EXCLUSIVE: Eva LaRue, who played DNA analyst Natalia Boa Vista in CSI: Miami and Maria Santos on the soap opera All My Children, is turning her own experiences of being stalked into a pair of TV project.
LaRue and her family, including daughter Kaya Callahan, were stalked by James David Rogers for 12 years and he was sentenced to just over three years in prison as punishment for his crime last year.
She has now teamed with Toronto-based producer Forté Entertainment to develop both scripted and unscripted projects. My Nightmare Stalker will include a scripted series, premium documentary series and a returning factual spin-off program.
In more than three dozen graphic letters and countless voicemail messages, Rogers threatened Eva and Kaya, who was five when the stalking began and is now 21, relentlessly over the years, with letters being sent directly to Kaya, when she turned 13. Prosecutors, in a sentencing memorandum, called his harassment a “campaign of torment” in which he “terrorized a mother and her daughter.” He signed many of the letters with the name Freddy Krueger, from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
He was captured thanks to the use of ground-breaking forensic genetic genealogy, using DNA databases to match people. This technique was pioneered by former FBI agents Steve Busch and Steve Kramer, who first used this DNA technology to solve the legendary Golden State Killer case. LaRue’s case was only the second investigation they conducted using this program.
Forté, which acquired the rights to the story, is now in the process of securing scripted and documentary teams to bring both projects to life. The company has worked on series including Disney+’s The Quest and Super Channel’s How I Got Here.
LaRue said, “I’m excited to be working with the talented team at Forté to bring my story to the screen, while also bringing crucial public awareness around better protection for both women and men from stalking and intimate partner violence.”
“What Eva and her daughter went through is unimaginable, and we are humbled to share their astonishing story with audiences worldwide,” said Forté Entertainment’s Andrea and Mitch Gabourie. “Not only was this ripped-from-the-headlines case recently adjudicated, but stalking continues to impact millions of victims each year, making this story undeniably timely,”
Forté Entertainment is represented in the U.S. by Hayden Meyer at APA.
