Something Was Wrong - Wcn Presents Caitlin Mathis Dedicated To Change

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

*Content warning: harassment, stalking, cyberstalking, and murder. Caitlin Mathis is a victim advocate and survivor from Texas. In the summer between graduating high school and entering college, she began a relationship with a man whose future actions would change her life - and a whole town - forever. After consequently navigating the inner workings of the law enforcement and criminal justice systems during her college years, she now shares in the media all that came next in her journey. Caitlin hopes to inspire awareness and change for survivors everywhere, in honor of Jackie Vandagriff and all other victims. We are so grateful for her work and all the good she’s spurred from her heartache. This episode is dedicated in loving memory of Jackie Vandagriff. Sources: “Endowment Established in Memory of TWU Student.” TWU, twu.edu/news/2018/endowment-established-in-memory-of-twu-student/ @FollowUsLegally Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center, www.stalkingawareness.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Campus-Stalking-Fact-Sheet.pdf Resources: SPARC: Stalking Prevention, Awareness, & Resource Center https://www.stalkingawareness.org/stalking-awareness-month/ Jackie's endowment: https://giving.twu.edu/donor-relations/vandagriff-scholars For more resources and a list of related non-profit organizations, please visit: http://www.somethingwaswrong.com/resources

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Hi friends, this is Amy B. Chessler. In between seasons 24 and 25 of something was wrong, we're airing this episode of What Came Next featuring Caitlin Mathis. Not only is Caitlin's story powerful and heartbreaking, but it's also adjacent to what we'll be covering in season 25, on-campus violence at a collegiate level.

These narratives, although difficult as they are to hear, are so necessary to be told. If you'd like to hear more episodes like this one, head to what came next wherever you listen to podcasts, and hear over 150 other episodes of survivorship. What came next is intended for mature audiences only. Episodes discuss topics that can be triggering, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, animal abuse, suicide, and murder.

I am not a therapist, nor am I a doctor. If you're in need of support, please visit Something Was Wrong.com for a list of non-profit organizations that can help. Opinions expressed by my guests on the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself or broken cycle media. Resources and source material are linked in the episode notes. Thank you so much for listening. Caitlin Mathis is a victim advocate and survivor from Texas. In the summer between graduating high school and entering college,

she began a relationship with a man whose future actions would change her life and a small town forever. After consequently navigating the inner workings of the law enforcement and criminal justice systems during her college years, she now shares in the media all that came next in her journey in hopes of inspiring awareness and change for survivors everywhere. We are so grateful for her work and all the good that she's spurred from her heartache. This episode is dedicated in loving memory of Jackie Van Gogh. My name is Caitlin Mathis. I'm a former stalking victim committed to sharing my story of surviving

during my freshman year of college. My feel for this passion was ignited when Jackie Vandergriff lost her life to my stalker in September of 2016. My loved ones would describe me as energetic, wise beyond my years, loving, caring, silly, motivated, and a positive encourager. as a kid I kind of struggled to find my people we moved around a lot until the fourth grade when we moved to grapevine this was because my parents got divorced when we were young it took me a while to come to this realization but i'm so glad they separated when they did i'm glad my mom didn't raise this in a household as her and my father weren't in love anymore my dad wasn't very present she knew that she deserved love and eventually she did find the real thing eventually my dad actually actually my dad actually stepped up and began to work on more of a presence in our lives. But it was kind of a chaotic childhood. My mother taught me so much from a young age. She taught me and my sister about toxic behavior, especially in men. She was a single mother, but dated during my childhood. She didn't introduce us to many, but in the process, she taught us about manipulation. She also taught us

had to regulate our emotions as our parents divorced when we were young and my mom immediately put us in counseling. I was taught at an early age that it was healthy to talk about my life problems and how it was making me feel. My mom eventually remarried to my stepdad Chris. He was a good man. He treated my twin sister and I like his own daughters. He taught us so much. He was a handyman. A great cook, always cracking a joke, but he was also very good at disciplining and teaching lessons on respect and gratitude, especially respect for our own mother, respect for ourselves and being grateful for what we had. He ended up getting sick when I was 13, esophageal cancer, and by the time he was diagnosed, it was stage four. The treatment ended up killing him within a few

months. He passed away on December 27, 2011. He spent a lot of time in the hospital down the road from our house. I would often walk there after school to visit. We even spent Christmas in the hospital, and we made the most out of our situation as a family. My mom was also laid off during this time. I honestly don't know how she held herself together. They never made it obvious to us as kids that they were struggling. We also didn't realize how sick he was. His passing was a huge shock.

