The Murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart (Scream Murder)

On September 22, 2006, 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart was murdered by her two classmates during the time that she was house-sitting for her aunt and uncle, Allison and Frank Contreras. It has been said that the two killers, who were both sixteen at the time of the murder, were inspired by the 1996 horror film, Scream, and that a videotape was recorded the night before to share their horrendous plan. Cassie's killers were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder that same month.

They recorded a snippet after the murder while they were driving away, later buried the evidence. When they eventually got caught they tried to blame each other, also said that what was on the tape was a joke.
The tape
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Some snippets of the tape

I know Koltin had already posted a couple of things in his post, which I appreciate, but I also wanted to add that in the limited series on Investigation Discovery called Unmasked, one of the teachers that had Cassie as a student said that the students had come up with the idea that the large rock they had at the high school that was painted for games and such can be used as a memorial for Cassie. According to one of Cassie's classmates, who is also a reporter, everyone kind of came and signed the rock. The teacher also stated that the rock "was kind of like an open door to the people." He also added that even those who didn't paint the rock could come, talk, and share their stories about Cassie and their loss.

I see the cops got them in the first week of the investigation. Do you know what evidence made them close the case so fast? Did they just GPS track their phones to find out they have been at the crime scene all that time?

EDIT: There's probably two dozen youtube "true crime" long vids on this case and they all seem to be very poorly researched or just sensationalized conspiracy stuff.



On many other topics (especially engineering related like the US space program etc.), Youtube often has amateur researchers who are able to produce high-quality documentaries and research podcasts that put BBC to shame. These are often on top of YT search results when you look these themes up.

True crime on the other hand has a ton of users who know next to nothing, with youtube putting this garbage on top of true crime search results for specific cases. Is it the low quality of people who consume these sort of podcasts that drive nonsense to the top of youtube search?
I also see an age pattern: Much of the sensationalized garbage it is either produced by girls in their 30s or some conspiracy guys in their 20s. The better stuff is usually made by older guys in the 40s-50s.

It is the same with some of the other cases that peaked my interests, like the Delphi double murder. Before you find one semi-decent thing on YT, you need to dig through piles of trash.

Why is true crime so bad these days?

Sabratha wrote:

I see the cops got them in the first week of the investigation. Do you know what evidence made them close the case so fast? Did they just GPS track their phones to find out they have been at the crime scene all that time?

EDIT: There's probably two dozen youtube "true crime" long vids on this case and they all seem to be very poorly researched or just sensationalized conspiracy stuff.



On many other topics (especially engineering related like the US space program etc.), Youtube often has amateur researchers who are able to produce high-quality documentaries and research podcasts that put BBC to shame. These are often on top of YT search results when you look these themes up.

True crime on the other hand has a ton of users who know next to nothing, with youtube putting this garbage on top of true crime search results for specific cases. Is it the low quality of people who consume these sort of podcasts that drive nonsense to the top of youtube search?
I also see an age pattern: Much of the sensationalized garbage it is either produced by girls in their 30s or some conspiracy guys in their 20s. The better stuff is usually made by older guys in the 40s-50s.

It is the same with some of the other cases that peaked my interests, like the Delphi double murder. Before you find one semi-decent thing on YT, you need to dig through piles of trash.

Why is true crime so bad these days?

You should check out the video Rob Gavagan made about the murder. Though you might have seen it.

How they got caught is they feigned leaving to go see a movie in the theaters but they went out around the house into the basement made noises to scare Cassie and her boyfriend, heard Cassie's boyfriend Matt leaving around 10:30pm. Then they killed her by stabbing her 30 times 12 wounds were potentially fatal, her body was found two days later by her family members who had returned from a trip and after that cops interviewed Matt, who told the cops that Brian and Tory was also there.
I would link an article with transcripts of the tape but there are pictures of Cassie in there.
The video of the tape are snippets from what had been recorded on 21st and 22nd
This was cut off but was filmed after the murder

Quote :

Adamcik: Shut the fuck up. We gotta get our act straight.

Draper: It’s okay. Okay? We—we’ll just buy movie tickets now.

Adamcik: Okay

Draper: *Unintelligible*

Adamcik: No.

Draper: Okay. Bye.

Koltin wrote:

How they got caught is they feigned leaving to go see a movie in the theaters but they went out around the house into the basement made noises to scare Cassie and her boyfriend, heard Cassie's boyfriend Matt leaving around 10:30pm. Then they killed her by stabbing her 30 times 12 wounds were potentially fatal, her body was found two days later by her family members who had returned from a trip and after that cops interviewed Matt, who told the cops that Brian and Tory was also there.

