Kristie's Craziness

All the random things in life that I think we should talk about.

Recent Posts

  • Mean Girl Murders: Battle of the Besties

    Mean Girl Murders: Battle of the Besties

    Hello Lovelies.

    I hope you are all staying warm and prepping for spring. I am in full hibernation mode. I have a giant list of books to read and too many streaming services. Definitely complain there’s nothing on TV.

    Last night I was on the HBOMAX app and discovered the docuseries Mean Girl Murders. The first episode, Battle of the Besties tells the story of Stacy DeGrandchamp.

    In August of 2002, Stacy DeGrandchamp was a preppy girl preparing for her senior year of high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She had recently broken up with her 20 year old boyfriend. There was too much tension between them, partly due to his previous girlfriend Holly stirring things up.

    Holly and Stacy hadn’t actually been friends since they were in middle school. Holly was a mean girl who hung out with the party crowd. She didn’t like Stacy dating her ex boyfriend, and retold rumors about Stacy talking behind other girls’ backs.

    On August 15, 2022, Stacy and Holly both attended a house party at the home of Brandon Muff, the now ex boyfriend of both girls. Neither girl was happy to see the other and a screaming match, turned into a physical fight which ended with Stacy bleeding in the driveway. She died from stab wounds.

    Unfortunately, the police couldn’t find the weapon, nor could they find a witness who knew how Stacy had been hurt. Brandon and Holly both claimed that it must have happened when the girls were separated and Stacy was dragged over by the recycling bin. The police didn’t believe this scenario, but without proof the investigation stalled.

    17 years later, Stacy’s cousin reached out to a cold case detective and begged him to look at her murder. Detective Marrin suspected that Stacy had been set up by both Brandon and Holly. Brandon’s roommate, Justin, said Brandon stopped him when he tried to break up the fight. And Brandon didn’t separate the girls until after Stacy started to go limp over Holly.

    Detective Martin questioned Holly again, as well. Holly kept saying that Stacy was her friend and she would never intentionally hurt her. When asked if she had carried a knife back then, Holly admitted to normally having a pocket knife for protection and even gave it to the investigators.

    There was no DNA on the knife but the blade was consistent with Stacy’s injuries. It was still just a theory though until Holly’s friend, Amanda, came forward to say she knew Holly had the knife on her that night, because she took if from Amanda’s purse before the party.

    Holly was arrested and brought back to Fort Wayne. She accepted a plea arrangement to serve up to 20 years in prison for the murder of Stacy DeGrandchamp. She could be eligible for parole in the early 2030s.

    So far I am enjoying this series, but I think whoever came up with the episode title is reaching with the word Besties. A bestie is someone you share secrets with and go shopping with and who’s company you actually enjoy. These girls had mutual friends, but barely tolerated each other. Frenemies would have been more accurate.

    Take a peek at the show and let me know what you think.

    Kristie

  • Daily Affirmations: Day 43

    Daily Affirmations: Day 43

    It’s been 8 years and there is no silver lining to my kid brother dying at 36. I still claim unfair. I’m still mad and hurt that he’s gone. I’m able to keep those emotions in check most of the time but they are still there.

  • Book Review: Madame LaLaurie: Mistress of the Haunted House

    Book Review: Madame LaLaurie: Mistress of the Haunted House

    Who would have thought that 2026 would be the year I embraced nonfiction books? So far this year I have read Diary of Anne Frank and I Am Malala, both amazing and sad autobiographies of persecuted young women. Then I read Madame LaLaurie: Mistress of the Haunted House, a well researched biography of a New Orleans plantation mistress who is rumored to have tortured and murdered her slaves.

    Marie Delphine Macarty LaLaurie was a Creole woman from New Orleans. She was married 3 times. When she was 14, she married Don Ramón de Lopez y Angulo who was a 35 year old widower. Their marriage only lasted 4 years before he died while traveling back to Louisiana from Spain. Her 2nd husband was Jean Blanque, who she married at the age of 22. They were married for 8 years, until his death in 1816. In 1825, at the age of 40, she married 25 year old Dr Leonard LaLaurie in order to legitimize their son who had been born the previous year, according to church records.

    They had a tumultuous marriage and separated multiple times. It would seem that they were back together on the night of April 10th, 1834 when their mansion caught fire during a house party. Delphine made sure all of her expensive belongings were moved out to the street, but refused to allow anyone to look for her slaves. A judge who lived across the street decided to disregard the LaLauries’ wishes and entered the back building with a group from the community. It was in those quarters that they discovered a female slave trapped in the kitchen and 6 others chained in the room upstairs. They had been obviously abused. The community was rightfully horrified and would have enacted vigilante justice if the LaLaurie family hadn’t fled first to Mobile, Alabama, then to New York City and finally to Louis LaLaurie’s home town in France.

    I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It was well researched but did not give me any new information about Madame LaLaurie or evidence of haunting. There was a lot of information about her relatives and children, but even they are not tracked all the way to modern times.

    Rating: 3/5

  • Daily Affirmations: Day 42

    Daily Affirmations: Day 42

    Last week would have been my dad’s 70th birthday. I felt both emotions at once. I am happy my dad is at peace and that he is no longer in pain. I am sad that he doesn’t get to see his grandchildren grow up. It’s hard to be Daddy’s girl when he’s your guardian angel.

  • Daily Affirmations: Day 41

    Daily Affirmations: Day 41

    Grief is such an underrated emotion. Society, ie our jobs, tell us we should be over it and functional within 3 days.

    That’s insane!!!

    I am still grieving the loss of my father and brother after years of living with out them. You don’t get over grief. You just learn to exist with it.