We thought he still had a lot of time. I was angry with God, but I began my healing journey by journaling, which is something I still live by. I tend to write it all out like I'm writing to Chris, giving him all the important life updates and anything I'm struggling with. I eventually worked on my relationship with the Lord. Now I thank him for placing a man like Chris in our lives when we needed him the most.

I'm grateful for the time that we had with Chris. He made a big impact for the few years that he was in our lives. It also feels like I have a guardian angel up in heaven now. My mom also taught us about being a hard worker with a good attitude, which set me up to get a job when I was 16. I ended up quitting marching band before my senior year so that I could work on saving for college. My band directors were a bit disappointed,

but this was the best decision I made as a 17-year-old. It allowed me to save over $10,000 for college as I was paying my way through school. My dad, during this time, agreed to help my sister and me with an allowance to use on rent and other school expenses. Growing up, me and my twin sister, we weren't very close. In high school, we soon learned it was best that we didn't have the same friends

because we would get jealous of each other. After a freshman year, back in 2016, that's when we started to grow our relationship, but it wasn't until after we had moved out of the house. It's just easy to butt heads with siblings, but I'm glad that we have a very strong relationship now. I met this man when I was 18, literally the day after I graduated high school.

I met him at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Great Vine in June of 2016. When he came into the restaurant, my coworkers made a few statements about his attractive looks, wondering where he would be sitting. He ended up sitting in my section on the patio with his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend. He was flirting with me, and I didn't get much attention from men until I was 18. So I went along with it. I also didn't know myself well enough or my worth, which took time to learn. He gave me his personal training business card at the end of the night and said he wanted to take me out.

I didn't reach out to him until the following day as he didn't leave the restaurant until about 2 a.m. I also had to come back for a morning shift the next day. He ended up coming back into the restaurant the following day, though, when I was working on my closing duties after the lunch rush. He came in and sat at the bar and my coworker told me that he was back. I approached him and then he asked me if I wanted to go out after my shift. But I told him I had already had plans. we went on a date the following day instead. We met at the Howard Wings in South Lake for lunch.

The date went well, so we decided to continue our date, and we went to Central Market, where he picked up some beer, and I followed his car to Great Vine Lake. Our dates shortly turned into a relationship. I'm pretty sure he asked me the day after that first date if I wanted to be his girlfriend. I was very naive.

I immediately said yes, but I just didn't know any better. I didn't realize like, oh, I should probably get to know him a little more before I decide to make him my boyfriend. He asked me to be his girlfriend before he had time to see his dark side. We spent the majority of the summer together, but about two months into the relationship in August of 2016, I began to question his behavior. He was moving quickly, and I was thinking about my big move to Denton. He was also very nosy. He didn't like that I wanted to have friends. It seemed like he wanted to isolate me from the.

the world. I also noticed he would get set off in a rage easily. I think he used it to his advantage. I was an easy target. There was a few instances, especially when things didn't go his way. He found out about my Snapchat. He just would come at me and think that I was doing something behind his back when I had previously given him no reason to think that I would be that kind of person. You could just tell he had trust issues. I also spent the night at his house once. I found a needle in his bathroom. I asked him about that. I honestly suspected he was using steroids. He denied it. He just didn't have much going for him. I think women his age knew that. My sister had also told me that her friends knew my boyfriend. He was a creep. And they knew this

because they had worked at a restaurant where he had once worked. My mom had also found out that I had been dating a much older man. She obviously became nervous and tried to prevent me from seeing him as much as she could without pushing me away. She didn't tell me like, no, you can't see him, but she gave me a curfew. Also, a few of my coworkers even raised some concerns at their own. I was starting an entirely new chapter in my life, and I realized that it would be best if I ended things with him before I left for college. I explained to him that we were at different points in our lives, and I wanted to focus on my studies, but also that his behavior wasn't healthy. The only problem was that he convinced me to give him another chance after he showed up

