The Tinder Boyfriend Who Stalked and Stabbed His Ex to Death Outside Her Gym

after a messy breakup if you are out with some of your friends and you happen to run into your ex you might just write it off as a fluke but when you start to feel like you're being watched you might just tell yourself you're being paranoid but then when a victim finally comes to the realization that their privacy and their security are being threatened it can be one of the most violating experiences ever for some being stocked is one of the most traumatizing forms of emotional manipulation and also the most traumatizing form of of abuse to deal with because it can be hard to prove that the stalker is actually doing something illegal now for 23-year-old Molly McLaren when her ex-boyfriend started showing up around her she hoped it was just a coincidence however as these coincidences kept happening Molly had no idea just how desperate and dangerous her ex would become it is a very scary topic stalking is absolutely no joke because again it is very difficult to prove and it can be very very dangerous today's case is a deeply upsetting one and also a pretty graphic one so please just take care of your well-being hey guys my name is Annie Elise this is T to life and we're going to Jump Right In [Music] 23-year-old Molly McLaren was born on May 26th 1994 in Kent England Molly had beautiful blonde hair and bright blue eyes which perfectly just matched her bubbly and kind personality her mother Joanne who goes by Joe compared Molly to a ray of sunshine due to her outgoing helpful and caring nature and she was always very very close with her family now in addition to having a very close family Molly also had a tight-knit main group of friends and they all loved going shopping together and getting dressed up and going out they liked to dance at the local bars and at the local clubs and Molly especially loved going to music festivals every year she would try to go to as many festivals as she possibly could however even though Molly always seemed happy on the outside she actually dealt with a lot of internal struggles as well growing up Molly suffered from panic attacks that were brought on by anxiety and she also battled with an eating disorder like many people who suffer from similar issues Molly was able to hide it from her loved ones for a while and pretty well her friends and family were completely unaware of what she was going through but eventually Molly gained the courage to open up about it so that she could get the help that she needed with the strong support of her family and friends she was able to overcome her eating disorder and learn how to cope with her anxiety as well and Molly was said to overcome any barrier that was ever put in her way no matter how difficult it was she was able to completely turn her life around and started becoming interested in healthy eating and also Fitness now her parents at first were a little bit worried and a little bit trepidacious that this would make her relapse and obsess over food again but that ended up not being the case she surrounded herself with positive like-minded people and they all encouraged each other to just live this healthy but balanced lifestyle style Molly's personality always led to her wanting to help other people as well so she thought that by sharing her struggles that she overcame that she might be able to help other girls who were dealing with similar situations so Molly decided to create a blog where she would tell her story how she developed a healthier relationship with food and how she also started a fitness journey now her main goal in this was to promote acceptance self-confidence and loving your body in addition to her blog she often would post her work workouts on social media with the goal of helping others just start an active lifestyle like she had one of mol's very good friends named Amy also struggled with an eating disorder and had said that Molly's courage inspired her to keep fighting and to ultimately get healthy through all the various activities that she was doing Molly was a very hardworking and popular person she had a very busy social life she worked several jobs and at just 21 years old she started attending Kent University on top of everything else she made sure to keep excellent grades while majoring in exercise science you see Molly's passion for leading a healthier lifestyle also inspired her to want to become a fitness trainer and since Kent University was so close to home she was able to save money by living with her parents while still attending classes in 2016 Molly had everything going for her the only thing that was missing in her eyes was a relationship Molly had never really had a serious boyfriend and hadn't even dated anyone for longer than 6 months she didn't want to mess around either she wanted something real with a future she wanted to start planning her life so Molly did what many people do nowadays and she decided to download Tinder to hopefully meet someone she would match with a few guys and start some conversations but nobody ever really stood out to her that was until July 31st 2016 when she matched with 24-year-old Joshua Stimson Joshua lived with his father in Woodham which is about an hour away from where Molly lived in Kent his parents got divorced wored when he was young and his mom was out of the picture for most of his life because of this Joshua had developed some abandonment issues also some anxiety and some depression at a very young age and it apparently was so bad that his Dad tried to get him help and Joshua was in and out of treatment facilities through most of his childhood he also told people that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder now aside from being able to relate on dealing with mental health struggles Josh also loved