The Scream Murder, Episode 3: Hello Cassie

Hi, this is Connor McCarthy. Today we're back with another episode of The Scream Murder, a true teen horror story. Remember, if you can't wait for more, you can listen ahead to the entire series right now, add free when you subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus. Just click the link in the description to sign up, terms apply. Now, here's the next episode. Last October's brazen daytime Heist at the Louvre was shocking. Now, nearly a year out, there are still critical questions to be answered. Where did they go? And second, where did they come from? In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day, like you've never heard them before, through the eyes of the people who lived them. On the pavements, I saw something shiny. You did see the crown. Yes, exactly. Heist at the Louvre, a new series from ABC Audio, available now, add free on Amazon Music. In the midst of police investigating the brutal murder of Cassie Stoddard, they come across a videotape found buried along with the knives and masks Tori Adam check and Brian Draper used in Cassie's murder. The teen killers tried to destroy the tape and police are about to find out why. You can hear a pin drop because nobody in the room knows what we're about to see. We're going to be just like scream except real life terms. This is episode three of The Scream Murder, a true teen horror story podcast. My name is Pat Rogers and that's Connor McCarthy. On our last episode, Brian Draper had just led police to a shocking videotape that he and Tori Adam check had made. We're going to go deep into that tape on this episode and much more. But I think it would be a good idea to just to go back and reset and show the beginning of this tape, a clip that Brian had made on September 22nd inside Pocatello High School. It's a shot of the camera, POV, Brian holding it, walking down the hallway. You see a student off in the distance. The row of lockers. As you get closer, you realize it's Cassie. I'm getting you on tape, okay? Say hi, please. Okay, see ya. Wait, have you seen Tori? He's supposed to be here at 730, it's 819. He's an hour late. You don't even care, do you? Cassie doesn't reply to Brian's question. She just shrugs and half smiles moving on with her day. Imagine detectives all in a single room watching this for the first time seeing Cassie living, breathing, alive, going to school, at her locker, changing out books. Brian Draper spins around, almost taunting her. Her friend, her friend, time stamp, September 22nd, 829 AM. She will be murdered 10 hours later. And it's Brian Draper behind the camera. The one who said he had nothing to do with a Tori did everything. So they continue making this tape throughout the day. Here's another clip from it. This is around 12 p.m. I'm not so assuming this is lunchtime. They're still in school. They are in the library. They've set the camera on the table. They're both talking to it. They're in a corner, almost whispering. It's hard to hear because they don't want anyone else to hear what they're planning. So this is a different version of Brian. He's talking to directly to Cassie's family. I'm sorry she has to die. We've chosen our victim. We know she's going to be home alone. Everything he said in his confession is right out the window. Right out the window. He is now appearing as the leader of the pack. Okay, this is the plain meaning of the tape. We know what happened. We know he was there at least when it happened. But is there still some possibility that this is just part of the big scare? We know the horror film. Are they making some kind of found footage horror film? That's popular at this time. So is Brian playing a part? Is this a fantasy? And that as he said in the confession, Tori went after her. So Tori was he planning something that Brian wasn't planning? Did it get out of hand? Now this next clip comes after they left Cassie and Matt at the house where Cassie was house sitting just to give it a little context. Brian and Tori had gone over to the house with Cassie and Matt Friday night. They had played around on a weight machine in the basement. They had gotten something to eat. They watched a movie. What Cassie and Matt didn't know is when they were in that house, they were casing it. And this next clip displays that. Time stamp of 9.54 pm, the night of Cassie's murder. Brian says we're here in his car. The time is 9.50. September 22, 2006. Unfortunately we have the grueling task of killing our two friends and they are right in the house just down the street. We just talked to them. We were there for an hour. We check out the whole house. We know there's lots of doors. There's lots of places to hide. I locked the back doors. That's all a lot. Now we just got to wait and yeah we're really nervous right now but you know we're ready. It was like you said it was to case the house. Look for different ways. Different points of entry. How are we going to get in? How are we going to get out? How are they not going to be aware of what we're really planning? The fact that they go out and they're now documenting this plan, laying it out. This is where we were. This is what we're doing right now. Here's the plan and this is what's going to happen. There's one more piece that I want to play from this section of the tape. We waited for a long time. A long time. We'll stay tuned. So it might have been a little hard to hear. Brian said we've waited for this for a long time. Stay tuned. Stay tuned as if he's making a television show. We don't know if they've been planning to murder Cassie and then buttoning it with stay tuned as if they're talking to their future audience. This is how you plot, execute and commit a murder. Today I want to tell you about our friends at Layla's Sleep. 