The Shocking Murder of Sixteen-Year-Old Cassie Jo Stoddart
A Crime of Opportunity
Idaho native Cassie Jo Stoddart was, by all accounts, a kind soul who readily accepted everyone into her friend group, even those who were sometimes shunned by their peers. It would be her trusting nature and willingness to take everyone at face value that made her the ideal victim of a pair of bloodthirsty psychopaths hungering for their first kill.
When sixteen-year-old Cassie got up bright and early on the morning of Friday, September 22, 2006, she knew that a big day lay ahead. After school, she would be heading off to her uncle’s place to housesit and care for his family’s dogs and cats for the weekend. While she had found the idea of taking on adult responsibilities a bit daunting, she was determined to do the best job possible.
Even though Cassie’s parents were confident that she was up for the challenge, they had agreed to allow her boyfriend, Matt Beckham, to stay with her for a few hours until she got settled in. At 5:30 in the evening, her mother, Anna, had dropped the pair off at the house in the Whispering Cliffs neighborhood of Pocatello with plans to pick Cassie up on Sunday when her Uncle Frank and his family returned from their weekend away.
At around 9:30 p.m., curious to see how things were going, Anna had called to check up on her daughter. She was relieved to hear that Cassie and Matt were watching a movie and that everything was fine. Her daughter had seemed relaxed had shown no indications that anything was wrong. As she hung up the phone, Anna hadn’t known that this was the last time she and her daughter would ever speak.
On Saturday, she and Matt had taken turns trying to reach Cassie by phone throughout the day without success. Thinking that she was probably preoccupied with the animals, they convinced themselves that she would call back when she had the time, blissfully unaware that this was a luxury she no longer had.
When the family arrived home on Sunday afternoon, Frank’s thirteen-year-old stepdaughter had walked in the door and stumbled upon the body of her cousin Cassie lying in the living room floor covered in blood. The girl’s piercing screams had alerted her parents to the horrifying find.
After receiving a frantic 911 call from someone at the residence, police were on the scene in a matter of minutes and an investigation quickly ensued. Although the murder weapon was nowhere to be found, it was clear that Cassie had been stabbed multiple times.
The medical examiner would later determine that she had suffered over thirty penetrating wounds. She was also missing a finger, leading to speculation that the appendage had been severed when she held her hands up in a futile attempt to ward off the blows that were being rained down upon her.
Signs of a struggle were evident in the area where the body was discovered, indicating that Cassie had fought valiantly for her life. Unfortunately, she had been no match for her assailant(s) who were not only armed but also had the element of surprise on their side.
Upon learning that Matt had been alone with Cassie on Friday night, detectives made a beeline to his parents’ house to speak with him. While he was forthcoming with information, his nonchalant reaction to the news that his girlfriend had been brutally murdered raised a few eyebrows.
When asked to recount the events of the last evening he had spent with Cassie, Matt gave a detailed timeline of her final hours. He confirmed that her mother had dropped them off at 5:30, after which they had helped themselves to some snacks. As the evening wore on, they decided to curl up on the couch and watch a movie.
At around 10:00, the power had gone out, but had come right back on, leading them to believe that it had been a temporary glitch. Moments later, it happened again. He recalled that being plunged into darkness had spooked not only them, but also the family dogs.
As the phenomena continued, the previously docile canines had begun growling at the basement door, their hackles raised. Although he and Cassie were aware that the fuse box was downstairs, neither of them had opened the door for fear of encountering whatever might be waiting on the other side.
Concerned about leaving Cassie in the house alone, he had called his mother and asked if he could spend the night, but she had shot down the idea. At 11:15, Matt’s ride picked him up and he disappeared into the night, leaving his anxious girlfriend to deal with the power outages on her own.
Unable to get past the strange goings-on that had transpired in the house on Whispering Cliffs, Matt had phoned Cassie at half past midnight, but she didn’t answer. He tried again in the morning with the same results. In an attempt to stay occupied until he heard from her, he had spent much of the day with their mutual friend, Torey Adamcik.
Deadly Friends
Upon mentioning Adamcik’s name, Matt suddenly remembered that he and another of their school mates, Brian Draper, had stopped by the house Friday night. Though detectives were surprised that he hadn’t led with this important bit of information, they were eager to hear more about this impromptu visit.
The way he remembered it, Brian and Torey had arrived at 8:20 and left around 9:30, saying that they were going into town to see a movie at the local theater. Before departing, they had given themselves a tour of the house, which hadn’t seemed at all unusual at the time. Since they had left before him, Matt had no reason to believe that they were connected in any way to what happened to Cassie hours later.
In order to either rule him out or make him the focus of the investigation, detectives asked Matt to take a polygraph, which he agreed to do without hesitation. After showing no signs of deception in his answers, he was cleared of having any involvement in the murder.