it to exercise and stay in shape as well he had also never been in a ser ious relationship just like Molly so from their conversations it seemed like they had a lot in common they bonded over their love for Fitness but also their shared experience with anxiety and depression made them Bond even more Joshua and Molly kept their relationship strictly online for the first few months because like I mentioned Molly was serious about finding a long-term relationship so before she committed to meeting anybody in person she wanted to get to know them and see if they truly had an emotional connection the longer they talked the more Molly started to feel this way toward Joshua he was sweet they liked the same things and online Joshua really did seem perfect for Molly so after a few months of talking they finally decided to meet in person in the fall of 2016 and it wasn't long after that that they ultimately made things official they were in a new budding relationship but as the honeymoon pH gradually started to wear off in this new relationship Molly started to realize that Joshua was actually actually much different in person than he was online from the beginning of their relationship Joshua seemed to always want to be around Molly however it started to become excessive and kind of come off as him being a little bit possessive over her and when Molly's friends met him maybe it was intuition but they all had a feeling that something just was not right he didn't have any friends of his own and he didn't seem interested in talking to Molly's friends or getting to know any of her friends either and if they were all out together he would just try to pull Molly away from the group and kind of have him all to himself all alone he even started trying to convince Molly that her friends weren't good people and that she should start distancing herself from them and this is a tactic that a lot of people do when they are abusive or manipulative and have these possessive Tendencies they try to isolate you they love bomb you they separate you from your friends and it appeared that this is exactly what Joshua was doing with Molly he had said that she was spending way too much time with her friends and that she needed to focus more more on their relationship so kind of taking a sid step really quick when Molly first told her parents about this new relationship and about Joshua her mom Joe was initially nervous about meeting him Molly had told her that Joshua was bipolar and Joe worried that his mental health issues would be a lot for Molly considering that she had her own struggles to deal with but Molly said that they could be a support system for each other and when her parents ended up meeting Joshua her mom Joe didn't notice anything abnormal or any obvious red flags Joshua and Molly's dad Douglas sat down drank a beer together chatted and even laughed they would talk about football or soccer if you're in the US and Molly's family even went to support him when he ran a marathon in the spring of 2017 everything seemed pretty good but even though their initial impressions of Joshua were good as time went on Jo and Doug's opinion of him began to change they too began noticing just how possessive Joshua was over Molly on Father's Day Josh spent the the entire day with Molly's family and her parents thought it was really weird considering that his dad lived only an hour away and had raised Joshua all on his own and this was really the first instance that they felt like something wasn't quite right then on another occasion Molly was talking about how Joshua wouldn't let her watch his soccer practices and she didn't understand why so Doug began to wonder if it was because Joshua didn't get along with his teammates maybe he was so possessive over Molly that he didn't even want the team to look at her maybe it was something like that so ultimately Molly started to feel really suffocated by Joshua because he would basically never leave her alone Molly had school a job and friends all these people and all these things that she wanted to spend time doing and spend time with but according to Joshua she should be spending more time with him he said that Molly struggled so much with her anxiety and eating disorder that she needed him there to care for her and support her but that actually wasn't the case at all before Joshua Molly had been doing really well she had a handle on her mental health and she was managing her life but after Joshua came into the picture she started having a lot of anxiety again and her eating disorder began creeping back into her mind with Josh there Molly seemed to be getting worse not better Josh even quit his job working at a warehouse to spend more time with Molly even though she had told him that she needed her space she needed to study for school and had other things to do other than spend every single a waking minute with Joshua she tried to tell him that she couldn't be with him all the time and that she needed time for herself time to work time for school and time with her friends but Joshua did not like this he tried to make Molly feel guilty for thinking this way and said that she was taking his kindness for granted and throwing it back in his face things then started getting more concerning when Joshua just started randomly showing up to places that he was not invited to Molly would plan a get together or a night out with her friends and Joshua would just randomly appear she didn't tell him where she was going though and she didn't tell him what time she was going but somehow he knew exactly where she would be and when she would be there and he would just show up even if she was just out studying in the library boom he would magically appear he'd show up so Molly felt like no matter where she was around every single Corner Josh would be