at my mom's house the next day. He said he could do better and he wanted to help support me in college. I knew I would be leaving soon, so this allowed me some time to step back from the relationship. When it came time to move away for school, I was excited to get away from home. My twin sister Hannah decided last minute she also wanted to go to UNT, but I had already found a roommate, so she found a single dorm. My roommate was from Pennsylvania and we became best friends that year. We were very different, but at the same time, similar. I think we brought out the best in each other. I definitely feel like she helped me keep my sanity at that time. I feel as if the second that I moved to U.N.T, I immediately had a village. It was kind of strange because when I was in high school, I was like,

God, if college is anything like high school, I'm not doing this crap. But the difference between high school and college was that people were open. People were willing to accept me. me into their group just as long as I was willing to express myself so that they could get to know me too. The week before classes started, I opened up to Natalie, my roommate, about how I wanted to end that toxic relationship that I was in, but I was ultimately unsure how to approach that situation. So Natalie and my sweetmeats recommended that I ended right there through text message, which I did. But then he immediately began to blow up my phone. I proceeded to block him on any account I thought he might reach me on. Immediately after the breakup, my ex began to exhibit

stalking behaviors. I would compare it to a gateway drug because a lot of stalking behavior leads to other behaviors. And those behaviors can be added up together, documented, reported. He was first arrested on campus the same night. I ended things with him, but he was arrested for something else. The university police officer made the arrest as he was under the the impression that he was an intoxicated driver, and he had something on his record. So he was arrested for whatever was on his record, a ticket or something. He also continued to blow up my phone and even began sending emails as he was able to make new accounts pretty easily. The first time he showed up at my dorm was on Wednesday, August 24th, 2016. I was sitting on my bed with a bunch

of other girls from our floor when there was a knock off the door. I assumed it was our RA, Kyla as we were making some noise, but when I swung the door open, I was surprised to see him standing there. He asked if we could talk privately. I told him that we could talk in the common room, which was just on the hall from the laundry room. My friends in the room looked at me as I left and I could see the worry on their faces. They had all connected the dots by this point and realized that it was my ex. I wasn't expecting them to do anything, but one of the girls went to investigate to make sure I was okay. She pretended to check on her laundry. Meanwhile, my ex-stocker was begging me to take him back,

but I was very persistent in saying, no, he continued to beg. And it wasn't until Kyla had arrived and told my stalker that he needed to leave. Luckily, he complied and left down the stairs shortly after. But after that incident, Kyla advised me to make a police report, which I did. An officer came down. I explained the situation. The original officer informed me that his hire-up, Officer Polk, would be taking my full statement. as he had some further questions for me.

I complied and he informed me about the arrests that he had made the previous night. He wanted to let me know that he had been lurking around. I was just lucky enough to have law enforcement on my side that were able to connect the dots. They reached out to me. They were like, we think you should get a protective order. I was a little worried about this, but he recommended we file a criminal trespass order, which would make it illegal for him to be on campus, even if he wasn't caught right then and there. they just needed surveillance or evidence that he was there, they would be on the lookout.

When the dean of students had reached out to me about the protective order, I was unsure if I wanted to proceed. I was like, oh, it sounds like paperwork. But that was pretty much it, very minimal in terms of taking action towards getting a protective order. Because we had already had the documentation from Officer Polk. They just had to compile everything and then they had to get me up there to sign some documents and confirm everything. What prompted me to seek out that protective order was his use of social media and using it to harass me online. He had created so many different accounts. He even posed as a UNT student.

He would send me very long emails of just how much he loved me. A lot of my case, the evidence that they used was tech facilitated. Through social media, he really started harassing me. and that's what pushed me to come to the realization. I need this protective order now. I didn't know when it was going to end. I just couldn't stop crying. I couldn't even get the energy to put on clothes, for that matter.

