Days of Our Lives Exclusive: As Connie Cuts a Bloody Swath Through Salem, Julie Dove Has *Actual* Murder On Her Mind (2024)

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Julie Dove was never expecting Connie to become a murderer on Days of Our Lives. Heck, none of us were, but few were probably more surprised than Connie’s occasional portrayer! She got an e-mail that Connie was coming up in some script outlines, and, as she tells Soaps.com, “it had two episodes. And then I got another email around the 16th that Connie was getting four more episodes. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! What’s going on?’”

Then it was up to nine episodes. Then she got her first script. “And that’s when I found out,” Dove recalls, “in the very last scene of the script. ‘I was just like, ‘Holy Moly, what is going on?’ And then I was just like, ‘Oh, no! Is it my fault Remington’s not working?? You have a lot of feelings about these things.”

We’re going to go with no, it definitely wasn’t Dove’s fault. In fact, it’s not even clear what the plan was for Li’s murder before the Writers’ Strike derailed everything and had to be rewritten. Still, it fit surprisingly well with Connie who, we learned from her bizarre date with Li, was a true crime buff.

“I think a lot of people are into true crime and stuff,” Dove suggests, though admits, “it’s super strange and ironic that that’s a quirky fun thing about Connie — before she’d gone over the edge!”

Because in real life, Dove had been working on a true crime podcast of her own since before the pandemic. Titled True Texas Crime: The Significant Life of Angela Stevens, its second episode was just released today. In it, Connie’s portrayer delves into the all-but forgotten murder of a 16-year old classmate of hers who was killed by fellow classmates in her hometown of Princeton, Texas.

This is not, to be clear, the quirky drama of Days of Our Lives and a killer busybody. “I knew Angela,” Dove shares. “I knew one of the two boys that murdered her. I know tons of people that were involved and testified in the trial.”

The story doesn’t just delve into the murder, but all-too-common violence against women, the disgustingly pervasive victim shaming that society still struggles with, and how a town can just sweep everything under the rug. And as Dove says in the trailer for the podcast, “You’ll be stunned to learn where Angela’s killers are now.”You can listen to the trailer below.

The first episode of the podcast, Dove reveals, was released last Thursday, July 18, “which was the day that her body was found.” They’d “wanted to try to honor the anniversary of Angela’s death.” That’s something that Dove has wanted to do with every part of the podcast.

“You can’t even really Google anything about it,” she shares with Soaps.com. “We were trying to just make this horrible thing that happened known because her family never felt like they got any kind of say in what happened.

“Someone asked me, ‘Why do you think that they didn’t feel like their voices were heard then?’ And I think it’s because it was in 1988 at a very different time. Both of her parents were in their thirties, and her dad pretty much started losing his mind the minute that this happened. They didn’t have the tools and this was such a small town. There was nobody in town saying, ‘Let’s have a rally, let’s do this.’”

If Angela’s family hadn’t wanted to participate, Dove made clear, she would not have done the podcast. But they were enthusiastic about telling their story and having their voices heard. Though sadly, both her parents are now gone.

In fact, Angela’s father passed away just a few weeks back. He was never the same after losing his daughter, Dove explains sadly. “He died on the eighth, and the anniversary of when she went missing was on the eighth or ninth.”

And giving voice to the voiceless is important, the podcast host says. “I think that if we can learn from our past, we can have a better future,” she explains. “Victim shaming and things like that have gone on from day one. It’s just we have a camera on it now.” Back in 1988, that didn’t exist.

And victim shaming is exactly what happened in Dove’s hometown. She felt connected to what happened from the start, and it wasn’t just because she went to school with and knew the people involved (before all this happened, she even had a huge crush on one of the killers). Part of the connection was because of Dove’s own traumatic experiences, which helped her feel a kinship to Angela. That’s something she’ll delve into with painful honesty in the podcast’s fourth episode.

But it was also because of, “the idea of the secrets we keep and the secrets we keep for other people in our small towns. Certain people get empathy and certain people don’t. I definitely remember vividly — and this has been confirmed in numerous interviews that will be in the podcast — that people were like, ‘Oh, those poor boys! They ruined their lives!’ Because two of them are football players and that was really a concern of people. No one’s first words that I heard were, ‘Oh, my God, that poor girl. She’s not gonna even live to the next day.’”

Again, Dove goes back to the idea that, “if we can learn about the details of what happened in the past, maybe we can prevent and change things for the future.”

That’s something definitely important for real life, but could also be good for our favorite Salemites to learn. Because Connie always seems to know what’s going on with everyone in town, which means she, of all people, should know that in Salem, secrets never stay buried forever.

Li’s murder, we have no doubt, will wrap in a neat little bow by the time we get to the end of this story. Though Connie may try taking out a few more folks before all is said and done! Gabi’s letting someone who wants her to suffer far too close. Rafe’s still got a definite target on his back. And Bobby may think he’s clever, but he’s playing a dangerous game with a killer.

Whether you love Connie or hate her, (“I think you’re supposed to hate the bad guy,” Dove laughs), her portrayer is happy to be a part of Days history — especially to this extent. “I’m just excited to be able to tell stories whether it’s the crazy fictional version of Connie or the true story of what happened to Angela.”

You can listen to True Texas Crime: The Significant Life of Angela Stevens on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Take a look through our photo gallery below of daytime’s greatest murder mysteries of all time.