206: Deranged Friends Plan Murder Based on a Movie? | The Tragic Murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart
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Sponsored by the Coalition for Medicare Choices. Learn more at MedicareChoices.org. Hey, True Crime Besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. I hope you guys are having a good start to your week so far. Whether you're listening to this on the road, maybe you're at work, you've got your earbuds in, maybe you're cleaning, wherever you are, I hope you are having a good start to your week.

Before we jump in, I wanted to also give you guys a quick reminder. I can't believe that it's already here, but this Thursday is our last final live show, and it is taking place in Denver. So if you are in the Denver area, definitely grab a friend, grab your partner, or come alone, and you can catch one of these episodes live and in person. We so far have hit San Diego, Phoenix, Orange County, Salt Lake City, and we've also hit

and it's been sellout crowds. The energy has been amazing. Being able to meet all of you one-on-one afterwards has been incredible. So if you want to check out one of these episodes live and in person, and you're in the Denver area this Thursday, go do it. You can get all of the details at AnnieElise.com and then hit the events tab. All right, so now that we've got that all squared away, we are going to get into today's case. But before we do, I want to give you guys a little bit of a discretionary warning.

This is a difficult one to hear. There is adult language, adult situations, and extremely graphic details, so please listen with caution. On Sunday, September 24th, 2006, a family of three, a mother, a father, and a daughter, were all on their way back from a short weekend getaway. And like anyone who's been on a vacation, they were just so excited to finally get back to the comfort of their own home, their own routine, just unpack, all of those things. And

So when they opened their front door at around 2 p.m., they expected that they would be greeted by their pets, which is what usually happened. The dogs would greet them, they would be happy, everybody would unwind, and they would be back home and settled. However, when they opened that door, a much more grisly crime scene was before them, one that they would never forget. A young girl was just lying there on the floor, and there was blood absolutely everywhere.

So the mother called 911 immediately, and when she did, she said, I need an ambulance at my house. There's a dead girl on my floor, and she's missing a finger. The girl? Well, it was 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart. The house was located in Pocatello, Idaho, and Cassie had arrived at that house two days earlier. It belonged to her aunt and uncle, after all.

Her aunt, uncle, and her 13-year-old cousin were going to be gone for the weekend. They needed somebody to come, house sit, take care of their dogs, take care of their cats, so Cassie seemed like the perfect person. I mean, not only was Cassie an extremely responsible person, but she was also a trusted family member. Also, what teenager wouldn't want a whole house to themselves for an entire weekend? It just seemed like the perfect setup. But now, Cassie was on the floor of that house. Dead.

And according to the paramedics who arrived on the scene right afterward, she had been dead for a while. So long that at this point, her body was cold to the touch. Right away, the officers secured the area. And Cassie's aunt and uncle met Cassie's mom, Anna, right outside of the house. They now had to deliver this horrible, terrible news to her.

Everyone was now trying to make sense of what was going on, what they had seen. Her mom Anna and her aunt and uncle and their daughter, Cassie's 13-year-old cousin, the one who actually had been the first one to see Cassie's body right there dead on the floor, were trying to just make sense of it all.

So when the police officers had questions, Cassie's mother Anna told them that she had last seen Cassie that Friday night at around 5:30 p.m. That was when she initially had dropped Cassie off at the house for the weekend. Anna said that she had never worried about Cassie being there alone. Cassie was responsible. The town was safe. She never once thought that something bad would happen to her daughter.

She did admit that she hadn't heard from her all day on Saturday or that Sunday morning, but she knew that Cassie would call if something bad happened. And again, she knew that they all lived in a safe town. But now, of course, everybody was really rethinking the whole idea about this town being safe. Not only had Cassie been murdered, but she had been victimized.

viciously attacked. She had multiple stab wounds, deep stab wounds, all over her body. Also, this house was a complete mess. Aside from the quite literal bloodbath, it was just a disaster, and so much so that it was very clear to the detectives early on that Cassie definitely put up a fight. An autopsy later revealed that Cassie had around 35 stab wounds.

They were all over her body. Now, of those 35 stab wounds, 12 of them were so deep and so bad enough that they would have killed her on their own. The medical examiner also determined that two different knives were used to stab Cassie. One knife was serrated and the other one wasn't. Now, most of the fatal wounds came from the serrated blade, all except for one.

The non-serrated knife had hit Cassie right in the heart. So naturally, the question here was, who on earth would want to hurt Cassie? She was a young girl, a happy girl, a responsible girl. She was just house-sitting for her aunt and uncle. And there weren't a whole lot of answers. I mean, she was a pretty standard, normal teenage girl.

So detectives knew that they needed to dig deeper. They needed to figure out who was Cassie? Who would ever want to hurt her? Who did she surround herself with? Could there have been a secret boyfriend? Could there have been something else? What was really going on in Cassie's life? Who was Cassie Jo?

Well, Cassie was born on December 21st, 1989. She had lived her entire life in Pocatello, Idaho. At the time of her death, she was a junior at the local high school, and there, she had a lot of friends. She was a very likable person, and she got along with people just very, very easily.

After high school, Cassie had planned on going to college. She was a great student, after all, and she always got good grades. And not just kind of good, I mean, she was a straight-A student. So on top of being down-to-earth and kind, she was also just incredibly smart. So school was really Cassie's primary focus. But when she wasn't at school, she would spend time with her family. She had an older sister, and she had a younger brother who was only 18 months younger than she was.

Which I know sometimes when kids are really close in age, they do fight a lot, but that really wasn't the case in Cassie's house. She and her brother got along so well. So if Cassie wasn't spending time at school, studying, or with her family, or out hanging out with friends…

She would often sit in her room. She would listen to music, she would draw, and she would kind of just keep to herself. Now, she was truly a great artist, and art class was one of her absolute favorite subjects. So when you look at everything as a total, I mean, truly, Cassie was your typical teenager.

So the police just could not figure out why somebody would want to attack her, and no less why somebody would want to attack her in such a barbaric and gruesome way. And the crime scene? It really wasn't very helpful in terms of turning up any clues. There was hardly any evidence. There was also no murder weapon to be found.

But somehow, during the investigation, the police were able to determine that on Friday night, the very first night that Cassie got to the house, the power had gone out at around 10 p.m. Now, since they didn't have a whole lot of other leads to go off of, the investigators decided to check out the breaker box in the basement.

And that's when they finally found some evidence that could turn out to be pretty useful. See, on the breaker box, there were clear fingerprints, ones that did not belong to Cassie or anybody else who lived in that house. In fact, the fingerprints belonged to Anna's boyfriend. That's Cassie's mother's boyfriend. So he immediately became the number one suspect.

However, when the police questioned him, he said that there was a good reason that his fingerprints were there on that circuit box, on the breaker box. See, he was an electrician, and he had previously done work for Cassie's aunt and uncle over at their house. Plus, he had an alibi. He said he was at a friend's house that Friday night. He had been playing video games, just hanging out with friends. And police believed that Cassie was killed on Friday night. So if he truly did have an alibi for that period of time, for that window of time, surely he couldn't have been the guy.

And all of these details were confirmed. Cassie's aunt and uncle confirmed that he had done work for them at the house. In fact, he had helped them and done work for them just a few weeks before the murder. And his friend also confirmed that they spent that whole evening together on Friday playing video games together. So, he was ruled out as a suspect.

And now the next step was to look at Cassie's other friends and some of the people closest to her. Because by this point in the investigation, the police truly believed that the killer was somebody that Cassie knew. There were no signs of forced entry at the house. There was no sign of a burglary taking place. However, there was signs indicating that a struggle had happened. But they thought that whoever attacked Cassie must have known her.

