The Scream Murder, Episode 4: Scream Queens

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, ad-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. Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light, and slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress. A hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross. Brian Draper and Tori Adamczyk, two boys obsessed with horror movies, have seemingly made one of their own. On their homemade video, Brian plays the drums in his bedroom. The day, September 22nd, 2006. The time, 527 p.m. A nearby TV plays the opening scene of the iconic slasher film, Scream. In less than six hours, Cassie just started would be murdered. She was their first victim, but she was. She was supposed to be just the beginning. It's a pleasure. I'm killing other people. That sounds good, baby. We're going to go down in history. I'm Pat Rogers. And I'm Connor McCarthy. This is episode four of The Scream Murder, a true teen horror story podcast. The idea of a teen killer, it's very, thankfully, very rare. You and I have done true crime a long time. You don't come across it very often. To have two together, a pair of killers, is extraordinary, almost unheard of. Hey, look, it's Cassie. Hey, look, I don't know. Hello, Cassie. Have you seen Tori? He's supposed to be here at 7.30, and it's 8.19. He's an hour late. The surprising part of this is Brian and Tori, they were only friends for a few months before this happened. Brian had his friends. Tori had his friends. They knew of each other. But it was the June before the murder in September is when they really started hanging out. And it was the love of movies, particularly horror movies, that brought them together. It was very fast and furious. It escalated quickly. This is when the Drapers and the Adamchecks will separate. If we talk to Pam and Carrie Draper, Tori seemed to be a problem. They had some concern about him. Who is this new kid that's showing up, that's kind of consuming Brian's attention? All of Brian's other friends disappeared. Tori did become his whole world. There's no question about that. Tori was very much into horror movies. And Brian started to become a bit obsessed with violent movies as well. And this room started being covered with horror posters, lots of horror films. More than one of his friends told Pam, we don't want to hang around Tori. They did come on fast. We're only talking a couple months. It was very obvious that the four months they knew each other, Brian was being influenced in a direction that he didn't know anything about. Because he had been sheltered. Because he hadn't watched any movies like that. It was very desensitizing, just a little piece at a time. That was Brian's mother, Pam. I talked to Shannon Adamczyk, and she said, I didn't know anything about Brian. I knew they were hanging out. They loved these movies. Brian pulled out a movie, and it was a movie called The Evil Dead. And it looked horrible. I was telling Brian, you cannot bring these kinds of movies over here. And Brian said, you don't understand, this movie's awesome. He said this, he said, I saw this movie when I was in the seventh grade, and it totally changed my life. And I just looked at him, and he just, I was like, he just, I don't know, I had a very bad feeling. I will say that I hate the horror movies. I hate that genre. I did not want my kids watching it, and it was a big fight with Tori. A big fight with Tori about that. And the more that I was opposed to it, the more he seemed to be interested. The Drapers and the Adamczyks both said the same thing in the opposite direction. One of them brought in horror films. And I think there's some debate on, was it Brian or Tori? But there is something else the tape revealed about the connection that the two of them had beyond horror. Those people are more amateurs compared to what we're going to be. So that's odd, right? You're saying, I'd like to be compared to Ted Bundy, Hillside Strangler. No, no, we're going to be better than that. And remember, these are 16-year-old kids, and these serial killers had all operated long before they were even born, and they seem to have a fascination with them. And you may say that that's teenage bluster. They're just two kids, two kids spitballing. But in the context of what happened, that can't be just set aside. In the tape, the night of Cassie's murder, they're driving around Pocatello at night. Tori has the car, picks up Brian. They don't go to the basketball game. They're just tootling around the dark streets of Pocatello, fantasizing. They're talking about being famous for murder, but it's scary for the parents to realize this is what they were doing in the days, the weeks leading up to Cassie's murder. And talk about a plan. We have this next clip coming up where Tori is addressing the camera. It's propped up on a table in school, and he's looking into the lens, and he's talking about the movie that will be eventually made of his life and who will be in it. It's a little hard to hear, but he is talking about the future when he's either dead or alive, about who's going to play him in the movie. Tori's thinking about who's going to play him in the made-for-TV movie, the feature, however big it's going to be, based on the actions that are going to happen. This scene in the library on the tape, 1229 p.m., September 22nd, 2006. They're talking about life rights, on who's going to play them in the movie, and in 10 hours, Cassie will be dead. Today, I want to tell you about our friends at Layla Sleep. We cover a lot of difficult stories on this show, some that might make it hard to sleep at night, but Layla makes one of the best mattresses on the market, and also one of the most affordable. Its innovative, flippable design offers something for everyone. There's a soft side and a firm side, so you can choose your preferred experience. It's infused with copper, and it's made of copper, and it's made of copper, and it's a cooler, cleaner night's sleep. And with motion isolation and pressure relief, you can count on being able to sleep through the night. No 2 a.m. wake-ups because your partner got up for a drink of water. There are two mattresses to choose from, hybrid or memory foam. 