The murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart - aka - The Scream Murder

In 2006, the murder of 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart stunned the small community of Pocatello.

As investigators began to piece together what happened, the case quickly took an unexpected and disturbing turn - one that would capture national attention and raise difficult questions about motive, influence, and intent.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hey, true crown foodies, welcome to recipe for murder. Hi, guys, and welcome to a brand new episode of Recipe for Murder. I am your host, Laura Michelle, and I first want to say thank you so much for joining me today. Um, we have a really, really rough one. So we're just gonna quickly get to our foodie news and then we'll move on to the case. I don't have a recipe for you guys tonight. I have something else. And it's, I don't know what to call it, so I'm calling it pizza hacks. I learned something today and I decided I wanted to try it. I'll tell you in just a minute. But then I started thinking about some of the other things that I do for pizza hacks. One of them, which I believe came, or one of them, which I believe was very popular in the pandemic, was using a tortilla for a pizza. We do that all the time now. It is so easy and it's so good. You get all the flavor you want. You're satisfied with the pizza that you're craving, and it's a fraction of the carbs and calories. Um, side note, cook the tortilla first. The first time I made it, I didn't do that, and I was basically eating it with a spoon. It's really easy. Cook a tortilla, add your toppings, pop it under the broiler, pull it out once all the cheese is all melty, let it sit for a few minutes, slice it. It is such a good late-night snack, also. It's just, we we always have ingredients on hand at my house at all times to make a tortilla pizza. The other little hacks that I have is if you are going to, if you're a veggie lover like myself and you're gonna make a homemade pizza, rather than buying all the produce, just go get a little bit of the produce from the um, from the salad bar at your local grocery store. That way you don't have to buy all of it and you can just get exact the right amount that you need. The other one is how to dress up a frozen pizza. You can obviously just add more toppings to it or keep it as is, and at the end, drizzle some hot honey or some arugula or some balsamic vinaigrette, or actually balsamic reduction, not vinaigrette. That probably would be a little bit messy. What's another hack that I have? Oh, reheating a pizza. Um, instead of doing it in the microwave, it takes a little bit longer, but cook it on your stovetop, put it in a skillet with a lid on it, and put a couple of ice cubes in there. When you cook it that way, it makes the pizza like ooey gooey again with the crust is a little bit um crispy. It's so good and so easy. The other one, if you have leftover vegetables like roasted vegetables, such as Brussels, throw them on your pizza. Great extra pizza toppings. The last hack that I have, I learned today. I saw a little article that said, if you have a cast iron skillet and a frozen pizza, then you can make a deep dish pizza. I had both, so I made it as soon as I got home. You want to pull your pizza out of the freezer, let it sit for about 20 minutes and thaw out, um, grease the cast iron, push the pizza in there, and it does, it fits perfectly like a deep dish. Add whatever else you want to. The directions that I saw said to cook it, basically cook it per package directions and add 10 minutes. No, no, no, no, no. It took at least an hour for this thing to cook. So if you're gonna make it, give yourself plenty of cooking time. And those are my pizza hacks. Moving on to our killer ingredient of the week. I am going to say this week chickpeas or garbanzo beans. They are just a really great pantry staple. One where they're the foundation of hummus. But you can also use them as a meat substitute for like tacos, just roast them in the oven with taco seasoning. They're really great. Um, I have used them in curries, I use them in soups, but and also they're just fun to snack on. So chickpeas and all my pizza hacks. Okay, enough about food that went a little bit longer than normal. Let's jump into the case. On the afternoon of Sunday, September 24th, 2006, Allison and Frank Contreras, along with their 13-year-old daughter Kelsey, returned home from a weekend away. As they approached the house, they could hear their dogs barking, excited to see them. Kelsey ran ahead, eager to greet the dogs. The Contreras family had asked their niece to stay at the house and watch their pets while they were away. She was saving money to buy a car and she was trying to prove that she was responsible, so she agreed. 