 Stephanie Scott was a well known and very well respected high school teacher from New South Wales, Australia. Investigators say that Stephanie had been at school on Easter Sunday of 2015, getting prepared for some upcoming classes. Detectives say that as soon as she began to leave later that afternoon, she was ambushed from behind, being forced into a storage closet where a grisly, callous and disturbing crime unfolded. This isn't the worst part though. As police would soon learn, this crime would hit much closer to home than anyone could have expected. That's because, as the evidence would soon reveal, Stephanie knew the person behind the crime, and she knew them well. The story of this crime is heartbreaking, stomach-churning and easily one of the most cold and heartless crimes I've ever covered here on True Crime Stories. So strap in because this is going to be a wild one. Before we get into today's video, I want to let you guys know about a great new mobile game called June's Journey. If you're into true crime and mysteries as much as I am, this game will be perfect for you. June's Journey is a hidden object game, but with a pretty captivating story involving a murder mystery. It takes place back in the 1920s, and each new scene and level takes you through a different chapter of the story, setting up June Parker, the main character, to solve the mysterious murder of her sister. This game is completely free to download, and the basic idea of the game is hunting for clues and hidden objects that may help bring June one step closer to solving the case. You can customize and remodel your mansion as well as your garden island along the way. I grew up playing seek and find games like this, so this game is right up my alley and I feel like you guys will enjoy it as well. It's super relaxing to play, and it's easy to pick up if you just have a few free minutes here or there throughout the day. You can click the link below in the description to download the game on iOS and Android devices, but it's also available on PC through Facebook Games. So if you're ready to dive headfirst into a captivating murder mystery and help June solve the mysterious case surrounding her sister, just click the link below to download June's Journey. Thanks to June's Journey for sponsoring today's video. Before we get too far into the case, I just want to remind you that pretty much all of these cases come from suggestions that you guys provide. So if there are any other cases you'd like to see me cover in the future, just let me know in the comments or in an email. I may not be able to cover every case, but I'll certainly look into every suggestion that you guys provide. Stephanie Scott was born on October 14, 1988 in Sydney, Australia. The daughter of Robert and Marilyn Scott, Stephanie was just 26 years old in 2015 when this case took place. Stephanie's father was a principal at a nearby high school for much of her childhood, meaning Stephanie was well educated about the ins and outs of the public school system. With this in mind, it's no surprise that she herself decided to join in and become a schoolteacher after college. Stephanie had been teaching at Leighton High School in Leighton, New South Wales. Leighton, when compared to similar cities here in the States, is a very small community with a population of just around 7,400 people. It's pretty far off the beaten path over 80 miles from the nearest city. When doing research into this case, I found several local residents who insist that the town is a wonderful place to be. But I also found a couple remarks about crimes in the area that are pretty concerning, with one person claiming that substance abuse is a pretty big issue in Leighton. This person claims that it's become such a problem that you'll see people on the streets of Leighton dealing in broad daylight or dealing over the counter at their local grocery stores, seemingly without a care in the world regarding who may see them or report them. Now, I obviously can't confirm these rumors, but it definitely makes you question just how great of a town Leighton really is. Overall, though, most people claim that the town is the perfect place to raise a small family, as Leighton is known for being a fairly quiet, clean, and affordable place to live. For Stephanie Scott, things couldn't have been better for her in Leighton. She had a wonderful job that paid well enough, as well as a loving fiancée that she was fiercely dedicated to. In fact, Stephanie and her fiancée, Erin, Lisa, and Woolly, were scheduled to be married just after Easter of 2015. The two were high school sweethearts, meaning they must have been dating for close to ten years by this point, becoming engaged about a year earlier in 2014. Their wedding date was scheduled for April 11th, 2015, but an unexpected and tragic change of plans would force Erin to cancel their wedding and leave the Scott and Lisa and Woolly families begging for answers. It was April 3rd, 2015. Stephanie and Erin kissed each other goodbye at around 12.30pm, not knowing that this would be their last time to ever see each other. The couple had been invited to attend a party later that afternoon, but Stephanie had much bigger plans on her mind. With Stephanie and Erin being scheduled to get married on the 11th, Stephanie had requested a few weeks off of school so that the two could go on a honeymoon together. The school faculty were more than happy to allow this, so they hired a substitute teacher to take Stephanie's place while the two were gone. I couldn't find any specific mention of how long the couple planned on being gone, but it seems like most sources suggest that it may have been about two or three weeks. With this in mind, Stephanie was still expected to put together a curriculum for her students, though these lessons would be taught by the substitute teacher. This meant that Stephanie had a lot of work to do if she wanted to leave her students with enough work for the upcoming weeks, while also providing herself enough time to plan and get ready for their upcoming wedding. So Stephanie told her fiance that she would, unfortunately, have to miss the party that they'd been planning on going to, but she assured Erin that she still wanted him to go. Stephanie instead would be heading to Leighton High School so that she could work on finalizing some of the lesson plans for her students before turning the info over to the substitute teacher. The couple kept in contact with each other for the remainder of that afternoon, texting each other every so often and even calling and speaking on the phone at about 10.30 PM that night. The following morning, Stephanie headed back to the school to make final arrangements, informing her fiance of her plans via text message, letting him know when she was