TRUE CRIME EXCLUSIVE PART 1: Discussing the Yuka Takaoka and Snow the Salt Queen cases with 'Influencers Who Kill' author Madison Salters

This summer, I'm shopping the small space solutions that America waited 250 years for at Bob's discount furniture. Bob's has everything from retro chic bedroom sets with plenty of storage, party-ready dining sets in four fun colors, stylish and space-conscious bobopedic sofas to feature-packed power recliners that let me kick back all summer long. So, when you're ready to snag latest trends in small space styling, stop in or shop online at Bob's discount furniture, where America shops for furniture. The podcast Campus Files is back with more stories of scandal, crime, and intrigue on college campuses. Campus Files, available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a true crime exclusive interview from the On Deadline podcast. We're talking to author and journalist Madison Salters, author of influencers who kill, a true crime collection, real stories of online fame and fatal consequences. I'm your host, Lauren Barry. Have you ever been scrolling on TikTok or Instagram and found yourself fascinated by an influencer? Maybe their life seems absurd or chaotic, or maybe it seems too perfect to be true. Well, it just might be. In her book, Salter's details nine horrifying true crime cases linked to the flashy and sometimes captivating world of influencers over the past two decades. These cases include Yucatakaoka, a Japanese bar hostess who went to prison for a non-fatal stabbing. Nassim Ogdom, the YouTube headquarters shooter. Snow the Salt Queen, a cosplay shooter who maintains their innocence. David Katz, a shooter who targeted a sports video game tournament. Samantha Walford, a mommy vlogger, who was convicted of kidnapping and murder. Randy Stair, also known on YouTube as Andrew Blaze, who shot and killed his supermarket co-workers. Trey Sessler, known on YouTube as Mr. Anime, who pled guilty to murdering his family members. Pika Eric Ovenin, a YouTuber from the early aughts and perpetrator of one of Finland's few school shootings. And Abigail White, an only fan's model who was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing the father of her children to death. In this episode, we'll have a special focus on the Yuga Takakaoka and Snow the Salt Queen cases. We also discussed the growing impact of social media on all of our lives. Here's my talk with Madison Salters, author of Influencers Who Kill.

This summer, I'm shopping the small space solutions that America waited 250 years for at Bob's discount furniture. Bob's has everything from retro chic bedroom sets with plenty of storage, party-ready dining sets in four fun colors, stylish and space-conscious bobopedic sofas to feature-packed power recliners that let me kick back all summer long. So, when you're ready to snag latest trends in small space styling, stop in or shop online at Bob's discount furniture, where America shops for furniture. Every week on the Moth podcast, real people tell their stories live on stage. I burst into tears. And I wasn't sure if I was crying because I hadn't been kissed in a really long time or if I had just never been kissed like that before. To hear fascinating, heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious stories from astronauts, teachers, farmers, and people just like you, follow and listen to the Moth wherever you get your podcasts. Now, this concept is so great and interesting. And every time I've brought up that I'm doing this interview, people are like, oh my gosh, yes, what about influencers who kill? But you're one of the first people that I've seen at least really compiling information about this. And I wanted to know what piqued your interest in this? Was it a specific case or just the concept overall? What was really interesting, I should start by saying thank you. Thank you so much for having me and for your curiosity on this topic. I am a big true crime fan myself. I watch and read a lot of it. And Influencers Who Kill is my third book with Ulysses Press. And in fact, Ulysses reached out to me with about 21 names and this idea. They're saying that, you know, SEO, GEO is showing that people are really... interested in this, here are 21 names, can you research them and sort of decide on a direction for an influencer's book? They had a lot of names they definitely wanted me to go with, and Yuka Takaoka was actually the only case I decided on for myself because I thought it tied into the other eight cases I picked really well. And what piqued my interest in these specific nine cases, were two things. One, the element of parasociality, that's such a catchphrase these days, I feel like, But these parasocial relationships that we're creating as life moves more and more online where social media, which was previously used, even in the early aughts, to really connect with our friends, our family members. Now we're connecting with strangers more than ever. And we are kind of having one-sided relationships in a way with strangers, which is very typical for the human brain, but very atypical for... being a big part of our day. So there was that element. And then there was also the shifting idea of what an influencer means. An influencer used to be a lot more of a grassroots niche kind of an expert that you really trusted because they were there week after week sort of speaking to you almost on a personal level. And now it's almost like a job. So it feels like there was this 20-year period where

