What makes a mystery alluring to you? Is it the twists and turns, or is it the unknown? Mysteries are mentally engaging in a way that other genres of writing are not. Mysteries require us to use our cognitive abilities to interpret the clues as well as our imagination to identify with the characters in a true crime story. There is also an element of intrigue. The unknown or uncertainty captures our interest on a deeper level. Mysteries engage us emotionally, pique our curiosity, offer elements of surprise, interest, anger, doubt, disgust, and other affective states. They challenge us to use reason, logic, and deduction. Hard-to-decipher clues may be impossible to figure out, and the mystery eludes us. Disappointment sets in when we fail to find the answers, and we are motivated to continue looking for clues to solve the mystery. When our deductions are confirmed. It is a rewarding experience because we have solved the unknown. It is like an epiphany! (Monaghan, 2020).

A detective one said to me, "If you only knew who was walking behind you, you would spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulders." That statement stuck with me throughout my travels around the world. I didn't worry so much about the people who were walking behind me but more about those who were around me. I would later change the detective's statement: "If you only knew who was around you, you would spend the rest of your life looking right in front of you!" Are people who they appear to be? Do we ever really know someone? We take people for granted, at face value, when we meet them and believe that they are who they tell us they are. Are we too trusting? There are some people who are natural-born predators.

Stalkers are natural born-predators. There are two stalking typologies that I feel fit the characters in this true account: one is a delusional psychotic and the other a sadistic stalker. There is also behavioral overlap between the two categories. As the story evolves, you will be able to see the established patterns of behaviour that I have highlighted. Some of the behaviors of a delusional psychotic stalker are victim-fixated, incessant phone calls, e-mails, and visits. They may have borderline personality disorder or episodic schizophrenia. The sadistic stalker displays a progressive escalation of control over their victim financially, professionally, socially, historically, and physically. Stalkers try to dig up information on their victim's past and use it against them. They try to control the victim through fear, loss of privacy, isolation, and by undermining their self-esteem. This stalker is highly dangerous and often revisits their victim after a hiatus. It is important to note that forensic studies have found that personality disorder, high criminal versatility, and past offending are significantly related to recurrent stalking. Psychosis is the strongest predictor for increased duration. Delusional beliefs are associated with increased stalking persistence, especially among acquaintance stalkers

The predatory nature of the two stalkers is visible throughout the book. It is as though both stalkers were hunting together. When one appeared in my life, within two weeks the second one would appear. There was a hiatus and then both reappeared at the same time repeatedly over a sixteen-year period.

Predators Amongst Us

A person can be a psychopath and go through life appearing normal to others, not even knowing that they have a personality disorder. Even if they are tested, they may score low on psychometric tests for psychopathology. They may have no criminal history, may have high grades in school, may be married and have children, may be business owners, and are often pillars of the community. An example of such a person is the Vegas Shooter.

The Vegas shooter was a successful businessman who was highly regarded by many. People who knew him described him as charming, outgoing, helpful, and likeable. How did he go from being a charming and engaging professional businessman to American's most notorious lone gunman? Sixty-four-year-old Stephen Paddock had meticulously planned an outrageous attack on Americans. On October 1, 2017, he callously killed sixty people and wounded 411 others before committing suicide. To date, the motive for Paddock's mass shooting is still a mystery. Paddock and his brother were not raised around their psychopathic bank robber father and didn't know about him until later in their lives. We can conclude that there was little environmental influence from the father. Interestingly, Paddock's brother also has a criminal history, and this tells us there may be a strong genetic component for psychopathology and criminality.

Psychopaths walk amongst us and are capable of criminal versatility. They lie pathologically, brag about their crimes, are highly manipulative, lack remorse, and use threats and violence to control every aspect of their victims' lives. To add insult to injury, they lay blame on their victims for their behavior. "Psychopathic violence is more likely to be predatory in nature, motivated by readily identifiable goals, and are carried out in a callous, calculated manner without the emotional context that usually characterizes the violence of other offenders" (Hare 2003, p.136).

A psychopath's game is great fun. Whether they are physically stalking, cyberstalking, or both, it is a game of cat and mouse. When I was a child, I recall watching in horror as my pet cat taunted a little mouse for ten minutes. The mouse would squeak and jump up at the cat, and in turn, the cat would swipe at the mouse and pounce on it. The cat let it go and would wait for it to move again and continue doing the same thing over and over. It terrorized the mouse. Its eyes were bulging from its head and its tiny body was quivering with fear as it defended itself. I tried to break up the little game, but the mouse was immediately killed and devoured by the cat.