Yeah I know that part.

I meant is what made the cops stick it to Brian and Tory? Instead of for example thinking it was Matt or some 3rd party who came to Cassie after Matt, Tory and Brian all left?

Did they find DNA evidence? Or GPS tracked the perps and saw they went nowhere near the movie theater? Or did one of them just brake at the first interview with the officers?

Sabratha wrote:

Koltin wrote:

How they got caught is they feigned leaving to go see a movie in the theaters but they went out around the house into the basement made noises to scare Cassie and her boyfriend, heard Cassie's boyfriend Matt leaving around 10:30pm. Then they killed her by stabbing her 30 times 12 wounds were potentially fatal, her body was found two days later by her family members who had returned from a trip and after that cops interviewed Matt, who told the cops that Brian and Tory was also there.

Yeah I know that part.

I meant is what made the cops stick it to Brian and Tory? Instead of for example thinking it was Matt or some 3rd party who came to Cassie after Matt, Tory and Brian all left?

Did they find DNA evidence? Or GPS tracked the perps and saw they went nowhere near the movie theater? Or did one of them just brake at the first interview with the officers?

Matt passed a polygraph test apparently.

Yeah, Matt passed with flying colors.

StellEclipse1529 wrote:

Yeah, Matt passed with flying colors.

Unlike the other two shmucks?

They should have just declined to take the test. "Lie detectors are a misnomer. all they do is measure galvanic skin responses and heart rate. Everyone will be nervous while talking to the police."

According to the limited series on Investigation Discovery called Unmasked, Ganske shared that there was some suspicion that Matt had something to do with Cassie's murder. When asked when he learned about what had happened to Cassie, he said that Cassie's mother called and told him about it that morning. That was when the investigators knew that Matt was house-sitting with Cassie. Matt also claimed that he and Cassie never had a disagreement. Ganske said that he found it odd that Matt had shown a lack of emotion because of Matt not being as upset as Ganske thought he might be, and that he and his partner didn't know if Matt's reaction had something to do with the way that Matt had reacted to grief or he, in fact, had something to do with it. Matt basically said that he and Cassie weren't alone, meaning that he did, in fact, invite Brian and Torey over. Apparently, after an hour the boys (Brian and Torey) had spent time with Matt and Cassie at the residence on the evening of her murder, Brian basically said he was bored, so he and Torey had left to go watch a movie at the movie theater, which, according to a classmate, never happened, so they lied about it, and Brian basically couldn't remember it. It wasn't until Matt took the polygraph that he passed with flying colors. Because Matt was in the clear since he had nothing to do with what had happened to Cassie, that was why it came down to Brian and Torey because of the tape that the investigators found that made them stick to the boys. Matt was also apparently on the list, too, for Brian and Torey to kill, I believe, though I could be wrong.

StellEclipse1529 wrote:

According to the limited series on Investigation Discovery called Unmasked, Ganske shared that there was some suspicion that Matt had something to do with Cassie's murder.

"Some suspicion" you say?

No way, don't tell me... I let me guess:

Captain John Ganske: "This Matt guy was the victim's boyfriend, he was with her at the night of the murder and he is the last known person to have seen her alive.
Sabratha: So th...
Captain John Ganske: Now I know you will be surprised with this, but trust me. Given my many years of experience and a very thorough examination of these facts, I consider him to be a suspect in this case.
Sabratha: Thank you for the explanation captain... captain obvious.

StellEclipse1529 wrote:

(...)it came down to Brian and Torey because of the tape that the investigators found that made them stick to Brian and Torey.

Ok thanks (non-ironic thanks). That explains it.
So these two space monkeys burned some of the evidence and buried the knives, but apparently did not have enough brainpower left to also destroy the recording? Amazing.

Thank gods for stupid perpetrators.

Apparently, one of the investigators said that Brian didn't let them know the tape was going to be there...

Yeah. I mean, Brian basically admitted he hurt Cassie on that tape when they left. These two honestly thought they could fool anyone when whatever they did was pointed directly to them because of the things they've said on the tape. The fact that Torey said to the FBI that they weren't quick enough was something else, too.

"I just killed Cassie, this is not a fucking joke"
That is definitely not in any way incriminating

StellEclipse1529 wrote:

Apparently, one of the investigators said that Brian didn't let them know the tape was going to be there...

They buried the masks, knives, basically everything. And then led investigators to the spot.

Yeah, pretty much.

Torey Adamcik's First Court Appearance

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