Actress Eva LaRue recounts her 12-year ordeal, from 2007 to 2019, at the hands of an anonymous stalker in the documentary "My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story", which aired on 13/11.

The arrest of Eva's tormentor, made possible by advances in DNA matching, starkly contrasts with her fictional television work. "In 'CSI: Miami', we solve cases in 43 minutes, not counting commercials. In real life, we do not have the technology seen in movies", Eva stated.

Eva LaRue played a DNA analyst at a crime lab in CSI: Miami. Photo: Belfast Telegraph

Born in California in 1966, Eva LaRue began her career in commercials before becoming a model and actress. She gained fame in 1993 for her role as Maria Santos Grey in the classic television series "All My Children" throughout the 1990s and 2000s, followed by her portrayal of Natalia Boa Vista in the hit show "CSI: Miami" from season 4 to season 10, starting in 2005. However, Eva's thriving career took a dark turn in 2007 when she began receiving disturbing letters from an anonymous obsessed fan.

The violent letters, delivered to the actress through her manager and publicist, contained threats of rape, torture, and murder. "You will be mine forever. I will kill and possess your body...", the stalker wrote, signing the letters "Freddie Krueger", after the brutal killer from the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" film series.

Initially, Eva, then 40 and a single mother living with her 5-year-old daughter Kaya Callahan in Los Angeles, dismissed the hateful letters as a cruel joke. However, one day she checked her home mailbox and found an envelope with the familiar scrawled handwriting. The letter inside read: "I finally found you". Eva then realized she was being relentlessly pursued.

The actress revealed that the letters, spanning three to seven pages, graphically detailed the stalker's desire to abduct her and her daughter in the most brutal, gruesome, and depraved ways. He warned: "I will sow fear into every aspect of your life". Eva installed security cameras and moved three times. Unfortunately, the stalker consistently found them, sending threatening letters to each new address. Eva kept the letters a secret from her daughter for many years.

Eva LaRue (left) and daughter Kaya Callahan, 11/2025. Photo: Instagram

The level of threat escalated through the letters until the stalker began targeting her daughter, Kaya.

In the fall of 2019, 17-year-old Kaya was informed by the school office that her father had called, saying he would pick her up outside the building. Kaya texted her mother to confirm, and Eva called her ex-husband. When he replied that he was not in Los Angeles, the truth emerged: the stalker had discovered Kaya's school and impersonated her father. Panicked, Eva immediately drove to the school to pick up her daughter.

The stalker called Kaya's school multiple times, inquiring about the student's whereabouts. On other occasions, he left threatening voicemails under the name "Freddie Krueger".

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collected DNA from the envelopes and utilized genetic genealogy databases, such as 23andMe and Ancestry, until a lead directed them to a town in Ohio.

The FBI identified Eva's stalker as James David Rogers, 61, a nursing assistant at an assisted living facility. Rogers was arrested in 11/2019 after authorities compared DNA from the envelopes to DNA from a discarded soda straw found at a fast-food restaurant.

James David Rogers was arrested in 2019. Photo: DOJ

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Rogers sent a total of 37 letters, both handwritten and typed, to the actress and her daughter between 2007 and 2015.

In 9/2022, Rogers pleaded guilty to two counts of mailing threatening communications, two counts of stalking, and one count of threatening by interstate communication.

At his sentencing, Rogers accepted responsibility and apologized to Eva. "I hope you can forget this and at some point never think of me again", Rogers said. In response, Eva stated she offered forgiveness but could not forget, as "the fear will stay with me forever".

Rogers received a sentence of 40 months in prison and was released in 2024.

Eva stated she participated in the documentary "My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story" to assist stalking victims and advocate for stronger protective laws. She warned: "Not just celebrities, all of us can be targeted through social media".

By Tue Anh (based on reports from The New York Times, CBS, People)