Now, even more importantly, her mother Anna revealed to the police that Cassie wasn't the only person that she had dropped off at that home on Friday night. She had also dropped off Cassie's boyfriend, Matt. And apparently Anna had already contacted Matt herself, just blatantly asking him what he did to her daughter. And Anna wasn't the only one who was suspicious of Matt, because as news of Cassie's murder spread throughout the town, a lot of people started to suspect that Matt did have something to do with it.

There were other people who thought that maybe a gang or another family member even is the one who was responsible and who killed Cassie, but there were definitely more people talking about Matt than just about anyone else. I mean, after all, he might have been the last person to ever see Cassie alive.

So the police interviewed Matt the same day that Cassie's body was found. And the whole time, through the entire interrogation, he was just acting kind of weird. He showed almost no emotion, even though his girlfriend had just died and been killed in such a horrible and brutal way. Yet in this interview, in this interrogation, his voice was monotone and something about him just seemed off.

So Matt told the police about the night that he spent with Cassie on Friday, September 22nd. He said that Cassie's mom picked both of them up from school. They got to the house at around 5.30 p.m. They spent the night watching movies, eating popsicles, hanging out. And then he says at one point they used a knife to open the popsicles up.

So the investigators asked him if that was the knife that killed Cassie. But he responded being like, I didn't kill her. It wasn't me. Then Matt said that around 10 p.m., the power, it did go out. And it freaked both of them out a little bit, apparently. But eventually, the power came back on. But around that time, Matt says that he noticed how one of the dogs kept standing by the basement door, just kind of staring down the stairs, just growling, looking off into something in the dark, into the distance.

So Matt and Cassie were both freaked out by this at the time. However, they tried to just tell themselves, you know, everything's okay, we're overreacting, we're just a little spooked.

Matt said that he called his mom and asked if he could stay the night with Cassie just to make her feel more comfortable after all of those weird things that were happening. You know, the power going out, the dog, the whole thing. He could tell that Cassie was scared. But Matt's mom said, no, that is not going to happen. You are not spending the night there. You are too young. I mean, two teenagers weren't going to spend the night alone in this big empty house all by themselves.

Not a chance. However, she did say that if Cassie truly was scared, that she could stay at their house for the night and then go back to the home in the morning to check on the pets to do what she needed to do. But Cassie, she wouldn't do that. She said that she made a commitment to her family. She made a commitment that she was going to stay there, she was going to watch these pets, and she could not leave. So shortly after that phone call, Matt's parents came to the house and picked him up, and he left.

At around 12.30 a.m., Matt tried calling Cassie to see if everything was okay, but she didn't answer the phone, so he figured that she had just fallen asleep. However, now looking back, he realized that might not have been entirely accurate.

So, back at home, Matt and his dad watched a couple of movies together before Matt ended up falling asleep around 3am. Then Matt tried calling Cassie the following day on Saturday, also on Sunday, but he couldn't reach her. He also didn't have access to a car, so he couldn't go and check up on her in person. However, he just figured that everything was okay, that things were okay, that she was just busy, maybe she was with a friend, who knows. And

overall, I mean, his story did sound plausible, but it was also basically impossible to confirm. Maybe Matt was alone with Cassie and nothing bad happened until after he left, or maybe, just maybe, he killed her while he was alone with her at that house, and then he had his parents come pick him up and he left as though nothing ever happened. Which

Which let me backtrack a little bit here for a minute, because it would have been impossible to confirm if he was alone with her at the house. But along the way, during the interrogation, at some point, Matt shared one really key piece of evidence and information with the police. And that was that he and Cassie were not alone all night.

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So Matt just shared with the police that, in fact, he and Cassie were not all alone at the home together that night. It turns out that two of Matt and Cassie's friends had also stopped by for a couple of hours on Friday night, Brian Draper and Tori Adamczyk. Now, like Matt and Cassie, Tori and Brian were also juniors at the local high school.

So police weren't sure why Matt didn't bring this up from the beginning. I mean, teenagers all hanging out at a house that is empty for the weekend, it's not that strange, right? It's not that out of the norm. Stranger things have happened. But either way, Matt left it out initially. Matt said that he had invited Tori over to the house and that Tori had brought Brian with him. He says that the two of them arrived around 8 p.m. that evening. So as soon as they arrived, Cassie gave them a quick tour of the house.

And then afterward, all four of them ended up watching Kill Bill Vol. 2. However, halfway through the movie, Brian and Tori decided to leave. Matt wasn't quite sure why they wanted to leave, but in any event, they left. And after about 15 minutes after they left, that's coincidentally when the power went out.

Then Matt claimed that after he left the house with his parents, he called Tori to see what he had been up to the rest of the evening. Maybe he was hoping to hang out with Tori and Brian for the rest of the night, who knows? But when Tori answered, he was whispering. And he kept whispering for the entire call, which Matt says he thought was really weird. Then, Tori said that he and Brian were at the movie theater, so they couldn't hang out that night.

And it seems like he was trying to be quiet because there were other people around him trying to watch the movie in the theater, and so that was why he was whispering on the phone with Matt. But either way, Tori told Matt that they could hang out the following day on Saturday. So, that's what they did. They met up on Saturday, and that's when Matt told Tori that he was worried about Cassie. He had tried calling her a few times, but she hadn't been answering.

And Tori had a car. So Matt asked him if they could drive over to the house to check on Cassie together. But Tori said that they couldn't because he didn't have enough gas in the car to make the trip. And again, the police didn't know why Matt didn't bring all of this up earlier. Why now? Why did you wait so long to tell us all of this information? And they were still pretty suspicious of Matt because of all of this. So they asked him if he would take a polygraph test.

which he did agree to. And ultimately, the test indicated that he was telling the truth. He passed with flying colors. So the police then went to Tori and Brian's houses to talk with them, because now they were some of the last people to see Cassie alive. Each boy was interviewed separately at their home with their parents' presence.

And Brian and Tori both had similar stories. They said they got to the house at around 8pm after Matt had invited them over. They said that they were under the impression that a party was going on, so they were surprised to see that only Matt and Cassie were at the house, and Brian and Tori were hoping that the

party would start later, so that's kind of what they were in the mood for. That was the whole reason that they had come over. So they decided to sit, watch the movie, just thinking, you know, in a while more people will show up, then the party will really get started. But after about two hours, give or take, it was getting pretty obvious that there was no party. This was all that Cassie and Matt had planned for the night. So Brian and Tori said they got bored, so that's why they decided to leave. They then went to go see a different movie, but this time in the movie theaters.

a horror movie called Pulse. And then afterward, they went to Tori's house, where they stayed for the rest of the night. So it all sounds normal enough, right? A lot of the times in high school, you go to a house party, you jump from house to house thinking that it's going to be a party, especially if there's no parents, no adults. And when they realized it wasn't the party atmosphere they wanted, they decided to just, you know, pack it in, go home. It all seems pretty normal. However, the police asked some follow-up questions. And these were questions that

that neither one of the boys could answer. Specifically, the police asked them, "Oh, okay, you went and saw a horror movie? What theater did you go to?" And neither one of them could answer. They were kind of basically like a deer in the headlights, like, uh, uh, they just could not come up with an answer. So the detectives were like, "Okay, that's okay, maybe you forgot, you know, maybe you don't remember the exact theater. So why don't you just tell me about the plot of the movie? What was it about?"

But again, neither one of them could answer. They also couldn't describe the person who sold them the tickets. It was almost like they knew nothing about that night. Almost like they had pulled this story out of thin air and never even thought to get the details to match up should anybody ask questions about it.

