Mantra with Jemma Sbeg - Real People. Real Crimes | Introducing CRIMES OF REDDIT, a new Crime House podcast!

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Reddit is an endless archive of humanity’s most disturbing, bizarre, and deeply human stories. If you love going down internet rabbit holes, you are going to love CRIMES OF REDDIT with Alexis Linkletter and Sabrina Deana-Roga. Every Tuesday, one host brings a set of true-crime stories while the other reacts in real time with no prep, no spoilers asking the questions on everyone’s mind. They pull at every thread until the whole twisted picture comes into view. It’s dark, it’s messy, and the scariest part is simple: THESE ARE STORIES POSTED BY REAL PEOPLE. Follow CRIMES OF REDDIT for a new episode every Tuesday. https://pod.link/1838511303 CRIMES OF REDDIT is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The police closed my sister's case in 2019. Last month, her killer commented on my post. On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. People post the things they'd never say out loud. Anonymous, unfiltered, and completely real. And every Tuesday, on crimes of Reddit, we read them out loud. Each week, one of us brings the most unhinged true crime stories the internet has to offer.

And the other goes in completely blind. No prep, no spoilers. Reacting in real time, same as you. Then we swap. And we pull every thread until the whole twisted picture comes into view. It's dark. It's messy. And the scariest part is that these are real stories posted by real people.

And we have an episode for you to listen to now. If you love what you hear and want more, follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen for a new episode every Tuesday. Subscribe on YouTube at Crimes of Reddit Pod for video episodes. This is Crime House. I, 24 female, found hundreds of pictures of my brother, 20 male, on my boyfriend's 24 male laptop. Can anyone please explain to me what's going on? Okay. Have you ever dealt with anything like this? No, thank goodness. Have you?

No. I'm Sabrina Deanna Roga, writer, storyteller, and co-host of of two girls, one ghost. My name is Alexis Linkletter. I am the host of the first degree and unraveled, and I've been investigating cases like the Long Island serial killer case for the better part of 10 years. Between us, we've spent years telling true crime stories,

the haunted, the unsolved, and the ones that stay with you. But now we're teaming up for Crimes of Reddit, a crimehouse original, powered by Pave Studios. Each week, one of us brings the most unhinged stories that the internet has to offer. And the other goes in completely blind. No prep, no spoilers, and reacts in real time, same as you. And we pull every thread until the whole twisted picture comes into view.

It's dark. It's messy. It's so much fun. Make sure to tune into Crimes of Reddit every Tuesday and go down the rabbit hole with us wherever you get your podcasts. And to share your own stories or flag a post you want us to cover. Follow us on social media at Crimes of Pod on Instagram and join our suburb. What's the theme for this week? We've got family stories. Oh, I feel like, and we were talking in our lunch break today about our own families, and I feel like this is going to bring up some some fun conversations about our own lives. Everyone, at least at one point, had a family,

or started with a family or built their own family. The idea of someone being extremely close to you, I think we can all relate to that to some degree. So the stories we're covering today, pretty mind-blowing, deeply uncomfortable, and I'm excited to hear your perspectives on just what you would do in some of these situations. Okay. I'm excited. I'm so excited. We also want to hear from all of you what you would do in these situations or if you have your own crimes of family situations that you want to share with us, which you can do in the comments or on the Crimes of Reddit subreddit, which is our backslash crimes of pod. And we'll probably read some of the comments. We'll probably read some of your stories if you put them on there. So we want to do that. Bring them on.

Share your secrets. Tell us everything. Show us your toes. I don't know. Whatever you don't do on Reddit. I don't think I, yeah. That's a different subreddit, not ours. Totally. Have you ever had someone ask for feet picks? No. Not yet. Well, I don't really wear sandals. Like, I feel like that happens, like it happens to friends of mine who wear a lot of sandals. And once they see the feet on Instagram or something, then people get – But they're getting it for free. I know, but they want a more high-deaf look. Interesting.

Yeah. I've had a lot of people – but it's also because I've joked about starting a business because I think I could make a lot of money. Probably. And so I've had people DM me. I've yet to give in because I was told by my manager that at the slippery slope, you start with your toes and then you go to your vulva. It could happen fast.

It could happen fast. Anyway, we're not here for feet. We're here for Reddit. That's right. Should we dig in to the first story? Yes, I'm going to close my laptop. Because you want to lock in. I'm going to hold on to it like my emotional support. Secure a laptop. Yes. Great. Got it. So here's where we're starting. My estranged family revealed that my loving family oriented dad was actually a monster. Okay. So growing up, my friends would always say that my brother and I had the coolest parents. They were the laid back but still involved mom and dad parents. I was especially close. to my dad and thought he was the best dad ever. He made a Hot Wheels dollhouse by hand for my birthday

to give you an example. Wait, like a dollhouse made out of Hot Wheels? I want pictures. We can only imagine. Yeah. Then she goes on. When I wanted to be Supergirl, my mom hands sewed me a costume for Halloween. My parents are a physically affectionate couple too. And my brother and I thought it was gross when we were kids. But now I realize that being in your 40s and still in love is a miracle. Kind of depressing, but sure. Yeah, yeah. So she continues. My parents are immigrants, and because of that, we were never really close to their families who lived in their home country. But recently, my brother and I got in touch with some cousins on my mom's side on our own and got to know them. They were awesome and really chill. My aunts and uncles and grandparents were a little stiff, but they were

