Something Was Wrong - S22 E5: Self-Made Woman

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Something Was Wrong early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you're listening to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and ways of thinking. There's more to imagine when you listen. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception and exclusive Audible originals, all in one easy app.

Starting point is 00:00:33 As an Audible member, I choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog. This month I selected Top 100 Cases in Criminal Law. This audiobook is awesome because it provides legal briefs from the top 100 cases that have formed the foundation of criminal law in the United States. Sign up for a free 30 day audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible dot C a to sign up. Redacted Declassified Mysteries is a new podcast hosted by me, Luke Lamanna. Each week I dive into the hidden truths behind the world's most powerful institutions. From covert government experiments to bizarre

Starting point is 00:01:12 assassination attempts, follow Redacted on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This podcast is intended for mature audiences and discusses topics that may be upsetting. For a full content warning, sources, and resources, please visit the episode notes. Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself, Broken Cycle Media, or Wondery. The podcast and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. Megan Stoner's responses to these allegations are addressed within this season. I'm Tiffany Reese, and this is Something Was Wrong. You think you know me, you don't know me well At all, at all, at all, at all Today is Saturday, November 9th, 2024.

Starting point is 00:02:46 I just returned home last night from Indiana. Last week I met with the Indiana State Police to present the evidence and testimony we've collected thus far this season. It all went really well. That's really all I can share for now. But I wanted to say thank you so much to the community members, both in Indiana and beyond, who have been instrumental in this effort helping to catalog, collect, and document her crimes and the harm caused over the past years and decades for some that they've been

Starting point is 00:03:18 following Megan Stoner's crimes. At the time of recording this, Megan Stoner is set to be released from the Hamilton County Jail this Friday, November 15th, 2024. And we haven't even gotten through all of the crimes and harm that Megan Stoner has perpetuated. Since the Season 22 trailer dropped, I have learned of many other victims of Stoner's all across the United States and Canada. Maybe elsewhere too, who knows what we'll discover by the end. I've spoken to many survivors and allies involved with this case both on and off the record.

Starting point is 00:03:52 I'm thankful to all of them. Not all feel comfortable being on the podcast, but still want to help with our investigation. But before we get into the next chapter of this story, how a group of citizens came together to help bring a second wave of justice for Megan Stoner's victims, I think now would be a really great time to recap what we know about Stoner's crimes leading up to the community stings of 2023. Here's what we know. Megan Elizabeth Stoner was born February 28, 1998, to Gail Ann Uptegraph and Dennis Lee Stoner.

Starting point is 00:04:26 The two never married, though they were together for a long time. Stoner's aunt's name is Linda Sue Uptegraph, and Stoner would later in 2017 steal over $20,000 from her aunt Linda on credit cards that she took out in her aunt's name without her consent. This matter went to civil court, and Megan and her aunt Linda didn't speak for several years. Because of this, I'm told. Megan has a half sister named Elena J. Stoner. She's approximately 48 years old. And since Megan Stoner is only 26 years old, I'm told that they grew up very separately for the most part. I'm also told they don't get along. We know that Stoner started getting

Starting point is 00:05:05 involved in politics or at least posting and doing interviews about her involvement in politics in Indiana around 2014. She did some interviews on some smaller YouTube shows like this one from Sam Whitfield on February 18th 2014. As I've gotten more involved in the last few years, I've gotten hate mail. I get hate mail mostly every day now. I get it through Twitter, I get it through Facebook, I get it on my own email. I've gotten it at my house even, and I've had a lot of even like vandalism done to my election signs in election years.

Starting point is 00:05:38 And I just learned that the names just bounce off you eventually. And I've never gotten death threats. Everything's been anonymous. Even the letters, I've got gotten death threats. Everything's been anonymous. Even the letters, I've got my own mailbox. They've been hand delivered. I can tell. And here's another interview she gave March 4th, 2014, on the Jeff and Alan show talking about her experience in politics. I think the biggest one is that debt cannot be a habit. You cannot constantly be in high debt. High debt ruins economic potential, private investment, and it jeopardizes the future generations. So

Starting point is 00:06:12 I think the biggest issue would be don't go in debt whether you're running the nation or you're just a business. I've been told that when Stoner was around 14 or 15, her parents hired a man named Dustin Beth, who was essentially a political consultant for her. They would meet and he would help and coach Megan in the political sphere on everything from outfits to interviews. Eventually, Stoner's parents stopped making payments to Dustin, and I'm told that Dustin Beth later learned that Stoner was being investigated because of the financial theft against her aunt Linda. Eventually he cut off contact from her,

Starting point is 00:06:53 and I believe she still owed him money at the end of that relationship. We're told that when Stoner was 15 to 16 years old, she and her parents were spoken to by police for falsely accusing two of her church pastors. She had texted a member of their congregation saying that the pastors had texted Stoner and invited her to come over to their house and watch him and his wife engage in sexual activity. The pastors immediately went to police and according to one of the pastors who gave an