So, after interviewing the boys, the investigators made their way to the movie theater. They found an employee who had been working on Friday night, who also coincidentally was a student at the local high school. This employee knew Cassie, she knew Matt, she knew Brian, and she also knew Tori. And this employee confirmed what the detectives were already thinking. Tori and Brian had not gone to the movies that night.

The employee was working the ticket booth, and she said that she definitely would have remembered seeing Brian and Tori. She knew them, after all. So this was not looking good. And that same evening, investigators interviewed somebody else who wanted to stay anonymous and everything. Now, this person provided some very interesting information about Brian and Tori. They said that it was a known thing that Tori was obsessed with knives,

guns, and horror movies. Tori apparently always bragged about a knife collection that he had hidden away at home. He would even go around school pretending to stab people, which, yeah, that is very, very creepy. Both boys were obsessed with movies, particularly horror movies, and Tori told people at school that he could commit the perfect crime if he wanted to. And when he watched horror and crime movies, he would take it a step further, and he would take actual notes on how to not get caught

after a murder. All very alarming, right? But it goes even further because apparently the boys told their classmates that they were even writing their own movie. And the movie's plot, well, it's about a boy, a girl, and a younger boy getting killed. Now at one point, this anonymous tipster apparently overheard Cassie telling Tori and Brian that she wanted to be a part of this movie. She wanted to be in their movie.

So now with all of this new information and like countless red flags, right? Police knew that they needed to go talk to Brian and Tori again. They had way more questions. The only problem was that Tori was now very difficult to get a hold of. The police called him, they called his parents,

but everybody refused to answer. So the investigators decided to talk with Brian first. He was much more willing to talk with them too. In fact, he seemed very cooperative at the time. But instead of sitting down in his home with his parents right there, now the investigators took Brian to the police station. This was September 26th, so two days after Cassie's body was found. So again, the detectives started asking Brian about the movie, the one that he and Tori went to go see in the theater that night.

But again, Brian couldn't really give them any helpful information. Unequivocally positive that you two went into Pulse. You two bought tickets for Pulse. Yeah. Okay. So Andy asked you about the guy that was taking the tickets, just so we know. Yes. Do you remember what color hair he had? Do you remember anything about him at all that you...

I didn't know. Remember anybody else there working behind the counter? Yes, I was talking to Amy. Did you recognize anybody? No, I was just talking to my friend, Vinotore. I was talking to him. We bought tickets. Okay, now as soon as you bought tickets, you weren't in there at 9.45, but the movie hadn't started because it starts at 10. So you had to hang around in the lobby for 15 minutes, right? Well, no. We went to the bathroom. Okay. Then we went to the theater.

Okay, so you went right in? Sure. Okay. So where at do you sit in the theater? If you could just drop... I guess I don't understand about the... You're going to buy the ticket. It's still 945. Yeah. Correct. And then you buy the ticket, but you're inside. Yeah. So then you go to the bathroom? Yeah. Then you come back out. Now, they're not letting you in the movie until 10 o'clock.

No, I think it was a movie, like, probably like, I mean, probably 10 minutes before it started. So they were sitting and everything, so it wasn't like waiting until 10 o'clock, right? Uh, we had to wait a little bit because there was a movie in there before, I think. Okay. That's what happened. All right. So you just hung out in the lobby? No. No. We would stay in the bathroom, and we talked about some stuff, and then we went to theaters and stuff. Okay. At what point do you call, make that phone call?

To Matt. To Matt? Mm-hmm. While we're inside the movie theater. You're watching the movie? Yes. So you haven't made it yet? No. Do you remember what the coming attractions were, the trailers, you know, on the movie when you're sitting there watching it? I remember. Where'd you sit inside the movie? On the next page. Just go flip the page. Yeah, I would sit. Just draw the movie house, a big square movie house. Just kind of give us a general location in the room. Okay, stairs. We always sit in the...

- I mean you always do, but did you this time sit in there? - Yeah. - Was there a lot of people in there? - It wasn't like, you know, a full house or anything. - Estimate, how many people you think were in there? - Half. - Like 10 people? - No. - Five people? 20 people? - I remember, well it wasn't like full, maybe half of the theater probably. Not half, it wasn't packed. I don't know, just maybe.

If I were to have to say a number, I'd say about 30. About 30? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So you sat right in the middle. Do you remember where the exit was in that? Did you remember seeing that? Okay, there's exits off to the side. I don't know that. Both sides? Both sides? And there was doors on the side. Where did you exit? When you guys left. Where did you go out? Or did you go out the same way you came in? Did you go out to the lobby? Yeah.

And I remember on that last page, just flip it back one, that's the big, that's the whole movie house. Can you tell me where inside, and that's the whole theater, it's probably not shaped square like that, but what side of the movie, what side of the place was it on, the building, the movie? I remember there...

There's a counter here, you know that. Say this is the whole big building, this is the whole thing, this is where you're going, this is a little ticket booth maybe right here, and then you can go to this theater or this theater's back here. Which way did you go? I think it was the right. Okay.

So you went to the right and then do you remember where the theater was once you went to the right? Just kind of in the general location of the building. Was it clear at the end? Was it clear? Was it right in front? You just don't remember that? No. You don't remember seeing the sign or anything? I remember. Because there's a lot of movie theaters in there, right? Yeah. There's a hallway that leads to the theater. Okay. So kind of put an X maybe where you think the theater is inside there. Okay. There's another hallway. All right.

Maybe right there. So you're in there. Right near some more doors. You're in there and the movie started. Yes. And do you see any, like, I'm trying to ask you, like, mention details about the movie. Do you remember any, like, the coming attractions, the trailers, the previews that you did? I do know that when I saw it, it's kind of like a sequel to White Toys. Okay. But there was no original characters or anything.

So what was the movie about? I mean, have you watched most of the movie? I don't know. Well, there's a girl there. I sat. She was maybe two seats away from me. Okay. What side of you was she sitting? On my right side. On your right side? Yes. Two girls, right? There was a girl, and she had a friend, yes. Okay, sitting right next to you? No. A couple seats over. Yeah, probably two seats over.

- So you were talking to them? - Yeah. - Okay, so we got a hold of them, they would know, they'd remember that conversation. - Yes, they'd remember that conversation. - And did I recall you saying that her name was Heather? - I remember her name was Heather, yes. - Okay, what about the other one, remember her name? - I didn't really talk to her at all. - Okay. - I don't know. - Do you remember where they went to school or anything? - I thought I heard them say Highland, but I'm not exactly sure exactly what school they went to now. - Okay.

Okay, you're not quite sure what she'd said because you've been in junior high? She wasn't that young. Definitely high school. She was at least a freshman, probably a sophomore. Okay, and you're a sophomore? I am a junior. She said that she was 15, so I think she's probably a sophomore. That's my best guess. What did she look like? Well, she's pretty attractive, of course. She's wearing tight jeans. She had...

I think it was brown hair, and it was probably about to here. Okay. So that would say probably what, 5'3", 5'4"? Um, she was pretty short. I would say 5'5". Is she... Well, she wasn't that short, because she was probably up to here to me. She was probably 5'6", 5'7". What color is her hair? I think it was brown.

Definitely brown or was it strawberry brown? It was like my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my

I've never seen her before, so... So she either goes to Highland... I mean, you're a movie buff. These are things that you pay attention to, right? I mean, you guys... You at least watch parts of the movie or something. Any characters you can hook us up with to describe somebody in the movie, describe what happened? Anything? What's the whole premise or the plot of the movie? What's it all about?

Uh, well, it was... I don't know what White Noise is about. I want to know what this movie is about. And then I remember, um... I can't really exactly explain the movie.

I didn't pay attention to it. Well, you know what we did yesterday? What? We went and watched the movie. Really? Mm-hmm. So, what is the movie about? Geez, I don't exactly know.