nice. They only wanted to hear about what us and our mom were up to, and not my dad. And dad. So I got kind of frustrated and kept mentioning my dad anyway. Finally, my cousin said, if we didn't stop talking about our dad, their parents wouldn't let them talk to us anymore. Like knowing the subject line of this post, my mind is going to all crazy facets. I can't wait to hear what actually... Brace yourself. Okay. None of our cousins knew what was going on either or why they hated our dad so much. So they all started asking around and digging into family stuff. I thought it was going to be something stupid like class differences or my grandparents not approving of my dad for some reason. But we found out the truth and it was a lot worse than we

imagined. Oh no. My cousins found a single short newspaper article from a digital archive about it. Turns out when my dad was young, he kidnapped a university student and kept her for a bit. A bit? How long is a bit? I had questions about a bit too. Because a bit could be a couple minutes, a couple hours, a week, a month? I mean, a bit in a life could be a year. Yeah. So who's to say? But not elaborating yet. Okay. We'll see if we get to it. So she continues. He was a minor at the time this happened, so he didn't get named or get a real punishment or anything like that on his record. Okay. So I can't look at my dad the same way again or my mom. Why would my mom marry someone who literally kidnapped and hurt a person. My parents have noticed something off with us, but I don't even

know how to bring it up. So the question here is, what would you do if you found out this information about your own dad or mom? Would you confront your parents? I have found out information like this about my dad. Like this? Worse. I'm listening. I don't know if I should talk about it on here, but I was told so my dad might have been involved in a like deadly crime. when growing up. This is fascinating. So it can be so destabilizing to learn something about your parents. And there's no age for the Redditer here who posted this. But it's like, especially when you're young, you have like adults on a pedestal and think that like they're different than how you feel. Right. And that they're perfect. Yeah. And they have it all figured out. Right. And that they didn't

have a life before you. Right. And they have tangled secrets just like. Yeah. Anyone else. And like, because I, from my own experience, when I learned that, I wasn't all that surprised, given what I know about my dad, because he is a very complicated figure. And I'm like, oh, this lore actually makes me understand him a little bit better or, but it sounds like in this situation, it was so disorienting and didn't align at all with the man that she knows. Yeah, and I think, you know, that's in her setup. Just her dad was the best. This was a huge shock. So some of the comments here, one of them says this, I'm sorry, that's a terrible thing to find out about someone you love. But since you do love your dad and he has loved you all these years, tell him what you found and give him a chance to tell you what happened. Maybe he had a mental illness that's under control now. Or he was under the influence of drugs or bad people or voices in his head. Maybe he was just a bad person. I don't know. And neither will you until you find the courage to ask him. Good luck. I'll be hoping things work out for you and your family. Good advice. Would you ask? Yes. I have no self-control. And those people who can like harbor. No. I'm like heart on sleeve, no control. Oh, in the second I have one drink. It's over. It's over. So the original poster replied to this comment and said, thanks for the advice. It's hard. I don't know how I'll even ask him about this. This isn't the dead. I know it all. Now, whatever you're thinking this is, it's about to get so much crazier.

Was it the mom? We'll see. Oh, my God. Okay. So another commenter said this. Maybe when your brother can ask together to be there to support each other, it won't be easy, but it might help save your relationship with your father and mother depending on what you find out. So at this point, per what we're reading, the original posters disgusted with her mom for knowing this about the dad. So very interesting. So later in this. thread. The original poster provides more additional context. Here's what they say. Okay. It's okay if you don't believe me. It's kind of an unbelievable, horrible thing to happen. So my cousins know more about this stuff than me or my brother, since they actually speak the

language and talk to my aunts and uncles about all this. One of my aunts made a few kind of vague statements about what happened, like about him being bad as a teen. And my cousin's search for what she talked about, and they found the article and asked her about it, and she basically confirmed it because she said that's why they don't talk about my dad. I don't know if it's why he did what he did. The article was really short, only a few lines in their native language, just saying he kidnapped a university student and kept her basically. And that he was a minor and went to the equivalent of Juvee for a few months. I don't know how to explain it, but their country has conservative values, but not that conservative. Like they're pretty modern. The victim was a student

at a university, so she had to be at least 19 or 20 from what my cousin said. So she was a woman, not like a girl. I don't know what to think. My cousins don't know much more than me since the older generation have kept it hush-hush. So original poster has more updates. Okay. So I tried to bring it up to my dad, but I couldn't. I would really hurt to accuse him of being a monster if he had literally done nothing wrong because it meant that I actually thought he could be capable of doing something horrible like this. So I decided to talk to my mom. I told my mom everything and she kind of started to justify it saying that my dad was young, stupid, in love, and mentally all over the place. Then she slipped up and said, he didn't hurt me. Okay. So I dug deeper into the thread. Yeah.