there and it really started to creep her out so after multiple instances of Joshua just showing up unannounced Molly decided it was time to end their relationship but Josh wasn't going to just accept this decision it was like he wouldn't take no for an answer he was constantly texting her calling her and literally wouldn't leave her alone one minute he was apologizing saying everything was his fault and he would do better and then the next minute he turned angry and yelled at Molly that it was all her fault after that didn't work he eventually started doing what he did when they first met and he tried to love bomb Molly now I know I've said the term love bomb twice already but if you don't know what love bombing is it's basically when someone gives excessive attention and compliments to the person that they are interested in they shower them with love attention all to gain their trust and make that person feel special and really dependent on them generally it isn't because they truly love that person but it's done because they want to control them by Joshua showering Molly with so much love and attention she actually did start to consider giving him another chance too seemed like it was working he kept saying that he was going to do better and even got a new job at a window company as an operations assistant so to Molly it seemed like Joshua was maybe turning his life around and trying to change because he really did love her she talked to her friends about possibly taking him back but she promised that she would be more careful and that she would leave again if things went South so soon Molly and Joshua were back together now unsurprisingly though the happiness didn't last long and things went from bad to worse things hadn't really changed at all and once again again Joshua started showing up to places that he was not invited to and again Molly had no idea how he knew that she was there her friends weren't happy at all because they felt like Josh was trying to once again isolate and manipulate her even Joshua's new co-workers thought he was weird because he would be happy one minute and then he would suddenly turn angry and irrational the next even Molly's extended family were able to see how controlling Joshua was one time Molly brought him to her aunt's 60th birthday party and thought it would be a fun and relaxing weekend that would kind of just like reset their relationship and bring it back to a good place but unfortunately that didn't happen the entire time Joshua was hovering and watching Molly like a hawk at the party she would be dancing with her nieces and her cousins and Joshua would just glare at her in Anger almost as if he was silently telling her to stop and sit down now you probably know the look because you probably have received it once or twice in your life unfortunately like I have have where they're just kind of staring at you and if looks could kill it's almost like that's where the expression came from so family members noticed this and they thought that it was super weird and also very controlling and like her friends they just didn't get a good feeling about Joshua and I mean honestly who gets angry over somebody having a good time and dancing with their family that is a huge red flag the ultimate red flag if you're threatened by somebody's family that's a problem so after the party Molly and Joshua returned to their hotel room and a huge fight between them ensued Joshua was yelling and going absolutely batshit crazy and it got so bad that Molly texted her mom to come to their room and help her so as Joe was walking to Molly's room she could hear Joshua yelling he was so loud that Joe could hear him all the way down the hallway when she arrived at the room Joshua started trying to convince mol's own mother that this was all Molly's fault he even started showing her videos that he had secretly taken of Molly during some of their arguments and Molly of course had no idea that he was doing any of this and it was obviously a huge violation of her trust but Joshua acted like it was no big deal so they were able to cool off but after that weekend Molly's family became very worried for her safety they didn't trust Joshua and they didn't want Molly to be with him they weren't sure what he was capable of or what he would do to her if they kept their relationship going so as people who loved and cared about Molly they feared the absolute worst but Molly being the understanding person that she was she still wanted to give him one last chance now some of you might be wondering why she would continue taking him back but if you have never been in an emotionally or mentally harmful relationship watching someone continually go back to a horrible partner can be frustrating and confusing but that is unfortunately what happens in many of these types of relationship like this one I personally have been in one and it is very difficult to get away way when things are good they are really good your partner showers you with love attention and makes you feel incredibly special you become so dependent on them and find ways to explain away and rationalize their bad behavior and after a while it starts to feel like this is just how normal relationships are and like you have to accept the good with the bad it's almost too like you start accepting so many bad things and explaining away bad behavior that the threshold for what is acceptable and good continues to decrease so where maybe once in your mind you were thinking okay a good relationship should you know rank it say here well now you're starting to say this is a good relationship then you're starting to say this is a good relationship and so on and it's just the more you accept over time unfortunately the more dangerous and toxic becomes even more difficult to get out of it while most