Samantha Fiddler aka Lucy Morningstar has been missing since November 19, 2016.
According to the charleyproject.org, Samantha has three children and is originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her boyfriend and mentor was the professional wrestler Teddy Hart.
She left Edmonton and went to the United States in 2016, where she was arrested twice in Florida for misdemeanor trespassing, once in February and once in November. She was last seen after she was released from jail.
The circumstances of Fiddler’s disappearance are unclear. She has no active warrants out for her arrest. Her case remains unsolved.
Samantha may dye her hair dark brown, black or red. The natural color is brown. Her nickname is Sam. She may use the alias names Lucy MorningStar, Samantha Lloyd and/or Samantha Steele. She has a scar on her lip and several tattoos. These include handprints and the names “Ava” and Madison” on the back of her shoulder. She has a flower on her foot, and a sleeve with the words “fierce mother” on one upper arm.
Her nose is pierced on both sides. Her ears are pierced, and her navel and left eyebrow are pierced. She has breast implants. She had an abdominoplasty and may still have scars around her navel as a result, and she may have scars from botox injections in her lip. Samantha is of Cree Indian descent.
Samantha got a mention in Rolling Stone magazine in March 2016, in an article about her boyfriend Teddy Hart.
In November 2019, Teddy Hart released a statement about Samantha’s disappearance and his relationship with her:
Samantha and I had both a personal (albeit brief) and professional relationship, which began when I first met her in Edmonton. She wanted to become a professional wrestler, and I did my best to train her before she decided to pursue other interests.
Samantha was a good hearted person and someone I cared for. She also had a lot of things going on in her life, and issues with which she was dealing with that extended beyond our relationship.
By the time she moved to Florida, our relationship had ended and I had moved to Texas. I was not in regular communication with her, and I do not know what happened to her. I hope for the sake of her family and her kids that she is somewhere out there and that she is ok.
Teddy Hart put in his statement. “Samantha was a good hearted person” Was? not is?
When the Samantha Fiddler story is mentioned, there’s often someone who asks, “Why didn’t this get more attention before 2022?” The reasons that Teddy Hart’s ex-girlfriend’s disappearance are complex, numerous, and disturbing. As the 2022 WWE/Peacock documentary suggests, delayed responses from Canadian and United States law enforcement agencies didn’t help matters.
A myth that persists is that “nobody” in the United States noticed or cared for several years after Fiddler officially disappeared in late-2016. This is simply untrue. Certain wrestling schools and promotions, adult video producers, and a federal judge’s adult son in Florida may have actively attempted to silence discussion. Many people, however, did try to help. Unfortunately, people left over the years after getting frustrated for many reasons, including disappointing interactions with a small online Canadian group created in 2020 that’s known as “Sam’s Army.” Most of the former volunteers left quietly, fearing that their concerns would be viewed victim-blaming or supportive of Teddy Hart, as this post may also be regarded.
Fiddler’s sister and her “best friend” have been recently portraying themselves as having close relationships with her before she left Canada. This is untrue. Their communication was sporadic even before Samantha Fiddler met Teddy Hart. The sister and “best friend” Jayme Nichol Walker live in eastern Canada, while Samantha Fiddler lived in Alberta. They didn’t communicate with her constantly by any means. Sadly, one of the reasons that the response to Fiddler’s case was delayed was that even her own family didn’t immediately notice and report her disappearance. Walker apparently didn’t notice the absence for a year or more.
Donations apparently being solicited by April Fiddler on behalf of Samantha’s three daughters may not actually reach the girls. The Fiddler family is said to be estranged from the girls for reasons that won’t be discussed here out of privacy concerns. The youngest daughter was adopted by the biological father’s new wife before Samantha Fiddler left Alberta – long before she disappeared. The two oldest girls are said to be in foster care in another location, as their career criminal father is unsafe and unreliable.