And the original poster added more. That at the time, so apparently she clocked based on this mom's admission that it was actually the mom who was kidnapped by her dad okay so the mom added more context said this they didn't know each other before the abduction my mom thought it was safe to accept they didn't know each other before no so it was a stranger abduction okay so my mom thought it was safe to accept a ride for my dad because he was young and harmless and he was wearing a school uniform she said my mom was 20 and my dad was 16 but I think she's mixing that up and then another question from user was was your dad's family aware of the kid Was he living with anyone? Did he have any family? Apparently he lived with my grandpa and my great

grandpa who was always out of the country. My dad said of the family was pretty well off. No one was home at the time of the kidnapping because of the holidays. The maid came in in the morning to either pick stuff up or drop it off. And that's when my mom crawled out of the window, twisted her ankle and ran to the maid and asked to go to the police. So like at least overnight? She didn't say. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So something happened here where the mom was abducted in a stranger abduction and somehow ended up marrying. And we don't know like how their relationship progressed after that? No. But another commenter said this, that they had heard something similar in their native country, which was the Philippines. Okay. And said it was in the 70s and said that a family member of theirs got abducted in the 70s in the Philippines and by the state. chauffeur by a driver.

Yeah. And apparently the scandal of disappearing with this man for days was so scandalous and, like, reputation ruining that she decided to just marry the guy because of that. Because culturally, that was basically like, you're damaged good now. You're damaged goods now. You're damaged goods now. So if you don't marry this guy, no one's going to marry you in like the way the society. Which is devastating.

I know. Yeah. So people in the comments in this post. we're asking if that could be the case. Right. You know. It's kind of a little bit like Stockholm syndrome too. Yeah.

And so, you know, the original posters here and saying, I kept asking my dad, you know, they obviously have this confrontation eventually with both of them, the mom and the dad. And she kept asking, I kept asking my dad why he would do this. And he was just being stupid and selfish and didn't realize that it was scary to her. And my mom said, what's done is done. and they got over it, and now my mom and dad are in love and happy, and that we could go to individual therapy to deal with it further if we needed to. I do appreciate that as a response.

I guess. My brother said it didn't matter anymore, and he wishes we didn't know at all. And original poster says, I can't look at my parents the same way again. And honestly, I agree with my brother. I regret talking with my cousins, and I think my estranged family has a right to avoid my family for what my dad did. I feel really sad for the original poster. Yeah. Because that's like that is life-shattering a little bit. Yeah. And I think for me, what I would be most worried about, I don't know about her age, but looking at this now at my age, I'm like, growing up in a family system, that dysfunctional is terrifying. And I wonder what the other implications are. Well, and also, is the mom actually willingly and, and or has she convinced herself that she's in this relationship willingly on her own terms? Or has she been manipulated so much of a.

the years that she doesn't even know. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned the Stockholm syndrome. It's like, well, how long was a bit? I need to know that. Yeah. It was like, what happened? Exactly. Ugh. Yeah. Also, out of curiosity, I know we don't have this answer, but like, you know, growing up, I would ask my parents all the time, like, how did you guys meet? I want to know your love story. What did the poster's parents say? They probably said university. School. But what they really meant is, oh, I kidnapped your mom from school. For a bit. Yeah. And some of the people in the comments are like, there's more to this. There must be something missing between your mom forgiving him for the abducting her and her family hating him. And people want to know, again,

which country this is. And another commenter said, well, if you did nothing, why run away to the U.S.? Like, there's got to be more to this story. But I don't think I'd want to find out if I was, if this was my parents. I guess here's the one thing that I, that doesn't make it better necessarily, but at least it's not an unknown woman that he kidnapped that like we don't know where she is or how she's doing. Like it's horrible, don't kidnap anyone. Yeah. The mom survives. She's okay.

Physically. Physically. Yeah. And seems to be a good mom. Yeah. An original poster leaves us with this. My dad did kidnap her even though my mom insists that he didn't hurt her. And she was fine, but she admitted she was terrified when she was in his house because she had no idea what he would do to her.

her. So you definitely did bad things, even if he regrets it. Kidnapping is a horrible crime. My first thought would be like, did he do this anyone else? Anyone who's capable of this, who's willing to let like someone be afraid, you know, and then further, like now, the way she's describing her life now, the mom being essentially like removed from her family because they all hate him, the abductor husband. Yeah. I mean, it sounds pretty bad. I think it's always a red flag if your family doesn't like a partner. 100%. Yeah. Damn. And it only gets worse from here. Oh, great. Fantastic. You ready for number two? Yeah, let's do it. I, 24 female, found hundreds of pictures of my brother, 20 male, on my boyfriend's 24 male laptop. Can anyone please explain to me what's going on? Okay. Have you ever dealt with anything like this? No, thank goodness. Have you?

No. I did in high school. When I first went to my high school, everyone was like, oh my God, my sister's name is also Alexis. So it was like, oh, you're Lexi's sister. Like, she's so hot. So I dealt with all the boys wanting my sister. Right. But I've never had to deal with finding photos of her on a boyfriend's phone. Yeah. So. Okay. I've been with my boyfriend for a year. A relationship is slash was great. And we honestly never had any serious problems. We both have four. full-time jobs and live together. He's good friends with my younger brother as well, mainly because of their shared interest in fitness, workouts, etc. They hang out a good amount and go to the gym together.