I'm just glad that we took this steps at an early start to document all the incidents. The way that Officer Polk told me to handle this situation was to take a screenshot, document everything that he had done. every message. So I screenshoted it and I would send it all to Officer Polk and then he would use it, submit all these incidents, which we were later able to use to build the stocking charge, as well as the protective order. They made it so easy, it didn't cost me a penny. They have those services within the student affairs services. I'm just so glad that Officer Polk acted on this so quickly as documentation is key in a stocking case. Officer Polk called my

stalker the next day and explained to him that he was now criminally trespassed from the entirety of U&T's campus and that if he ever showed up, he would be arrested. He made sure that my ex-stalker understood. We honestly thought that would be the end of it, but it escalated. The second time he showed up was at my place of work. It was my first day at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Denton. Everything was going great until about 8.30 when he walked in. I immediately ran to the back of the restaurant to try and hide. I told one of the girls that I had just befriended. She was worried because she said he was in here yesterday looking for Caitlin, but we didn't know you were coming until to date. I eventually had to come out onto the floor and check up on my tables. I could see him across the restaurant coming my way.

I tried to go in the other direction, but another table stopped me to ask me for something. It was around that time where I stopped in my tracks. I turned around and he was right there. He goes, where's your section? Then I pointed. and he sat at one of my tables. I tried to avoid the situation to ignore him, but I didn't want to cause a scene in front of my tables for ignoring a guest. He stayed for a few minutes.

He gave me a note, but I made it clear, I do not want you here. I could tell that he was very upset, but he didn't want to make a scene. It was a busy restaurant. He eventually left. Then after my shift ended around 1130, that night I walked out to my car,

headed down the road to deposit my cash at the ATM, everything was fine until I pulled forward from the ATM. I discovered my front passenger tire was completely flat. And I've had a leak before, but never a flat. So I found it a little odd. I ended up making it home sleepily. I followed up with Officer Polk the next day because I wasn't sure what we could do about this.

He informed me, though, that we just need to give my general manager and Denton his business cards so that they could work together on a criminal trespass order for my work address. my GM would just need to call him. Officer Polk made this sound really easy, as they had already put a criminal trespass in place for him on campus. So I went to work the following day. I went into the office nervously with Officer Polk's business card, and this was my first time meeting my GM. When I explained my situation, he asked why I wasn't working with the Denton Police. I explained to him that I live on campus, which redirects my police department to the UNTPD. My GM also stated

that there wouldn't be anything he could do unless I had a restraining order or unless he physically harassed me. He pretty much just said, I'm not going to be of any help. So I immediately ran to the restroom. I locked myself in the stall. I cried for a little bit. I texted my old manager in Graetvine to express my concern. He immediately texted me back and said, just transfer back to grapevine. I waited until I could be put back on the schedule and just put up with the 30-minute commute. The stalking progressed. The third incident occurred on September 6th. I had just gotten back to my room after finishing classes for the day.

I decided to work on some calculus homework as I was alone and the dorm was quiet. As I was working through a calculus equation, I heard a knock on the door. And my heart immediately started racing. I slowly got out of my chair to see who was at the door, but I had a feeling I knew who it was. When I got closer to the door, I heard someone out there, but I didn't make a noise. I didn't want it to know I was in there. I looked through the peephole, but I couldn't see anyone. So I decided to walk over to my sweetmeats room through the bathroom hallway.

That's when I heard my ex-stalker say, Caitlin. I know you're in there. I just want to talk. I have something for you. This was probably one of the scariest incidents as I was alone. It's a moment I will never forget in terms of how my body was reacting because I was shaking, very nervous. But I kept quiet. I walked towards the exterior wall of my sweetmate's room.

I hid in one of the closets while I dialed 9-1-1. I explained to the operator that my ex-boyfriend who had been criminally trespassed was outside my door and that I needed an officer to come over immediately. Within minutes, multiple officers responded. They discovered that there were flowers left on the door handle. They checked the security footage and finally located him on the southwest corner of the building. He was then placed under arrest in front of many of my peers who recorded the incident and posted all over social media, wondering, who is this man?

