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He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America
because hadn't thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, the Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event. Premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR.
Sometimes life imitates art, and in 2006, a crime rocked a small town in Idaho that seemed to be drawn straight from the script of a horror film. The story of the death of Cassie Jo Stoddard will shock you. It will anger you, and above all, it will terrify you. Get ready to scream. You're listening to Murder in America. ♪♪
Thank you.
Pocatello, Idaho is a typical American small town. Nestled in the southeastern portion of the state amongst the mountains, it's a quaint place to raise a family, a settlement that truly represents small-town America. In the summer, the streets are filled with townsfolk as the downtown area is taken over by art walks and small music festivals, and food trucks make their homes in parks and along the streets to serve hungry residents. Interestingly enough though,
Even though the population is rather small, crime rates in Pocatello are higher than the statewide average.
The town was given a ranking of 15 out of 100 in safety when compared to the rest of America, meaning that it's only safer than 15% of all American cities. While your chances of becoming a victim of violent crime across Idaho are 1 in 447, your chances in Pocatello are 1 in 211. These statistics would become alarmingly relevant in 2006 when a brutal murderer
In the town of Pocatello lived Cassie Jo Stoddard. Cassie was a beautiful young girl, only 16 years old, who loved music and drawing. When Cassie was a little girl, she was shy, but as she grew older and her teenage years came, she really found herself. She was described by friends and family as a hardworking girl, sweet, determined, accepting, and whatever Cassie seemed to set her mind to, she would achieve it.
Everybody had nice things to say about her, and she always gave a helping hand when needed. Cassie's tendency to want to help others was blatantly obvious one night in September of 2006 when her aunt and uncle asked her to watch over their animals one weekend while they were out of town. She agreed because that's the kind of person that Cassie was. So on Friday, September 22nd, 2006, at around 5.30 p.m.,
Cassie's mom drops her off at her aunt's house in the Pocatello neighborhood of Whispering Cliffs. Cassie's aunt and uncle's house was big and it was kind of old, the kind of house where the floors squeak when you walk across the room, and it was located in a very remote part of town. It was the kind of house where horror movies seemed to be set.
To calm her nerves, Cassie's aunt at the time tells her that she can have her boyfriend Matthew over to keep her company. Matthew and Cassie had been dating for a few months at this point and they were really into each other. It was a typical ride-or-die teenage romance.
Matt treated Cassie well and her family really liked and trusted him. The night of September 22, 2006, Matt came over soon after Cassie got to the house and at around 8.30 p.m. as the two were hanging out watching movies.
there was a knock on the front door. And since Cassie wasn't expecting any visitors, this sudden interruption was jarring and it was somewhat suspicious. As she slowly opened the door, she realized that it was just her high school friends and classmates, Brian Draper and Tori Adamczyk. The two had gotten word that Cassie was house-sitting for her aunt and they assumed that she was throwing a party, so they swung by to see what was going on.
Tori and Brian were your typical high school boys. Tori was the more timid of the two and had a passion for movies and filmmaking.
Brian had a big personality, super outgoing, was really into computers, and was a member of the high school soccer team. When they realized that Cassie wasn't throwing a party, the two asked if they could just stay and hang out for a while. Cassie was a little apprehensive to let them in because it wasn't her house and she knew her aunt wouldn't want a lot of people over, but she thought, "You know, it's just a few people. These are my friends. Why not?"
So, she lets them in and the four of them turn on a movie. The group was really into horror movies. Movies that should have you paranoid about your surroundings. Films that would have you looking over your shoulder. Cassie had no idea that later that night she would become a tragic star in her own real-life horror movie.
At around 9.30 p.m., Brian and Tori get kind of bored, and they tell Cassie and Matt that this isn't really what they were expecting, and they're going to go to a movie theater to watch a movie, and they're going to give them some alone time. And I'm sure Cassie was relieved to hear this, because she didn't really want them in the house in the first place, and she wanted to spend some alone time with Matt. Once the boys left, Cassie and Matt turned on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, and as they're watching the movie, enjoying their night together, all of a sudden, the power goes out.
The TV goes black and the house is filled with darkness. The two were already paranoid from the movie and losing power in the home only exacerbated their fear. The two look outside and see that the neighbors still have their power, so Matt tells Cassie that he's going to go down to the basement to see if he can look at the fuse box and fix whatever has gone wrong.
