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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

TEACHER FACING ALLEGED STUDENT SEX ABUSE CLAIMS HUSBAND KNEW STUDENT WAS STALKER

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime, News

3.97.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Christina Formella, accussed of molesting a 15-year-old student claims the boy was a “stalker” and that new her husband knew.  Her husband,  however, says  he was totally in the dark about the boy. 

The  case unfolded after a Downers Grove, Illinois, mom comes across disturbing text messages while setting up her 15-year-old son’s new iPhone using a backup from his iCloud account.

The contents prompt her to take her son straight to the police. It appears the teen is discussing a sexual encounter with a love interest—his married, 30-year-old teacher, Christina Formella.

The student informs the police that Coach Formella began sending him flirty messages on the school’s chat system after she became his tutor in the fall of 2023. He explains that their conversations shifted to text after the teacher provided him with her phone number so they could play a game together.

Records show numerous FaceTime calls between the two, with the victim stating that their relationship outside of school culminated in a rape in December.

Formella denies raping the boy or having a romantic relationship with him, asserting that she is a “good person” and that “everybody” comes after her because of her looks. She admits to developing a close relationship with the student and claims that she “cares too much about him,” but simultaneously labels him a stalker.

Formella insists she did not send the texts, arguing that her kindness towards the boy allowed him to break into her unattended phone, send the texts to himself, and then delete them from her phone to later use as blackmail.

Joining Nancy Grace today:

  • Eric Faddis - Partner at Varner Faddis Elite Legal, Former Felony Prosecutor and Current Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Attorney; Instagram: @e_fad @varnerfaddis; TikTok: @varnerfaddis
  • Dr. Shari Schwartz  - Forensic Psychologist (specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy) and Author: "Criminal Behavior" and "Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology;" X: @TrialDoc
  • Brian Fitzgibbons  - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security [leads a team of investigators specializing in locating missing persons]; Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security
  • Scott Eicher -  A Founding Member of the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team (C.A.S.T); Historical Cellular Analysis Expert; Former FBI agent of 22 years; Former Police Officer and Homicide Detective with Norfolk,Virginia, Police Dept. Currently with Precision Cellular Analysis,Handling Criminal, Defense and Civil Case
  • Anna Sonoda - Child Sex Abuse/Grooming Expert, Clinical Social Worker, Former Therapist for Convicted Sex Offenders, and Author of "Duck Duck Groom"
  • Sydney Sumner - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're listening to an I-Heart podcast.

0:05.7

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

0:11.4

Well, I believe I've heard it all.

0:14.1

A female teacher's bombshell claim about her own husband.

0:19.7

This, as she has been charged with a sex attack on a teen boy student.

0:26.3

Now she's dragging her husband into this. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. Thank you

0:30.9

for being with us. You heard me a married Illinois school teacher, accused of sex assaulting a teen boy, she was tutoring,

0:40.3

tells cops the boy was her, quote, stalker, and that her husband knew all about the boy's, quote,

0:49.5

obsession. Well, her behavior and her text messages seem to tell a very different story.

0:56.6

Okay, what do we know about the incident involving teacher Christina Formella, age 30, old enough to know better?

1:06.6

Christina Formella is a Concordia University grad and former soccer team star.

1:11.2

Now, she's a special ed teacher and soccer coach at Downers Grove High School in Illinois.

1:16.0

But Formella's world comes crashing down when a dark secret is revealed at a routine traffic stop.

1:23.3

A dark secret.

1:25.3

I don't know that I would call alleged sex abuse on a child, a minor that is your student. I don't know that I would call that a secret. I think more appropriately, I would call it a felony. But caught on tape, the married special ed teacher for peace sake, they were practically still on their honeymoon.

1:48.6

They'd only been married less than a year, I believe.

1:52.3

Caught on body cam, threatening to throw up.

1:56.6

Well, after I learned about this case and investigated it myself, I want to throw up too.

2:01.3

But let's take a look.

2:02.6

A lot of people have claimed she is so-called glamorous special ed teacher.

2:07.9

She's not glamorous to me.

2:10.1

I have prosecuted so many child rape and child sex abuse cases.

...

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