On the night of September 22, 2006, 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart was house-sitting for her aunt and uncle and watching over their pets while they were out of town for the weekend. That evening, Cassie’s boyfriend, Matt Beckham, joined her at the house and later two of their other classmates, Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik joined them. The friends decided to watch Kill Bill Volume 2. Before the movie ended, Draper and Adamcik decided to leave, telling Stoddart and Beckham that they wanted to go to the movie theater instead. Unbeknownst to Stoddart and Beckham, Draper had unlocked a back door to the home, and the pair had no real intention of seeing a movie that night.

After a short time, Stoddart and Beckham returned to the house, entering through the unlocked back door. They intentionally made noises and turned off the circuit breaker in an effort to lure Stoddart and Beckham downstairs, but the pair remained upstairs. Scared by what was happening, Beckham called his mother and asked if he could stay with Cassie at the house that night, but his mother was uncomfortable with the two teens staying the night together unsupervised. Instead, she suggested that Cassie come to their home and return to the house in the morning. Cassie, feeling responsible for her aunt and uncle’s home and pets, ultimately decided to stay at the house. Beckham’s mom picked him up from the home at around 10:30pm.

After the boys heard Beckham leave and ventured upstairs, both boys were armed with knives. They brutally attacked Cassie, who was laying on the couch in the living room, and stabbed her 30 times. In the investigation that followed, police discovered videos that Draper and Adamcik apparently took of themselves the outlined the plan to commit the murder. In questioning, both boys blamed the other for the attack, and ultimately both were charged with first degree murder. Even though both boys were minors at the time of the murder, they were both sentenced to the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.