My stalker was arrested for the second time for violating a criminal trespass order on UNT's campus. It was at this time that Officer Polk had begun working on gathering evidence for an EPO or an emergency protective order, which was granted on September 8th because we had enough evidence at that time for that. I know for a fact that they acted more quickly on this than they probably did most cases. My stalker was released on bail on Friday, September 9th, and would then go on to be on. to meet Jackie Vandergripp on Frye Street in Denton, Texas that following Tuesday, September 13th. Jackie was a bright young woman studying nutrition at Texas Women's University, which was another

university in Denton. She had her whole life ahead of her, but it was cut short after her encounter with my stalker. Jackie's remains were found on Wednesday, September 14th at Greyfine Lake. I had gotten a text from my friend's mom. She lived within a mile of where. the body was found. She sent me this article. No information had been released at this point as to who the victim was or if there was any suspects. The headline was body found, dismembered, and burned at Great Vine Lake. I was like, oh my gosh, these things never happened in Great Vine.

Great Vine was a very quiet community. We were a community that would come together to help each other. never once in my lifetime in Grapevine did I ever hear about a murder. And so I was shocked to say the least, but at this point I did not think that my ex had anything to do with this. It wasn't in the same park, but it was within a mile from where we had our first date and where we would mostly hang out. The fact that it was Grapevine Lake felt insidious. Her remains weren't identified until the following Thursday as her body was partially dismembered and charred. I noticed my stalker's emails were coming in less and less until Thursday, September 15th, when he had began to beg for me to drop the charges.

I never interacted with him. I never reached back out to him to give him any reaction towards anything. I documented everything and I sent it to Officer Polk. It took them some time to act on it because what they struggled with was finding evidence. They had to take the time to gather it, which included going to the bars that Jackie was last seen at, and eventually they found some surveillance at a couple of different bars. Apparently, Jackie was just in there looking for a job, and she fell victim to my ex. A few days after I saw the article, on September 17th, I received a voicemail from a Grapevine detective who stated he

had some questions for me. I immediately called him back, and he stated that it was to his understanding that I was in contact with my ex. I quickly corrected him and stated that my stalker was in contact with me, but that I was not in contact with him. Then he asked if I was aware of a kiddie pool and if my stalker had one. I said yes, because I had been over to his house on, I believe, two occasions. He asked if I knew what color it was and I told him I thought it was blue. But I was still so confused. Like what a strange question. A kitty pool was not mentioned yet in the article. So I was confused as to why a grapevine detective specifically, was calling me, what did my stalker do in Grapevine? So I asked the detective what these questions

had to do with, and he stated that it had to do with the current events in Grapevine. And that was all like he could say. After I got off the phone with the detective, I was in a bit of shock as the only event that had happened in Grapevine was that murder. And surely it had to be something else. Not even a minute passes by when I get a call from Officer Polk from the U&T Police Department. And he said that I should be receiving a call from this great-vine detective. I was like, yeah, I've already talked to the great-vine detective. You've got to give me some information as to what's going on. I asked him if my ex had anything to do with this.

And he paused. He said he couldn't confirm anything. But he said, Caitlin, if you put two and two together. And then he proceeded to ask if I was safe. At this time, I got that call. I was with Natalie. But I was off campus. So I felt as if there's no way he's going to find me here.

I mean, I was just like in shock. They ended up charging him with violating the protective order and arrested him on Sunday, September 18th. The murder happened on the 14th. So he was walking around as a free man for a few days until they arrested him on September 18th. Since they arrested him for violating the protective order, this allowed Grapevine PD to hold him for questioning while they gathered solid evidence that pointed him directly to that murder case so that they could charge. him. The following day, the FBI searched his home and found enough evidence to charge him with capital murder. When the FBI raided his house, they found some kind of knife that they believed that he used. There was a taser that they found with her DNA on it. They also found her

bag and some other belongings. And then they also found child pornography. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. I was walking to my econ class when I got the news from my manager over in Great Mind. She texted me. She's like, hey, did your ex live at this address? She was like, the FBI just raided his house and he's been arrested for capital murder. Everything just felt like it was spinning and I was just in my own world. But I was like, I have to go to class. I disassociated trying to fathom like, how could someone do something so disgusting? Even his roommate after the murder happened. He called me and was like, Caitlin, I don't know how you saw this snowballing into what it snowballed into. I don't know how you were able to see that he was a bad man. I tried my best to stay

away from the media. I actually had a lawyer who took on my case pro bono. His mission was to keep my name out of the media as much as possible. I'm so grateful for him because it did provide me with that sense of privacy. UNT was also very good about that, too, because, I mean, reporters showed up. After journalists had done some digging, they were like, this man who killed the TWU student

was stalking a UNT student just prior. And we have her name because there's a protective order out there. I didn't like that whatsoever. After the news came out, my name had only been publicized in one article. I actually convinced the writer to remove my name.