In hindsight, the fact that their good friends makes it all the more creepier. Yesterday, I was home alone and my boyfriend was at work. I needed to print something out, but my laptop wasn't working at all. My boyfriend has several laptops, and there's one in particular he never uses. At least I've never seen him use it. That's weird. But in itself is an odd thing. Unless you have a production company, do you need many laptops? No. Like I have a bunch of like broken laptops that I haven't done anything with.

Well, because what do you do with them? Yeah. So I get that. But like having a bunch around. Like functioning ones? Yeah. Maybe no. So anyways, I thought this laptop was some dusty old thing.

I grabbed it and it was not shut down properly. When I opened it, it took me straight to the photo albums. And there were hundreds of pictures. of my brother saved. Also, if it took her right to it, that means that that's what that computer is for. It's the last thing he was doing before he closed it. Okay. So most of these pictures were pulled from his social media accounts, but there were also picks of him from his rugby team's website, WTF, question mark. Okay. So they're not nudes. No. It could be a physique situation. Body envy. I don't know, get a subscription to men's journal or something.

I'm trying to make it less worse. Yeah. This isn't even the worst. Okay, great. There was an album that only consisted of creep shots in videos, picks of him sleeping, and even videos of him getting changed. Oh, no. You could clearly see in the vids that he wasn't aware of being recorded. What the fucking fuck, she says.

Are you agreed what the fucking fuck? Do you have any thoughts yet? Oh, I hate it. So the last pick he uploaded was literally last week. This is so creepy, I don't even know what to say. There were also picks of someone's gym clothes, and I'm assuming they're also my brothers. I'm confused, disgusted, and shocked. What the hell is going on? When he came back from work, I just went straight to sleep. I couldn't even face him. I honestly can't think of a good reason he would do this. I mean, straight guys don't usually do this, right? I don't know if I should even confront him about it. Should I ask what this whole? thing is about. Well, also how violating for her brother. Because it's not like, oh, maybe they're having a secret affair and he's sending her boyfriend photos. No, he's being stalked. Yes. And all of his privacy is being invaded by someone he trusts. Yeah. So why do you think the boyfriend's doing this to the brother? Either romantic interest or obsession. I mean, whatever it is. It's not

not great would you confront your boyfriend this is a really tough situation because it feels a little bit more nuanced where it's someone you know like i almost immediate jumped into concern for the brother how do i protect my brother because it's so violating but then yeah like like that's your partner i don't know i don't know would you i would not because he feels unsafe yes I would not because there are so many true crime cases where somebody's busted. Like there's been situations that's different than this, but we're like the husband's faking that he got in a medical school and they're like moving to the city to go to medical school. And then the wife finds out he's not even, he never got in.

And the guy freaks out and kills his whole family. Like once the veneer, like we've seen this in cases like, you know, like the Scott Peterson case. there's like elements of this. Like if you catch someone in a lie, sometimes like they freak out and burn it all to the ground. Yeah. So I think something like this with how sensitive the situation is, because if you confront the brother, if you confront the boyfriend, he's going to be afraid that you're going to tell

the brother. The second you know, you're a liability to whatever this obsession is. Yeah. I would not. I would end the relationship and tell the brother. Yeah. But then it's like, it's such a hard. one because the not knowing what the reasoning I think would also bother me. But I agree I wouldn't

want to confront him directly. No. So some of the comments weigh in on this. So one user says he's clearly got a thing for your brother. It's not a healthy way of expressing it, creepy if anything, but it's quite obvious. Confront him. Tell him how uncomfortable it makes you feel. Be prepared to break it off with him. Sorry you're having to deal with this. The original poster replies, It's weird because I've never even suspected that he had a thing for my brother. I would have noticed something like that. I honestly can't believe it. Another user says, it's not just that your boyfriend is sexually attracted to your brother, but that he's clearly obsessive.

Yeah. I'm a single guy and I will look at Facebook pictures of my crush, but I don't save them in my computer. That's super creepy. And then go out of your way to take surveillance footage, basically. Or sleep stuff? Yeah, the sleep stuff is really creepy. And one user says this, you know, it's a lot worse than your boyfriend being secretly gay. Because I agree. Being secretly gay has nothing to do with violating people. No. Yeah. You know, I would take the laptop and show my brother, then go to the police and report it. And another user said- But then what can police do? You know, I hoped you said that. I hoped you'd ask that because like- You're welcome. They have a lot of, like, a lot of users say this. Like, don't confront him alone. Go to the police. And it's like, the police, there's no crime committed until your brother complains. Or until your brother pieces together that these were taken with secret cameras.

does, like, you going to the police with the computer isn't, they're just pictures. They're just pictures. They're just pictures. Yeah. Oh, that's so tricky. Because then also, I mean, I feel like the right move is break up with him. Tell your brother. But then it's this awkward, like, is he so obsessed with your brother now that your brother's in danger?