relationships go through Rocky patches there's a big difference between that and what Molly was dealing with from Josh it was manipulative it was dangerous and it was very very toxic so in one last ditch effort to try to attempt to save their relationship Molly booked them a trip to Spain she hoped that having a private and romantic vacation together would again reset their relationship and get them back to a good place but almost as soon as they arrived in Spain Molly was once again texting her friends saying that things were not going well they were arguing and they were fighting and Molly felt like Josh was just always lurking around and watching her she could barely get any time to herself to even send a text message she was sending messages to her friends that said things like help me and that the relationship was not getting better like she had hoped Molly couldn't wait to get back home and when she did she knew she had to end things with Joshua once and for all she couldn't handle being in a relationship with him anymore but she was nervous to end things because the last time they had broken up it had been such a bad experience so after being back on June 17th Molly was going out with some of her friends but this time she did invite Joshua she asked him to put their problems aside for the night and to just chill and have a good time together but of course Joshua had to start an argument had to start an argument for something and Molly finally just could not take it anymore and she broke up with him right then and there right on the spot Joshua turned around to Molly's friends and he screamed at them she's just done with me as if he thought he was going to get some sort of sympathy from her friend friends or like they maybe had put her up to it so he started getting really loud and really aggressive but eventually he left the bar however that wouldn't be the end of Joshua for Molly the next morning he sent her tons of messages doing exactly what he did the last time they broke up just like Molly had feared he was being overly sweet saying things about how he would change and that he wanted her back but this time Molly didn't care she was completely done with him and she could see through all of of his bullshit all of his lies she wanted nothing to do with Joshua and once again his text then started becoming aggressive so she blocked him on her phone and blocked him on all of her social media accounts now as you can imagine this enraged Joshua and his behavior only escalated he was so mad at Molly that he wanted to ruin her entire life and her entire reputation Molly had built a pretty big following on social media for her health and fitness lifestyle and journey so Joshua decided that he was going to take it into his own hands and he was going to show the world that Molly wasn't as healthy as she claimed to be he started making posts saying that the only reason that Molly stayed thin was because she used cocaine he also started posting videos of their arguments the ones that he had recorded of her in secret now because Molly had blocked him on social media she was initially unaware that he was posting all of these crazy things but Joshua started tagging all of her family and friends in the posts so that it could further humiliate her and to make sure that she got the message that she was aware of what was going on one of Molly's cousins called her to tell her what he was posting and since Molly had blocked Joshua's phone number he downloaded a messenger app and began sending her threatening texts that way still just not allowing communication to be broken off a clear psychopath and like this entitled feeling of I have to talk to her it's my right it is not your right bro it is not your right so obviously this started making Molly get very very scared she thought Joshua was going to hurt her and she was afraid to be home alone texts to her friends actually show Molly saying I am actually scared of what he might do when her friends asked Molly if she thought Joshua would ever physically harm her she said that she did after Joshua kept making these horrible posts about her Molly finally had enough so she and her mom printed out all of the evidence that they had of Joshua harassing her including those text messages and the post post that he was putting out online and they brought them to the police station it was June 22nd and they go into the police station and they ask these officers to help her because she was literally becoming afraid for her life they looked up Joshua and they didn't see any reports about him and they told Molly that there wasn't really much that they could do the police decided to call Joshua and they put him on speaker phone to just ask for him to take the post down but Joshua kept saying that he hadn't done anything wrong and I quote if you think this is bad wait until you you see what's coming now I can't imagine how Molly was feeling at that moment first of all to have the police put the man who was harassing you on speaker phone right in front of you is absolutely insane and the fact that they just let him talk about how these things were going to get worse is even more insane can you imagine going to the police saying you're scared for your life only for them to tell you that they can't do anything to help then to call your harasser have him openly making threats on speaker phone and still not do anything about it so this only made Molly more terrified because now Joshua knew that she had reported him to the police however the police didn't even log this incident so Molly and her mother left the station feeling even more helpless than they did before and to make things worse 2 Days Later Joshua went to the police station and said that Molly was the one damaging his reputation the police just repeated what they