Cassie Jo Stoddart: The Scream Murder: Part 1

The murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart took place in Bannock County, Idaho, on September 22, 2006, when Cassie, a student at Pocatello High School, was stabbed to death by classmates Brian Lee Draper and Torey Michael Adamcik.

We would like to provide a warning that this episode includes actual audio of the murderous teens plotting and carrying out their sinister plans.
-listen at your own discretion.

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Transcript

[Underscore Music]

Don’t blame the movies.  Movies don’t create psychos.  Movies make psychos more creative!

[Theme Music Start]

Welcome to The Secret Sits, I’m your host John Dodson.  Join us every Thursday as we uncover the Secrets behind the world’s most fascinating true crime cases.  You can find all episodes of The Secret Sits for free on Apple Podcast, Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts.  And if you like what you are hearing, reach out to us on Instagram and Facebook @The Secret Sits Podcast or on Twitter @SecretSitsPod. Now, on with our story.

[Theme Music Play Out]

[Under Score Music] 

Anne Stoddart could feel the pains of labor, she had experienced this for the first time 6 years ago when her first daughter, Kristi was born.  It was a cold day, leading up to Christmas, in fact, Christmas was just 4 days away, it was December 21st, 1989 in Idaho and this day, was the day that Cassie Jo Stoddart would be born.  Cassie belonged to a family who were kind to one another, they were open and honest with one another, but the thing that stood out the most was how much this family truly enjoyed one another’s company.  Just 18 months after Cassie Jo was born, Anne gave birth to her third and final child, this was a baby boy who was named Andrew.  The dynamics of this family can easily explain Cassie’s character as she became a teenager, she could effortlessly become fast friends with anyone she met, she was making plans to attend college and this young woman was ambitious and she had the intellectual fortitude to back up her plans.  Cassie and her younger brother were only 18 months apart in age, because of this small age gap, they were extremely close.  Andrew thought of his sister as headstrong and he considered her a role model in his life.  The two hung out all of the time, they even maintained interests in a lot of the same things, this meant that they hung out at the same places and their worlds were truly intertwined, their whole lives.  

Cassie was also an artist, she spent endless hours in her bedroom listening to her favorite music and drawing, Cassie loved to draw.  Anne displays some of her favorite artwork, made by Cassie, around her home.

Cassie really loved adventure and through her love of adventure, she made countless connections with others, she was easy to love and easy to laugh with, she shared big ideas and even bigger dreams.  When you are a person who cares deeply for others, like Cassie, you are sympathetic and you have great empathy, just like Cassie.  While Cassie always displayed a concern for others, she also relied on the strength of people around her, she always liked to have someone by her side.  

[Music Change]

On March 21st, 1990 Pam and Kerry Draper had a child and they named this child, Brian Draper.  Brian spent his formative years growing up on the desert landscape of Utah.  He was bullied by his classmates because he had a bit of a stutter.  This bullying at such a young age led to some dark emotional turmoil for the boy, dark emotions that we will see bubble to the surface.  Pam and Kerry Draper moved their family from Utah to Bannock County, Idaho where their son Brian began attending Pocatello High School.  While attending Pocatello High, Brian met and became best friends with another boy named Torey Adamcik, the boys where just about the same age, Torey was born June 14th, 1990 making him just three months younger than Brian.  These two boys were both 16 years old and they had bonded over their love of filmmaking.  The boys began recording everything they did, hoping that the practice they gained would someday help them become legitimate filmmakers.

Pocatello High School was also where Brian and Torey met Cassie Jo Stoddart.  After all, Cassie was a vibrant girl and everyone knew her, she graced everyone with her kind heart and her sanguinity, this would obviously draw the two boys to the girl, just as it did for everyone around them.  