Right. Right. And, you know, one user said, I don't recommend confronting him alone. This is some very unhealthy stuff. And I feel like if you corner someone with this sort of thing, he may react in a way that puts you in danger. Don't do that. Even if you crave the dramatic airing, which I would. Are you one for a dramatic airing?

I think there's something really cathartic about confronting someone because I think what you said, like I'd always be afraid like, what if there was an explanation? Like, I think that's a valid fear. Yeah. But I think your gut would know there's something so wrong about this. But a lot of people would be like, I can't just end a relationship without talking about this. But a younger version of myself might not be able to hold it in. If this happened now, I'd realize how dangerous this is. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Because I've confronted men in my past who have, like, been looking at other women and stuff. But it's not someone I know and it's not taken to the level of obsession and stalking. Yeah. This is dangerous stuff. Yeah. So there's an update.

Okay. Sorry to disappoint, but this isn't a positive update. Oh, no. I'm still trying to mentally process it all. Hence the delayed post. So I grabbed my laptop to take picks of the photo albums. I found way more stuff than I originally stumbled upon. A lot of commenters in the original post said that he probably used me to get closer to my brother.

I didn't quite believe it at first, but they were right. Like it predates their relationship situation? Yeah. So while I was taking picks of the photo albums, I found more folders. He began saving these pictures four or five months before we even started dating. And my brother didn't even know him at that time. Okay, so yeah, this is a very dangerous man. That realization sent chills down my spine.

You're not alone in that sister. No, yeah. I also went on the internet. The bookmarks, his browsing history. It was all horrific. I'm not going to elaborate because it's honestly sickening. It's clear that he has an obsession with my brother and extremely violent and disturbing fantasies about him.

Oh, like she found, like, searches? Yeah. And when you say violent and disturbing fantasies, that's like really just scary. That's scary. Yeah. I mean, it's the kind of stuff you see in evidence against serial killers. I mean, that's literally in like Rex Hewerman, the Long Island serial killer, they presented

that kind of evidence of his digital searches, like violent, disgusting, predatory. Like fantasizing. Yeah. And it's like, clearly that's what she's inferring here about her brother, which is so scary. So scary. So she continues. This was absolutely messed up scary stuff. I cannot believe that I was so clueless about everything.

I went over to my brother's place and explained everything, showing him proof on the actual laptop. He was shocked and creeped out, of course, but didn't believe that my ex was behind this for different reasons. But he's not gay. He wouldn't do something like this, etc. I wanted to go to the police, but he completely refused. It also doesn't even have to be a gay thing.

It could be like a murder thing. It truly could be fantasizing about killing someone. Yeah, you hear this about, You know, there are a few cases that I've seen about, like, female friendships that escalate to some. One of them has some fixation. And it's like, there's obviously something really strange here. But you can see why he doesn't want to go to the police. It's the same reason victims of sexual assault who are boys and men don't want to go to the police because they immediately will say, like, the police will suspect I'm gay when I'm not.

Right. Not that there's obviously anything wrong with that, but like they don't even want to go there. Yeah, which is sad. It's so sad. And why so many male victims like keep it buried inside and end up victimizing other people, frankly, because they don't deal with any of it. Yeah. So, brother didn't want to go to the police. She continues, my plan was actually to confront my ex in public, but my brother just straight away texted him to come over. When my ex came, I showed him the laptop and asked him to explain. The entire situation was so bizarre. While I was talking, he seemed incredibly angry. I've never seen such a look on his face before. Mine, that's so scary. But when he calmed down, he casually confessed to everything when he calmed down. He said that it was just a bad habit. He got into and that he's truly sorry.

Yeah, just like, you know, picking your nails. Yeah. It's like so chilling. And at that point, my brother said that this probably is a prank. It just wasn't funny, et cetera. I started crying a little, and he rolled his eyes and told me to stop. Stop crying. He was so nonchalant and cold. I didn't even recognize him anymore. Then he said that he would immediately stop doing this if we kept this to ourselves. I think my brother finally believed him then because he was absolutely dumbstruck. It's worse. My ex then said he'd take down the cameras too. Shut up.

And that we shouldn't make a big deal out of it. I asked him where the cameras were and he proceeded to show us. He probably thought he was a good guy for cooperating with us and that it would make the situation less creepy. Also, like, why would you trust that he shows you all the cameras? Well, and you know what? I mean, that's a manipulation tactic. Yeah. People who are liars and manipulators will admit to one thing and be like, look, I'm being a total open book.

I'm not lying. See, I'm confessing to everything. And then the worst thing is still buried. So this isn't even the worst thing. So then he says, turns out there was a camera in the shower as well. It was nauseating. The conversation that followed was extremely uncomfortable. And my ex said some very provocative and appropriate things.

This is way worse than I ever would have imagined. I know. It's traumatizing for everyone. The brother and sister. And like pinning a wedge between them. Like there's so much wrong with this. They ended up having a huge argument about the stolen clothes amongst other topics, and the rest was pretty awful. I eventually went to stay at a friend's place.

I'd already pack my stuff anyway. There's another paragraph. I was going to say, I hope there's more because I need to know more. Later that night, my ex texted me that I'm a bad person for invading his privacy and that I'm selfish, narcissistic, a bad human being, etc. He said that he's willing to forgive me, though. Yeah, he really said that. Great guy. Great guy.