13-year-old Kelsey walked in and unlocked the front door and called out to her cousin, but got no response. She walked further into the house and froze upon entering the living room. Once she understood what she was looking at, a blood-curdling scream followed. There on the living room floor, she found her 16-year-old cousin stabbed to death in a pool of blood. This is the horrific case of Cassie Joe Stoddard, aka the Scream murder. Let's start with talking about Cassie a little bit. Cassie was so smart and talented, she was born on December 21st, 1989 and lived in Paccadello, Idaho. I might be saying that wrong. She had two siblings, an older sister Christy, and a younger brother, Andrew, and they split their time between their mom Anna's house and their grandparents' house. Cassie grew up in a small community where everyone knew everyone. Cassie grew up in a small community where everyone knew each other. Pacadello, Pocketello, Pocketello is known to be safe, trustworthy. Pacatello is known to be a safe, trustworthy, welcoming place. And Cathy was artistically gifted. She loved to draw and act and was very creative. She was just one of those like really cool, artsy people. She also enjoyed sports, especially soccer, and she was a straight A student. She was also very pretty, long brown hair and a gorgeous smile. Basically, Cassie was the whole package. Her friends described her as headstrong, smart, and caring. At the time of her death, she was a junior at Poccatello High School and she was at the time of her death, she was dating At the time of her death, she was a junior at Pocketello High School and she had been dating her boyfriend, Matt Beckham, for about five months. Cassie was adored by everyone and had no enemies, so who would want to do this to her? Upon the grisly discovery of Cassie's body, her aunt Allison immediately called 911. She was screaming and panicking, and she told them, There's blood everywhere. We found our niece and she's dead. Police arrived at the scene soon after, and it was clear that she had been dead for a while. Her body was showing early signs of decomposition. Rigor mortis had set in and some odor was present. Crime scene text counted 27 stab wounds, which later would change to 30 during the war. Crime team tech Crime scene text counted 27 stab wounds, which will later change to 30 during the autopsy. So shortly after the police arrived, Anna Cassie's mom pulled up and she had no idea what was going on. She just knew, like she had a scheduled time that she was going to pick her up. She told her that she would be there at the time that her and uncle got home, so she had no idea. She literally just pulled up to this crime scene. When Alison saw her pull up, she went out to her, gave her the devastating news, and Anna just fell to the ground and began screaming and crying. The police acted immediately and began piecing together who had last seen Cassie alive, which led them to her boyfriend, Matt. Allison and Frank told the police that Cassie's boyfriend Matt was at their house on Friday night. She asked them for permission to invite him over to watch a movie and they said it was fine. Police drove The police drove to Matt's house the same day for questioning, and that's when he was informed that Cassie had been murdered. During the first interview, Matt seemed very unemotional, which concerned them. The detective initially viewed Matt as a possible suspect, considering he was the last person to see Cassie and his lack of emotion after receiving the news that his girlfriend had just been murdered. He admitted that he he admitted that he had picked her up Friday night, but then he left around eleven PM. He admitted that he had been with her Friday night, but that he left around eleven PM when his mom showed up to take him home. And he had not talked to her since. Matt said he got to Cassie's aunt and uncle's house around 6 p.m. with plans to watch a movie. Shortly after arriving, two of Matt's friends showed up. Those friends were Brian Draper and Tori Adamchick. Matt had invited them to hang out. Cassie was unaware that they were coming over and she was clearly unhappy with the situation. She promised her aunt and uncle that it would be only her and Matt, and she took her responsibility very seriously. She agreed to let them stay, but said that no one else was allowed to come over. Matt then said the four of them started a movie, but soon after, Brian and Tori said they had plans to go see a movie. So they left the house around 7 15 PM to go to the theater to watch the new release, which they sell was Slayer for. Matt told the police that after they left, he and Cassie started watching another movie. While watching the movie, the entire house lost power. The dogs were also eerily focused on the basement door, which kind of scared them both. He assumed it was probably a circuit breaker located down in the basement. He found a flashlight and opened the basement door to check it out. After taking only a few steps, the power came back on. So he closed the door and walked back to the living room and they started watching the movie like everything was fine. He then told the police that his mom showed up around 11 p.m. to pick him up and Cassie begged him to stay because she was really