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[Music] This is one of those cases where once you hear it, you will never forget it.
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Deceit, betrayal, and murder with gutting twists I certainly would have never predicted.
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I'm Olivia Lavoy, crime reporter and creator of the Case File Presents podcast, The Bakersfield 3. I've teamed
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up with Case File to bring you some of their most memorable cases in a visual format. Today's case is based on Case
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File episode number 267, Brian Barrett. In 2005, there was a popular gaming site called pogo.com that
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was a platform for strangers and friends to play a variety of online games together. And there was a chat option so
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players could interact and whatnot. One day, a user named Marine Sniper was playing Blackjack when they got a
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message from another player named Tallh Hot Blonde. Tall Hot Blonde introduced herself as 18-year-old Jesse. She
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messaged Marine Sniper and told him that he was in the wrong place. The poker room they were in was for teens and
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Tallh Hot Blonde pointed out that Marine Sniper's profile listed him as 46 years
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old. Marine Sniper responded that he wasn't in the wrong room. He said he was 18 and was using his dad's account to
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play. And so the two continued to chat. Marine Sniper revealed his name was Tommy. He lived in upstate New York and
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had dreams of joining the Marines like his father had. But Tommy soon explained he didn't always want to be like his
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dad. He told Jesse his mom died when he was 12 and after that he never felt loved. He told her that eventually he
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became closed off from the world and was a loner. He also told Jesse he was occasionally suicidal and struggled with
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self-hatred. When he was 17, keep in mind he said he was 18 now. He told Jesse he raped a cheerleader from his
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high school. He said he felt he had hit rock bottom. It's one way to put it. Anyways, we can assume there was no
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criminal case unfortunately for the victim because Tommy said his way of dealing with it was to enlist in the
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Marines. He told Jesse in 2 months he would be heading to boot camp in South Carolina. Despite this horrifying
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confession of being a rapist, Jesse apparently felt compassion towards Tommy and was proud of him for working to find
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himself. She knew that terrible feeling of lacking direction and the stress it can cause. Jesse lived in West Virginia
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in a small town called Oak Hill. She had a fairly typical life. She lived with her parents and her younger brother. She
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told Tommy her family drama consisted of her often fighting with her mother. Jesse said she loved sports and was
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excellent at both basketball and softball. She worked part-time as a lifeguard and was a senior in high
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school preparing to graduate soon and then was heading off to college, but she was struggling to figure out what she
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wanted to do with her life. But the idea of Tommy being in the picture suddenly made her future seem brighter. During
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their very first conversation, Jesse sent Tommy some photos of her in a bikini. Just as her username suggested,
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she was tall and athletic with long blonde hair and tan skin. Jesse continued to send more photos varying
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from glamour shots taken at the mall by a professional to candid photos of her playing sports. Jesse even began making
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photo slideshows for Tommy. One of them to the Aerosmith song, I don't want to miss a thing. When Tommy described his
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physical appearance to Jesse, he told her he was 6 feet tall with a muscular build. Eventually, he sent Jesse a photo
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of himself in his uniform, and Jesse liked what she saw. The two began to talk more and eventually started having
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lengthy phone calls. When Tommy was headed to boot camp in South Carolina, his schedule got tight, but he still
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always managed to find time to speak with Jesse. And it wasn't long before the two declared their love for each
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other. Their conversations became racier and more intense. Tommy even told Jesse
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he got a tattoo on his arm of a heart with her name in it and the words always and forever. The two longed for a future
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together, but then Tommy got word that after boot camp he'd be shipped out to the Middle East to fight in the Iraqi
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war. He told Jesse that internet access would be fairly restricted during this time. And so if she wanted to send him a
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care package or get an urgent message to him, she could do so through his father,
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Tom Senior. Tommy explained that Tom Senior's Marine contacts could get the package to Tommy faster than the US
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Postal Service. Jesse sent Tom Senior letters and photos, which he then forwarded to Tommy. But being far away
