INSIDE EDITION talks to a woman who was relentlessly stalked by a man for 17 years who she first met in the 8th grade.
It began when Tracy Lundeen was an 8th grader in elementary school outside Seattle. She noticed a classmate named Shawn Mohl having trouble with his homework in the school library.
INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander spoke with Lundeen about her nighmare.
"You were just trying to be nice," said Alexander.
"I knew he was an outcast at school, so I offered to help him with his homework. I don't even recall what we talked about. I just helped him," said Lundeen.
Tracy's best friend, Monique Evans, remembers him as an oddball.
"He was rejected by a lot of people. Tracy looked past that and helped him, and because of that he latched onto her," said Evans.
From that moment on, Lundeen's life would never be the same because Mohl became totally obsessed with her.
"Ninth grade it started, he'd be yelling things down the hall," said Lundeen.
Alexander asked, "What would he yell at you?"
Lundeen recalled, " 'Tracy, I just want to be friends.' Obscene stuff."
Then came the letters—hundreds of them. One of the letters read: "I'm going to kill myself. You don't care if I do. My blood will stain your hands forever."
And it was signed: "Love, Shawn M. Mohl."
Lundeed said, "They're crazy."
Incredibly, the letters continued coming through the 1990's and right up to the present.
Evans said, "It's mind-blowing. Seventeen years is a long time to be fascinated with someone."
Fortunately, Lundeen kept authorities informed of every letter she received from Mohl, and at last, she faced him in court as he went on trial for felony stalking.
"I turned to him and said, 'Please listen. I don't love you. I don't like you. I don't want to be with you,' " said Lundeen.
Ironically, she says the man who'd been obsessed with her for 17 years barely looked at her.
"Most of the time he was looking down," said Lundeen.
Mohl was just sentenced to 26 years in prison, a record for a stalker, and the end of a lifelong nightmare for Tracy Lundeen that started with a friendly gesture to help a fellow 8th grader with his homework.
"I just want it to stop. I really do," said Lundeen.