scared. He asked his mom if he could stay with her, but his mom was not comfortable with that. But she did offer for Cassie to stay with them and she said that she would bring her back in the morning. Cassie declined her offer because she wanted to keep her commitment. Cassie declined her offer because she wanted to keep her commitment to her aunt and uncle to stay at their house and watch their dogs. Matt's mom confirmed these events, so the police now shifted their focus to the other friends, Brian and Tori. However, Matt was not ruled out yet. Police then interviewed Brian and Tori separately and their stories aligned. They both said they showed up at Cassie's place expecting a party, but no one else came. They got bored and left soon after to see the new movie Slayer, and this satisfied the police for now. The police focused back on Matt while confirming the alibis of Brian and Tori. They asked him to come to the station for a lie detector test, and he agreed. Once again, Matt was unemotional over the situation, but he answered the questions asked by the polygrapher. Matt passed the polygraph test and was released by police, but he was still not off the hook. The detective followed up on Brian and Tori's claim that they went to see a movie. With a picture of each boy in hand, the detective went to the theater they said they went to. He showed their picture to the teenage girl behind the counter and she immediately knew who they were because she went to school with them. She said that she did work Friday night and that she was actually the ticket taker, and neither Brian nor Tori were there that night. So now the police have their first inconsistency in this case. The detective went back to both Brian and Tori for more questioning. They asked for more details regarding the movie, like simple questions like, who was in the movie? What was the plot? And literally neither one of them could provide that information. One said he couldn't remember, and the other said that he didn't know the names of the actors. And this was definitely enough for police to raise their suspicion, considering they both said they saw this movie and they have no idea who's even in it or what's it what's it about? Idiots. They then asked for both of them to come in for a polygraph test. On September 27th, five days after the murder, Brian went to the police station for his lie detector test, but that never happened. The lead detective, Jared Furriman, could tell that Brian needed to talk. Brian was quietly crying when the detective sat down. Jared told him to take his time and speak when ready. He then told him that he knew that they were lying about the movie and that his and Tori's stories were not adding up. Brian then said the following three words that changed everything. We went back. He told Jared that they went back to Cassie's house soon after leaving. Brian stated that they snuck back in through the back door and hid in the basement. He said, quote, We planned it, we talked about it before, we were going to scare her, like in a movie. The detective then asked, scare her or hurt her? Brian replied, It wasn't supposed to go that far. Tori wanted to. He wanted to do it for real. He then said, When we got back to the house, Cassie was on the couch. Tori had a knife. He just started stabbing her. I stabbed her too, but it was Tori who kept going. So basically he was trying to blame all this on Tori. The detective asked what they did with the knives and clothes, and Brian told him that they buried him in Black Rock Canyon. He said they had gloves, masks, and knives. Brian led them to the location, and police uncovered everything. The knives, the clothes, the gloves, the masks, and then a videotape of VHS. And I need to speak to these masks real quick. These aren't ski masks, or I'll post the picture on the on social media, but these aren't ski masks or something simple to hide their face. These masks are truly what nightmares are made of. They're homemade plastic masks white with blood running out of the eyes. It's like they almost look like a like a porcelain doll with just creepy blood dripping down. It is just so just evil looking. Back at the station, the detective and his team inserted the VHS into the player. He later said in an interview that you could have heard a pin drop in that room when the tape was about to be put in. They had no idea what they were about to see, and they were terrified that they were going to actually see the murder itself. But fortunately, they did not film the murder. It was clear that they had both planned and played roles in her murder. And I'm going to play you three clips. Um, two are related to the murder specifically, but the first one I want to play for you is a recording that they made earlier that day at school. And they were just known to always be filming everything. So they spotted um Cassie in the hallway.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Hello, Cassie. I'm getting my state. Okay, see ya. Wait. It's Chris Wear at 7 30. It's 8 19. He's an hour late.