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from Jesse ignited Tommy's jealous streak. He accused her of flirting with other men from their gaming community,
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which led to the couple's first argument. Eager to make up, Jesse sent Tommy a care package that included a
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pair of her underwear and a necklace in the shape of half a heart. Jesse had the
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other half, of course. So, all seemed to be well between them. But Tom Senior, Tommy's dad, did not agree with the
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relationship. He tried to discourage Jesse from continuing to pursue Tommy and eventually told her he would no
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longer help her send messages to his son. He told Jesse, quote, "You will hurt him and he's an idiot and will
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believe your lying ass." But Jesse didn't care. She continued contacting Tommy, talking about their future, and
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telling him she was worried about his safety while he was fighting in Iraq. In one message, she wrote, "I know you're
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being careful, honey, and you have the best with you, but I also know anything can happen." Tommy kept replying to
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Jesse, reassuring her and saying she was the best thing that had ever happened to
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him. As December rolled around, the couple had been in contact for roughly 8 months. At Christmas, Tommy surprised
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Jesse by proposing to her. She accepted and then sent Tommy another pair of her panties. as well as dog tags engraved
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with the words Tom and Jesse always and forever. The couple planned to get married when Tommy returned home from
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Iraq. The two talked about their wedding and how bright their future was. And then two months later, Jesse received a
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letter in the mail. Inside the envelope was a family photo. Pictured was a middle-aged woman with shoulderlength
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dirty blonde hair sitting in the center. Beside her was a middle-aged man who was
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balding and wearing glasses. On either side of the couple were two teenage girls. With the photo was a handwritten
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note that read, quote, "Jesse, enclosed you will find a picture of my family. Let me introduce you to these people.
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The man in the center is Tom, my husband." And there it was, a bombshell. There was no Tommy, only Tom. He did not
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have a son. He and his wife Sydney had two daughters. The man that Jesse was engaged to and had carried on a
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relationship for almost a year did not exist. And now Tom's wife, Sydney, had uncovered their relationship and seemed
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to be genuinely concerned for Jesse. She wrote, quote, "From what I am pulling from your letters, you are much closer
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to my daughter's ages than mine, let alone Tom's. Are you over the age of 18? In this alone, he can be prosecuted as a
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child predator. He is taking advantage of you. You need to be more cautious with your safety. You will only be hurt
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by a man who has mastered the art of manipulation and lies. Do not trust words on a computer."
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Now, let's dig into the real Tom. Tom had, in fact, been a Marine, but he had never been in active combat. Tom
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Montgomery became a dedicated father who volunteered with his daughter's swimming
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club and taught Sunday school at their family church. But in recent years, Tom was struggling. He began having issues
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with erectile dysfunction, and his marriage began to suffer physically and emotionally. He found himself wanting to
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get lost in another world online. Soon he found himself spending most of his free time in online gaming rooms
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chatting with strangers. The first time Jesse reached out to him in Pogo's blackjack room. Tom was excited by the
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thought of an attractive young woman. When Jesse asked why he was in a room for teens when his profile listed him as
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46, Tom supposedly panicked. He had heard about sting operations where undercover agents went looking for
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sexual predators online. Acting on impulse, Tom lied to Jesse, telling her he was 18 and using his dad's account.
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What I'd like to know is did Tom intentionally go into the teen's only chat room to try to talk to younger
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women? Like why was he in the teens blackjack room in the first place? Unfortunately, we don't know. Maybe it
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was totally innocent and he thought the younger players were more at his skill level. I don't know. What we do know is
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once Jesse sent a photo of herself in a bikini, Tom was into it. And thus he began concocting the character of Tommy
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and made up stories about Tommy having a troubled past in an attempt to gain Jesse's sympathy, which is insane that
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he chose to include the raping a cheerleader story. Like seriously, think about that. Anyways, the photo that he
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sent to Jesse was actually a picture of him. It was just taken 30 years earlier.