It is the same game for predatory stalkers, who instill fear, taunt, terrorize, drive their victims to suicide, or kill them in 2 percent of cases. They often promote suicidal ideology verbally or through their stalking behavior. Verbally, the psychopath will attack you on every level. They will belittle and degrade their victim in ways a normal person could not imagine. Stalkers may move things in your home, harass, taunt you with the crimes they committed against you, and try to make you feel helpless or drive you out of your mind. They may disable brake cables, create a natural gas explosion, or use more subtle means to cause harm. Some sadistic stalkers enjoy the attention and taunt their victims, families, and police. After all, the burden of proof is on the police, and the stalkers feel that they are invincible. Ted Bundy is an excellent example of a sadistic stalker.

Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is a highly specialized form of stalking which involves the use of information and communication technologies as the means and the medium of intimidation, threat, and harassment. A Canadian survey from 2018 showed that 28 percent of stalking victims reported being stalked on social media, which indicates that modern-day stalkers are evolving with the advent of technology. Stalkers challenge themselves to find new methodologies to terrorize and torment their victims while going undetected. They insert themselves in people's lives by committing fraud and identity theft, threatening, stealing emails, and harassing family and friends. Stalkers use intimidation, humiliation, denigration, and exclusions to affect their victims via the Internet, and may even recruit their friends to join in the fun. This is called cause stalking or group stalking. After all, stalkers remain elusive and anonymous behind a keyboard, and few are prosecuted. They seem to have more rights that the victim when in fact stalking is a violation of the fundamental human right to life, liberty, and security and can represent serious interference with the victim's privacy and daily life. Only one in five cyberstalkers is prosecuted.

Cyberstalkers cause serious damage to their victims, resulting in sleep disorders, eating disorders, high levels of stress, feelings of being controlled, and a loss of personal safety. Victims may feel that no one will believe them; they may feel shame, anxious, depressed, suicidal, and suffer from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Now imagine the damage two persons with episodic schizophrenic and antisocial personality disorder could inflict on their victims using traditional methods of stalking, in conjunction with cyberstalking.

Cyberstalking creates a challenge for law enforcement because police often lack awareness and expertise. Additionally, cyberstalking is not always recognized as a criminal offense. A lack of training or expertise to recognize the seriousness of cyberstalking can lead law enforcement to underestimate the magnitude of this crime on the victims. It becomes even more of a challenge with the global reach of the Internet. To be more specific, if a cyberstalker from Japan is committing crimes in the United Kingdom, it is difficult to obtain assistance from foreign agencies to prosecute. There is a problem with jurisdictional laws which require extradition from one region to another. Police would also have to prove that the perpetrator is the one doing the damage to the victim and needs to be caught red-handed.

There are many ways for cyberstalkers to hide behind their computers, which makes it almost impossible for a victim to make an application for a protective order. Finally, in many instances, police do not take cyberstalking seriously and have a laissez-faire attitude. One of the two persons stalking me would type across my browser and ask: "Getting paranoid?" And they would set up email addresses similar to mine. For instance, if my email address was cnorm2000@gmail.com, they would add an extra zero (cnorm20000@gmail.com) and write to people I knew to obtain information about my whereabouts and to harass friends or colleagues. Try getting police to take that seriously and prosecute someone thousands of miles away.

Each character in this true account played a role in the mysterious things that happened in my life. You are the detective and I leave it up to you to decide which character or characters you believe are responsible for the majority of the crimes committed. The URL for the evidentiary links can be found at the back of the book. For legal reasons, I cannot put up all of the evidence such as videotapes of the suspects or full names. Can you figure out who the culprits are? Are they psychopaths, terrorists, police, military, former employers, coworkers, or an unknown entity?

Read about the measures I took to protect myself, my family, as well as those around me. As you read through the book, think about these questions: What would you have done differently if anything? Would you have taken revenge on the people involved in the crimes?

This book is written as a timeline of events highlighting approximately 10 percent of the crimes committed against myself, my daughter, a dozen teachers, as well as countless victims. The focus is not solely on crimes but other experiences as well while I traveled the world. The most important lesson to be learned from this book is to follow your gut instinct. If something doesn't feel right, it's because it's not. I hope to raise awareness and educate those who may have the misfortune of meeting suspected psychopaths.

It is of paramount importance to highlight the void in stalking and cyberstalking laws, police bias, and the laissez-faire police culture. The financial toll on the victims was extraordinary, and the psychological and physiological effects were devastating. How do you move forward with your life when the same people continuously wreak havoc in it and police still fail to investigate despite an abundance of evidence?

Come along with me on a compelling, shocking, thrilling, and potentially explosive adventure that took place over fifteen years, in Canada, South Korea, North Korea (DMZ), Japan, France, and the United Kingdom. This true account included twenty-two police forces, the FBI, the regional director of security for Asia Pacific, three embassies, the United States military, the Korean military, MI5, millionaires, and a psychopath or two. The crime spree by certain individuals included stalking, cyberstalking, extortion attempts, terrorism, hacking and cracking, breaking and entering, theft, fraud, threats, damage to property, theft of intellectual property, assault, assault causing bodily harm, psychological torture, criminal harassment, and two possible murder attempts. Once again, it is your job to examine the facts and determine who is guilty of the crimes committed.

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