unknown 15:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Okay, that was kind of hard to hear, but the video is just Cassie was at her locker putting his um putting her books up, and I'm not even sure which one. Oh, I guess it was um he was asking for a toy, so it must have been Brian. And I think he, in my opinion, he was just looking for a reason to film her. Okay, the next one I'm gonna play for you is them recording themselves talking about their play.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

She's our friend. But you know what? We all have to make sacrifices. Our first victim is only Cassie, starter, and aren't you bright self ass? Hey, we'll find out if she has friends over, she's gonna be alone in a big dark house and out in the middle of somewhere. How perfect can you get? I I mean, holy dude. I'm horny just thinking hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

I'm horny just thinking about it. How sick are these guys? They already have the plan. They know she's gonna be at her aunt and uncle's house, they know she's gonna be alone, and they are so excited, just hyping each other up. Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

And so slow down to selfly. First temple. I started didn't kick away. Completely try to be ten times. Never be alone, so yeah. We're already done now, so I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Cassie's family, but yeah, number one.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

Okay, that one was probably hard to hear. If you couldn't make out what they were saying, they were saying that Cassie is their victim. Um, they're gonna get their first kill done, and then they're gonna keep on going. And they've tried at least 10 times. I don't know exactly what they mean by that, whether they've tried to kill 10 different people or they've tried to kill Cassie 10 different times. I'm not sure. And then at the end, he was apologizing to Cassie's family, saying that she just had to be the one. So I need to take a minute because I just think this is the most fucked up thing I have ever heard. Oh, I want to scream. I don't want to, but we do need to talk about Brian and Tori to understand who we are dealing with. Brian and Tori were both 16-year-old high school juniors at Poccatello High School. They were both friends with Matt and knew Cassie. Now they weren't like close friends with Matt, it was just more kind of like casual. So it's not clear how they got an invite to hang out with him at Cassie's house because that's not something they would normally do. I think that it's probably more likely that it came up in general conversation, or he maybe overheard Matt talking about it and they found a way to get an invitation, or they kind of like found a way to invite themselves over. And Matt was just a nice guy and agreed. So on the surface, they seemed pretty ordinary. Like they were both a little bit awkward and quiet and a little bit out of place. I guess they were kind of like the social outcast, but nobody looked at them as being like super weird or thought that they were capable of doing something like this. Let's get into Brian first. Brian Draper was the quieter of the two. He was born in Utah, raised Mormon, and his family eventually moved to Pocketello where he struggled to fit in. Brian was Brian was deeply impressionable and he was very much a follower. So he kind of like fell under the influence of Tory. Brian loved movies and he did like the idea of being different. And his family described him as a good kid who just got caught up in the wrong influence. But Brian definitely had a dark side to him outside of Tori. He was fascinated with the violence and he devoured horror films. He idolized the Columbine shooters and he kept journals filled with dark thoughts about murder. Moving on to Tori. Tori Adamchick. If Brian was a follower, then Tori was the ringleader. Tori had the kind of confidence that Brian lacked. He was obsessed with movies, especially horror films, and wanted to be a filmmaker one day. He would walk the halls of the school with a video camera, constantly filming, constantly directing. But Tory wasn't just a movie buff. He was obsessed with real life killers. He read about Ted Bundy, the Zodiac Killer, and Colin Bynes, Eric Harris and Dylan Claybold, I think is how you say it. He admired their infamy and the way that the world will remember their names. He didn't just want to watch horror movies, he wanted to make one, and in his mind, Cassie became the perfect person. Brian and Tori fed off each other. Their friendship was cemented by a shared love of violence, gore, and horror. They watched Scream and Halloween with admiration of the killers. And they quoted statements made by the Columbine killers, and they filled their notebooks with their disturbing plans and even made the videos to discuss their plans. How stupid can you be? They spent hours watching horror movies together discussing ways to make their own. And then came the tapes they did make. Those recordings show just exactly how fucked up these guys are and how far their obsession had gone. Now I want to think and think about this for a minute. These were teenagers, 16-year-olds. Here they are in a small town in Idaho talking about making history by killing someone. And they didn't want to just kill someone. They wanted to kill multiple people. And in these tapes, they weren't like conflicted. I mean, they were like laughing and planning and dreaming about how their names would be remembered. Leading up to the murder, leading up to the murder, Tori and Brian did everything they could to plan