The Real Murders on Elm Street Is Eerily Similar to Don’t Breathe

The Real Murders on Elm Street, the latest true-crime enthusiasts’ obsession that currently airs on the ID Channel and the Max streaming service, may shamelessly be tying into the Elm Street name to attract possible Freddy Krueger aficionados, but the horror stories that have been featured are truly the stuff of living nightmares. As Freddy said in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, “Every town has an Elm Street,” and this true-crime series details suburban towns across America that have been the subject of murders that have occurred on their very own Elm Street.

All the episodes have been chilling in their own right, but the fifth episode, “What Lies Beneath,” has been the most chilling to date as it eerily mirrors Fede Álvarez’s 2016 horror film, Don’t Breathe. The director and his co-writer, Rodo Sayagues, have never mentioned being inspired by real-life events for the film, but the 2012 murders of Nicholas Brady and Haile Kifer, which were the subject of Elm Street’s fifth episode, could’ve easily inspired Álvarez’s horror hit.

Don’t Breathe Was a Horror Hit

Don’t Breathe involves three young home invaders who make an unsavory living by breaking into unsuspecting houses and stealing whatever valuables they come across. While there is no denying that what they’re doing is wrong, Rocky (Jane Levy) appears to be involved in this life because she wants a quick escape from a life away from her abusive mother and her alcoholic boyfriend, longing to head to California with her sister Diddy (Emma Berovici) in tow. The items they steal are constantly undervalued by their fence, but they have a new target that could lead to a huge windfall.

Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang), also known as “The Blind Man,” is a veteran of the Gulf War who is believed to have $300,000 in cash in his home. Making Norman an “easy” mark, as they learn, is that he’s blind, which they believe will make it simple for them to break in, steal the money, and make it out in the dead of night. Unfortunately for the trio, which also includes Rocky’s friend Alex (Dylan Minnette) and her boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto), Norman is much more dangerous than they know, and he has his own secrets that make him more than a recluse war veteran living in an abandoned Detroit neighborhood.

The Burglary of Byron David Smith on Thanksgiving Day

The story of Nicholas Brady and Haile Kifer doesn’t completely follow Don’t Breathe’s trajectory, but there are similarities. On Thanksgiving Day in 2012, 18-year-old Nicholas and his 17-year-old cousin Haile decide to break into the home of 64-year-old retired U.S. State Department employee Byron David Smith. In their town of Little Falls in Minnesota, Smith is described as someone who lived alone and kept to himself, similar to Lang’s “The Blind Man” in Don’t Breathe.

On the surface, the break-in and subsequent murder of the two teens seems like a cut-and-dry case of self-defense and protecting his home. He shot the pair 10 minutes apart as they entered his house, initially telling law enforcement that he believed them to be a threat because he thought they were armed. He also stated that before the incident, he had his home broken into at least a dozen times over the last few months, which resulted in thousands of dollars in cash being stolen, among other items. Because of this, Smith installed a security system, as he put it, to protect himself, but as the circumstances of that day unraveled, it was clear that Smith was more nefarious and less innocent than he appeared.

In Don’t Breathe, Lang’s “The Blind Man” is perceived to be the victim of these events because these three people have broken into his home to steal from him. When money becomes the first casualty of the attempted robbery, it’s hard for the viewer to initially sympathize with the situation because this is a tragedy they have brought upon themselves. It’s only after a shocking discovery that the audience learns that “The Blind Man’ has his own secrets.

Eventually, Rocky and Alex discover a pregnant woman restrained in the basement, who turns out to be Cindy Roberts (Franciska Törőcsik), a woman who killed “The Blind Man’s” daughter in a car accident, leading to him receiving the aforementioned $300,000. Ultimately, Cindy is accidentally killed, which leads to Rocky being restrained similarly later in the film when she learns that Cindy was pregnant with a daughter to replace the one he lost. As he prepares to then artificially inseminate Rocky using a turkey baster, it’s obvious that he did the very same thing to Cindy to have a daughter again.

Smith was also perceived to be an innocent party in the murder of the two Minnesota teens. They broke into his home, and it would be a series of events that would start a huge debate about the “castle doctrine,” which permits homeowners to protect their homes using lethal force. However, as the events of that day emerged, it became clear that Smith wasn’t an innocent party either. He purposely parked his car down the street, in front of a neighbor’s home, to give the impression that no one was in the house. An hour after doing so, Smith’s cameras captured Nicholas and Haile casing the house, and he would later admit to police that he was visiting neighbors when he saw Haile driving by his home and believed she was responsible for his past burglaries. Smith is said to have commented that he needed to get ready for her and went back to his home.