leaving the house. Erin got dressed, said his goodbyes to his wife through the phone, and charged up his phone so that he could call Stephanie when he was heading back to the town of Leighton. They had spoken the night before about heading out to one of their favorite restaurants that evening when Erin returned, and Stephanie was on board with this. But strangely enough, when Erin tried to call Stephanie later that day, his call went to voicemail. He tried multiple times after this, but each and every time, Stephanie refused to answer. Erin convinced himself that Stephanie must have just been distracted by work or stepped out of the classroom, and he didn't think much of it. But when he arrived back home later that evening, he noticed that her car was missing and there was no sign of his soon-to-be-wife anywhere. This was incredibly unusual as Stephanie was known for being a very punctual and organized person. Erin was incredibly confused, and he began to wonder if Stephanie may have been spending time at a friend's house. He got back into his car and began to drive around town, trying to find any signs of Stephanie all the while admitting to himself that this was a bit ridiculous, knowing there was virtually no chance of finding her without any clues to go on. He didn't feel like circling the town would prove anything, but he gave it a shot regardless. He felt that he had to do something because this was so unusual for someone like Stephanie. His search of the town naturally didn't yield any results. By this point, he was getting pretty anxious. He began calling all of Stephanie's friends, but when none of them had heard from her either, he knew something was terribly wrong. With nowhere else to turn, Erin canceled the couple's dinner plans for the evening and eventually had to go to bed, though he admits that he didn't sleep for even a single moment that entire night. By the time morning broke, and Erin still had not heard from Stephanie, he knew that it was time to contact her family. Her family had also not heard from Stephanie in quite some time, so together, they decided it was time to get the police involved. Considering how small of a town Newton is, it didn't take long at all for word of Stephanie's disappearance to spread like wildfire. Social media posts were made and shared around with locals and one missing person post was shared more than 1500 times. Rumors began to spread around town with many people even suspecting that Erin may have been involved. When looking at photos of Stephanie, she just fills you with this feeling of innocence, happiness and compassion. So who could have possibly done something like this? Erin answered every question he received from journalists with complete honesty, patience and sincerity, even when the questions were clearly directed at his own potential involvement. Erin never once changed his story. All he ever did was beg for Stephanie to return home or to call him as soon as she could, but this call never came. The Scott family began to wonder if Stephanie may have gotten into some sort of terrible car accident. This is because at this point, her car had never been located. A few days after her disappearance, her family arranged for various agencies to conduct air and water searches in the surrounding areas, but all of these searches turned up no evidence. Dive teams searched nearby canals, ditches and water channels. Volunteers searched nature trails and roadsides, but there were no clues found that would indicate where Stephanie had gone. But after a few days had passed, investigators made a breakthrough. Detectives announced that they'd located Stephanie's car in a field about 11 kilometers outside of Leighton. The car was totally out of place, being parked a short distance away from a trail that was surrounded in tall grass. The only problem was Stephanie still wasn't found. She wasn't in the car and there was no indication of how the car could have ended up here in the first place. Aaron and the rest of Stephanie's family were now forced to the realization that Stephanie had most likely not left her car there of her own free will. She had been kidnapped. What's interesting about Stephanie's school, Leighton High School, is that the school seems to have had remarkably tight security. The school was surrounded by two steel gates, each with its own lock so that no one could get in without a key. And these keys were only held by approved personnel. On the day that Stephanie disappeared, one of her colleagues from the school showed up to let her into the school. Both gates had been locked as it was a Sunday and no other members of the faculty were present outside of the usual weekend cleaning crew. After Stephanie made it past both locked gates, she headed towards the English teacher's staff room so that she could get started on her lesson plans. She remained there for about two hours and 40 minutes before deciding it was time to go home for the day. She then packed up her things and headed for the exit, walking along an interior hallway and calling out to one of the cleaning crew members as she left, shouting for him to have a happy Easter and that she would see him on Monday. A few moments later, Stephanie made it to the exit of the building which was locked. She stopped just inside the doorway so that she could grab the keys out of her purse. But as soon as she looked down, she was grabbed from behind with someone forcing their hand over her mouth so that she couldn't scream. Stephanie fought back very aggressively, clawing at him, screaming the best she could in fighting every step of the way. She scratched at the criminal's face but couldn't get a good enough grip to allow herself to break free. The assailant easily overpowered Stephanie, prying her away from the door and dragging her to a photography room just a short distance away. This room had been used as a dark room for the photography department, allowing them to develop photos for their assignments. Stephanie continued to fight but it was all in vain. The assailant, still holding her from behind, closed the door behind themselves then shoved Stephanie onto the ground with her landing face down with some serious force. She continued to fight even after all this had taken place but her best efforts simply weren't enough. Her attacker fiercely laid into her hitting her a total of 40 times directly in the face. After about 40 or 50 seconds, detectives say that she most likely fell unconscious. The attacker then did the unthinkable and took advantage of Stephanie while she was incapacitated. The unknown assailant then pulled out a weapon and ended Stephanie's life right there in the dark room of the high school. But here's where things get particularly crazy. If you remember, Stephanie wasn't alone in the