With the gaslighting. Yeah. The Darvo, right. I blocked his number on everything. A day later, he came to me at work, and I told him to stay away from me. He did that every day for one week at different locations until I seriously threatened him. He said that he never cared about me anyway and wished me luck for my future relationships. What a horrible, horrible man. So there's another ending with how the brother, how that played out. A couple of days ago, my brother texted me. We haven't spoken at all since that day, and he apologized. But he still refuses to.

to address the elephant in the room. He's just pretending it never happened. I told him that my ex is clearly not stable. Why would you not notify the police? And I honestly don't know what to do. And oh, by the way, it was his 21st birthday yesterday. And I called him in the morning. He told me that he got a present from an unknown sender. What was it? Do we know? No, but the poster, the original poster said this. I said that the sender is probably not unknown to us. Like this is 100% my psycho ex. know it. And as I said, this isn't a positive update. A lot of people seem to be concerned, and that's the only reason I posted this. I just hope things don't get worse. How long ago is this posted? Like, this post was in 2018. I mean, I'm sure there have been updates

since then. Like, this guy was obsessive and clearly a bad person. But I'm also concerned of how many other people he has in the past done this too and will continue to do this too because when there are no punishments for someone like this they have no reason to stop yeah and he's i mean he's only 24 like think about all the time left in life he has to like terrorize and torment people and and bait people to try to see hate people yeah i do they're the worst well and like again it's just like the entitlement of feeling entitled to someone's privacy and stealing his clothes. Like, there's so much of that in, like, criminal minds. Like, you see it in killers. That's how they start. They start by, like, burglarizing and stealing

people's underwear and escalates to violence. Yeah. So, and especially— Oh, that makes me so sad. Yeah. And the searches she was talking about. Like, no good can come from this. Yeah, I feel like that's going to escalate. And then it's going to be one of those situations where it escalates to an extreme, like knock on wood, hopefully no one gets murdered. But like if something like that does happen, it's going to be one of those cases where you look back and this is one of the stories that you hear about. And it's like, oh, all the signs were there. Yeah. And sending the gift after, you know, yeah, supposedly everything was going to be cut off. But I also understand from the brother's perspective why you wouldn't want to go to the police. Like that's his decision to make,

I guess, in a way. But you were even pointing out like, I don't know, I feel like it makes it more real. yeah, you'd want to downplay it and make it not a bigger thing. And maybe it's a, you know, a defense mechanism too. Like, if there's worse on his computer, I don't want to know. You know, it's already messing with his life psyche. Yeah. His reality. Totally. Geez. Well, that's a grim. I know. Well, is it going to get worse? It's going to get different. And I think this will be, I mean, you have a brother. So this is not, that last story was not relatable to me in any way. I don't. Yeah. have brothers. I always wondered what it would be like because I think that's such an interesting

dynamic. I technically have three brothers, but I only have one that I'm really close with. Yeah. That's many brothers. I feel like I've dabbled him in how complicated my dad is, but he's a complicated man, has lots of kids. Many. Okay. So you really understand the brother of it all. Yeah, especially with my younger brother who's, well, they're all younger, but of my, like, core family, he's 28. And I feel like I helped raise him too. So, I feel so protective of him. Yeah. That if someone were to fuck with him, I think I would become more protective of someone trying to fuck with my family and my brother or my sister than I would if someone was trying to fuck with me.

Oh, yeah. I've just let people walk all over again. Unintentionally. But yeah, no, 100%. Yeah. Are we ready for the next one? Let's do it. My mother-in-law suddenly passed away in a car accident last month.

At the same time, my stalker disappeared. Coincidence? Probably not. Probably not. Oh, that's so sad. Messed up. So my mother-in-law and I have never had a good relationship. She has tried to sabotage my relationship with my husband since the day she met me.

I wasn't good enough for her handsome and successful boy. Which is a crime on its own of like women protecting their sons like this and being obsessive with their children. My handsome successful boy. Vomit. Anyways. You can think your child is successful without being obsessed with them. And you can think they're handsome without. Without babying an adult man.

Yeah. I contemplated ending my relationship several times, but my husband always showed that he is on my side and I love him. Okay, that's good. A few years ago, I started getting very threatening and scary emails and texts from a Pax. So Pax is the name of the texter emailer. This Pax knew everything about me. It didn't matter how many emails and phone numbers I changed. They or he always found me.

I made several reports, but nothing happened. My husband tried everything to trace these emails. Nothing came out of it. Okay, so this is going in the direction of what's that documentary where like the mom was... That documentary unknown number. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so this is the direction it's going in because I went, when you read that like subreddit or the title of the post, I thought it was going to be like the stalker accidentally killed the mother-in-law.

But now we're like, oh. Okay. Okay. Well, yeah, to torment your own high school daughter is so deranged. It's like that is a dangerous, dangerous woman. And we'll talk about how tangled relationships are when you even find out your parent is doing something like this, how hard it would be to accept. Yeah. But the husband in this situation was really helpful in trying to get to the bottom. Which I appreciate. Great husband. Green flag there. Totally. So no matter what, Pax always found her. And she was under the impression that Pax was a guy based on the language that was being used.