But as he's slowly walking down the stairs to the basement, peering deep into the darkness, the power suddenly comes back on, flooding the home with light. Both confused and concerned, Matt returns to the couch, and at this point he and Cassie are really freaked out, but they try to just ignore what happened so they can enjoy their night together. At around 11 p.m., Matt's mom comes by to pick him up, but at this point Matt feels like something is wrong.
Almost as if the energy in the home is calling out for him to stay, like he might need to be there at some point to protect his girlfriend. Matt begs his mom to let him stay the night with Cassie. He tells her about how the lights have been turning on and off and how Cassie was really scared to stay there by herself. But Matt's mom says no, you're way too young to be staying here with your girlfriend when there aren't any parents around.
and she even tells him if she's scared to be there by herself, she can come stay at our place, but you can't stay here. When Cassie hears this, she tells Matt, no, I made a commitment to my aunt, I have to stay here. So Matt leaves with his mom, having no idea that this would be the last time he would ever see Cassie alive. Two days later, on Sunday morning, Cassie's family comes home from their fun weekend vacation. The family walks into the house with their luggage, but they don't see Cassie.
Her cousin starts to yell her name, but she is met only with silence. And out of her peripheral, she sees something out of the ordinary. The color red. And it's everywhere. When she turns her head, she is met with a bloody scene, and her eyes immediately dart to an image that she would never be able to get out of her head. Her cousin Cassie lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood.
She immediately calls the police to let them know about the tragedy that occurred in her home. Police arrive at the scene and start their investigation soon after. The second phone call that Cassie's aunt makes is to Cassie's mom, but as she goes to dial her number, she notices a car driving up the driveway. It was Cassie's mom.
She was coming to pick her up and had no idea at the time that her daughter had been brutally murdered. And as she pulls in, the house is surrounded by police and crime scene tape, and she knows immediately that something terrible has happened. As police assess the crime scene, they notice that Cassie was stabbed a total of 27 times, mostly in the abdomen area. There were no signs of sexual assault, so the murder wasn't sexually motivated. There was nothing stolen from the house, so they were able to rule out a robbery gone bad.
So what was the perpetrator's motivation? Why had Cassie been killed? Investigators believe that the amount of times Cassie was stabbed seemed to be excessive, so they concluded that whoever killed Cassie must have known her. This conclusion makes investigators immediately want to question her boyfriend Matt.
When police head over to Matt's house and inform him of Cassie's death, he seems very emotionless, which is extremely suspicious to investigators. When most people hear that their significant other has passed away, they usually break down, ask a lot of questions, they're usually in hysterics. But not Matt. He was very stoic.
But everyone handles grief differently, and investigators didn't want to jump to any conclusions just yet. So they start to ask Matt some questions. How was your and Cassie's relationship? Did you guys get into a fight this weekend? Are you the jealous type?
Walk us through what happened that night. They asked all the questions that investigators usually ask a victim's significant other, because we all know that that is who investigators usually look at first in murder investigations. Matt tells investigators about the power going out and how the two were scared, but other than that, he seemed to have no idea what could have happened to Cassie.
She was perfectly fine before he left that Friday night and she made him pretty confident that she would be okay staying there by herself. Police asked Matt if there was anyone else hanging out at the house that night and he tells them about their friend Tori and Brian that came earlier on but left to go see that movie, but he had no idea who else could have known about them being
there. Police usually have a good feeling about whether or not someone is guilty of something based on their body language, their story's consistency, and how confident they are in telling that story. And police seem to have a good feeling about Matt's story. They said that it made sense and he seemed to be truthful.
The only thing that concerned them was that he had a noticeable lack of emotion. Next, they were going to question Tori and Brian to see if they could help with the investigation in any way. When investigators asked the boys why they were there that night, they say, look, we just went because we heard there was going to be a party. And when we came by and no one was there, we decided to leave and go to the movies. They were both adamant that they had no part in Cassie's murder and that they had no clue who had killed her.
So far, all of these guys aren't raising any red flags and investigators are kind of stuck. They even looked to see if there were any other violent crimes in nearby areas. Like, maybe someone was going on some type of killing spree that night, but that was eventually ruled out too. So with no other options, investigators go back to question the three boys who saw her on the night she was murdered.
