Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Gamer Went Insane - The David Heiss story

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

David Heiss, a 21-year-old German office worker, became obsessively infatuated with British student Joanna Witton after interacting with her on the Advance Wars fan site, Wars Central, which she co-managed with her boyfriend, Matthew Pyke. Despite being rebuffed and blocked from the site, Heiss traveled to Nottingham, England, on multiple occasions, ultimately forcing his way into the couple's flat.#truecrime #truestory #knottingham #raywilliamjohnson

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That's cool, then. Marvel Studios, Thunderbolts, the New Avengers, rated PG-13. Now streaming on, you guessed it, Disney Plus. So this gamer is now in prison for life. Now the gamer's name is David and David is 21 living in Germany and bro, you know, he's a gamer and he's really into this game called Advanced Wars. And one day in 2008 he finds this fan site dedicated to the game and he starts spending a lot of time there in the community forum.

And on the site he meets this woman, Joanna. Joanna's 21, she lives in England and she founded the site. And immediately, David is into her. He thinks she is foin. However, Joanna has a boyfriend, this guy, Matthew, and Matthew's 20. He also founded and runs the Advanced Wars fan site that they all use. But David doesn't seem to care. He still wants her. And over time, he becomes more and more infatuated with her. Like, he is obsessed. And he really doesn't hide it all that well. He's always messaging her on her social media accounts, telling her how amazing she is and how into her he is,

and how she's the only woman for him. And Joanna, she's definitely not feeling David romantically. I mean, she's happy with Matthew. They share an apartment together. Plus, David's a weird guy, like he's kind of an in-cell. And so she doesn't want to be rude to him or anything like that, so she tries to let him down easy. But David just won't stop. He keeps stalking her on her social media platforms. In fact, he goes harder.

Over time, his messages get even more intense and more sleazy. And if that isn't bad enough, at some point, David decides that sending messages to Joanna isn't enough. He needs to go meet up with her in person in England. And so he somehow gets her address from another member on the gaming site. Then, without telling Joanna or Matthew what he's about to do, he travels from Germany all the way over to England. And there, he just shows up to their door unannounced, and he starts knocking.

And Joanna and Matthew, they aren't home, but they're walking back from a bar, and they spot him outside their apartment. And they're like, what the fuck? Now, Matthew is a nice guy. He doesn't want to be rude to David. I mean, they feel bad for him. They think he's, you know, a little off in the head. So they invite him in for a bit.

Now, immediately they realize he doesn't have a place to stay. So Joanna gets on the phone and she starts calling around to local hostels to see if they can find a room for David. And she calls and she calls and she calls and she ends up calling 25 different places. But none of them have any vacancies. And so David is like, oh, that's fine. I'll just stay here with you guys. And, you know, they don't want to throw him out on the street. So they're like, all right, fine.

you can sleep here on the floor for the night. Here's the thing, though. Their apartment is really small. So really the only place he can sleep is on their carpet, which is in their bedroom. And so, bro, it's sleeping in their bedroom now, and Joanna hates this. Like, she's creeped out all night with this weird-ass dude on her floor. The next day, Joanna and Matthew, I guess they finally find him a hotel, and they send him on his way. And for the next month, David stays in England, visiting people who were all.

involved in the community forum, people who know Joanna and Matthew. And the whole time he's with each of these people, pretty much all he talks about is how much he likes Joanna, which these community forum members find super weird. Not only that, he starts going back to Joanna's apartment periodically and leaving love notes outside for her to find when she comes home from work. Dude is just not gonna quit. Now, after about a month, he goes back to Germany and he continues living his life, playing his life playing games and whatnot. And at this point, rumors have gotten back to Matthew. People from the community forum hit him up and they're like, you know, when that David guy was here visiting, all he talked about was your girlfriend. And this pisses Matthew off. And he's starting to realize that David is

actually bad news. And he is not going to let this slide. And so he goes to the advanced wars fan site they run. And in the community, he posts a really long post called the 19 reasons I hate David heise. And in this post, he lays out what a creep he thinks David is and all the stalkery things he's done, and he basically talks about how much he hates him. And of course, everyone in the forum reads it. And now they all think he's a creep, which a lot of them already thought that anyway. And so then David sees this post, and now he's all pissed off and things escalate. And David and Matthew, they start fighting online. And this is when David finally snaps. He decides it's time to go back and get his revenge on Matthew. And so he borrows his uncle's car and he drives all the way to Nottingham, England, where Joanna and Matthew live. And there, I guess he's out on the street near their apartment and Joanna actually spots him from afar and she rightly freaks the fuck out.

And from there, I guess David chickens out and he just like goes right back to Germany. But now Joanna realizes shit is getting real. And so she sends him a message basically telling him to get psychiatric help. And he writes her back. And he says, Joe, one day I'll break my promise and come back to Nottingham and offer you a knife or something and tell you to kill me because I don't want to live without you. Now, of course, she's really freaked out. So she and Matthew immediately ban him from the community forum and she cuts off all contact with him. And a couple of months go by, and cutting off contact must have worked because they don't hear anything more from David.

So, problem solved. Until. Back in Germany, David comes up with an insane plan to try and win Joanna back. He's going to unalive Matthew and stage it to look like Matthew unalived himself. And so he flies from Germany back to England again. And there he goes straight. over to Joanna and Matthew's building. And he doesn't like knock on the door or anything like that or try and go inside. Instead, he camps out in a sleeping bag near an AC unit overnight. The next

morning, Joanna leaves for work and David is nearby watching her leave. As soon as she leaves the building, David enters it. And he goes upstairs, up to her and Matthew's door, and he knocks, and he pulls out a knife. Then Matthew answers. And as soon as he opens the door, Boom, David attacks him and he stabs him again and again and again until Matthew stops moving. He stabbed him 86 times. And this is such a brutal attack that David now knows he can't make it look like Matthew did this to himself. Matthew couldn't have stabbed himself 86 times. And so David decides to make it look like a robbery gone wrong.

So he starts trashing the place, knocking things over, dumping out drawers. Then he leaves and he flies back to Germany. Here's the thing though. Matthew actually didn't die immediately. When David left the apartment, he was still barely alive. So he uses his last little bit of energy and he uses his own blood to write the letters D, A, V, on the side of his computer monitor,

the first three letters of David's name so that everyone will know who did this to him. Those three letters are all he can manage before he unfortunately passes away. And of course, this clue combined with all the well-documented stalking, lead police to know exactly who did this. And eventually, German police show up to David's door and bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot.

And David is extradited back to England and he's found guilty and he's sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.