had told him before take down the posts and stop trying to talk to her but that really had no effect because a few days later Molly called the police again this time to tell them that Joshua was still posting about her they finally logged that incident and eventually called Molly back to tell her that Joshua agreed to take down the post but still said that there was legally nothing that they could do completely frustrated Molly and her mom decided that they now needed to take things into their own hands since she was scared to be home alone they printed out pictures of Joshua and started posting them and handing them out around around the neighborhood they were warning Neighbors about Joshua telling them what he did to Molly and asking them to be on the lookout for him in the neighborhood they basically kind of formed their own neighborhood watch in all of this because they couldn't think of anything else to do put everybody on high alert of this creep and Casey starts lurking around he's dangerous clearly Molly was trying to get back to her normal life and on June 28th 2017 she made plans for a night out with her friends Molly had enrolled in her first personal training course and another friend recently got promotion so they wanted to all go out and celebrate now as you can imagine everything had been so stressful and she really just wanted to have some fun with her friends and take her mind off of everything earlier in the day Molly posted on her Instagram story that she and her friends were going to a bar later that night called ship and trades and she assumed posting this was okay and that it was safe because remember she had blocked Joshua on all forms of social media therefore he should have had no way of being able to find out where she was going or see the post right so that night Molly and her friends were drinking dancing and having a good time until lo and behold Joshua walked in and this time with another girl now Molly didn't feel 1 ounce of jealousy which really solidified to herself that she was definitely not in love with this guy anymore but Molly and her friends still thought that him showing up there was a very odd coincidence and she got that feeling that something was just off she felt like he was there on purpose to try to make her jealous or try to get her attention so after Josh walks in he goes and sits at the bar and Molly and her friends were sitting at a table a ways away but the entire time Josh was just watching them and trying to catch Molly's eye when he ended up ultimately leaving with his date he purposefully walked by Molly's table to exit the bar and the bar had multiple exits and one was way closer to where he was sitting but he wanted to go out of his way to walk by her now Molly was a little freaked out by this rightfully so and she wanted to just go home and relax she wanted to watch Love Island she wanted to just chill get her mind off of things but after Molly left she had no idea that Joshua was actually following her the entire time Molly woke up the next day and decided to go to the gym around 10:00 a.m. when she got there she found an empty room like one of those where they hold the group exercise classes and she started her workout on her own now first she was all by herself that was until Joshua came into the room and set up his exercise mat right next to her the gym was practically empty and he could have put his mat literally anywhere but instead he came and sat right next to her surveillance footage showed at Joshua walking up the stairs and peeking in the door of the room where Molly was working out he walked away for a second before turning back around and going into the room with her he was in the room for a bit before leaving again and then he came back to look through the door at Molly now Molly was really freaked out and I think anybody would be in this moment first she saw him last night at the bar and now he's at her gym so Molly started texting her friend Amy and also her mom about what was happening Amy told her that this definitely wasn't just a coincidence and Molly felt the exact same way she knew that the only way that he could have known her location was if he had been following her so she decided to confront him she asked him why he wasn't at work and he told her that it wasn't any of her business so Molly decided to move her things to a different area of the gym but she kept texting Amy and texting her mom she didn't know what she should do but she was scared finally she saw Joshua leave out of the entrance and she started to feel a little bit of relief both Amy and her mom told Molly that she needed to go straight home get the heck out of there so at around 11:00 a.m. Molly started walking to her car in the parking lot she didn't see him outside but Joshua had apparently never actually left he was sitting watching and circling the parking lot waiting for her to come outside Molly got inside of her car but before she could even lock her doors Joshua ripped open the driver's side door and he began attacking her with a knife stabbing her over and over and over a man named Benjamin Morton ran over and started yelling at Joshua to stop screaming at him Joshua was practically inside the car with his legs hanging out and Benjamin tried to yank his legs trying to get him out but there was so much blood that his hands were slipping he then started slamming the car door on Joshua's legs think think that might get him to stop but Joshua just pulled himself further into the car and he started trying to cut Molly's throat Benjamin didn't know what else to do so he got in his own car and he blocked Joshua in so that he couldn't leave but Joshua didn't even care and he didn't even try to leave when he decided he had stabbed her enough and he had done enough he got out of Molly's car and