An Indiana man has been arrested and charged with stalking pop star Taylor Swift at her Nashville, Tennessee home last month after threatening her online for weeks.
Police began investigating accused stalker Mitchell Taebel after he allegedly sent images of weapons to Swift’s management team threatening to “destroy them” on March 25, according to documents obtained by WGNT-TV.
Five days later, the 36-year-old man messaged Swift’s father, telling him that he was his daughter’s “soulmate” and that “he is the only one that can make her secure,” documents said.
Then, on April 5, he allegedly sent threatening messages to Swift’s dancers through fake Instagram accounts.
The same day, Taebel contacted the offices of several state governors, and left them voicemails claiming that he was running for president and his campaign will be part of the Swift’s Eras Tour.
According to court documents, he told them he and Swift had to meet and that he would “wear a bomb on his chest.”
Throughout the rest of the month, he posted a number of threatening videos about the singer. Taebel wrote in the caption of one video that Swift “deserves to be shot,” the documents allege.
On May 5, the day before Swift’s Nashville show, Taebel drove from his Long Beach home to the building that houses Swift’s penthouse apartment and snuck in through an unlocked door, according to the documents.
He told a security guard there he was a “great-looking, well-dressed, popular TV host” and asked if Swift was home. The guard called Nashville police, but Taebel was gone by the time they arrived.
Despite being on a “security threat/concern list,” Taebel got into Swift’s concert the following night. He allegedly sat in view of Swift’s management and performers and was whisked out of the venue once he was recognized by security.
Security grilled Taebel about showing up at Swift’s residence and his “obsession” with the singer, documents said.
He drove back to his home in Long Beach and posted a hateful, racist rant on Instagram where he admitted to trying to confront her at her residence.
“I went to [Swift’s] apartment complex and anybody in my opinion that thinks it is illegal in any way to go to somebody’s apartment to see if they want to meet should be killed. They should die of a heart attack on a spot,” Taebel reportedly said on Instagram after going to the residence.
Taebel used the N-word multiple times in the tirade.
Swift’s management company was granted a temporary restraining order against Taebel in Nashville on May 11, documents said.
The restraining order was extended after Taebel posted numerous videos between May 16 and 18, in one of which he allegedly claimed his “dying wish is that anyone who had anything to do with them not meeting should be executed,” documents said.
He was arrested on June 2. Taebel pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of stalking by threatening serious injury or death, intimidation, invasion of privacy and harassment.
He was being held on a $15,000 bond in La Porte County Jail in Indiana, jail records show. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 27.
