The tragic case of Molly McLaren. Obsession turns deadly

Nowadays, with the internet and the rise of social media, online dating is now the most common form of dating. Over 350 million people worldwide are using dating apps to meet potential partners. And to a point we are aware of the potential risks, catfishing being one of them, when someone creates a fake profile using someone else's picture to deceive others. There's the financial scams, we hear about these, don't we? And meeting strangers in person always carries a physical risk of assault, maybe, harassment, or stalking.

When a young woman started talking to a man online in 2016, she waited three months before meeting him in person. Seven months after their first face-to-face meeting, she would be dead. Who knew a single swipe on a dating app would set in motion a deadly chain of events? This is the tragic murder of Molly McLaren. Hello everyone and welcome back to Unthinkable, a true crime podcast. My name is Lisa. Thank you for joining me today. Now, today's case, it's a well-known one. I think most of you have heard of it if you're in the UK.

It's really sad and it could have been prevented if background checks had been done correctly. So Molly McLaren, she was born on the 26th of May in Gotham, England, to parents Joanna and Douglas McLaren. Molly had an older brother called Tom. To those who knew Molly, she was described as a ray of sunshine. She was vibrant and caring and was popular amongst friends. In her teenage years, Molly did have her struggles. By the age of 15, she actually began suffering from an eating disorder. She had developed bulimia.

And alongside this, she also suffered extreme anxiety. But she's amazing, so Molly, like she really is a little fighter, and Molly fought hard to overcome her struggles. And by her early 20s, she'd successfully worked through her recovery. Not only this, but she actually turned her recovery into a source of motivation to help others, and she launched a health and fitness blog. Here she would share positive advice, promote body positivity, and would also provide support for people who are working through their own struggles.

So this is amazing, isn't it? She's turning a negative time in her life into something positive. So Molly is very passionate about health and fitness, and she visits the gym regularly. She even chose to study sports, exercise, and health at university, and she wanted to become a personal trainer and help people improve their physical and mental well-being. Now, in July 2016, so Molly is using the dating app Tinder, and she is matched with 24-year-old warehouse worker Joshua Stimson. Now, Joshua lived locally to Molly.

He lived in Woodham, which is only about 10 minutes from where Molly lived. The couple messaged each other for quite a long time. They messaged for about three months before meeting in person. So they're really getting to know each other. Now, Molly is open about her eating disorder and her struggles with mental health. And she also shares her love of fitness and working out. And it turns out that they have a lot in common. So Joshua he shared his own battles with mental health and he revealed that he'd been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and that he also suffered from anxiety.

And Joshua also enjoyed going to the gym. So they bonded over their shared interest and their mental health struggles. The pair messaged almost daily discussing their daily lives and fitness routines. After three months of messaging, the pair decide to meet in mid-November in 2016. Now, during the first few months of dating, there were no obvious warning signs, and Molly's family welcomed Joshua. And although he seemed to have a strong desire to spend every minute of the day with Molly, her parents thought this was typical honeymoon phase.

And I get that, it's the same for most people, isn't it? In the beginning of relationships, you want to spend as much time together as you can, don't you? So friends say the start of their relationship, they really seemed to get on well. Molly would post pictures and videos of them on nights out on her social media, and they looked like any other young couple enjoying life and each other. Now, over the next few months, some of Molly's friends started to feel a little bit uneasy around Josh. They said that they felt like he was trying to come between Molly and her friends.

And his behaviour, it started to become more possessive of Molly, particularly when she was busy. So if Molly was studying in her room for uni, Josh would just turn up unannounced, and then he would lay on the bed while she worked, and then he would complain to her in text messages that she'd ignored him all day. Molly's mum Joanna, she started to notice that Joshua would stare at Molly for extended periods of time, and not like just normally looking at someone, it was like an intense fixation. Joshua began to message Molly more and more until it was constant, constantly messaging her all day long for her exclusive attention.

Now, by February 2017, Josh had become increasingly needy and possessive. Molly had confided in friends and family that she wasn't really feeling the same about Josh. She expressed feeling suffocated and suggested to Josh that they should take some time apart. She messaged him saying it's probably best if we have a little bit of space right now. But Josh just bombarded Molly with messages constantly, all day, every day, begging her not to break up with him. He messaged saying things like, One more chance is all I'm asking for, I've been crying all day, I will do anything, I will beg.

