Who was harassing Janice and Jerry Rice, and why were they playing such a cruel game of cat and mouse?
The bidding war:
Janice and Jerry Rice could barely believe their luck when in the fall of 2011, they stepped over the threshold of their newly purchased home in Carmel Valley, San Diego.
There had been a fierce bidding war for the property with seven other bidders losing out. The Rices had pushed the limits of their budget at $779,000, but the house was perfect for their little family, with its spacious single-story layout, and a lush tree-filled garden sprinkled with pink and white rose bushes.
The property would need renovating but the family tried to make it home — as quickly as their busy lives would allow. Janice was heavily pregnant and on leave from her job as a microbiologist, while Jerry worked long shifts as a special education teacher. The first few weeks in the house flew by in a happy blur as they focused on decorating and preparing for the birth of their second child.
Returning from work one afternoon in early October, Jerry discovered a lengthy handwritten note in the mailbox. It was an offer to buy their home at $100,000 more than the couple had paid, but they weren’t interested so the note was swiftly thrown in the trash.
The harassment begins:
Janice thought Halloween would be an excellent opportunity to meet some of the neighbors, so she got into the spirit of the holiday, filling the house and yard with spooky decorations.
As small groups of trick-or-treaters began to stop by, one pair stood out: a middle-aged woman with a disabled teenage daughter. The woman caught Janice’s attention as she appeared distracted and kept glancing into the house, but Janice assumed she was a nosy neighbor and brushed it off.
As the weeks passed, the couple were kept busy with their new baby, and they loved being in the house, but they started to notice a pattern of odd things happening.
One evening in November, people started showing up to view the house, responding to an open house listing on Zillow. After contacting the realtor Renee, who sold them the house, they discovered their house had been relisted for sale by someone posing as a fake estate agent named Jack Ars. This was unsettling for Jerry and Janice, but as it seemed harmless, they tried to forget about it — and put it down to some sort of juvenile prank.
It soon became apparent that this was a lot more than a silly joke. They got bombarded with packages containing incontinence pads, magazines, and sex toys only to end up being billed more than $1000 for these items.
A few weeks later, on New Year’s Eve, the Rices’ house appeared on Craigslist in an ad as the venue for a local high school live band and keg party. There was an open invite for people to come by between 8.00 pm and 1.00 am.
By now the Rices knew whoever was behind this had malicious intent, but they couldn’t think of a single person who would want to hurt them like this. They could only hope that the person would eventually get bored and move on.
Unfortunately, this was not the case, and two months later, on Valentine’s Day, the attacks ramped up.
Jerry and Janice were at home when they notice a man storming up the path into their yard. It was their neighbor, Paul Able, and he was brandishing a Valentine’s card. He demanded to know why Jerry had sent it to his wife. He thrust the card at Jerry and sure enough, the message on the card read “Thinking of you, JR”. Jerry and Janice managed to convince Paul that the card was probably posted to stir up trouble with the neighbors.
As it turned out, seven cards were posted out to the immediate neighbors, so the Rices had to go around everyone trying to smooth things over as best they could, but the incident was a humiliating introduction to the community.
The Police begin to investigate:
The Rices decided to report the harassment to the police as they feared their kids might be at risk. The police agreed and stressed the point that this person was probably unhinged and very likely watching the house, so the couple would be wise to upgrade their security.
Jerry installed CCTV cameras and a strong iron gate at the front of their property. This gave them back a sense of control, but in reality, they had no way of knowing what the harasser had planned for them next.
Jerry began to watch out for anything suspicious to the point of becoming obsessive, staying up late into the night and constantly checking the security cameras.
One night while running an internet search, he found an advert on Craigslist with Janice’s photo smiling back at him. The shocking headline stated “Carmel Valley freak show” and continued:
“adult entertainment of all types when my husband is not home. Not for the faint of heart. Come see me during the day while my husband is at work. We can get our freak on”.
The Rices reported this to the police and were told to be very guarded about who they interacted with until the San Diego Hi-tech task force, who was investigating the case, could provide them with some answers.
Several days later, a young man was knocking at the door. Jerry answered, but the man mumbled something about being at the wrong house and made a hasty retreat. Jerry got a very sketchy vibe from the interaction, so he checked the security and found images of the man standing outside the house days earlier when no one was home.
The harasser is identified:
It was a very frightening time for the couple, but the police eventually succeeded in tracing the IP address from the Craigslist ad to a 53-year-old woman named Kathy Rowe. Janice googled her and recognized her immediately as the strange woman who had shown up at the house on Halloween. Jerry also recalled the note from a losing bidder wanting to purchase the house which had been signed KR.
The pieces of the puzzle were coming together, and Jerry and Janice realized how close they had come to serious harm but the police weren’t done yet.
As they continued their investigation into Kathy Rowe they uncovered many emails between herself and two men who had answered the Carmel Valley ad. Pretending to be Janice, Kathy Rowe had been encouraging them to force their way into the couple’s home when Jerry was at work, hinting at violence:
“I love to be surprised and have a man just show up at the door, and force his way in the door and on me, totally taking me when I say no”
Only one of the men ever attempted to go to the Rices’ home. When he complained to Kathy (posing as Janice) that a man answered the door, she tried to encourage him to go back, hinting at a possible threesome. This idea repelled the man, and coupled with seeing Jerry at the door, he decided to back out of the plan.
The Court Case:
Kathy Rowe was eventually charged with stalking and solicitation of rape, and the Rices had their day in court. The court learned that Kathy had been a model citizen even receiving an award as a ‘San Diego Mother of the Year’ in 2007, for her devoted care to her special needs daughter.
Her defence team focused on the difficulties in her life such as chronic sleep deprivation due to caring for her sick husband and severely disabled daughter. Kathy said that the house felt like hers the moment she saw it, and was devastated when she lost out to the Rices.
Kathy made an apology to Janice and Jerry in court:
“I just wanted to say how humiliated I am by my behavior — that this is not representative of who I am. I’ve never behaved like this — never will again”.
After mental health evaluations, Kathy Rowe received a year’s home confinement with five years probation. She was ordered to stay away from the Rices for ten years. She also lost her job and suffered a lot of harassment online as a result of the publicity.
Jerry and Janice felt the apologies rang hollow but were glad Kathy was being monitored and that there was a lengthy restraining order. They were not convinced she wouldn’t start harassing them again in the future.
Further Developments:
Kathy Rowe was interviewed a number of times and tried to explain her actions. She was adamant that she wasn’t trying to drive the Rices out — rather she got caught up in the thrill of the harassment and in her disturbed state of mind, she didn’t realize how much harm she was doing.
The Rices continued to live in the house, not far away from Kathy who bought a new house around a mile from them. Kathy Rowe has stuck to her promise and has never contacted Jerry or Janice again but they have said it will take a very long time to fully get over what happened. They both had to go into long-term therapy in order to come to terms with what happened. Janice explained:
“I felt most secure away from my home. The house became my prison,” said Ruhter. “As soon as one door was opened, it was immediately locked behind me.”
What do you think? Was this simply a case of someone ruthlessly trying to drive her competitors out of the house she wanted, or were there more complicated mental health factors involved?
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