But at the time, they were kind of wondering, are we wasting our time? These are teenage boys. There's no way that they could be capable of murder. But they questioned them anyways because they don't really have any other options at this point. They bring Matt in and they asked him if he would be willing to take a polygraph, which is essentially a lie detector test that measures your body's reaction to certain questions.
And when they give Matt the polygraph, he passes. Now, polygraphs are not admissible in court, and I personally would never take one, even if I was innocent. Because there have been innocent people that fail the polygraph, and there have been guilty people that pass. So they really aren't that reliable.
But after passing the polygraph and hearing Matt's consistent story, investigators are pretty sure of his innocence. Next, police go to question Brian and Tori one more time, and this time investigators turn up the heat. They ask the boys to walk them through their night. "We told you we were at the movies," they say. And the investigator replies, "Can you tell me what the movie was about?" And it was at this point that the boys start to tense up. Neither of them could remember.
This was strange to investigators because from their stories, they could tell that these boys loved movies, especially horror films, which is what they claimed to see that night. And if these two were self-proclaimed movie fanatics, then why couldn't they tell investigators one single detail about the movie they saw that night?
Eventually, the two make excuses about how the movie was boring so they weren't paying much attention, but investigators knew instantly that there was something fishy about their story. So they start to dig a little deeper.
Detectives go to the movie theater that the boys claimed to be at on the night in question, and it turned out that Brian and Tori were regulars at the theater and that the employees knew them on a first-name basis. When investigators talk to the employees, they find out that Tori and Brian never came to the movies that night. There was no way that they were there.
Knowing now that the boys are lying to them, investigators ask Brian to come in for a polygraph. He agrees, and when he comes into the police station, he's extremely emotional. Like you could tell he wanted to get something off of his chest. And he did. And as Brian sits down, he starts to tell investigators that, okay, yes, Tori and I did leave Cassie's that night, but we came back. And they ask him, okay, why did you guys come back? And what Brian says next chills the detectives to their core. Brian.
Brian says that the two entered Cassie's basement through an unlocked back door, and they originally just wanted to scare her, turn off the lights, make some scary noises, basically live out a horror movie fantasy. But then he says that he and Tori headed up the stairs to ramp up the scares, and Tori just goes crazy. He insists that he had to kill Cassie.
Brian watches as Tori approaches Cassie, raise his arm up and starts stabbing her over and over again. At this point Cassie is screaming, begging for her life when Tori tells Brian that he has to come over and help finish her off.
And so he does. Brian walks over and participates in the stabbing. If you've ever seen the movie Scream, you know the now-common movie trope of the best friend killers. This "two killers against the world" concept can also be observed in the case of the Columbine shooting, a massacre that Brian would eventually tell investigators was an influence in his own desire to kill. Interestingly enough, Tori would eventually tell investigators that he was influenced by a killing spree as well, although a fictional one.
the movie Scream itself. This idea of the two friends who make a blood pact to enact chaos in the lives of others seemed to appeal to both Tori and Brian. In the movie Scream, the two killers take turns murdering their friends while wearing spooky white masks. Of the analogous killer would come to be known as Ghostface.
It seems that Brian and Tori had seen the movie Scream before and had wanted that night to live out their own Scream-derived fantasy, as they had even gone the full distance and purchased scary masks to wear while they carried out the killing of their friend Cassidy that night. This whole story plays out in writing like a horror movie. A girl is home alone, watching a movie with her boyfriend, when the lights suddenly flicker. The two feel something in the air, almost as if something is just… off.
When the boyfriend goes to investigate, this fear seems to go away and the two continue relaxing. But later that night, as the witching hour approaches and the boyfriend is leaving, he feels that same feeling again. A deep fear. It's almost begging him to stay. But he eventually has to depart, leaving the girlfriend alone and vulnerable in a big, dark house. This is when the horror movie elements really take hold.
Wearing all black and grotesque scary masks, the killers emerge from the basement of the house, terrorize the victim, and go on to stab her to death in an extremely brutal manner. It's hard to believe that this actually happened in real life, but based on Brian's story, it did.
Tori's story was similar to Brian's, but in his interview, he stated that Brian was the mastermind and that he had absolutely no role in stabbing Cassie. Tori said that he was there because he thought it was all a big prank, and then Brian started stabbing Cassie uncontrollably. At this point, investigators are blown away.