he just calmly waited for the police to arrive when they got there they saw that Josh was covered in blood and he simply stated you want me he was arrested and eventually brought to a psychiatric hospital paramedics tried to revive Molly but Joshua had stabbed her over 75 times and had also tried to Slit her throat so she was pronounced dead at 11:43 a.m. on June 29th 2017 Molly's friends and family started seeing the news about something going on at the gym and that a girl had been attacked and killed in the parking lot the news didn't say who girl was but her friends could see Molly's location on Snapchat and it said that she was still at the gym her friend Amy started putting two and two together and she called Molly's mom to tell her what had happened what was going on Molly's mom called her father who was out on a boat hundreds of miles away at the time and he rushed back as fast as he could to be with his wife and be with Molly's brother Tom a couple days later on June 30th 2017 Joshua was charged with murder but instead he only pleaded guilty to manslaughter he claimed that he had multiple personality disorder and therefore couldn't be charged with murder because he wasn't in the right state of mind and this is something we have seen with many murderers before they try to claim this if you remember the case of Leticia stal the woman who brutally murdered her stepson Ganon she also tried to claim that she had multiple personality disorder in order to escape the charges she even went as far as like talking in a different accent saying different names I mean it was truly bizarre ultimately her act didn't work but Joshua was now trying to do this as well Joshua's trial for the murder of Molly began on January 23rd 2018 he was still sticking to his manslaughter plea with diminished responsibility due to his multiple personality disorder while Josh was awaiting trial two different mental health professionals visited him but they disagreed on his diagnosis One Professional who testified on behalf of the defense said that he had borderline personality disorder he said that Josh had abandonment issues from his mother leaving when he was young and and that he wasn't functioning normally at the time of Molly's murder the other mental health professional testified on behalf of the prosecution and said that Josh did not have any signs of a personality disorder that would have caused him to murder Molly this professional said that Josh was vain immature a narcissist and showed no remorse for the murder however it was also revealed through these evaluations that Joshua didn't even actually have bipolar disorder and he had been lying to Molly about it all along and the prosecution presented even more damning evidence remember when Joshua had initially told Molly that he had never been in a relationship just like her well that too was a lie two women Leah hubber and Alexander Dale came forward to testify about their past interactions with Joshua Leah stated that she briefly dated Josh before breaking up with him because of his creepy Behavior like with Molly he would just show up randomly to these random places and the only way that he could have known that she was there is if he had been following her he would even send her pictures of herself and ask her why she was wearing certain clothing shortly after breaking things off with him Leah was in a nightclub with her friends when Joshua arrived and threw a drink in her face he was escorted out by security but when Leah left the club 5 hours later Joshua was still outside waiting for her on another occasion Joshua knocked on her bedroom window at 2: a.m. saying that he needed to charge his phone she contacted the police about this and they once again said they couldn't do much like with Molly they messaged Joshua asking him to stop but never filed an official report now Alexandra The Other Woman said that she and Josh went out a couple of times but she just felt that something was off about him she ended up telling Joshua that she wasn't interested in him romantically which apparently made him extremely upset he called her 25 times in a single night and sent her pictures of her own backyard even though she had never once told him where she lived one morning she woke up and found that the tires on her mom's car were slashed she also went on a vacation and Joshua sent her text saying that he was going to fly out to where she was and drown her Alexander too reported these instances of stalking to the police in fact she reported them three times but again they never did anything about it all they did was send him a text to ask him to stop and they never filed a police report the prosecution also found out many other odd things about Josh they discovered that he had convinced another girl on Tinder to follow Molly on Instagram which is how he was able to find out that she was going to be at ship and trades on the night of June 28th they also found that Molly had applied for a receptionist job at a gym on June 20th this gym was different from the one that she and Josh usually went to together so on June 27th Joshua bought a member wor ship to that exact same gym and on that same day Josh was seen on CCTV footage buying a pickaxe and a pairing knife from the local hardware store police found these items in Josh's possession on the day of Molly's murder along with a box cutter he had on him as well they also spoke about Josh's strange Behavior at work after Molly broke up with him co-workers said that his behavior was more erratic than usual he was constantly crying and even told them that he was going to do something stupid but he never went into further detail eventually his supervisor spoke to him and they agreed that he would start working part-time instead of full-time the first day of his part-time work