Something Was Wrong - S20 Ep6: Rot in Hell

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

*Content Warning: cyberstalking, stalking, catfishing, fraud, psychological violence, death, medical trauma, suicide, suicidal ideation, threats of self harm, emotional abuse, harassment, sexual abuse. This season, our theme Song U Think U, by Glad Rags, is covered by Palehound.  For music and tour dates, go to palehound.com. Follow El of Palehound and @bachelor_band: https://www.instagram.com/palehound/  Palehound on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/palehound-1  Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips: somethingwaswrong.com/resources  Artwork by the amazing Sara Stewart: Instagram.com/greaterthanokay FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): https://www.ic3.gov/  Stalking Prevention, Awareness, Statistics & Resource Center (SPARC): https://www.stalkingawareness.org/  Follow Something Was Wrong: Website: somethingwaswrong.com  IG: instagram.com/somethingwaswrongpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@somethingwaswrongpodcast  Follow Tiffany Reese: Website: tiffanyreese.me  IG: instagram.com/lookieboo 

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Something was wrong is intended for mature audiences and may be distressing for some listeners. For a full trigger warning for each episode and for a list of resources for survivors, and their loved ones, please see the episode notes. Pseudonyms are given to all minors and some survivors in these stories for their privacy and protection. Testimony shared by guests of the show is their own and does not necessarily reflect the views of myself, broken cycle media, or Wondery. This podcast and any linked materials should not be construed as medical advice,

nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment. In response to the allegations against Jessica Polly, she responded with no comment. Thank you so much for listening. Here's Bree. So at this point, Brody and myself were talking about me taking a staff job here in Wilmington. He had just taken a travel assignment and Jess had been working here permanently and I had made some friends through her. knowing I didn't want to move home to Iowa, it had been in the plans for me to move here. In my head, it was like, well, I know things aren't going great with Brody,

so at least my best friend is here, and I'll have friends in a new city if things don't work out. So we had been fighting about me accepting a staff job because I had been negotiating and everything that comes with finding a permanent job. Brody's mad I hadn't accepted a job yet because it was getting close to the time that I moved here. and I didn't want to take something. If it wasn't going to pay right, I wanted to make sure I went to the right unit because I was switching over from a very intense ICU job to a new pathway here in nursing. In the midst of this conversation, I just want to reiterate.

At this point, this had been going on for almost four years. And almost every day when I woke up, I would ask what his plans were if we could do something, like what his intentions were for the weekend, like if we both had a weekend off, and getting so frustrated that he wasn't going ahead and making plans. And that's what he, Jess, is referring to as me starting fights every day. It would always start a fight. I couldn't just be calm and happy with texting. He said, I highly suggest you turn this around real quick before I take care of it all.

I said, I hate myself. He said, I dare you to try me today. I said, I'm just going to go. And then this is when the all cap starts on his part. And he said, fucking try me. I will pull the trigger in two fucking seconds because of how low you have me right now and how you're fucking talking to me. Try me. I said, this isn't okay. Nothing about this is okay. He said, make something else up. I dare you. I said, I'm not making anything up. He says,

say I fucking lied when I never fucking did, been waiting over a year to be where you said you wanted to be together. I said, I'm hurting and you're hurting and we're just too fucking toxic. He said, you fucking are, you're crazy and won't fucking stop. Regulate your fucking mind or get on meds. I said, come see me like you promised. And he said, you are toxic. You make every fucking day a fight. I begged you not to do this.

I said, I'm not happy with texts. He says, I begged you to not start a fight, but you kept pushing and pushing and now I'm too far gone with a million exclamation points on all of these. I said, I wanted to be treated like a normal girlfriend, friend, why do you want to be with me when this is how you feel? I can't have you threatening to hurt yourself. It's not okay. Neither one of us are in a good spot and I can't handle this. He says, I will never bother you again. Wilmington is yours. I will never come back. You've made it

clear how you feel about me and all of it is so far from the truth. Thank you for not caring enough to stop pushing me. I needed this. I said, I don't want to hurt you anymore and I can't keep feeling like this. He said, it won't ever hurt again. I said, I wish you would have given me a real chance four years ago. He said, you pushed me right where you wanted to, and I'm giving up on it all. You ruined me. I begged you to not start a fight and you can't do anything other than fight. You need to get fucking help. You make it hard and you make it hurt. You always have because you make shit up and run with it. It's too late. I want to die. Thank you. I said, I need you to not think or act on emotions right now.

I know you're upset, but just stop. He said, enjoy Wilmington. I hope it's fucking great and perfect for you. I said, I'm not happy. I've been trying to tell you for so long, and you just didn't care. You said, I just needed meds and I'd be fine. He says, you make it bad. You.

I don't start the fights every fucking day you do. I said, you don't make it bad because you just ignore what I say and what I need. He said, You take a good morning and make it as bad as you can as soon as you can. You will always be negative because you always have been. You make this bad. I said, it doesn't matter, I tell you, I need a conversation and to see you. He said, nah, I don't.

I said, I can't be happy living off of texts anymore, Brody. He said, I told you to change your fucking shifts. I tried last week, so now you can. I said, I know you're just fine, but I'm not. You can fucking come to me. He said, keep lying, I dare you, keep making things up. I said, I have gone to Wilmington four fucking times this contract, never once saw you. He said, it's not my fucking fault you're bitching about seeing you.

When last Thursday I tried to change my fucking shifts and you wanted to bitch and be toxic instead of working with me to figure something out. I said, I hate who I'd become in this and I don't want to argue every day, but I can't keep telling you I'm not happy and you thinking medication is what I need when I just need. to be properly loved and cared for. He says, Just shut the fuck up. I don't feel sorry for you because you did this to yourself and continue just like starting this fight.

