Rivals

Teenage jealousies can have deadly consequences…

On 20 December 1991, having been mercilessly stalked, Laurie Show was mutilated and murdered by her love-rival, Lisa Michelle Lambert. It was a crime of exceptional brutality, made all the more shocking by the fact that both killer and victim were teenagers.

RIVALS tells the bizarre and tragic story of events leading up to the death of Laurie Show. It starts as Laurie (JENNIFER FINNIGAN, The Bold and the Beautiful) moves with her mother Hazel (MARY-MARGARET HUMES, Dawson’s Creek) to a small town in Pennsylvania. Despite being shy and innocent, Laurie soon realises that Lawrence ‘Butch’ Yunkin (REL HUNT, Heartbreak High), one of the most popular boys at her new school, finds her attractive. While Butch’s girlfriend, Michelle (MARNETTE PATTERSON, Charmed) appears to befriend Laurie, in secret she is insanely jealous of the obvious attraction between Laurie and Butch. At a party, events take an ugly turn: responding violently to Laurie’s advances, Butch rapes her. Walking in on the attack, Michelle misreads the situation and accuses Laurie of being a seducer. Michelle and her friend Tabitha (JOANNE VANNICOLA, Love and Human Remains) proceed to ruin Laurie’s reputation, branding her a slut and relentlessly harassing her until events bloodily explode on that dark December night. Laurie’s stalking and murder occurred before anti-stalking laws were introduced in Pennsylvania.