And these continue. And Molly eventually she gives in and they get back together. Molly's mum said Molly only took him back because it was easier than having him continuously harassing her. Joshua's behaviour, of course, didn't change, it escalated further. And now we start to see Joshua try and shift blame onto Molly, claiming she's the problem, not him, that her mental health was to blame for his behaviour. He says he acts the way he does because of her. Now, when Molly expressed boundaries and asked for some space, he would react with extreme distress and anger, making Molly feel guilty and then forcing her to apologize for causing him pain.

Molly exchanged messages with friends, stating that she feels like she's constantly treading on eggshells. Now in May 2017, the couple actually go on a two-week holiday to Teneri together. Now, this was to celebrate Molly's 23rd birthday, and it was already booked and paid for before Joshua's behaviour had escalated. And Molly, she hoped this holiday together would give them a chance to work through their issues and have a fresh start. However, Josh's behaviour worsened during this trip. He became agitated over normal social interactions.

He'd become so upset if Molly spoke to another person or paid any attention to anything or anyone other than him. He wanted her undivided attention. Molly felt extremely anxious and trapped away from home. She messaged friends saying the holiday is terrible and she asked for help. Molly, she realizes now that the relationship is extremely unhealthy and it can't be saved. So on the 17th of June 2017, Molly ended the relationship for good. She chose to do it in a public place with her friends for safety.

The couple were at a venue in Maidstone, and Molly took Josh to one side and she told him it was over. And as predicted, Josh reacted with anger. He shouted at the top of his voice in front of everybody, She's finished with me, before storming out. The next day, Joshua began messaging Molly asking if it was truly over. And Molly remained strong, confirming that the relationship was over for good. Josh then started messaging, saying that he could handle the breakup if it had been done in a more respectful way.

But this time it was clear there was no amount of harassment could change Molly's mind. She was firm their relationship was over. Now Joshua, of course, he's completely unable to accept the breakup. He's lost control over her. So instead he turned to publicly humiliation. This is a way to maintain power over her. So five days after the breakup, Joshua went on Facebook and publicly announced that Molly was a secret cocaine addict. He tagged Molly's friends and family in the post so that they would see it.

And of course this is not true, but Molly, she's a health and fitness fanatic. She wants to work in health and fitness. This could ruin her reputation. He's posting things like, I bet you haven't been honest with your family, Molly. Your anxiety is caused by all the drug taking. And then he says, I have the messages to prove it, and I will post them. He also posts pictures of the couple's private messages discussing mental health, and these messages are private. None of us want our text messages to be seen by the world, do we?

And Joshua would tag Molly's parents and friends in these posts too, so they would see them. Now poor Molly, she is left frightened and embarrassed. She sent screenshots of the post to friends saying that she's scared of what he'll do next. This is terrifying, isn't it? Molly's family, they reported the post to Facebook twice, but Facebook responded saying the post didn't violate their community standards. Go away, Facebook. Oh, a little side note here. I hate Facebook, I have my reasons. Anyway, so unable to remove the posts through Facebook, Molly and her mum they went to the police.

They went to North Kent Police Station on the 22nd of June 2017. An officer they spoke to actually called Josh and put him on speakerphone so Molly could hear the conversation. The police officer warned him to stop posting abusive material or he'll face prosecution. But Joshua remained dismissive during the call, stating that he had done nothing wrong. Now, so Molly, she blocks Joshua from all of her social media, everything, and so do her friends and family. And if you think for Molly, she's got her own positive fitness blog she's been working on.

Why should she stop posting on social media because of Joshua? She's doing a good thing, she's trying to help people. She shouldn't have to hide away because of him. But Joshua, he actively followed Molly in person. He dated her for seven months, so he kind of knew her routine as much as he could. And he started showing up in places that Molly was at. So he'd show up at the gym, he'd show up at restaurants she was dining in. And on the 28th of June, Molly had posted on her social media that she was going to the Ship and Trades pub on St. Mary's Island at the dockside in Chatham.

And why shouldn't she post where she's going? Josh is blocked, so Molly is out with her friends when suddenly Josh shows up beside Molly at the bar. He appears next to her. He doesn't say anything to her, but he smiles. He's there with a girl, and Molly asks her how she feels about Josh being there with a girl, and Molly is happy. She says, Well, he must be moving on. This means he'll leave me alone. But what Molly didn't know is Josh had actually recruited this girl to spy on her, to stalk her on social media, watch her movements and report back to Josh.