I begged you not to do, and you found a way to do it anyway. Your mind is your worst enemy. I haven't said meds will fix you or us. I said they would fucking help the highs and lows and zero to 100 and how you fucking handle things, which in return would fucking help us.

But I'm so fucked. I'm the only one that needs medicated. If you think getting rid of me is your fix and you'll be better, I have sad fucking news for you. Everyone but you sees how I'm fucking trying and you make sure to stop it from happening. You're so fucking perfect in your mind and it's going to ruin a lot for you and make you lose a lot of people besides your damn mom. I'm not this monster. You make me out to fucking be. I came here for you and us not because I wanted to. I've done it twice now and what have you done for us?

You won't even apply to jobs or housing here when it's almost July. Why? Because you're staying near Minnesota. And I said, I don't think I'm perfect at all. And I had sent him a screenshot of my scheduled interview for a staff job. And that's the end of that. I got so toxic in the end of that. I just, I think Lauren said the same thing.

We just turned into these versions of ourselves that, like, I don't even recognize. This is an example of what would have. when we would fight and then, quote, Brody would go tell someone that I said this and this and he was done and couldn't be here anymore. This was essentially what would happen, some sort of version of something like this. Brad would say, have you talked to Brody? And I would just say no. He'd say, we will head to North Carolina and try to find him since you can't lift a finger to do so. You can stay where you are and not worry about where he is or if he's okay.

We won't ask you to help since it's very obvious. You just don't care. I said, I'm going to block you if you don't stop. He manipulates everyone with the threats and it's so messed up. He said, Brie, you do whatever you need to do to feel better. I said, he's done this 100,000 times now. And he said, I need to find my brother. I said, he just packs up his car and goes for a drive and ends up in a new city.

Maybe call him. He said, his dog is dead. He didn't pack anything up. tried. I said he's probably sleeping. He said, he's hurt because he has feelings too. I said, his are the only ones that seem to matter. He said, if that's what makes you feel better, then sure, he's sleeping. I said, this isn't okay. He said, well, this doesn't affect you. I said, you have guilt because of the shit you let fly out of your mouth when you're angry. He said, so whatever the outcome is, won't affect your feelings either way. I said, you know he does this. He said, I don't have any guilt.

him and I haven't fought at all. Side note, Brad would blame Brody for their dad being dead. That was his favorite line to throw at him in fights. And then Brody would be in a bad mood with all of us. Back to the messages. He said, him and I haven't fought at all. I said, okay, maybe you don't. You're a me in person and you don't know me.

He said, I just care about him and know at the end of the day, he just needs someone to show they care. And he isn't going to get that from you. I said, yeah, I don't deserve that either. And he said, I don't think you want to get started on being a mean person because I could share how I feel about you and you won't like it. I said, maybe don't tell people you wish they were dead instead in fights. And he said, maybe don't make someone feel like they always have to worry about you cheating on them and feel like they're dirt under your feet. If you care about someone, act like it.

I'm not going to fight with you. You're useless. So we will find some people to help us find him. And I'll remind him that you didn't care. It was all a joke to you. And that was the last message I ever got from Brad Jacobs. Out of nowhere, just texts me and says, I'm guessing you two are fighting today.

I said, yeah, it was a bad morning. I'm sorry if he texted you, you can block him. She said, he's texting me now, but I'm not blocking him. He's fine. I said, it's just so fucking bad and I can't handle it anymore. I'm so sorry, it's affecting you. She says, it's not affecting me at all. I'm listening to both of you, Vent, and it's okay.

And she sent me some TikTok. And then she sent me a screenshot. She doesn't show me the entire conversation, but it's essentially a screenshot between her and Brody. So what I can see is her saying, well, maybe don't say mean things that she doesn't want to hear. He says, that's what it is for sure. She can either unblock me or never hear from me again.

I'm truly over her games, Jess. It's at a level where it's just like, what the fuck? Just says, I'm sorry. He says, it's not a big deal, just exhausting dealing with someone that thinks that's the answer to everything. She's only digging herself into a bigger hole if she thinks it's just going to go away. And then just texted me. I don't know what he wants me to say. He needs to unblock his brother and vent to him instead, laughing face. I said, I'm not dating him over text and I made it very clear. Just said, I just don't know what he wants me to say. said, I'm sick of it all. I cry every damn day. It's not your job to say anything. She says,

okay, I said, I'm just saying he can vent all he wants, but like, I opened up a lot and told him everything that was hurting me and what I needed, that he's still refusing to give me, and it turned into him yelling at me about things I've done. She said, yeah, that's between you two. I said, I just don't know what to do. She said, I wish I had an answer for you. I said, I wish I did a lot of of things different and this wasn't so fucked up. She said, like what? I said, I should have left the first time it hurt this bad. She said, oh yeah, probably. And then sent me a screenshot again between her and Brody and in the screenshot, this is Brody. Ha ha ha, you know how stupid she sounds right, blocks me but doesn't want to date over text. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Why the fuck would we date anyway when she made it clear she's leaving North Carolina in a couple weeks. Just said, yeah, that makes it hard, but I don't know, like I told her, this is between you two. She's not stupid. She's frustrated, and it sounds like you are as well, so it's just fighting rather than healthy communication. He said, ball is in her court. I'll stay gone until she can handle an argument like an adult not block me when she hears something she doesn't want to. In her eyes, she's perfect, and then she just moves on and forgets the conversation and goes on to something completely irrelevant. I travel nurse for a year, year and a half. I didn't do it for as long as I wish I would have. I was in Richmond. I was in D.C. I was in Charlotte, which none of those were good enough

for Brody. And then I was just worn out working ICU. I was just fried and I needed to take a break. And I knew that mentally I had to take a step back. I was burnt out from not only my job, but from Brody. And I didn't want to move back to the Midwest. I needed to get some roots. And I had always been coming back to visit the beach when I was working in Charlotte. So I thought, why don't I just move to the beach? Give it a try. I officially moved to North Carolina, July of 2023. I was thinking, well, Brody likes it here, just likes it here. I said, even if it doesn't work out, which it hadn't been for a very long time, I still had a friend group here. So it wasn't like I was going to be completely alone in a new place, but it wasn't solely for him by any means. The fighting,

