Stalking Shadows

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My mom said, Scott shot Penny. And I was like, is she okay? And my mom was just like, no, she's not okay.
Penny was a bright and trusting 15-year-old. She was neat.
She was a neat little girl. But to Scott scott struthers a family friend penny became an obsession he started stalking her there were threats how many oh 100 times a day scott was arrested hospitalized he's in their psychiatric ward writing how cool will you look when i walk up and blow your brains out then the un unthinkable.
Erin Moriarty has some tough questions. Are the doctors who treated him responsible for Penny's death? Are her parents? And they are the familiar faces on your local news.
Are they in danger? Nobody knows right now how many news anchors get stalked. A stalker chased this reporter out of town.
Letters detailing about sexual fantasies ultimately ending with me being drowned in a bathtub.

This reporter never had a chance to run.

911, what's your emergency? Troy Roberts on being watched a little too closely.

What did you want from her? I don't know. 48 Hours Investigates to catch a stalker.
Good evening and welcome to 48 Hours Investigates. I'm Leslie Stahl.
Penny Chang knew and trusted Scott Struthers. So did Penny's parents.
Indeed, Scott Struthers was like a member of the family and just about the last person they would have ever suspected of posing a threat to their daughter. That's what makes this case even harder to understand.
There were warning signs that may have been missed,

and there may have been miscommunication too.

But there is also a question hanging over this case

as to whether the experts, the doctors, are at all to blame.

To Penny's family, the answer is clear.

Erin Moriarty reports on a story of misplaced trust

that led to tragedy. Outside Cleveland, Ohio, mathematician C.L.
Chang found what he couldn't in his native China, academic freedom, and a culturally rich and diverse neighborhood where he and his wife, Yun-Hwa, could raise their four children. He wanted us to have a stable, happy family, you know, just for us to have a better life.
Joanne Chang, the oldest, loved growing up in Shaker Heights. You see children playing outside all the time.
It's a comforting place to live. So you ready? I'm ready if you are.
Joanne is a medical student. Shawn is pursuing a master's degree in computer graphics.
Wanna watch some football? Warren, the youngest, is a high school junior. And then there was Penny.
She's the most beautiful child we have. How did you name Penny? Penny is Pennsylvania.
It's not Pennsylvania. Who was born in Pennsylvania? You must have really liked Pennsylvania.
Yeah. And did she speak Chinese very well? So, so, so, so, so, so, so.
She was so, so Americanized. I'll go with ya.
She's definitely pretty much a typical American girl. I mean, talking on the phone for hours.
She was neat. She was a neat little girl.
A child who thrived in her adopted community, where no one would have predicted what happened. Shaker Heights is an affluent suburb.
It's very diverse. There's a lot of old money.
And I think people don't like to think things like this happen in places like that. You know, we've learned they do.
Mike Tobin, a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, says the problems began for the Chang family in the summer of 1998. Penny had a summer job working alongside Scott Struthers, her brother's best friend since middle school.
How would you describe Scott back then? Very shy, very quiet, really odd, really unorthodox sense of humor. I just found it hilarious.
Scott had almost grown up at the Chang house and went on to become Sean's college roommate. He's just so nice and he's such a close friend of my brother's.
Which is why no one was too concerned when Scott and Penny spent a lot of time together, although Penny was only 15 and Scott was 21. Did your parents think anything of it? No.
That they were spending a lot of time together? No. Why would they think a 21-year-old boy, a friend of my brother, would be a threat to my 15-year-old sister? But the family didn't realize how serious Scott's feelings were.
Penny was pretty important to him. Yeah, and I think you see that in the journals where Penny, at least for that summer, was his life.
Scott Struthers began a journal later that year that described his relationship with Penny. In his journal, you see him talking about this girl as this wonderful thing and the object of his affection.
The times that I had spent with Penny this summer when things were going good and she was nice to me was like a dream come true. The weather was beautiful, so was she, and I was at times happier than I had ever been in my life.
There was only one problem. Penny didn't feel the same way.
It seems like he definitely read too much into it and really thought that, you know,

she liked him and I just don't think that was the case.

When the summer ended and Penny began ignoring Scott, the Chang family phone began ringing

off the hook.

How many phone calls?

Oh, 100 times a day.

100 times?

Midnight.

Midnight.

Midnight.

We disconnect the phone.

