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After 12 years of threats and psychological abuse, a stalker was identified and jailed due to a DNA match.  The new techniques of genetic genealogy worked. And TV star Eva LaRue got to face her abusive stalker in a Los Angeles County courtroom.

In a phone interview LaRue said “We feel like, finally, we know where he is. We know that for the next six years we will be able to breathe a massive sigh of relief and feel like we’re not looking over our shoulder constantly.” 

According to the Department of Justice news release James David Rogers, 58, of Heath, Ohio pleaded guilty to two counts of mailing threatening communications, one count of threats by interstate communications, and two counts of stalking.

Eva La Rue is a former beauty queen and an Emmy Award Winning American actress. She appeared for years on the “All My Children” soap opera. She was also featured for 7-years in the crime procedural “CSI: Miami,” which ended in 2012.

In CSI, LaRue’s character was a DNA analyst for the Miami-Dade Police Department. And the irony is that authorities were eventually able to track her abusive stalker through a DNA match from the envelopes he sent with threatening letters.

Living in Fear

The threatening letters began in 2007. LaRue was in her second season on “CSI: Miami” when the first letter appeared.  And they kept coming mailed by someone calling himself “Freddie Krueger.” 

Krueger was the fictional killer from the series of horror films “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Some of the letters were postmarked from Youngstown, Ohio which was where Elm Street was in the films.

“I am the man who has been stalking for (the) last 7 years. Now I have set my eye on you too,” according to the indictment one letter claimed. And another said, “You look so beautiful in your pictures on google. Are you ready to be the mother of my child.”

Thirty-six letters were sent. They were filled with threats to LaRue with promises to rape and kill her. And by 2015, the threats were also directed to her then 13-year-old daughter. 

At some point, the deranged stalker also began calling LaRue’s daughter’s school. And he told the school he was the child’s father and was waiting outside to pick her up.

LaRue’s daughter Kaya Callahan, now 20, also became emotional when she was describing to the court how Roger’s threats traumatized her.

After the contact with her school everyone was trying to keep her safe and she was escorted every day from the school to the parking lot.

Moving to Italy

Terrified, the TV star sold her house and took her family out of the country. They lived in Italy with a friend for months.