I remember being really bored. So you go in the movie, you pay that money, you go in the movie and you... I mean, so your story is you didn't really watch the movie. Well, I'm talking to girls that are here. Okay, but they're two seats away. I mean, you could be doing a lot of talking. At least you're picking up something.

You're gonna pick up at least one image off the screen that you saw. Tell us about one person, describe one person you saw in the movie. What did they look like? I'm seeing a man and he looked at a TV screen and it had white noise and it had the "shhh" thing. And that's all you saw of the whole movie? Yeah. So how long did you think you were inside that movie theater? Total, grand total? We were there for maybe two hours.

So as you heard, Brian couldn't remember anything at all about the movie, and he was stumbling all over his answers.

And I have to say, too, really quickly, that it's really smart that the police were asking about what trailers were played, because so often we hear about, you know, them asking the plot of the movie if that's somebody's alibi. And oftentimes, somebody can research what the movie's about ahead of time so that they're better armed with information, something Brian clearly didn't do. But very rarely would they go the extra step to know what previews were played before the movie.

And so I think that is also a very interesting and smart tactic and element to this. So in any event, because Brian basically couldn't answer a single thing, the police decided to confront him. We got some problems. And it's really important that this is the time in the interview where you really need to cowboy up and you really need to decide...

how you want this thing to fall on you. Yeah. We've done our homework, okay? Yeah. We've talked to a lot of people. We've viewed tape, okay? And I'm here to tell you, you didn't go to the movie. Okay. You were not at that movie theater, okay? Now, that's neither here nor there. But the thing is, you're going to have to get by that. Yeah. Because if you didn't go to the movie, that's fine. But you're going to have to tell us where you went so that we can put you there because...

I don't want something to cave in on you that I'm working for. Right. Okay? We're here to help you, bro. I mean, really, we are. You know what happened. What? You didn't go to the movie. We didn't go to the movie. Okay. Before you do that, just listen carefully to Andy, okay? Okay. Now listen to me. Don't underestimate how much we know. Okay. Okay? I told you the first night that when I saw you,

that I don't think you're the type of person that could kill somebody cold-blooded. - Especially my close friend. - Especially your close friend. - Of course. - Okay. - Okay, hold on a second, okay? - Okay. - I can tell you what we're doing. I was trying to hide this, but I guess I have to tell you now. - You're gonna have to, man. It's your only way out. - We went through cars. And that's gonna slow it down.

So I'm gonna take that. - Okay, you went through cars. What does that mean? - We checked for the cars that they're locked. - Where at? Where was that? Where at? - Story had to drive. I don't know. And then we called Matt because he wanted to come too.

Okay, so you didn't go to the movie, but you went through cars. We didn't go to the movie, but we went through cars. Can you tell us where you went through cars at? Because if you went through cars, did you take anything out of cars? We did find anything. Okay, so can you take us to a car that you went through, and we should find your fingerprints on that car? We went to... I had gloves. And then we went...

I remember we drove by toward his house and-- Hold on. Hold on. Let's just really-- let's re-zero ourselves, man. We-- I can't stress to you enough that

We are your best friends right now. Okay. And, and, and please, please don't underestimate. We know you're a bright kid. We know that we know that you got a lot going for you and we want to help you to get a lot going for you. And we want to help you. And right now is the perfect time that, that we can, man, we can really help you out. Now we've got a lot of bargaining chips right now, but it's, it's, it just so requires, like Andy said, we, we possess some knowledge, firsthand knowledge, um,

We know. And what we're really waiting for is you to come straight with us so that we can help get you out of this crap so it's not going to ruin the rest of your life. Okay. We want to help you. Okay, we really do. I just really want you to believe in us for a minute and really... I understand what you're saying. I understand. You need to tell us the truth. I'm telling you the truth.

- Okay, so this is the truth? - Yes, this is the truth. - These things we should be able to go out and confirm and cooperate. - Yes, this is, I was trying to hide this because I heard from a friend that that's 10 years in prison. - What exactly were you doing? Tell me exactly what you were doing. - We parked outside her house for hours. - Whose house? - I lost my words.

- Dude, let's do something right now. Let's do something right now. - Yeah. - Just take a minute. We'll all be quiet for a minute. You can take a few deep breaths, okay? - Yeah. - Really go deep and do some soul searching and get your, you know, get your wind back. And then you can go ahead and tell us, okay? Can you tell us when you're ready? Just take a few deep breaths. Like your dad said, just need to calm down. If you're telling the truth, this is gonna be easy. If you're lying, it's gonna be a hard night. - Yeah, I got you. - Okay. - Now, before you go any further,

Okay. We have some aces in our pocket. And what I mean by aces, I mean, we have some things that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt. We've confirmed with people and that we know. Okay. We know about the car. We know about some activities that you guys have done. Okay. So needless to say for you to jerk us our chain. Okay. Cassie uses this great friend of yours.

- Okay. - And she's watching right now. She's hearing everything that you're saying. - She has been brutally murdered. And then you have wasted our time by dicking around, okay? And trying to lie to us. And trust me, we understand why you're trying to divert us, okay? We understand. You don't want to get in trouble. I understand that, okay? The whole point of this is,

Don't waste any more of our time. Okay, don't underestimate what we know. Yeah, okay Because it's gonna come down to one or two things. Okay, we already have one strike against you Okay, you've already lied to us and we don't appreciate that. Okay. Yeah These are the types of situations that you don't like everything else in this world is game and I'm a firm believer in that

I don't give a shit if you lie in anything else to a cop, whatever. When it comes to a murder of a beloved friend, you do not lie, okay? The second part of that is I want you to take a deep breath and I want you to think about what part of this that you're involved in, okay? How much of this are you involved in? Involved in what? In what we're talking about with Cassie, okay? You think I'm involved...

I want you to continue. I want you to keep talking to us about the cards. Because we know some things, Brian. Okay? And I'm saying, we're your lifeline. We can help you now, but we can't help you later. If you tell us, I mean, we're willing to let bygones be bygones. You told us the first lie. So what? We expect that. Just let's clean it up and let's make it right. Let's look man to man in the eye. Let's get all our cards on the table.

And let's talk about, we're here for one thing. We're here to solve what happened to Cassie. And we didn't know. If you were involved in that, and if you are, that's fine. We can deal with that. We can deal with that. You guys are ridiculous. I didn't know how to kill my friend. Why did I kill Cassie? Did anybody? Do you know who did? No, I don't know who killed Cassie. Doesn't it seem weird that all of a sudden now...

You know, we're... Now obviously, the detectives just didn't believe him. They had interviewed some neighbors, and one of them said that they saw two teenage boys go into the house after Tori and Brian had left, almost like they left and then they came back later. The neighbors also saw the boys get out of a red car, which was the same color car that Tori had. Either it's you or it's Tori. Well, I don't know who it was, but I did not go back to the house that night, I swear. I did not go back to the house. Okay. Okay.

You're not being truthful with us about the car burglaries. Don't even insult us. I'm not trying to insult you. We did go through cars. I mean, that's the truth. That's exactly what we did. Brian, she was not supposed to die. I know. You didn't mean for that to happen. Tell us how you feel about Cassie dying. I'm extremely sad. You know, I'm...

chicken and lunches all the time, you know? How'd she die? Tell us how it happened. They said it was like the Linnory Road or the Linnory Jones case. But how do you know that? The news said it was by a folk. Well, I'm asking you how she died. She said that she was stabbed. How do you know that?

