Stevie Ryan seemed ready to break out of a rut.
Her pioneering work as an early YouTuber had led to a VH1 show, but “Stevie TV” was canceled after two seasons and Ryan subsequently struggled to chart a course in Hollywood. For a period, she had stopped going to auditions altogether.
In spring 2017, however, she recommitted to her career, telling her manager that she was ready to get back to work.
Around the same time, Ryan was also allegedly starting a new relationship one with Gerald Baltz, a nurse practitioner who for two years had provided her with psychiatric care, issuing her prescriptions for several drugs used to treat mental health disorders.