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Considering that a good night's sleep is priceless, you can't ask for a better deal. But don't wait, this discount is only good for a limited time. Head to abcsecretsavings.com/2020 and start sleeping easier today. That's abcsecretsavings.com/2020. On October 19th, 2025, the Louvre became the backdrop of something straight out of a heist movie. We're used to following heist in movies from the perspectives of the ever so glamorous and dangerous perpetrators. But when it happens in real life, the lines between good and bad guys aren't so clear. And even less clear is the fate of those French crown jewels. I'll follow the investigation into how this could have happened, who could have been behind it, and then I'll join the international hunt for the Louvre jewels. and Matt. They heard Matt's mom come and pick Matt up and leave so now they know that Cassie is alone in the house and this is when they make their move. This next bit of tape we're gonna play is it's difficult to listen to and not just because it's a little hard to hear the content is it's shocking and this piece we're about to play jumps ahead on the tape two hours 11.32 which is after they've left Cassie's house. Just killed Cassie. We just left her house. This is not a joke. I stabbed her in the throat and I saw her life as a body just disappeared. Dude I just killed Cassie. That felt like I couldn't even know. I mean it went by so fast. I mean I've listened to this too many times and every time it's sickening it kind of makes the hair in the back of your neck stand up. You can hear Brian almost gleefully not almost. He's gleefully saying he's excited. I just killed Cassie. I stabbed her in the throat and a few minutes we're gonna contrast this tape with another bit of tape that we have a Brian Traper. But this is a real shocking piece of video that I just never seen anything like this. I mean we should describe it. He's pointing the camera. They're in the car. He's pointing camera out of the windshield. He never turns the camera to Tori who's driving. He never turns the camera to himself. It's seemingly a black frame. They're two different energies in the car. Yeah. Brian is you almost can like see him shaking because the adrenaline is rushing through. His voice is like rushing to get the words out. There's an elation to it. Tori is you know he says you know I'm shaking but he's calm. Play that part again. Let's play this again. Just killed Cassie. This is not a joke. I stabbed her in the throat and I saw her life as a body. Just disappeared. Dude, I just killed Cassie. That felt like it wasn't even real. I mean it was so bad. It's not f***ing up. We got to get our act straight. Tori's the sounds like he has a plan or something. Stick with the plan and it's hard to hear but what Brian says before he hits stop is okay let's go get our movie tickets. Go get our movie tickets. There's the alibi. There's the plan which they don't do. They don't do. We talked about that in an earlier episode. We should just you know catch everybody up again is that the alibi was after we left Cassie and Matt we went to see a movie called Pulse and when questioned about the movie Brian didn't know anything about it. He clearly didn't go to the movie but you hear him here say let's go buy tickets. We go to go buy our movie tickets now. So you know his contention in his confession that you know this was all this is all going to be just to scare her. Don't make any sense now. It's 1145 pm. The movie is over at that point. It's almost as if they needed to and I don't want to try to help them with their alibi but it's almost they should have when they left go buy the movie tickets. And then someone sees you there and then come back. One thing I don't want to belabor this piece of tape and Brian's section of it but I think it's helpful to listen to it and understand it in context of the other bits of Brian tape that we have. So let's just play this one more time and I know it's unpleasant as an understatement but let's listen to it. I stabbed her in the throat and I saw her life as body just disappeared dude I just killed Cassie. I stabbed her. I saw. I. Not Tory. But now we have to put that next to what he's told police in his interrogation. And the first version of Brian Draper is I wouldn't say he's calm but at least in the beginning he's making sense. He's got a story. He's trying to wriggle out of this. He didn't look