Rebecca Schaeffer, a promising younger actress, was murdered by a deranged admirer .

The previous teenage mannequin started her performing profession on the cleaning soap opera Guiding Gentle earlier than touchdown her breakthrough position within the sitcom My Sister Sam. Previous to her surprising demise, she was scheduled to satisfy Francis Ford Coppola and audition for Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Half III.

Rebecca was simply 21 and residing in Los Angeles on the time. She was additionally romantically concerned with director Brad Silberling.

Her homicide later impressed his 2002 movie, Moonlight Mile, which explores a person’s anguish following his fiancée’s killing.

On July 19, 1989, Rebecca was fatally gunned down by Robert Bardo, an unhinged stalker, at her LA flat. Robert initially turned obsessive about Rebecca throughout her stint on My Sister Sam.

Robert penned quite a few fan letters to Rebecca, and her psychologist father, Benson Schaeffer, described them as showing innocent and seeming like correspondence from “simply one other unusual child who wished somebody to concentrate to him,” in keeping with the Los Angeles Instances.

Rebecca had even replied to certainly one of them, writing, “Yours was one of many nicest I obtained.”

Robert’s fixation deepened when he travelled to California in summer time 1987 making an attempt to satisfy Rebecca on the Warner Bros. studio, however was refused entry by safety, in keeping with Rhonda Saunders, previously with the Los Angeles District Lawyer’s Workplace, per ABC Information’ 20/20 particular.

He was clutching a teddy bear and flowers. When Robert witnessed Rebecca in Scenes from the Class Wrestle in Beverly Hills, that includes her in a romantic scene, his obsession turned “rageful.”

“All these rageful emotions. … ‘How dare she? She’s mine. … She’s supposed to remain harmless for me.’ That will get … transformed right into a plan of cold-blooded revenge,” Dr. Kris Mohandie, a scientific police and forensic psychologist, defined to twenty/20. “I’ll punish you and completely possess you by taking your life.”

In July 1989, Robert tried to purchase a firearm at a gun store in Tucson however was turned away.

Jeff Dunn, a former police detective with the Los Angeles Police Division, revealed that the gun store proprietor sensed one thing wasn’t proper with Robert and commenced interrogating him, in keeping with 20/20.

Jeff defined that Robert admitted to the proprietor about his psychological well being historical past. Following this revelation, the gun store proprietor realised that Robert was a “prohibited possessor” and could not legally buy a firearm.

He knowledgeable Robert that he would not promote him the weapon. Robert then persuaded his brother Edward to purchase a handgun on his behalf.

“His brother did not know what was happening in his thoughts, that he was fixated on Rebecca Schaeffer,” Rhoda defined to twenty/20. “He simply thought, ‘Oh, he desires a gun, he’ll do some goal taking pictures.’ And… advised Robert, ‘OK, I will get you the gun, however you may’t use it except I am with you.'” Robert then employed a personal investigator to safe Rebecca’s residence tackle, with the investigator buying it from the state Division of Motor Automobiles.

Throughout a jail interview featured on 20/20, Robert revealed what motivated him to contact a personal investigator to find Rebecca. He had learnt about how a Scottish particular person, Arthur Jackson, tracked down actress Theresa Saldana in 1982 utilizing a PI.

Arthur pursued and stabbed Theresa, an assault she survived.

Robert boarded a Greyhound bus from Tucson to Los Angeles, travelling to Rebecca’s residence with a bag and the firearm in his possession, in keeping with officers. Inside his bag, he carried a card Rebecca had despatched him, her {photograph}, and the ebook The Catcher within the Rye, which Mark David Chapman possessed when he murdered John Lennon in 1980.

Robert reached Los Angeles at roughly 5 a. m. on July 18, 1989.

That very morning, Rebecca was awaiting supply of the script for The Godfather Half III when Robert pressed her doorbell. The intercom was defective, so Rebecca descended and opened the door personally.

Robert then introduced Rebecca with the signed {photograph} he possessed of her. She courteously knowledgeable Robert she wanted to organize for an interview.

Robert departed for a café to eat earlier than returning to her residence. Rebecca answered the door as soon as extra, and Robert alleged that she declared he was losing her time, claiming that remark triggered his response.

Robert mentioned to Rebecca shortly afterwards, “I forgot to offer you one thing,” earlier than pulling out his gun and taking pictures her at point-blank vary within the chest. Robert fled the scene.

He subsequently advised a psychiatrist that Rebecca had repeatedly requested him, “Why? Why?” as she lay dying.

A neighbour who heard the gunshot and Rebecca’s screams instantly rang for an ambulance. Rebecca was rushed to hospital, the place she was later pronounced lifeless.

Based on police, a day after Robert shot Rebecca, he was seen working down a motorway in Tucson, shouting, “I killed Rebecca Schaeffer.”

Paul Hallums, the Tucson officer who arrested Bardo, advised 20/20: “We secured him immediately. Did a bit of, fast patdown and search on him, discovered an image of Rebecca Schaeffer in his shirt pocket,” including, “He was disheveled-looking. His garments have been soiled. His hair was a large number. It seemed like he hadn’t slept all evening. We began placing two and two collectively.”

Jeff mentioned of Robert: “Robert Bardo was a troubled younger man….. There was a historical past of a troubled childhood. He had threatened neighbors and schoolmates.”

Robert was returned to California, the place he stood trial for Rebecca’s homicide. He was convicted of first-degree homicide by a decide, having waived his proper to a jury trial in return for the demise penalty being taken off the desk in his 1991 trial, in keeping with the Los Angeles Instances.

Robert was sentenced to life imprisonment with out the opportunity of parole in December 1991. Rebecca’s homicide resulted in California enacting the primary anti-stalking regulation in 1990, which is now current in all 50 states.

Her demise additionally formed the Driver’s Privateness Safety Act, which was handed in 1994. The federal regulation prevents the DMV from disclosing a driver’s private data, equivalent to addresses.