Truth Over Tropes in True Crime Storytelling

Let me say this plainly, first and always:

What Noel Stevens did was horrific.
Shauna Tiaffay is the victim.
Her children are victims.
Nothing about this conversation excuses violence.
Nothing shifts responsibility away from the harm done.

And still—
we deserve truth when these stories are told.

The Problem With the “Street Smart” Trope

In many true-crime documentaries, Noel Stevens is framed as:

• street-wise

• calculating

• hardened

• arrogant

• a “stone-cold thug”

That framing feels familiar.
And that’s exactly the problem.

Because when Noel is shown as he actually was—
in real footage, real speech, real behavior—
that myth falls apart.

What viewers often see instead is someone who appears:

• deeply out of touch with reality

• naïve, not strategic

• easily persuaded

• lacking grounded judgment

• someone who may have required lifelong supervised medical or psychiatric care

That is not street wisdom.
That is vulnerability being mislabeled.

Why This Distortion Matters

This trope doesn’t protect victims.
It doesn’t educate the public.
It doesn’t make us safer.

It does something else:

• It hides manipulation

• It misdirects attention

• It teaches us to look for danger in the wrong place

When the story focuses on a caricatured “thug,”
the person orchestrating harm—
the one with access, planning power, and social camouflage—
slips quietly out of focus.

The depiction becomes the cover.

Who This Hurts

This kind of storytelling harms:

• victims, whose lives are reduced to plot devices

• the public, who are trained to fear stereotypes instead of recognizing real danger

• vulnerable people, who are cast as monsters rather than seen clearly

And it reinforces a lie many of us were taught early:

That danger looks obvious.
That it wears a uniform.
That it announces itself.

It doesn’t.

A Necessary Clarity

Let’s be very clear—without confusion or softness:

• Noel Stevens is not the victim in this case

• Shauna Tiaffay and her children are

• Accountability matters

• Harm must be named

And also:

Truth matters in how stories are told.

We can hold people responsible and refuse lazy narratives.
We can honor victims and reject tropes that obscure how violence actually happens.

Why I’m Saying This

Because too many Survivors know this already.

They know that harm often comes through persuasion, coercion, and delegation—
not just brute force.
They know that stereotypes keep communities unsafe.
They know that when storytelling lies, people miss warning signs.

We don’t need cleaner villains.
We need clearer truth.

The Bottom Line

Tropes do not protect us.
Truth does.

And if true crime wants to claim it educates the public,
then it owes the public accuracy, nuance, and humanity—
not recycled myths that keep the real dangers hidden.

Shauna deserved truth, and if at all possible, protection. Noel isn’t a well man but her spouse invited him into her home.

So sad that she did not have any voice in that decision.

As a woman, I can only imagine that her intuition was screaming. 

Her children deserve truth.
And so do the rest of us.