It just got worse and worse. Ever since Matt died, the fights got really, really bad and continued escalating the words and the damage done there. But Jess and I stayed close. We didn't have as many, I'd say, roommate riffs like her and Lauren did. I definitely think Lauren got the worst of the fighting with actual Jess because she did live with her for so long while this was going on. I don't doubt that it would have gotten like that.

with myself, but also Lauren working from home, she couldn't really escape it. She was immersed in it 24-7. That definitely contributes to how bad it got between the two of them and Lauren just feeling completely trapped in her room. I met Danny and her boyfriend, Caden, for the very first time at Jess's birthday party, both super nice. We clicked right off the bat. They're super easy to talk to, easy to get along with. I could see myself being friends with Danny once I moved here, which we are. Before I came here, Jess like Danny, Jess always was trying to like portray this, I don't want to say girl gang, but essentially she's like, you have a group of friends waiting for you here. And I had met them all a couple times before I moved here. It's not like we were all

besties, but nice girls that we could all go out to dinner and get drinks and it would be fine. At that point, Jess and Danny were pretty tight. And I know that Danny and Caden had helped Jess with her child a few times. When I first started seeing the problems, Jess had mentioned that Danny had posted on Facebook about a trip. Her and Caden were either planning on going on or they were there and they had posted about it. And she was so upset that Danny would post that. She's like, you know, some of us, live paycheck to paycheck and can't go on vacations like that. And she was so jealous. And I remember

looking at her. I was like, you're actually mad? She's posting about her vacation. I don't know. There was a lot of jealousy there. Danny's awesome. I don't know why she had to have issues with literally everyone in her life. Here's Danny. When I met Jess, we talked about how we both didn't have that many friends here, like me and Kaden and Jess also said she didn't have that many friends here. And she said, well, I want you to know that I don't want you to feel like Kaden is just a boyfriend. Like, I want you to feel like he is also my friend. I want you to feel like you can bring him around at any time and invite him and we could just be a friend group. I want you to feel safe in that.

Later, we all talked about how Jess would talk shit about each of us. I learned that she would say that I brought my boyfriend around too much. So it's just funny that she would always reassure me. Or, like, if I didn't invite Kaden, she would ask me, where's Kaden? If I showed up to the pool, she'd be like, oh, why don't you invite Caden? Where's Caden? Our friendship was only a year long, like at the marker when I found out everything. But I would say we were very close friends. We were constantly carpooling. I was talking to her every single day. I shared my location with her for safety purposes.

She said, we hung out probably once or twice a week at least, like pool days. We went paddleboarding a lot. Caden would even pick her child up from school if she needed it, take him to soccer practice. He would go over and help her with her apartment and hang stuff for her, like way too good to this actual demon. And then find out later on that she talks so much shit about him and us, it's just so stupid because we were way too good to her. It's annoying. Hi, I'm Danny's boyfriend, Caden. I met Jess shortly after Danny and her started to get to know each other when we at first.

moved to Wilmington, we were looking for some sort of friend group, and we didn't have a whole lot of luck. We tried. Some social groups on Facebook, we tried talking to people at work, and we just didn't have a whole lot of luck. So one day when Danny was going through her TikTok comments, Jess had reached out and said, hey, like, I'm new to Wilmington. I don't have a lot of friends either. She said that she works as an RT, and we have some common interests. So we'll just see how it goes. Hanging out with Jess for the first time, she seemed very friendly and she seemed cool wanting to make friends because she was new here and nothing seemed bad about her at first. Danny got like a feel for her and she said, no, she's cool. She's like a photographer and she has a kid. The first time I actually

ever saw Jess was we were dropping something off that she had left in our car to her in like a target parking lot. So we drove to go see her and I got a couple words out of Jess just like a hi, how you doing I'm Jess? But her kid, the child, he was drawn to me. He was like introducing himself like, hey, what's going on? Kaden, it's so nice to meet you. He was just all excited, telling me about his favorite football team and his favorite sports. And I was like, wow, our kid's cool, but she's just kind of standoffish. Did I say something?

And I have diagnosed BPD, so borderline personality disorder. It's mainly trauma-based. I was diagnosed before I met Danny, actually. It's a condition of my brain that makes me revert back mostly to traumatic experiences that happened in my life. It's basically where my nervous system is always in fight or flight and looking for the worst and looking for the most harmful people, the most dangerous people to me, because it's mainly like a survival instinct. And so because it's trauma-based, you tend to either stay locked in this like traumatic state of like how you were in your most traumatic moments, whether that was

like insecure, overthinking, things like that. I'm pretty much an open book. I've made a lot of peace with parts of myself. Then to a lot of therapy and done a lot of like self work through a lot of journaling and whatnot. So I've had to come to terms with myself. So that sense of acceptance has kind of helped me understand and move around life a little better. So when I met the child, he was really cool and really open, but Jess was just automatically standoffish. So I assumed, oh, I did something wrong. I was rude. I made a weird face. I didn't introduce myself, yada, yada, yada. So Danny and I go home and I am asking about Jess. Is everything okay with her? Is she cool? She's like, yeah, she was probably.

