Preview
  • Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten

  • By: Ventureland
  • Narrated by: Susan Fensten
  • Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,049 ratings)

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Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten

By: Ventureland
Narrated by: Susan Fensten
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Publisher's summary

Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten is the gripping true story of one woman's quest for long lost family. After the deaths of her sister and estranged father, Susan searches for relatives on an early online genealogy forum. When she meets cousins from her grandfather's other family, they're everything she'd hoped for—until it all goes to hell.

Susan’s dreams are shattered when she learns her relatives’ dangerous history, and she is bombarded with threatening messages and sexually explicit content. When dozens more people contact her, Susan realizes she's stumbled into a real-life horror movie.

As Susan desperately searches for the truth, she struggles to determine who's an ally and who wants her dead, and she falls down a digital rabbit hole of career criminals, predators, and sexual cultists in the Tri State area. But given the cyber law landscape in 2003, the police are unable to help Susan despite violent phone calls, and unwelcome visits.

Things change when a plot to abduct Susan and her boyfriend comes to light. The FBI steps in, and Susan is given hope when a skeptical agent takes on her case. What he discovers upends Susan's reality forever.

Twenty years after events took place, this real-life thriller from the dawn of the internet serves as a shocking cautionary tale about survival and perseverance against all odds. Hear Susan’s story in her own words, with contributions from expert guests, and the FBI Special Agent and Assistant US attorney on Susan’s case. This is the story of how one woman survived a two-year torture campaign when no one else would help.

Please be advised, this program contains graphic sexual imagery, and discussions of violence, and death. Some names have been changed to protect their subjects’ identities.

©2024 Ventureland, LLC (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.
About the Performer- Susan Fensten

About the Narrator

Susan Fensten is a New York City native and a book publicist. She studied film and art at Hunter College and fine arts painting and drawing at The Art Students League. She is the author of You Have a Very Soft Voice, Susan: A Shocking True Story of Internet Stalking (WildBlue Press, 2019). Susan's photographs of gritty old New York City in the 1980s have been published in David Hammon's Bliz-aard Ball Sale (Afterall Books: One Work; distributed by The MIT Press., 2017), in New York Magazine, and in St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street (W.W. Norton & Company, 2015) along with stories from her downtown childhood in the 1960s. She lives in New York City.

What listeners say about Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten

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What A Story!

This is completely unlike anything I've ever heard before. It gets crazier and crazier as it goes along. Truly shocking stuff. Give it a listen. The author does a great job narrating, and the additional voice actors are great as well.

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True sorry

Overall well written and good execution of a disturbing true experience. I'm sure this kind of thing happened more often back then.

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3 people found this helpful

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Losing trust

Intriguing story of cyber crime, deception, psychological torture, intimidation and crime committed by a friend permanently affects victims. Interesting premise and ending.

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Very interesting

Great informative storytelling. Figured out the plot fairly early but the production was well put together. Reads like a true crime podcast.

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Riveting Podcast!!!!!!

I found this podcast incredibly engaging and riveting. Susan’s narration totally captured and held my attention throughout the entire show. The way she describes her two year nightmare is articulate and visceral. The twist and turns were shocking and the ending was the last thing I expected.

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awesome

love this one. voices are clear and not overactive. keep you on the edge

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Incredible story!

Not any was this presented well, but the story itself qualifies that old quote ‘ truth is stranger than fiction’!
You’re in shock that anything that devious could actually be . implemented

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Wow!

I can't imagine living through this hell and ever trusting someone IRL let alone online - ever again. Fascinating account of a woman's fight for justice vs a new enemy, an enemy born of the digital age.

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Being told by the actual person it happened to.

I have a feeling this is a good thing to be honest about because it was the first time I ever heard of this.

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Surprising great!

I just couldn't stop listening to this story. I learned a lot. Thank you for sharing this for others to know that they are not alone.

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