school that day. According to school records, there was one other person in the school with her, a man who worked for the school cleaning crew. 24-year-old Vincent Stanford had been working at the school for quite a while, being one of their most popular janitors. Vincent lived at home with his mother and brother and seeing as how he was likely the last person to have seen Stephanie before she vanished, police wanted to ask him a few questions to better understand her last known movements. Police spoke with Vincent on a couple occasions but for reasons that remain unclear, they began to grow a bit suspicious of him. They asked for permission to search his home and it seems that Vincent and his family agreed. This would prove to be a critical mistake for Vincent. As they searched his room, police found a set of keys that looked strikingly similar to a set of keys that Stephanie used to carry. But things were about to get far, far worse for Vincent. Police soon asked to take a look at Vincent's phone and that's when they found the most disturbing piece of evidence thus far. A photo that Vincent had taken that showed a burnt crime scene as well as a human body that they had a strong belief may have belonged to Stephanie. Why Vincent would have left images like this on his phone is beyond me. Why he held onto Stephanie's keys doesn't make any sense either. I guess he must have been keeping them as a trophy or something. Needless to say, police knew without a doubt Vincent was involved in Stephanie's disappearance but don't click away just yet because that's only the tip of the iceberg. As police continued to interview Vincent about the crime they would learn just how twisted and disturbed this man really was. As police continued to speak with Vincent he quickly realized that he had nowhere left to run. He gave police a half hazard excuse about why he had such strange and disturbing photos on his phone but his excuses were very clearly lies. Police had also uncovered a set of bloodstained handcuffs in his bedroom. So it was pretty obvious what had taken place here. But the details of the crime and the crime that Vincent had planned for the future are two of the most shocking details about this case. Investigators say that after being confronted with so much condemning evidence Vincent gave up and confessed to the murder of Stephanie Scott. When police asked him to explain how the crime had taken place well that's when things got extremely creepy to put it lightly. Vincent confessed to everything we discussed just a moment ago. Grabbing her from behind tossing her into the photography dark room then ending her life while she was unconscious. But after he had done this Vincent explained that he dropped his knife on the dark room floor, got up and went home. He made himself a cheese sandwich, poured himself a cup of coffee and enjoyed a nice meal before heading back to the school to clean up after himself. He casually picked up all the items that have been dropped by Stephanie during the struggle including her car keys. He then picked Stephanie up placed her on a plastic tarp in the trunk of her own car then headed back into the school to finish cleaning. He says that he used a pressure washer to clean the scene of the crime then hopped into her car and drove back to his own home. He parked Stephanie's car behind a shed in his own backyard then walked back to the school to pick up his own car. Once he arrived at the school he got his car and decided to head back inside to remove some of the floorboards from the dark room to better conceal his crime. This timeline was confirmed by a police officer who picked up Vincent's car on his dash cam at around 3.35 p.m. that afternoon. A while later, he got back into Stephanie's car and drove to a local gas station filling up a gas container and then getting back into Stephanie's car. This scene was later picked up on CCTV cameras confirming the story that Vincent had told investigators. The next day, April 6th, Vincent drove Stephanie's car once again this time to Kokopara National Park between 50 and 70 kilometers from the high school. He placed her body on the ground alongside various pieces of evidence from the scene of the crime and potentially condemning items found in Stephanie's car. He covered Stephanie and all of the items in gasoline then lit a fire and drove away. While driving Stephanie's car, he dumped various items and trash cans along his drive back towards Leaton. None of these items were ever recovered by police as they'd already been taken to various landfills by the time police arrived to investigate. When police carried out additional searches of Vincent's home after he had admitted to the crime, they came across a strange notebook that included various details about a local girl believed to be about 12 years old. When police questioned Vincent about these notebooks, he didn't even try to lie. He admitted that he'd been stalking a local girl and she was planned to be his next victim. Upon further interviews, Vincent would admit that he'd had violent thoughts since he was about eight years old. He often thought about what it would be like to end someone's life and Stephanie just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and Vincent finally saw his opportunity to act on his twisted fantasies. Stephanie was a bright, loving young woman who was stolen from the world far too soon. Stephanie had so, so much to offer to her students but this worthless blump of human waste stole her from her family, her beloved fiance and her students before her life had really even begun. In the years since the crime, Vincent was naturally sentenced to life in prison. Her family filed charges against the New South Wales Education Department as well as the cleaning company in charge of Vincent. A private settlement was reached but this did nothing to ease the pain that Stephanie's family will hold onto for the rest of their lives. Aaron, Stephanie's fiance, eventually found love again and became engaged to someone in 2021, doing his best to heal from the unforgettable trauma that he was forced into. Stephanie's life may have been tragically cut short but the only silver lining to the story if there even is one is that the investigation helped to shut down yet another monster prowling the streets and thankfully may have saved the life of that 12 year old girl that was next on Vincent's list. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you wanna see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to hit that like button and subscribe. If you wanna help support the channel, the best way you can do that is simply by leaving a comment below, any comment at all. It helps out the channel a lot more than you may realize. 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