Aftermath True Story: What Happened To Janice Ruhter and Jerry Rice

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The new horror/thriller Netflix hit film Aftermath claims to be inspired by true events, and while the film’s story is very different from its real-life parallel, the story that inspired it is still incredibly disturbing. Many films in the same genre claim to take their cues from actual people and events, but the movies still usually turn out to be mostly fiction. While many of Aftermath’s plotlines are wholly original, one of the main arcs is strikingly similar to the terrors faced by a real couple.

Aftermath follows the lives of young couple Natalie (Ashley Greene) and Kevin Dadich (X-Men's Shawn Ashmore), who move into a gorgeous new house in an attempt to save their failing marriage. Natalie was caught cheating on Kevin, creating a schism between the two that they try to heal through therapy and a change of scenery. However, their new home – which was previously the site of a grisly murder-suicide – begins revealing disturbing secrets, and Natalie starts to see images at night of a man stalking through the halls. In the end, it’s revealed that the house’s horrors are twofold, due partially to the interference of the home’s former owner, who wants it back, and partially to a deranged killer living in the basement.

The creepy-spider-man-in-the-secret-basement storyline is entirely original to Aftermath, though it does bare a striking resemblance to the real-life horror case of Theodore Edward Coneys, who murdered a man in 1941 while secretly living in his attic. The other part of Aftermath’s story, however – the part where a disgruntled party tries to oust the couple from the house externally – is directly inspired by true events. Here's the true story that inspired Aftermath and what the movie changes.

Aftermath True Story Explained: What Happened To Jerry Rice & Janice Ruhter?

In 2011, young married couple Jerry Rice and Janice Ruhter purchased a house in San Diego’s Carmel Valley, outbidding another woman named Kathy Rowe who was also vying for the property. When Rice and Ruhter outbid her, Rowe began a gross and despicable campaign to oust them in vengeance. She ordered thousands of dollars of magazine subscriptions to the house, got the couple’s mail cancelled, and sent Valentine’s Day cards to neighboring women pretending to be Rice, among other various torments.

Rowe crossed a whole other line when she started creating online ads for sexual encounters, pretending to be Ruhter. She invited men on the internet to the house, claiming she (posing as Ruhter) had a sexual fantasy of being raped at home while her husband was at work. Fortunately, the scheme was discovered by Rice and Ruhter before either of them came to physical harm, and Rowe was caught. Still, the mental and emotional terror of Rowe’s repeated attacks was immense. Aftermath copies many of the specifics of Rice and Rowe’s experience, though it’s the home’s former owner, Robert, who ends up being behind them. The mysterious magazine subscriptions, strange communications to the neighbors and attempted assault of Natalie all mirroring the real-life case in frightening ways.

Where Are Jerry Rice & Janice Ruhter Now?

As of 2015, Rice and Ruhter were still living in the same San Diego home that had been terrorized by Rowe, albeit with some significant security additions. Neither were physically harmed by Rowe’s attempts at revenge, but again, the toll of the experience was clearly great. Hopefully, the two have been able to heal from everything they endured and enter a more peaceful period.

What Happened To Kathy Rowe?

Eventually, Rowe’s plot against Rice and Ruhter was discovered. She was charged for her crimes and convicted in 2015, ultimately being sentenced to a year of home electronic surveillance and five years of probation. In the litigation against her, Rowe’s attorney cited the strain of caring for her disabled daughter and her sick husband as reason for her disgusting attacks against Rice and Ruhter. During the proceedings, Rowe publicly apologized to the couple, claiming that she would take all her actions back if she could.

What Aftermath Changes From The True Story

Aftermath pulls a number of details directly from the story of Rice and Ruhter, including the magazine subscriptions and the fake online ads. However, the horror movie is still largely its own entity, with many alterations and whole plotlines that have nothing to do with the real events surrounding Rowe. For instance, Natalie and Kevin, their relationship, and the circumstances under which they purchase the house in Aftermath are entirely different from anything resembling Rice and Ruhter’s lives, other than the fact that both are young married couples. The villain behind the couple’s torment is also very different in Aftermath, as the attacks are attributed to the debt-ridden husband of the house’s former owner, rather than by a disgruntled competitor.

Additionally, Aftermath splices the events of the Rowe story with an entirely separate plotline concerning the origins of the house and the murder-suicide that took place there. After Robert is arrested in the film, Kevin and Natalie assume they’ll finally be safe, only to discover that many of the horrors they’d seen were completely disconnected from Robert. They discover that a man named Otto has been living in a secret basement under the house since they moved in, and that he’s the one who kidnapped and murdered Natalie’s sister Dani. The film’s ending explains that Otto was the lover of the woman who formerly inhabited the house, and that she designed the secret passages so that they could be together without her husband knowing. When the woman decided to end her relationship with Otto, however, he became enraged, killed both her and her husband, and made it look like a murder-suicide.

Fortunately, nothing quite so gruesome took place in the actual lives of Rowe, Ruhter and Rice. There was no murder, no hidden criminal, and no secret Parasite basement. Even still, and even without all the embellishments the film makes, the true story that inspired it remains an unnerving tale of human cruelty. At the very least, Rice and Ruhter didn’t have to endure the additional terrors added to the story in Aftermath.

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