always just tired. She was out all day and shopping and everything. But when we first officially hung out, I got more of a sense though. Jess, this was the time that me, Jess, Lauren and Danny all went to go watch the sunset with her kid. Jess, she poked fun a lot and she was really curious about learning about how I take photos and what to do better. And I was flying my drone down there too. So she was like asking a bunch of questions about that. So she seemed curious. but it was almost like a degrading type thing because she would ask me about how to be better photographer, but then also brag about all the clients she's getting and all the work she's getting. I think that was just kind of a little seed that was planted about me thinking that she was a

constant hater. The rest of the night, whenever we just walk off separate from Lauren, she was just like, oh, Lauren left her room so messy again. Lauren is not paying me. Lauren is not doing this. Beautiful sunset and all she's doing is talking negatively about her family or Lauren or everything else. So I just immediately knew right off the bat she was a really negative person and taught myself to keep boundaries from her, but it didn't seem like dangerous or it didn't seem to raise any red flags at first if that makes sense. Plenty of people are like pessimistic and haters and braddy and all this other stuff.

I've hung out with Bree and Lauren pretty often. Bree, a very caring person. She is a bit timid. She is very quiet, passive. She doesn't try to assert her own way, but very determined. She seems like she has a lot of goals. She's very passionate about her job as well in the healthcare field. Lauren, she is very headstrong.

I know that she's determined with her media career. I know she's a very outgoing person, especially since this whole thing with Jess has died down. She's come out of her shell. Megan was talking about it, but she was kind of a shy, timid person until she got drawn out and got free of this whole Jess situation. We regularly were with Jess and we hung out with her whenever we could on the weekends because we thought we had a good friend and Jess. So we made a ton of plans. We thought long term, oh, we're going to go camping. We're going to plan trips to Florida. We're going to plan trips to California, to Nashville, you name it. So we saw Lauren a lot because

they were roommates and they seemed kind of like they were good friends. So usually Jess would invite Lauren and we'd hang out and whatnot. Lauren, she was funny. She was talkative. She was really relatable. You know, I've heard nothing but bad things from Jess about, oh, she's so selfish and she's so messy and she's so rude. La-da-da-da-da, all these negative things. And to myself, I'm like, what's so bad about Lauren? She seems awesome. I like to think I have some good intuition about people. My gut feeling was saying, like, no, I think there's just something about Jess, and she's bitter towards Lauren for something. Here's Lauren's mom. Oh, it was crazy. She would get so upset with Lauren if she had other plans.

I mean, the majority of the time Lauren was there, but once in a blue moon, she would need to go out and do something or want to go out and do something, and Jess would get so upset. I'm sure she told you about having to come home in the middle of the night from a wedding because her dog was whining, and Jess couldn't handle it, she had to work next day. Jess has to watch Lauren's dog one night, and Lauren has watched her child almost every day for, well, they end up living together three years. Well, right before they moved into the last apartment together,

they might have been there a month before Lauren found out. Every time they would start to move into a new place together, which they moved several times and stayed roommates, and every time I'd say, Lauren, are you sure you want to do this? And I would beg or not to do it. I would be like, please don't live with her. again. Please get out of it. Here's your opportunity to get out of it. She called me the night before they were supposed to sign the lease. And she was very, very upset. And she said, I think I've made a

really bad decision. I think this is a mistake. I don't think I should move in with her again. And I was like, then don't do it. I was like, Warren, you can get out of it. If you're feeling this way, there's a reason. Don't go through with it. I don't care if we have to pay a fee or a fine or whatever, don't do it. And she didn't know what to do. She was really upset. Here's Lauren. Anytime we would fight, I would be like, okay, I'm not living with her anymore.

And I would make that clear to her that I don't think we should live together. This isn't working. She would flip completely and just start being this really good friend. And she just completely changed personalities. That's the best way to describe it. She would cry to me and give me victim stories. She would also say, like, well, I need to know if you're moving out because her son, he has school.

We need to know these things because if I'm not living with you, we don't have anywhere to live. We're going to have to go home. So she would always play that card and I would never know how to handle it. I would talk to my mom about it and she'd be like, she's just baiting you back in. She's just doing this because she doesn't want to not live with you. This was after mom knew quite a bit. She knew about the tormenting from Jess's side and like how Jess could be as a roommate

and a friend. It became more aggressive. Before you could kind of tell Brody was holding back and trying to play the nice guy, but it just got worse and worse. The more that I clung to Megan, the more he was losing control and you could just see him spiral

through these text messages. He said rather than being a heartless bitch in the moment treating me like you don't give a fuck, maybe you'll care the next time like you did last time you pulled this. I hate you for ruining me. Tomorrow will be too late and I hope you're happy about it. it. I hope you feel like the shitty person you are. A liar, a cheater, a sneak. You're all of it,

even when I've asked you to stop. We spoke on this after it happened last time, but drunk's like you can't close the bar chapter and you'll always be there, even if it's not every day. I ask you to stop doing it, knowing how it made me feel, and you have proven that you don't give a fuck how it makes me feel. Don't be at my fucking funeral. Live with it and be fucking happy, knowing how badly you broke me over and over and didn't give a fuck. Goodbye. At this point, I'm out with Megan this night and I get sick. I fell asleep on the way home and I threw up when I got home. So I was pretty sick. I wasn't checking my phone and he's thinking I'm hooking up with somebody because I was not responding to him for about two hours. He's like, this is killing me.

