The Misery Machine - The Story of Natalie Bollinger

Starting point is 00:00:00 Natalie Marie Bollinger was born on February 24th, 1998, in Westminster, Colorado, just north of Denver, to parents Ted and Rose who later separated. She had a twin sister named Alicia and a brother named Gabe. Some sources also cite siblings Ted Jr., Luna, and Violet. Throughout her life, Natalie lived all over the country, from Colorado to Rhode Island to Virginia. She was a student at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Virginia before completing her final semester at Future's, Center Pathway School in Thornton, Colorado. Natalie had recently been taking college classes with the intention of becoming a registered nurse, which was her lifelong goal. She was described as a gifted and talented artist that had been drawing since she could pick up a crayon. She was a pixie of a girl

Starting point is 00:00:48 standing at 4.11 and weighing just 90 pounds. She loved animals in nature and treated everyone and everything with the respect and dignity that they deserved, no matter their station or circumstances. The selfless trait would later cause Natalie undue strife later on in life. On December 28th, 2017, now 19-year-old Natalie messaged her friend Tim Beeson at around 9 in the morning. The two had planned to go on a motorcycle ride around Broomfield. Even though it was midwinter, it was a mild day in the picturesque view of the Rocky Mountains from the back of a motorcycle did sound amazing. Tim told Natalie to wear a warm coat and to text him when she was ready to go and he'd come pick her up. She told him that it sounded like a plan and that she just needed to take care of a few things.

Starting point is 00:01:37 However, hours went by. At around 2.22 p.m., Tim texted Natalie and said, quote, making myself lunch. Guess I'll just wait for you to hit me up when you got time. I don't seem to have very good timing at all. Talk to you later, end quote. At around 3 p.m., Natalie's boyfriend, Joey Marino, texted Tim to see if she was with him. According to Joey, Natalie had left their home around lunchtime and hadn't taken her phone with her. What she had taken, however, was his 9-millimeter Glock pistol.

Starting point is 00:02:12 Concerned, Joey contacted the police at 3.30 to report his girlfriend missing. At 5.22 p.m., Tim sent a text to Natalie's phone directed at Joey that said, has she been found. What was most worrisome was that Natalie had a stalker, this man. We cannot play the audio for you as it's just a stream of obscenities, but this is then-42-year-old Sean Schwartz, a homeless man whom Natalie met when she was just 13 years old. On December 22nd, Sean had been served with a restraining order, which he was already in violation of after he made threats to hunt down and kill Tim and Natalie's father, Ted. He faced up to eight years in prison for this violation, but he just didn't seem to care.

Starting point is 00:03:02 Two weeks prior on December 13th, Natalie posted the following message on her Facebook page. Unfortunately, it was also her last. Hey, yo, there's a man who became friends with him. He lived to Virginia. He drove across the country to see me. slept behind my work for weeks. When I told him I didn't want to see him anymore, he sent me hundreds of texts and calls.

Starting point is 00:03:43 He parked his car in front of my house, blocking military highway for hours, laying on his form. He was arrested. Since then, I've asked him to leave me alone, and he won't. He sent emails for over a year, post to every day, harassing me, making numerous accounts until I block him again,

Starting point is 00:04:05 threatening my family, telling me he'll kill himself in front of me, and sending my friends and family harassing messages as well. I'm sharing this because he's posting slander about me all over Facebook. So if you receive a message, I am sincerely sorry. Please ignore him. It only encourages him when he gets a response, much like a child. He's mentally ill, and I'm trying to fix this. Below the post was a screenshot of a profile under the,

Starting point is 00:04:35 the name Michelle Branach, except Michelle wasn't real. She was one of the many fake accounts that Sean had created to try to make contact with Natalie and circumvent her blocks. Over the past year, Sean posted hundreds of Facebook live videos that were nothing short of unhinged. In some, he sang Natalie's praises. In others, he cursed her name. When word of Natalie's disappearance hit the airwaves, Sean was one of the first people posting to social media asking for assistance in looking for her. However, Sean, who is autistic, lacked the self-awareness that, as far as Natalie and everyone that cared about her was concerned, he was the problem. Soon, online communities in the court of public opinion were all pointing their fingers at Sean Schwartz.