schedule was the same day that he attacked Molly the prosecution argued that Joshua killed Molly because he couldn't control her and on February 6th 2018 after deliberating only for a few hours the jury unanimously found Joshua guilty of first-degree murder he was eventually sentenced to 2 6 years to life in prison the judge who sentenced him said that he was a highly dangerous man who posed a threat to women in the future and would likely never be released Joshua is currently in jail serving his sentence now if you're like me one of the most frustrating things about this case is that it could have been prevented if the police had filed reports when Alexandra initially called them those reports would still have shown up when Molly reported Joshua to the police it would have shown a history of behavior a pattern escalation and maybe the police would have taken it more seriously and if they took it more seriously Molly might still be alive unfortunately we know that nothing can be done to change the past but the local police department knew that they had done many things wrong so they hired an auditor to help them figure out how they can improve and eventually the department changed its policies on stalking which is now considered a crime that must be officially reported to create a paper trail July 10th 2018 was supposed to be Molly's graduation day her parents attended the graduation ceremony to accept her diploma on her behalf and they received a standing ovation from the crowd Molly's parents also set up the Molly McLaren Foundation to help those with eating disorders and hold a music festival called Molly Fest and this is on her birthday every year last year near the 5-year Mark of Molly's death her parents did an interview discussing the impact that her death has had on them and the changes that need to be made to help people to begin with we were both really strong and there for each other but now Doug seems to be on his own and doesn't let anyone in it's just bad memories and the more you think about it the more you hate it she would want us to try and be happy together for the rest of our lives but we're finding that really tough the only time I go out is now I will go to the supermarket once every once a week or once every two weeks people have said let's go for a walk around the village I can't do that I find it hard to uh I suppose go to places that I went with Molly because although I love the memories I don't need to physically go there to have the memories so are stalking protection orders do you think doing enough well I think anything that um improves the situation is going to be worthwhile there have been 356 applications that is 3% of the 103,000 crimes recorded it's not much is it it's unbelievable why it's not good enough is it no why only that for you one of the Charities involved said it's a disaster waiting to happen but it's not waiting to happen it has happened and is happening there's a complete lack of communication between different police forces if man or woman goes to the police frightened about someone even though that person might not be arrested but there should be a notes there should be a database with their name on it had there been one then with his name on it for things he did up in Staffordshire then when Molly went to the place they would have seen his name you're wearing the t-shirts tell me about Molly firstest and the Molly McLaren Foundation it's basically music food drink people getting together at Molly's wake it was so lovely having all family and friends together and a few of her friends said wouldn't it be lovely to do this once a year and that's where we got the idea from let's have a Molly Fest cuz Molly loved festivals we formed the foundation after Molly died Molly had suffered with bulimia um but she'd largely overcome it and she showed us and she showed other people that you can beat it the King around the sunflower is everywhere I know it's a symbol of Molly but why sunshine it's beautiful it's summed up in a flower what Molly was do you feel that the victim isn't given priority in our legal system the um perpetrators seem to get a better deal he's going to be looked after for all the time he's in there they're going to make sure he's safe we're not all right who's looking after us I feel I always need to know what prison he's in but we're not allowed to know and it just seems to be he always gets the better deal do you think about him day to day I try not to but he creeps into my thoughts especially because of the effect he's having on Doug and I now I don't want to give him the uh pleasure and I'm determined he's not going to get the better of us we will get through this together I'm not having it any other way Molly will always be missed by her family and her friends but her story has brought a lot of awareness and policy changes for the horrible crime of stalking and this will no doubt help other people in the future which is what Molly always wanted to do it's just heartbreaking that this is what had to happen in order to make that dream a reality I appreciate you listening to Molly's story today guys I know it's tough especially triggering for those who have ever been in in a situation or a relationship like this one so I do appreciate you hearing her story if you want to hear more true crime stories as always I upload a few different times a week so make sure you subscribe to the channel turn your notifications on so that you don't miss any of those episodes and hearing other people's stories all right guys thanks for tuning in and until the next one stay safe bye

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 30,465

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: mKIz1s2mQtQ

Length: 40min 29sec (2429 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 26 2023