A Canadian man will spend life in prison after prosecutors said he traveled to California to attack an American woman he had met through online gaming and her boyfriend.
Devin Wolfgang Vanderhoef, 26, was handed two consecutive life sentences for premeditated attempted murder, the Monterey County District Attorney announced on June 25. He also received an additional five years for personally using a weapon and inflicting great bodily injury during the attack.
Authorities said the case began with an online connection. According to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Vanderhoef met the female victim while playing video games online and “developed a year’s long obsession with” her before flying from Canada to California, where she lived.
On the night of Nov. 25, 2024, investigators said Vanderhoef went to the woman’s home and pretended to be a delivery driver. He was carrying a package that contained knives, handcuffs and duct tape, according to police.
Prosecutors said the disguise allowed him to force his way inside the residence, where he stabbed the woman’s boyfriend and caused serious injuries. The district attorney’s office said both victims managed to flee the home, but Vanderhoef followed them outside and continued the assault.
During the struggle outside, prosecutors said the boyfriend was able to disarm Vanderhoef and stab him. Vanderhoef then tackled the woman as she tried to get away and “strangled her until she could not breathe,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Monterey County Sheriff’s detectives responded to the scene and arrested Vanderhoef on charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit attempted murder. He was initially held on bail of more than $4 million.
“Vanderhoef confessed that he had been planning the attack for a month before flying to California,” the district attorney’s office said, adding that he admitted his plan was to “actually kill someone.”
In February, a jury convicted Vanderhoef on two counts of willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder and one count of residential burglary, while also finding it true that he personally inflicted great bodily injury and personally used a weapon, the district attorney announced at the time.
An attorney for Vanderhoef did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.
