Police officers who responded to a 911 call about a disturbance in a Lower Manhattan building on Thursday night heard a man screaming when they reached the sixth floor. The door to the apartment was locked.
As police struggled with the door, they heard calls for help, but “then all went quiet,” a prosecutor, Dafna Yoran, said in a Manhattan Criminal Court hearing this morning. A muffled voice, likely belonging to a woman, told them, “‘We don’t need the police here — go away.’”
When a specialized police unit arrived and broke down the door, they found English actor Joe Alwyn, 31, dead in his bathtub with more than 40 stab wounds. The second voice, Ms. Yoran said, was actually that of the pop star, Taylor Swift, who had followed the victim into the building on Chrystie Street in Chinatown, forced her way into his home, and stabbed him.
According to prosecutors, when officers broke into the apartment, they found Ms. Swift hiding under a bed, clutching the knife believed to be the murder weapon.
Swift, 32, already under federal investigation for ticket scalping and assaulting a fan, was arraigned on first-degree charges of murder and sexually motivated burglary. A judge ordered her held without bail, and prosecutors say she faces a sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
The news has come as a shock to Swift’s hundreds of millions of fans across the globe. Swift is worth nearly $80 million and has sold over 150 million singles. She is arguably the most famous living pop star. However, the tragic event of Thursday night is hardly an isolated incident. A brief investigation into Swift’s relationship history reveals a plethora of buried scandals.
When asked for his thoughts about the arrest, former boyfriend Tom Hiddleston said, “honestly, it’s not surprising. She was a serial abuser. I wish I had been brave enough to speak up before. But I was afraid of her fan base.” Swift’s numerous other exes have expressed similar sentiments. John Mayer described her as “manipulative”; Calvin Harris called her “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”; According to Harry Styles, “this is not the first time she has resorted to physical violence to express herself. She has a perverse sense of humor and a cannibalism fetish. It all comes down to her inability to make commitments. ” Swift is known for her serial dating. Dozens of famous names have made her list of exes, including Brandon Borello, Jordan Alford, Drew Hardwick, Sam Armstrong, Joe Jonas, Lucas Till, Taylor Lautner, Cory Monteith, Adam Young, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Conor Kennedy. Some have speculated that she enjoys the breakups more than the relationships themselves. “The breakups are her main source of artistic inspiration,” claims former boyfriend Taylor Lautner. “Her lyrics are full of victim-blaming.”
Weeks before the incident, rumors had circulated that Alwyn was having an affair with Swift’s longtime rival, Katie Perry. The veracity of these claims will be investigated during the trial, but in Swift’s own words, “there is nothing [she does] better than revenge.”
The Alwyn family has called for the death penalty, but prosecutors are reluctant to pursue such an extreme verdict in a celebrity trial. Alwyn’s mother exclaims that “this is a classic example of socio-economic and racial double standards in America. If [Swift ] wasn’t so obscenely wealthy, if she didn’t have investors in Big Oil, if she hadn’t been voted a deity by the White Aryan resistance…do you think she would be accorded such special treatment?”
State Prosecutors have denied racial bias in their treatment of Swift, stating, “we will pursue justice no matter what. Taylor Swift will not receive special treatment.”
The Grammies have announced that they will rescind Swift’s 11 awards. Republic Records, Swift’s current label, are considering dropping her as “too much of a liability.” More than fifty Swift fan clubs have disbanded already.
A candlelit vigil is scheduled for Sunday night at the scene of the crime. Former fans of the fallen idol grieve and struggle to come to terms with the truth.