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Supposedly, Tom contemplated if he needed to break things off with the teenage Jesse, which is why he created
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the personality of Tommy's father, where, if you remember, Tommy's father, Tom Senior, told Jesse that the pair
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should end things. But ultimately, Jesse didn't, and Tommy couldn't bear to part
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with his internet fantasy life. Now, let's talk about Tom's demise, his wife Cindy finding out about Jesse and that
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whole debacle. Well, it started with Cindy noticing that her husband was absolutely obsessed with using the
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internet. Keep in mind, this was 2005. So, in the Montgomery household, there was just one family computer. And Tom
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would apparently kick off his teenage daughters so he could use the computer and would be up all hours of the night
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typing away. But what blew the affair wide open was a package that Cindy found that Jesse sent to her husband. Inside
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was a letter and a pair of red underwear. When Cindy realized the sender was a teenage girl, she was not
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only horrified that her husband had been carrying on this virtual affair, but that it was with a child and that he had
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manipulated this child who, yes, was 18, but we all know in this scenario that's
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basically a child. When Cindy confronted her husband about this, apparently the two mutually decided they should get
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divorced. But Cindy was still disturbed that this 18-year-old girl, Jesse, thought she was engaged to an
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18-year-old man who did not exist and was in fact a middle-aged man. So, she took it upon herself to break the news
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to Jesse and expose her husband's lies. After Jesse got this letter, she was not
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happy. She texted Tom and told him he should be in jail and she wanted an explanation. Tom could not give her one.
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He just said his plan was to eventually have Tommy's dad tell her that Tommy died in combat. But his wife Cindy outed
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him before he had the chance. Jesse was furious and heartbroken. So, she did something that while may seem somewhat
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odd, I also feel like it's something a hurt teenage girl would totally do. She wanted to get more clarity and more
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closure, so to speak. So, she reached out to a friend of Tom's that he had mentioned also used the gaming website.
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His name was Brian Barrett and his username was beefcake 1572. Brian, however, was much younger than his
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co-worker and friend Tom. Brian was a college student who lived at home with his parents and worked part-time at the
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same tool plant as Tom Montgomery. Brian was a hard worker. He'd wake up at dawn
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and spend the day at school before heading to work where his shift lasted well into the night. So, going back to
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something that may seem kind of strange, but again, seems like something a teenage girl might do. Jesse messaged
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Brian and told him all about what his friend Tom did to her. And apparently, Brian was happy to lend a sympathetic
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ear. And from there, the two of them started messaging more and more. And soon, Brian found himself thinking Jesse
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was pretty much his dream girl. He loved that she wasn't just beautiful, she was
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also an athlete, like Brian had been all throughout high school. Just as Jesse had done with Tommy, she began sending
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Brian sexy photos and handwritten letters. And before long, the two were declaring their love for each other. And
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with Brian swooning over Jesse, he soon joined her in her disgust for Tom Montgomery and what he did to Jesse. And
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then things started to get a little nasty. Ryan and Jesse started going into the chat rooms on their gaming site that
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Tom frequented and would tell other players what Tom did and call him a loser and a predator. And apparently
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they actually got him suspended from that gaming website. And then Jesse and Brian decided that Tom's colleagues
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needed to know about the incident as well. They debated how Brian should tell them with Brian asking Jesse, "What
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should I say?" "Up to you, baby," she replied. "I have to [ __ ] with him," Brian typed back. "You are so bad,"
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Jesse answered. And so Brian did tell people at the factory where he and Tom worked what Tom had done and even left
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printouts of the conversations he and Jesse had just lying around the factory. And so, as you can imagine, Tom was
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mortified and furious. And he messaged Jesse saying thanks to her and Brian, his co-workers now think of him as a
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sexual predator and didn't want to be around him. As far as Tom Montgomery was concerned, his life as he knew it had
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been destroyed. Montgomery told both Brian and Jesse to leave him alone. He would no longer talk to Brian online or
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when they crossed paths at work. When Brian told other colleagues that he hoped to drive down to West Virginia to
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meet with Jesse, the news made its way back to Montgomery. And this upset him even more. He knew that Jesse was a
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virgin, and he had become fixated with the idea of him being her first. Now he was imagining a scenario in which Brian
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would be taking her virginity. But buckle up because Jesse was not done with Tom Montgomery. After two weeks of
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silence, she began messaging him again, saying that she missed Tommy, who she now knew was made up. Jesse explained
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that she had truly fallen in love with the idea of the madeup 18-year-old Marine Sniper. She said she had never
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felt the same way about Brian and had really only flirted with him to get revenge against Tom Montgomery.
