Murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart

Cassie Jo Stoddart was a 16-year-old junior at Pocatello High School in Pocatello, Idaho. On the evening of September 22, 2006, she was house sitting for her aunt and uncle, Allison and Frank Contreras, on Whispering Cliffs Drive, caring for their pets while they were out of town. Her boyfriend, Matt Beckham, visited that evening, and classmates Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik, both 16, later came over to "hang out." Before leaving, Draper unlocked the basement door so he and Adamcik could re-enter the house undetected.

After Beckham was picked up by his mother around 10:30 p.m., leaving Stoddart alone, Draper and Adamcik re-entered the house through the basement wearing dark clothing, gloves, and painted masks. They attempted to lure Stoddart downstairs by making noise and cutting the power, and when this failed, they went upstairs and attacked her, stabbing her approximately thirty times with two knives — one serrated and one non-serrated — inflicting twelve potentially fatal wounds. Her body was discovered two days later when her relatives returned home.

Investigators initially considered the boyfriend of Stoddart's mother and then Matt Beckham as persons of interest, but both were cleared through corroborating evidence and a polygraph test. Draper and Adamcik were then questioned; their accounts of their whereabouts that night changed under questioning, and Draper eventually confessed, leading police to a burial site at Black Rock Canyon where partially burned clothing, masks, weapons, and a VHS tape documenting the pair's plans were recovered.

Draper and Adamcik were arrested on September 27, 2006, and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. At trial, prosecutors presented evidence, including video recordings and written material, showing the pair's fascination with the Columbine High School massacre perpetrators and the Scream film franchise, and their stated intent to carry out a killing partly modeled on those influences. Draper was convicted on April 17, 2007, and Adamcik on June 8, 2007. On August 31, 2007, each was sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, plus thirty years to life on the conspiracy conviction. Both are held at the Idaho State Correctional Institution near Kuna, Idaho.

Subsequent appeals by both men to the Idaho Supreme Court were denied in a 3–2 decision, though the court vacated Draper's conspiracy conviction due to erroneous jury instructions while affirming his murder conviction and sentence. Adamcik pursued post-conviction relief and a federal writ of habeas corpus, which were denied, with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding his sentence in March 2022. In 2010, the Stoddart family filed a civil suit against the Pocatello School District alleging negligence; the suit was dismissed by both the civil court and the Idaho Supreme Court, which found the killers' actions were not foreseeable.

Stoddart's funeral was held on October 1, 2006, attended by approximately 500 people. Her family established "Pumpkins for Cassie" as a memorial and community fundraising effort benefiting an animal shelter and food bank.