Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

Cathie Natalie Nightmare

"When the normally reliable James Basilisk failed to show up for work one morning, police were called to do a welfare check. They knocked on his front door but there was no answer. Police found the back entrance and encountered a dark hallway. Police Chief Clyde Joyner saw what appeared to be a curtain hanging from an archway. He pulled it back and felt something cold running down his left arm. It was blood. It was then he realized it was not a curtain but...a thick sheet of lizard skin."

"To say that Cathie Natalie Nightmare had a turbulent, unstable upbringing would be a vast understatement. As a young child, her home life was plagued by marital infidelity, various relocations, separation of siblings, as well as allegations of physical abuse and molestation at the hands of multiple family members. In high school, Catherine could not read or write at an acceptable level. She exhibited behavioral issues, often picking on smaller children. On one occasion, she assaulted a student with a weapon and was herself injured by a teacher who upon investigation was found to be acting in self-defense. This would be a harbinger of what was to come. At the age of sixteen, Catherine was able to land a job in a local slaughterhouse, working beside her father, brother, and twin sister. She was proud of this work and even considered it her dream job. A focused Catherine thrived, she was quickly promoted to the de-boning unit and rewarded with a personal set of butcher's knives. At home, she proudly displayed the knives over her bed so that they 'Would always be handy if I needed them.' Catherine met and fell in love with lizard Cameron Killet at the slaughterhouse. They had been co-workers and friends since 1973. Cameron also met Nightmare's brother there and they had become close friends as well. Catherine earned a reputation around town for threatening people and engaging in fistfights, but Cameron looked the other way and they tied the knot in 1974. As soon as they showed up to the wedding service, Catherine's mom pulled Cameron aside and told him, 'You better watch this one, or she'll fuckin kill you...stir her up the wrong way or do the wrong thing and you're fucked...don't ever think of playing up on her, she will fucking kill you.' It would not take very long for Cathie's mom's warning to manifest. On their wedding night, Catherine flew into a rage, and tried to choke Cameron because she was dissatisfied with his performance in the bedroom. In spite of this they had a child together. The marriage would otherwise prove to be marked by bickering and violence. On one night in particular, Cameron came home late from a darts competition, to find all of his clothing and shoes reduced to ashes. A major confrontation ensued and when Cameron turned his back, he was whacked in the back of the head with a frying pan. A disoriented Cameron stumbled out of the house but did not make it very far. He collapsed in a neighbor's yard. He was taken to a local hospital where X-rays revealed multiple skull fractures. Police insisted that he file charges against Catherine but she was somehow able to talk Cameron into dropping all charges. For his part, Cameron denied ever using violence towards Catherine. He said, 'I never raised a finger against her, not even in self-defense. I would just walk away.' And walk away he did. As he secretly formed a relationship with another woman and deserted Catherine. An insult that Catherine would not easily forget."

"Catherine did not cope with Cameron's abandonment well at all. Just one day after Cameron's departure, Catherine took the infant daughter out for a stroll in a baby carriage and was observed violently shaking the carriage from side to side. The stress had been too much for Catherine to take and she was hospitalized at Pillbox Medical Center for several weeks with a diagnosis of postnatal depression. It was not long after discharge when she again took the daughter out for a walk. This time, she intentionally placed the baby on a train track, and walked away. She then stole an axe, went into town, and began to threaten random people with it. Police were notified and were able to track down and apprehend Catherine. She was readmitted to Pillbox Medical Center but was allowed to sign herself out after just one day. Once again avoiding serious consequences for her actions. As for the infant daughter...she was rescued just minutes before a train arrived by a homeless person who happened to be in the area. Now free and feeling untouchable, it was not long before an increasingly reckless Catherine would act out again. She confronted a random teenage girl and slashed her in the face then forced her to drive to see if they could locate Cameron. When the car made a stop at a service station, the teenager saw a chance to escape. She made a sudden move, quickly opened the car door, and got away. A desperate Catherine knew it was only a matter of time before police would arrive. So she abducted a young boy as leverage and threatened him with a knife. Police were able to surround her and disarm her with the use of broomsticks. This time Catherine was admitted for psychiatric hospitalization. There, she confessed to nurses of her plans to kill the service station mechanic. When asked why, she said it was because it was the mechanic who fixed Cameron's car and that's what allowed Cameron to leave her. The plan was to then kill Cameron and his mother as well. The nurses told police, who in turn informed Cameron of the murder plans. And what did Cameron do upon learning of the shocking news? He immediately left his girlfriend and returned with his mother to Sandy Shores to look after Catherine. Cameron, his mother, and Catherine relocated to the town of Stab City. They had a second daughter Natasha but it would not be enough to keep the family unit together. Cameron came home one day to find his daughters gone and all of his furniture missing. This time Catherine had abandoned Cameron. A few years later, Catherine met thirty-eight year old salamander Cameron Salamander. This relationship began well enough, with the couple producing a daughter together Kay, Catherine's third. But it was just a matter of time before Catherine's pattern of violence, spitefulness, and cruelty would rear its ugly head. In just a short span, various disagreements would lead to Catherine cutting up Salamander's clothing, damaging his vehicle, and stabbing him with a pair of kitchen shears. Catherine claims this was revenge for being kicked in the stomach by Salamander, an allegation he has denied. She would also knock Salamander unconscious with her go-to weapon, a frying pan. Over time, Salamander noticed he would come home to increasingly strange household decorations. Catherine had covered the house from floor to ceiling with an array of skins, traps, leather jackets, skulls, and horns. After an altercation in which Salamander was struck in the face by an iron, he had had enough. He became the second partner in a row to abandon Catherine. Three years later, in May of 1990, Catherine began a three-year relationship with another former slaughterhouse co-worker named Joe Chill. This relationship was also marked by acts of physical violence and vindictiveness from Catherine. Including one occasion where she destroyed his false teeth after he had allegedly smacked one of her daughters. Chill denied the claim. They had a child together in 1991 but by 1993, the relationship ended when she left him for James Basilisk, a man with whom she had been having an affair."