CSI: Miami star Eva LaRue and her daughter Kaya Callahan were stalked for 12 years by an unhinged fan who sent notes threatening torture, rape and murder.
Signing his letters ‘Freddie Kruger,’ the culprit would write such declarations as: ‘My master Satan and I will use your body for our evil ways.’
Eva was 40 and her daughter only five years old when the stalker began his pursuit, forcing them to move house three times to try to elude him.
Nevertheless he always found them, and at one point when Kaya was 17 years old he even impersonated her father in an attempt to collect her from her school.
Ultimately Ohio man James David Rogers, 61, was apprehended in 2019 with the help of DNA taken from the letters he sent to Eva.
Now the mother and daughter have bared their souls about the blood-curdling experience, and the moment that Eva said ‘still feels like a jump scare,’ via People.
LaRue, seen here with daughter Kaya in 2022, told her stalker in court at his sentencing on Thursday: ‘I forgive you, but I cannot forget. The fear is with me forever’
Eva shot to fame as Dr. Maria Santos on the 1990s soap opera All My Children, marrying her TV husband John Callahan in 1996.
She gave birth to their daughter Kaya Callahan in December 2001, but by 2005 their marriage had collapsed and Eva was a single mother.
Her professional life, meanwhile, was a galloping success, with her starring as Detective Natalia Boa Vista on CSI: Miami, one of the biggest shows on television.
However Eva’s fame turned sour in 2007 when her stalker started sending her threatening letters signed ‘Freddie Krueger’ through her publicist and her manager.
‘I will kill you and take possession of your body,’ read one. ‘My mind will inhabit your body. My master Satan and I will use our beautiful body for our evil ways. No one can stop us. I’ll be looking forward to meeting you. Maybe you can come to OHIO.’
The menacing nature of his notes intensified into ‘the most heinous, most deplorable, most sickening, most terrifying threats,’ Eva recalled. ‘And then he began leveling them against my little girl.’
After initially contacting Eva through her representatives, the stalker managed to uncover her personal address and sent a triumphant letter to her house containing a chilling message: ‘I have finally found you.’Â
Despite the precautions Eva took, such as acquiring home security cameras and moving house three times, the stalker kept finding her and Kaya again.
Ultimately Ohio man James David Rogers, 61, was apprehended in 2019 with the help of DNA taken from the letters he sent to Eva
Eva is pictured in a 2011 episode of her most famous show CSI: Miami, which she starred on as Detective Natalia Boa Vista from 2005 until 2012
At one point they even decamped to Italy, and when they eventually returned to California, Eva tried to keep her identity private by purchasing a home under an LLC – only for the stalker to locate her anyway.
For the first few years of harassment, Eva avoided telling Kaya about the dozens of letters she was getting, and she herself only read a few of them.
By 2019 however the stalking campaign reached a new level when then 17-year-old Kaya was sitting in class and was summoned to the school office, where she was told her father had called asking to pick her up outside.
Kaya at that point knew about the stalker and called Eva to discern to the truth, whereupon Eva phoned John to see if he had in fact rung the school.
After the co-parents talked, the truth became clear, in a moment Eva said ‘still feels like a jump scare’ – the stalker had been the man who called.
Ohio man James David Rogers was finally caught and later that year, after the FBI used genetic genealogy, a technique first used to apprehend the Golden State Killer.Â
The authorities were able to retrieve the stalker’s DNA from the envelopes of the letters he sent Eva and run them through a database, which helped them track him to a small town in Ohio, where he was identified by DNA he left on an Arby’s straw.
In 2022 he pled guilty to two counts of mailing threatening communications, one count of threats by interstate communications and two counts of stalking, and the judge handed down a sentence of 40 months in prison.
Eva is pictured in 1994 on her star-making soap opera All My Children with her co-star John Callahan, whom she married in 1996 and welcomed Kaya with in 2001
Eva was 40 and her daughter only five years old when the stalker began his pursuit, forcing them to move house three times to try to elude himÂ
On the stand, he said he was being treated for his mental health, saying he was bullied at school and suffered an abusive upbringing.
He apologized to Eva for his ‘hellish behavior,’ saying: ‘I accept full responsibility. I hope you can put this behind you and at some point never think about me again.’
‘I forgive you, but I cannot forget,’ Eva said, saying that the ‘fear is with me forever,’ while Kaya expressed her hope of one day feeling ‘okay again’ and ‘safe.’
Kaya, who is currently 23, has now shared that her stalker’s imprisonment ‘was very freeing,’ inasmuch as ‘I just felt like I could live a normal life again.’
She and her mother are starring in a Paramount+ docuseries called My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story, which has been an eye-opening project for Kaya.
‘Because my mom kept so much hidden, I didn’t know much about it,’ she explained. ‘It was like reliving it and yet experiencing it for the very first time.’Â