As the new academic year began, Brian and Torey soon discovered that they had another fascination in common, but this was a, dark, fascination.  The boys were both obsessed with the movie franchise, 

Scream.  The Scream movie franchise began in 1996 with the release of Scream starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette.  The movie takes place a year after the brutal murder of Sidney Prescott’s mother.  Now Sidney Prescott is being terrorized by a new killer, who targets the girl and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game.  After this movie became a huge success, Scream 2 premiered in 1997 followed by Scream 3 in the year 2000.  There are more movies in this franchise, however; they had not come out by the time of our story today.  Brain and Torey loved these movies, but even more than loving these movies, they wanted to emulate them.  The boys began discussing the idea of masterminding their own vicious murder spree against their own friends, just like in their favorite movies.  The difference between what happened in the Scream movies and what Brian and Torey would do would be one critical factor, they wanted to film their kills, after all, they fancied themselves filmmakers.

As the boys sat at a table, having skipped their 4th period class, they discussed their plans on video.  In this video they construct their list of everyone who they would murder and the first person on the list, was their friend Cassie Jo Stoddart.  As the boys wrap up their video, they look at the camera and state, “I’m sorry Cassie’s family.  She had to be the one.”

During the latter days of August, 2006, an 18-year-old boy named Joe Lucero’s phone rang, he looked at his phone and saw that it was his friend Torey calling, so he answered.  Torey wanted to know if Joe would be open to buying some knives for him, and Joe thought, why not, so he agreed.  Joe and Torey got together and then the two met up with Brian Draper, they drove to an ATM and Brian withdrew $40 from his bank account.  The trio went to a local pawn shop to look for knives, Torey picked out one knife and Brian selected three others, the total for all 4 knives was $45 dollars, so Torey produced the additional $5 for Joe to purchase the knives.  The two 16-year-old boys never told Joe Lucero why they wanted to buy the knives and he did not ask either, the first step in their plan was now complete.

Brian and Torey wanted so badly to be amateur filmmakers, but everything they filmed was just poorly shot clips of everyday life or filmed conversations between the two boys, while they conspired together about their delusions of grandeur and of murder. 

The clips filmed by the boys can be seen all cut together into one long video, this video begins on September 21st, Brian and Torey are both sitting in the front seat of Torey’s car, it is a dark and stormy night, rain falls hard against the car’s windshield.  Brian is sitting in the front passenger seat while Torey in behind the wheel in the driver’s seat.  As the video begins, we can hear the boys saying that they had visited several homes of their friends, friends who had unfortunately made the pair’s kill list.  The boys said that all of their friends had not been home when they had gone to their homes to do whatever it was, they intended on doing.  The pair continue their conversation and they speak about Cassie and her boyfriend Matt, another close friend of the boys.  In this conversation they boys can be heard describing how they would lure Matt out of the house first, so they could kill him and then go on to scare Cassie.

[Audio Clip]

“There should be no law against killing people. I know it’s the wrong thing but hell. . . hell, you restrict somebody from it, they’re gonna want it more…I ’m horny just thinking about it.”

The boys, and as you can hear in their voices, that is exactly what these two were, immature 16-year-old boys; anyway, the boys go on discussing how this upcoming event would be, fun, and they talked about how they would end up being more famous than Ted Bundy or the Hillside Stranglers, Bianchi and Buono.  Torey even referred to these prolific serial killers as amateurs.

During school on Friday, September 22nd, Brian Draper films as he approaches Cassie while the girl is standing at her locker.

[Audio Clip]

Cassie say hi.

And then the footage cuts to the boys, once again skipping their fourth period class.  This may be a bit difficult to hear, because during this portion of video, the boys notice a teacher observing them, so they lower the tone of their conversation so they cannot be overheard.

[Audio Clip]

Sorry Cassie’s family.

The boys were not scared of anyone finding these videos, they figured that if anyone was watching, it was most likely that they were already dead anyway.  The boys go on discussing how they had already failed in their attempts at murder 8 or 9 times already.  They had already traveled to their friends and classmates homes this many times in an attempt to make their first kill, with no success.  

