The Sad Saga of Sarah's Stalker
WretchAwry
the Sarah McLachlan "Possession" case. I was hoping to pass
along the news that the case had been dropped. Well, the case
has been dropped, but not for the reason I would have wanted it
to be dropped. It's a sad story, and my heart is hurting, for
Uwe, and for Sarah.
This originally appeared in the newsgroup alt.music.s-mclachlan,
and was then sent to the mailing list FTE.
Vickie
--------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.music.s-mclachlan
From: ab...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (James Hrynyshyn)
Subject: OTTAWA X PRESS ARTICLE: Object of Obsession
Sender: ab...@freenet.carleton.ca (James Hrynyshyn)
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 13:26:37 GMT
Lines: 197
The Ottawa X Press story on Uwe Vandrei. It appeared jan. 18. Ottawa X
Press is an alternative weekly news and entertainment magazine and can be
reached at xpr...@freenet.carleton.ca. A web site is in the works.
Object of Obsession
Oh Sarah,
Will I ever hold you on that shore?
Or only live it in a dream?
Will I ever tell you of my fears?
Will you ever collect my tear?
Uwe Vandrei
Letters to Sarah, 1992
And I would be the one to hold you down,
Kiss you so hard.
I'll take your breath away
And after I wipe away your tears
Just close your eyes dear.
Sarah McLachlan
"Possession," 1994
by Jane Tattersall and James Hrynyshyn
Few people noticed Uwe Vandrei's disappearance
last fall. His neighbors on Vanier's Barrette Street
most often described him as a loner.
Only the chance discovery in November of his
truck parked in the Manotick woods, his decomposing
body inside brought to light the end of his tragic life.
And yet Vandrei was not an entirely unknown
quantity. Those that did know him at all could point to
the source of his pain. But who could have predicted his
love for Vancouver singer Sarah McLachlan would drive
him to suicide?
Vandrei's obsession with McLachlan is not the
first time a fan has gone over the edge. Indeed, the list
of crazed fans is a long one. David Letterman has one.
Jodie Foster has one who's also a failed presidential
assassin. Even some Ottawa musicians have been
confronted with over-enthusiastic admirers. They're
inevitable. But there's little anyone can do to help them
and Vandrei's case is a perfect example of why.
Carey Stevens, an Ottawa psychologist who deals
with obsessive-compulsive behavior, says fixations of
any kind usually arise to fill a gap in someone's life.
If the problem is smoking or nail-biting, it can be
treated through behavioral modification, says Stevens.
As long as they're a good reason to quit, the patient can.
Fixating on a media star, however, is more
difficult to treat because there's no obvious incentive
to giving it up. Its origins are also more mysterious.
"I don't know of a client who's been able to say,
This is why I do it.' It's something that gradually
forms," says Stevens. "I don't think they
understand - and I really believe they're telling the
truth."
Perhaps Vandrei needed an intellectual and
emotional partner. For some reason, he couldn't find one
here and turned to McLachlan instead.
Other obsessed fans have followed the same path.
Many of those who's tactics have ended up as fodder for
the popular press have resorted to gruesome or
outrageous strategies.
But Vandrei's story does not include dead animals
or body parts mailed to the star. There are no threats,
no signs of violence or otherwise dangerous behavior,
just letters.
Lots of letters.
And a bizarre lawsuit asking for $250,000 and
credit for supplying the material that he claimed
McLachlan used as the basis for her song about an
obsessed fan, "Possession."
Oh into the sea of waking dreams
I follow without pride
CAUSE nothing stands between us here
And I won't be denied.
-- S. McLachlan
"Possession," 1994
As do many obsessed fans, Vandrei kept to
himself. "We never saw him with anybody or saw
anybody at his house. He spoke with my roommate once
about the court case, but that was pretty much it," says
next-door neighbor James Buchanan.
