Eva LaRue & Daughter Kaya Callahan Reveal New Details of Stalking Nightmare You Didn’t See in Doc (VIDEO)

Warning: The following post contains discussions of stalking, murder, rape, and torture.

In the midst of her notable run on CSI: Miami, All My Children actress Eva LaRue and her daughter, Kaya Callahan (AMC’s John Callahan is her father and LaRue’s ex-husband), were dealing with a stalker who tormented them for 12 years. Over the course of their two-episode Paramount+ docuseries, My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story, the mother and daughter chronicle their horrifying ordeal and how they’re doing today.

Starting in 2007, LaRue and Callahan, who was five years old at the time, were stalked by James David Rogers. He would write them obsessive letters in which he threatened to kill, rape, decapitate, and dismember LaRue and her young daughter. He also called Callahan’s school several times and claimed to be her father, and he left threatening voicemails targeting Callahan. Revisiting the specifics of that terrifying time was difficult for LaRue and Callahan.

“To really relive it and also unearth it in a way that I never had before, it was incredibly healing but also triggering at the same time,” Callahan, now 23, told TV Insider. LaRue noted that they had their “therapist on speed dial” while shooting the docuseries because it was “retraumatizing.”

There are a few moments when Callahan is so overcome with emotion that she has to take a beat before continuing to film. Callahan recalled one moment in particular when she had to discuss her biggest fear, which was coming home to her mother being stabbed and tied up by her stalker.

“I just froze,” Callahan admitted. “Oddly enough, you don’t see it in the docuseries, but I started laughing, and the interviewer’s like, ‘You’re not supposed [to do that],’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s happening. Actually, I’m having an out of body experience, and I can’t stop.’ I had a breakdown. And then I went from laughing to crying.”

Forté Entertainment / Paramount+

This experience has created a “trauma bond” between the mother and daughter. Because Rogers was stalking them throughout Callahan’s formative years, LaRue said her daughter “couldn’t be as free as she wanted to be, so we had our struggles during that time.” After navigating through their troubles, they’ve come back together even stronger. “It’s been this incredible bonding glue for us because nobody else knows what we’ve been through,” LaRue said. “Nobody else knows how to come through the other side of it together.”

Rogers was arrested in 2019, and he pleaded guilty to two counts of mailing threatening communications, two counts of stalking, and one count of threats by interstate communications in 2022. He was sentenced to just 40 months in prison, and he’s since been released.

LaRue told TV Insider that she and Callahan “almost didn’t do the documentary” because Rogers is out of prison. However, they wanted to showcase the DNA technology that helped catch Rogers. The men, whom LaRue lovingly called “the two Steves,” behind the technology were FBI agents. The same technology that identified Rogers also helped catch the Golden State Killer.

Despite over a decade of threats and stalking, Rogers only got three and a half years in prison. However, LaRue and Callahan’s lawyers were “afraid he was going to just get off with a slap on the wrist,” according to LaRue. “The maximum he could have gotten was seven years, and he should have gotten seven years, [but] they didn’t consider us separately. They kind of lumped us together.” She added, “We also know there were other people he was stalking, and it’s not my story to tell, but I know for sure that there was another soap actress from One Life to Live, a girl, a teenager.” However, in the end, the young woman didn’t want to come forward.

Forté Entertainment / Paramount+

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'CSI: Miami' Star Eva LaRue Details How She Was Stalked With Daughter for 12 Years

While Rogers was locked up, Callahan was able to experience life like she never had before. “The time he was in prison was the most free I’ve ever felt,” she said. “I was in college. COVID had started to end. I went to Arizona, so they really didn’t care, and I was able to just live my life like the normal young adult.”

Even though LaRue and Callahan continue to be “hyper aware” at all times and live “very cautiously,” they’re not letting this experience deter them from living fulfilling lives. “We live peacefully in spite of it. We’re trying to be fearless, not fearful,” LaRue said.

Watch the full video above to learn more about LaRue and Callahan’s experience and how they’ve persevered.

My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story, Streaming Now, Paramount+