GREENBRIER, Arkansas — For Arkansans, Kacie Woody is a name that might sound very familiar.
She was killed back in 2002 after a man she met online, stalked, kidnapped, and killed her.
This year is the 20th anniversary of her death, and her friends have been keeping her memory alive by making sure that her story helps keep the next generation safe.
"Her personality was outgoing and caring, nobody was a stranger to her," said Jessica Bradford, one of Kacie's best friends.
Those who knew her described her as bright and full of joy, much like her favorite color, yellow.
In 2002, Kacie and her best friends, Samantha Davis and Jessica Bradford all loved getting together to listen to NSYNC on cassette tapes and spending the night at each other's houses watching Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.
Though there was also something new that caught the teens' attention— The World Wide Web.
"The first thought of communicating with people online was how cool it was," said Bradford.
The girls hung out in chatrooms messaging other teens, and that's where they met people like Dave and Scott.
Scott became Kacie's online boyfriend— He went by "Tazz2999" and Kacie as "modelbehavior63."
They messaged each other often.
December 3, 2002, was a normal day for Kacie. She went to school and when she got home she started messaging Scott.
Her dad worked during the night as a police officer and her brother was a student in an evening class.
So Kacie was home by herself deep in conversation with Scott... until she stopped replying.
It wasn't until hours later when Kacie's brother and dad finally arrived home that they realized something was wrong— Police were then called to help find Kacie.
"The big thing I remember was that they had a small throw rug by the front door and it was all crumpled up," said Marty Montgomery, former Faulkner County Sheriff.
Montgomery remembered how Kacie's glasses were thrown off to the side in the living room, which was something police couldn't explain if Kacie had left the house on her own.
"I wanted to think that maybe she ran away or something, you know and that she was going to come back," said Samantha Davis, one of Kacie's best friends. "I never in my mind, my wildest imagination, thought that she had been kidnapped because that's just that just doesn't happen here."
Still, the next day, no one had heard from Kacie.
Local and federal law enforcement agencies teamed up to find her.
As they conducted their search, they went through the family's computer and questioned Kacie's friends.
Later, Jessica and Samantha remembered someone else... another one of Kacie's online friends.
"We started putting together just little bits and pieces of things he would say like he had an aunt that was sick, and she was somewhere near Arkansas, and he was probably going to come visit her," said Bradford.
Police were able to connect the dots and find that Dave, the teenage boy that Kacie and her friends had gotten to know, was 47-year-old David Fuller from California.
Officers then traced a rental van and a Conway storage unit back to him—When they got there, they found that David had shot and killed himself.
They later found Kacie dead.
She had been shot and killed hours earlier.
"It's heartbreaking. I mean it just literally breaks your heart that you try so hard with all the resources we had available to us for the right reason, and it didn't work out," Montgomery explained.
"Not only was Casey my friend, but I thought he was one of my friends too," said Davis. "So, it was kind of, like, a betrayal... I lost two friends, sort of, and I felt gross about even thinking that he was my friend."
But the night came with peace, and a sign they felt was from Kacie.
"As we were sitting there, it started to snow, and that was kind of like a sign for me that she was saying she was okay," said Davis.
Kacie's murder changed everything for law enforcement in Arkansas since it was the first time that police encountered internet stalking of a minor to this extent.
"We didn't have the resources at that point in time to hire a specialist to do computer crimes, because it was new," said Montgomery. "It was something that our case, kind of, kicked the door down. Guess what, our kids are not safe. They're not safe in your living room. They're not safe in their bedroom."
Twenty years later, the girls are grown and have kids of their own. They have continued to share Kacie's story as a way to keep others safe.
"There was no education for us, and there's a lot of education out there now," said Davis. "It's not just a story because, guess what, it happened right here. It happened to my friend. It happened to me."
"Parents really just need to be in-depth and nosy. Their kids are gonna hate it, but know the passwords and know your kids' friends because I always think if [Kacie's dad} hadn't known Kacie's friends, the investigation would have stalled out somewhere," said Bradford.
Kacie's family and friends, along with law enforcement, have all traveled around the country to explain the dangers of talking to strangers on the internet.
Her family started the Kacie Woody Foundation in her honor.