It should have been a dream come true for Eva LaRue when she landed the role of MDPD Detective Natalia Boa Vista on CSI: Miami in 2006; instead, her newfound fame became a nightmare.
Speaking to People ahead of the upcoming Paramount+ docuseries My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story, premiering on Thursday (November 13), the 58-year-old actress recalled how shortly after joining the hit CBS drama, she started receiving disturbing letters from an anonymous fan.
The letters, which were signed “Freddie Krueger” after the Nightmare on Elm Street villain, included graphic threats of rape, torture, and murder, at first aimed at LaRue and then her daughter, Kaya Callahan, who was only five years old at the time the letters began.
“I am going to instill fear into every part of your life,” the fan wrote in one of the letters, per People.
“It was the most heinous, most deplorable, most sickening, most terrifying threats,” LaRue recalled. “And then he began leveling them against my little girl.”
LaRue did what she could to protect herself and her daughter, including contacting the police, installing security cameras, and even moving house three times. However, their stalker continued to find them.
In the new docuseries, LaRue said she only read a handful of the dozens of letters, and she also kept the ordeal secret from her daughter for several years. Now reflecting on the nightmare for the doc, Callahan said it was like “reliving it and yet experiencing it for the very first time.”
LaRue, who got her break playing Dr. Maria Santos on All My Children in 1993, was married to her second husband, fellow All My Children star John Callahan, from 1996 to 2005. The former couple welcomed Kaya in December 2001.
The situation grew even more frightening when Callahan was 17 and aware of the letters. While at school, she was called from the classroom to the office, and the receptionist explained her dad had phoned and said he would pick her up. Callahan texted her mom to check if this was true.
LaRue called her ex-husband, who revealed he wasn’t even in Los Angeles. This confirmed to LaRue that the stalker had found out which school her daughter attended, and she immediately drove to the school to pick Callahan up.
“It still feels like a jump scare,” LaRue said.
After years of torment, in 2019, police made a breakthrough after DNA found on one of the letters led to an Ohio resident, 61-year-old James David Rogers. He was subsequently arrested and, in 2022, he pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges. Rogers was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
“It was very freeing,” Callan said of the stalker’s arrest. “I just felt like I could live a normal life again.”
As for LaRue, she said she hopes the docuseries will help create stronger laws to protect stalking victims. “It’s not just celebrities — all of us can be targeted through social media,” she stated. “We want to help everybody who’s being stalked and instill some hope.”
My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story, Premieres, Thursday, November 13, Paramount+
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