Strictly Stalking

Nicolette is being stalked by someone who is trying to destroy her and her family. When Nicolette's high school friend met her brother, they were soon inseparable. They married and had a child during her senior year of high school, but the couple became volatile toward family members over the next few years. After Nicolette was cut out of her brother and sister-in-law's lives, she and others in th...

Amber was stalked by an obsessed coworker. Amber's female coworker took a romantic interest in her, showing up at places she would be and even befriending her grandmother. Amber made it clear that she didn't want her coworker to contact her or anyone in her family, but she didn't stop. The coworker sent hundreds of texts, took photos of her parked car, and left gifts at Amber's house. Things becam...

Abigail found a new friend in high school who introduced her to drugs, alcohol, cutting, and self-harm. The relationship became more toxic when Abigail was sexually abused, body-shamed, and emotionally tormented. When Abigail tried to pull away, her friend attempted suicide and was admitted to a mental hospital. After she was released from the hospital, the girls re-established their friendship br...

Danielle was stalked by an ex-boyfriend, which drove her to quit high school. In school, Danielle was bullied and mistreated by her classmates but thought things would change for the better when she began seeing a boy in her class. The relationship quickly went downhill because he was abusive and sexually assaulted Danielle. When she broke up with him and ignored him, he started rumors, followed h...

Leigh-Anne was stalked by an ex-boyfriend after the relationship went from love bombing to abusive. After the break-up, he hacked her social media and stalked her, called her repeatedly, harassed her friends, sat outside her house, and followed her to work. He also threatened to rape her, attack her family with acid, and even found others willing to help him harass her. After changing her phone nu...

Alex was stalked for over a decade by an acquaintance she met through an ex-boyfriend when she was seventeen. Ten years later, he reached out on social media after her divorce, and they met up, but there were too many red flags, so Alex ended things immediately. She then found out he had been collecting photos of her through the years from social media and using them as screen savers on his comput...

Patrick Brady is a criminologist and university professor who studies stalking behavior and its impact on victims. We discuss some cases he's worked on, types of technology used by stalkers, common stalking behaviors, and how the justice system responds to stalking. Along with his research, he has conducted interviews with officers, prosecutors, advocates, and survivors to understand the crime of...

Elaine Parker was stalked by a man she met on a dating app. The relationship moved quickly, and right after they were engaged, Elaine endured domestic abuse, sexual assault, and rape. She finally got him out of the house and turned to the police, who arrested him multiple times when he began stalking her, threatening her, and trying to break into her home. As his stalking continued, Elaine found o...

Jess is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. When Jess became too busy with work, she had to put her relationship on the back burner, but her boyfriend couldn't accept it. He became jealous and insecure, questioned her about their relationship, went through her phone, and stopped her from talking to her male friends. Jess ended the relationship, and he tried desperately to win her back. When she did...

Ashlee Levitch was in a toxic relationship with a narcissist, who later stalked her. Her ex-boyfriend used abusive tactics like trauma bonding, devaluing, bread-crumbing, dog-whistling, and future faking. Once she left him and began to heal, she could see the full impact of the trauma she had experienced. Her new podcast, "The Narc and Me," explores the effects of being with a narcissistic partner...

Kalie is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend, who impersonated a medical professional to try and kidnap her daughter. After Kalie and her boyfriend broke up, she married a man in the military the following year. Her ex, also in the military, impersonated a medical professional to get her and her new husband's contact information. When her ex found them, he threatened to kidnap Kalie's child and do D...

Megan Bruce was stalked by a man after one date. Megan wasn't interested in a second date, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. He followed her to her usual hangouts and constantly contacted her. When she stopped responding to him, he broke into her house. Megan had little support from friends and family and felt her life starting to unravel. She attempted suicide believing her son would be safe...

Shelly is currently being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. After they broke up, he used an extra set of keys to enter her flat and place things around that would remind her of him. He also left lights on, ate her food, moved stuff in the cupboards, and stole her mail. Shelly saw her stalker regularly driving the opposite way on the road she took to work. She changed the locks on her flat, but he contin...

