Eva LaRue: Actress relives 12 year hell in which stalker threatened to rape and murder her and her daughter in new documentary

CSI: Miami actress Eva LaRue was targeted by an anonymous stalker who sent letters to her where he talked about wanting to harm her and her young daughter.

The threatening notes were signed Freddie Krueger, the sadistic killer from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The ordeal lasted for 12 years between 2007 and 2019, but the perpetrator did not face justice till 2022.

LaRue’s traumatic ordeal is the topic of a new two-part documentary, My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story, which premiered on earlier this month on Paramount+.

The now 58-year-old star explains that when the letters first arrived, which were originally sent to her through her manager and publicist, she thought it was a prank at first. But then more letters arrived, and she realised she and her young daughter Kaya, who was only five wen the ordeal began, were being stalked.

“It was the most heinous, most deplorable, most sickening, most terrifying threats,” she told PEOPLE. “And then he began leveling them against my little girl.”

In a bid to protect themselves, the actress had security cameras installed, and she and Kaya ended up moving three times. The stalker, who was later identified as an Ohio resident named James David Rogers, eventually found them each time. When he did, more unsettling mail would begin to arrive at her home.

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

"The letters were anywhere between three to six or seven pages long, detailing in the most heinous, evil, grotesque, depraved way, how he wanted to kidnap my then-five-year-old daughter and I," LaRue said, according to The New York Times.

In Autumn 2019, Rogers' stalking escalated when he called Kaya's high school several times. Rogers pretended to be the then 17-year-old’s her dad and asked where she was. On other occasions, he left threatening voice messages under his pseudonym, according to the publication.

Rogers was eventually found and arrested after advances in DNA. The FBI had collected DNA from the envelopes in which the letters were mailed and used genetic genealogy databases, such as 23andMe and Ancestry, and this gave them clues which led them to a town in Ohio.

Then, In November 2019, Rogers was arrested after the FBI matched the DNA from the envelopes with DNA from a discarded drinks straw he used at a sandwich shop one day after leaving work, as reported by CNN.

In September 2022, he pleaded guilty to two counts of mailing threatening communications, two counts of stalking and one count of threats by interstate communications, according to The New York Times.

At his sentencing, Rogers said to LaRue: “I sincerely apologize for what I did for the last 12 years, putting you and your family through hellish behaviour. I accept full responsibility. I hope you can put this behind you and at some point never think about me again,” as reported by CNN.

In response, she said: "I forgive you, but I cannot forget. The fear is with me forever."

Rogers was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison and was released in 2024.

LaRue said she participated in the documentary about her experience to help stalking victims and advocate for stronger laws protecting them. But, she has said she doesn’t think she will “ever feel safe”. She told CBS Mornings: "Your brain never goes back to not being hyper vigilant."

LaRue joined the cast of CSI: Miami in 2005, playing Natalia Boa Vista from season 4 until season 10. Her daughter Kaya Callahan, whom she shares with late actor husband John Callahan, was born in 2001. The pair were married from 1996 to 2005, and though they then divorced they remained friends until he died from a stroke in March 2020 at the age of 66.

After her stalking ordeal was over, LaRue returned to her career as a soap actress. From 2019 to 2020, she appeared on The Young and the Restless and in 2024, she joined General Hospital but she quit the long-running daytime series in June 2025.