Naman Shrestha
Lifetime’s ‘Stalked by My Amish Boyfriend’ stars Leigha Sinnott as Carly, a college student who crosses paths with an attractive Amish man named Abram, portrayed by Sam Bullington, who is in the middle of his Rumspringa. It is a period of growth for Amish youths, where they tend to have fewer restrictions and are allowed to explore life outside of the traditional Amish community. Forming an intense connection almost instantaneously with Abram, little does Carly know that the relationship is too good to be true.
The true colors of Abram come to the surface when he refuses to go back to his Amish community and takes extreme measures to keep the young woman by his side. As she is held captive by Abram, she must muster all her courage and find help from allies if she wants to come out of his captivity alive and return to safety. Directed by Cooper Harrington, the thriller film gives a nod to several realistic themes, including an obsessive lover and abduction, which is bound to raise questions about the authenticity of the story.
Stalked by My Amish Boyfriend is a Fictional Tale That Shares Similarities With a Real-Life Case
Although there have been many cases where a lover’s obsession has led to a dangerous situation for their partner, none seems to be closely linked to the story in ‘Stalked by My Amish Boyfriend,’ which features a young student and an Amish guy. However, if we take the Amish factor out of focus, we are likely to find several similar real-life instances where the boyfriend has allowed his obsessive nature to take over and abduct his girlfriend. In September 2023, a dorm room at St. Catherine University in Saint Paul became a crime scene as 19-year-old Keanu Labatte held his girlfriend hostage for multiple days while he allegedly sexually assaulted her, beat her, and waterboarded her.
According to reports, it all started on September 7, 2023, when Keanu traveled all the way from Minnesota to Saint Paul just to visit his girlfriend. He reportedly got infuriated over a set of texts, pictures, and social media content that he found on the unidentified victim’s phone, after which he took her phone and refused to give it to her. Over the next few days, he not only threatened to kill her but also inflicted pain on her by sexually assaulting, beating, and waterboarding her. In the Lifetime film, just like Keanu, Abram resorts to abducting his girlfriend when his time to return to his home approaches.
However, after several days of torture, the woman successfully convinced Keanu to let her go to the cafeteria to get some food. Instead, she went straight to the campus police and reported the traumatic incident to them. The authorities went straight to her dorm room, where they found Keanu and arrested him for the alleged sexual assault. Upon digging deeper into the accused, the police learned that he had a history of domestic violence and violated a restraining order in an unrelated case involving a different woman in Yellow Medicine County.
Several months later, in July 2024, Keanu pleaded guilty to a single amended charge of second-degree sexual conduct while the other charges were dismissed. This is just one of the many real-life cases that involved the themes and elements portrayed in the Lifetime production. Thus, from what we can tell, though ‘Stalked by My Amish Boyfriend’ is driven by a fictional story, it likely reflects what actually happens in reality, in the sense that it showcases the causes and consequences of being involved with a two-faced and obsessive person,
Read More: Stepmom From Hell: Is the Lifetime Movie Based on True Events?