[Music Change]

Allison and Frank Contreras were Cassie Jo Stoddart’s aunt and uncle, they owned a lovely house on Whispering Cliffs Drive in Bannock County.  The couple were going out of town for the weekend and they asked Cassie, their caring and responsible niece, if she would house sit for them.  The couple had three cats and two dogs for Cassie to look after while they were away.  Of course, Cassie was happy to oblige her family, it may be fun to house sit and feel like an independent adult. 

This same Friday night, September 22nd, was the night when Cassie would begin house sitting.  Cassie invited her boyfriend, Matt Beckman, to join her at the house, house sitting presented a perfect opportunity for the young couple to have some alone time together, to watch some movies and just hang out.  Matt joining Cassie was also a welcome relief for the teenager, who was a bit trepidatious about spending time in the house all by herself, it was located in a remote suburb, with not much around it.  Just as the sun was about to set, around 6 PM, Matt arrived at the house.

As the couple were settling into their evening, they decided to also invite Brian Draper over to watch the movie, Brian then in turn invited Torey Adamcik to join him at the house.  Cassie and Matt were excited, this night seemed like it was going to turn into a great night with friends, having fun, and watching movies.  Brian and Torey arrived at the house around 7PM and after they had arrived, Cassie gave everyone a quick house tour.  While the quartet of teens were seeing the finished basement of the home, Brian stealthily made his way to the basement door, which led outside of the house and he unlocked the door, and he left it unlocked as they left the basement to go back upstairs and start the movie.

The teens retreated to the living room where they put on a movie, Kill Bill: Volume II.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying the movie, but before the movie had even concluded, Brian said that he and Torey had to go, he said that they would rather go watch a movie at the local movie theatre instead.  So, Cassie and Matt said goodbye to their two friends and they watched them walk out of the house, into the darkened night, the clock said it was 9:30PM.

As Brian and Torey left the house on Whispering Cliffs Drive, they did not proceed to the movie theatre as they stated, instead they drove just down the street from the house and parked on the side of the road, out of sight of the house, in case anyone had been looking.  Now in the car and under the cover of darkness, the two boys began changing into all dark cloths, they donned black gloves and masks which were painted white, to tie the entire look together, both boys produced the knives they had purchased from the pawn shop, just a few weeks before.  In their minds, they now looked like the figure they idolized, the Ghost Face killer from the Scream movies.

The video starts again, the time stamp reads 9:54PM September 22nd.

[Video Clip]

I unlocked the back doors.

The two boys doubled back on foot, traveling back to the house under the cover of night.  They snuck around the house and arrived at the now unlocked basement door, with a soft click the door opened, Cassie and Matt were still upstairs in the living room watching movies.  Brian and Matt thought that they could make some loud sounds while down in the basement, they wanted to create that horror film suspense and scare their soon to be victims right from the start.  Also, if the pair were to descend the stairs to the basement to check on the mysterious noises, they could attack them there.  The boys were thinking about all of this in the mindset of a filmmaker, rather than real life.

Cassie and Matt were sitting in the living room watching the end of Kill Bill: Volume II when they began hearing some thudding sounds coming from the basement.  The sounds were random and indistinguishable, and the couple figured that it was probably nothing, so they ignored the noises and continued watching their movie.

Brian and Torey knew that Cassie and Matt must have heard the noises, they did not understand why the couple were not descending the stairs to investigate.  They waited a little while longer before deciding to take a more direct approach.  The couple had still not made their way down the basement stairs to investigate the noises, so Brian and Torey decided to flip off the main circuit breaker to the house, the entire home fell into silent blackness.  And the boys silently waited in the basement, surely the couple, or at least Matt would come to check the breaker and then they could attack.