You could still Google the article, and I've since become more open about my story so that when you Google my name, everything comes up. But I had a lot to process. He had to wait for his trial. They didn't really give me any sort of time frame, but I anticipated that it was going to be at least a year until the trial occurred. I had been speaking with the district attorneys. I was probably interviewed for at least eight hours for multiple meetings to kind of go. over all the details and elaborate on the kind of person that he was. They prep me to stand trial in front of the judge.

But they didn't prepare me to be in the same room as him that same day until right before I walked in that room. During this time, I had some exams coming up, and some of the teachers, they were like, no, you can't miss an exam. So I had to reach out to the dean of students to reach out to my professors. I think they would have subpoenaed me if I didn't go there willingly on my own. But since they didn't prep me for being in the same room as him, the second I walked out of that courtroom, I immediately started crying. Apparently, they could hear me crying from outside

the courtroom. The DAs told me that they won't take an emotional witness. It's not like I was crying on the stand. I didn't become emotional until after. At the same time, I feel like this judge that putting me through that would be too much. And so instead of having me testify, they actually had Officer Polk explain how I was related to the murder. The sentencing or the trial didn't occur until 2018 over two years after. I actually never had to make a victim impact statement because he never was charged for stalking or harassment because he was charged with murder first. And I did not want them to drag him out of jail, even risk getting out or like escaping. When they're in prison, then they'd be

moved back to jail to go under the. other charges. Exactly. He's serving his life sentence in Amarillo right now. He reached out to me when he was in prison. And luckily, I spoke to Officer Polk about it. And he knew someone within that jurisdiction for the prison systems. This guy did create a Facebook using an IP address from the prison. He did use a contraband cell phone. I informed police about that. It was the only time he reached out, because after he reached out, they searched his cell every single day, and then they moved his cell every single day. It took him like at least a week,

but eventually they found the contraband cell phone. They didn't add on any time for his sentence, but it was put on his record when it does come time for him to come before the parole board. That will be brought up, and it'll deter them from even allowing him to be seen by the parole board. So whenever that time comes, I believe it's like 2046 when he'll be eligible. I'll have to give my victim statement and making a statement like other people's lives are going to be at risk if this man is released. He is born to kill and he will kill again.

That's just the approach that I'm going to have to take when that time comes. But in the meantime, I want to work on just doing what I can to better the system so that the process has better outcomes. I'm tired of hearing about victims asking for assistance from law enforcement and they are pushed away until something bad happened. These people are scared. So I just hope I can have a role in making a difference. And I'll figure it out whenever that time comes to make sure he stays behind bars. In the beginning, I did hold a lot of guilt. I did wallow in that guilt.

Why am I even here? I wanted to take places with Jackie. I would literally spend hours late at night when I couldn't sleep. I couldn't go to bed without having a nightmare. I saw a doctor. I found myself on Google trying to find any explanation as to why someone could do something like this. I just was driving myself a little insane trying to find those answers, but there's no logical explanation behind the thought process of psychopaths and sociopaths. The nightmares took time. The nightmares also took medication through therapy. I journaled a lot. talking through what I went through being open about it. I was provided a plethora of resources.

