I never really looked up the definition of the word "stalking"…
but the law clearly states it's two or more unwanted contacts.
And I guess that's what I was doing. Unwanted contact.
They didn't want me around,
but I didn't wanna listen, so I'm gonna be around.
He should have been stopped. He could have been stopped and wasn't.
It's the same pattern that he had over and over and over.
There are so many times that he could have killed me.
I've been charged with 13 felonies in my life
and only been convicted of five.
I'm always able to get out of it.
I had it in my mind, and I actually convinced myself,
I could do whatever I want and get away with it.
I'd rather be considered a murderer than a stalker,
you know what I mean?
I wanted the intensity of, like, of her feeling watched.
Anybody can be a stalker.
It's all boogeyman talk.
I'm still that crazy.
I had no right to, uh… do what I did.
There was a lot of things I could have done differently, and I didn't.
Ultimately, it comes down to my choices.
I choose to respond the way I responded.
I may not understood it then, but I do understand it now.
My name is Daniel Thompson. I was charged for aggravated stalking back in 2008.
I wish I can go back and listen to the people that told,
"Hey! Forget about her. Let's go!"
I wish I would have listened.
I grew up in northeast Kansas, out in the country.
Everybody knew each other, everybody knew each other's kids.
It was a kind of lifestyle that nobody locked their doors
and didn't have to worry about anything.
I didn't have a lot of friends growin' up.
I had a hard time socializing with people,
'cause I didn't trust people.
I think I was 12 or 13 when I was finally diagnosed with PDD,
Pervasive Development Disorder,
part of the autistic scale.
But other than that, I-- I lived in a good home.
Angie was vibrant. She was happy. She was outgoing.
Every time I always saw her, she was always smilin'.
Plus, she had, um…
she had, uh, green eyes,
and I like green eyes.
But her stepdad found out how old I was.
And again, she was 15 and I was 17.
And he says, "There's too much of an age gap. Come back a year."
And I actually called her a year later.
And she couldn't believe it that it was like a year later,
'cause when she got my phone call, she was all excited.
I first met Daniel in my freshman year of high school.
He was my first real boyfriend.
My name is Angelyn, and I am a stalking survivor.
I had spoke to Daniel on the telephone and had kind of told him where I lived.
And next thing I know, here comes this truck down the road, and it was him.
I never had experienced someone
where you just kind of talked to them,
and all of a sudden, they just show up.
I really liked him.
When we first met, it wasn't, at that time, anything unusual.
It was just a normal relationship at the beginning.
And then, as time went on, he became more possessive.
He would call all hours of the night.
If he couldn't reach me by phone or have a friend get a hold of me,
he would turn up wherever I was.
And it got to the point that he was constantly there.
That, um, my parents started putting, like, rules on the amount of time
he could be there.
He would sneak in through the doggy door at my mom and dad's house.
And I would wake up with him, um, standing over me,
like, waving a dollar bill to wake me up.
But I felt at the time that that was love.
I mean, I know now that's not.
But at the time, when you're getting that type of attention and, you know,
he wants to spend time with you and take care of you and all of that…
I didn't think it was anything weird at the time.
Angie and I had three boys together.
And we moved to St. Joe, Missouri, where it's close to her family.
Yeah, we were really, really happy.
But then I'll do dumb stuff, she'll do dumb stuff.
'Cause we're young and I like that freedom to go out runnin' around.
And-- and that's what I did. I'll stay out all hours of the night.
And it just caused aggravation, arguments,
to the point where…
I literally snapped.
The violence started with little things.
Like, I wasn't allowed to sleep in the bed when he was mad.
So he would kick me off the bed and onto the floor.
Or he would get angry and throw things.
And just kind of pushing and shoving, that kind of thing.
But as time progressed, it got worse.
He would beat me in my head, like, my hair, to where you can't see bruises,
or suffocate me with pillows.
It got to the point that I would open the curtains on, like, the living room,
and I would write on the window, "Help,"
in hopes that, you know, someone… someone would notice and call.
No one ever did.
This is just a picture of how little they were at the time.
This is our-- This is my oldest, and then this is Dan and I,
our first baby together.
As I went through looking for photos,
every photo that I found had…
almost a negative--
a negative memory with it.
This photo is the apartment.
Um… it has my little boy in it,
and I was pregnant during that time period.
There was one time I thought I had heard a noise in the back of the apartment.
And I get to the end of the hallway, and he's there.
He came in through this door,
and my son was in this bedroom in his crib,
and I remember running from the bedroom.