Samantha Fiddler is not the only person or thing missing from Sam’s Army. Disappeared are the many contributions, volunteer hours, timeline, and consistency in stories.
For several years, Fiddler refused to listen to others’ warnings as she repeatedly chose a string of felonious partners and friends such as Canadian narcotics dealer Kelly Merle Pearson. She burdened good people who repeatedly bailed her out after the predicted fallout of each bad decision. Many outside of Fiddler’s family attempted to help her before and after she met Teddy Hart, and later, then assisted her family and friends after Fiddler disappeared. Several of those volunteers live in or around the southern United States and/or have connections to professional wrestling. They placed themselves in jeopardy by being among the first to speak up about Fiddler’s disappearance. They knew they risked physical and legal harm from Teddy Hart (Edward Annis) and his business partners such as Kenneth Russell Lester III and Chasyn Rance, and other notoriously violent and wealthy criminals. They helped anyway, before it was safe or profitable to speak about her.
Sam’s Army often praises a YouTube right-wing comedian for his “contributions” to the cause that mainly consist of plagiarizing and poaching the published content and other efforts of those volunteers. He’s already gained tens of thousands of dollars, corporate sponsors, and more fame from this gimmick than any other. The Army looks the other way while he derides other women of Fiddler’s demographics on his show. He also graphically bashes missing and murdered women such as Gabby Petito. Both Teddy Hart and this podcaster have the commonality of exploiting women, such as Samantha Fiddler, for profit. Somehow he’s a hero in the eyes of the April Fiddler.
Fiddler’s sister and friend didn’t speak about her publicly until 2020 despite facing less risk, considering that they live in Eastern Canada and don’t work in wrestling. Apparently, they chose to make few or no internet posts about her until 2020 and gave no media interviews until late 2021. Instead, they waited until after Matthew Brown’s late-2019 book and the resulting 2020 social media coverage, when they had the safety in numbers and research. Her sister and “best friend” waited until others who didn’t even know her decided to take the risk and speak up until her name couldn’t go away. Then the sister and “best friend” emerged around mid-2020, hiding behind the moniker “Sam’s Army.” They often didn’t use their real or full names, but judged volunteers who apparently live in the US or have ties to wrestling who were reluctant to share their own identities. The sister and friend each posted decade-old photos taken with Samantha to demonstrate their supposed close and constant relationships to her.
Samantha’s sister and friend behave as if they believe that they “own” her, and volunteers are lucky to be in their presence. It’s this same belief from others – that women and children can be “owned” – that caused Samantha Fiddler to be criminally victimized. Concerns about Sam’s Army should not be construed as reflective of Samantha Fiddler herself. It’s disingenuous for April Fiddler to pretend that questions about her handling of the Army are an attack on her sister.
The Private Investigator Liza Catron of the Florida-based Enlighten Mine Eyes and her all-female team, who normally work for $400 an hour, instead worked pro-bono and actually used some of their own funds. They did so for several years, patiently clearing up bureaucratic hassles, analyzing forensic leads, traveling throughout Florida, contacting law enforcement in multiple jurisdictions, and organizing tips. The women received death and litigation threats several times. When the right-wing comedian profanely insulted the PI on his podcast in 2020 for giving an interview to another podcaster instead of him, Sam’s Army didn’t come to her defense. To Catron’s credit, she and her team continued assisting with the case until 2022.
In addition to publishing the 2019 viral web content, Matthew Brown researched and wrote Searching For Samantha Fiddler and Teddy Hart: The Team Vision Dojo Years. Brown published the books on Amazon and donated proceeds to a rape prevention charity, RAINN. April Fiddler pirated and distributed the book in order to bypass the fundraiser.
There were many others who worked tirelessly and without pay to bring attention to Samantha Fiddler’s story from 2017 through 2022. Volunteers in several indigenous women’s groups shared her information and and actively tried to piece together information. Volunteers in multiple online Florida groups called attention to her case and looked for answers together. At least three Floridian, one Texan, and two Canadian attorneys provided hundreds of hours of pro-bono assistance. “Sam’s Army” seemed to exploit their time and resources, all while claiming that “Nobody” was helping them. All of these efforts and possibly more have disappeared from the Sam’s Army narrative.