like he was sweating bullets when he was sitting in that chair. That's the first time for the detectives to come into the room. He's absent mindedly drumming. He's sitting there. He checks his wallet at one point, looks at his cash, why he needs to do that. That's fidgety Brian though. Play a little bit of that tape. What would you say is your favorite movie at all? All time a favorite movie would have to be. Here's all the choices. To be honest, I have to see how I lead my favorite movie. He's trying to snowball these detectives. He's got as he's sitting at the table. He's got his hands folded. He's looking at Detective John Gansky. He's answering his questions seemingly normal. You know the body language is not saying this is someone that had that memory of the murder in his head as he's talking to two homicide detectives. Then we go to his confession. Right. And that's version number two of Brian Draper. Sobbing out of control, you know riddled with remorse and guilt and it just got out of hand. It wasn't my fault. It was Tori. They did everything. Now we have version number three of Brian Draper. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Cassie's family, but she had to move on. Who? When you see on that tape seems like a determined killer. The three Brian Draper's. Obviously Brian is arrested and charged with Cassie's murder. And the police, the investigators, John Gansky, Andy Thomas, all of them, they have all this information. They have this tape. They have Brian's story. They have the aftermath of Cassie's murder on tape. They haven't even talked to Tori yet. So this is all going in to their first on-camera interview with Tori Adam check. They have all this in their pocket. And as far as we know the Adam checks knew nothing about this. They didn't know Brian was arrested. They didn't know he confessed. They don't know about the Black Rock Canyon evidence that was collected. And they don't know about the tape. And I wanted to hear what Shannon, Tori's mother had to say about that. And this is what she told me. We go into the police station and the police saying right away we're questioning him. So he needs to answer these questions. I definitely got worried during that point. It's the first time Tori is really allowed to speak about it. Or that Tori spoke about it. Because at home for those three days, my whole thing was he's grieving the loss of his friend. All of these emotional reactions is the loss of his friend. This is a terrible thing that happened. You know, but never crossed my mind. And I think I can speak for my husband, never crossed his mind. There's just no way. Tori was not that kind of person. So Tori Adam check arrives at the police station with his parents. And just a moment about Tori, he's probably a head shorter than Brian. He's, you know, just a regular looking 16-year-old kid. He's dressed in a T-shirt jeans and converse, like every other high school student during that time. And they weren't investigating all of a sudden that the Cassie started. He was murdered. He'd known Cassie for about how long? From 10th grade. Okay. So you live for a little while. Yes. Okay. So what is your relationship with Cassie? Fragrance. All right, so you arrive there with what happens when you get there? She Cassie and Matt gave us a tour of the entire house. So what they want to do is hear his story knowing what the real story is. So he starts off and let's play this clip. He almost immediately has a departure from what Brian had said. If you remember, Brian had said we left the house and we went to go see a movie. Pulse. Here's what Tori said. And then we went back upstairs and Matt Brian kept saying he had to go because we just had, yeah, he said he was going to call his mom. And so we left partying together. We knew the movie started at 10, but we never got around to going to that. Yeah. So that's where he veers away from Brian Draper's story. There's a theory that the detectives believe that the night of Brian Draper's interview and he ended with I did not kill my friend and I will gladly take a polygraph test. He goes home. Detective John Gansky theorized that after he got home at some point, he snuck out that night and they met at a local gas station down the street from the Draper's house. Brian gave it up early as you recall it. Okay, we're lying. We're lying about the movie because we pressed him. Then he re-scripted the story to say okay, we were burglarizing cars. So I think - I think after that interview, he communicated with Tori, said, "By the way, the story's changing. "He got it. "This is the story you got to tell him." - They're not buying the movie. - They're not buying the movie. I ended it with-- - Don't talk about the movie. - I ended it with, we were breaking into cars. We were checking doors, and we need to stick with that. So they already know the movie theory is BS. - So this is after Brian's first interview, before he had come in to take the polygraph, but had confessed. So he had ended on just telling we're breaking it to cars. - And that is the last time Tori, Adam Check, ever spoke to Brian Draper on the outside. He