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The revelation that Tommy never existed had left her in despair and unable to believe in true love. She believed,
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quote, "If he existed, I would still be holding on to him every night and sharing dreams with him every night."
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Tom found himself drawn back in. He alternated between making hostile digs about Jesse's relationship with Brian
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and then apologizing for having lied to her. Jesse asked if they could be friends and said the way she viewed it,
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Tom was her only connection to Tommy, whom she still loved. Tom admitted that he missed Tommy, too, typing, "I still
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feel Tommy in my heart." He added that he never stopped caring for Jesse, and the two agreed to start over as friends.
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But things weren't peaceful for long. The new friendship had serious issues from the get-go. For starters, it was
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clear that Tom still wanted a romantic relationship with Jesse. During their long late night chat sessions, he sent
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her a message about how he wanted more than she could give. Whenever he caught wind of Jesse's online friendships with
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other men, Montgomery's sweet tone switched in an instant. He would send Jesse a cluster of angry messages,
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calling her a [ __ ] and saying he hoped she would be raped. Tom stalked Jesse's MySpace account and
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grilled her about who she'd been talking to, but he reserved a large portion of his rage for his colleague Brian. Tom
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Montgomery told Jesse, quote, "I hate him with a passion, and for 10 cents, I would eliminate him." Jesse replied,
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"That's a little drastic, isn't it?" Montgomery responded, "Payback is a [ __ ] Jesse. I am the ultimate
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weapon. I am a Marine. Brian will pay in blood. Tom also had a confession for Jesse after Brian outed his catfishing
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of Jesse to their colleagues. Montgomery had seriously considered shooting him. Despite the threats and now this
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admission, Jesse said nothing to Brian or the police. Instead, she merely promised Montgomery that she would not
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talk to Brian again. Over the following few months, Jesse and Montgomery's relationship fell into a toxic pattern.
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Sometimes they would get along and even engage in roleplay where Montgomery pretended to be Tommy again and have
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cyber sex. At the same time, Jesse was still messaging other men and Tom could not handle that. He sent Jesse abusive
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messages, even threatening to publish her address online. And soon, Tom was seemingly at the end of his rope. He
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told Jesse that if she didn't leave him alone, he'd travel to her home in West Virginia and hurt her. Jesse backed off
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and Tom got a message from Jesse's mother, Mary, demanding that he stay away from her daughter. Tom said he
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would, but said he wanted Jesse to also stay away from him. A couple of weeks went by and Jesse couldn't stay away,
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apparently. She messaged Tom, who responded by reminding her that her mother had forbidden the two from
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talking. But Jesse shrugged it off, writing, "She'll never know." Jesse had promised Montgomery she was no longer
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speaking to Brian. But in September 2006, Montgomery was looking at Jesse's MySpace page when he noticed something
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that enraged him. Brian was listed as one of her friends, and the two had been messaging each other there.
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Montgomery confronted Jesse asking if she and Brian were back together. Quote, "I can handle you with anyone but him."
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He messaged Jesse. Jesse insisted that the two weren't together, but had just talked occasionally as friends. But
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there was someone else Jesse had met, a new guy who went by the nickname Shake. And she thought the two of them had
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something special. Tom didn't believe her. He was convinced that Shake was actually Brian and that the two were in
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a romantic relationship. Tom also believed that Brian had plans to drive down to West Virginia to spend
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Thanksgiving with Jesse. Quote, "You better be very afraid now." He warned, "I told you what would happen if you and
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Brian got together." At around midnight on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006, Jesse and Montgomery began chatting
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online. Jesse repeatedly insisted that Shake and Brian were not the same person and asked Montgomery to leave her alone.
