A CSI: Miami star is reflecting on a terrifying ordeal that lasted more than a decade. For 12 years, a stalker targeted Eva LaRue and her daughter Kaya.
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“You become your own prisoner,” the “CSI: Miami” star said via the New York Post. “Your mind is constantly in absolute terror mode, so you’re thinking about every possibility. Your mind is spinning out of control. Could he be in the back seat of my car? Could he be under my car – Could he follow me home from work? Did he find my daughter’s school? Is he in the crowd? Is he this guy? That guy? Is he my neighbor?”
The CSI: Miami star’s story is becoming a real-life crime thriller thanks to the new docuseries My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story. It all started in 2007, when someone sent her a letter. It was signed by Freddie Krueger, a reference to the horror movie villain. The letter was extremely disturbing.
That was the first of many letters. At the time, the CSI: Miami star was a single mom and feared for her safety
‘CSI: Miami’ Star Lived In Fear
“The letters escalated in violence and sickening details pretty immediately,” said LaRue. “What’s frightening is that stalking is the crime that hasn’t happened yet. They’re threatening to kill you. They’re threatening to rape you – They’re threatening to cut you into tiny pieces — all the things. But it hasn’t happened yet.”
The anonymous stalker was difficult to track. Police were stumped on how to find them. The stalker hadn’t been in a national database, so DNA testing from the letters proved no results.
“This stalker was not in a national database. For criminals who have committed a felony, you have to have either raped or murdered somebody to have your DNA taken,” she said. “But if you didn’t have any felonious priors, then you weren’t going to be in the system. So he was always evading capture, evading being identified. And so, there was no way for the cops or the FBI to come guns blazing because there was no way to identify him.”
The TV star said the strain of the letters caused the destruction of her second marriage. They kept coming over a period of more than a decade. Despite moving several times, the stalker always found them.
In 2019, things escalated when he called the star’s daughters’ school and threatened her safety. Ultimately, the FBI got involved. Using new DNA technology, they were able to track the stalker to a town in Ohio.
They arrested 58-year-old James David Rogers. He pleaded guilty in 2022 and was sentenced to 40 months in a federal prison.
“He gets to go directly back to jail if he corresponds in any way, shape or form,” said LaRue. “So I almost hope for it.”