationship ending. After the divorce, Eva and Kaia stayed in the gated community. And by this point, all of the letters had been forwarded to Eva through her publicist. But In June of 2016, Eva walked out to get the mail and was surprised by a handwritten letter. But the surprise quickly turned to dread when she immediately recognized the handwriting. After almost 10 years, her biggest fear came true. He had found their home address. Not only that, the letter was addressed directly to her daughter, Kaya. Before this point, she had told Kaya about the stalker, but had never mentioned how she was also a big fixation in his letters. She didn't tell her the details, but she needed to make sure Kaya was aware of the seriousness of this risk. Kaya was in high school at the time and she started to feel like she was in a cage. Every unknown face that showed up at her school could be the stalker. She started having panic attacks in her classes and constantly feared she would come home to her mom tied up, mutilated or dead. Eva described those words as absolute psychological terrorism. She said her worst fear was that the threats would become a reality, especially because they were receiving so many letters. By this point, they had gotten almost 40. And in October of 2019, another one of her worst fears came true. Their stalker decided to escalate things even further. At this point, Kaya was 17 and a senior in high school. And one day she got called to the principal's office. They notified her that her father had called and he said he was going to pick her up and that she should wait outside for him. But Kaia was confused because she and her dad hadn't made any plans for him to pick her up. So instead of going outside, Kaya, Kaya called her mom to ask if she knew anything about it. But Eva said no. Then Eva called her ex husband John to try and Figure it out. And that's when John told her he wasn't even in Los Angeles. Eva knew right away what was going on. Freddy had come to make good on his promise.
- [20:25]
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- [20:57]
After Eva LaRue stalker called her daughter Kaya's school In October of 2019, Eva hopped in her car immediately and rushed to pick up her daughter. Thankfully, nothing happened that day, but every possibility was running through their minds. Was he outside the school waiting for them? Was he going to follow them home? Was he finally going to make good on his promises? They didn't know where to turn, especially because they'd already moved twice to try and avoid any more mail. And if their stalker was able to find her school, he obviously knew a lot more about them than they thought. Two new FBI agents had been assigned to her case, though, and after this call, they knew they had to act fast. They gave the school a wiretap machine to trace the calls in case he called back. And he did, nearly 20 times. The principal's office called Kaya back in and apologized after hearing how sick and twisted those voicemails were. Their stalker, who had been invisible for so long, finally had a voice, and it was terrifying. Not only that, but he was escalating to calling, which was not a good sign, and the FBI was on it. As they were working in the background, Kaia had to be escorted to and from the school parking lot every day. The high school senior feared for her life every day. But thankfully, the new agents that were assigned to the case, Steve Kramer and Steve Bush, which they called Steve and Steve, were two of the agents who solved the infamous Golden State Killer case. The man who raped and murdered dozens of people during the 1970s and 80s. It had been a cold case for 42 years, but they used genetic genealogy to finally catch him. Although investigators in California had the suspect's DNA, it wasn't showing up in any of their databases. However, with genetic genealogy, they had access to sites like 23andMe and Ancestry.com and were able to identify many People who shared one relative in common. A man named Joseph James DeAngelo, who was a retired police officer from Northern California. This discovery gave authorities everything they needed to arrest and convict DeAngelo. About a year later, the FBI began to employ the same techniques in going after Eva and Kaya Stalker. When the stalker first started sending letters Back in 2007, Eva CSI Miami character was able to use DNA to to solve cold cases. But the difference between the show and reality is that in the show, the suspect's DNA would always be in the national DNA database, codis. In real life, however, a person's DNA is only in CODIS if they've committed a felony. So a lot of suspects don't ever show up. But now with genetic genealogy, they had access to other DNA resources that could help identify people related to the suspect and then allow them to track the suspect down. They finally had the technology on their side. Before Steve and Steve, the FBI was just hoping the stalker would get arrested and they would finally get a hit. But it never happened. But the men figured out that maybe they could use their tactics to prevent a case instead of just solving cold cases. They were able to use websites like 23andMe and Ancestry.com to narrow down their list of potential suspects. The FBI already had DNA and fingerprints from the letters that he had been sending Eva over the years. And they started building family trees off of that DNA from the genealogy databases. Luckily, they found a hit, and one of the families was based in Ohio, where all of the letters had been coming from. 12 years after Eva got her first letter, they found a suspect, James David Rogers, a nursing assistant living in a small town in Ohio. All