I was provided free counseling from U&T, which I took at a domestic violence shelter, and they have a lot of different graduate students that offer counseling. That was the first step, just talking about it with someone. I've been very open about my situation and my story. music has always been a form of therapy to me when I find music and especially lyrics that I can relate to or just resonate with and like jam out too, especially if there's a sick electric guitar solo. Something that gives you goosebumps. I do have a little ritual before I go to bed most nights. I'll turn on my music before I hop in the shower and jam out to a few songs. I have a little dance session by myself. Counseling, therapy, journaling, music. have all been a tremendous help throughout the years. I kept my circle pretty small, but I had a good enough circle to consider it a village,

and they were ultimately the ones that helped me get through it. My mother especially, she's kind of like one of my driving forces and just like reminders that you've got this. I was busy in school. I stayed focused. I even graduated early. I'm glad I did because I graduated right before COVID. I was supposed to graduate in 2020, but I graduated in December of 2019, which allowed me to walk the stage, unlike my friends and my original graduating class.

Ultimately, I've come to the realization that I don't want to let her memory be forgotten. I didn't have the opportunity of getting to know Jackie, but I would have been honored to get to know her, to be close to her, to have truly known the kind of good person that she was. The only thing I can do now is to live my life as Jackie would want. There were certain things that she was passionate about nutrition. That was her main focus. Estetician, she was good with skin care stuff. She was passionate about animal shelters, adopting and not shopping. There's also an endowment at TWA which provides scholarships to other nutrition majors at Texas of Women's University.

I just want to do better for Jackie, for potential victims, and to better our future generations. I just hope someone can take away at least one thing from my story, whether that be the warning signs in a toxic relationship, a stalking victim who doesn't know what to do next, or someone grieving and struggling to cope with the trauma. I want people to know that it gets better if we dedicate the time to work through the trauma, also to understand that there are evil people out there and that we have to pay attention and call it out when it makes us uncomfortable. Talk about it.

I can only hope it helps someone along the way. Whatever I can do, I know that change within the judicial system, it's something that you have to get the gears working towards, but I do have strong hopes that there are some things that we're going to be able to change because the police or the law enforcement, they're struggling to document these. But if Officer Polk can do it, so can all the other officers. It's not like he was going above and beyond.

he was doing his job. He was doing what he knew was right. He was protecting the citizens. Isn't that the role of law enforcement? The way he handled my case, it felt like he cared for me, like I was his own daughter. We like to get together every six months or at least once a year to get lunch. He deserves all the awards. I'm dedicated to seeing change within our judicial systems, police forces, and communities.

I would like to see more cases of stalking and abuse be better handled, like how much was. Law enforcement and court officials need to be better trained, though. At the least, provide more training to law enforcement and court officials so that they can better handle these stocking abuse cases, especially those that are tech facilitated. My victim's statement, I will make one in the future. I want to work on some things in the meantime and those things that I work on those projects, whether that be with Spark, which is a nonprofit centered on bringing awareness towards stocking. They're a resource center. We're actually getting prepared for January, which is National Stocking Awareness Month.

I've been working with them as an advisor on this grant that would provide training to law enforcement and court officials to better handle these cases. It's slow progress, but I've volunteered at domestic violence shelters. I've just been lucky enough to be able to work with Spark on different projects, providing insight to the trainings that they would be providing. and being able to have the opportunity to speak on the matter in hopes that it can make a difference in someone's life. I really appreciate you sharing every facet of your story that you have.

Thank you for that, because that's making your community, your school, your country, a better, sounder place for victims and everyone. That's really the end goal. I see that communities don't like to talk about certain things. I've just noticed that being open. and talking about it, being aware, can go a long way for a community as a whole when we know for a fact that there is evil out there.

We have to be aware. But I'm just trying to do my part. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Next week on what came next. During the course of my time in college, there were events that happened that caused me to become a dual major with criminal justice. that event was the rape and murder of one of my teammates from GW, Rachel Raver,

her boyfriend, Warren Fulton III, who was a GW baseball player. He was also murdered in the same event. I don't think I fully appreciated how much this impacted my life until we got into this project, the Hero Maker podcast, and we have tried to tell as full as story as possible about what happened to Rachel and Warren. What came next is a broke. Broken Cycle Media production, co-produced by Amy B. Chesler and Tiffany Reese. If you'd like to help support what came next, you can leave us a positive review, support our sponsors,

or follow Broken Cycle Media on Instagram at Broken Cycle Media. Check out the episode notes for sources, resources, and to follow our guests. Thank you again for listening.