Cassie and Matt were still on the couch, the strange noises had been one thing, but now the entire house had lost power, and the couple sat perched on the couch, unmoving in the silent darkness.  Neither one of the teenagers chose to brave the pitch-dark basement to try and locate the tripped circuit breaker.  Suddenly a few of the home’s lights flickered back to life, Cassie jumped, now she was really on edge.  As they sat on the couch, Matt noticed one of the Contreras’ dogs had walked over to the doorway that led down to the basement.  The dog stared intently into the darkness, unmoving and he began letting out a low guttural growl, the growl of a guard dog whose interest was piqued.  The dog barked and broke the eerie silence. 

At this, Matt decided to call his mother and ask permission to stay the night at the house with Cassie, just so she could feel secure.  Matt’s mother responded with a firm NO to this request, but she was not heartless, and she offered for Cassie to come home with Matt to their house and she could spend the night there with their family.

Aside from the spooky happenings of the evening, Cassie knew that she had made an agreement with her aunt and uncle to stay at the house and take care of their pets, so she could not in good consciousness leave her responsibilities just because she was spooked, after all, this could all just be silly coincidences anyway.  So, Cassie politely declined Matt’s mom’s offer to stay at their house.  At 10:30PM, Matt Beckham’s mother arrived at the house to pick him up to go home.

[Music Change]

Brian and Torey flipped the breaker off, and they waited, but once again nothing happened, no one was coming down the basement stairs for them to attack, so they decided to flip on just a couple of the breakers and random electronic devices around the house sprung to life.  The boys could hear the low menacing growl coming from one of the home owner’s dogs, it would also occasionally bark as well.  After some more time waisted down in the basement, the boys heard the distinct sound of the home’s front door opening and then closing, Matt had just left the house to travel back home with his mother.  Suddenly Torey’s phone began to ring in his pocket, he quickly picked it up and he spoke in a hushed voice so Cassie nor the dogs could not hear him speaking on the phone from the basement.

[Music Change]

Matt called his friend Torey as his mother was driving him home, but Torey was speaking in almost a whisper and Matt had a hard time understanding him, Matt thought, Brian and Torey said they were going to the movie theatre, so he was probably whispering because he was in the theatre.  Matt hung up the phone and waited to arrive back at his home, his thoughts where focused on his girlfriend, Cassie, sitting alone in a dark house, scared.

[Music Change]

Brian and Torey now knew that Matt had left and that their intended target was just a flight of stairs away, once again they decided to shut off the power to the entire house.  The house plunged back into the abyss, but still Cassie refused to descend the dark stairs to the basement.  So, Brian and Torey began to slowly and quietly make their way up the staircase.

As the two boys reached to top of the staircase, they could see Cassie laying on the living room couch.  Cassie looked like she was having an anxiety induced attack, she was to wound up to go to bed and her heart was thumping out of her chest.  As the boys pasted the threshold of the basement door they slammed the basement door behind them, the silence of the house was broken with the loud terrifying bang.  Cassie sat up with a fright and there in front of her, she saw two figures approaching her, dressed head to toe in black, all but for their faces which were covered in hideous white masks.

In the darkened house the two shadowy figured descended on the frightened young girl and they viciously attacked.  With their new knives the boys began stabbing and they did not stop until Cassie, their friend, lay dead in front of them, her body riddled with almost 30 stab wounds.

Brian and Torey ran from the house, back to their waiting car, as they get back into the car, they immediately begin filming again.

[Audio Clip]

Just killed Cassie. Have to get our act straight.

Brian made an attempt to calm his friend’s nerves and he tells Torey that they now needed to go to the movie theatre and buy a movie ticked so they would have an alibi.  Brian and Torey, along with using the Scream movies as inspiration for their anticipated killing spree, also idolized the Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.  If you have not done so yet, you can listen to our 4-part series covering the Columbine School Shooting after this episode!  Although Brian and Torey had every intention of killing Matt that night if he had stayed, they went on to act as if nothing had happened.  The next morning, after Brian and Torey had stabbed Cassie to death, but before the crime was discovered, Torey met up with Matt to hang out and everything was casual and fine between the friends.