They can't believe that two 16-year-olds were able to commit such a heinous crime. But Brian also told investigators something that would change the direction of this case. He said that after the murder, the boys took all of the evidence they had and they buried it in a remote location. And when they ask if he can take them to the location, Brian agrees.
It was a cold, dark night. Silence seemed to cloak the car as Brian sat in the backseat of the police cruiser on the way to unearth the buried evidence from the murder. Brian led investigators to the remote and aptly named Black Rock Canyon outside of Pocatello and told them that this was the area where they had buried the evidence. As they made their way through the trees towards where Brian claimed the evidence was buried, I'm sure that investigators had their doubts. What were they about to find? A piece of clothing? A broken knife?
Surely, they had no idea that they were about to stumble upon their own small-town horror film. Suddenly, Brian stopped and told the investigators that the evidence was buried right below their feet while pointing at a small parcel of ground where fresh dirt had been piled. Once police start digging, they discover a black bag.
they slowly start to open it and pull out gloves, boots, matches, hydrogen peroxide, a ton of different types of knives, and two creepy clown-looking masks that the two wore during the attack, which were covered in an extremely disturbing layer of fake blood.
All of the things in the bag were used to kill Cassie and it was starting to look a little more premeditated than the boys described it to be. Like why would you bring several different weapons if you were just trying to scare someone? But as investigators kept digging, they found one more item in the bottom of the bag: a Sony VHS tape. When investigators got back to the station, they played the tape and at first they're worried that they're gonna see Cassie's graphic murder on camera.
But when they press play, the tape reveals something they never expected. On the tape are Brian and Tori at their high school. And if anyone were to take a glance at the TV, they would never assume that on these tapes, in their school, these boys are going into disturbing detail about how they're planning to murder their friend. Here's a little audio clip of one of the tapes. It's supposed to be here at 7:30 and it's 8:19.
He's an hour late. You don't even care, do you? Okay. September 26th, 2006. We're skipping our fourth hour. We're not even on plan right now. I'm selling Cassie's family, but she ain't number one. We have sick of the plan. She's perfect, so she's gonna die.
After watching these tapes, it was clear to investigators that both of these boys had been lying to them and that they were both equally responsible for the murder of Cassie. The tapes showed Brian and Tori sitting in class openly discussing their dark desires, audibly fantasizing about murdering someone, and they recorded these fantasies so that they could look back and remember them. It wasn't long after this that the two decided Cassie was going to be their victim, and
And the most chilling part of all of this tape is a shot that Brian took of Cassie as she's putting books into her locker at school. Here's the audio from that one. - Hey look, it's Cassie. - Hey, hello, friend. - Hello, Cassie. I'm getting you on tape, okay? Say hi, please.
Okay, see ya. We will post the actual video of that on our Instagram because there's something actually so creepy about seeing Cassie on the tapes. Brian and Tori were stalking her, recording her from a distance, knowing that they would soon kill her. She considered these guys to be friends, and she had no way of knowing that while she was putting her books away in her locker...
going about her usual day that two of her classmates were plotting an unthinkable crime against her. And as you look more into the tapes, it becomes obvious that these two aren't just disgusting humans, they're incredibly stupid. In one instance, they start talking about how they're gonna go down in history as these prolific serial killers like Ted Bundy, which is obviously not the case.
Let me just show you guys a clip so you can see for yourselves. 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. We found our victim and 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. She's going to 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. Luckily and surprisingly, Brian and Tori didn't record the actual murder of Cassie Jo, but they did record themselves right up until they got to her house. It's 9:50, September 22nd, 2006. We know there's lots of doors, there's lots of places to hide. I locked the back doors, it's all locked.
After investigators went through all of the tapes, the evidence against Brian and Tori was indisputable. So they asked them one more time, what happened to Cassie Jo that night?
And here is what actually went down. Brian and Tori had been planning to murder someone for a while. They knew that Cassie Jo was the perfect target because she would be home all alone that night in a house that she wasn't comfortable in. So they packed up their knives and masks and made their way to Cassie's aunt's house. While they were inside watching the movie with Cassie and Matt, one of the two boys wandered off inside the home and unlocked the basement door so they could enter without being noticed later on in the night.