has no idea that the next day, Brian confesses, takes him to where the evidence was buried, and then he's quickly arrested, and he is in jail. Tori has no idea any of this has happened. - So it's 9.30, you're gonna decide you're gonna leave? - Yeah, we backed up, and we took the same route we got to get in, and we just parked right before the road got off to get him out, and we waited there for about. We were scoping in the neighborhood. - Why is there a planning to go through cars? - Now the detectives in the room, they wanted to see how far he was willing to go with lying to them. - When you say go through cars, we mean, "See the ones that are open, we don't go through any little arms "or that are locked, we just lock by, push the handle, "and if it's open again, it's still a gas motor chain." - So he's done that for once a year and in ninth grade. - He's elaborating on the lie, and detectives always like to see how far someone be willing to go. - Here's what John Gansky said. - Tori seems confident. He seems like he's maybe rehearsed the story a bit so he feels comfortable with it, and he feels like maybe we're buying it. He has no idea that Brian's been arrested. He doesn't know what we know at the time. So at this point, he's just, he's sticking with the story. - And a lot of times people in Tori Adam Chuck's positions say the more detail I offer, the more believable this lie is going to be. - embroidery. - Embroidery, yeah. But it's also the more detail you give on a lie, the harder it is to remember. - Yeah. - And you know who does remember are the guys interrogating you. They are noticing everything. So if you get locked into a story and you give a detail and they ask you to go through a story again and that details out, you know, that's something for them, another thread to pull on. - What's different about Tori's interview when they go into the room? Both Tori's parents are in the room with him. Another set of parents that let's just get through this are son didn't do anything. There's no way he could have done this. - We all was done. - We honestly are. - Okay, so because our son has to be picked up and like, what if we finish? Could we finish him like 10 minutes? Well, the series games probably over. - At one point during the interview, Tori's mother Shannon had to leave to pick up. - Right, she had something to do. - To pick up their third child, their youngest son. So it's just Tori with his father in the room. So here's what John Gansky said. - There was an interruption during this period of time where his mother had to leave the interview, had to go pick up another child. And it quite frankly kind of ruined our momentum a little bit. And at that point in time, you know, he just basically told, confronted him to just let Tori know that I don't believe you. - You know, I'm not here to insult her. You think, but we don't believe your story. And we don't believe your story. And I'll think that plays your story about going through the cars. It's a tough one. And I don't believe it, especially because I know it's not true. We got you going back into Cassie's house. - Tori, you know what we're going with this. - Yeah. - You know what we have. - They had so much. - Yeah. - Why are we gonna listen to this story from this kid? They put the clamp down on him pretty quickly. - You know, we just basically told, I think now's the time to come clean. And you could tell that the wheel's returning. When you looked into his eyes and you could see him that he's thinking, do they really know what they know? And I truly believe he was getting ready to confess. And then he played the card of saying, I think I need to talk to my attorney. - He doesn't seem to be intimidated in the situation that he is in. - No. - I mean, or the fact that his classmate had been murdered. And even when they turn the heat on him, he doesn't seem to fluctuate. - No. - This is the key part of his interview. Listen to this. - We know the details. We've got the knife that you used. We've got the masks that you used. We've got the video tape. We've got, there's a tape up in there. They buried, okay? Try to catch on fire. Oh, it's, you know, I don't need to tell you that. - This is right, Tori, and what they're saying is true. So. - That was the voice of Tori's father who had been in the room with him. Is this true? And Tori says yes. - Quietly says yes and a soft nod. That's as far as he went to his involvement in this case and then the interview shut down. - Yeah. - In an earlier episode, we discussed the case of Nory Jones, a murder victim in Pocotello, Idaho. And we said at the time, remember that name, Nory Jones, because it's gonna figure into this case. And this is how. Nory Jones was murdered two years, almost to the day that Cassie was murdered. She was stabbed in basically the same way, almost the same number of wounds. It was like a blitz attack. She was home alone, like Cassie. So there are very eerie similarities between these two murders. And it was unsolved, of course, at the time of Cassie's murder. Once they got on to Tori, and this is why we asked you to remember this name, Nory