Cassie Stoddart

**Cassie Jo Stoddart** (December 21, 1989 - September 22, 2006) was a 16-year-old girl who was brutally killed by her classmates, Brian Lee Draper and Torey Michael Adamcik. The two boys later said they were inspired by the movie *Scream.*

## Events

### Backstory

Cassie Jo Stoddart was born 21 December 1989 in Pocatello, Idaho and was in 11th grade at Pocatello High School at the time of her death. She lived with her mother (Anna), her older sister (Christie) and her younger brother (Andrew). She was described by friends and family as an intelligent, ambitious teenager with dreams to attend college after high school. She found making friends easy and was popular at school. In her free time she liked to draw and listen to music

### Murder

On the night of September 22, 2006, Cassie was house sitting for her aunt and uncle, Allison and Frank Contreras in the nearby community of Tyhee, Idaho. The Contreras family were out of town and had hired Stoddart to come take care of their three cats and two dogs for the weekend.

Stoddart was visited that evening by her boyfriend, Matt Beckham, who arrived around 6:00 p.m. Later, classmates Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik, who were both aged 16 at the time, came over to the house to "hang out". Cassie gave the friends a tour of the house, including the basement. The four teens went into the living room to watch the film Kill Bill, Volume II, but Torey and Brian ended up leaving before the film ended, saying they "wanted to watch a movie at their local movie theater instead." Cassie and Matt stayed behind.

Cassie was unaware that before the boys left, Brian had unlocked the basement door so that he and Torey could re-enter the house undetected. Soon after leaving, Brian and Torey returned to the neighborhood, parked down the street, got out of their car, and put on costumes consisting of dark clothing, gloves, and white, painted masks. The boys quietly entered the house through the basement door while the couple were watching television in the living room. They intentionally made loud noises in an unsuccessful attempt to lure Matt and Cassie downstairs "so they could scare them."

They then found the circuit breaker and turned off the power in the house, hoping the pair would come downstairs to check the breaker. When Matt and Cassie did not come downstairs, the boys turned some of the lights back on.

Cassie became uneasy after the temporary power outage, and Matt noticed that one of the Contreras' dogs kept staring down the basement stairs, periodically barking or growling. Seeing that Cassie felt scared, Matt called his mother to ask if he could stay the night at the house with her to ease her mind, but she denied his request – instead she offered to let Cassie come home with Matt and stay at their house for the night, and she would bring Cassie back to the house in the morning. However, Cassie felt it was her responsibility to stay at the house as she was hired to do and care for the animals, and declined the offer from Matt's mother.

At approximately 10:30 pm, Matt's mother picked him up, leaving Cassie at the house alone. Matt called Torey’s cell phone to see where he and Brian were, possibly to meet up with them later. Matt said he could barely hear Torey, who was whispering on the phone, and assumed the boys were in a movie theater. From the basement, Brian and Torey had heard Matt leave. The teens turned the lights out again at the circuit breaker and waited, hoping Cassie would come downstairs to turn the lights back on; she did not.

Eventually, the boys went upstairs. Brian was armed with a dagger-type weapon and Torey had a hunting knife, the weapons having been purchased at a pawn shop. Brian opened and slammed a closet door at the top of the stairs to scare Cassie, who was lying on the couch in the living room. The boys then brutally attacked her, stabbing her approximately thirty times; twelve wounds were potentially fatal. Both Cassie's boyfriend and her mother tried to contact Cassie over the next two days but received no response.

### Discovery & Investigation

On September 24, 2006, Allison and Frank Contreras returned from their trip with their family. On entering the home, Cassie's 13-year-old cousin discovered Cassie's body on the living room floor. The police investigation began almost immediately and an autopsy was conducted. Matt, Brian and Torey were all interviewed as they were the last three people to see Cassie alive. Matt was quickly ruled out as a suspect.

Torey told the police that he and Brian had gone over to the Contreras' house believing that there was a party but when they got there and realised there was no party they both decided to leave, go to the movie theater and then they both slept at Brian's house. Brian gave the police the exact same story. Police asked both boys to describe the plot of the movie they had gone to see at the movie theater and neither boy was able to. The police soon learnt that Brian and Torey never went to the movie theater.

Brian and Torey were arrested on September 27, 2006, and charged with first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. During the interrogations, each teen blamed the other. Brian claimed he was in the same room with Torey when Cassie was killed but denied stabbing her, then later admitted to stabbing her under alleged commands from Torey. He led investigators to Black Rock Canyon, where the teens had disposed of the clothing, masks, and weapons they used for the murder.

During the investigation of the murder, police found that Brian and Torey had recorded their plan to murder Cassie in advance on videotape while they were at school. This video footage was shown at their trials.

### Aftermath

Brian Draper was convicted on April 17, 2007; Torey Adamcik was convicted on June 8, 2007.

On August 21, 2007, based on being convicted of first-degree murder, each received a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and thirty years-to-life for being convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.

Torey and Brian are both currently incarcerated at Idaho State Correctional Institution.

## News

*For news articles on Cassie Stoddart, see here.*

## In popular media

### Podcasts

* The Brothers Commonplace - *Cassie Jo Stoddart (Scream Murder)* (24 December 2018)
* Crime Salad - *The Murder of: Cassie Jo Stoddart* (15 August 2021)
* Dateline: The Last Day - *The Case of Cassie Jo Stoddart* (5 July 2022)
* Morbid: A True Crime Podcast - *The Scream Murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart* (8 August 2020)
* Murder, Mystery & Makeup - *Cassie Jo Stoddart - Scream Inspired Case* (4 January 2022)
* Murder with My Husband - *Cassie Jo Stoddart - The Scream Murder* (4 May 2020)
* True Crime All the Time - *The Murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart* (15 August 2021)
* True Crimecast - *Scream - Cassie Jo Stoddart* (9 January 2018)

### Television

* A Time to Kill - *Evil in the Basement* (13 August 2021)
* Stay-At-Home Detectives - *Serial Killer Wannabes: The Murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart* (9 May 2021)