influencers and murder were really on a much more personal level. You could see these parasocial relationships and this being forced into having a persona was really morphing people, sometimes into their worst selves in a way that shifted these days. And I thought that was very interesting. Absolutely. And I noted that time frame as well in the cases that you had. The earliest one, I think, goes back to 2007, which that's like around 20 years ago now. And I wanted you to explain a little bit more about that. You already touched on it a little bit. But in your research, how did you find that these cases reflected are growing like... symbiotic attachment to influencers and online culture in those two decades? Yeah. So I think what's interesting with the cases as they get closer to the modern day is you just sort of see them happening faster. And I will explain what that means. It's... Essentially, when social media was still a little bit of the Wild West and people were still figuring out how to use it, I think it didn't bruise egos quite so much when, you know, somebody unfollowed you or you didn't get the amount of likes. It didn't have that same kind of tag on it where people are really counting, how many people bookmark this, how many people like this, how many people commented on it, is it getting boosted? There wasn't that so much. So people... who were doing this more towards 2007, it was really a slow role for some of these people who ended up being the villains of their own story into this madness or this evil that they got plunged into. And it was the shift of social media itself. was really responsible for a lot of this, feeling like they were getting lost. They didn't have an audience. They didn't have the look or the vibe or the persona to keep up with the shifts that were happening to something that was so integral in their life that it had taken over their life. But on the other side of that, on the other half of things, with the modern day and people who are a little bit closer to 2026 when they were actually committing their crimes, we see it happen a lot more quickly. Like as soon as there's a dip in numbers or interest, we see them going, well, I need to do something more extreme, more to gain attention. And I need that attention immediately, especially for those influencers who were monetizing their streams. And if I could encap that, I think one of the most interesting reasons for me that I included Yuka is she was somebody who is influential, but mostly became influential because of what she'd done. So now we see people monetizing murder or attempted murder.

effectively, which is sort of a crazy societal conversation point, I guess. I also... was struck by the cases that are in this book are all very different, but they also have some similarities. And you said it was very intentional the way that you picked them. So how do these cases go together? And what do they say about people who are, you know, maybe attracted to this attention of being an influencer and also violence? Yeah, so I think what really ties these cases together is pop culture. Pretty much all of these would-be murderers or actual murderers. were deeply involved in pop culture, in their influence sphere, and pop culture deeply influenced them as well. And I think any time you're talking about violence, there is always a sort of panic around is pop culture promoting violence. You have, you know, the satanic panic, you know, D&D is going to create killers, video games are going to create killers, violent movies, create killers. Not necessarily the case. But when we do involve pop culture, instead what we're really looking at when we say pop culture is these are people who are involved in a niche because they often don't feel comfortable anywhere else. And that's really the thread. I was finding between these cases was not that pop culture really encouraged them to do something, but that they were encouraged to try pop culture to find a place to fit in. And they also maybe found they didn't fit in there. So there's this theme running through of community, losing community, not having community. And this is often paired with deep personality defects, if I can put it that way. It's a little unkind, but some of these people suffered from grandiose personality disorder, very severe narcissistic personality disorder, lack of empathy. So when you tie this into attempting to find a community, not finding that community, and then deciding to create a persona to control those communities, to feel like you have some control in your life only for those communities to maybe turn on you. not be interested in you, or not engage with you, this creates a lot of rage. And I saw a lot of that throughout.

Really fascinating. And then I wanted to get into some of the specific cases, not all of them, of course. That would be a very long interview. But you mentioned already the Yuka case. So I wanted you to maybe detail a little bit about that one. I think that was the entry case to this. What exactly happened there? What year was it? And what do people need to know about it? Yeah, so the Yucca case was very interesting because of the conclusion more than what happened and what has happened since. And I think it ties very interestingly into the Snow case as well, which is in most of the cases in the book, you're going to see a criminal who perpetuated a crime who either went to prison or perished due to their... In the cases of Yuga and Snow, and I'm sorry to bring in another case, but they do really tie together. We have two people who committed a crime, but essentially get to walk away and live a normal life, even though everyone is aware of the crime. Snow is short for Snow the Salt Queen, the online moniker of Mary Ann Oliver Snow. a TikToker who was accused of manslaughter. Salters will discuss her research into that case a little later on. First, we'll talk about the Yuka Takaoka case. Back in 2018, then 21-year-old Yuga Takaoka met a man named Phoenix Luna. She tried to kill him in his sleep. leading to a now infamous photo of Yuga covered in blood while sitting in the lobby of a Tokyo apartment building. She essentially was a host bar worker in Tokyo, which is a form of red light district work in Japan. And she fell in love with a host. And a male host is essentially paid to pretend to be your boyfriend. So they were in the same trade. But she sort of fell for it and started paying him a lot of money. And he came over to help her move her things just to be a good friend outside of work. She went through his phone, saw some photos of him with other women, which is his job. And she knew that. And stabbed him in his sleep with the intent of murdering him and then committing suicide. And he escaped the apartment. He got down to the lobby by some miracle with her chasing him. And she just sat in a pool of his blood waiting for him to die and waiting for the police to get there. And the shocking conclusion of this is after being in a five-day coma and not dying, Luna, who was the victim, he said he felt for her. He understood what she was going through, that people who work in this sort of red light district trade often have difficult backgrounds. And he didn't really want her to suffer or go to jail. He just sort of wanted her to pay his medical bills. She was instructed to pay the medical bills and only went to jail for about three and a half years. The judge granted clemency, even though she didn't regret what she did. She had totally intended to murder him. And the internet took her side. They were like, what an amazing woman. She loved him so much. She was willing to die. I wish I had a girlfriend like this. Look at this beautiful.

