Viswa Vanapalli
A ruthless cyberstalker’s disturbing behavior was finally brought to an end in 2017 when he was arrested for several crimes. However, he had tormented many people online and even forced a survivor to move overseas by then. Investigation Discovery’s ‘Unraveled: The Stalker’s Web,’ a podcast and a documentary with the same title, deal with Jason Christopher Hughes’ crimes and the survivors’ experiences. So, let’s find out more about what happened then, shall we?
Who is Jason Hughes?
After a lengthy investigation, Jason Hughes, who also went by many other aliases online, was finally arrested and indicted. But by then, he had caused extensive damage by stalking people online, drastically altering their lives. One of them was someone he had known since the 1970s, a fourth-grade pen pal. Initially, Jason sent her many letters that detailed his difficult upbringing while she tried to be supportive.
However, the pen pal decided to stop communicating after Jason’s letters “became increasingly dark and threatening over a period of years.” In them, he referenced the occult and cannibalism, among other disturbing things. Despite her reluctance to talk to Jason, he continued to stalk her and once even showed up at her college dorm unannounced apart from threatening to kill her and her family. Later on, after the woman married, her husband and she moved to another country to get away from Jason.
About two decades of radio silence was broken in March 2015 when Jason found her email online and sent her over twenty disturbing emails. One of them said, “See, I don’t like children. I actually hate them. I laugh when one of them is abducted or falls under a train, or is eaten by wild dogs. This is who I am, and You Helped Create Me.” In another email, Jason sent her an article regarding the death of five children accompanied with information about her own kids.
Another survivor stated that she met Jason sometime in 2003 on a website, and when she turned said no to his romantic advances, he stalked her. Not just that, Jason told her employer she was stalking him, leading to the woman losing her job. She said, “It was just psycho; I never actually met him. He told me he was a werewolf and a two-time Scorpio.” In yet another instance of unsettling behavior, Jason sent another woman an email in September 2015 that detailed how to mutilate a person.
Rachel, who met Jason online sometime in 2001, flirted before meeting up and having sex. However, his questionable behavior led her to leave in the middle of the night. Rachel had also asked Jason not to contact her anymore. However, he didn’t take the rejection well, sending her naked pictures to her employer and family. Rachel said, “It was humiliating and devastating. I made one poor romantic choice, but Jason wanted to destroy my reputation and make me lose my job.”
Jason continued Rachel’s online torture for over a decade, even showing up on an online group for new mothers. Vanessa, another woman who met Jason on a website, said that he sent her pornography and threatened to shoot her family down. She added, “It was like dealing with a monster living in the woods. You never knew when he was going to come crashing out to get you.” It was also reported that he allegedly targeted fifty others.
Where is Jason Hughes Now?
The federal authorities eventually connected Jason to several aliases, such as Luis Manuel Arsupial and Michael Rudra Nath. His emails and websites were then traced to an address in Staten Island, New York. There, Jason lived with his wife and in-laws. After considerable delays, he pled guilty to cyber harassment in 2020 and claimed to have dealt with PTSD when he sent those emails. In December 2021, Jason was sentenced to 366 days in prison and three years of supervision post-release. However, we have been unable to confirm his incarceration status.
Read More: Where is Joann Hauser Now?