Because, first of all, Matt told me. All we want, you know, Brian, is like, we don't want to twist your words around. We're not going to do that. We're just going to ask you, you know, straightforward questions. We just want the truth. Your folks want the truth out of you. I know. They're willing to do anything to get the truth out of you. That is the truth. We have presented them with everything that we know so far. We've got another group of detectives that are picking up

Okay. They're going to take him to another office, to the sheriff's office. They've already been briefed. Okay. They're going to cut through the thing about the movie. And we're going to ask him point blank, what were you doing? What areas did you go into? And you need specific details. And then they're going to hit him with, why are you in the house? Okay. Why do two guys like you are seen going back in the house?

Okay, that's one thing that I've never divulged to anybody. Okay. Okay. I've got your car back in the area, guaranteed. That's a given. Okay. I've got your car, the red car, back in the area. Okay. That's a given. We got that taken care of today, and then you confirmed it. Okay. We know exactly when Cassie died.

Okay, I know exactly when. Okay. She died when you guys left. Right after you guys left and Matt left. Okay. Okay. So now you're telling me you just happen to be back in the neighborhood burglarizing cars with gloves on, but you don't go in and kill Cassie. Okay. So what is Tori going to say? Is Tori going to say that it was Brian's idea to go in the house?

and play a prank on me what is he already who does he already said bro you know what i mean second line don't stand a chance if somebody's already given it up you don't want to be the second one through the door i know because you won't get anything out of it the guy the first guy that tells the truth wins i'm already telling the truth okay we're not going away man yeah this thing's not going away and it's gonna eat you up yes if you did

I didn't have anything to do with it. I'm not worried. I hope so. I didn't kill him. Who was with you?

When? If it's not you and it's not Tori, then why are you guys seen going back into the house? I didn't go back into the house. Why are two guys that are described like you seen going back into the house? I didn't go back into the house, so that's not true. It was not me. No, no, no, I'm saying... It was not me and it was not Tori. Okay. Then who would it be? I have no clue. At school, I told...

- Because you love Cassie, right? - Yes. - And there's no way in the world you could ever hurt Cassie. - Exactly, not hurt Cassie. - In a million years. - No.

That's the truth. All right, man. I'll let her cast us. I'll let you folks. So Brian wasn't having it. He was sticking to his story. No matter how much the detectives tried to push him, he would not budge. He even agreed to take a polygraph test the following day on September 27th. However, before Brian could actually take that polygraph test, right before it could even begin, he started freaking out, started crying hysterically, just, you know, full-on, full-blown panic attack.

The polygrapher called the detectives and told them what was going on, that he was unable to take this test, that he was freaking out. And you might think, okay, this was bad. He wasn't cooperating. Now they would have to figure out another way to go forward. He wasn't going to do the test. But the truth was, this reaction from Brian was exactly what the detectives were hoping for. Because in their experience, people only start freaking out before a polygraph test for one reason. If they know that they are going to fail. And even more than that,

when they know they are going to get caught. I mean, sure, clearly innocent people can also be nervous about lie detector tests. Absolutely. That's why they're actually not even admissible in court, because you can't really put a lot of weight on them. Everybody reacts differently. Lots of people might be a little panicked, even if they didn't do anything wrong. So the fact that Brian was so freaked out, it wasn't proof on its own that he had done anything. But it did mean that maybe he wasn't thinking clearly. And

And maybe he would also have a difficult time sticking to his story if they decided to question him some more. So the detectives brought Brian and his parents into an interrogation room again, and Brian finally told them what happened. This time, he told them the truth.

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so brian's in the interrogation room and he now is finally spilling he is telling the entire story of what really went down brian said that he and tori came up with an idea to scare cassie that that was it that they just wanted to scare her and leave he says that when they came to the house the first time around cassie gave them a tour as i mentioned earlier but that something happened during that tour

Apparently during the tour, Brian snuck downstairs and unlocked a basement door that opened to the outside. So after he and Tori left that night, they never really left at all. They just went outside and went into Tori's car and started changing their outfits.

They put on dark colored clothing, they put on white masks that they had actually painted to look like they were dripping in blood. It's truly sick. This was clearly premeditated in terms of, you know, their outfitting. And they also each carried a knife. However, according to Brian, he says that he thought that the knives were just for show, that they weren't going to really do anything. All they were going to do was scare Cassie. They just wanted to look threatening. They just wanted to look scary.

Next, they snuck back into the house through that unlocked basement door. They then used the circuit box to cut the electricity. They hoped that this would lure Cassie and Matt downstairs so that they could scare them, but it didn't. So after a while, they turned the power back on.

They heard Matt call his mom, and they eventually heard him leave altogether. And after he left, Tori and Brian knew that they wanted to scare Cassie. So they started slamming doors, they started banging on the walls, trying to get Cassie to come downstairs. But when that didn't work, the two of them decided they were going to go upstairs to find her. Once they were upstairs, they made more loud noises, trying to startle Cassie.

And as they moved further into the house, they noticed that she was lying still on the couch in the living room, just completely freaked out, curled up in a tight ball in the fetal position. Almost like if she didn't move, they wouldn't see her. I mean, this girl was truly terrified. It was clear that she was scared, but she didn't move. She didn't look at them. She literally was frozen.

So, they slammed another closet door, trying to get her to move off of the couch. But she didn't. She stayed still. So the boys moved closer and closer. And then, Tori started attacking Cassie. Brian said he just stood there, completely stunned. Before this happened, he hadn't suspected even for a second that Tori was actually going to hurt Cassie.

But he also says he didn't do anything to stop Tori. He didn't do anything to help Cassie either. In fact, when Tori told him to help with the stabbing, Brian did what he was told. He jumped in and he started stabbing Cassie too. He said that once the two of them were done stabbing her over 35 times, they finally left the house. They went back to Tori's house and they stayed there for a while. Eventually, they put their clothes, the knives, and the masks in a trash bag and put the trash in the trunk of Tori's car.

Before they could leave to go hide the evidence, they also grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol from the bathroom. And around 1am, they drove to a convenience store and bought matches. They then went to an area called Black Rock Canyon, which was about 20 minutes away. So there, they used the matches and that rubbing alcohol to burn everything that they had put into that trash bag. The clothing, the knives, and the masks.

So the police now had Brian's confession, but they still wanted to hear Tori's side of the story. For one thing, Brian had sort of made it sound like this whole murder had been Tori's idea, like he had stabbed Cassie out of nowhere, that there was never any sort of premeditation, they were just gonna scare her, but it was only Brian's side of the story. They needed to see if that was true, or if maybe Brian was just throwing Tori under the bus to make himself look better.

And like I said earlier, Tori was very difficult to get a hold of. And his parents actually fought the police pretty hard. They did not want him to do an interview. But eventually, they were overruled, and the investigators got Tori down to the station. At first, Tori gave a story that was pretty similar to the one that Brian had told. You know, breaking into cars, they didn't want to get caught, that's why they lied. Then he said that they did go to the house with Cassie and Matt for a little bit.

that they left, that they didn't go to a movie, that they did break into those cars, and then they went back to Tori's house where they stayed for the rest of the night. But the police told Tori that the neighbors saw his car near the house later that night. They also said that they knew that he was at that convenience store at around 1 a.m. So Tori said, yeah, we went to the convenience store to get matches for Brian. He's a smoker, and he needed them for his cigarettes. That's the whole reason we went. However, the police continued to push him. I'm going to tell you that we need to...

Now's the time. Now's the time to really start being honest with some things. Okay? We know some things to be true. We know exactly what happened. We found some things. Okay? And I want to give you the first chance and the first opportunity. You owe it to your mom and dad. Absolutely. You've got great parents. You owe it to your mom and dad to be straight with you. We are all here for you, bro. I'm telling you. I mean, we're not here to twist anything up. We're here to help you out of a jam.