And the original poster says, I made several reports, but nothing happened. And this past year, I basically never left the apartment alone. So saying that she got so scared of this that it was, she was afraid to leave the house. To be alone, yeah. So she says, I haven't received a single threat. texting text or email from Pax in a month. After a few days, I wasn't surprised. I felt like I always knew it was my mother-in-law deep down. My husband hasn't reacted yet. He's consumed with his grief and I don't want to bother him, especially when he bitterly told me, you must be very

pleased now when we heard the news and I tried to comfort him. He apologized later and said he was just feeling guilty that he loved and chose me more than he loved her. Oh, that's so complicated. Yeah, that's so complicated. And also, it's, it would be one thing to find out your mom was this, like, PACS person while she's still alive. But to be dealing with the grief of losing your mom, regardless of how complicated your relationship is, like you could hate your parent. And if they die, people still have so much grief and that like feeling of loss. It's primal. I mean, they're the most foundational relationships human beings can have. I mean, they mold who we are, and we feel totally intertwined with them. So it makes total sense like it's impossible to let go. Oh, that's so sad. So she continues. Now I'm waiting for my husband to connect the dots. Will he get it? If he does, will he talk to me about it? I don't know if I will ever bring it up to him. Also, I won't relax and go back to my normal life just yet,

but I know in my heart that it's over and I can't be happier about my life. Well, yeah. And she's entitled to feel that relief because she was being tormented by this woman. Also, I'm curious if, and maybe this will be in updates, but when, like, you lose someone and you, like, start to go through their things, do they find anything that proves? I've actually heard a lot of stories like that. Yeah. Where, you know, one story I heard was this woman was dealing with, like, constant people stealing her identity constantly. And like basically her financial life was in ruins. And when her mom died, she found all the documents that it was her mom. And then it's like you can't do anything with the anger because they're gone. Yeah. Crazy. Oh. So do you think you'd tell the husband or do you think you'd wait? I would wait because I would empathize so much with their processing the grief. And then I would be able to like sit with my relief of it being over. But I wouldn't want to throw that on them. Right. What about you?

I think I would have started accusing the mother. in-law the second I suspected it. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of like, I'm not, I can't be calculating like that. Yeah. So my husband at the time of her death would have already known that I thought it was her. I do agree with that. But I think if you didn't put it together until after, I wouldn't choose then. Yeah, I wouldn't choose then to bring it up for the first time. Yeah. Totally. So some comments here. You know there are a lot of cases where people had tons of threatening letters and phone calls. And many, they never found out who did it. And most people assumed it was some of the some random psycho. But I wonder how many were close to them instead. There was an episode of

this American life about a woman who was continuously the victim of identity theft. And these bank accounts, no, I heard of a different story about bank accounts kept getting hit despite changing cards, banks, everything. Turns out she was living with the thief. Another comment, my stalker was a high school classmate. I think most people know or assume their stalkers someone they know. Yeah. Because it's far more rare to be stalked by someone you've never interacted before. people agree you should let him connect the dots on his own i wouldn't even drop hints i would be like we should go look through your mom's phone yeah like where where is it lead lead him to water totally so are we ready for the update yes i was here maybe a month ago talking about me suspecting that my mother-in-law

was my stalker who tormented me for years i was trying to get advice about whether or not to tell my husband who was mourning her i decided to wait a little but after venting here i was sure She was my stalker. I started living like I never had before with 10-minute walks alone, then 15, then a half-hour, and then so on. At first, my husband didn't notice my freedom. Or maybe he did, but he was processing it himself. Last Friday, I told him that I was going out with the girls. Alone?

Yes. Want me to drive you there? No need. Are you not afraid anymore? No, my stalker won't bother me again. He kissed me and wished me a nice evening. When I came home around midnight, he was still up and he said he wanted to talk. He asked me, was my mother your stalker?

Yes, he broke down crying. He said he has always suspected her and even talked to her a couple times about it. And she met him so guilty by accusing her that she accused him of being whipped by me. Oh, this poor man. You know why? It's so messed up. Because if you look at it at its surface, it's like, okay, the mother-in-law is tormenting the daughter-in-law. But she's also tormenting her own son.

100%. Because now there's a frantic, upset woman in his life who he's having to spend time and energy trying to get to the bottom of who's doing this. It's creating chaos in their nuclear family. Yeah. So she's also tormenting her own son in a weird way. And then she's like victimizing herself when he brings it to her and then makes him almost coddle her more and be like, oh, how dare. Like, I'm so sorry. You're right. How could I accuse you? Like, you love me. You wouldn't do that to me.