Jones. Once they got on to Tori, they realized that his house at the time where he was living, that the time of the Nory Jones murder was very close to Nory Jones' house. The proximity of the atom checks, that just sort of fell into detective lapse. When they saw that, of course, all of them had to pause and say, is this a possibility? Could it be a possibility? Nothing is too outlandish for what we know right now. Look at the tape they've done, look at the tape, look at the masks, look at the knives, and look at the murder they committed. So there was some initial speculation suspicion that Tori, who at that time would have been 14. This was two years before Cassie had actually possibly murdered Nory Jones. That was not the case. The true killer, a guy named Brad Comfer, was caught, tried, convicted, and also sentenced to life in prison without parole. So that's, you know, Tori had absolutely nothing to do that with that. But police at the time had to at least consider it. - Yeah, I talked to Detective John Ganski about that. And he said, "Welcome to investigating a crime." Sometimes these things happen that send you down these roads that are ending up to be meaningless. But these overlaps and these coincidences, you have to look into them. And that just happens. And this was just a bizarre set of circumstances of the timing, the unsolved victimology. - But for now, both Tori and Brian are arrested and charged with Cassie's murder, and they're in the same county jail. I get into the police station and they had handcuffed Tori and arrested him while I was gone. And they tell us Brian's confessed. We have a videotape. They're going to be arraigned tomorrow. And I remember them telling me, he's going to be looking at something like a 20-year prison sentence. And I remember thinking, he's 16. I wanted to take a minute to talk about the families. There are actually three families that were impacted by the actions of Brian Draper and Tori Adam Check. Obviously, Cassie's family is devastated. The cruelty that was inflicted on that family is just unimaginable. But there are two other families. And we thought it was important to talk to the drapers in the Adam checks directly. These are two families whose lives are also changed forever in a very different way because of the actions of Brian and Tori. I talked to Shannon Adam Check, Tori's mother and I talked to Pam and Carrie Draper. And when Carrie talked about walking away after his son had been arrested, it's like his previous life just vaporized. It didn't exist anymore. What do you do? I mean, your greatest fear as a parent is something's going to happen to your child. But your second greatest fear is your child as something to someone else. And that's what the drapers were and that's what the Adam checks were. The drapers lived in a very nice house, sort of on the edge of Pokatello. Carrie rose up through corporate America. He traveled a lot, something that he now regrets. And his motive was the more I work, the more money I make, the more cars in the garage, the bigger the house, the more toys from my son and my daughter is 13-year-old at the time. and then suddenly everything. thing fell apart. It's before and after what we talked about early on was what happens if you're living your life and suddenly there's a knock on the door. You open it and it's two homicide detectives who want to talk to your 16-year-old son. Brian had a little sister. She was friends with a lot of people. Everybody knew each other and I asked Carrie about that. How do you break the news to your daughter that her older brother is not coming home and he did something terrible and this is what he had to say about that. She was 13, three years younger than Brian. We drove up into our driveway and the house was flooded with the police all over the house, all over the yard. So at that moment I had no choice and told her your brother was involved. I guess he's murdered and she freaked out. It was a serious thing. I'll never forget it. No, she just kept saying no, no, no, no, no, just flailing. She didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to realize it. She didn't want to go away. It devastated her. It took her childhood to 13. You know there's a hole here in this podcast and that is Cassie's family. I spoke to Anna at length early on and interviewed her and she is not here in this podcast because she died and she was more or less the best advocate for Cassie for the family. She was her spokesperson and obviously she couldn't be a part of this and that's why there seems to be if there is a hole here that is it. But I think if she could respond to that she would say you know her sympathy would be limited for the drapers and the Adam checks. As deeply sorrowful as Kerry is here there is no comparison. He said that it took his daughter's childhood. Well it also took Cassie's future and I think that's you know kind of what we should remember. The news of Brian and Tories are rast like just pulverized pocotello. I mean 16 year old girls murdered by 216 year old classmates who were her friends. He was friends with her boyfriend friends with