killer, and they really, you know, had a backlash against Luna that kind of drove him a little bit crazy, where they were like, you pray on women, your job is to be a liar, you deserve this. So it was this incredible case of this brutality that was completely undeserved. where the victim got blamed even after forgiving his own attacker. And now the influencer, Yuka, makes money off of this. She has a huge following. People line up to get her autograph. And yeah, so you can sometimes commit a crime and then get a following for it. That is just unbelievable. I did not know about this case until I started looking into your book. I can't believe more people don't know about that. Then you connected it to another one of the cases in your book, which since that was the case that your publishers brought to you, this other case I'm guessing you found in your research. How did you come across it? How does it connect to this case? So I think that's the Snow case. And the Snow case is very interesting because I think it's one of the two cases that people really feel they know. Snow and Nasim are probably the two most famous cases in the book, Nassim being the YouTube headquarter shooter. And Snow, because Rolling Stone did a piece. on their victim, Helen Hastings. And it was a piece that sort of set the internet ablaze because Snow had been a very popular influencer who suddenly disappeared. And when Helen Hastings was killed, She just sort of disappeared from school and they said something had happened and all of her college friends were like, well, we don't really know what happened. And internet sleuth started putting two and two together and reaching out to news stations. Like what's happened here because a girl died and then another girl took a break? But then came back, Snow came back to the internet two months after Helen Hastings was killed by Snow and started posting murder content. Content like, do you want to hide a body to the tune of like Disney songs? with blood, head to toe in blood, with knives, just really kind of wild stuff. And it came to light, especially when this Rolling Stone story broke about Helen, that Snow had shot Helen at point blank range with nine witnesses while drunk and high with underage minors who were drunk and high in their home, which they owned.

It was an accident. They did not know the gun was loaded. You know, libel laws are pretty strong, so you have to be very careful about what you say. Some of the feedback I've gotten on the book is maybe I was the most biased or kindest towards snow, which is not necessarily how I felt while writing it, but you have to understand that despite doing this, snow got something called a deferred adjudication, which means no trial took place for snow. And Snow officially, I believe in two years, if they do not commit any other crimes, will be literally held innocent of this crime that had multiple witnesses, despite the fact that some of the witness statements maybe don't add up, despite the fact that I did have interviews with people who knew Snow. who were saying that they were a violence risk from the start, that they had told people to kill themselves. Despite quite a lot of disturbing information on earth, this person will be totally innocent of any crimes. So that's why I have to say, you know, killing and not something like murder. Because it, legally speaking, isn't murder. So whether or not it was an accident. A jury never got to say. None of the witnesses would come forward and talk about it. I had to listen to police recordings. Everything has sort of been very hush-hush ever since then. Helen's parents didn't want to talk about it. So it was just another... sort of example of a case where the person went right back to influencing because that was their bread and butter, and now has a huge following with people who are like, yes, murder me, queen, you're so sexy. I love you. I'm so glad you're back. And there is, that's why I bring in paris social relationships because we often talk about influencers, but not the other side of that relationship. How do influencers... get to be that way. It's only because we are chatting with them. We are paying them. We are relating to them. So something that these two people are putting out there is really connecting with people despite one having killed somebody and the other having very much meant to kill somebody. Thank you so much for listening to this True Crime Roundup from the On Deadline podcast. This episode was written and produced by me, Lauren Barry. Special thanks of course to our guest, Madison Salters, author of Influencers Who Kill, A True Crime Collection, Real Stories of Online Fame, and Fatal Consequences. You can find her book on Amazon and many places online.

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