You got drug into some things, which apparently you did. We need to know and we need to know the truth. Okay. I guess the best way I can explain it is the house of cards is falling. You know, it's kind of stories are falling apart and stuff like that. Tori, you know where we're going with this. Yeah. You know what we have. We know, man. It's just one of those things. You come to this juncture in your life and

You just either got to, you know, you either got to give it up or it's going to eat you up. And your folks want you to do that. I'm telling you, I mean, it's, the truth is going to set you free on this, you know, literally, you know, but the truth is going to set your feelings free and you're going to get by this thing. But I'm here to tell you that

We've been doing this for several days. We've talked to a lot of people. We've seen a lot of things. We've put the pieces of the puzzle together. That's what we do. That's all we've been doing ever this week. Okay? We know how it went down. Tell us what happened. Like what? Out at Cassie's place. We went through cars, brain brain. Okay. You know, we're not here to insult you or anything, but...

We don't believe your story. And we don't believe your story. And I don't think your dad believes your story about going through the cars. It's a tough one. And I don't believe it, especially because I know it's not true. Because we got you going into that house when you parked on the street. We got you going back into Cassie's house. If it was a prank, if you guys were just messing around, fine. We just need to know about that prank, you know, that's going on in there. And if you're just there to scare them and you guys left and something happened else besides that, let's get that thing out of here.

You know what I mean? But in everything that happens, there's always people that are watching. You go around and talk to all these people, and they finally put together this puzzle. You got the trucker out here. You got the common sense clerk. You got the neighbor. You know, you got all these people, you know, that see it. You got people seeing your car park, you know, which you cooperate for us, parking in the neighborhood. Sean, do you guys go back in just to pull a prank? Is that what happens? Mm-hmm.

I don't know. You're into that kind of stuff. I mean, for all intents and purposes. And tell me if I'm screwed up on it. But you like horror movies. You like scary movies and stuff like that. That's what I've been told about you. You dig those kind of movies. Right? Thriller movies. Whatever you want to call them. You dig those kind of things. Did you go in there just to scare them? Just to scare the crap out of them? You know? And be done with it? You know, there's no other reason. You know? Help us understand a little bit about...

Take a deep breath and do it, bud. You know the truth. The truth is easy for you. But we can help you. If we don't get the truth, we can't come together. We can't work this thing out. We can't do it. You're going to be left out in the cold. You know, I talked to an intern.

So Tori was not going to fold like Brian. He asked for an attorney right then and there on the spot and the interview ended. However, later that day, both Brian and Tori were arrested for murdering Cassie. Especially because when Brian confessed, he didn't only talk about how and why Cassie had died. He even drove the detectives out to the area where he and Tori had burned all of the evidence. And luckily, that evidence hadn't completely burned up all the way.

The police were able to recover the masks and also the clothing that the boys had been wearing during the murder. Plus, there was something else that had not been mentioned that they were able to recover. A videotape. Now, it was pretty damaged, but still in good enough condition that the investigators were able to recover the footage off of it. And this footage was truly terrifying. Unfortunately, we have the grueling task of killing our two friends.

and they are right in that house just down the street. - We just talked to them, we were there for an hour. - We checked out the whole house, we know there's lots of doors, there's lots of places to hide. I locked the back doors, it's all locked. Now we just gotta wait and yeah, we're really nervous right now, but you know, we're ready. - We're listening to the greatest rock band ever. - We've been waiting for this for a long time. - Pink Floyd.

before we commit the ultimate crime of murder. - We waited for this for a long time. - A long time. - We'll stay tuned. - Just killed Cassie. We just looked her house. This is not a fucking joke. - I'm shaking. - I stabbed her in the throat and I saw her lifeless body just disappear. Dude, I just killed Cassie. Oh, fuck. That felt like it wouldn't even-- I mean, it went by so fast. - Shut the fuck up. We gotta get our act straight.

Now, if you only listened to the audio of that on the podcast and didn't see the visual, it might be a little difficult to understand what was happening in that moment. But basically, they were taking this home movie where before the murder, they talked about how they planned to come back to the house and kill Cassie. Then the second clip is them after the murder getting back in the car and announcing, quote, we just killed Cassie.

almost as though they were making their own sick, twisted home horror movie. And we know that they were horror movie fans, but like, this is next level. And that's not even the worst part, because there was also footage that showed the two of them planning this murder, multiple days before the murder even happened.

We're going for a high death count. We're not going not to get caught, Ryan. If we're going for guns, we're just going to end it. We're just going to grab the guns and get out of there and kill everybody in the lane. We're going to make history. We're going to make history. For all you FBI agents watching this,

Uh, you weren't quick enough. You weren't quick enough and you weren't smart enough. And we're going over today to Jason's house. We're gonna go snoop around over there and try to see if she's home alone or not. And if she's home alone... Splat! She did. Don't put your humor into this, Brian. Uh, I'm not putting any of it into this. Yep. People will die. And then memories will fade.

Memories will fade. I wonder what movie you got that from, Brian. Myself. That was for myself. No wonder it was so lame. Okay, we're on our way, and I'm gonna... I'll let you stay tuned. We're almost there. It's clear out there in the pasture. We've already snooped around her house a couple times. She's not home, so we're gonna go to the church over there, and we're gonna call...

a girl and a guy named Cassie and Matt. They're our friends, but we have to make sacrifices, so... Um, I feel tonight it is the night, and I feel really weird inside my stomach and stuff, and I feel like I want to kill somebody. I know that's not normal, but what the hell? I feel...

We need to break away from normal life. How bright is this light? Because-- let's put it this way. Parents, along with their parents, along with their parents, and so on, taught them-- thank God, Jesus, the whole bullshit line. I'm sure you guys believe in God as well. I realized when I was in seventh grade

along, you don't believe in Santa Claus or vampires or werewolves, they're used to metaphor not to let, they teach their kids back in the 1800s, I learned this in English class, about telling their kids that you can't go outside or a vampire will get you just to make their kids stay and do what they want to do.

God is basically the same way. Trying to get people to do good or else so-called you go to hell. And we're obviously going to hell if it's real but you know who gives a shit? Yeah.

and why would you say it's real? - Yeah, but it's not real. It's not real, 'cause it's so blatantly obvious it's not real. - People believe it because their parents teach 'em, and so it's so hard for 'em to let go of it because they've been taught their whole life. - Yeah, I know. - But fucking the point I'm making is

- We are also taught that things like killing people and other things is wrong. The only thing that it's wrong about is because it's breaking the law and the law is only wrong. - Natural selection dude. - Natural selection, that's all I gotta say. - There should be no law against killing people. I know it's a wrong thing, but hell, you restrict somebody from it, they're gonna want it more. - Exactly. Goodbye camera.

My friend's too pussy to go investigate. Turn here. Too smart. Why are you turning there, dude?

Now we're gonna go over to Cassie and Matt's house if they're home alone. If Cassie's out, Matt is there. Matt is there, sorry. We're gonna knock on the door. We'll see who's there. We'll see if their parents are home or not. If they're home alone, we will leave our way and then we will come back in about 10 minutes. We'll sneak in through the door because chances are

They're probably in Cassie's room. So we'll sneak in the front door. We'll make a noise outside. Matt will come out to investigate, kill him, and scare the shit out of Cassie.

- Okay. - Sounds like fun. - We'll stay tuned. We found our victim and sad as it may be, she's our friend. But you know what? We all have to make sacrifices. Our first victim is going to be Cassie's daughter and her friends. - Turn your brights off, asshole. - We'll find out if she has friends over. She's gonna be alone in a big dark house out in the middle of nowhere. How perfect can you get?