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She told him, quote, "I'm asking you to love me enough to let go." Jesse announced that she was going to delete
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her accounts on Pogo and Yahoo. Before signing off with one final message that said, quote, "I love you and will miss
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you, Tom. Goodbye, baby. I'm leaving now." At 1:36 a.m., Montgomery replied, quote, "Run to Brian, you [ __ ] He is
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waiting for you." Four hours later, Montgomery checked back online to see if Jesse had indeed deleted her profiles,
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and she had not. So, he sent her several abusive messages calling her a liar, and
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then messaged Brian stating, "Your girlfriend is just like you. Nothing but lies. Keep her the [ __ ] away from me.
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You wanted her. You got her. The next morning, September 17th, 2006, Brian Barrett's parents and younger brother
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walked through the door of their home in Lockport, New York, and immediately knew
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something was wrong. The trio had spent the weekend camping with family friends while 22-year-old Brian stayed at home.
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But there was no sign of Brian anywhere, and it was clear that the family's cat hadn't been fed in a couple days. This
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was completely unlike Brian, who was typically very reliable and responsible. Even if he had planned to go out, he
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would have made sure to feed the pets. Soon after, there was a knock at the door. It was the police. Flashing back
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to 2 days earlier, Brian Barrett finished his shift around 1000 p.m. And as he got into his truck to head out,
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suddenly, gunshots pierced the air. Brian died instantly. Witnesses who heard the shots told detectives they saw
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someone dressed in camo and a ski mask lurking in the area. The only clues left at the scene was a gun clip with what
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looked like some dog hair on it and a peach pit that was discarded nearby. To the cops, the crime looked like a sniper
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style shooting. Now, while Brian's family was dumbfounded at who would want to hurt their son, Brian's co-workers
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had an idea and told police about the bizarre online love triangle involving Brian, Tom, and an 18-year-old girl. And
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according to one colleague, Tom said that if he ever killed someone, he would use a militarystyle rifle and would not
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be stupid enough to leave any shell casings lying around. This was significant given that the bullets found
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on Brian's body matched this type of rifle. Investigators were eager to speak to Tom Montgomery for themselves, but
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they couldn't track him down. They began to worry that perhaps Montgomery had left the state to take revenge against
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Jesse as well. Using a number saved in Brian's cell phone, officers were able to reach Jesse. Jesse confirmed that she
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had been involved with both Brian and Tom and that she had become increasingly concerned about Tom's erratic behavior.
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And so Jesse apparently did warn Brian that Tom was making violent threats against him. And Brian asked her if he
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should report this to his boss or another coworker. Jesse apparently didn't directly reply and instead told
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him she was very scared of Tom. Brian responded, "Yeah, me too. He's crazy." The last Jesse had heard from Ton
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Montgomery was on the day that Brian was killed. Having finally cut ties with him
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2 days prior, Tom continued to message Jesse, asking her really shocking, vulgar questions that I won't say here.
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Basically just calling her a [ __ ] and asking her if she's doing sexual things to her boyfriend, Brian. On this day, he
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also called Jesse and apparently was screaming obscenities in a wild rage. Jesse hung up on him and he reached out
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to her later that night, about an hour and a half after Brian was killed. Jesse received a message from Montgomery
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asking, quote, "You waiting for your boyfriend?" Just over 2 hours later, he tried again, typing, "Come on, Brian
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won't mind you talking to me." Officers in New York were worried that Jesse might be in danger. So, they contacted
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police in West Virginia and asked them to visit Jesse at home. Around 6:00 a.m., Officer Lee Kirk and his partner
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arrived at the address that Jesse provided. It was a quaint white house with peeling paint in the small town of
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Oak Hill. A short, middle-aged woman with a bob haircut answered the door. She identified herself as 45-year-old
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Mary Sheila. The officers asked if anyone named Jesse lived at the home. Mary replied that her daughter Jesse no
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longer lived there as she was away at college. Officer Kirk reported this back to a police officer in New York who then
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told Kirk that they had just spoken with Jesse hours earlier and she told them that she was at home. So, Officer Kirk
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returned to the house and asked Mary if Jesse had been home recently. Mary said no, and she didn't have a phone number
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for Jesse either. Officer Kirk found this hard to believe. He told Mary they were concerned that her daughter could
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be in serious danger and they needed to talk to her right away. Mary looked nervous. Officer Kirk could tell
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something was bothering her. As he continued to press her for information, Mary began to cry. "I'm Jesse," she
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said. I have been using my daughter's name on the internet. As Mary would later explain in an
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interview with Wired magazine, she claimed to have signed up for an account on Pogo to play games as a way of
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relaxing. It was apparently only after paying a fee for a premium service that she realized that she had accidentally
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used Jesse's name and details and was therefore directed to the site's room for teenagers.