Sam’s Army has recently changed the timeline of events to omit any pre-2022 contributors. Fortunately, while these volunteers have not disappeared literally like Fiddler, they’ve been figuratively erased by her Sam’s Army for apparently no good reason other than convenience and opportunism. The Army is apparently shopping around a false narrative for their own inspiring documentary or movie on a women’s channel: “Missing Woman’s Devoted Friend and Sister Confront the System!”
Over the years, many volunteers came and went. Among the reasons this happened is that they felt that the Fiddler camp’s stories keep inexplicably changing. It’s understandable that the sister and friend wish to sanitize Samantha Fiddler’s background because of potential victim-blaming and sex-shaming. However, they often change Fiddler’s timeline and biography in ways that squander the volunteers’ hard work, duplicate efforts, and/or jeopardize the investigation. Their stories don’t seem to change because of emerging information. When people are taking time away from their own families and paid jobs to volunteer with a case, they will lose interest if they believe they’re being conned.
Walker and April Fiddler conveniently blame their geographic distance from Florida for their own lack of action, and they chide Floridians for not aiding them more. Liza Catron and her team did use their physical proximity to Samantha’s known Florida locations in their investigative work. They diligently traveled to and visited with officials at courthouses and law enforcement offices statewide. Most of the remaining and current work that’s left to do at this time is not dependent on where Walker or April Fiddler live. The Army has benefited from hundreds of former volunteers worldwide providing research, tips, communication with leads, publicity, media awareness, and content production. Those tasks can be performed anywhere there is internet or phone access. Casting aspersions on the citizens of one US state in which Samantha illegally and briefly stayed is unfair. It’s also inefficient when the Army is aware that there were several unofficial sightings of her in places other than Florida after November 19, 2016.
Sam’s sister and “best friend” put little value on others’ time, energy, research, and expertise. They didn’t appear to organize, value, store, use, or pass along the information gathered for them. It would have to be repeated or regathered several times until most of the pre-2022 volunteers gave up.
For example, by request of Sam’s Army, a volunteer extensively researched the legal name and background of someone Samantha met while in Mexico with Teddy Hart. The volunteer provided all of that information in a private message to Sam’s Army, who acknowledged receiving it. In subsequent conversations in the same platform in the next few weeks, when that name would be mentioned by the volunteer in passing, Sam’s Army asked, “Who’s ?” The volunteer scrolled up and re-pasted that information. That volunteer researched other information at the request of Sam’s Army with the same frustrating results. There was also an apparent wasteful replication of efforts, with some volunteers eventually learning from each other that they had unknowingly researched and repeated identical information by request for Sam’s Army.
Those who closely volunteered with the case before 2022 recall that the family had several strong leads as to Fiddler’s likely whereabouts for up to a month after she was released from the jail in Polk County on November 19, 2016. Those sightings, while not related to her alleged prior insurance fraud and adult industry activity, also didn’t portray her favorably. The current narrative is that there’s no camera surveillance or other sightings of Fiddler being released from jail in the early morning hours. Perhaps Sam’s Army is backing up her “last known location” to the jail in order to cover up for what she was likely doing afterward, despite those possible secondary locations providing vital clues. Regardless, some volunteers felt they were devalued and misled.