I was able to get in here and get to the crib and pick him up.
And by the time I got back to this doorway, he had a hold of me.
He strangled me.
And he strangled me to the point, um…
I remember my son's feet hitting the ground,
and I remember going to my knees, and it was all black.
And when I finally came to, he was pulling my hair
and dragging me into the kitchen,
where he sat with a butcher knife to my throat.
There was so many instances like that.
He comes in, beats the crap out of me, and leaves.
And, again, you know, you call the cops, but he's already gone.
There's no protection with a restraining order.
It's just a piece of paper.
He would always come back.
He always found me. It didn't matter. He always found me.
He might be under a car.
Or in your back seat, or under a desk at work one time.
He always knew where I was.
If he didn't know where I was, he was able to find out where I was.
I think he was stalking me because he saw me as a possession.
I was his. He had total control over me.
I met Brandon,
and ended up moving into this house, and I had the kids.
But I knew that it's not over.
I was trying everything I could to salvage the marriage.
And then I found out she was with another guy,
and it did not settle with me at all.
How could she do that?
We have children together.
In-- in my mind, I was always thinkin',
"I'm gonna end up killing her."
"I'm-- I'm seriously gonna end up killing her."
One night, we were at the house,
and we heard someone walking on linoleum in the kitchen.
And, uh… there was a really long hallway,
and Brandon saw Dan's shoulder.
So we knew Dan was in the house.
And I had clicked on the cellphone, and he heard it come on.
And it took him a minute, but he ended up, like, going out the front door.
The cops responded.
But they couldn't find him.
When the police went through the basement,
they found a bag and gloves.
I had had a butcher block knife set on the counter,
and there's a huge butcher knife missing.
It kind of makes me feel like he was…
there that night for a purpose.
I remember being very angry…
because when he broke into the house, they find gloves, a bag,
and he gets charged with burglary because he took a knife.
I mean, that's more than burglary.
He could have killed me.
I mean, he was on that line,
and if he had just gone a little further, I wouldn't be here.
More should have been done.
I was angry at her.
It burned a hole through me like battery acid.
And I don't handle emotions very well because of my PDD.
Even though I knew it was wrong,
I didn't care, because I didn't like the way I felt,
and I was gonna use my actions to alleviate that pain.
That's when I broke in the house, and that's when I got the knife.
I was really gonna do some harm.
And I think that if it went any further, I would have crossed that line.
And when I only got eight years out of it, I was like, "Pfft!"
"That's nothing."
After I got out of prison, I moved on.
I completely erased Angie out of my memory.
Jennifer… When I first met her, I met her online.
And we kind of hit it off really good, I mean, um…
she came out of a real abusive, bad relation--
I mean, a nightmare.
So we had that understanding of where we're from, and we bonded very well.
She was smart. She was a single parent.
And when you see that somebody has that kind of responsibility
and knows what their priorities are, that's what attracted me to her.
We didn't move in right away.
We kind of… You know, I did things for her kids,
and, you know, just stuff, playing that role.
And, uh… and then later on, I finally moved in.
But then it got to the point
where she started getting controlling in the relationship.
And I don't function very well when people controlling me.
I don't like to be told what to do.
And, um…
Uh…
We got into an argument, and then, basically, I moved out.
And I let my anger…
trusting issues, all that stuff, play a role.
Hey, Jennifer, I wanted to call you to say I'm sorry for what happened last night.
I don't hate you.
Okay?
I love you, bye.
I think what it is, is that…
I have a hard time detaching myself
from that person that I have emotional ties with.
-Jennifer, please talk to me, okay?
There's no harm in talking to me.
Just, please.
And I don't handle that too well.
You need to pick up the phone.
Quit this bullshit and quit being a bitch all the time.
And if I can end a relationship in some way of violence,
then maybe I can be able to detach myself from the emotional ties.
I'm coming down right now, and I'm gonna sit there at the house.
At 1:30 in the morning, February 25th,
we got a call for a burglary in progress.
The call was not the first time we had responded to this residence.
My name is Scott Hendrickson.
In 2008, I was a patrol officer with the city of Bolivar, Missouri.
The victim informed us that the suspect that had broken into her house,
was her ex-romantic partner.
She identified him as Daniel Thompson.
What was worrying me with the pattern emerging
was the fact that he kept on coming back
on multiple times in the same day, multiple days.
I had never seen that level of persistence.
Up ahead on my right, this is the house that Daniel Thompson broke into.
When we arrived on scene, she was in a state of trauma.
She could barely speak.
