A man who stalked CSI Miami actress Eva LaRue for more than a decade and threatened to rape and kill her and her daughter was sentenced to prison last week after the FBI caught him using DNA he left on fast food straw.
James David Rogers, 58, of Heath, Ohio, was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison, according to a Justice Department. press release.
From March 2007 to June 2015, Rogers sent approximately 37 handwritten and typewritten letters to LaRue’s California home threatening both LaRue and her daughter, it was revealed.
LaRue, 55, an actress also known for her longtime role on “All My Children,” was halfway through her second full season on “CSI: Miami” when the first letter surfaced at her home in 2007. 12 years.
‘I’m going to fucking stalk you until the day you die,’ one said, according to a federal 2019 charge from Rogers.
“There won’t be a place on this earth where I… (not) can find you. I’m going to rape you,” another letter read, as the stalker also threatened to rape and impregnate LaRue’s daughter.
Each letter was signed with the name “Freddie Krueger,” the fictional serial killer from the horror film series “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
Over the years, the FBI collected DNA from the envelopes, but wasn’t able to identify the culprit until 2019 using genetic genealogy — the same method used to capture the Golden State Killer the previous year.
Eva LaRue and her daughter, Kaya McKenna Callahan, pictured in June 2022, were stalked for over 12 years by James David Rogers, 58. He was sentenced to prison on Thursday
LaRue and her family received more than three dozen letters over more than 12 years, a terrifying nightmare that forced them to move to Italy. But when she returned to California and bought a house under an LLC to protect her identity, her stalker found her and the letters resumed.
While some letters mentioned her daughter — five when it all started — things escalated in 2015 when the letters were addressed directly to her daughter and he started calling her school pretending to be her father. She was only 13.
“I’m the guy who’s been stalking (the) last 7 years. Now I’ve got my eye on you too,” the indictment said.
Another read: “You look so beautiful in your photos on Google. Are you ready to be the mother of my child.’
In October and November 2019, Rogers called the school LaRue’s daughter attended, spoke to a school employee, claimed to be her father and asked if she attended, according to the indictment.
From March 2007 to June 2015, Rogers sent approximately 37 handwritten and typewritten letters to LaRue’s California home threatening both LaRue and her daughter.
Eva LaRue attended the George Lopez Foundation’s 15th Annual Celebrity Golf Tournament Pre-Party in May 2022, saying the stalker’s threats took a toll on their family
Kaya McKenna Callahan, pictured on the LA Art Show Opening Night in January 2022, was also stalked by the same person as her mother
In November 2019, he called the girl’s school again, leaving a voicemail identifying himself as “Freddie Krueger” and threatening to “rape, abuse and kill her.”
The court records revealed that LaRue and her daughter “driving circuitous routes home, sleeping with guns nearby, and having discussions about how to quickly seek help if [Rogers] found them and tried to harm them.
“They tried to anonymize their addresses as much as possible by not receiving mail and parcels at their actual address,” the prosecutors said. ‘In vain. Every time they moved, [the] letters – and the terror of the victims – would always follow.’
But in 2019, using genetic genealogy, the FBI was able to extract DNA from the envelopes and run it through a database that matched the suspect’s relatives led to a small Ohio town.
The FBI began monitoring Rogers as soon as there was evidence pointing to him, even traveling to Ohio, where he worked as a nursing assistant at a residential care facility.
Former FBI Special Agent Stephen Busch and former FBI Attorney Steve Kramer told CNN they tracked him to an Arby’s on his way home from work in the fall of 2019, saw him eat his meal and dump the bag in a dumpster.
The officers found Roger’s straw in the bag and tested the DNA. It matched the DNA on the envelopes sent to LaRue and her daughter, they said.
It is science first used in California to catch the Golden State Killer.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, a former California police officer who led a double life as the “Golden State Killer,” was sentenced to life in prison in 2020 for a series of murders and rapes in the 1970s and 1980s that were solved through the use of public genealogy websites .
Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, – aka the Golden State Killer – rose from his wheelchair and removed his mask before apologizing to his victims and their families in court in 2020
DeAngelo is pictured in the early 1970s when he was working with the Exeter Police Force. He married Huddle in 1973
It was the first time police had tested DNA samples found at some of the crime scenes for DNA stored by GED Match.
One of DeAngelo’s relatives had willingly submitted their sample to learn more about their ancestors.
Since DeAngelo’s case, it’s been used hundreds of times as a crime-solving technique — as in the case of LaRue’s stalker Rogers, who was eventually caught having his DNA left on a soda straw.
Rogers was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison. He pleaded guilty in April to two counts of threatening messages, one count of interstate communications threats and two counts of stalking.
Rogers told the judge via a video link from Ohio on Thursday that he grew up in a violent home and was bullied at school, adding that he is receiving mental health treatment.
“I sincerely apologize for what I’ve done over the past 12 years, inflicting hellish behavior on you and your family,” he told LaRue. ‘I accept full responsibility. I hope you can put this behind you and at some point never think of me again.’
“I forgive you, but I can’t forget,” LaRue told him Thursday during sentencing in a Los Angeles County courtroom. “The fear is with me forever.”
LaRue told the court how the threats took a toll on her and her family.
“We’ve had this for years,” she said. “This goes beyond deviant behavior.”
LaRue, seen here with daughter Kaya in 2022, told her stalker in court at his sentencing on Thursday, “I forgive you, but I can’t forget. The fear is with me forever’
LaRue’s daughter Kaya Callahan, who is now 20, seen here with her mother, told the court how she was traumatized by Rogers’ threats
LaRue’s daughter Kaya Callahan, who is 20, told the court how she was traumatized by Rogers’ threats.
“I was afraid for my life,” she said. Callahan said her fear still persists.
“I want to feel good again,” she said. ‘Safe.’
LaRue played a doctor on the soap opera “All My Children” for many years and is and is probably best known for her seven seasons on the crime drama “CSI: Miami,” where she played a DNA analyst for the Miami-Dade Police Department.
