PART ONE: The Conspiracy to Murder Her Mother with Charlie Wolf (formerly known as Tylar Witt)PART ONE: The Conspiracy to Murder Her Mother with Charlie Wolf (formerly known as Tylar Witt)
Chasing Heroine: Addiction Recovery Podcast
Charlie Wolf recounts her abusive childhood, early substance use and intense teenage relationship with Steven “Boston” Colver, describing how fantasy, trauma and addiction escalated into a plan to murder her mother. Part one focuses on the lead-up to the crime, highlighting how unsafe home dynamics and untreated mental health issues can shape catastrophic choices.
1:20:09•3 Sept 2026
From Fantasy to Tragedy: Charlie Wolf’s Story Before the Murder
Episode Overview
- Charlie describes severe physical, emotional and sexual abuse, growing up with an alcoholic mother with untreated bipolar depression.
- Fantasy, gaming, writing and self-harm became early coping strategies for feeling “less than human” and profoundly isolated.
- Meeting Steven provided validation, practical care and protection, creating an intense dependence that felt like survival for Charlie.
- Charlie explains how her mother’s escalating drinking, combined with system inaction, pushed her further into drugs and into seeing Steven as her only lifeline.
- Magical thinking and a fixation on an eternal bond with Steven led to a suicide pact that shifted into a plan to kill her mother so they could run away and die together.
““I didn’t feel like a person. I didn’t feel human. And so it was a lot easier to romanticise the feeling of not being human by being a vampire or mermaid or witch, instead of just feeling like a subhuman thing.””
Interested in the personal battles against addiction? This episode follows an exceptionally intense story that sits right at the intersection of childhood trauma, fantasy thinking, substance use and extreme consequences. Host Jeannine sits down with Charlie Wolf (formerly known as Tylar Witt), who, at 14, conspired with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Steven “Boston” Colver, to murder her mother.
Part one focuses on everything that led up to that night: Charlie’s upbringing, her mother’s alcoholism and untreated bipolar depression, and the emotional and physical abuse that shaped her view of herself and the world. Charlie talks about growing up as an only child, with a mother she describes as “physically abusive, emotionally abusive” and, from her memories, sexually abusive too.
She explains how she retreated into fantasy, gaming and writing to survive, saying, “I didn’t feel like a person… it was a lot easier to romanticise the feeling of not being human by being a vampire or mermaid or witch.” You’ll hear how meeting Steven – an older goth kid with a car, cigarettes and attention to spare – became the centre of her universe.
He stepped into a caretaker role: driving her to school, checking her homework, helping her stop self-harm and literally standing between her and her mum’s drunken rages. For a traumatised 14-year-old, that felt like safety. The conversation carefully traces how magical thinking, untreated CPTSD, drugs, and an all-consuming teenage attachment spiralled into a “Romeo and Juliet kind of vision” of a double suicide that morphed into a plan to kill her mother so no one would report her missing.
This is a heavy, graphic story with trigger warnings for violence, homicide and suicidal ideation, yet it’s told by someone now sober and reflective. If you’re interested in how addiction, trauma and fantasy can collide in catastrophic ways – and what it takes to even start unpacking that – this one will stay with you long after it ends. What emotions does Charlie’s story stir up for you, and what questions does it raise about recovery and responsibility?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.