Stalked: The Obsession Ratchets up
Chapter Three: Endless unnerving messages, and my first attempts to stop them
Hi everyone,
There’s something called email fatigue, so I’m not going to send every chapter of this series to your inbox. Next one will be posted on my Medium account and linked at the Stalker Series tab on The Landing’s home page. Other notes:
Catch up on previous chapters here.
This first-person series documents a type of retaliation we receive for speaking out against predators and for supporting victims and survivors of sexual harassment and assault. By sharing my experience, I hope to help other victims of cyberstalking take the steps they need to stop pursue a criminal and/or civil case.
Chapter Three
June 2024
A green dot appears on my phone, signaling a new notification on Medium. The familiar knot in my stomach is back.
So is the person I believe to be stalking me.
Her name looms, creeps, follows me everywhere despite demands for years that she leave me alone.
Sten MolinZoe started following you.
Sten MolinZoe subscribed to get your stories via email.
Her new account features a picture of herself.
This is one way cyberstalkers force communication with their victims. They want your attention, even for a few seconds while you block them. They know you must view their profile and their messages in order to report them.
I scan the story she wants me to see. The headline and the content fit the pattern I’ve noticed since 2022. Any form of “gossip” and “monger” are favorite insults. A disconnect from reality, such as insisting American Airlines Flight 587 pilot Sten Molin served in the military—which he empirically did not, but did engage in stolen valor—is another tell. (Scroll to page 27 of this document).
In the rambling piece, she states an intention I take to mean she’ll never stop harassing me.
She tells the world I play with my own…well, read it for yourself. It’s not something I would write publicly or privately, let alone put my name to.
I’ve had foul, strange, and outright terrifying language directed at me for years. I support victims of sexual assault, harassment, retaliation, and other abuses. I help share their stories. I pay a price.
This time, same as always, I block, report, ignore, and never click on this profile again, save for once to record the comment section, where it appears she’s made profiles of “pilots” to talk to herself about how terrible I am.* I feel a sense of defeat. I can’t comprehend the mentality of a person who behaves this way.
What kind of mind comes up with something like that?
Does she have a job? Does her employer know what she’s doing?
Does anyone in her life care enough about her to get her to stop?
So far, there are no answers. It just keeps coming.
This disparaging story about me rises in search results and rankings to #3 if you search Sten Molin’s name.
March 2022
I wake up every day filled with dread. The messages come thick and fast overnight, always from antipodal timezones. Notifications on social media and email have become harbingers of doom.
I am a slut, a liar, a sleazy c-nt, a bitch, a man hater, a fat, chunky, drunken, slutty dog.
The bizarre messages come in streams. They are obsessive rants and angry, repetitive demands. I block each one. New accounts surface within minutes.
To recap, it is March of 2022, and my recent article has apparently enraged a person in a distant country. The flood of rage is a shock. It makes no sense. The trigger seems to be a short, dry, factual biography of Sten Molin I posted in January 2022. It was a simple undertaking, as his career is well documented.
The second story, an in-depth look at American Airlines’ long history of allegedly ignoring predators and retaliating against sexual assault victims who report them, runs on March 17, 2022, and does not name Molin. (When I opened the story below, I noticed an abusive comment I must’ve missed. There are too many to count; eliminating them is Whac-a-Mole).
The creepy messages migrate from email to social media.
In between them, I receive more letters from women who say Molin sexually assaulted, harassed, or raped them, which floors me because I considered him a friend for a brief time before he died in 2001. (The video below explains all).
I’m determined to make amends for the glowing article I wrote about this man. I am being punished for this in real time. I’m displaying only a fraction of what I receive in spring of 2022.
Most of the time I have no idea what this person is talking about.
I have no idea who is so fixated on me, or why. I’m utterly baffled.
I embark on some backchanneling with Molin’s sexual assault victims, but with the time difference, international flight schedules, and the reluctance of the women—most of them current or former FAs—to trust me, it’s hard to get answers. I learn there is a woman in Australia who goes by the same initials and names the stalker uses. There’s a woman who’s extremely upset that Molin’s victims are coming forward. I’m told she might work for an airline.
I’m told there’s a Facebook page where Molin’s living victims are connecting, but I am not invited to join.
The stalker says “they” have a Facebook page, too, featuring me:
There are things going on in the background, a history between these FAs, Molin, and his buddies, that I am not privy to. I am in the dark.
On February 22, 2022, I send a form letter to the various email addresses that harassed and menaced me. An excerpt:
“This stops now.
If I hear from you again for any reason, the next step is to make a police report. I will not be engaging with you on any platform at any time…
If this kind of talk persists—from any account—I will begin the process of reporting you for stalking, threats and harassment.