their crime meticulously. They videotaped themselves discussing their plans, their motives, and they even practiced their acting. They bought knives, black clothing, and made their masks. They rehearsed ways of how they would get into the house and just like cause chaos and film the entire thing. They talked about sneaking in, causing a blackout, and attacking their victims in the dark, which is exactly what they would end up doing with Cassie. Brian and Tori had created a kill list of potential victims, which did include Cassie, but I think once they found Out that Cassie would be alone, house sitting in the middle of nowhere. This is when they decided that she would be the perfect victim. And wherever she was on this list, she immediately went to the top. This was all, by the way, I don't I didn't mean to laugh then. That's because it's just like it's mind baffling. This crime was inspired by the movie Scream. They were fascinated with that movie. They loved it. They loved the concept of it, and they wanted to make their own. This is a case that I remember hearing a long time ago, and I believe there's a handful of documentaries. And after listening to the case, this is one of those that never left me. It's one that has affected me so deeply because I can only imagine just how scared Cassie was. So now I'm going to tell you about the horrific night that Cassie was killed, and you will understand why this one will haunt me forever. Starting with earlier in the day, Cassie's mom drove her to Allison and Frank's house after school. Her mom was actually really nervous about her staying alone, but Cassie assured her that she would be fine, that she was responsible, she's safe. It'll be fine. Her boyfriend Matt arrived soon after, and they were just hanging out for a little while when Brian and Tori showed up. She was not happy to see them, and she was pretty annoyed and a little bit mad at Matt for inviting them over, but then she just agreed to let them stay there for a little bit. They all started watching a movie, but after only 30 minutes or so, Brian and Tori left. Relieved that they were finally gone, Matt and Cassie made popcorn, changed the movie, and cuddled up and started watching it. What they didn't know is that while Brian and Tori were there, Brian lied. He said that he needed to go to the bathroom, but instead he went downstairs to the basement through the interior door and unlocked the door that led to the backyard. So yeah, a lot of houses, like my house right now, doesn't have it anymore. But when we moved in, we had a door that led down to the basement. So you could access the basement from inside, or we had another door. Well, also we had another door that you could access from the um from the outside. And it's actually this case is one of the reasons we don't have that entrance anymore. Um when before we renovated the house, I had I had like padlocks installed on that door. So the only way to access the basement was through the outside, which I also kept locks on that one too. So the fact that he thought to do that, that he snuck away, went downstairs, and then unlocked the door so they could gain access to the house later. It's just so just diabolical, fucked up. It's just all those things. They then drove around after leaving, talking about their plan and amping each other up. They drove back to Cassie's house and parked close by in an area where the car was not easily seen. They changed into their black clothes, black pants, and a black hoodie and gloves and their masks. They quietly walked to the back of the house, unlocked the basement door from the outside, and went in. And this was around 10.30-ish. I'm gonna play you another clip, and this is this is them recording themselves after leaving Cassie's house and driving around before going back to Cassie's house.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Maybe we're gonna go down to history tent bondy, like the inside strangler. Those people are more amateurs compared to what we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Those people are more amateurs than what we're gonna be looking. Ugh. Okay, sorry. I get so angry when I hear these recordings of them. It just it makes me so mad, and I'm just still, they're 16 years old. It's just uh Okay, so now they're inside Cassie's house, they're down in the basement, and they could hear that Cassie and Matt were watching a movie. So to scare them, they decided to flip the breaker to cut power to the house. When they heard Matt open the door to the basement and take a few steps, they turned the power back on to keep him from coming all the way down and possibly seeing them. Once Matt left, they knew that she was all alone, but they did not act immediately. They gave her time to get settled down and get ready for the night and just kind of give her a false sense of security. Cassie decided to sleep on the couch, so she went upstairs, she grabbed a pillow and a blanket, and she turned on a show and laid down. Soon after, they cut the power again and could hear Cassie freak out. Then the power came back on. A few minutes later, the same thing happened. They repeated this a few times, and Cassie was terrified and was desperately trying to get help. The house phone was not working due to the power, and she had very little cell service, but they could hear her trying. At this point, Cassie knew that someone was in the house and she knew that someone was fucking with her. And keep in mind she had no car. Also, the neighborhood at the time was still in the development stage, so there were no neighbors close by. And Brian and Tori knew how