Cassie. It was it was a total shock to everyone but what was interesting when we talked to several the students former students they started to piece together the memories of where they were over that weekend to that Monday morning. And Miranda fellow classmate of Brian and Tories remembers both Brian and Tories were at school that day and this is what she had to say. I remember Brian being behind me in astronomy class that Monday morning and he was jittery. He was anxious. He was shaking my chair. You know he there were baskets underneath of the desk at school and everybody put their feet on there and then I don't know if his anxiety just bouncing. I remember it pretty significantly and then the day after he wasn't there so I thought it was suspicious. I really did at the time but I didn't say anything like while the sudden is this person not here you know. They went to school that Monday morning they were sitting there as people were talking about people are grieving. People are in shock. The killer was in the classroom. I mean it's right out of a Hollywood movie. You know what were they thinking? What was going on in their heads as they're watching the reaction to the news of the murder and also the investigation that's coming into the high school. You know you you just said you know it's sort of like something out of a horror movie like a teen horror movie where the killers are in the school and a lot of ways it was. They made a movie about it and they also referenced a very popular horror movie franchise screen. You want to die. The day before Cassie's murder September 21st 838 pm Brian and Tori were driving around Pocotello that night. Brian has the camera and this is what they say. We're not okay. They were sick. Cycle fast. Did I get pleasure of killing other people? That sounds good. We're gonna go down in history. We're gonna be just like scream except real life terms. Brian says it's gonna be just like scream except in real life terms. Just like scream. Let's do 60 seconds on what scream is and how the horror film element continues to weave itself into this case. Scream came out in December of 1996 Cassie was killed in September of 2006. Ten-year anniversary of this of this movie. On the surface it's a it's a slasher movie but there was a flip with scream that it was meta before anyone knew what meta was. It was self-aware of the tropes. Yeah it followed the tropes and throughout the movie one by one knife-wielding mass killer praying on high school students. Brian and Tori were obsessed with this movie. The opening scene of scream is one of the most iconic I would say movie moments in film history. It's Drew Barrymore. She's home alone and she's stalked and murdered by a mass killer. Her name in that movie was Casey. Casey, Cassie. Cassie, Cassie. Two letters off. We don't know if that had anything to do with it if it was just a coincidence. The other component is this on the tape. There is a little clip of Brian playing the drums. It's September 22. The day of Cassie's murder. He's getting it out of his energy. He gets up. He has the camera probably stationed on his dresser. He grabs the camera to turn it off and just as he hits stop the camera passes his television. What's on? The opening scene of scream. You see Drew Barrymore. Casey on the phone. It's almost like his hype song. He is preparing for murder. Drums. The movie. And there's one other thing that I want to point out. Slasher movies in general are these masked voiceless killers. Michael Myers. Jason Voorhees. Spoiler alert. In scream. It's not one killer. It's two killers. Billy and Stu. Billy and Stu. Not these ghouls. Billy and Stu. The teen heartthrob and the class clown. It was almost as if they saw a reality in these two characters as opposed to I want to be just like Jason Voorhees. I'm aware hockey mask and walk around with machete. I think that's that's noteworthy that this movie had a profound influence but in no way is it the reason why they did it. It was almost as if it was a a guidebook to how to get away with a murder. Obviously these kids were obsessed with horror movies. It seems as if they were making their own. And like any hit horror movie there's always a sequel. And in this case that holds true. Brian and Tory were planning a sequel. Cassie was their first victim but she was not to be their last and we're gonna get into that in the next episode. We're gonna go stoop around over there and try to see if she's on the load or not and if she's on the load. Splat. She did people will die and then Henry Smith will think. Kill them one by f***ing one. Did you know that if your spouse goes missing and you don't tell anyone that's not necessarily a crime? That surprising fact is at the heart of the brand new season of Bearbrook. The critically acclaimed True Crime podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio. I'm your host Jason Moon. In this season Bearbrook investigates another New Hampshire mystery. A Christmas tree farmer with dementia vanishes. His wife never reports him missing. Can he still be found? Don't miss it. Follow Bearbrook wherever you get your podcasts.