Yeah. Like you're choosing your wife over your mother and accusing me. That's deranged. And he's like, oh my God, I'm so terrible. And she's manipulating him and messing with his emotions. I mean, listen, I have very low standards for men based on my track record. The bars low. But like, and I don't know much more about this man, but I got to give praise for him turning out into like the type of man that he is given the situation that we're hearing about with his mom. Yeah. Absolutely. And the. The original poster said, he apologized for never discussing it with me and never protected me from his family, even though he had suspicions. Honestly, I'm not even mad or disappointed. If the police couldn't help me, I don't know how much my husband could have done. And I just want to move on and leave this behind. We're going to start couples therapy and my husband's planning to tell his family that my mother-in-law was my stalker. He's adamant about it. And honestly, I think it's a good idea. My husband has also decided to not attend the headstone setting on his mother's grave. Oh, man. That's tough. Well, I think he has the insight to be like, oh, my God, the lies, the betrayal. She wasn't who she said she was or who I thought she was.

100%. Gosh. Yeah. And there are a couple other comments. The love and mutual respect you to share shows so clearly through your story. You had the grace to give him time to come to the realization on his own. He had the grace to recognize how you're struggling coincided with his mother's presence in your lives. It's a beautiful outcome to a deeply troubling experience. Also, what a beautiful comment on Reddit. The most insightful, articulate comment. Maybe that's ever been on Reddit. I appreciate it. Y'all must be two very strong people who have found each other and made the decision to navigate this world as partners. Here's to a lifetime of love and understanding. And the original poster replied to this. I wanted so many times to leave the relationship because

I couldn't take the stocking any longer, but he has been nothing but supportive and kind to me, and I love him so much. I'm glad we stuck together. A happy ending? Wow. Do I believe in love again? Maybe. And like happy endings on Reddit? I know. Unexpected. Wow. The plot twist I didn't see coming. And to not have let the mother-in-law win. Right. And, you know, confronting people when they're alive, like, that could have blown up the entire extended family. Like, really, it could have been an all-out war. Yeah. And she could have gaslit a million other people to take her side. It's only, almost better that they found out when she was already gone. And I do agree, like, that he was given the time and space to, like, come to it on his own, I think makes the situation.

Like, that's why they were able to have such a healthy dealing with it. Imagine he confronted her how, like, how manipulative and crazy making she would have been. Yeah. It would have been a disaster. So. Damn. Happy ending for a Reddit couple. Have you ever found, like, any secrets about your family?

Yes. So many secrets. Oh, my gosh. Well, I do have a funny story about, so my dad, I got him like 23 and me for like a father's day a long time ago. And he told me he signed up for it and he opted in to like let family find you. And he got a hit for having a son. And then- So you do have a brother. So he found a hit for a son. And it turns out my dad is an identical twin. And no way. So my cousins are technically my genetically half siblings. Oh, wow. So my male cousin had joined 23 in me and it was him. Oh, okay. So it was a fake surprise. But no, there's a lot of secrets in my family. I don't even know how to start airing them out.

Well, I think also I think that could be said about all families, right? There's secrets in every family. There's just different, like, varying levels of horrific secrets. Some are not terrible and some are that you kidnapped your mother. Yeah. Kidnap your mother or maybe killed in a crime in Pakistan or have many kids. I don't know. I feel like the kids one is a very commonly spoken about one. And especially with 23 me, I feel like the amount of people who found out they had other kids or other siblings. Men have the privilege of not even knowing whether they do, which is also terrifying for men. But, you know, yeah. Yeah, crazy. So crazy.

Well, now offline we'll have to unpack all your family secrets. Yes, we will. For there's more to learn in future episodes of Crimes of Reddit. But if you have family secrets that you want to share with us, you can add them in the comment or you can go over to our subreddit, Crimes of Pod, anonymously reveal those secrets. Or not. Yeah, you don't have to be anonymous. Make your Reddit handle your real name. Don't be a coward.

Don't be a coward. Mine is definitely not my real name. No. Is it? How many do you have? I had one and now I have that I don't use. I have one at a time. Okay.

I think now it's my real name. Okay. Because I'm not a coward. You don't hide behind a fake name. Well, I don't really participate. I lurk. I'm such a lurker. I don't ever.

Maybe like in the Bachelor subreddit once or twice, but I really don't like, I'm not in the weeds. Yeah, no. Oh, so Corinne, what? this because I feel like most of my friends I thought were lurkers and then all of a sudden there was like a post that came up and I saw Corinne had commented and I was like excuse you since when are you a commenter because it was like on like a random post and I was very concerned so I appreciate that you're a lurker I've definitely like popped in when there's misinformation about me on there that's fair but I also I'm like after I do it I'm so mad I'm like you're supposed to be

above all this you're not even supposed to bother with defending your, like, don't see, that's allowed. Validate it. I feel like if I found out someone I knew was adding to, like, the negativity online, that would change how I view them. But if you're just, like, correcting misinformation or being like, ooh, this is pretty. I just should really stay away when I've, like, had a margarita and feeling spicy because then I do insane things.

And after this, we should go get a margarita. We will. We'll unpack all of it. Thanks for joining us for Crimes of Reddit, a Crime House original. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on all social media at Crime House. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Crimes of Reddit. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly makes a difference. And if you find a Reddit story that you want us to

cover, leave a comment and maybe we'll feature it in a future episode. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Crimes of Reddit. If you want more, follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen for a new episode every Tuesday. Subscribe on YouTube at Crimes of Reddit Pod for video episodes.