Two teenagers with a dream that was going to end in murder
Brian Lee Draper and Torey Michael Adamcik had been the best of friends since becoming classmates at Pocatello High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their shared hobby was filmmaking and one day they dreamed of being famous, as most 16 –year-olds do.
For them, unlike many teens across America, the dream was going to become a reality — but unfortunately in the wrong way.
Cassie Jo Stoddart was also a junior at the same school in 2006 along with her boyfriend, Matt Beckham. In September she was asked by her aunt and uncle to look after their house, their 3 cats, and 2 dogs in Bannock County while they were away.
Being quite mature and responsible for her age, they knew that their pets and property were in capable hands, and went away with their minds at ease. If only they knew what was about to transpire…
On September 22, Cassie invited her boyfriend around and he arrived around 6 pm. It was a surprise to Cassie when Draper and Adamcik turned up to just hang out, invited by Matt who had failed to tell her.
For Cassie, it wasn’t a problem and she gladly gave them a tour of the house, from the bedrooms above to the basement below. Afterward, they all settled down to watch a movie then Draper and Adamcik left before it ended to watch a feature movie at the local movie theater.
And then things started to get a little creepy.
First, the lights went out, throwing the house into complete darkness, strange shadows slinking across the walls. Cassie and Matt were further scared when some lights, but not all, came back on again. Strange.
But what was most disconcerting was how one of the dogs kept staring at the door that led down to the basement, an occasional bark or growl rumbling in its throat.
By this time, it was getting late and Matt was growing concerned about leaving Cassie by herself in the house. When he called his mother, she suggested that Cassie stay at their place rather than him staying in the house alone, but Cassie declined, taking her house-sitting duties seriously.
At 10.30 Matt was picked up by his mother, leaving Cassie all alone in a house with faulty lights and a couple of dogs whose hackles were up and whose ears were alert to every creak in the house.
If only she had known at that moment that she was not actually alone in the house…
What Cassie was completely unaware of was that the basement door that led outside had been left ajar by Brian Lee Draper and Torey Michael Adamcik earlier on in the night. Now, having crept back inside, they were playing with the circuit breaker in an attempt to scare Cassie and Matt and lure them down into the basement.
When that didn’t work, they just waited until Matt left, until Cassie was alone so they could begin the final scene of the movie they had started filming days ago.
Cassie Stoddart was in the living room when the lights went out again. A door slammed somewhere in the darkened house. The dogs started barking.
Their noise concealed the approach of Draper and Adamcik who had crept out of the basement, their eyes revealing that they were no longer intent on just instilling fear. On their faces they wore masks, in their hands they carried daggers.
The first that Cassie was aware of their presence was when the first blade was plunged into her body. She screamed, struggled, tried to get away, but both teenagers had practiced this scene beforehand and in a frenzied attack stabbed her over and over again until her screams were silenced and her struggles faded to nothing.
The scene completed, their lust to kill satisfied, the two friends left the house stealthily to dump all their blood-splattered clothes and the bloody knives in Black Rock Canyon.
When Cassie’s body was discovered, the police immediately concentrated on the last people to see her alive. Unsurprisingly, Draper and Adamcik were not as good at acting as they thought and they were soon the prime suspects. On September 27, they were both arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
At the trial in 2007, a piece of evidence was presented to the jury that was as damning as a piece of evidence could get. It was a videotape of Draper and Adamcik planning to kill Cassie in the exact same manner she had been murdered.
Both boys, at 17 years old, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
They were both unrepentant, Cassie Stoddart’s death nothing more than a plot in their homemade movie.
As budding filmmakers, they had yearned for fame, had wanted to create a celluloid masterpiece that would elevate them to cult status. Unfortunately, they had achieved the notoriety they had craved at the expense of a young girl’s life.
Their goal of becoming famous had been realized.
Regrettably, in the worst way imaginable.