I just wanted to be with you pathetically and I got stood up. It doesn't even matter. Nothing does and it never fucking did. You've been ignoring me all night while you've been with him. I'm not stupid and I don't want to be treated like I am. You'll never stop lying to me. You'll never stop doing this. Have fun with him. Sorry for everything. Goodbye. And he said, maybe when you're fucking sober, read the messages. First, he said, learn to drive. And I said, learn to speak on the phone. And he said, throwing something in my face that I'm insecure about says a lot about the person you are. And I said, L.O, you just said the same thing. I mean, it's always about the driving. It's always about the drinking. It's always about the going out. It's always about other friends. I literally could

not do anything without there being a problem. Brody came to my apartment complex while I was out. So he's like sending all these messages. I hope you're happy. I'm sorry. I ever came into your life. Goodbye. Leave me alone. I'm not responding to any of these. You got what you wanted. Go be happy. I'm sorry I wasn't enough for you. I'm sorry. I put you through the things I did. And I'm sorry for just ever needing you. Focus on the guy that's with you. Forget me. Which one do you live in? Or was that you? and he sends that at 1150 and I said what? I don't know what you're talking about. And he said, I bet you don't. You're clearly busy with another dude so driving here was a waste of my fucking time. I fucking knew you're with someone else. He said, I told you I'm in Surf City and you

refused to tell me what building is yours because you're with another guy. Your replies in the way that you're avoiding me proves that I saw it. If you wanted to fucking see me, you would, but you're caught in a fucking lie now. If you didn't do anything, you'd be doing everything to see me right now, but you fucking can't. I'm going to head to Wilmington. to drink with my friends. Thanks for ruining me. So I said, I was not sober last night, but I didn't do anything with any fucking guy. And for you to only come and see me or try to see me under those terms is pretty fucking shitty, considering I ask you to come here earlier and all I got was a fuck you. And I was at a restaurant, you fucking twat. You started making threats and that's

when I didn't want to be sober anymore because I can't deal with it. It's not fair for you to do to someone yet you continue to do it anytime you're upset. I sent that at 927 a.m. and then at 9.301 a.m. I said, I know this is Jess and you don't exist. I've known for a while. He said, I'm going to let you say whatever makes you feel better. I have a lot of friends there that I've met from being there. And yeah, I heard you were out and you know I fucking lose it after the shit that's been pulled. And it gets even worse when you do it without even talking about it.

Brody responded to this at 1050. And so when I sent that, she came in my room and laid in my bed. I was sleeping at the time. So she woke me up in my bed. And she said, so what says I hear about me being Brody? and I said something along the lines of, oh, I was just saying that just to see what he said, because I was so taken back by her, first of all, being in my bed while I just woke up, but also saying that when I had actually maybe started thinking that it was true,

I probably had a little bit of fear inside me that what if she is, all of these violent tendencies that this person keeps saying and doing, and it's this person right in front of me, like my brain couldn't process that at the time. So I just quickly shut it down. And I was like, oh, I don't know. I was just saying that. And then we just went back to normal. Summer of 2023, we were just going to have a fun little day at the pool.

We get to the pool. We're just like hanging out, drinking. And this fairly attractive man comes by. And he's doing his own thing, like laying out by the pool and stuff. I remember mentioning one thing about it. It wasn't this overarching theme of our conversations. So it was me, Jess, and Bree's roommate. and Bree's roommate calls the guy over very innocently, playfully,

doesn't know anything about Brody. She does not know any of that situation. So she calls him over and she's hitting on him and kind of making things uncomfortable trying to set me up with him. But that's when Jess started saying very uncomfortable things about how I was watching him when he was showering at the pool and how I was staring at his balls, asking if I want to go home with him. Like this is all in front of him that these conversations are happening.

And it made me very, very uncomfortable. So I leave the situation. And Jess is pretty hammered at this point. I went home and Jess came and talked to me about it. And I told her how uncomfortable that made me and how I do not need help like that. I don't need a wing woman if you're going to act like that. So apparently, Jess took a Snapchat panning around the pool

and I was talking to the guy in the Snapchat. And Brody texts me right away asking like, who's that guy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I bet you got his number. And so I sent that message just clarifying right off the bat. Like, yeah, I did get his number. It was a very uncomfortable situation for me, and I felt like I was backed into a corner. Brody made me text this guy and tell him that I was not interested

and that I was talking to somebody else. I was sick of being told what to do. I was sick of being told that I can't have friends. I was sick of being at home all the time and literally watching my life pass me by. I know that sounds cheesy, but three years of this has already gone, by and we're nowhere closer to where we were in the beginning. I'm like, I have to get out of this if I want to have other relationships or be happy or move past this because I can't just keep doing year after year. And soon enough, I'm going to look back in it. It's been five years if I don't

stop. So I was starting to get a little bit more cautious of his behavior and his manipulation. And I was just not feeding into it anymore. It was not something that I was looking past. It was something that was just honestly a huge turnoff. The last thing that set it off for me was that I wanted to go grab a beer with Megan. This was August 10th. So I said, I'm going to meet up with your favorite person. He said, I guess just be honest if you meet someone out. I said, I'm straight up bumming it.

Just haven't caught up with her and need some girl time. He said, nice. And then he said, do you not have a job anymore to get drunk on a Thursday night? Go to the bars and spend money when you don't have an income. most people that want to catch up spend time together, not at the bars, but I guess it is what it is. When you said you were hanging out with her, I knew you'd be at the bar since that's all she knows how to do. I said, okay, pipe down.

If you want to see me tomorrow because it's not happening if you keep running your mouth. And I said, I'm the one that suggested we have a drink because I could use one. And he said, L.O.L, I don't need to be threatened. I said, I'm not threatening you. I'm just telling you. And he said, okay, don't see me then. I said, are you going to keep talking shit? He said, I don't trust you at the bars.