Buchanan says Vandrei's home was well-stocked
with computer equipment, and that the computer
engineer was a well-known presence on several
Internet newsgroups. (Psychologist Stevens says many
obsessive loners are turning to the Internet to find
some sort of social fulfillment.) In his basement he
kept stacks of books and journals with titles like
"Poems" and "Songs."
But he didn't appear to have a social life in the
physical sense. Details of his life -- his age,
birthplace, family -- are hard to come by. His former
landlord contacted Vandrei's family after his death and
promised to pass on a request for an X Press interview,
but the family has yet to respond.
Buchanan says he and his roommate only noticed
Vandrei's absence when junk mail started piling up
outside his door. "We were cleaning it up for him. Then
his bike got knocked over in the driveway and he didn't
pick it up. It just sat on its side for days. That made us
start to wonder."
Even the building manager saw little of the man.
He paid his rent on the apartment he lived in for three
years with post-dated cheques. According to the
manager, he told people in September just before he
disappeared that he was going to Vancouver, which is
where McLachlan is based.
She described him as "a nice, friendly guy. He was
incredibly intelligent, but misguided. There was no
question in his mind that she [McLachlan] was as much
in love with him as he was with her."
Let me repeat the lessons that you may not have learned
well. Time and distance are IRRELEVANT! I am absorbed
by, bound to you and I can wait a year, a decade, a
lifetime. I will still be there, cherishing,
contemplating, waiting.
-- U. Vandrei
Letters to Sarah,
Other neighbors tell of meeting Vandrei on the
street and immediately finding themselves involved in
a mostly one-sided conversation of the merits of
McLachlan's music. It was clear he was obsessed.
His letters, the ones he sent to McLachlan over
the space of more than two years, paint a picture of a
lonely man who had nothing to live for beyond the slim
hope of recognition from his idol.
In one, he compares his life to the frozen Rideau
River waterfalls, "except that spring is certain to come
and my winter is eternal."
So desperate was he for McLachlan's attention
that he thought nothing of exposing his obsession to
public scrutiny. He launched the lawsuit last
September, then he sent copies of his letters to CKCU
radio. All that mattered was reaching the siren of his
dreams.
Such behavior may sound irrational, but to an
obsessed fan it makes sense. Police have come across
similar patterns in stalkers, men who pursue women
relentlessly. As an American detective told Details
magazine two years ago, going to court is "like going on
a date - he gets to be in the same room as her, gets to
talk at her if not to her, learns new details about her
life."
Rodney Murphy, a Carleton University student who
met Vandrei at a McLachlan concert in December, 1993,
spent several hours talking with him. "He kept talking
about how little faith he had in humanity," Murphy
recalls. "The court case wasn't about money. He didn't
need it. He was very well off. All he wanted to do was
meet her. He was in love with her music, her whole
persona."
Nevertheless, Murphy felt it was for the best that
Vandrei never actually meet his idol. "He wasn't at all
violent or hostile, but he truly believed everything he
told me. He couldn't see things straight. Meeting her
would have made the whole scheme even more real to
him."
Oh you speak to me in riddles
And you speak to me in rhyme.
My body aches to breathe your breath,
Your words keep me alive
-- S. McLachlan
"Possession," 1994
McLachlan has always portrayed herself in her
songs and videos as a mythic, remote figure. Through
her management agency, she declined to talk about the
affair, but in an interview on MuchMusic she described
herself as a "sucker for tragic romance."
The image she has constructed has attracted more
than one obsessive fan. In March of 1994 a restraining
order was issued against a fan who moved to Vancouver
to be near the singer. But even if Vandrei wasn't the
most troublesome fan, his death shows he was the most
troubled.
All these years your music kept me warm in that
winter. You warm me so, and we have not even met yet!
-- U. Vandrei
Letters to Sarah, 1992
-30-
--
-----------
James Hrynyshyn *** ab...@freenet.carleton.ca
Centretown, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
(613) 235-9465 *** News Editor, Ottawa X Press
Douglas Alan
|>oug
"Our empty lives pile up like discarded socks in God's hamper"
-- Thirty Something