The reason Josh knew Molly was at the ship and trade pub is because this girl was actively stalking Molly online. Now I don't know this for sure, but I can only assume that Josh fed her some story, like completely untrue, about Molly and how she'd wronged him in some way. And no one, you know, we can't blame this girl. She wouldn't have known what the outcome of this would be, but she does tell Josh that she loves a good stalk. Josh, he walks past Molly's table a couple of times. Oh, it's so creepy.

And then he goes outside to the smoking area, sits down, and just stares at Molly. And he doesn't even spoke uh smoke. He's just trying to intimidate her, isn't he? That nobody directly confronts Joshua. Molly decides she's just gonna go. She's too uncomfortable, and she leaves around 9 pm and goes home, which is a shame, isn't it? She had to cancel her plans because of his obsessive behaviour towards her. Like what is he thinking? What does he think he'll achieve by this? It's all about power for him, isn't it?

So the next day, so this is Thursday, the 29th of June 2017, around 10am, Molly arrives at her local gym, Nutfield Health Gym in Medway Valley Park. The gym was quiet that day, and Molly had gone upstairs to one of the exercise rooms, which was empty, it was completely empty. She gets her training mat and some weights, and she starts one of her usual workouts. Now, within a few minutes of Molly arriving at the gym, Josh then turns up. CCTV catches him walking to the room that Molly's in, and remember she's alone.

Josh gets a training mat and he sets up right next to Molly. This is all caught on CCTV. Now Molly, she secretly took a picture of Josh and she sent it to a friend saying, WFT, he's just turned up and come right next to me. Her friend asked her if she posted anything about going to the gym online, and Molly said no. He must have followed her there. Molly, she goes over to Josh and she asks him if he's following her. He didn't answer, so she asked him why he wasn't at work. And Josh just says it's none of your business.

Then Josh leaves. Now Molly calls her mum and her mum tells her to come home straight away. That was the last conversation Molly had with her mother. Now on CCTV, Josh, so he's seen leaving the room and he goes part way down the stairs, then he stops, and then he comes back up, and then he kind of hesitates in the door, and then he leaves again. Molly messages a friend saying she stopped her workout and she's going to go home. She says she feels like she's always looking over her shoulder. Her friend messages and asks if she's okay, but Molly never replied.

Now Molly makes her way out of the gym and she heads to the car. She has a quick look round and can't see Josh anywhere. But unbeknownst to Molly, Josh had been in his car, but he was circling the car park slowly, waiting for Molly to leave the gym. Molly, she sat in the driver's seat, and then all of a sudden the passenger door opens and Josh lunges into the car with a knife. And he began frantically and violently attacking Molly. He stabbed her in her head, her neck, her chest. Molly is screaming and desperately beeping her horn to draw attention.

Now, a passerby, Benjamin Morton, he's walking his dog, he hears the commotion, and he ran over to help Molly. He's banging on the car window, the car bonnet trying to distract him. He tried to slam the passenger door side on Josh's legs to try and get him to stop. He tried to pull him off Molly and he said he couldn't grip him because there was so much blood. Now, fearing that Josh would drive away with Molly, Benjamin then ran to his own car and blocked Molly's car in so Joshua couldn't drive away.

He shouted to nearby members of the public to call the police. The alarm had already been raised. But how brave is Benjamin stepping in like that? He's amazing. And you know, Joshua had a knife on him. Benjamin could have been hurt. But he does what he can to help Molly. Paramedics and police arrive quickly. Now officers they find Joshua. He's just pacing up and down, covered in blood. He doesn't try to flee the scene. He actually walks up to the police car and he puts his hands on the bonnet and tells them that she's in the car.

I've killed her. And police arrest him immediately. Now, paramedics perform resuscitation efforts on Molly. They really try to save her, but her injuries were just too severe. And she was pronounced dead in her car at the scene. Josh killed Molly 12 days after she ended their relationship. It's just unimaginable, isn't it? She's just going about her day. She's texting with friends, and literally minutes later, she's dead. Oh, just awful. And of course, we've seen her on CCTV, and that that's what's it's so sad because you're seeing their last moment.

