Page 119 of Everything She Feared

“Magda refused to allow me to visit her in prison,” he says. “She granted no interviews to any news outlet. She never answered my letters.

“As a reporter, in Hartford, then Chicago, I used every skill, every source, every resource and avenue I could to learn every detail of Magda and Herman’s lives.

“I found out that Herman was in a doomsday cult, but followed conspiracy theories that were so strange they kicked him out. He was a prepper, a trucker who knew every back road in the region when he hooked up with Magda at the slaughterhouse. She thought he was her destiny.”

More photos appear of Herman Vryker; in most of the images he has a full beard and his eyes are burning through the locks of his wild mountain-man hair.

“Magda was like something that fell from the sky. No one ever determined where she came from,” Ryan says. “She had an extremely high IQ. She’s suspected of killing a neighbor girl by luring her to her death in a well months after a dispute over a doll. They were both seven years old at the time and nothing could be proven. As she got older, Magda became fascinated with death, was obsessed with numbers, dates. She had a passion for numerology. Ultimately, she read her daughter Hayley’s birthdate as a sign and used her to lure victims to their deaths. Hayley was a toddler at the time.”

“Horrifying.”

“When Magda’s sentence ended, I was certain I was on top of things, that I was ready to confront her, and I went to the prison,” he says. “But a few days before her release, she’d been secretly transferred to another facility and released quietly to avoid media attention. My complaints and demands for information were futile. She’d changed her name and vanished. The fact that while in prison she learned Spanish and French opened the possibility of her disappearing to any number of countries.

“I traveled across the country and around the world following leads, searching for Magda, always working alone. Sometimes the amateur sleuth groups would pass me tips, but I preferred to work alone.

“And despite all the records I have, and as much as I know about her, I don’t have all the pieces,” he says. “Many records are sealed.”

“Thank you for that,” Shane says. “We see messages are flooding in and the phone line is lit, so if you’re ready, Ryan, we can go to them now.”

“I’m ready.”

“Okay, we ask for first name and location. On the phone we have?”

“Nick in Newark. Ryan, I just want to say what you’re doing is noble, man, and Magda is a monster who should burn in hell.”

“Thank you, Nick,” Ryan says.

“Next caller,” Shane says.

“Hi. Judith, Virgin Islands. We’ve got to let people rehabilitate. Magda served twenty years. It’s been seven years since her release and she hasn’t killed anyone since, has she?”

“Not that we know of,” Ryan says.

“Let me ask you something, Judith,” Shane says. “Would you be comfortable having Magda as your neighbor?”

“Well, I think, uhm, well...”

“You don’t sound comfortable pondering it,” Shane says. “Next caller?”

“Yeah, this is Sean in Boston. My family knew the Worrells, so I’ve been following this, too.”

“Their case is believed to be the first,” Ryan says.

“Yeah, Ryan, so are you also looking for Magda’s daughter, Hayley? It might help you find Magda?”

“Yes, Sean,” Ryan says. “I’m looking.”

“Next caller,” Shane says.

“This is Jesse, from Kingston, Canada. She served less than three years for each person she killed—that’s a horrible injustice. I hope you find her, Ryan.”

“Thanks.”

“Next caller?”

“Nicole in Atlanta. Ryan, do you think you’ll ever find Magda?”

“I do.”

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