Jamie Laiaddee (32) went missing in 2010 and neither her family or her friends realized for 10 weeks. The graduate of the University of Michigan, who was living in Arizona, was described as a very smart, responsible and private person. She rarely shared details about her life or her parents, who were Thai immigrants. At the time she disappeared, she had distanced herself from the ones closest to her, except her live in boyfriend of three years, Bryan Stewart.
The last time anyone saw Jamie was March 17, 2010. According to Bryan, Jamie had been depressed for a while after losing her job in 2009, and on that day she decided to break up with him and move to Colorado to accept a job offer. He claims that she took some money and personal belongings and left. However, she left behind her two cars, her purse, passport, a cell phone, keys and other valuable items.
Bryan didn’t report her missing. It was actually Jamie’s father who did, in May 28, after he talked to Bryan and learned that Jamie hadn’t come home since March nor contacted anyone. Police determined there was no job offer in Colorado and realized that Bryan had been using Jamie’s credit cards and car since shortly after she vanished. Digging in his past, they found some dark secrets. In 2007, when he was already with Jamie, he’d been arrested for burglary. She paid for a lawyer that got him out with a trespassing charge. Jamie was suspicious so she hired a private investigator, but he couldn’t find much about Bryan’s background and the relationship resumed.
But Bryan’s background was hardly clean. He had numerous charges of credit card fraud, forgery, weapons violation and others. That’s not all: Bryan Walker was a stolen identity. His real name was Rick Valentini, a con man with three ex wives, two children and a long criminal history. He claimed he assumed a different identity to escape an abusive childhood and denied hurting Jamie.
Even though Jamie’s body has never been found, and there’s no evidence of a crime scene, Rick was charged with second degree murder. While in police custody, he allegedly told some immates he had killed Jaime with a shotgun and then got rid of her body in a way “police would never find her” (in one statement he said he’d fed her to pigs, in other that he dismembered her and put her in bags). He was found guilty and sentenced to 22 years for the murder, plus 20 years on fraud scheme charges and 12 years for fraud and weapon charges.