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Join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's, home of the save. Celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. I talked to Shannon about the days following Tori's arrest and want to find out a little bit more about who was Tori in her eyes as a mother to a son, his background, childhood. How did she think about Tori prior to the day that he was arrested? Literally, Tori had never been arrested. been in any trouble. Never been in any trouble. I had never had him reprimanded at school. You know, he was in scouts. He was indifferent. He was in a bowling league. He was always just giggly and silly and happy. Tori is passive. He's extremely passive. He's not an aggressive person. At one point, she described him as passive, just very calm and no flare-ups, you know, scouts, bowling league. I mean, that is as, leave it to Beaver as you can get the way that she describes Tori. And then suddenly, he's arrested and charged with first-degree murder at age 16. I know that, yeah, definitely life can change in an instant. I know what that is like now. You're in shock. Yeah, what life is like after that totally changed. For the initial month, I couldn't eat. I went down to 85 pounds, was scared to leave the house. I couldn't believe it. And so I'm thinking, there's no way Tori could do this. It had to be Brian. Sitting down with her, you know, 20 years later, I can still see that struggle, you know. Who was my son? You know, was he the person that I believed he was, or was he completely different? Okay, so obviously, once Tori and Brian are arrested, they go search both of their houses. And among other things, at Tori's house, they found a list. It's a single piece of paper. There's several headings. First one, supplies, watches, communication devices, pliers, clothes, cargo pants, gloves, utilities. We know the cargo pants and the gloves, both black. Those were found at Black Rock Canyon. Mask, nothing more. Weapons, daggers, survival knife, pocket knife. And the last category, victims. Each one is listed first and last name. There were seven names on the list. So out of context, this would look maybe like another weird teenage fantasy in context. That's a list of people they wanted to kill. It's kind of a random collection of different kinds of people. It wasn't just a list of these are my bullies. Some of them, they don't even make sense. And some of them weren't even really aware of Brian and Tori. Maybe that was part of the problem. But we actually spoke to three of the girls. Two were on the list, and another that was mentioned on the tape. The first was Danny, who is someone that it appears Brian had an interest in as well. And we're going to play a little clip on the day she found out that she was a part of this bigger plan. So the police told my parents that Brian and Tori had been filming me and that I was also a victim on their list of people that they wanted to kill. I remember their faces just wide-eyed and me just probably white as a ghost and feeling like, what? And just asking, why? Why me? I didn't even know them. I didn't talk to them. What did I do for them to want to do this? So I asked when they were there, I said, why? Do you know why? And they said no. When Danny found out that she was on the list, she's immediately brought to a specific night. Somebody's outside my window. I saw flashlights shining, and I heard footsteps. I told my mom and dad, and they were like, no, it's just the neighbor's headlights. That was Brian and Tori. And they were checking the house like they said they did. Then all of a sudden, I remember there was a car that was always parked in the church parking lot after school. It was facing the house. The car would just sit there for like hours. She believes it actually, it was Brian and Tori, either staking it out or waiting for the moment to attack. So I'm going to play a clip from the tape that Brian and Tori had made when they specifically are talking about Danny and their plans for her. And we're going over today, house. We're going to go snoop around over there and try to see if she's home alone or not. And if she's home alone, splat. She did. Don't put your ear right into this, Brian. I'm not putting my ear right into it. They're, again, out rolling around in Tori's car, around Pocatello. Just Danny's on it. And they'd gone to her house that night. They'd snooped on her. So it looked like they had made multiple attempts to commit a murder, but the conditions weren't right. That's when I think I started to see my life through a different lens. Maybe I was supposed to die, but I somehow got out of it. I got lucky, in a sense. I feel like you're alive because Cassie's dead. For someone like me, like Danny, she feels some guilt that had they got me, maybe Cassie would be here today. Another potential victim on the tape was a classmate named Miranda. And they actually talk about wanting to kill Miranda while they were in the Pocatello High School library. She had told me to be quiet and shut up, so now she's dead. All, apparently, she had done was to tell Brian to shut up. You know, again, this, kids have beef in high school, you know, the pretty girl ignored me, whatever it is, it doesn't usually lead to a murder plot. Now, back to Danny. It gets even weirder, if you can believe that. Brian's locked up at this point. He's in the county jail. Danny receives a letter postmarked