I said, you don't trust me ever, and I don't trust what you say, so it's fair. And then he said, then why are you still here? Makes sense, doesn't it? I said, same with you. He said, I don't beg you to stay. And someone that doesn't care about hurting me isn't someone I want to marry. I said, you hurt me all the time and don't care. Don't be hypocritical.

And he said, L.O.L, this is done. Goodbye. And I said, okay, that's the last time you'll say that to me. And blocked. Just never talk to him again. And then those messages that I was getting with Brad. It's obvious reading these messages that he wants me. me to feel bad and he wants me to worry about Brody. He wants me to think that he's hurt or dead.

He wants me to feel like just a piece of shit. Like he's just saying, if you feel like showing you care, you can reach out. I think you've shown it very clear this morning. Take care. I hope it all works out for you. Keeps texting me even after I'm not responding and he's like, he left a note. Sorry, I probably shouldn't have told you that. Just thought maybe you'd want to know. I blocked him. Then I got a text from Will, one of the cousins of Brody, being like, Hey, have you talked to my cousin? I texted him earlier because he was coming to town and haven't heard back. I didn't say anything back to that.

Here's Lauren's friend, Megan. I remember Lauren sitting across from me telling me what Brody was saying, and then we were just talking it through. And she said she was going to block him. Here's Lauren. Something changed me right then. and I knew that I wasn't going to go back. I didn't have that sadness like I felt before.

And even Megan noticed that. I got to see like a little taste of what it was like on the other side. I didn't want to let go of that and just be at home and just be miserable. And having me met the guy yet, I keep getting let down over and over and over again. You were getting sick of it. And I think the reason that you were able to end it is because you were happier than you had been in a long time, because you had other people in that area besides just Jess, who were, again, showing you that you are capable of having normal relationships.

You are capable of having girlfriends that you don't fight with. You're capable of having fun enjoying your life. It allowed you to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to see the life that you are missing out on. I think Lauren questioned herself so much that I think that's a reason why Lauren was looking to outside sources to clarify or confirm that the way she was feeling wasn't crazy. And I think it's because Jess was so convincing and was so relentless,

it would not give up her opinion and her battle to make Lauren question herself and feel like a bad person. So I think that's why you were constantly looking at other people to say, can you look at this situation and tell me if I'm thinking about it the right way or not? I did not want to look back. In the past, I had felt. convicted to want to go back to him. But this time I just was done. I did not want it. And Jess picked up on that pretty quickly. She realized that she wasn't going to get any information

out of me about me and Brody because I had nothing to say. I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to think about it. And she came to me multiple times asking me like, hey, are you guys good? Are you still talking to him? How are you feeling? So she was trying to get information for me to see if he should still keep entering my life. other ways and gauge that response. Just started going to Bree and Bree's roommate all the time. She was staying there for hours and hours a day after her son was out of school. I could feel a switch in her pretty quickly. She started acting weird to me over text. She started getting more controlling with little things. The door was being painted by the maintenance man. And she called

the leasing office lady because she was watching on camera and he wasn't doing it right. And I think that really just boils down to her losing control and she's just trying to grasp any type of control she could have. So things were just getting really weird with us. She owed me a lot of money already because of CMA Fest and other things that she hadn't paid me back for. She owed me money and I couldn't pay her for whatever reason the 20 something dollars that she needed from the Wi-Fi bill. I was already paying half of her son's rent and she told me I didn't have to do that. And then she went back on her word and said that she never said that and she needed help. I'm also self-employed. And I was having a hard time with work, with this breakup, quote

unquote, with moving and all these different changes. And I just hadn't paid her that week. And she somehow disconnected my devices from the Wi-Fi. So I contact the Wi-Fi guy. And I have a of this. For some reason, do not have access. How do you even do that? Well, I can't tell you. Two devices. Okay.

Oh, I can tell you. All right, okay. That's all I needed to know. Thank you. You too. I needed the computer that day. So I go over to Megan's place and I'm hanging out at her place and I was like, okay, let's just have a glass of wine and we're going to sit down and we're just going

to do some research. It was still toxic to live with her. and we had just signed a new lease together. And I knew that the only way I would be able to get out of that is if I was somehow able to prove that I needed a restraining order. I had a gut feeling to start looking. And I'd been looking before, but I'd never taken time to just sit down and really digest everything

and look at pictures, look at numbers. There are so many numbers coming through recently, you know, with all those random numbers that were texting me. So we started searching these numbers. She's cooking dinner and I'm just sitting there with like, a glass of wine, doing my investigating, and I start putting it together that they're all texting apps. I FaceTime my mom and Julie,

and Megan was sitting there with me, and I said, guess what? I was shaking, and my voice was all over the place. She was like, you were not gonna believe this. She sent me a text, and all these phone numbers of all Brody and his family were, I guess, there are apps like where you go through when you don't wanna show your real phone number.

Lauren, she had me and Julie, her cousin, on a three-way call. And so we're all finding out this at the same time. And Lauren's like, wow, that's when Lauren knew that all these people were fake and they were all Jess, because that was the only connection between them all in Jets. So it finally hit Lauren. And so, boy, the ball was rolling in. She was on fire. She started doing everything she could to find out what was going on.

When she was in my apartment, she was on her computer, looking up different things on Reddit, different strategies, using different sites. I'm doing all this digging, and she was really quiet for a long time. And then she finally called me over. You called your mom. And that's when I was like, oh shit, because you called your mom and you laid everything out. And you said something along the lines of, I now know Jess is involved. I knew something I was trying to convince myself that someone. other something was happening, but I knew something was very wrong.