Starting point is 00:05:25 After all, through his Facebook live rants, he had made himself the most likely suspect. And what business did a man in his 40s have with a teenage girl? Furthermore, the smoking guns seemed to be a message that Natalie had sent to her friend Tim Beeson. It read, if I ever turn up missing, he did it. If I end up dead, tell the cops it was him. I'm not even joking. On December 29th, Adams County Sheriff's Office announced that the body of a young woman

Starting point is 00:05:56 later confirmed to be Natalie had been found by a pedestrian. She was located in a wooded area off of East 116th Avenue in Riverdale Road in Thornton, near the Adams County Macintosh Dairy Conservation Easement. The cause of death? A single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Shell casings from a Glock 9mm pistol were found at the scene, the same pistol that Natalie took from her boyfriend, Joey. She also had a potentially fatal dose of heroin in her system.

Starting point is 00:06:27 Police didn't publicly identify Natalie until, January 2nd, but both of her parents were quick to announce her death on Facebook soon after her body was discovered. Suspicion immediately pointed to Sean Schwartz, but he was never arrested or charged in connection to Natalie's death. Instead, he began posting his ideations on Facebook, leading to police finding him at St. John's Episcopal Church on Pine Street in Boulder, Colorado. He was taken to Boulder Community Health's Foothills Hospital, where he ranted.

Starting point is 00:07:00 and raved at staff and police officers who later then arrested him for this behavior. Soon, Sean found himself in the middle of a media frenzy, but rather than keep to himself and allow things to cool off, he did what he knew how to do best, took to Facebook to double down that he hadn't done anything wrong. He said, quote, if Natalie were an ugly hobo,

Starting point is 00:07:23 you wouldn't give two sh** about her. To you, she would just be a junkie who wanted, needed, or deserved it, or it didn't happen. But to me, she was a hero, not because she was pretty, because she was nice to me when everyone abandoned me, end quote. Sean had met Natalie and her twin sister when they were just 13 years old. Sean would have been 36 at this time, so this is definitely inappropriate. He had met the twins in downtown Boulder in a homeless encampment.

Starting point is 00:07:54 According to Sean, the twins would smoke weed or sell drugs for their father, Ted. Natalie had confided in the man a lot. In fact, Sean kept receipts, including an email from July 30th, 2016, where Natalie divulged details to him of her dysfunctional childhood. She wrote that her father was violent and that her mother had left when she was only three years old. She and Alicia bounced back and forth between two homes for a number of years before winding up in foster care. Their father had used drugs and would often have his daughter sell them for him. There isn't definitive proof that Natalie actually wrote this email, but after reviewing Sean's social media accounts, it seems as if he's the type of person who likes to keep a detailed record of his interactions with others.

Starting point is 00:08:41 The timeline matched Ted Stinson prison, and it would explain how Natalie would have come in contact with Sean at such a young age. Allegedly, Sean and Natalie had reconnected when she was 18. As mentioned previously in Natalie's final Facebook post, she was a true friend to him who would help him out and give him rides. They frequently messaged each other and supported one another through their struggles. Sean suffered from panic attacks and Natalie struggled with substance use and deep depression. Oftentimes, this depression would take a darker turn, which is why Sean was so persistent.

Starting point is 00:09:16 It appeared that he wanted to save her from herself. Although Natalie had outlined that Sean has sent her hundreds of emails and messages daily that were of a harassing nature. Screenshots of their conversations that Sean kept a record of seemed to paint a much different picture. In a post to Sean's Facebook on January 29th of 2023, he shared 30 screenshots of a conversation between him and Natalie where the two discussed hanging out, panic attacks, an accident she had just been in, as well as what he might want for his birthday. According to others, how he would be. However, Natalie had a very different experience.