It's just, oh, it's just really it's just an odd and oh, I don't like it. Now, of course, Molly's friends and her mother are completely unaware of the tragic events that have just unfolded. But they are starting to worry. So Molly's mum Joanna, she was expecting Molly to arrive home. Molly had told her she was leaving the gym, and the gym's only sort of 10 minutes from their house. But after 20 minutes or so, Molly still wasn't home. And so her mum calls her and she sends her messages, but it goes unanswered.

Her friends start to become nervous too, as Molly has stopped messaging in their WhatsApp group. But then they start to see reports on social media that there's been a major incident at Chatham Dockside Car Park. Can you imagine that moment, that feeling of dread? One of Molly's friends sent a screenshot of the report to Molly's mum, and she said she knew. She knew instantly that this was Molly and that something terrible had happened. She tried to call Molly again and again, and overwhelmed with panic and fear, she went to a lock a local shop where her friend worked.

Her friend called the police, and the police police arrived and they took her home. They officially confirmed that Molly had been the victim of a fatal attack. As the news spread, Molly's friends were left in total shock and disbelief. Of course they are. This is hard to believe anything like this could happen to someone you know. Amy Lee, who had been messaging Molly right up until the attack, she was left traumatized by how fast the situation escalates. Her friends gathered together to breathe and support Molly's parents.

Now in the years that followed, her friends and family channelled their grief into action to make sure Molly is never forgotten, and they actually created the Molly McLaren Foundation, and this is to raise awareness of eating disorder and mental health. These causes were deeply important to Molly. She'd beaten her eating disorder and was committed to helping others. The Molly McLaren Foundation is her legacy. And it's amazing, isn't it, that in the darkest of times people can find something positive.

They also strive to raise awareness about the dangers of domestic control, stalking, and red flags in coercive relationships. So what of Joshua Stimpson? So Joshua, he was found guilty of murder by the jury at Maidstone Crown Court on the 6th of February 2018. He admitted to killing Molly, but he pleaded not guilty on grounds of diminished responsibility. Of course he did. But the jury, thank goodness, rejected his defense. They agreed that what he did to Molly was a deliberate murder driven by obsession and revenge.

Now he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 26 years. Judge Adele Williams, she told him that his actions were cruel, calculated, and cowardly, noting that he poses a substantial risk to women and may never be released. So why did he do this? So in the court, the prosecution said that Josh exhibited deeply controlling obsessive and possessive behaviors towards women. He refused to accept Molly's decision to end their relationship, and he attempted to reinsert control over her by harassing her and starting online smear campaigns and stalking her.

This was twelve days, in twelve days since the couple broke up. He killed her. That's scary. And he was following her around everywhere. Could you imagine? Everywhere you go, he's there watching. Oh, it's just awful. And she'd been to the police. I don't know what else she could have done. Oh, it's just horrible. So Josh has a history. Uh there were testimonies from previous partners that showed a history of him becoming extremely obsessive, tracking their movements and harassing women, especially when they tried to end their relationships.

He had slashed an ex-girlfriend's tires, all four tires on her car. He had threatened one of his exes that he was going to drown her. And he'd been reported to the police for these behaviours. Molly's mum had reported Josh to the police on two occasions. So he's been reported to the police on quite a few occasions for the same behaviour. But apparently it was classed as upsetting rather than recognizing that it's an escalating pattern of dangerous stalking. And we know that if they're not stopped, their behaviours will escalate, which is what we've seen happen here, isn't it?

It was discovered in court that Joshua didn't have bipolar. He didn't have bipolar at all, he was never diagnosed with it. So he'd lied about this. So he'd have something in common with Molly, something they could bond over, their mental health struggles. There was also no evidence that Joshua suffered from any severe personality disorder. Joshua's behavior was driven by narcissistic and psychopathic traits. He had a deep-rooted rage and he wanted revenge. So why do people stalk? So stalkers often experience an intense fixation on a person.

This can stem from a belief that they are owed affection or they're delusional, thinking they're in a relationship or they have a connection with a person that it doesn't exist. Stalkers often like to control and intimidate others. They like to have power and dominance over other people. It's linked to narcissistic personality. So individuals with narcissism, they often maintain an over-inflated ego and high levels of self-importance. They just can't cope with rejection. It's so unbelievably tragic and heartbreaking, isn't it, that Molly's life ended this way?

Thanks for listening, everyone. And as ever, I like to end by saying in a world where you can be anything, be kind. Take care.

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