Strictly Stalking

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...

Once called "the miracle on the beach," Synanon began in the 1960s as an experimental rehab facility in Santa Monica, California with a radical claim: It could cure heroin addiction. Before long, it would make an even bolder claim: It could cure any of your problems. All you had to do was move in. What started in a house on the beach, soon spread to compounds across the country. The man who made t...

Jillian Hamilton is the Creator and Host of the Podcast "Cheating: When Love Lies." While in high school, a stranger started sending Jillian gifts and notes, which she ignored at first. She figured out who her "secret admirer" was when he showed up unannounced at her parent's house, a boy in her grade that she wasn't friends with and didn't know well. Jillian continued to ignore the letters and gi...

Maisie was stalked by her driving instructor after taking lessons from him. While learning to drive, Maisie's teacher seemed professional and friendly at first, but then she started feeling uncomfortable around him. She turned him down when he asked her out for a drink for her 18th birthday, and he responded by creating a Tik Tok for her with driving tips, but he added a heart and called her his "...

Jeanette was stalked in college by a classmate she befriended from her wilderness class. During the class trip, they got to know each other as friends, and afterward, he texted her, asking her to be his girlfriend and saying he loved her. She turned him down, but he continued to reach out excessively, eventually showing up in class with a bouquet, causing them embarrassment when she again turned h...

Melanie was stalked by her ex-husband after meeting and connecting with him online. When he told her about his criminal past, she felt they should just remain friends, but he won her over and they were quickly married. Melanie's new husband was immediately abusive, and she barely made it out of the marriage alive. After a horrible beating she filed for divorce and pressed charges. Her abuser only...

Jill was stalked by an older high school foreign exchange student who became obsessed with her. He constantly stood in front of her locker and would move aside when she needed to use it, but continued to stare without speaking to her. As his behavior escalated, he followed her around school, waited outside the bathroom for her, and offered her gifts. Jill told the school counselor about this, and...

Paula was stalked by an ex-boyfriend from high school. When Paula broke up with him, his behavior became disturbing, and he attempted suicide to try to get her back. She gave in but only stayed long enough to help him survive the suicide attempt. When she left him again, he followed her to a hotel room she was at with friends and threatened them with a gun. Paula was again afraid for her life when...

Liz Hickox was stalked by a woman who faked illnesses for financial support and sympathy. While volunteering at a breast cancer charity, Liz met and became friends with Sarah, who told Liz she had terminal cancer. Sarah soon became obsessed with Liz, messaging up to 200 times a day, showing up for unannounced visits, and even moving in with Liz's parents at one point. When Liz and her husband Bria...

MT is being stalked by a man she met at church. After church one day MT received a Facebook friend request with an odd message containing religious conspiracy theories, but accepted it anyway, believing it was her duty as a Christian to help him. He started following her around, taking non-consensual photos, told people they were dating, and even showed up on her dates with other men. MT was conce...

Keila was six years old when her stepfather started stalking and abusing her. Within three months of moving in with her stepfather in Brazil, Keila discovered he was watching her while she slept and showered. Keila's stepfather started physically and sexually abusing her, but when she told her mother, Keila was the one blamed for it. She found holes her stepfather made in the walls of their house...

Lily Baldwin was stalked for over thirteen years by a man who became obsessed with her while she toured as a backup dancer. It started with emails, then calls, notes, and gifts in the mail - until he came to the United States looking for her. Lily hired a legal firm and sent him a cease and desist letter to stop contacting her, but it was ignored. As the stalking continued, Lily was able to get th...

Nicola was stalked by a coworker she dated. Nicola had just left an abusive partner and was living in a woman's shelter when she met her coworker. She began to notice him outside of work at places she frequented, so they became friends and then started dating. After Nicola told him she wanted to start a family, he pulled away, so she decided to end the relationship. When Nicola moved out of the sh...

Daniel is being stalked by a man he met on the dating app, Grindr. Although there was no romantic chemistry, they decided to remain friends. When Daniel was having financial problems, his new friend offered to help him out, even letting Daniel live with him to help him save money. After he moved in, Daniel was regularly questioned about his whereabouts, and his friend started drama within Daniel's...

Nikki was seventeen when she met the man she would later date, have a child with, and would eventually become her stalker. During the relationship, he was controlling and abusive. Every time Nikki tried to leave, he lured her back with promises that things would get better. When she became pregnant with their child, the abuse escalated to the point that Nikki was held captive and tortured. When sh...

Francesca is a former bikini model who has been cyberstalked for almost twenty years. After gaining international recognition through televised bikini modeling competitions and photo shoots, an obsessed fan pretended to be Francesca to acquire candidly explicit unpublished material from her photographers. Then the fan leaked the nude photos and videos to porn websites and created fake social media...

Darian was stalked by a stranger he met through a random act of violence. When Darian's female friend was sexually assaulted during a night out, they left the scene, but the perpetrator followed and physically assaulted Darian. Days later, a friend of the perpetrator confronted them, saying they should die because they called the police. The man started showing up in places Darian frequented, phys...

Collier Landry is being stalked by a woman obsessed with his past. As a child, Collier testified against his father in the brutal murder of his mother. Collier channeled his tragedy into the ID documentary "A Murder in Mansfield," revealing intimate details about his childhood and the loss of his mother. A fan of the documentary reached out to Collier wanting to collaborate on another documentary...