I mean like holy shit dude. I'm horny just thinking about it. Hell yeah. So we're gonna fucking kill her and her friends and we're gonna keep moving on. I heard some news about Kiersten. She's gonna be home alone from 6 to 7. So we might kill her and drive over to Cassie's thing and scare the shit out of them and kill them one by fucking one. Hell yeah.

- Why one by one? Why can't it be a slugger house? - Two by two and three by three? 'Cause we gotta keep it classy. - Keep it classy. - So yeah, it's gonna be extra fun. - You're evil. - Yes I am.

So are you, Terry. No. Evil is an expression of God. That was another test you failed. Evil is not an expression of God. Yes, it is. It's bullshit. You know it. Evil of origin is a follower of fucking Satan. There is no Satan. Then shut up. Then how are we supposed to express ourselves? Good and bad. We're bad?

That sounds good, baby. That sounds good, baby.

Let's see, Ted Vondie, like the hillside strangler. - No. - The Zodiac Killer. - Most people are more amateurs compared to what we're gonna be. We're gonna be more of higher sources of Edglu. - Gene. - Gene. - What's happening with that? - Oh, you know what Ed Gene's words were? - What? - Saw a girl walking down the street, right? - Yeah. - Two questions came to his head.

- The killer. - Get her alive. - Holy shit. - Yes. Holy shit.

Murder is power, murder is freedom. Goodbye. So again, if it was difficult for you, I'll just summarize, but in this clip, they're talking about how they want to kill Cassie, and how they also hope to commit other murders afterward. They plan to target both Cassie and Matt that night, who they describe, you know, as our friends, but they're also, quote, sacrifices. They also talk about how the only reason why they want to commit the murders is because they're atheists, and if God won't punish them by going to hell, there's no reason to not be as bad as possible.

So it's interesting because they're trying very hard to seem tough and edgy, but mostly they just come across as, you know, losers. Dangerous losers, but losers nonetheless. Then on the morning of Cassie's actual murder on September 22nd, they brought the camera to school with them and they filmed a whole bunch of stuff. Hey look, it's Cassie. Hey, hello. Hello, Cassie. I'm getting you on tape, okay? Say hi, please. Okay, see ya. Wait.

Have you seen Tory? He's supposed to meet me here at 7:30 and it's 8:19. He's an hour late. You don't even care, do you? Okay. See ya. We're skipping our fourth hour. We're writing our plan right now for tonight. It's gonna be cool. We're gonna have to work up our sick house. We're supposed to be happy tonight. So hopefully...

I think we'll go Rose. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, let's move up. Spirits League. We can get our first kill deck started. And we can take over. Yeah. I'm supposed to be putting her up on fire. For you. She thinks I'm a huge issue. She's got the plotters watching this debate. Fuck. I don't know, I just think it's good luck on that. Yeah.

I'm sorry

I'm sorry Cassie's family, but she had to reward We have sick plant and she's perfect. She's been back. She's my daughter's topic here spires house brothers. Oh, there's a lot and we have a new victim now. She was Miranda she started so just so quiet and Sir

We're here for a documentary right now. Oh, sorry. I'm still up for it. No, it's cool. It's cool. We're just talking about our age. Just for school. For school projects. I guess... Yeah, I guess you're calling it projects, right? Yeah.

In the first clip, it shows Brian saying hi to Cassie at her lockers in the morning and asking if she's seen Tori. The second and third clips are Tori and Brian in the library, and they tell the camera almost like confessional style, like it's a reality show, that they're skipping class to plan the murder that they have planned for that night and how they're so excited about it. It's just unnerving. And all of these actual videos with the visuals are on the YouTube channel, guys, so go check that out if you want to actually see, you know, the home footage.

So after both boys were arrested, obviously they turned on each other, and they just started blaming one another. Tori said that it was all Brian's idea, and Brian said it was all Tori's idea. Eventually, Brian admitted that he was more involved in the crime than he had originally let on.

Which, I mean, the videos he made told a pretty clear story, right? This was something that they both wanted. This was something that they both planned. But Tory never really budged. He just kept saying, "It was all Brian. It was all Brian. He just went along with it." And in a very unsettling detail, he also claimed that he didn't even know Brian very well. They apparently only became friends about six weeks before they killed Cassie.

He added that while they did all of the planning, he thought that it was all just a game, not that it was anything serious. He says that he was playing along, but that he didn't think that it was real. Tori and his parents even tried saying that Brian had a very dark history, while Tori didn't. Brian had apparently been very interested in violence for quite some time. In middle school, he was severely bullied for a stutter that he had.

And this was also apparently the time that he became obsessed with the Columbine school shooting. He joined chat rooms about Columbine. He became obsessed with the idea of school shootings. He even planned doing one himself. He said that he would have dreams about it. And it's...

In eighth grade, he and three other boys even made a plan to shoot up their school. But thank goodness, they never went through with it. In fact, Brian had a reputation for talking about shooting people all the time. But nobody ever thought that he was being serious. An example of this is on his MySpace page. Brian wrote that he was, quote, sick in the head and no one knows it.

He wrote extremely detailed stories about shooting people and also how he would commit a school shooting in the future and all of just these like threats and dangerous claims and threats that he would make. It was very unnerving. So because of this, Tori was basically like, hey, there's evidence that this guy is violent and he is willing to kill. I was just pretending the whole time. I was just trying to make it like a movie. Meanwhile, Brian wanted to put this out for real. He wanted to actually murder somebody.

Which maybe that would sway somebody's thoughts, possibly, that Brian was the ringleader. But Tori had a reputation too. Now, I already talked about how everybody knew he loved knives and that he would, like, pretend to stab people at school, which, who does that? But he also admitted to the police that he was obsessed with horror movies. And in that videotape, the boys talk about wanting to recreate the horror movie Scream in real life. Which, if you're not familiar with that movie, in the beginning of that movie, the boys prey on this young girl who was home alone. She...

was making popcorn, she was by herself at the house, they tried to scare her multiple times, they tried to call her on the landline and scare her, that's where that famous quote is from, you know, what's your favorite scary movie? And then they eventually just attack her out of nowhere. And there was even more evidence that this wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment thing. See, Tori and Brian bought the knives that they used to kill Cassie,

in late august almost a month before the murder took place now since they weren't 18 years old at the time they couldn't buy these knives themselves so instead they asked an older friend of theirs to go to the pawn shop with them brian even withdrew 40 from an atm right before they entered the shop

So I mean, the paper trail, the evidence against these guys, it was long. And once they were inside the pawn shop, their friend bought them two knives for $45, one serrated and one not serrated. So I mean, all of the evidence was saying pretty clearly that this was premeditated.

It was pretty clear that both boys were excited to do what they did. And I don't know about you, but to me, Tori seemed like a pretty willing participant in all of that footage. So in 2007, both boys went to trial. They were tried separately, and Brian's trial was in April, and Tori's trial was a couple of months later in June. Each of them pled not guilty. Tori was still claiming that everything was Brian's fault, and that there wasn't any evidence showing that he physically stabbed Cassie,

because apparently only one of the knives had Cassie's DNA on it, and of course, Tori said that that was the knife that Brian had been using. Plus, Brian's DNA was underneath Cassie's fingernails. It was like she was trying to fight him off, which we did see that there was evidence of a struggle at the house. But the point of that is Tori's DNA was not underneath her fingernails.

The only real hard evidence against Torrey was the videotapes, and he was still saying that he didn't mean the things that he said on camera. He thought that it was all just them playing a game. At both trials, the prosecution argued that the boys wanted to recreate the movie Scream.

and that coupled with that, they were also inspired by school shootings. They specifically brought up that Brian idolized the shooters from Columbine. They also quoted something that Brian had written in a journal. It said, quote, I am becoming more and more obsessed with Columbine.