Because again, she was the connection. Lauren was starting to realize that there was proof that Brody wasn't real beyond just the fact that he wouldn't meet up with you and talk to you on the phone. And it was because of all the phone numbers that he would reach out to you through, were all generated from the same texting app. And then your brain went to, okay, well, Brody's not real. The brother's not real. The sister's not real. Then that means that Jets have been lying to me when she's been

been claiming that Bertie is real. So that's when I could, I could see a change on your face and you started shaking and I realized that it was actually sinking in and you knew something was wrong and you called your mom and you made a plan to move out of your apartment. I remember the secrecy around it, like the strategy around it, meaning Lauren and her mom and myself and other people that were Lauren's support system were concerned about Jess catching on to what was going on. And so the clan was, how do we get Lauren and her belongings out of their shared living space as fast and seamlessly as possible so that there's no damage done to her belongings or any continued damage done to Lauren. So it was a lot of just hush, hush, and moving fast,

kind of a frantic, nervous, unsettled energy of I can't believe this is actually happening. You surprised me a little bit with how energized you were and ready you were to tackle all of the steps you had to tackle in order to get out of that situation. Rather than go take a nap and cower and cry, Lauren was like, all right, I'm doing this, I'm doing it now, I'm going to talk to the police, I'm getting my mom to come down, I'm getting all my stuff out of there, I'm moving out, and she just had her little checklist and fired away. I didn't think I was going to find what I found.

I didn't want to think that it was as bad as it was. I didn't want to think that she was emotionally tormenting me and coming home and being my friend and laughing with me and playing video games with her son and acting like everything was fine. So I went home with it and I was sitting with that thought and with that new evidence that I found. I kind of just accepted it as it was.

And I was like, she's somehow involved. I need to at least get out of. here. I don't know the full situation. I may never know the full situation. That's when my mom came was the next day and she helped me pack everything up. We like talk about what to do and we go and talk to the police, which is that day that she saw me with the police station. Here's Bree. I knew they hadn't been getting along. Jess had been clingy and wanting to stay at our house a lot, which was not that uncommon. She just liked to be with her friends a lot whenever she could. So we're sitting at the table and unprompted, I don't know why.

She opens her phone and she looks at Lauren's location and she says, why is Lauren at the police station? And she looks at me. Her face is white as a ghost. I look at my roommate. We're both speechless. And I said, I don't know. And then you can tell she's panicking.

All she knew was that Lauren was at the police station. And I just know they had been fighting nonstop since they had moved into this new place. They had just signed another lease. They were almost three weeks into living at this new place. And I remember saying, why did you guys sign another lease? You do not live well together. Neither of you do. And Jess was like, I can't afford it by myself. So they signed the other lease. They'd been fighting. It had been toxic. That's all I knew. We knew she's at the police station and then just tried to play it off by saying something like, well, maybe she's like dating a cop and trying to just save her butt.

there for a second, but I was very alarmed that she was there. Here's Lauren. I asked if I could get a restraining order, if I had enough information. I talked to the police. He said he had no idea. He could not find anybody in the system with that name. I asked about the brother. The police said that they could not find anything.

He was like, look, if there was anything there, we would have found it. There was nothing. I go back home. I started reverse image searching all the photos that he had ever sent me. I found this website called facecheck. ID, and I found the real guy's photos through that. My jaw is on the floor as this is happening, because I had tried this many times, and I could not find the real guy. I'm by myself at this point. I find this photo of the real Brody and this girl, and they're at this gala-looking thing, and I find through that photo, I reverse image searched that one, and I found his LinkedIn page.

I contact him on Instagram through the information I found on his LinkedIn page. And I talked to him for the first time. I messaged him on Instagram. Hey, this is really weird, but I just found out that I've been catfished using your pictures for the past three years. Dada dot, any chance we can talk. And he said, this is the second time this has happened. I'm sorry, sad face. I said, how long ago did it happen?

I know who did it and would love to press charges. He said, who did it? I said my roommate. He said, what's their name? I said, Jessica Pauley. And he said, oh, my God, she's the one who did it the first time. I said, shut the fuck up. Tell me everything.

And he said, yeah, to this girl, Reagan. I said, I literally live with her. Because I hadn't moved out yet. This was the day before I moved out. He said, that's unreal. Are you in Iowa or what? I said, no, I'm in North Carolina. She's been obsessed with me this whole time.

This was before I realized there were other victims, too. He said, I'm literally messaging the first girl right now. She's beyond shift that this happened. again. I said, the guy's name was Brody, and he would threaten to kill himself if I didn't do what he wanted. He said, that's the name she used the first time in all caps. I said, she's fucking sick, dude. Please, please come to North Carolina and walk in the apartment with me. And he said, beyond fucking sick, I need this to end. I said, I went to the police station yesterday and they said there was nothing I could do. And I said, I'm shaking what the actual fuck. He said, I'm literally

so sorry. She basically started right when she moved to North Carolina. I told him the story. He said, bro, that's crazy, making me look bad. I said, please don't reach out to her if you haven't. I don't know what she's capable of. And he said, don't worry. I don't want to put you in danger. He said, what's your number? I'll call you later. I called my mom right away. And she's like, do you want me to come get you right now? I told her, no, let's just wait till tomorrow. I'll get everything moved out tomorrow. It all just happened really fast. So my mom comes the next morning. We move out. I told us, and we've got to get you out of there. So I would the next day with the van.

We loaded up that van as quick as we could. We had pepper spray on us because we didn't know. There were cameras everywhere. So we knew Jess would see us moving everything out. And I didn't know what Jess might do. We loaded up everything as much as we could cram pack in that van that was important. And then the next morning we went back and finished everything else and got her out. So when I was leaving, all I see is just photos of Jess and I.

and I did break one of the photos. It was a gift that I got her. It was supposed to be like the stepbrothers picture, but I put our faces in it. I just think that was like a symbolization of our friendship being over in my mind. I don't know if it was just like the adrenaline or something. I was very calm and level-headed.