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Mary said she was happily married to her husband and had no intentions or desire
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to be involved with anyone else. She said she only ever started to talk to Tom Montgomery's alter ego, Tommy,
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because Tommy seemed like a troubled young man in need of care. Mary offered no explanation why she sent him photos
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of her daughter wearing a bikini, engaged in cyber sex with him, or agreed to marry him. After learning from Cindy
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Montgomery that Tommy wasn't real, Mary said that she became concerned that Tom might be talking to other young women
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online. So, she therefore decided to keep communicating with him as a way to distract him from talking to other
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teenage girls. Mary said as Tom's temper flared and he became increasingly jealous, she continued speaking to him
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out of fear that he might harm himself or others if she cut him off. Mary said she never had feelings for Brian either.
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He was simply a sweet kid who started flirting with her. And she said she didn't know what to do without exposing
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her true identity. The investigators in New York who had been communicating with Jesse were
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beyond stunned to learn about this revelation. Mary had sounded just like a teenage girl during their phone
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conversations. One detective was apparently in such disbelief that he actually drove down from New York to
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West Virginia to meet Mary for himself. There, Mary's computer was confiscated. By this point, she had been
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communicating with Tom Montgomery for roughly a year and a half. On the computer, investigators found hundreds
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of photos of Mary's daughter, Jesse. Many of which were clearly taken without Jesse's knowledge. Some photos focused
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on particular body parts and were taken from behind. And there was a video Mary had clearly filmed without her
00:29:12
daughter's knowledge or consent where she aimed the camera up Jesse's skirt. She then sent the footage to several
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individuals asking quote, "Do you like it?" It turned out that Mary had been talking to more men than just Tom
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Montgomery and Brian Barrett. She had sent photos of her daughter and pairs of Jesse's underwear to numerous men
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online. Investigators soon found out that Jesse's MySpace page was just another tool Mary had used to talk to men. As
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detectives started going through the chat logs between Mary, Tom, and Brian, hundreds and hundreds of pages
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documented the countless hours Mary had spent talking to both men. And Tom's messages had made it well known how much
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he hated Brian and fantasized about committing violent acts. And there were all the mentions about his time as a
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marine and how he knew to assassinate people. Investigators finally managed to track Tom Montgomery down. He hadn't
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gone to seek revenge against Jesse after all and was still in the Buffalo area and showed up for his shift at work as
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normal. Detectives visited him at the factory and asked him if he would accompany them for questioning.
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Montgomery agreed, but asked if he could go to his car to retrieve his lunch first. He explained that he had
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broughten peaches and didn't want them to spoil. Detectives took note of this, fully aware that a peach pit had been
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found at the scene of Brian's murder. Tom Montgomery denied any involvement in the crime, but it wasn't looking good
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for him. In addition to being the obvious prime suspect, cell phone records placed him near the scene of the
00:31:03
crime. Oh, and there was DNA on the Peach Pit found near Brian's truck that was a match to him. Tom also had a dog
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with the same fur found on the gun clip at the crime scene. So, oh, and here's the real kicker. Tucked away in a
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toolbox that Tom had for work, investigators found a note that had been written many months earlier that said,
00:31:28
quote, "On January 2nd, 2006, Tom Montgomery, 46 years old, ceases to exist and is replaced by an 18-year-old
00:31:39
battlecard Marine. He is moving to West Virginia to be with the love of his life." The note went on to describe how
00:31:47
18-year-old Tommy had a black belt in karate, $2.5 million in the bank, and looked like a redheaded Harrison Ford.