isolated she was, and they were trying to inflict as much fear as they possibly could. And they did. Brian and Tori were hoping that she would come down to the basement to see what was going on, but she didn't go. And she was already speaking out, pleading for whoever it was to stop. Brian and Tori cut the power for the final time and slowly made their way upstairs. Cassie was sitting alone in the dark, paralyzed in fear, dressed in all black, wearing those awful masks and holding knives. Brian and Tori walked into the living room towards Cassie. Cassie screamed and ran toward the front door, but they caught her and pulled her back on the couch. They forced her to the floor, and Cassie is now crying and begging them not to hurt her, but they began stabbing her over and over until they watched the life leave her body. They then quickly ran to Tori's car and drove away, still wearing their black clothes, now covered in blood, and of course, of course, these fuckers film themselves talking about their murder. Here is the last clip that I'm gonna play for you guys, and hopefully you will never have to hear their voices ever again.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

We just left her house. This is not off joke. And shit. I stabbed her in the throat and I saw her lipeless body just and disappeared. Dude, I was killing Cassie.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

I'm not even gonna talk about that one. I just I can't. They drove nearby to Black Rock Canyon and changed into their normal clothes. They then placed their masks, the gloves, the clothes they used to murder Cassie, and the videotape in a black bag and buried it. During the autopsy, the medical examiner said that Cassie sustained approximately 30 stab wounds in total. Of those, at least twelve were determined to be fatal. She was stabbed in the chest and torso, which punctured her lungs and pierced her heart. She had additional stabs and cuts to her neck and abdomen. She had defensive injuries on her arms and hands showing that she tried to fight back. And this was classified as overkill. The pathologist testified that Cassie would not have died instantly and that she likely remained conscious and was aware for a short time after the attack. Both boys were charged with first degree murder, and even though they were only 16, they were charged as adults. Brian went to trial first in April of 2007. The prosecution had his confession and the VHS clips of Brian and Tori plotting Cassie's death, and then the recording they made immediately after murdering her. The defense tried to argue that Brian was just a follower, a kid led astray by Tory, but the jury disagreed. Brian Draper was convicted on first degree murder and conspiracy. The sentence was life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 30 years. Goodbye, Brian. Two months later in June, Tory faced his own jury. His defense painted Brian as the true killer, insisting that Tory had only been swept along. But once again, the tapes don't lie. Tory was also found guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy. His sentence matched Brian's exactly, which was life and parole exactly. His sentence matched Brian's exactly, life without parole plus 30 years. The years that followed were brought with a wave of appeals, but ultimately their convictions were never overturned, their sentences were never reduced, and they are still in prison to this day and where they will likely remain until they die. And that is almost the case. I have one more little tidbit that I want to um tell you about. They had a plan. Their plan was to kill as many people as they possibly could, and they were going to record all these murders, and they were going to have a box. I don't know where they were going to store the box, but they were going to have all their BHS tapes in this box, knowing that one day they would eventually get caught. And then they would like, you know, either tell the police where the tapes are, or the police would find them during, you know, like searching the property or whatever. And then they it would be known like all these people they killed, and they were going to be so famous. So they had a plan to eventually be super famous one day just on the sheer amount of people they killed and the brutality of the attacks. So fortunately that they were idiots and they got all their information wrong about the movie, and they were caught, and Cassie was their only one, but it's still just so messed up that Cassie was killed this way. It was mess just like so messed up. And that is the case of Cassie Joe Stoddard. And now we definitely need a palate cleanser because that was horrific. And I'm sorry you guys had to sit through that. And if you are still here with me listening, thank you for making it to the end. I do think that Cassie's name is one that needs to continue to be told. She had her whole life ahead of her. She was so young, she was so responsible, and it's just horrific. So continue to say her name, share her story, and let's move on to the palette cleanser. What I have for you today. Do you think that a hot dog is a sandwich? Well, do you? By definition, a sandwich is an item of food consisting of two pieces of bread with meat, cheese, or other fillings between them eaten as a light meal. So I'm gonna say yes. I do think that a hot dog is a sandwich, but I'm curious to know what you guys think. I'm going to take a poll and see what the majority says. Okay, I think that is enough for me. I just want to say thank you so much for hanging out with me, and I hope you stay safe out there and hungry for justice. Bye.