And I wrote rotten hell on a piece of paper and I wrote down all the furniture that I was going to take and the amount that it was. compared to the furniture that I was leaving for her. And as soon as I walked outside, she had removed me from the access of the cameras. I woke up, I went to the police station, got a restraining order. I told them at this point, she's a catfish. I have the photos.

This is who she's pretending to be. I live with her. I need to get away from this. And they tell me that they are able to get a restraining order. On August 20th is when I said, did you have the internet disconnected? It didn't deliver, and then I sent it again, and then she didn't respond, and then August 24th is when I sent... I got a restraining order against you. I'll be back tomorrow to get the rest of my stuff. You're a sick, sick person just. You need serious help, and I honestly pity you. I know everything, and I'm telling everyone what a pathetic excuse of a person you are. I'll be taking this as far as I can, and so will the real Brody and Reagan.

Fuck you, enjoy your karma, you fucking psychopath. And then I blocked her. And then I sent the text. I sent it to to every person that I ever knew through Jess. I sent it to Danny, Bree's roommate, Megan, my mom, because she wanted to read it. I sent it to Bree through Instagram. I didn't even have her number. Okay, here it is. Just wanted to let you know I'm pressing charges on Jess. She's been catfishing me for three years using this guy's photos, emotionally abusing me,

manipulating me, and using him to control my every move. She tried to get me to fly across the country to see him. tried to get me to send naked photos and would threaten to kill himself if I was out with other guys or girls. I found the real guy and he said Jess has done this before and I talked to the girl who used to be Jess's friend that she did it to.

Same exact shit. I'm worried about her son so please make sure he is safe and please look out for yourselves. I don't want her to do the same thing to you. I understand there are two sides to every story but I have all the proof. It didn't feel right not telling you what she did knowing I could have saved someone else

from this traumatic experience. Here's Danny. I was sitting on my couch in my rot spot, and Lauren texted me like a novella. So I click on it to open it, and it was basically a copy and pasted text message that she sent to a bunch of people. And I just knew it was not going to be good. I started reading it, and the beginning of it, this is paraphrase because it's just off the top of my head. It was like, hi, I just wanted to let you know that I'm pressing charges on Jess. She's been catfishing me for the past three years, sexually abusing me and manipulating me.

I'm sitting on my couch, mine fucked, and I screenshot it and sent it to my boyfriend, and I'm like, what do I do? Here's Danny's boyfriend, Caden. She had sent me screenshots of Lauren explaining, like, hey, so Jess is a fucking psychopath, and I'm moving out immediately. She's been catfishing me as my boyfriend, Brody, for this many years. yada yada yada and so she texted me that i'm like i had to stop what i was doing at work i was in the middle of something big i had an h-fax system ripped apart and i had to stop and sit down and i'm like

what the fuck because i had only known lauren is this girl who's trying to quote unquote ruin jess's life because lauren is evil and a hater and out to get jess and completely against jess in every way so now that lauren is like oh my god jess is this mean this crazy psychopath that's been catfishing her for two years I almost had to process it a little bit. Like, I was in shock. The first thing I felt like I should do was reach out to Lauren and be like, hey, I know you and I haven't really talked much, but that really sucks to hear. And I can't imagine how devastated you are.

If there's literally anything you need, if there's any way that we can help feel free to let us know, because I couldn't imagine how insanely crazy she might have felt, how hurt, how devastated she might have felt to find all that out. because that's a major thing. You're losing your roommate. You're losing your idea of your boyfriend that you thought you had for years that you deeply loved,

that you grieved and mourned over because he apparently was going to kill himself. Now you find out this is all a lie. I just couldn't imagine feeling that. She was appreciative of it. She was grateful, but Danny and I were like, I fucking knew it.

I knew there was something weird about her. I knew she was fucking crazy. I knew she was demented. It all makes so much fucking sense now. So we were just going back and reliving all the things we noticed about Jess. Like, why was there a privacy screen on your phone? Why were you always on your phone? Why did you not give a single shit about Lauren in any circumstance?

And so we were finally like piecing things together. And next thing you know, Danny gets back to me and she's like, you're not going to believe this. Next time, on something was wrong. He just kept gaslighting me and making me feel crazy. And then he was like, I don't even want anything to do with this anymore if you don't think I'm a real person. Like, this is insane, Bree, and just kept making me feel so crazy. She's just blowing up my phone as Lauren's texting me. Like, did Lauren text you? What did she say

repeatedly? I've never seen anyone cried this hard. Sobbing, snodding, crying, shaking, like, rocking back and forth, saying, if I go to jail, someone needs to take care of my kid. I called Bree back blowing their phones up. Like, please answer the fucking phone. Finally, Bree's roommate picks up and she's like, what's up? And I'm like, has Bree ever met Brody in real life? And it was like a deadpan silence. And then I just hear her like scream cry.

Oh my God, it was horrible. That's when it truly sat in that I'm dealing with a sociopath that I welcomed her into my home. She has this crazy twisted mindset. It blew my mind. She somehow manages to somehow have this web of knowledge for all of the people she's talking to and all of the stories that she has to keep straight. Thank you so much for listening.

Until next time, stay safe, friends. Something Was Wrong is a broken cycle media production created and hosted by me, Tiffany Reese. This season, our theme song, You Think You by Gladrags, is covered by Palehound. For music and tour dates, go to palehound.com. If you'd like to support the show further, you can share episodes with your loved ones,

leave a positive review, or follow Something Was Wrong on Instagram at Something Was Wrong podcast. As always, thank you so much for listening.