Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Her Stalker Sent Her a Bomb - The Sandra Berfield story

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

This is the story of Sandra Berfield and her stalker Steven Caruso

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My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. So one day this woman steps outside and there's a package on her front porch. And she looks at it and, oh, it was sent by someone in her family.

Cool. And she goes to pick it up and kaboom, the package explodes in her face. Now the woman, her name's Sandra. And Sandra works at this restaurant. She's a server and it's a good job. It keeps her bills paid. But one day, that all changes when this guy comes in and he sits in her section. His name's Stephen.

So Sandra takes Stephen's order and she's polite. and she brings him his food and just normal stuff. But the next day, Stephen comes back, and he sits in her section again. And the day after that, he comes back again, and then again and again. And every day from then on, and each time he comes in, he sits in Sandra's section.

And she doesn't give him any special attention. She just takes his order like anyone else. But each time he comes in, afterwards, he goes home and he fantasizes about Sandra, about asking her out. While Sandra goes home, and she doesn't think about Stephen at all. Sure, she's a little weirded out by him coming in every day,

sometimes twice a day, but he seems mostly harmless. Until. This whole pattern goes on for about two years, like he comes in and he sits in her section and he orders food. But then one day, Stephen gets a little courage, and he looks at himself in the mirror, and he thinks, today is the day.

Today, I'm going to ask her out. So he shows up to the restaurant like normal, and he sits in her section, and eats, like normal. But this time, instead of asking Sandra for the bill, he's like, hey, want to go see a movie sometime? And Sandra, she doesn't know what to say. She's like, buh.

I'm flattered, but no thank you. And from that moment on, it's all awkward. And poor Stephen, his feelings are all hurt, so he leaves. And Sandra thinks, well, all right, maybe he'll finally stop coming in. But that's not what happens. The next day, he shows up again. And he sits in her section like normal. and he starts creeping, just staring at her the whole time while she works for hours.

And it's really uncomfortable for her. And then the day after that, he comes in again. And then again and again and again. And each time he just sits there and watches her while she works. And of course, this really starts to creep her out. So one day, she's decided she's had enough. So she tells her manager. And then her manager goes up to Stephen and he's like,

Alright buddy, you gotta sit in a different section. She can't serve you anymore. You're creeping her out. So, Stephen does. He sits in another section. But even in that new section, he just sits there and stares at Sandra the whole time from way across the room.

And he takes any opportunity he can to interact with her while she tries her best to avoid him. Now at this point, deep down, Stephen is pissed off. Like how dare she reject a nice guy like him and make him move sections? So then outside of work, he starts following her. Or at least, Sandra's paranoid now and she thinks he's following her. She isn't totally sure.

She doesn't have proof. But then one day, she wakes up and she goes out to her car. And she finds that someone has slashed her tires. And she immediately knows it was Stephen. And she reports it to police, but unfortunately, she has no evidence it was him. A few days later, she's at home lying on the couch. And she hears something outside. And she looks out the window, and sure enough,

she sees someone in all black in a black hoodie slashing her tires. And she can't see the guy's face, but she knows it's Steven. She can tell by the way he walks. So in response to this, she sets up a surveillance camera outside her house. A few days after that, she's driving to work, and suddenly her car starts sputtering. So she goes home and she checks the surveillance footage, and she sees the same guy from before in all black,

but this time he's messing with her gas tank. The next night, around 2 a.m., She's at home and she happens to look out her window and she catches the same man outside messing with her gas tank again. But this time she catches it early enough to call 911 while the crime is taking place. So then, boom, police go and they arrest Stephen. And they charge him with destruction of property and he gets found guilty and he's sentenced to six months in prison. Oh, but it's not over for Stephen because while he's in prison, he starts plotting his revenge. I mean, he is pissed.

Like how dare she? reject him and get him locked up. He feels he needs to make her pay and he comes up with a plan. So he serves all his time and once he's out, he starts putting this plan into motion. So first, he researches and logs all of Sandra's friends and family and their contact information. Then he goes and he buys a manual on how to build a pipe bomb. And then he gathers up all the supplies he needs and he starts putting this pipe bomb together piece by piece. About two months later, he's confident he has a working explosive device. So he boxes it up in a little package like he's going to mail it,

and he makes the return address look like one of her relatives. Then, early one morning, when the moment is right, he shows up to her house, and he quietly places the neatly wrapped package on her front porch, and he sneaks away. Shortly after, Sandra steps outside, and she sees this package there at her feet. And she's like, oh, cool, someone sent me something.

And then she reaches down to pick it up, And the very moment she gets her hands on it, Kaboom! It completely explodes in her face. And sadly, it unalives her instantly. Now, because police already know that Stephen had stalked Sandra in the past, he is immediately suspect number one. So then they get a warrant and they search his house,

and in his trash, they find the manual on how to build a pipe bomb. And they find his very detailed notes about Sandra's friends and family. So then, bam, they arrest him again. Here's his mugshot. And here's another photo of him in court, just so you can see how creepy he is. Buh. So anyway, he goes to trial again, and he's found guilty of first-degree murder, and he's sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Good for him.