A Person's Worst Nightmare

As a criminal justice major, I learned a lot of valuable information about crimes ranging from murder to assault; crimes committed by people who make the wrong turn in life. Out of all these perpetrators, stalkers scare me the most because they cannot be reasoned with, they are the most persistent type of criminal, and they are the most dangerous besides murderers. Stalkers, in essence, suffer from various mental defects and other problems that make them extremely dangerous to their victims and society. Unfortunately, very few people are aware of the dangers of stalking, and what they can do if they fall victim to it. Most people say that it can never happen to them, but then it happens. I too fell victim to that famous cliché.
After three months of dating Melissa, I finally broke up with her. I decided to do this because I felt that it was the best thing to do. Not only was Melissa obsessive, but highly possessive, and I felt that if the relationship continued, it would become increasingly difficult to live a happy life because she would have total control over me. After reading the note Sam gave me in the lunch line from Melissa, I knew that the next few months would not be easy for me.
Walking back to our dorm room after dinner, Sam knew that I was heartbroken. He left me alone for a while until I returned to my old self. I mean we talked about the situation, and I remember asking him if I did the right thing. Everyone I talked to said that I did.
A few days after the breakup, an unnamed source told me that Melissa was spreading rumors about me around the college and telling all her friends that I broke up with her. Naturally, all her friends viewed me as the jerk on campus and said that what I did was wrong. It was funny because I did everything for Melissa and her friends knew it. I figured that Melissa made up stories about me to make everyone on college think that I was the bad guy. But that was only the beginning.
One night, Sam and I were in our dorm room with the door closed watching television, when all of a sudden we heard a knock. When we opened the door, Melissa burst into the room, went directly to my desk, and took my utility knife out of the drawer. She flipped open the blade and was about to slit her wrists in our room when I quickly grabbed her hand that was holding the knife and quickly took it away from her. She told me that life wasn’t worth it anymore because of what I did to her. Her sorrow quickly turned to rage. She then asked me if the reason I broke up with her was because I was gay. I told her that wasn’t the reason. She then asked me if my parents had anything to do with it. I told her no. She stared at me for a while until she received a phone call from her friend downstairs. Melissa told her friend that she would be down in a minute to meet her. After hanging up her cell phone, she left our room. Sam and I looked at each other shocked as to what just happened.
A few days later, Melissa and I saw each other in the cafeteria. She came over to me, began acting cheerful around me and even began to hug me. I found it strange given the fact that she just tried to kill herself in our dorm room a few days ago. That affection continued until Valentine’s Day. Perhaps she thought there might be a chance for us to mend ties and get back together again. Amongst that affection, Melissa told me that her brother would kill me if he ever saw me because he said “nobody does that to my sister.”
About a week after Valentine’s Day, Melissa was talking to me, when all of a sudden she pulls out a disposable camera and takes three pictures of me in the dorm room. I asked her why she was taking pictures of me, but she just smiled and said nothing. All the while, I was documenting the unfolding events since the day we broke up. The more I looked at these incidents, between the multiple phone calls, her showing up wherever I went, it occurred to me that I might be stalked by Melissa. Talking to another unnamed source who was a retired police officer, he too said I was being stalked.
Now for some clarification. Melissa and I were still talking because when I broke things off with her, I told her that we could still remain friends. However, as these events were unfolding, I found it more difficult to be her friend. The unnamed police source told me to keep my distance from her and try to have no contact with her at all.
When I returned home for spring break, it was a relief to retreat from the situation between Melissa and me. During break, however, Melissa kept calling me all hours of the day, and beginning to text message me demanding that I call her. Sometimes the messages were sorrowful, other times they were a little threatening. Out of all the phone calls I received from Melissa, I did not return one.
It was in late March that I received a nasty email from Melissa. It read, “Okay, I have a question for you. You said that after we broke up I could call you if I ever needed to. I tried calling you when I wanted to lets say basically do bodily harm to myself. Were the hell were you to talk me out of it. Thank GOD a friend of mine called just when I was about to do the dirty deed. NEways my question is, how I am I supposed to count on you if your not even going to be there for me as friend?”
I hardly had any contact with Melissa until a fateful day in mid-April. I was in the cafeteria with some friends when Melissa came up to me again and demanded once more that I call her. She told me that it was a life or death situation and it was a private matter not to be discussed with anybody. I called her that night. While on the phone, she continued to be extremely depressed about me breaking up with her. She told me that she has contemplated suicide numerous times since that fateful day, and that she was even contemplating killing others (a.k.a. my friends) or killing me. When I heard this I was shocked. Since a threat was made to not only me, but to others, I had no choice but to maintain a guarded attitude while around Melissa. Even more guarded when John saw a burly man scoping out my car a week after her threat was made.
Since breaking it off with Melissa back in February 2005, she still hates everything to do with me. Throughout the remainder of my college life, she would harass me, spread rumors about me, and still cling on the faint hope that she could get me in a dark alley and kill me. I left college in May 2006 with the situation still unresolved. Sure, I notified the college about the situation, and even gave them copies of my documents pertaining to this stalking. Since she didn’t carry out any of her threats on me or my friends, I couldn’t call the police because they couldn’t do anything for me. Unfortunately, her mind about me hasn’t changed. Even though we are on different corners of the state, no telling what she would do next, or if this entire stalking incident is finally over.
The moral of the story is that nobody deserves to be stalked. Nobody deserves to have their lives changed for the worse. I was shocked on how few people know about the dangers of stalking in America. My goal in life is to educated people about stalking and domestic violence. Most of my research material comes from various stalking scholars. With this knowledge, I hope that everybody in America would become aware about this dangerous crime, and seek the help they are entitled to in order to bring the stalkers of this world to justice.

These stories that are told on this blog are true. The names have been changed to protect the true identities of those individuals involved. If you would like to respond to this blog entry, please click on the envelope next to comments underneath this article. On the screen that appears, enter your name and your email address. Under "friend's email address" enter Senorgetman@yahoo.com. I will only accept emails under this fashion. DISCLAIMOR: THIS WEBSITE BY NO MEANS OFFERS LEGAL ADVICE TO VICTIMS OF STALKING AND DOMESTIC ABUSE. IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY A VICTIM OF STALKING AND/OR DOMESTIC ABUSE, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IMMEDIATLEY.