‘She knows what is coming’: Rigby man sentenced to prison for cyberstalking Massachusetts professor
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BOSTON — A Rigby man will serve two years in prison for cyberstalking a Massachusetts professor over the course of nearly six months.
Edward John Kay, 54, was sentenced this week in Boston by U.S. District Court Judge Julia E. Kobick. In addition to the prison sentence, Kay was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and will have to pay $16,586.31 in restitution, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Kay pleaded guilty in January to one count of cyberstalking after being charged in July.
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The stalking began in January 2025 when he enrolled in an online class, according to court records. After a Zoom meeting with the professor and one virtual class session, investigators say Kay became fixated on her, dropped the course, and proceeded to harass and intimidate the teacher over email and LinkedIn.
Between January and July of 2025, Kay sent the victim over 80 harassing communications via LinkedIn and email and also posted about her publicly on LinkedIn. The messages varied between him expressing love and admiration for the professor to threatening her safety and livelihood.
“I miss you-truly, deeply, with all of my heart and soul. That day I saw you on Zoom…You were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Not just appearance. Everything. Your presence. Your mind. Your light. To gain you…and then to lose you like that? It devastated me,” one of the messages said.
Kay sent an email to several university offices and threatened to file a licensing board complaint against the victim unless the school complied with his demands.
“Dr. (victim’s last name) has been copied on all communications. She knows what is coming,” he wrote, and added that this was only the “VERY BEGINNING” because “Every day, starting today, will mark a **new action of serious consequence**, taken by me in accordance with divine alignment and institutional justice.”
In another message, Kay expressed his love for the professor by sending an anonymous email to her from the email address (victim’s name)consience@protonmail.com. He encouraged her to leave the university and stated, “You are still free. But you are not unreachable.”
A poem posted publicly to Kay’s LinkedIn profile described the professor as a mouse living in a maze that needed to be set on fire. Kay also told another university professor about his obsession with the victim and his desire to separate the victim from her husband.
Court documents show that in June 2025, Kay emailed the victim and the university president, stating he purchased a first-class nonrefundable plane ticket to attend an in-person negotiations class at the university this summer, despite being banned from enrolling in the university’s courses.
Airline records showed Kay purchased a one-way flight to Boston Logan Airport, which was scheduled to land on the morning of July 11, but police say he did not board the flight.
Kay was arrested in July 2025 and booked into the Bingham County Jail in Blackfoot.
After his arrest, Kay’s partner told law enforcement that Kay believed he was going to build a compound in Wyoming and live there with the victim and her minor child.