A man who threatened to rape and murder Eva LaRue, a star of CSI Miami, and her daughter for more than 10 years was sentenced to jail last week after the FBI identified him using DNA found on a fast food straw.
According to a statement from the Department of Justice, James David Rogers, 58, of Heath, Ohio, was given a sentence of 40 months in federal prison on Thursday.
It was discovered that between March 2007 and June 2015, Rogers sent roughly 37 typed and handwritten letters to LaRue’s California residence, in which he threatened both LaRue and her daughter.
When the first letter arrived at LaRue’s home in 2007, the 55-year-old actress, who is also well-known for her longstanding appearance on “All My Children,” was in the middle of her second full season on “CSI: Miami.” Over the course of the following 12 years, many more did.
According to a 2019 federal indictment of Rogers, one of them allegedly threatened, “I am going to f**king stalk you till the day you die.”
“I’ll be able to locate you wherever on this planet,” I said. Another letter from the stalker said, “I am going to rape you,” along with threats to rape and impregnate LaRue’s daughter.
The serial murderer from the horror movie franchise “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Freddie Krueger, signed each letter with his name.
Genetic genealogy, the same technique used to apprehend the Golden State Killer the year before, helped the FBI identify the perpetrator after collecting DNA from the envelopes over the years.
For more than 12 years, LaRue and her family received more than 30 letters; it was a horrible nightmare that compelled them to relocate to Italy.
She had been stalked, and the letters started up again when she went back to California and purchased a property under an LLC to hide her name.
Even while some of the letters had made reference to her daughter, who was five years old when it all began, things became worse in 2015 when they were specifically addressed to her and he started contacting her school claiming to be her father. Only 13 years old,
I am the stalker that has been after you for the last seven years. The first one said, “Now I have set my sights on you too,” according to the indictment.
Another said, “You look so gorgeous in your Google photos.” Are you prepared to give birth to my child?
According to the indictment, Rogers contacted the school LaRue’s daughter attended in October and November 2019 and talked with a staff member, posing as her father and asking whether she was there.
He phoned the girl’s school once again in November 2019, leaving a message in which he introduced himself as “Freddie Krueger” and made threats to “rape, molestation, and murder her.”
‘Drove circuitous ways home, slept with weapons nearby, and discussed how to get aid fast if [Rogers] discovered them and attempted to hurt them,’ according to court documents, LaRue and her daughter did.
Prosecutors said that the defendants “tried to anonymize their addresses as much as possible by avoiding receiving mail and parcels at their true address.”
‘To no avail. The messages — and the dread of the victims — always followed them wherever they went.
However, in 2019, the FBI was able to extract DNA from the envelopes and run it through a database, which matched with the suspect’s family and pointed to a tiny hamlet in Ohio. This was made possible via genetic genealogy.
Once there was evidence linking Rogers to the crime, the FBI started monitoring him and even went to Ohio, where he was employed as a nurse’s aide at an assisted care facility.
In the autumn of 2019, they followed him to an Arby’s on his way home from work, observed him finish his lunch, and then watched him throw the bag in a garbage, according to former FBI special agent Stephen Busch and former FBI lawyer Steve Kramer, who spoke to CNN.
The officers discovered Roger’s drink straw in the bag and ran a DNA test on it. They said that it matched the DNA on the envelopes that were mailed to LaRue and her kid.
In California, the Golden State Killer was finally apprehended using science.
In 2020, Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, a former California police officer who also went by the moniker “Golden State Killer,” was found guilty of a spate of murders and rapes that were solved through to the usage of public genealogy websites. He was sentenced to life in prison.
It was the first time that authorities have compared DNA samples recovered from various crime scenes with DNA saved by GEDMatch.
One of DeAngelo’s family members had voluntarily provided a sample in order to learn more about their genealogy.
Numerous crimes have been solved using this method since DeAngelo’s case, such as the one involving LaRue’s stalker Rogers, who was finally apprehended thanks to his DNA found on a Coke straw.
Rogers was given a 40-month federal prison term on Thursday. In April, he entered a guilty plea to two charges of stalking, one count of making threats via interstate communications, and two counts of sending threatening letters.
Rogers explained before the court on Thursday over a video connection from Ohio that he was tormented in school and that he grew up in an abusive environment. He also said that he is seeking mental health therapy.
He told LaRue, “I genuinely apologise for what I did over the previous 12 years, subjecting you and your family to horrible treatment. I accept full responsibility. I really hope you can move on from this and eventually stop thinking about me.
LaRue said to him at the sentence hearing on Thursday in a courthouse in Los Angeles County, “I forgive you, but I cannot forget.” “The terror will always be with me.”
LaRue explained to the jury how the threats affected her and her family.
We have experienced this for years, she continued. This conduct goes beyond deviation.
Kaya Callahan, the 20-year-old daughter of LaRue, said in court how Rogers’ threats terrified her.
She said, “I was terrified for my life.” Callahan said that she is still afraid.
She responded, “I want to feel OK again.” ‘Safe.’
LaRue spent many years as a doctor on the soap opera “All My Children,” but she is arguably best known for her seven seasons as a DNA analyst for the Miami-Dade Police Department on the crime thriller “CSI: Miami.”