Starting point is 00:09:57 It was true that Natalie did suffer from substance use issues and depression, and she would sometimes threaten to take her own life. But in their version of events, Natalie sympathized with Sean's struggles, but the man had overstepped some boundaries and had become obsessed with this young girl. When she tried to create distance, he went ballistic. This included the rants on Facebook and additional messages and emails of a harassing nature,

Starting point is 00:10:24 as well as threats directed at her family and friends. If these messages do exist, I'm sure that Sean is not about to make them public. It's also been alleged that he drove from Colorado to Virginia and camp behind her place of work for weeks. This is something that Sean disputes. He claims this was Alicia's workplace, Cricket Wireless, and it was her idea for him to camp out.

Starting point is 00:10:48 On September 10, 2017, Sean wrote, And I quote, I wanted only the best for you. Now all I want is for you to go through the hell I have lived, end quote. He then went on to state that he wanted to take his own life in front of Natalie in a very graphic manner, which unfortunately I cannot recite here due to YouTube guidelines. He continued, quote, I want you to feel every bit of my pain because you gave it to me and didn't care. you should not if pretended to care. Tim Beeson is a piece of shit.

Starting point is 00:11:26 I chose not to be a piece of shit. I am not worth shit to you, end quote. Tim and Natalie had briefly dated and remained good friends. She would often confide in him how scared Sean's advances were making her. This includes the message that she sent him, letting him know that if she turned up dead, that Sean did it. While Sean had good intentions, or at least in his mind he did, his lack of boundaries intact only worse in the situation. Additionally, Natalie struggles to voice her boundaries the moment

Starting point is 00:12:01 she became uncomfortable may have played a part. She was a teenage girl who didn't want to come across as mean. This was not to blame Natalie, because based on Sean's inability to this day to let her go, it probably wouldn't have helped. What's also problematic is their age difference and the manner in which the two came in contact with one another. The relationship was completely inappropriate from the get-go and should have never happened. Nevertheless, Sean was cleared as a suspect on January 8th of 2018. Come to find out, he had been in another stay at the time of Natalie's disappearance

Starting point is 00:12:36 and subsequent death. To date, Sean is still active on both Facebook and YouTube, proclaiming his innocence to all that will listen. Since the armchair detectives didn't have Sean as a suspect, they wasted no time pointing their fingers at a new suspect, Ted Bollinger. Ted was Natalie's father, who had his own run-ins with the law and spent a considerable amount of time in and out of prison. One of his most recent offenses was endangering the welfare of another person while eluding a police officer and driving with a suspended license.

Starting point is 00:13:11 As we mentioned previously, it's been alleged that he had his twin daughters running drugs for him. Ted announced Natalie's death in the comment section of a post about her disappearance on Facebook on December 30th. The following day, he set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for her funeral expenses. Although this is fairly normal any time there is a death nowadays, some folks found this suspicious. A common accusation thrown at Ted based on the court of public opinion online was that he should have been too busy grieving to worry about money. When Natalie's funeral was delayed due to a dispute between her parents, the public was outraged and cried fraud. Armchair detectives took to digging up Ted's past,

Starting point is 00:13:54 which included convictions for CA, assault, and drug dealing. Even though Ted was something of a shady character, to say the least, it was not him that killed his daughter. Soon the case took another turn, and the police had an actual suspect. While the internet attacked a disabled homeless man in a grieving father, the police reviewed Natalie's phone records leading up to her death. One number stood out to them.

Starting point is 00:14:22 In the days leading up to her disappearance in subsequent death, Natalie exchanged 111 text messages with 23-year-old's Joseph Michael Lopez. This was the first time that the two had interacted, and nobody in her inner circle knew who this man was. Joseph lived in the area, managed a local dominoes, and had a seven-month-old. Cell phone data proved that he was in the... the general area at the time of Natalie's disappearance. After Natalie's body was found, his co-workers claimed that Joseph began throwing up in the bathroom

Starting point is 00:14:55 and then took the rest of the week off from work. Faced with the phone evidence, Joseph quickly spilled to the police. He claimed that he had met Natalie via a Craigslist ad that she had posted in the personal section. The ad was titled, I want to put a hit on myself. Out of sheer curiosity, Joseph messaged Natalie, claiming that he had experienced as a hitman and could help. I don't know about you, but Joseph sure looks just like John Wick to me. Now, according to Joseph, Natalie confided in him that she was deeply unhappy with her boyfriend and wanted to end her suffering, but she didn't have the nerve to do it herself.