from the jail. So this is the letter that Brian sent me from prison. And the date is 10-6-06. And the crime was the 22nd. So this was like 15 days later. I know this letter has probably confused you and caught you off guard. And I know that you weren't expecting my name to appear in your mailbox. But my sole purpose in writing this letter to you is to tell you how I feel about you. Danny, from the first time I watched you walk into Mrs. Reagan's room last year, I felt a weird feeling in my chest. And even in my darkest hours, where I hear your name, a smile comes to my face. And that feeling in my chest comes back. I know that your presence in my life would have made me a better person. And I probably wouldn't be sitting in a jail cell right now. I know that I've made some mistakes in my life, but I am changing. He goes on to say, if I only had the courage to ask you out, everything would be different. He writes this heartfelt letter and names her on the kill list and snoops around her house with Tori. And she hardly knows who Brian Draper is. It just felt very creepy to me. I felt like he was manipulating me. I didn't believe him. I knew that he had been a part of the crime. I knew that was a lie. So I just I was like, I can't, I don't believe anything in this letter. Right? Like I don't. Brian's obviously very concerned with his perception. I think he just really did want me to write him a letter too. And that obviously I was, I never considered doing that. He doesn't mention, oh yeah, sorry that I was following you. Or sorry that I said, you know, I said, I was coming to your house. And if you're there, splat, you're dead. Like, sorry I said that. Like, he doesn't mention that. Did she ever say anything about how she thought she ended up on this list? I mean, it's clearly had a crush, but did she ever indicate anything? I think beyond that, he was not a part of her life. He was not a part of her circle. It's in his mind. She was one of the chosen ones. This is a girl that he was infatuated with. So we talked about Brian in this regard, but there is also a story about Tori and his friend Amber. When I sat down with Amber, this was really the first time that she told her story. She had a story to tell about Tori inviting her to Cassie's party. It's the day before Cassie was killed. Tori Adamczyk was asking me over and over and over to stay the night with Cassie's daughter that night. And I kept telling him no. Tori had told me the reason I should stay the night with Cassie was because there was not going to be, there were not going to be any adults there. And it was just going to be her, Cassie, and me, Tori and Brian. And why didn't you say no? I said no and stay the night with Cassie that night because I had plans with my boyfriend and his parents to go to an ISU basketball game. I played the what ifs. What if I was there? Could I have stopped it? Could I have protected her? Or would I have been another one of his victims? Cassie was murdered on Friday night. Her body was discovered on Sunday. That leaves Saturday. And as strange as it was for Tori to try and get Amber to go over there, there was something else that happened on Saturday, the day between the murder and the discovery of the body. Now let's play that. That Saturday that Tori had come over to my boyfriend's parents' house and we all had dinner together, it was like it was just any other day. He was totally himself, like he wasn't fidgety. He didn't show any signs like anything had happened. It made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it, knowing that I was sitting so close to somebody that could do that. He could do something so terrible and them not be any different. He was one of my best friends. One of the hardest things for me. It's embarrassing that people knew that I was so close to Tori Adamczyk. Like, how can you be so naive or so blind? She really believed that she saw, like, the best part of Tori. Only to find out that her life was seemingly meaningless to him because he wanted her to be at that party and to be one of his victims. And this is what makes it all the more shocking. She was very close to Tori. And the feeling of betrayal is still very real to this day, 20 years after the fact. I mean, that is probably one of the more startling reveals of that weekend. And something else happened that night. After Tori got home from dinner, he had someone sleep over at his house. That was Cassie's boyfriend, Matt. And I wanted to hear what Shannon had to say about that. And this is what she told me. Did Matt Beckham sleep over at your house on that Saturday night? Do you remember that? That was typical. People spent the night. So Matt did spend the night. And it's the only time I met Matt. And he was a nice kid. The whole night? Yeah. What stands out about that night is Tori was very clingy all weekend, which was not like him. Now, thinking back to the timeline, I'm like, my God. I mean, we had no idea what Tori was dealing with and what had happened. Or, you know, because I'm sure Tori was like, he knew Cassie was gone. And Matt's coming over. I don't know. None of it made sense. None of it made any sense. None of it makes any sense. Why he did that, I don't think anybody knows to this day. Let's go back to everyday life. Yeah. That is a really severe situation, having just murdered his girlfriend, not even 24 hours. Yeah. And he says, come on over. Come on over and let's have a sleepover. And if he had been there, if you remember on the tape, they said, we're going to kill our friends, Matt and Cassie. Like, if Matt had still been there, he might've been a victim too. And now he's having him sleep over his house the following day. The following day. 