signs pointed to James as a stalker, but they needed to be sure. At the time, James worked at a memory care facility, and two of the FBI agents pretended to be a brother and sister who were looking for a place for their parents. Before they moved in on him, they wanted to view his interactions with patients and his day to day schedule. They were disturbed that this man was caring for people's parents. But no one knew what was really going on. Behind the scenes, they were completely unaware of the sick letters he had been tormenting these two women with for years. FBI agents watched James as he went about his day. They followed him as he left work and ate at an Arby's restaurant. When he threw away his drink, the agents took the straw for DNA testing. And when they got the results back, it matched the DNA sample taken from the envelopes. One morning in November of 2019, not long after he'd left another voicemail at Kaya school. Agents descended on James at his house and arrested him. James was a 52 year old out of shape white guy who was living with his mom and sister. When his mom and sister were interviewed, they said they both had no clue what he was doing behind the scenes scenes. But as a kid, they would watch all my children together and he would watch it over and over. The FBI believed this is when his fascination first started. It was a huge day for Eva and Kaya, and it was also a milestone for law enforcement because according to the FBI, it was the first time forensic genealogy had solved a case at the federal level. Cases like the Golden State Killer were handled by local investigators. James was charged with two counts of mailing threatening communications, one count of threats by interstate communications, and two counts of stalking. He was looking at a maximum of 25 years in prison. James pleaded guilty on all counts, and at his sentencing In September of 2022, he appealed to the court by describing his abusive childhood and how he'd been bullied as a kid. He also spoke directly to Eva, so saying, I sincerely apologize for what I did for the last 12 years, putting you and your family through hellish behavior. I accept full responsibility. I hope you can put this behind you and at some point, never think about me again. Eva said. At first, Kaya didn't want to speak. But once she heard this man who had ruined their lives give ridiculous excuses for his actions and pleading for forgiveness and asking them if they could just put it behind them, she popped up and spoke her truth. Her mom was so proud. And it was a moment where she felt Kaya really took her power back. Eva didn't think she could put it behind her either. In her victim impact statement, she said, I forgive you, but I cannot forget the fear is with me forever. In the end, the court decided to go easy on James and he was sentenced to 40 months in prison, which is just over three years, with another three years of probation after that. Eva said that him only getting a little more than three years for 12 years of stalking was more than disappointing. It was devastating. They were relieved that they could stop looking over their shoulders for the next few years. But she also told the court she was worried what James would do once he got out of prison. After only 24 months served, James was released from prison and his probation will end in 2027. But rather than go back to living in fear, Eva and Kaya decided to speak out. On November 13, 2025, the documentary My Nightmare Stalker, the Eva LaRue Story aired on Paramount. In it, both women speak candidly about what they experienced during those 12 years and afterward. We absolutely need reform in how stalking is handled and charged. It makes me sick to my stomach how often nothing is done about stalking until the victim is killed. How can someone only be punished for 24 months after terrorizing a woman and her daughter for 12 years? He ruined the quality of their lives, ruined relationships, made them constantly look over their shoulder thinking any person at any time could be the person who would come after them and do these horrible things, he wrote. His actions caused nightmares, panic attacks and hopelessness. How are these devastating effects on these victims not met with the same level of repercussions? Also, if you're watching, this is a picture of the stalker. All these years they said they had pictured a Ted Bundy kind of character, but this guy was an old out of shape 52 year old loser living in his mom's basement with two contacts in his phone, his mom and Kaya's school. All this time this man who could barely walk terrorized them and the whole time they probably could have kicked his ass. These cases make me so mad because there is zero justice and I'm hoping with exposure to cases like this we can finally make some progress. I also hope that Eva and Kaya can also find the time and space to focus on themselves and their own healing. As always, we'll be sure to update you with any further developments on this story.
- [30:30]
What did you think of tonight's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments. See you next time. If you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel Rimehouse Daily and follow us on social media Rimehouse24.7 for real time updates because the pursuit of justice never stops.
- [30:56]
Looking for your next crime house? Listen, don't miss Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaylin Moore every Wednesday. Morgan and Kaylin take you deep into the world of the most notorious crimes ever. Clue by clue. It's like hanging out with your smart trip True crime obsessed friends listen to clues on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.