He was on top of her, uh, when he woke her from her sleep.
He had a knife at her throat, and, uh, he covered her mouth with his hand.
A struggle ensued almost immediately.
During this struggle, uh… the suspect dropped the knife
and, uh, was choking her with both hands.
She found the knife that he had dropped, and, uh… stabbed him.
After being stabbed, he fled the area on foot.
I did locate him a short time later
kind of, uh, curled up and laying down on the pavement
behind a large propane tank.
And we called for an ambulance,
and, uh, he was loaded up in the ambulance and taken to our local hospital.
He only got caught when he got stabbed.
I believe that's the only reason he didn't kill her.
When a person shows this level of persistence,
he's communicating clearly that he will stop at nothing.
I don't think that probation is appropriate for this.
Thompson entered Jennifer's house
and strangled and held a knife to her throat.
That deserves far more punishment and accountability than zero jail time.
My name is Matthew Huffman.
I am the chief public affairs officer
at the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
In looking over Thompson's history of abusive and stalking behavior
with Jennifer and Angie,
the thing that stood out for me is the same sort of behavior
pops up with each of these individuals, showing a pattern.
It's starting with harassing phone calls,
keeping tabs of where the women he was in a relationship are,
showing up at their house constantly unannounced.
It involves strangulation of some sort.
It involves a knife to the throat.
That knife is something that comes up repeatedly in his abusive behavior,
and oftentimes, these abusive behavior patterns,
they will continue to escalate.
And that's why I don't think that probationary measures
can really be considered the end-all-be-all.
Probation, unless it is very strict,
constantly having check-ins with that individual,
constantly working with them to identify and correct
those abusive behavior patterns that they have,
it's not exactly going to solve or fix the issue.
Thompson has mental health issues that absolutely need to be addressed.
People deserve help with that,
but mental illness is in no way an excuse for violent and abusive behavior.
Oftentimes we talk about reform and rehabilitation.
I don't want to say that those never work, but in order for them to work,
that abusive individual has to want it to.
They have to recognize what they did, and they have to want it to work for them.
In no way has he shown that he understands what he has done is abuse.
So with Thompson out on probation,
I would be very concerned for his previous victims.
But more than that, I'd also be worried for any other potential person
he might be in an intimate relationship with.
Given the opportunity, I think that he would re-offend
and he would escalate in that violence.
Give me your first name.
How long have you known Daniel?
Aah…
Three months, maybe.
How'd you meet him?
Um…
The Internet.
My name is Mike Crocker.
In 2010, I was a detective with St. Clair County Sheriff's Office.
First time I've been back here,
and it definitely brings up some memories.
When I arrived on the scene, the female that was there was hysterical,
screaming, basically uncontrollable.
There was blood all over the place.
There was a male laying on the bed with a stab wound to the chest.
The female told us that somebody came in
and killed the person that she was in bed with that night.
That was your boyfriend?
The one that was layin' dead next to me?
I just met him.
Okay. What was his first name?
James.
-You know his last name?
-Vail. V-- -Vail?
V-A-I-L.
During the interview, she explained to us
that it was her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Thompson,
that had broken into the house and killed James Vail.
-When you went to bed… -Mm-hm?
…was the door to that house locked?
Yes. I locked the door.
James even double-checked it.
About how long after you went to bed
did this happen?
It didn't seem like very long.
I'm not sure.
Did you-- did you hear anything?
I didn't hear anything. I didn't hear anything.
Okay.
He had to have been out there.
He had to have been watching us.
He probably stabbed him with my frickin' knife.
He's psycho.
She told me that she had been in a relationship with Daniel Thompson,
but it went downhill rather quickly.
He had a bad temper,
and he was very upset when she broke up with him.
He'd been stalking her and threatening her since they had broken up.
He was constantly trying to find out where she was at, who she was with.
She was scared of him.
Local police had been called down to her house on two or three occasions.
We had a discussion with him about carrying a knife down to house
during the day prior to this murder.
When he was down at the house, did he say anything to James then?
Like, "I'll get you, I'll cut you, you son of a bitch, you mess with my woman"?
Nah. No. He just looked at him,
and you couldn't see any color in Dan's eyes.
I don't know if it was 'cause he was mad or what, but, oh my God.
He was furious.
I thought, "He's out to kill."
I was in a relationship with her,
and she lied to me.
And I don't like to be lied to.
She was the target.
I didn't even know this guy was even going to be there.
I didn't even know who he was.
I didn't know they were seeing each other.
I didn't even know his name.
But when I got in there, he was just there.