Thank you. Oh, 100 times a day.
100 times. Midnight.
Midnight. Midnight.
Midnight. We disconnect the phone.
But things got worse. He tried to burn down the garage.
He put glue in my parents' gas tank. He threw miscellaneous objects through the window, like little rocks.
He used a slim shot. These windows was broken.
The front one, the biggest front one, it was broken. Days later, the police arrested Scott Struthers, Shaker Heights Police Chief Walter Ugrinick.
Would you describe Scott Struthers as a stalker? Yes, yes. He was following her.
He was keeping an eye on her. He seemed like a shy, kind young boy.
Well, I guess not so much. Were you worried that Scott would ever hurt her? I was a little, but it wasn't overwhelming.
Did she seem scared of him at all? She didn't. She didn't.
She was 15. Struthers was charged with telephone harassment and misdemeanor arson,

but right before sentencing, he voluntarily admitted himself to this hospital for observation.

Do you think Scott Struthers went to the Cleveland Clinic because he really wanted help?

No, I think it was a legal tactic to show the court, you know, I'm sorry and I'm taking steps to correct my behavior and I'm sick and I'm getting help. Whatever his motive, Struthers stayed here for five weeks.
He was released on Thanksgiving Day 1998 after doctors determined he was no longer a threat. Even though the journal that Struthers began as part of his therapy here contained some very threatening entries.
It's scary. You know, it's just frightening because he lays out what he's going to do.
And you see this progression, this evolution in his mind of her as this sweet little girl to this evil object that has to be made to pay. The tone of Scott's writing becomes increasingly menacing.
I think that my actions were a way to force myself to be an important part of her life, even though it was in a negative way. I once thought, forget about me, bitch.
I will make you remember me forever and and then the one that just I Still to this day can't get over How cool and superior will you look when I blow your brains out into the ground? He's at the Cleveland Clinic in their psychiatric ward writing How cool will you look when I walk up and blow your brains out? And five months later, in broad daylight, across the street from the police station, it's exactly what he did. Three and a half months after being released from the Cleveland Clinic.
At 7.30 on a cold March morning, Scott Struthers stalked Penny Chang one more time as she walked to school. He approached her from behind and shot her three times in the back of the head.