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Because you don't simply step into the sea, you create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. I talked to some of the students and they remember Brian and Tori had aspirations to make a horror movie. So they were gathering props. They were allegedly writing a script. Did you ask Cassie to make a movie with you? Yes. We wanted to be like, the main character and stuff. What's the movie about? We were making like a soccer flick. Like Halloween and stuff like that. Okay. And what was the, what's the theme? Tell me about the movie. Well, there was four kids and they had to, had parents with them. Okay. They drove to Cabin in the Mountains, you know. And, let's see, I named the guy John MacArthur. MacArthur. Okay. And he's the killer guy. And, let's see, yeah. And the mom and dad get killed, you know. But how? How does he kill him? What does he kill him with? Well, what's your knife, you know? What's your knife? Okay. Like a Halloween. At some point did this horror movie that they were planning to make, starring Cassie Stoddart, did it blur with this other, other side of them to actually carry through with it in real life. Not play murder, real murder. Okay, we've got these two kids. We discussed how odd it is in the beginning of this episode to have one teen killer. Now we have two. But in any pair, usually there's a leader and a follower. And there's been sort of this roiling debate, something that hangs over all of this. Who was in charge? Whose idea was this? Who was the leader and who was the follower? It seemed like everybody had a position on who they thought was the leader and who was the follower. And I thought Josh, who was a friend of Brian's and Cassie's, had the most interesting conclusion on that. I think both of their wires were crossed. I think both of them were feeding off of each other. You know, separately they might have been a good person or something, you know. But together it became this, you know, fatal attraction. And that ended very, very, very badly. Just how weird the situation was that they could be friends with Cassie and see how awesome she is and then still want to do that, you know. So, like, that's kind of mind-blowing to everybody involved, you know, that you could meet that person, you know, and how great she was. And then, yeah, that's her target, you know. Like, it doesn't make any sense. If you look at their personalities, they're very different. If we go back to the tape, their demeanors, the way they are behaving before, during, and after, especially after the murder. They turn the tape back on and Brian says, I just killed Cassie. And he's sort of hyperventilating. There's adrenaline rushing through him. He's excited. He's almost gleeful. It's really disturbing to watch. But what does Tori do? He says, shut up. We got to get our act straight. Very calm, very cool. And that sort of illustrates these two different kids. Does that help us get to who was the leader and who was the follower? Their parents eventually saw this video and you talked to them about what they thought when they saw it. Several weeks went by before they were actually able to come in, sit down, and watch this tape. You know, I talked to Shannon Adamczyk about that. We were told that there was a videotape, yes. And I wanted to know what was on it. And they said, we cannot tell you. We cannot tell you that. But I will tell you that it is very, very bad. They let us watch it the night before the preliminary hearing. It is a terrible videotape. I cannot believe the videotape. I had no idea. Brian's mother, Pam Draper, says to this day, she does not know who that Brian is on that tape. Just killed Cassie. We just left her house. This is not a f***ing joke. I stabbed her in the throat. I saw her lifeless body just disappear. Cold, calculating, almost glib when he talks about murdering Cassie. It doesn't sound like my son. I don't see a kid bragging. I don't see a kid. I don't see that. I see and hear in my son's voice shock. Of what just happened. That it was real. I can hear that in his voice because I know him. And I can hear it. him afraid? I think the whole thing was so mixed up in his head. Brian's father, Cary Draper, only watched the tape once. When I saw that video and when I saw Cassie in the aftermath, I just lost it, I guess. I had a hard time thinking that it was real. And it was so devastating. Obviously, I could never watch it again. It was just the nail in the coffin is what it was. And the pain that he caused was just unimaginable. There's really no other word for it. It was just unimaginable. Hearing his son say, I just killed Cassie just has echoed in his head ever since. The horror of parents hearing a completely different version of their sons. And then suddenly there's this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde element where he's a completely different person on this tape. They both say very damning things on that tape. It's hard for the parents to then step back and say, the other one is worse. Yeah. So we're going to kill her and her friends. One by one. Hell yeah. Why one by one? Why can't it be two by two and three by three? Because we've got to keep it classy. So, yeah, it's going to be extra fun. You're evil. Yes, I am. So are you. No, no, it's an expression. So far, we have heard from the friends. The friends, the family, the investigators. There are two people we haven't heard from, and that is Tori and Brian themselves. And that's what we're going to do next time. Is there any topic that's off limits for you? No, this is something I have to do because it's the truth. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Home of the Save. Join for just $20 at BJs.com/Mosquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer. New members only. BJ's. Home of the Save. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com/switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. I'll see you next time.