And you're thinking, everything, your emotions,
everything's racing a million miles per second and all of a sudden, it just--
Th-- It's that rush just starts coming, and you feel it and it's just like,
"To hell with it."
And that's what happened.
But it was-- Since it was so pitch-black in there,
I misjudged my distance
and I ended up getting him instead.
I brought you a butterfly.
James' murder could have been avoided.
Thompson was let go many times
throughout his years of abuse and stalking of other women.
And all the stalking that he's done in the past all led up to this.
My name is Bonnie Vail, and I am the mother of James Raymond Vail.
He was murdered by Daniel Thompson.
I love you, son.
James had an amazing personality.
He was very bubbly, very enthusiastic.
He called that day, and I asked him how he was doing, and he said,
"I'm having a really good time."
Said, "I met some really nice people and we're havin' fun."
And he sounded really happy.
And, uh, those were the last words I heard.
James' death made me so angry.
I wanted to find out about this Thompson,
because I wanted to see if he had a history of abuse and stalking.
I just started looking at the Internet,
and public records, and newspaper clippings.
And I pulled up several cases on him.
And every case was with a knife and he had stalked or he broke in,
and then I realized this is a pattern.
He literally got slapped on the hand many times,
and they just didn't wanna deal with him.
I wanted everybody to know that this wasn't a one-time thing,
and I wasn't gonna give up until my voice was heard.
I couldn't grieve until after this man was put in prison.
He needs to stay behind bars.
I remember seeing the case and being very angry.
It shouldn't have gotten to that point.
The night that he broke into my house, he had knives.
And Brandon could have been James that night.
I think when someone does something like this,
their whole history should be reviewed,
because it shows a pattern
and I just knew that I needed to help.
I remember getting a hold of the prosecutor,
and I told them who I was and what I had been through.
And she wanted us to come down and talk at his sentencing hearing.
I remember walking up to get onto the stand,
and I remember his beady eyes just glaring at me.
Like, he was so angry, you know?
But I didn't flinch.
I knew at that time that if I spoke out, he was going to prison.
I do not think it's a fair sentence for what he did.
I don't understand how you can possibly commit a crime like that…
get life, and then be eligible for parole.
That's wrong.
I understand it's "eligible." He may not get out.
But that also means he may get out.
And I worry for the victims that have spoken out,
because if he gets out, he's gonna be older.
No home, no job, no car, no life.
That's gonna make him angry.
And so I worry that if he were to get out, it would be scary.
That was in 2010.
Earlier in that year, there was a victim in March that he had attacked.
Because she said no, he burned her apartment.
Mm-hm.
-Five… -Bonnie and I are very close.
Tragedy brought us together, and I think her story begins where my story ended.
I'm constantly looking to find anything that I can use
when the parole time comes to show them that he's a danger to society
and he doesn't need to be on the streets.
He needs to stay in prison, 'cause he got life.
But in the United States, Missouri, it's not life.
It's 25 years, maybe.
For him to be released early is just wrong.
-There will be new victims. -Yeah.
There will be other people, because he doesn't stop.
-He hasn't been stopped. -Mm-hm.
Angie, she is my nemesis to the day I die.
I thought I was over with her. I really thought I was.
And she reappeared.
I don't believe that she'll ever leave me alone.
I think what it is, maybe she was scared.
She'll never forget that night,
and I-- I think that she probably lived in fear.
I don't hate her.
I don't…
I don't hold anything against her, because she was the…
She was the woman I loved.
And I hurt her.
And I still live with that to this day, and I still think about her.
I mean, uh…
You know, they always say the first marriage is the one you always want back.
And I wish I had that back.
And-- and I know I'll never get it back.
You don't know what it's like to take a human life.
It's-- it's nothin' like they show on TV.
It will haunt you. You'll never forget it.
I'm not proud, what I did.
I hate what I did.
I take responsibility for my choices.
I'll never blame somebody else for my choices that I made.
But I want people to believe that people can change over time.
I don't want people to hate me. I don't…
Uh, I… You know, uh…
I'm a human being. I'm not an animal.
If Dan were to say that he was a changed person
because he took some classes,
or found religion, or just changed on his own,
there is no reason to believe that.
If he were to change, he would have done it a long time ago.
I think he says what he says to try to manipulate the system.
I think he will reword and rework things
in order to make the system see him as he wants to be seen.
But he's not a changed person.
I absolutely think that if he was let out, he would do it again.
There's a pattern, and that pattern hasn't been broken.
And I think it's important that everybody sees that.