Starting point is 00:15:35 On December 28th, Joseph met Natalie at her home where they discussed payment and how she wanted the deed done. She even provided him the firearm. He claimed that he tried to talk her out of it, but Natalie had made up her mind. The two drove around town scouting locations, and eventually Natalie was dropped off at her home when they couldn't decide on a proper spot. There was only one problem with the story. Joseph's cell phone records placed him in the exact location in Thornton where Natalie's body was located. This is when Joseph went with story number. Two. They had found a spot near the dairy farm that we had mentioned earlier, but it was Natalie who pulled the trigger, not him. But the police weren't buying this story. In fact, ballistics

Starting point is 00:16:24 disproved this theory as Natalie was shot in the back of her head. There was absolutely no way that she could have done this by herself. So Joseph moved on to story number three. He claimed that he tried to reason with Natalie, but when he realized there was no talking her out of it, he gave in. The two prayed together before he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, killing Natalie instantly. Additionally, the gun which he used to shoot her, which belonged to her boyfriend Joey, as well as her purse, was still in his truck. During his interview with investigators, Joseph mentioned that he kept a journal in high school in which he wrote stories about kidnapping, torturing, and executing people. What's also bizarre about the story,

Starting point is 00:17:10 that no actual Craigslist ad was ever located with regard to the alleged hit that Joseph responded to. One can only assume that her cell phone records and interactions with Joseph revealed what actually happened between the two of them. On February 8, 2018, Joseph Michael Lopez was arrested in charge with first-degree homicide, which was later reduced to second degree. He was sentenced to 48 years in prison. He agreed to plead guilty to escape a life sentence, which devastated Natalie's family. He will be 71 years old if he survives his full sentence.

Starting point is 00:17:49 At sentencing, her father, Ted, had this to say, quote, You took advantage of my daughter. She was vulnerable and drugged, brutally shot and killed my baby. I asked for an eye for an eye. You have been protected. The Bollinger family had no say in this. This is a deal with the devil, end quote. He also added the following from prison in this interview.

Starting point is 00:18:18 There's no justice in this. Ted is speaking from the Adams County Jail because he violated his parole. You're in the same place that Joseph is being held, correct? According to Ted, in this plea deal, Lopez could be eligible for parole after 50 years. Natalie's funeral service was eventually held at the Church of St. Therese in Chesapeake, Virginia, on January 13, 2018. She was laid to rest at the Ollinger Highland Mortuary and Cemetery Cremation Gardens in Thornton, Colorado.

Starting point is 00:19:16 In a strange turn of events, Natalie's twin sister Alicia went missing from the Napa Motel at 1125 South Broadway in Wichita, Kansas. She was later found safe and sound. In a post to Facebook, Alicia wrote, quote, Hey, y'all, sorry if I worried anyone. I'm so thankful for the people who saved me. they pulled a rescue mission and got me out of a really bad situation.

Starting point is 00:19:41 Hopefully, they are helping me get back home. Much love, end quote. Natalie's story has left me with more questions than I had when I started researching her case. I think that we can all agree it's full of bizarre twists and turns that don't seem to make any sense. Like, if Joseph was telling the truth about the whole hitman thing, and he truly wanted to talk Natalie out of it, then why on earth? did he not alert the authorities to the presence of the ad and seek help for her. Sadly, I don't think we'll ever get a straight answer.

Starting point is 00:20:15 If you or someone you know is in need of help like Natalie was, call the Lifeline at 988 or visit 988 lifeline.org. As always, our DMs are always open if you need to talk.

The Misery Machine - The Story of Natalie Bollinger

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