Penny was rushed to the emergency room And my mom was just like, no, she's not okay. Oh my gosh, those words were, she's not okay.
Well, how bad off is she? She's dead. This had been a best friend.
What was your reaction to that? Oh, shock. Of course.
You know, it's just all of this world shock. It's just unbelievable.
Six months after the shooting, Scott Struthers pled guilty to murder. He's now serving a sentence of 23 years to life.
I mean, I'm glad that he's not going to see, like, the sun come up, really. And I'm going to make sure of that, too.
But for the Chang family, Scott isn't the only guilty party. Do you blame someone for Penny's death? The first of all, of course, is Scott Strother.
The second person is the person who took care of Scott Strother. For the entire five months prior to Penny's death, Scott Struthers was receiving psychiatric care.
First as a patient here at the Cleveland Clinic, and then when he was released from a private therapist. The Changs believe these professionals could and should have stopped Struthers from killing their daughter.
They're suing them for $20 million. I fear they made so much mistake.
The case is pursued as a wrongful death case. Paul Kaufman is the Chang's attorney.
What do you see as the biggest failing on the part of Cleveland Clinic? I think their biggest failing was in discharging him when they did. I mean, it's our position, he still needed to be hospitalized.
Everyone agrees that when Struthers first arrived at the Cleveland Clinic after stalking Penny and facing charges of harassment, he was a severely troubled young man. Do you remember meeting Scott? Yes, I do.
Forensic psychiatrist Kathleen Quinn. So in many ways he looked quite ordinary, although the concerns were extraordinary about him.
What do you mean? Well, that there was an issue of dangerousness. Dr.
Quinn says Struthers exhibited a number of behaviors which made him a significant risk for violence, including severe anger, homicidal thoughts, and a desire to obtain a gun. That resulted in an immediate hospitalization and there being a commitment paper drawn up.
What's more, Struthers made no secret of his desire to kill Penny in his journal. But Struthers appeared to improve, and after just five weeks of treatment, he was discharged, even though hospital records show doctors still had some concerns.
Two days before he was discharged, they didn't believe him and they doubted his credibility. And he was showing no remorse and he was having no emotional reaction.
I don't see how anybody could think that this young man was ready to be discharged. I had some concerns about his veracity.
George Tessar was the attending psychiatrist who authorized Struthers' release. They weren't consistent concerns from day to day and by the end of the evaluation I was quite convinced that he was telling us the truth as he felt it then.
In an exclusive interview with 48 Hours, Dr. Tessar says he released Struthers only after seeing great improvement in his patient.
He no longer made those statements about wanting to kill her or feeling any compulsion to kill her. He was feeling better.
According to Tessar, the homicidal thoughts expressed in Scott's journal were all in the past tense. At one point in his journal he writes, basically I was thinking how cool and superior will you look, bitch, when I blow your brains out into the ground.
You can just get rid of those feelings a week or two later? Well I think yeah that's possible. He was not conveying the same kind of impression at the end of this hospitalization.
This man's assessment at discharge was correct. It was correct because he didn't do anything when he was discharged.
Attorney Jim Malone is defending the Cleveland Clinic. Nothing violent took place for three and a half months.
He says expecting psychiatrists to predict violence that far into the future is expecting too much. The Cleveland Clinic has every medical device to benefit humankind.
The one thing they don't have is a crystal ball that works. Our clinical experience suggests that we're pretty good at it, at predicting violence in the short term, 24, 48, 72 hours after an evaluation.
Beyond that, nobody's very good at predicting violence. If the Cleveland Clinic couldn't predict that Scott Struthers would become a killer, what about the private therapist who picked up his case and saw him regularly, right up until he bought a gun to kill Penny? Scott Struthers met with Raina Crow regularly for three and a half months.
On March 12, 1999, Struthers bought a gun, took it to this shooting range, and practiced firing it. Although he had seen Krell two days earlier, she saw no sign of his escalating anger.
How did Raina Krell not see that? I think you'd have to ask her. Krell refused to talk with 48 Hours, but she told the court.
Did he ever make any threats of any kind? No. Did he ever have any evidence of recent homicidal ideation? No.
Did he ever show any evidence of present dangerousness? No. He had talked about comments of feeling regret, feeling more personally responsible.
He's demonstrated an interest in work. From your perspective, is this positive, negative? I viewed it as positive.
I think she looked at him as sort of the jilted boyfriend, depression type of situation and never really got below the surface. Isn't it possible that he was such a good actor, he really fooled all the doctors? Sure it's possible.
But the problem with that is that these doctors are the experts. With millions of dollars and their reputations at stake, Scott Struthers' doctors are fighting back by pointing the blame at Penny's own family.
He's the most beautiful child we have. That's next.
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Just plain old-fashioned evil. And there is scarcely anything that can be done by mental health or anybody else to prevent evil from having its way.
Penny Chang was gunned down by this former patient, Scott Struthers. Cleveland Clinic attorney Jim Malone says doctors did all they could for both Struthers and the Changs, including taking the extraordinary step of calling the Chang family to tell them of Struthers' release.
But was that phone call sending a mixed message? You're discharging him because you think he's safe. Why then do you feel an obligation to inform the Changs? That sounds like you weren't quite sure whether he was safe.
Cleveland Clinic psychiatrist George Tesar. We thought in view of the comments that he had made and the kind of interaction he'd had with the Changs prior to the hospitalization that it was only courteous, fair to let them know that he was being discharged.
So there was a little concern? There was concern that they should be informed that he was no longer in the hospital. But the Changs say that phone call led them to believe they no longer had to worry about Struthers.
My dad told me they called him and said, Scott is no longer a threat to your family. And with that little comment, I mean, actually my dad was very relieved.
We trust Cleveland Clinic very much. They say, no problem, they have no intention.
We say, okay, he's possible still a good boy, right? But the hospital left out an important fact. Their assessment of Struthers was only meant for the short term.
Did anybody tell the Changs that? Did anybody say, okay, today we think he might not be a risk, but a month down the road, it's anybody's bet and you better be careful. No, we didn't tell the Changs that.
Common sense would tell you that you don't know exactly what's going to happen three months down the line. Do you think, in retrospect, that warning was enough for the Changs? I don't know.
It's certainly an important point to consider. Whether or not the warning was adequate is an issue at trial because of what happened nearly three months later.
The Changs claim that phone call is the reason why they didn't become alarmed when out of the blue Scott Struthers made contact again. Everything that happened to Scott after the summer is all Penny's fault.

She ruined his life for her own petty amusement.

This time, it was in the form of emails.

Everything he did was no plan to last night.

Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Mike Tobin.

The number one rule of stalking is never use your own phone.

He didn't care if he got caught.

And he's talking about himself.