One of the many questionable things that Smith did was turn on a recording device and remove the light bulbs from the ceiling lights as he waited in a chair that obscured him from view. Eventually, the teens return, and Smith hears a window break but makes zero attempts to call the police. He instead waits in total silence in the basement for a reported 12 minutes until he hears Nicholas begin to come downstairs. Without warning, Smith shoots Nicholas twice on the stairs and then gives a final shot to his head when he falls to the ground. He would then wrap Nicholas’ body in a tarp and put him in another room before going back upstairs.

He spends nearly 10 minutes upstairs, again not calling the police, before running back downstairs to the basement to take up his previous position. Moments after this, Haile enters the home looking for her cousin and can be heard on the recording device, later obtained for the investigation, calling for Nicholas. Soon, she makes her way down the stairs to enter the basement and is shot by Smith, resulting in her falling down the stairs. In a chilling moment that can be heard on the tape, Smith sarcastically says, “Oh, sorry about that,” and Haile can be heard in pain saying, “Oh, my God,” before she is shot multiple times in her stomach, again screaming, “Oh, my God!” as he does so. Smith shoots Haile directly in the eye, following her pleas, which is then followed by him calling her a series of derogatory names, including “B*tch,” before he drags her into the other room with her cousin’s body, where he ends her life by shooting her in her chin.

Don’t Breathe Ends With One Survivor of the Home Invasion

Don’t Breathe ends with Rocky as the only survivor of the home invasion gone awry. She is nearly killed by “The Blind Man” but escapes, believing she has killed him following their struggle. A news report reveals that he is recovering in the hospital, and it’s reported that he acted in self-defense when he killed Money and Alex following the break-in. During the events of the night, Rocky comes across the money and takes it, but “The Blind Man” doesn’t mention Rocky, how he had Cindy restrained and pregnant following his daughter’s death, or the stolen money. The story ends happily in some sort of twisted way, with Rocky and her sister Diddy heading to Los Angeles.

This real-life home invasion story doesn’t have any kind of happy ending and, if anything, made Little Falls question many things that happened that day. What at first looked like a clear case of self-defense became anything but that during the investigation. It was learned that Smith waited until the next day to report the shooting, saying something along the lines that he didn’t want to bother the police on Thanksgiving. Even though Nicholas had been linked to a burglary the night before he and his cousin were killed, and it was clear their intention was to rob Smith’s home, his actions were also called into question, with his own audio recordings becoming his undoing.

Smith said that Haile laughed at him in a taunting manner after he shot her the first time on the stairs, but his recording device only picked up her plea of “Oh, my God” before he shot her again and proceeded to demean her by calling her names. The audio also picked up six hours of everything that happened in the basement, even what Smith said while he was alone, including a chilling “In your left eye,” made even more gut-wrenching since he ultimately shot Haile in her left eye.

There was also the matter of Smith’s relationship with the truth. Even though he claimed his home was burgled a dozen times, it was discovered he only reported one of the break-ins to law enforcement, and they could only find hard evidence of two previous burglaries. One of those burglaries took place in a detached garage that Smith was unaware of when it was brought to his attention. Perhaps some of these things were built bigger in his mind, leading to his actions on that day, but either way, Smith clearly had his own issues, and Nicholas and Haile crossed paths with someone truly unhinged.

Despite how the case divided the town, Smith was ultimately convicted and found guilty of two counts of premeditated first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It was decided that because of Smith’s recordings and other actions, he showed complete premeditation by lying in wait. He could’ve easily called the police, given that he saw them casing the home, but he decided not to do so.

It was also determined that he used excessive force after they were no longer a threat following the first shot of each teen on the stairs. No one is denying that what the two teenagers did was wrong, but they could’ve easily been handled by law enforcement and the justice system with a punishment that allowed them to pay for their crimes without their lives. In a case that mirrored the horror of fiction just a few years later, it shows that nothing Fede Álvarez and his team cooked up would be nearly as frightening as what struck the town of Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day in 2012. The Real Murders on Elm Street currently airs on the ID Channel and can be streamed on Max.