The volunteers have watched strange shifting of alliances in Sam’s Army. For example, Teddy Hart’s Texas ex-girlfriend and criminal accomplice, convicted repeat domestic abuser and adult video actress Machiko Anne Palmer, was suspected of using, or attempting to use, Fiddler’s stolen Canadian passport and Jaguar in 2016. For several years, Palmer was allegedly uncooperative and dishonest with law enforcement seeking information about Fiddler. In early 2020, Palmer was openly hostile on Twitter to volunteers who asked her what she recalled about Fiddler. In late-June 2020, during the Speaking Out movement, Palmer only wanted to discuss her own experiences with Teddy Hart and openly said she disliked Fiddler. Palmer was paid to share her own experiences in the November 2022 Peacock documentary, in which she discussed her own experiences with Hart. After its airing, Palmer received a hero’s welcome into Sam’s Army with considerable applause. Samantha and Machiko joined the growing list of former partners of Teddy Hart who enabled and concealed his crimes against other women, then expected sympathy when he treated them similarly.
The somewhat brief but powerful “Speaking Out” movement, which brought attention to sexual assault and harassment in pro wrestling, began on Twitter in June 2020. Globally, more than a hundred allegedly predatory wrestlers were exposed within a few weeks. In the documentary, Sam’s Army implies that they sparked the entire movement by calling attention to Samantha’s story. This is incorrect. Dozens of wrestlers and alleged crimes were actively discussed for a week or more before Teddy Hart, Samantha Fiddler, and interstate narcotics trafficker Machiko Palmer’s names and situations were mentioned. Sam’s Army benefited from Speaking Out, not vice-versa.
The problem with Army’s recent attempts to rewrite history is that the internet and government public records don’t forget so easily. The PI agency’s meetings with law enforcement and other forensic work, published fundraiser Amazon books, discussions on online indigenous and wrestling groups, and screenshots of viral content will forever show dates. There will be proof of the unpaid, extensive work that the former volunteers contributed. Enough is enough. Omissions were one thing, but deliberate fabrications that keep coming from Sam’s Army are another.
While the Peacock documentary producer Frederick Kroetsch was paid, he had opportunities from 2020 to 2022 to take on much more lucrative and enjoyable projects. He turned down offers from corporate clients to work on the three-hour documentary that featured Teddy Hart’s previous behavior with women and the Samantha Fiddler case. The projects Frederick Kroetsch declined would have given him the opportunity to cover more enjoyable and pleasant topics with less criticism and risk of harm or litigation. Kroetsch wasn’t an unpaid volunteer for the Samantha Fiddler documentary, but he did show a conscience with this project. The documentary has been re-broadcast on Oprah Winfrey’s Oxygen network and has brought considerable attention to Fiddler’s case and name.
Sam’s Army, however, was angry after the airing that the three hours were not solely about Fiddler. The right-wing comedian remains indignant that he was featured for only a few minutes in the series, despite the fact that most of his input is plagiarized or unoriginal. Kroetsch has had enough criticism from wrestling and Teddy Hart fans who didn’t wish the documentary to be made, but it’s disappointing that Palmer, Walker and April Fiddler is part of that hostility.
Critics of Kroetsch, such as adult video performer Machiko Palmer, say he should have stopped or reported Hart’s crimes immediately. Fiddler and Palmer themselves mocked Hart’s prior victims and didn’t believe them. The pair also didn’t report his crimes, allegedly facilitated several of them, and each have their own prior criminal histories. Why is Kroetsch held to a higher reporting standard despite having less information at the time than Fiddler and Palmer? The legal system has been ineffective to date in addressing Hart’s transnational crimes. Many of his supporters refused to admit that he was capable of violence and fraud until the public saw the visual proof of it. Thankfully, Hart’s access to the industry and potential victims have greatly slowed because Kroetsch and others recorded and published his conduct.
For several years, April Fiddler has knowingly benefited from the wrestling community’s interest in the case. It’s understandable that the first and main priority of Sam’s Army is solving Samantha’s case, not protecting other women and children. Without the connection to Hart, Samantha’s case would not have received most of its publicity and volunteers. Hypocritically, April becomes offended that the volunteers from the wrestling community care about Samantha Fiddler, but also wish to document and prevent harm stemming from the habitual predators in the industry with whom she associated. April eventually becomes hostile with those who wish to achieve both. Former volunteers were left with the impression that April Fiddler would gladly sacrifice the lives and well-being of 100 future Hart victims for just for one unproductive tip about what happened to her sister.