With Matt no longer a viable suspect, investigators turned their attention to Brian and Torey, the only other people who were known to have been on the premises that night besides Cassie.
When they tried to contact Torey Adamcik, detectives hit a brick wall. It was obvious from the get-go that neither he nor his family were interested in speaking with them. Brian Draper, on the other hand, readily agreed to come in for questioning.
A Tangled Web Indeed
While Brian had freely admitted that he and Torey had been at the house on Friday night, he was adamant that they had nothing to do with Cassie’s murder. He explained that they had stayed for a while before going to the movies. It was as simple as that.
Before sending him on his way, the interviewer had asked Brian about the film’s plot. Seemingly caught off-guard by the question, he had drawn a blank. When detectives went to the cinema and spoke with the cashier who was working on Friday night, she told them that she knew Brian and Torey from school and that she hadn’t seen either one of them.
Convinced that he knew more than he was letting on, investigators brought Brian in for a second interview. Upon learning that his alibi had fallen through, the visibly uncomfortable teen agreed to come clean. After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he claimed that after leaving the house on Whispering Cliffs, he and Torey had spent the next several hours stealing from unlocked cars.
Sensing that he still wasn’t being truthful, detectives asked Brian to come in the next day for a polygraph test. When he showed up, he had burst into tears and asked to talk to investigators.
In the harrowing minutes that followed, a sobbing Brian — his father by his side — confessed that he had been present when Cassie was murdered. He insisted that he and Torey had only wanted to scare her, but what started out as a harmless prank had quickly gotten out of hand. According to him, the groundwork for what was to come had been laid earlier that night when he had snuck into the basement and unlocked the door so that he and his cohort could sneak back in later.
After announcing that they were heading out to see a movie, the pair had parked around the corner and returned to the house on foot. Once they were inside, they had located the fuse box and switched the power on and off in the hopes of luring Cassie downstairs. When she failed to take the bait, they had been forced to confront her upstairs.
Brian claimed that by the time he reached the living room, Torey was descending upon Cassie with a knife. As his friend stabbed her repeatedly, he had begged him to stop, but things had gone too far to turn back. When the horrific deed was done, the pair had fled and disposed of the evidence in a remote area on the outskirts of town.
After taking Brian into custody, detectives went looking for his accomplice. This time, he had no choice but to submit to being questioned. As it turned out, the much-anticipated interrogation went nowhere fast. When asked about the night of the murder, Torey had parroted his buddy’s initial lie of stealing from cars. After being told that Brian had given a full confession, he had asked for a lawyer, effectively ending the interview.
Although he had chosen to remain silent, authorities had enough probable cause to place Torey under arrest. On September 27, three days after Cassie’s body was found, the pair of sixteen-year-olds were formally charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Since it was apparent that Torey wasn’t about to give up anything, detectives worked on building a relationship with Brian. After some cajoling, on September 29, he agreed to take them to the spot where they had hidden the evidence of their wrongdoing.
Stranger than Fiction
On Black Rock Canyon Road, some eight miles outside of Pocatello, investigators found proof of the teenagers’ depravity buried beneath a pile of dirt and debris. Among the items uncovered that day were a videotape, gloves, a rambling note penned by Torey Adamcik, bloodstained clothing, and two knives that later tested positive for Cassie’s blood. Although the perpetrators had made an effort to burn the tools of their macabre trade, the fire had fizzled out before doing irreparable damage.
Figuring that there was something on the tape that the killers didn’t want anyone to see, detectives sent it to a forensic restoration lab in the hopes that their experts could uncover the secrets it held. While they waited with bated breath to find out if the footage was salvageable, they forged ahead with their case against the two sixteen-year-olds whose innocent exteriors masked a hidden evil.
Both boys, as it turned out, were social misfits who were fringe dwellers at the school. Even so, they had a few close friends, including Cassie and Matt. As is often the case with outcasts, they had looked to others of the same ilk for inspiration. In Brian’s case, it had been the Columbine shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who had gunned down a dozen of their fellow students and one instructor in April of 1999.
For his part, Torey was a slasher film aficionado who was allegedly obsessed with the 1996 offering Scream, which follows a pair of teenagers who make a game of murder by donning masks and slaughtering their friends — and anyone else who gets in their way — before finally getting their comeuppance.
When the videotape arrived back in perfect working order, detectives sat down and viewed the contents. What they saw told them everything they needed to know about Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik.
The footage shows Brian filming Cassie as she rummages through her locker on what would prove to be the last morning of her young life. The two exchange pleasantries before he turns off the camera. Disturbingly, what he knows that she doesn’t, is that he and his partner in crime have already marked her for murder.