As soon as Matt left, they decided that the time had come to kill Cassie. They turned the power off, waited a few seconds, and turned it back on. Then off again and on, again and again, each time hoping to instill more fear in their victim. They originally thought that she would come down to the basement to see what was happening, but she didn't.
so they decided to go up the stairs. With masks on their face and knives in their hands, the two men approach Cassie and start stabbing her repeatedly while she's pleading for her life. The boys make one final videotape after the murder, and what you're about to hear is very, very disturbing. I just killed Cassie. We just left her house. This is not a fucking joke. I stabbed her in the throat and saw her lifeless body just...
Now, the person you hear on that recording saying "I just killed Cassie" is Brian. And Tory will use this recording in his defense at trial. Because if you remember, Tory never actually confessed to stabbing Cassie Jo. His defense team claimed that he never admitted to stabbing Cassie, not in the home video recordings or to investigators.
They said that he wanted to play a prank, and Brian started killing her. So, prosecutors then asked, "Well, what about all the tapes Tory made detailing his plans to murder Cassie?" And their response was that he thought they were making a horror film.
Brian's defense was similar, but it wasn't as strong because his DNA was actually found under the fingernails on both of Cassie's hands. There
There was also Cassie's DNA on the clothing that Brian was wearing that night. This irrefutable evidence directly connected him to the violence enacted against his friend Cassie Jo. However, at the end of the day, both Brian and Tori's defenses didn't help them very much because the evidence against the two was extremely damning.
In fact, it was enough evidence to convict both boys of first-degree murder, and a jury eventually sentenced both of them to life in prison where they still remain to this day, despite their numerous appeals. Brian and Tori were both juveniles in 2006 when they murdered Cassie Jo and were sentenced to life in prison.
But as many of you probably know, there's a huge debate in America about life imprisonment for minors. And in 2016, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Montgomery v. Louisiana that it is unconstitutional for juveniles to be sentenced to life because their brains aren't fully matured.
saying that children who commit even heinous crimes are capable of change. And I normally don't like to talk about my opinions on these types of situations, but these murders were so premeditated, so heinous, so methodical, that I don't think I would ever feel comfortable knowing that these men are walking around.
They're living freely when Cassie isn't. And there's a chilling possibility that Brian and Tori could be walking freely amongst the rest of us in the near future. Many of us watch horror movies as a form of escapist entertainment. We all know that something like this could never happen to us. It just wouldn't. But what if it did? Cassie Jo Stoddart's life ended in the most horrific way possible, not only with murder, but with deep, deep fear.
Brian and Tori had wanted just that, to instill fear in a victim, to live out their sick horror movie fantasies, to practically scare someone to death. And that's what they did on that fateful night in 2006. This case scares me. I've been alone in houses late at night. I've heard phantom noises echoing throughout empty homes. I've gone to check for intruders. I've yelled out, "Is anybody there?" And luckily, no one has ever been around to answer "Yes."
Admittedly, that's a possibility that never really ran through my mind, that someone could actually be there, waiting in the dark to hurt me. But in the case of Cassie Jo Stoddart, the killers were there, waiting in the dark, holding knives and wearing masks, waiting to emerge from the shadows to kill her. So next time, when you're home alone and you hear a creak on the floorboards, be a little more cautious. Lock your doors, listen closely to every sound.
Because you never truly know who might be waiting for you, waiting to kill you, deep within the darkness, waiting to cast you in your own personal horror movie. Well, thank you everybody for listening to, what is this, episode six of Murder in America? Episode six, baby. We have been grinding these out. We've been doing so much work, and I hope you guys have enjoyed each and every story we've told so far. Courtney, do you have any ideas for next week?
I'm thinking we should get a little spooky. I think we're going to get a little spooky. If you guys are paranormal fans, we're going to get into some unknown territory. Just want to remind everybody, follow us on Instagram at Murder in America. You can join our Patreon. We're going to be uploading more clips every week, including a couple murder stories from Austin. We were at the locations and was it spooky? Very spooky.
Thank you guys once again for everything you've ever done for us by just listening and following. It means a lot. Courtney, what else do you have to say before we end this?
We love you guys, and every listen and every download means so much to us, and we really appreciate you. And I'm going to leave you guys with this. You guys know that victims can't come back from the dead. Maybe they can over a spirit box. Maybe they can in some other way. But I'm sure that Cassie Jo would have a lot to say about her murderers potentially walking free. And it makes you ask the question, the dead don't talk. Or do they?
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