Former volunteers from the indigenous community have especially felt defrauded and exploited by April Fiddler and Walker. Samantha Fiddler’s apparent disappearance in the southeastern United States is unrelated to her deceased paternal grandfather’s supposed northwestern Canadian First Nations ethnicity.
April Fiddler and Jamie Walker claim that Samantha’s ethnicity is “Cree.” They avoid answering the specific question of which of the several Cree groups, villages or tribes from which she’s allegedly descended, such as Woodland Cree or Plains Cree. No Cree organization has ever publicly mentioned Samantha Fiddler or her disappearance, despite all of them naming their other missing tribal members in initiatives for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). Apparently, no other Native group in the US or Canada has identified Samantha as a member.
At least three or her four of Samantha’s deceased grandparents are white Europeans with no absolutely no aboriginal ancestry: her maternal grandparents Samson Sorenson and Doreen Ballantyne, as well as her paternal grandmother Bertha Elizabeth Hambleton (1923-2007). Hambleton’s white parents were born in England: Nellie Warren (1896-1984) and Ernest Hambleton (1888-1955).
Samantha Fiddler’s paternal grandfather, Ernest Steven Fiddler (1920-2011) repeatedly identified as a white Roman Catholic French-Canadian on his Canadian census and other government forms. So did his parents: William Normand Fiddler (1897-1985) and Emelie Parenteau (1898-1975). It appears that Samantha’s most recent ancestor who may have had partial non-European background was her paternal great-great-great grandmother, Josette Saulteaux Davis from North Dakota USA (1790-1855), whose mother may have been Native American. This suggests that Samantha Fiddler may be 1/64 indigenous or less. Sam’s Army is welcome to dispute this estimate and genealogy.
No memberships or official affiliations with any aboriginal group for Samantha Fiddler can be located at this time. Regardless, Jamie Walker and April Fiddler have materially benefited from Samantha’s deceased paternal grandfather’s alleged partial indigenous heritage.
What makes someone indigenous versus just a “Pretend-ian” is a complex and sensitive issue that won’t be settled here. What isn’t debatable is that Walker and April Fiddler knowingly make inaccurate statements regarding Samantha’s ethnicity and ties to the First Nations community. Scarce government resources and charitable platforms intended for MMIW in both the US and Canada have been provided to the Fiddler investigation based on those erroneous claims. There are other current cases of MMIW that do represent the unique challenges burdening this demographic. Many of them have families, villages, and/or tribes who would appreciate and utilize the assistance from volunteers and the media.
Sam’s Army was aware that Kroetsch recorded Teddy Hart in his home and multiple countries, with a series of female partners, for about a decade. Samantha was only in limited footage when she became one of his girlfriends, beginning around September 2015. The last time she was recorded was around February 2016. This was during Hart’s rape case involving two or more other Canadian women, and while he was romantically involved with others. It would have been bizarre to have completely omitted that case that coexisted with Fiddler’s presence in Hart’s life. It was unrealistic at best to expect Kroetsch, WWE, and Peacock to not utilize more than nine years of compelling crime footage just because it didn’t directly involve Fiddler. People are interested in Teddy Hart for the same reasons Samantha was.
Frederick Kroetsch’s former film production partner, Kurt Spenrath, is a defender of Teddy Hart. Following the documentary airing, Spenrath announced that he was suing Frederick Kroetsch. Sam’s Army initially sided with Spenrath because they were also angry with Frederick Kroetsch. After Spenrath appeared on a talk show after the documentary aggressively smearing Samantha Fiddler, Sam’s Army decided not to align with Spenrath after all.