The same angry, rambling emails written in the third person were sent to Penny, her brother

Thank you. if he got caught.
He's talking about himself. The same angry, rambling emails written in the third person were sent to Penny, her brother and her father.
But the Changs didn't find them threatening. I saw nothing dangerous in February email.
Nothing dangerous, just angry. Just complaining.
Complaining. I don't think they believed there was anything to worry about.
But my word, what do you have to hear to be worried? In response to the... In fact, the Changs reached out to Struthers after receiving them.
Oh, basically, I said, look, okay, you've scolded her enough. Just leave her alone and continue her life.
You think about Penny, there's lots of girls. I don't know how to stay on campus.
When you emailed him, what did you say back?

Like a teacher, I say, go back to college immediately.

You are ruining yourself.

Isn't it possible that Changs were still relying on the word of the hospital three months earlier?

He's no longer a threat, and that's why they didn't react to the emails. I suppose it's a conceivable explanation, but a rather naive response to threat.
One month later, just days before the murder, Struthers emailed the Changs again. Next time, it's a March email, about 60 pages.
60 pages? Six zero, 60 pages, like a book. This time, the Changs didn't read them, thinking they were simply more of Scott's harmless complaints.
And I saw nothing dangerous in the first few pages. Had he read further, he would have been horrified.
Buried within the 60 pages, Struthers spells out his plan to kill Penny. I would like to take a hammer and repeatedly smash her face in with it until her face is a soupy, bloody pulp.
Scott's moral duty has been satisfied by just sending these messages. You can never say that you didn't know.
You were given the opportunity. Remember that.
That's really creepy. Yeah.
He was warning them of what he was going to do, and they didn't realize it. I thought he was doing better.
Neither did Raina Krell, the therapist who had been treating Struthers at the same time he was writing out his murderous intentions. Did you, when you were treating Scott Struthers, have any information at all relating to these emails? No, I did not.
Did you ever hear of him? No. When you were treating him? No.
No. Did you do your very best treating Scott Struthers?

I did the best I could with the information I had.

You're a professional person.

You're not expecting her to be a mind reader.

Nobody's a mind reader, but you still should know he has the intention.

But Cleveland Clinic attorney Jim Malone says since only the Changs knew about the emails,

only the Changs could have prevented their daughter's death by notifying the police.

I'm the police. part of your strategy to deflect blame away from the hospital and onto the chest? No, I don't believe they're responsible for the death of their daughter.
But what I say is this, if that phone call had been placed, the Shaker Heights Police Department would have had this man off the streets very rapidly. We could probably take some of the blame, right? But here they're trying to say that it's not their fault at all.
What kind of bull crap is that? All right. Now it's up to the jury to decide.
If the doctor, the psychiatrist, looks at a patient and makes a decision about a treatment plan or a discharge plan, and he does that in so-called good faith, then he's immune, by law, from the consequences of that decision. I will read the verdict in this case.
After just two hours, the jury agrees. As to the defendant Cleveland Clinic, in favor of the defendant Cleveland Clinic.
As to the defendant Raina Crow, in favor of the defendant Rain Krau. The Changs will get nothing from the clinic or the doctors.
Where do you think the weak spot in your case was? I think it's extremely difficult to win a case against doctors and or therapists. We've got a lot of burdens to overcome.
All of the burdens are on us. What should we take from this case? We've learned that there are profound limitations to what psychiatry can do and what its onus of responsibility should be.
We made our decisions based on what we thought were reasonable observations and interpretations of what we were seeing, and it could well be that the Changs were as well. But Dr.
Chang still believes the psychiatrist could have done more, and since we first brought you this story, he's filed an appeal for a new trial. Penny was cured.
Nobody can change the situation. But I like to show as many of psychiatrists, do your professional job carefully.
Don't repeat such things. We don't like this happened again.
What advice would you have for a family that's in your situation?

It's better to be extremely worried than to have this happen. I'm sorry.

So what? Your worry worse. So what? Ooh, big deal.

You have a sister. You have your daughter.
Stalking happens to be an occupational hazard of this business, television reporting, that nobody likes to talk about. But the stalking of on-air personalities is a growing concern.
It's even become a topic of conversation at various professional gatherings among local