Lucy Walsh is being stalked by a stranger who hitchhiked from Minnesota to Los Angeles to marry her. He showed up at her father's house first, but when that didn't work, he found her address online and showed up there. When he couldn't break in, he built a shrine to Lucy in her front yard and left a note saying he'd be back. After Lucy alerted her family's security, they sent her to a hotel where...

Ty James was stalked by a woman who refused to take no for an answer. Ty is a single dad and social media content creator who met a woman through an online dating app. After a few dates, he ended things, but she couldn't accept it and sent him hundreds of messages and called him nonstop until he blocked her. She then began sending packages to his house, both hand delivered and online orders. He al...

Lili Greer believes a stalker murdered her missing mother. After leaving an abusive relationship, Lili's mother, Tina, moved them into a new house that was soon broken into and vandalized. They assumed it was Tina's ex watching them, frightening them, and making his presence known. Tina agreed to meet him and was never seen or heard from again. Lili was thirteen when her mother went missing, and s...

Clara was stalked in college by a student who catfished her. Clara befriended a student who lived down the hall in her dorm who told her that her guy friend from back home was interested in meeting. This guy friend and Clara started texting, but she noticed the guy would never respond when her friend wasn't around, and things didn't add up. Searching on Facebook, Clara found the guy and reached ou...

Shirley and her daughter Sarah were terrorized by a stalker who continually entered their home. During a sleepover, Sarah and her friends saw a man staring at them through the bedroom window. Shirley checked the house but found nothing and dismissed it, thinking the children were trying to scare each other. Months later, Sarah woke up and said she saw the same man…but this time he was in her bedro...

KD was stalked by her high school ex-boyfriend while attending college. After graduating from a Christian high school, KD broke up with her boyfriend, who then decided to attend the same college. Once their first semester began, he obtained her schedule and followed her to class, the dining hall, and her dorm room. KD was overwhelmed by his obsession and the intense stress from constantly being un...

Jodi was stalked by her violent ex-husband. While in her early 20s, Jodi started dating a man she met while out with friends. After they moved in together, he began to isolate her, forced her to drop out of college, and became physically abusive. He locked her in a closet, broke her nose, and left bruises all over her body. Jodi left him, fearing for her life, but he couldn't let her go and starte...

Rosemary was stalked by a man while playing a tabletop role-playing game. After moving to a new town, Rosemary joined a local Table Top Role Playing Game, also known as the TTRPG Community, and soon met another new player who took an interest in her. She turned him down when he asked her, letting him know she was a lesbian and already in a relationship. The man started a new role-playing game abou...

Tara was stalked by her abusive ex-boyfriend. While online dating, Tara formed a quick friendship with a man she met. He needed a place to stay, so she offered him a spare room in her house, leading to a romantic relationship. Shortly after moving in together, he became abusive. He drugged Tara, cut her water and electric lines, tried to set her house on fire, and smashed her stove and TV with a b...

Lola Blanc and Meagan Elizabeth are cult survivors who turned their harrowing experiences into a true crime podcast. As a child, Lola and her mother fell prey to a charismatic "prophet," who turned out to be a cult leader. Meagan was raised in a high control Christian group known as the Two by Twos aka "The Truth" or "The Way." Together, Lola & Meagan co-host the podcast Trust Me: Cults, Extreme B...

Lindsey was stalked by the worship leader from her church. After a break up, Lindsay moved back to her hometown and began a new relationship with the worship leader from her church. He was controlling, went through her phone, obsessed over her social media, got mad when she went places without him, and was abusive. As Lindsey was breaking things off with him, coincidentally, the police served a wa...

Rhonda was stalked by a man she moved into her apartment. While living in NYC, Rhonda was on the search for a new roommate when the man she had been briefly dating offered to move in with her. Immediately after he moved in, he became controlling, paranoid, and angry. He kept tabs on Rhonda, told her not to hang out with friends, accused her of lying, and often got into violent fights with other me...