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Idaho Teen Stabbed to Death by Classmates Living Out Their "Horror Movie Fantasy"
Cassie Jo Stoddart, 16, was found viciously stabbed to death in a family member’s small-town Idaho home where she’d been pet-sitting.
On Sunday, September 24, 2006, 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart was found viciously stabbed to death in a family member’s small-town Idaho home where she’d been pet-sitting.
Responding to a 911 call made by a relative, Robert Rausch, then an Idaho State Police lieutenant, arrived to find the teen on the floor in the Pocatello home and “lots of blood,” he said in "The Secret in Black Rock Canyon" episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
Local law enforcement mustered every resource, while Cassie’s devastated mother Anna Stoddart was plunged into “a complete state of shock,” she said. “Who could do this to my daughter?”
Investigators asked the same hard question. They initially struggled to find anyone with motive, but a journey into the nearby desert unearthed the key to unlocking the shocking case.
Who was Cassie Jo Stoddart?
A junior at Pocatello High School, Cassie was popular, earned good grades, and was known for being reliable. On September 22, 2006, she and her boyfriend, Matt Beckham, had gone to her relative’s residence to house-sit.
Two days later, on Sunday afternoon, the relatives arrived home “to this horror,” Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison says in the episode.
News of the crime spread quickly around the community and to Cassie’s school. “I had lost students to car accidents, but never something like that,” said art teacher Bob Beason.
Piecing together the evidence
Police searched the crime scene. There was no murder weapon or signs of forced entry or a robbery.
“It was clear that Cassie put up an extreme fight,” Idaho State Police Capt. John Ganske told Dateline. “She fought for her life.”
The violence surrounding Cassie’s final moments was in stark contrast to the morning of Friday, September 22, when she was caught on video at her school locker and gave a casual “Hi” to the camera.
After school, Anna picked up Cassie and Matt and drove them to the home where the teens stepped up to watch the dogs and cats for the weekend.
Anna checked in with her daughter with a call at around 9:30 p.m. It was the last time she spoke to Cassie.
Power outage puzzles detectives
At around 10 p.m. on Friday night, the electricity went off in the home where Cassie and her boyfriend were pet-sitting, before eventually coming back on. The blackout unsettled the teens. Matt called his parents and told them about it.
He reluctantly went home when his folks picked him up at around 11:15 p.m. Cassie declined to go with him since she was responsible for the pets.
Investigators processed the basement fuse box and found fingerprints that were a match for Anna’s boyfriend. He became a person of interest but had a solid alibi that cleared him from suspicion.
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Police turned their attention to Matt, whose lack of emotion and “flat” response to the murder raised a red flag for officials.
Classmate Justin Sands described Matt as “a goofball" to Dateline, adding, "He was a good kid."
Matt agreed to a polygraph test and passed “with flying colors,” said Ganske.
Cassie Jo Stoddart's boyfriend drops bombshell revelation
Matt also revealed a fact that would change the course of the case. He told detectives that on September 22, two fellow students from the teens' school, Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik, had also been at the house.
They’d dropped by and had watched Kill Bill: Volume 2 before leaving at around 9:30 p.m. When they were interviewed by police, Draper and Adamcik claimed they went to a movie after leaving.
When neither teen could recall what the movie they said they'd went to was about, that sent up a flare. A theater employee who went to school with the teens confirmed that they were not at the movie.
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“We knew that they were lying to us,” said Ganske. “Now we have to figure out, why are they lying to us?”
Confronted by police, Draper said that he and Adamcik had lied because they’d been burglarizing cars. He denied having anything to do with Cassie’s murder.
Draper agreed to take a polygraph test the next day. But before the exam began, he became distraught and said he needed to speak with the detectives.
Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik become suspects
Accompanied by his parents, Draper stated that he and Adamcik had covertly returned to the home where Cassie was pet-sitting. They turned off the power to frighten Cassie and wore masks to disguise themselves.
Draper claimed that he was shocked when Adamcik started stabbing Cassie. “It was supposed to be a joke,” he said.
Draper eventually led detectives to an area near Blackrock Canyon in Idaho where he and Adamcik had buried evidence of their heinous crime.
Shocking video is found
Amid the clothing, weapons and masks, there was a burned videotape. Experts were able to salvage the tape — and what was on it chilled seasoned detectives.
The video showed that Draper and Adamcik were determined to make their own real-life version of the slasher movie Scream. It opened with the scene of Cassie at her school locker.
Draper and Adamcik recorded themselves in the library creating a “death list.” Cassie was targeted because her killers believed that she’d be house-sitting by herself.
“She has to be the one,” said Draper. “We have to stick to the plan.”
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When the teens stopped by and watched a movie, their motives were far more sinister. They were there to get a feel for the layout of the house and to secretly unlock a basement door so they could sneak back in later.
The pair recorded themselves waiting nearby before returning to carry out their deadly plan. Had Matt stayed, police believe it would have been a double-homicide.
“Shortly after Matt left, it was time for the final act,” Morrison said on Dateline.
The teens cut the power again. Wearing masks and gloves and armed with hunting knives, they crept upstairs and slaughtered Cassie.
“We just killed Cassie,” said one of them in the video. “This is not a joke.”
What happened to Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik?
Draper and Adamcik were charged with first-degree murder. Investigators gathered evidence showing that the two teens had been “living in their own personal horror movie fantasy,” said Morrison.
“Prosecutors discovered a kill list with a dozen other student names,” Morrison added. “Their goal was to commit another Columbine-style school shooting.”
Both teens were found guilty and sentenced in 2007 to life without parole. They’re now behind bars at the Idaho State Correctional Institution.
Some 15 years after the murder, a regretful Draper spoke by phone with Morrison about the murder.
At the time of the crime, Draper “felt like a nobody,” he said. “I felt like I’d be somebody if I did something, you know, big and bad.”
Draper said he “would do anything” to change his past. “I think about that all the time.”
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Anna Stoddart died in 2022 from cancer. In a 2009 Dateline interview, she spoke about how time had been stolen from her beloved daughter Cassie.
“The way she was taken from us just wasn't fair,” Anna said. “Too young, she had too much more to do in her life."