television... about.
But the stalking of on-air personalities is a growing concern. It's even become a topic of conversation at various professional gatherings among local television anchors and reporters.
They are especially at risk, since they're often encouraged to connect with the audience on a personal level. The trouble is, it's hard to know who's watching.
Troy Roberts has a story of some local television reporters who made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Energetic meteorologist George Kessler was the top-rated weatherman in Duluth, Minnesota.
Take a look, here's a satellite picture in motion. You say, George, why is it so windy? In all of our audience research, we saw George Kessler as our most popular personality.
KBJR TV News Director David Jetsch. People felt like George Kessler was their friend.
Now the Channel 6 6 o'clock news. Live television you can't beat it for a rush if you're deep down inside secretly an adrenaline junkie it's um it's what you want to do.
I know is that frozen now? Kessler felt right at home in Duluth with his wife Sheila and their small children. This was a perfect fit for you, right? You liked the city.
I love the city. Duluth is a great town.
You could drop a money clip in the middle of the street and somebody would chase after you to give it back. And so you have this wonderful sense of it's almost childlike, the security that you have here.
Snow showers will hold up. You think they're just going to die.
But for George Kessler, the childlike security would turn into agony and fear in the very town he embraced at the same TV station he loved. It all began to unravel one day in March of 2000 when Kessler arrived for

work. It was Monday and I was coming through the newsroom pretty quickly, saw that my message light was on, so you're putting your stuff down, you set your voicemail to play back and all of a sudden it just erupted.
This, you know, stream of vitriol came out of the phone. I'm a man, Mr.
Kessler. I'm not some f***ing f***ed-ass homosexual.
Do you understand me? The caller was a man Kessler had never met. 42-year-old Sean Wayne Thorson, a psychiatric patient with a reputation for violence.
Did Sean Thorson threaten you with bodily harm? Oh, yes, in no uncertain terms. The next time you call me preferably gay, Mr.
Weatherman, I'm gonna beat the f***ing s*** out of you and that's no f***ing joke. He was seeing George's weather and he felt that George was saying things to him, obscene things, threatening things.
He felt George was threatening him through the TV. Yeah, this is Sean again and I'm not gonna accept your apology, you f***.
You happen to be one of those people who can dish it out but can't take it yourself. Well, you're going to find out the hard way, my friend.
I can definitely do something about it, and God bestowed upon myself the power to do so. Thorson ignored warnings from police, even a restraining order, to stop making the phone calls.
For that, he spent four months in a mental institution. But after he was released, Thorson went straight back to the phone.
And your f***ing ass ain't getting away with what the f*** you've done to me, especially for calling your dogs, the police on me. Over the next year, Thorson was committed and released for mental illness two more times.
Incredibly, there was nothing more Kessler or the police could do. The way the laws are, you can't necessarily have security in a situation like this until something really bad happens.
Do you think, given the opportunity, Sean Thorson would have killed you?

If he was in the grips of a delusion, and I happen to be available to him, yes.

Without a doubt.

The question really is, how many stalkers does a celebrity have?

Not if they have any.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz has spent years investigating and testifying against serial killers and stalkers, including Jeffrey Dahmer and John Hinckley.
Dietz says stalking of television news personalities is an occupational hazard that few in the TV industry are willing to discuss. The illusion of intimacy is inherent in the medium.
It's inevitable that some viewers are going to be attracted to this. Take a look, satellite picture in motion.
And while George Kessler's ordeal wasn't unique, stalkers more frequently target women. The ideal victim is a sweet, kind, gentle, pretty, accepting, approachable virgin.
That allows many men in the audience to have the view she's meant for me. Good afternoon and welcome to News 7 at Noon.
I'm Melanie Moon. Anchorwoman Melanie Moon was a rising star at WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, when in 1996 she started getting dark, suggestive letters from not one, but several viewers.

Letters detailing about sexual fantasies and ultimately ending with me being drowned in a bathtub.

What do these letters do to you psychologically, emotionally?

Give you nightmares.

For months I would take a shower with the bathroom door locked.

I would be at the grocery store. If someone looked at me strangely, for a second I would think, maybe that's them.
By the fall of 1997, the FBI was searching for Melanie Moon stalkers. Then she began hearing from 47-year-old David Lee Duff.
The first couple of letters I got, he would call me the goddess of dawn, and you and I are alone together each morning in my room. They got to things like, I like what you're wearing today, I know you're wearing it for me, I saw you smiling at me today, thank you.
And then he sent me an engagement ring. Even after all she'd been through, Melanie Moon didn't think David Lee Duff was out to harm her.
After all, he had only sent what she believed were fairly innocent tokens of his affection. But on November 5, 1997, Duff crossed the line and came to visit Melanie at work.
The confrontation was caught on videotape. Duff was told to leave, and he did so without incident.
Roanoke police then warned him to stop contacting Moon, but the harassment didn't stop. He continued to write letters, saying things like, they can't keep us apart.
I'll wear jailhouse orange if I have to. It almost came to that.
This court is getting access. In March of 1998, Melanie Moon saw her stalker for the first time at the Roanoke City Courthouse.
This takes away even more of your feeling, feeling secure and safe. David Lee Duff was convicted of stalking, but all he got was a six-month suspended sentence.
Melanie Moon got out of Roanoke, taking a new job in another city where she's better prepared for unwelcome attention. Tear gas on my keychain.
Carrying tear gas on her keychain and a stun gun in her purse. Haven't had to use it yet.