The tape then picks up around noon with Brian and Torey sitting in the school library writing out what they refer to as a “death list” of people they intend to kill. They smile at each other and snicker as they make plans to slaughter their friends and even discuss a school shooting as the icing on the cake.
Before signing off, they name Cassie as their first intended victim. Though Brian apologizes for what they have in store, he explains that once they learned that she would be alone and vulnerable later that night, her fate had been sealed.
In footage captured as they’re driving around, they laugh and talk about how much they enjoy killing people. They also gleefully describe themselves as “sick psychopaths.” While they weren’t always acquainted with the truth, this was one time that they hit the nail on the head.
At 11:32 p.m., after the deed was done, they turned the camera on for the last time that night. Riding a tide of adrenaline, they announce excitedly that they have just killed Cassie. As if to drive the point home, they stress that they aren’t joking. In their initial rush of excitement, it seemed that they wanted anyone viewing the tape to know that their classmate and friend had died at their hands.
Now that they had seen and heard the pair in action, detectives had no doubt that both suspects had taken part in Cassie’s murder. Even so, after being confronted with the glaring proof of his complicity, Torey held to his position that he had no involvement in the events of that night.
On April 17, 2007, Brian Draper was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to life without parole and thirty years to life, respectively. Four months later, on August 21, Torey Adamcik received the same.
The appeals process was set in motion almost immediately. After much legal wrangling, Torey’s conviction for complicity was overturned on a technicality involving improper jury instructions. Even so, he will spend the rest of his days behind bars, fingers crossed.
Aftermath
In 2010, Cassie’s mother Anna sued the school district on the grounds that they should have seen the warning signs that Draper and Adamcik were ticking time bombs. The case was ultimately dismissed after a judge ruled that administrators couldn’t have known the savagery brewing in the teenagers’ minds.
Cassie’s boyfriend Matt, who had been the subject of cruel innuendo and finger-pointing early on in the investigation, was instrumental in identifying her killers. Had he not made the throwaway remark that Brian and Torey had come by that night, they may very well have gotten away with murder.
On a chilling note, after learning that Matt was also at the house, Brian had revealed that he and Torey had intended to kill him too. It was evident that, had his mother not picked him up when she did, he would have died alongside his girlfriend.
Anna Maria Price, Cassie’s mother and greatest supporter, died of cancer on April 19, 2022. Though her life had gone on, those close to her say that she was never the same after losing her daughter.
Cassie’s uncle Frank Contreras and his family never spent another day in their home on Whispering Cliffs after she was killed. They were so devastated by what happened that they had refused to go back inside even to collect their personal belongings. The house, tainted by memories of murder, was a virtually unsellable albatross that remained on the market for years before a buyer was finally found.
The thirteen-year-old who had the misfortune of finding the body was so traumatized by what she had seen that she had tried to take her own life. Fortunately, she survived, but the nightmare she witnessed is something that haunts her to this day.
Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik are lifers serving out their time at the Idaho State Correctional Institution. Despite the fact that they see each other every day, they are no longer friends and have not spoken in years.
While Brian has expressed remorse on numerous occasions, Torey steadfastly refuses to accept any responsibility for his actions. Even with the videotaped evidence of his culpability on display for all to see, he insists that he was a helpless bystander to his former friend’s psychopathy. The fact that he had spent the day after the murder hanging out with Matt is just one more indication of his disconnect from reality.
Regardless of what he or anyone else wants to believe, it’s apparent that Cassie’s slaying was a joint effort. As for motive, her killers had none to speak of. There had been no vendetta against their schoolmate who, by their own admission, had always been nothing but nice to them. They hadn’t wanted to rob her or commit an act of sexual assault. They had simply wanted to see the fear in her eyes as her life ebbed away, and sadly, they had gotten their wish.
Brian would later say that he had felt as if he were in a movie as the events unfolded. Rather than killing an innocent girl, in his mind, he had been performing for an audience that wasn’t there. Whether this is true or not, it would do well for others who may harbor the same fantasies to remember that in real-life, the victim doesn’t walk away when the director yells “Cut.”
Cassie Jo Stoddart was an intelligent, generous spirit whose life was extinguished much too soon. As devastating as her death was for those who loved her and the world in general, it undoubtedly saved countless victims yet to come. As a result of her tragic sacrifice, the teenage boys who planned to kill as many people as possible were stopped before they could destroy even more lives.
Resources:
·nbcnews.com
·parkaman.com
·cornelisonfh.com
·realtor.com
·idahostatejournal.com
·findagrave.com
Images used under provisions of the Fair Use Act for purposes of reporting and education.
Agreed. I'm surprised it didn't receive more media attention. I can't imagine the terror Cassie must have experienced that night. Such a tragedy.
It really is. The world is a scary place sometimes.