It seems now that that's all I think about. I would give anything to go back in time and be a part of Eric Harris and Dylan K. Lebold's lives. They are my heroes. I will follow in their footsteps and maybe I'll even meet them. I gotta just say, that sends chills down my spine. Whoever aspires to be somebody like those monsters who committed such a horrible shooting,

And wanting to meet them, wanting to be like them, wanting to go back in time to be friends with them, it is unhinged. It truly, truly is. Now, in the end, both Brian and Tori were found guilty of murder. In August of 2007, they each received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. They also received 30 years to life for conspiracy to commit murder. Now, since then, each of them has tried to appeal multiple times. Brian has argued that life in prison without the possibility of parole is, quote, cruelties.

cruel and unusual punishment. He has also tried to argue that since he was a teenager when he committed the crime, he should at least be up for parole after 30 years. However, this appeal was denied. Tori still maintains that he's innocent. He's innocent in all of this, and he still blames Brian for everything. Tori's parents have also been extremely vocal about his innocence, and they claim that he had nothing to do with Cassie's death. Tori's mom even wrote a book about how her son is innocent.

They also say that it was illegal for the police to interrogate Tori back on the 27th, because apparently that day the police asked Tori to come in for an interview at 9 a.m., 4 p.m., and 6 p.m., and each time Tori's parents said that they were waiting on their lawyer and that the interrogation couldn't happen until the attorney showed up. They say that the cops then threatened to arrest Tori unless he talked to them.

and that if he did talk with them, everything would be okay and that they would work together. Before the interview, police did read Torrey his rights, but his parents said that Torrey had a learning disability, which prevented him from really understanding what his rights were. Then, to make matters worse, Torrey continued to ask for a lawyer, just like they had.

but the police ignored him and they just kept answering questions. Apparently, all together, Torrey and his parents had asked about a lawyer four times before the police finally stopped the interview.

And even though, according to Torrey's family, the whole interrogation was completely illegal, the footage still got admitted into evidence during his trial, which we know is not supposed to happen in those kinds of circumstances. His family also claims that the jury was biased against Torrey. Brian's trial was before Torrey's, and by the time Torrey's started, everybody knew what had happened.

It just seemed too easy that one or more of the jurors might have made up their minds before they even set foot in the courtroom. So Torrey gained a hearing for post-conviction relief in 2015. In this appeal, he claimed that his attorney had failed to submit evidence that could have gotten him a lighter sentence. He said that his attorney was going to have a character witness speak on Torrey's behalf. They were going to talk about how Torrey was "good," how he was a kind person who wasn't prone to violence, and that he just, you know, became friends with the wrong guy.

Well, this appeal was denied. So Tory filed another one in 2019, which again was denied. After it was dismissed, he again appealed to a higher court where, if I haven't said it again, he was denied. Now get this, Tory and Bryan are both in the same prison now.

So they see each other often, but apparently they do not talk, at least not to each other. They're both very open to doing interviews with the press, however, and they are very vocal there, just not to one another. Brian has said that a combination of things caused him to kill Cassie.

He said he felt like he was a nobody, a loser, who didn't matter to anyone. So, in order to be a somebody, he thought that he had to do something, quote, big and bad. Those are his words. He also has admitted to being obsessed with the Columbine shooting, as we know, and murder, really, in general. When he met Tori, he felt like he finally met somebody who understood him, because Tori had a dark side as well.

and he was apparently the person who got him into horror movies, according to him. Brian also says that he doesn't remember any part of the crime, except the detail that he felt like an audience was watching them when they killed Cassie, as if they truly were a part of a movie. In Tori's interviews, he says that he's paying for somebody else's mistake, and that everything is Brian's fault.

And he's kind of a bit of a broken record like that. It's always been Brian's fault from the get-go, according to him. Now, obviously, Cassie's family had a very difficult time dealing with her death. Her 13-year-old cousin, the one who discovered the body, also tried to take her own life after all of this. Luckily, she survived, but she still suffers from mental health issues. Her aunt also lost her job, and her uncle became a very heavy drinker.

Cassie's mom, Anna, tried to file a lawsuit against the school district because she claimed that they knew Brian was violent, but they didn't do anything to stop him. And according to her, while Brian was in middle school, an anonymous person reported that Brian and his friend were planning a school shooting. This person said that Brian talked about it so many times, and eventually, this person got Brian to admit his plan during a recorded phone call.

They had the evidence. So Brian was interviewed at school, and he claimed he wasn't serious and that he was just joking, not unlike what Tori tried to say later after Cassie's murder. And for that recorded phone call about the school shooting, Brian didn't get into any trouble. He was just kind of told, you know, don't joke about stuff like that again. However, a month later, somebody else reported that Brian was planning a shooting at an upcoming school dance. Apparently, Brian had pretended to shoot people at a previous school dance, and now he said he was actually going to do it at the next one.

So an investigation was launched, but ultimately the school determined that Brian yet again was not a threat. But Cassie's mom Anna filed this lawsuit because she was saying there was a clear pattern. There had been outcries. There had been threats made before. But ultimately, she ended up not winning the suit. It was determined that the school did everything they could, and they couldn't have stopped Brian from killing Cassie. But honestly, I'm not so sure because I think when there

when there are that many red flags that is enough to act on whether it's expulsion whether it is you know getting the authorities involved i don't know but i feel like somebody could have done more people still question whether brian and tori played an equal part in cassie's murder

Some people think that Brian was the ringleader of the entire plan, and some people think that Tori was. There are even people who are convinced that Matt, the boyfriend, also had something to do with Cassie's death. However, I want to be clear, there's no evidence to suggest that whatsoever. It's also not entirely clear what their motive in all of this was. I mean, clearly they wanted to kill someone, you know, just for the thrill of it.

but it's hard to say why they picked Cassie to be their target. Some people say that both Tori and Brian both had a crush on Cassie, so maybe they got angry when she rejected them, so they decided to kill her for it, who knows? But none of that can explain the horrific torture that they put her through. Hiding in the basement, cutting the power, making noises to scare her.

stalking through the house, wearing masks literally painted with blood. I mean, the whole thing. It really was like something out of a horror movie, just like they were reenacting the movie Scream, which what a terrifying experience her last moments must have been. Just frozen in the fetal position on the couch, hoping that they won't notice her, hoping they won't see her. These two guys, in my opinion, deserve to rot in prison because of what they did.

But I'm curious to know what you guys think. There are differing opinions out there. Some do believe one's involved more than the other. What do you think and what do you think the motive was? We talk a lot about cases where younger kids are now committing these heinous murders. You've got Aiden Fucci. You've got, I mean, the list goes on and on. And what a lot of them do have in common is that they idolize killers.

And it's almost a question then of, do they think that they're going to get some sort of notoriety once they're caught, once they've murdered somebody? They look up to these school shooters. They look up to these mass murderers. So do they commit these murders because they want somebody to begin looking up to them? It's such a warped and twisted way of thinking. But honestly, that's the only motive that I can come up with. So I'm curious to know what you guys think.

Let me know either on the comment section on YouTube or the Q&A section on Spotify or also on the review section on Apple. Thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode and for hearing Cassie's story. And as a reminder, if you are in the Denver area, you can catch one of these episodes and all new exclusive case live this Thursday. Just head to AnnieElise.com and hit the events tab.

All right, thank you guys so much. I will be back on the mic with you first thing Thursday morning with headline highlights where we are breaking down everything going on in the true crime world this week. Thanks again for tuning in and until the next one, be nice, don't kill people, don't join any cults, and just stay safe. All right, thanks guys.