Parkdeet says he understands why she has them. Nobody knows right now how many news anchors get stalked.
The likelihood is that for good-looking females on the news nightly, it's 100%. It's a warning, Deet says, that not enough television personalities take seriously.
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At 8.30 a.m., Michael Goodman calls 911 in temple texas okay and uh it's gonna be apartment 246 yeah her name's uh katherine didman okay does she live alone up there um yes she does minutes later police arrive at the wildwood Apartments and make a horrifying discovery.

Popular local TV reporter Catherine Dettman's nude body on the floor of her bedroom.

Details are sketchy at this point, but here's what we know.

The 36-year-old Dettman had been on the verge of an important career move.

She was taking a new job at a much larger TV station in Dallas. This would be her last day of small town life in Temple, Texas.
It was common for her to in the morning get up, let the cat out and leave the door slightly ajar so the cat could come in and out while she went about making coffee, getting ready to go to work. Assistant DA Murph Bledsoe.
The evidence appeared that she had come out of the shower. She may have heard a noise and come out in a robe or a towel, and there was a confrontation.
It was an extremely violent attack. Temple Police Sergeant Keith Reed.
She had 15 to 16 stab wounds. The suspect was 21-year-old neighbor Anthony Gary Silvestri.
Police found him hiding in Catherine Dettman's bedroom. His clothes were covered in blood and he had blood on his fingers and his hands.
Friends of Katherine Dettman say Sylvestri had been stalking her. One co-worker told us Katherine had complained to him that Sylvestri was following her at the apartment complex and showing up at her car when she came and left home.
She told me about this young guy asking her out at her apartment complex when she had gone to check her mail. Yolanda Johnson was a receptionist at the station where Catherine worked and a close friend.
She remembers Catherine mentioning Silvestri by name. He had told her that he had seen her on TV and thought she was a very beautiful lady.
She confided in you? Yes. Paula Brown considered Catherine Dettman her best friend.
She says Dettman was a trusting person and just didn't recognize Silvestri's interests as potentially dangerous. She would have said something.
I mean, she would call when her stomach hurt. If someone were after her, we would have known that.
Dettman's naivete doesn't surprise Park Dietz, who says many on-air personalities aren't

even aware they're being stalked.

Most station managers don't even give the news anchors all their mail or all their email.

Very few stations have adequate screening of who gets on the premises or do the things for their talent that can help protect them. Anthony Gary Silvestri pled guilty to the murder of Catherine Detman and is serving a 40 years to life prison sentence.
I was at the wrong place at the wrong time and I got mad and I lost my temper. Police searched Silvestri's apartment and found this pair of binoculars, which they believe he used to spy on Detman.
And a friend of Sylvestri's told authorities that Sylvestri had been watching her. Sylvestri had taken him to the part of the apartment where he could look out across the courtyard and see a window of Catherine's apartment.
What did he say? As he's looking through the binoculars, she's really fine. She looks like a model.
What did you want from her? I don't know. She really believed that if she was kind and accepting, that people would treat her well.
I think that was her desire, and I think that was her belief. And her mistake.
And her mistake. It's a bad night out there, folks.
There's no way around it. In Duluth, Minnesota, weatherman George Kessler heard about what happened to Catherine Detman.
Yeah, this is Sean again. I'm really not afraid of you people.
And after enduring nearly a year of Sean Thorson's menacing phone calls, he made a drastic decision. Kessler quit his job and no longer works in television.
And I said, you know, this is not something that's going away. In his own twisted way, he wanted you to walk away from

your job. And he accomplished that.
Yes. He won.
We have to understand that he wasn't

doing it out of malice. It doesn't matter.
He won. Yes.
He did. In the last decade or so, all 50 states have passed anti-stalking laws.
At least a dozen states make stalking an automatic felony. And by no means is it mainly celebrities who are victims.
If you feel you're being followed or threatened, report it to the police, tell a friend, and

keep a record of it.

That could all be crucial to staying safe.

No one wants to go through life looking over their shoulder, but experts say a little healthy

suspicion could be the first step to stop a stalker.

That's 48 Hours Investigates. Now streaming.
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