00:31:57
It sort of appeared to be an attempt for Tom to, I don't know, manifest himself into an entirely different person. Now,
00:32:06
for the part you have probably been waiting for, the bombshell. As detectives sat Tom Montgomery down for
00:32:14
an interview, they revealed that the woman he had killed Brian Barrett over wasn't who he thought she was. She was a
00:32:24
woman around his age who had been posing as her 18-year-old daughter. In terms of
00:32:30
his reaction, investigators say the blood drained from Montgomery's face. Tom Montgomery was soon after charged
00:32:39
with the murder of Brian Barrett. His wife and daughters cut ties with him immediately and eventually Tom took a
00:32:47
plea deal for manslaughter, which I can't believe he was offered that. But anyhow, he was sentenced to 20 years in
00:32:55
prison, making him eligible for parole as of this year at the age of 65. In terms of what's going on with The Pearl,
00:33:04
there is nothing updated about it online, but we will probably know soon. In 2009, director Barbara Schroeder made
00:33:12
an incredible documentary about Brian Barrett's murder, and she called the film Tallh Hot Blonde. During an
00:33:19
interview for the documentary, Tom Montgomery did not express remorse for Brian's murder or even discussed the
00:33:26
crime directly. Instead, he focused on his state of mind at the time and his relationship with Jesse. Montgomery said
00:33:35
he never doubted that Jesse was anyone other than who she said she was. And this was partly because of the enormous
00:33:43
number of photos that Mary Sheila had sent of her daughter. Montgomery believes his problems stemmed from
00:33:50
seeking solace online instead of talking to his family about his issues. Mary also spoke to Barbara Schroeder, but
00:33:58
refused to be filmed or recorded. She told Barbara that all she ever wanted in life was to be a good mother. After her
00:34:06
children grew up, she became bored and lonely, leading her to seek company online. She maintained that she only
00:34:15
ever spoke to Tom Montgomery to prevent him from talking to real teenagers. Oh, and this is amazing. Mary also said she
00:34:23
intended to write a book about the dangers of the internet. Now, apparently Mary never spoke with her daughter Jesse
00:34:31
about any of this and she gave her husband a very watered down version. She essentially said that she had been
00:34:39
chatting online with two different men who work together and one had become jealous and killed the other. Mary
00:34:47
insisted there was nothing sexual or romantic to these conversations and it had just been chitchat about online
00:34:55
games and the weather. But the truth came out when some of Jesse's friends heard about the case and Jesse decided
00:35:03
to Google her mother's name. The search returned news stories about Brian's murder roughly 400 miles away in upstate
00:35:12
New York. Jesse was horrified to discover exactly what had happened and how her mother had used her identity.
00:35:19
Not only had Jesse's photos been shared with numerous men, they were also now splashed all over the internet in
00:35:27
coverage of the case. Jesse told her father, who was equally distraught, and he divorced Mary. And Jesse apparently
00:35:35
cut off all communication with her mother. Despite Mary's actions, she technically did not commit any crimes
00:35:44
and therefore cannot be charged in relation to Brian's murder. Tom Montgomery feels that Mary should be
00:35:51
incarcerated for her role that she played, as do Brian's parents. His parents have also advocated for laws
00:35:59
requiring greater accountability online. They remember their son as being shy and
00:36:05
quiet despite his tall stature and athletic build. At the time of his death, Brian was gaining confidence in
00:36:12
discovering who he wanted to be. On weekends, he spent his time volunteering as a coach for a little league baseball
00:36:20
team. Brian loved working with kids so much that he had decided to become an industrial arts teacher, teaching
00:36:27
students to work with wood and metal. This is an absolutely unreal case and I would love to hear your thoughts below.
00:36:35
Until next time.