Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Turned Into a Crazy Stalker Over This? - The Kathy Rowe story

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

In late 2011, San Diego mother Kathy Rowe became consumed by resentment after losing a bidding war for a “dream home” in Carmel Valley, California, to a younger couple—Jerry Rice and Janice Ruhter. In reaction, Rowe launched a disturbing harassment campaign.

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and Kathy has a problem. She really wants to buy a house, one for her and her husband and her daughter. But it can't just be any house. She has a disabled teenage daughter so the house needs to have a certain layout like it can't have stairs. And so she looks and she looks and she looks and she looks. looks for the perfect place for her and one day in 2011 she finally finds it. This one. This is a picture of it. And Kathy's like, this is it. This is the one. I have to have it. It was meant for me. And so she officially makes an offer through her real estate agent and she waits. Meanwhile,

other buyers are also interested in this house, specifically these buyers, Janice and Jerry. Janice and Jerry are a young married couple with kids. And Janice and Jerry, they like this house too. In fact, they like it so much that they offer their entire life savings to buy it. And for some reason, there's some kind of miscommunication between Kathy and her real estate agent, I guess, and she doesn't get her bid in on time or something. Either way, she loses out on this house. And boom, Janice and Jerry get it, and they move in.

And poor Kathy, she's devastating. I mean, this was her dream home. It was perfect. I mean, who do these people think they are? How dare they move into the house that she wants? And so she goes and she writes them a nice letter. And she offers to buy the place from them for $100,000 more than they paid for it. But unfortunately, that doesn't work. Janice and Jerry, they get the letter, but they ignore it. And when Kathy gets ignored, this is when she just snaps. And she decides she'll do. anything to get this home away from Janice and Jerry and into her possession. And so she comes up with a plan, a plan to not just get the house, but to get revenge on Janice and Jerry. And so first, she lists their house for sale on Zillow and other real estate sites. And so one day a bunch of strangers just start showing up to their house, ringing the doorbell. And they're like, let us in. We're here to see the house. And Janice and Jerry are like, what the hell are these people? Then Kathy somehow starts ordering things online in their name.

So they start getting bills for things that they never ordered, like a thousand dollar bill for adult diapers. Then on Halloween, she shows up to their place all dressed up like a trick-or-treater so that she can get a peek inside and see what they're doing inside the house. Then, during Christmas time, she contacts the post office and has all their mail stopped. So I guess they won't get any Christmas presents on Christmas.

Christmas. And then for New Year's, she posts an ad on Craigslist telling high school students that there's going to be this huge New Year's keg party at Janice and Jerry's house so that a bunch of drunk high schoolers show up to their house like, yeah, we're here for the party, bro. And these might seem like harmless pranks or whatever. But Kathy's just getting started. I mean, she does way worse than this. Like she sends letters to all their neighbors, making it look like an official notice, and she tells them that a sex offender has just moved into their neighborhood so that all the neighbors think Jerry is a sex offender. And on Valentine's Day, she makes and sends Valentine's Day cards to all the wives in

Jerry's neighborhood and signs them love Jerry, making it look like he's trying to smash with all the wives in the area. And so now all these husbands are mad at him. And one of the husbands finds the card and he like storms over to Jerry's house and he's all banging on the door and he's like, I'm going to kick your ass. and Jerry has no idea what he's talking about. And this apparently happens seven more times with seven other husbands in the neighborhood

whose wives all got a Valentine's Day card. Now at this point, Janice and Jerry are starting to realize that they're being targeted. Someone is harassing them, but they have no idea who. Who would want to do this to them? So now they're starting to get paranoid. And they install cameras and a security system at their place. They add a spiked fence.

They start taking self-defense classes. That's how paranoid they are. And of course, they try to get police involved. But police, they don't know who's doing this. I mean, these all seem like juvenile pranks to them. And most of what Kathy's doing is juvenile. But then she starts to get a little dark. Because that is when Kathy goes online and she posts an ad on Craigslist.

And she uses Janice's name, picture, and her address. and she pretends to be Janice. And she writes, I'm home all day, every day, bored and incredibly horny. I'd love to be surprised and have a man show up at my door and force his way into the door and on me, totally taking me while I say no. So basically, she's inviting random men over to S.A. Janice.

Here's the thing, though. Several guys actually do respond to this ad. And Kathy, still pretending to be Janice, replies to them like, stop by anytime Monday through Friday, 9 to 3, I like the element of surprise. And this evil plan works, because a few weeks later, one of the guys actually does show up to Janice and Jerry's house. And this weirdo is like walking toward their front door, ready to force his way in and do exactly what the Craigslist ad says he can do. However, by sheer luck, Janice isn't home, but Jerry is. And as this is happening,

he sees the man coming up to his house and he stops him from coming inside. Like, what the hell are you doing, man? Then this Craigslist weirdo makes up some bullshit excuse about why he's there, and I guess he gets all embarrassed and leaves. Then he messages Kathy, still thinking it's Janice, and he's like, I showed up, but there was just some guy there. And Kathy's like, yeah, that's my husband. You should come back.

We'll all have a threesome. But I don't think the guy ever goes back. Regardless, Kathy still can't let this petty, one-sided grudge go. She keeps trying and trying to get someone to come assault Janice and make her suffer. Meanwhile, poor Janice and Jerry, they're still so confused by all this. I mean, who would want to hurt them like this? What have they ever done? And they have no idea.

It's all Kathy. This random woman who hates them, who they've never really even met. until until it finally hits them and Janice must be trying to figure out who's targeting them who hates them this badly because then she remembers that letter

they got that letter from some random woman wanting to buy their house for a hundred thousand dollars more than they paid for it and so she goes and she finds the letter and she gets Kathy's name off of it then she looks that name up on Facebook and she finds Kathy's profile

And then, boom, she can't believe what she sees. It's the same creepy woman who showed up to her house trick-or-treating on Halloween. And so Janice is like, fuck all this. And she calls the police. And now, with this lead, police can finally help and start investigating. And ultimately, they're able to trace the Craigslist ad post back to Kathy. So now they know it's her. And so, bam, they go and they arrest her.

And I don't have a mugshot, but here's what she looks like in real life. And so Kathy takes a plea deal and she gets sentenced to house arrest and probation. And the worst part is that she finally ends up buying a new house for herself. And her new house is only about a mile away from Chanis. Jackson Hewitt has a great tax prep deal. $149 or less. Missing out is like ignoring the check engine light in your car. You regret it.

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