Again, “Sam’s Army” actions suggest that no good deed goes unpunished with them. They’re unhappy with the results of the producer’s work because the three episodes were not solely about Fiddler. They angrily claim that Frederick Kroetsch owes them even more than the three episodes that have now played on two major networks which generated considerable media coverage and public interest. Fiddler’s family does not seem to appreciate that thousands of adults disappear annually, and most of them will never have a single book, YouTube show, or one-hour documentary about them, let alone several. They’re said to shopping around for even more documentaries and news coverage.
Two players conspicuously missing from Sam’s Army’s and the right-wing comedian’s criticism are World Wrestling Entertainment and Peacock – the final editors, producers, and broadcasters of the docuseries. It seems that Frederick Kroetsch is the convenient scapegoat because he lacks the team of corporate attorneys and deep pockets. Regardless, unaired footage with Samantha Fiddler in it still exists. Sam’s Army has proven so toxic that few outsiders would be interested now in curating those recordings.
April Fiddler is offended that most coverage of Samantha Fiddler’s disappearance also covers Teddy Hart’s criminality and unusual lifestyle. She believes that the majority or entire coverage should be about her sister. Perhaps April has not watched other missing and murdered persons’ documentaries and content. Most of them devote more time investigating the persons who were around the missing person than describing the missing person herself. Regardless, if April Fiddler believes she can produce superior content, she should.
Sam’s Army was aware that Kroetsch recorded Teddy Hart in his home and multiple countries for about a decade beginning around 2012. A long series of female partners and criminal accomplices of Hart’s were recorded. Samantha was only in limited footage after she became both of those descriptors, beginning around September 2015. The last time she was recorded was around February 2016 during a match held in Mexico. This was during Hart’s rape and forced trafficking case involving two or more other Canadian women. It would have been bizarre to have completely omitted that case that coexisted with Fiddler’s presence in Hart’s life. Fiddler did not arrive in Texas and Florida until sometime after the Mexico match, so there apparently isn’t footage available for the last several known months of her time with Hart and illegally working in the United States. It was unrealistic at best to expect Kroetsch, WWE, and Peacock to not utilize more than nine years of compelling footage just because it didn’t directly involve Fiddler.
There seems to be a consistent theme with Fiddler’s family and friends. Token efforts from paid internet personalities earn adoration from them. The more that people sacrifice for them, the worse they will be treated in the future. Sam’s Army apparently will take the efforts of volunteers and afterward they will erase them at best, and smear or even sue them at worst. Why should volunteers, content producers, or journalists work with them in the future if this is the likely result?
Sam’s Army has repeatedly disparaged the state of Florida in their social media posts. They conveniently omit Samantha Fiddler’s prior decisions and criminal partners in Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere in the United States. The two men who apparently trafficked her in this situation, Teddy Hart and Bill Kazoleas, are Canadians. Law enforcement and courts in Edmonton and Calgary overlooked and excused Hart’s crimes for decades. Hart’s business partners in those cities such as “Stacy Angel” actively attempted to stop discussions about Fiddler’s disappearance. It’s unproductive to “Blame Canada” just as it is to declare that the state of Florida was the entire cause of this matter.
This commentary is intended to let those early volunteers in the search for Samantha Fiddler know that some did notice and respect your efforts. Do not use this history in any content that is supportive of Teddy Hart, Chasyn Rance, or other criminals who feel that the Samantha Fiddler story has indirectly brought them adverse publicity. Those men are felons regardless of their relationship or lack thereof to Fiddler’s disappearance. None of the issues with Sam’s Army should be weaponized by supporters of sexual abusers or traffickers.
Those wishing to improve the wrestling industry could cite Samantha Fiddler’s case as one possible example of the many crimes in the business, but it probably shouldn’t be used as a major vehicle through which they attempt to evoke change. Fiddler’s case could also be referenced by other missing persons’ families and friends about how not to treat volunteers, media, and the indigenous community.
Hopefully, this will bring honesty and efficiency to the search for Samantha Fiddler so that she will be found safe and well.