The Stalker
the Fernandez family stalking case, Peoria, Arizona

“The Stalker” is PRETEND’s 23-episode investigation into Rick and Tanya Fernandez of Peoria, Arizona, who told the show that for years they had been the target of a relentless cyberstalker sending threatening messages to their family. The Fernandezes believed the stalker was connected to their daughter’s pediatric doctor, referred to in the series as Dr. Gressman. In January 2023, a Maricopa County grand jury indicted Rick and Tanya themselves on felony computer-tampering and aggravated-harassment charges over conduct directed at Dr. Gressman and her husband. Later, a self-published tell-all book under the pseudonym “Rachel Cholla” that used Dr. Gressman’s real name and home address, mailed to her hospital in 2024, led to a separate harassment case against Rick that grew out of the stalking case.

Rick and Tanya pleaded not guilty and never entered a plea deal in that case. In February 2024, prosecutors moved to suspend the case so both could enter the Maricopa County Attorney’s Felony Diversion Program, a deferred-prosecution program in which charges are dismissed if the defendant completes counseling and other conditions, and the court suspended prosecution for two years. Rick completed the program’s required counseling in early June 2024, according to a Phoenix police report, and that same month the court granted the State’s motion to dismiss Tanya’s case with prejudice.

The harassment of Dr. Gressman didn’t stop there, and it produced a second case tied to the stalking saga. On June 18, 2024, according to a Phoenix police report, Rick mailed packages to executives at Dr. Gressman’s hospital containing a self-published book, Layers of Attack, credited to a “Rachel Cholla” and written from Rick’s point of view, that repeated the family’s accusations against Dr. Gressman and her husband and, later in the text, used her real name. Investigators traced the return-address PO box to Rick. Phoenix city prosecutors charged him in municipal court with misdemeanor harassment and false reports to police, and on September 18, 2025, Rick pleaded guilty to one count of harassment covering June through August 2024. He was sentenced to three years of probation and 180 days in jail, suspended on completion of probation, and ordered to have no contact with the victims, directly or through anyone else. The remaining counts were dismissed. Tanya faced no additional charges. At that point, who had actually been sending the original stalking messages remained unresolved.

The case turned again when Peoria Police searched the Fernandez home and said the messages had originated from inside the house. In August, police arrested and booked Shelbey Fernandez — the Fernandezes’ adult daughter, a patient of Dr. Gressman’s, and the person at the center of the family’s original claims — on roughly 30 counts, including 10 felonies, in connection with the stalking. Shelbey is under legal guardianship. As of the most recent reporting, the case remains open. Read PRETEND’s full update on the arrest and the police records.

Correction: An earlier version of this page described the Fernandezes’ 2023 felony case as ending in a guilty plea. That case ended in the Felony Diversion Program, as PRETEND reported in “The Stalker Correction” on October 3, 2024. Rick’s guilty plea came in a separate 2025 misdemeanor case, tied to the stalking case, over his harassment of Dr. Gressman.

Latest Reporting

October 1, 2026

Shelbey Fernandez Charged in "The Stalker" Case: What the Peoria Police Records Show

Peoria police arrested Shelbey Fernandez on Aug. 11, 2026, on 30 charges, 10 of them felonies. Here's what the booking and police records show.