Again, one more time, to be clear: The next email or other communication of any kind I receive on this topic I am filing a police report. You will not hear directly from me again.
Stop contacting me.”
The unwanted barrage continues, so I make my reports to law enforcement.
Near the end of March, I call New South Wales police, which covers Sydney, Australia. They say they’ll pay her a visit to tell her to cease and desist—if I have an address. CZL posts a mocking comment on Medium along the lines of, NSW? Nice try! ha ha ha.
I call my local police. We can take a report, but if she’s in another country, there’s nothing we can do. The officer is at my home for a long time. My neighbors are unnerved by the cop car outside. I send him every screenshot and email I have, but I don’t have records of everything. I don’t give most internet trolls the time of day. I didn’t know what this would turn into.
I put in an official cyberstalking complaint to the FBI.
On April 2, 2022, I contact Medium support. Why can’t they stop this same person with these same initials from signing up for new accounts to send me abusive messages?
April 10, 2022, I make another demand for her to leave me alone, this time in a response to one of her comments on Medium:
I don’t know you, but you are clearly extremely disturbed. Please get some help…your harassment since February has been recorded and reported to authorities in two countries. Your ongoing threats…are illegal.
Building a Profile, Gathering Evidence
This person’s premise, based on reading many of their messages, seems to be that I wrote two nice, positive articles about my friend Sten Molin in 2021 for the 20th anniversary of the crash of 587, and then, for some inexplicable reason, created hundreds of email and social media accounts pretending to be women who were raped by Molin.
Upon this faulty premise is built a hate machine. Reading all their messages, we can surmise this is a person who:
Cares what is said about Molin to an extreme degree and has a strong desire to enter and control the discussion
Uses certain words, phrases and themes repeatedly: Iris, dog, fat, Class A women, gossip monger, jealous/jealousy, pointing out my resignation from People magazine as if it’s a bad thing
Has the time and inclination to create multiple accounts and send countless messages in quick succession, usually at the same time of day: late at night in Australia/early morning on the east coast of the U.S., where I am in 2022
Is fixated on my appearance/looks
In the midst of all this, know what I did not receive?
I did not receive a single missive from a reasonable, regular person looking to discuss what I’d learned about Molin, or to open a dialogue. It was all aggression, threats and disparagement from the get-go. I did not receive contact from anyone saying, Hey, I’m being impersonated! Let’s find out who’s doing this to us!
No, someone had latched onto me like a pirahna and showed no signs of letting go.
It would get so, so much worse from there.
Maybe I should’ve understood how it would escalate.
I didn’t. I had no concept.
In Chapter Four, I’ll reveal how my life is affected by the ongoing abuse as I move my writing platform from Medium to Substack, show some of the catfishing attempts to trap me, and more, as we move toward the twist ending to this sordid tale.
Until next time.
—Sara
*I have incontrovertible evidence. Stay tuned.
More about me:
My recent appearance on Dr. Tony Kern’s podcast, Only Human.
Ret. Delta Captain Karlene Petitt’s review of my military history/memoir THE STRONG ONES.
I’m an award-winning journalist and bestselling author with decades of international experience writing for magazines and newspapers including People, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the Sunday Times Magazine (UK), Glamour, Shape, Epicurious.com, and more.
My 2021 memoir/military history book The Strong Ones: How a Band of Civilian Women Made Their Mark on the Army was an overnight #1 bestseller on Amazon in 2021. Said former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, “The Strong Ones provides an inspirational message for our times.”
My crime reporting includes the most high-profile cases of the past decades. I’ve been sent to Italy to report on the Amanda Knox case, Portugal to cover Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, London to cover the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, L.A. for the death of Michael Jackson, and Sandy Hook, Conn. to cover the horrific school shooting, to name a few.
I was the first-ever recipient of the Jane Cunningham Croly Award for Excellence in Journalism Covering Issues of Concern to Women from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Winners after me included Marianne Pearl, and judges were legends in journalism like Judy Woodruff. I contributed to the feminist anthology Letters of Intent (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 1999) alongside such icons as Gloria Steinem, Ntozake Shange and Judy Blume, receiving a noted review from the New York Times. I am the author of a total of 13 fiction and nonfiction books, some of them under a pen name.
I'm so sorry you've had to deal with all of this. Be strong! You are valuable and those who read your Substack appreciate an honor your truth.
She has a job, and she has a family who are all just like Molin was. The apple doesn’t fall far. She also has the support of Molin’s old rape mates from Oz. That’s all her. Every single last account is all her. She is certifiable and just as evil and deprived as Molin was. An irredeemable piece of trash.