Starting point is 00:07:23 interview on a Facebook live show called Forensic Foreplay, Pastor Michael Anderson stated that the officer that interviewed Stoner said that she displayed behavior of a sociopath as she showed a lack of remorse and empathy. The chief of police called her parents immediately and said, listen, you need to come down to the police station with Megan and we need to address an issue. Megan denied it. She said, no, I never said that none of those things ever happened. I never even I never said that. And we said, here's the proof that you said it. It's right here. You said this. And at that point, she's still she's still denied it that she had ever said it. And I even said, you could really

Starting point is 00:08:07 hurt someone's reputation, their intellectual. This could be something terrible for someone. You have to be very careful what you say. I don't know what kind of fantasy world you live in, but you cannot say things like this. She tried to convince her longtime friend Faith Burnside, whom we heard from in episode two, that she was a victim involved in an Indiana-based sex trafficking ring, similar to the Pizzagate conspiracy. Stoner claimed that attorney generals,

Starting point is 00:08:38 senators, and the governor of Indiana were all sexually assaulting her daily. Stoner told Faith that she gave some of these men her phone number and they began texting Megan violent and sexually explicit messages that she showed to Faith Burnside. Faith Burnside then herself began getting texts from these quote politicians, ranging from Donald Trump to Mike Pence to Brian Bosma.

Starting point is 00:09:04 We're told that Stoner was a mentee of a local House representative, Kurt Neisley. He took her under his wing when she was in high school, trying to encourage her as she was a young person interested in politics, and sometimes that can feel like a rare thing. Within a few months of meeting with Neisley, Stoner allegedly began telling him

Starting point is 00:09:24 about sexual assault allegations against then Indiana House Speaker, Brian Bosma. Over the years, Megan Stoner made many claims about her political resume, though many now assume that these were false claims. And on the confession call that we heard on episode 4 with Chloe and Stoner, Stoner admits that she never had a paid position for any politician or political group and was only confession call that we heard on episode 4 with Chloe and Stoner, Stoner admits that she never had a paid position for any politician or political group and was only a volunteer. And quite frankly she was fired quickly after volunteering because she was forging the data.

Starting point is 00:09:58 We heard from women who were in the Facebook group called the Spice Girls how Stoner allegedly posted tragic personal information for attention in the Facebook group, which ultimately led to her being removed. Stoner posted stories such as fake stalking stories perpetuated by medical professionals, local politicians, pastors, political figures, deaths of loved ones or loved ones being shot, sometimes from suicide, sexual assault, claiming to be run off the road by members of EyeTown Church, claiming that members of EyeTown are sending her sex toys and harassing her, claiming that journalists from the Indy Star were harassing her, claiming that doctors and

Starting point is 00:10:46 therapists had sexually assaulted her and were stalking her, that she was tied up by another one of Brian Bosma's victims and held at gunpoint with Brian Bosma. And that allegedly took place in in 2018. Many have alleged that Megan Stoner had a fake boyfriend named Jake. A local politico named Mike Neal, who was also part of the Megan Stoner scam awareness Facebook group, tweeted, I can add to the Megan Stoner boyfriend story. On Thursday, November 9th, 2017, I was staffing an event for then Vice President Mike Pence at TKO Graphics in Plainfield, Indiana. I was outside speaking to a few friends who were in line to go through security and get in. Megan had somehow gotten a ticket to the event. Pence would be joining the governor and other officials for a roundtable on business tax cuts. Because the parking lot was so close to the building, the US Secret Service was searching

Starting point is 00:11:48 every car that was parked. Megan Parks gets in line and shouts to me loudly, Hey Mike, my boyfriend is on his way and he has a gun in his car. Can he still get in here? My jaw dropped. I assumed the Secret Service was about to take her down like a calf at a rodeo, but lucky for her, they didn't hear. I told her, don't say anything like that around here ever again. I should have told Service she said that, but I didn't. Of course, the boyfriend never

Starting point is 00:12:17 materialized at the event." I'm told by a woman who met Stoner through the Spice Girls Facebook group that had texted quite a bit with Stoner that she had been told by Stoner that Brian Bosma wanted Megan to sign an NDA for his alleged sexual assault. The woman reviewed the NDA and felt it had been fabricated. She then searched some of the text from the alleged NDA and found that it came from a Google resource website. On October 26, 2018, there was a judgment in civil court. According to my case, it was ruled that Stoner owed her Aunt Linda $25,152.94. And as of today, she still owes $20,592.94.

Starting point is 00:13:09 On December 11, 2020, according to a Fishers Police incident report, a local chiropractor called Fishers PD about his client, who was Megan Stoner, impersonating political figures over text. He alleged that these figures included Eric Holcomb, Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Steve Munchen, Rudy Giuliani, Chad Wolf, Mark Meadows, and even a Secret Service agent. Stoner went on to later file a HIPAA complaint against the chiropractor for reporting to the police about his concerns with Stoner and her claims that she knew all these politicians and that they had been texting

Starting point is 00:13:52 him. That chiropractor ended up winning and it was proven that Stoner's claim against him was not valid. Please note, at the time of this episode's airing, I have been unable to reach Brian Bosma, Eric Holcomb, or Mike Pence for comment. February 15, 2021, Stoner's then roommate, Abby Espy, called Fisher's Police Department regarding Stoner allegedly biting her on the hand, causing her to bleed. Abby Espy has not responded to our request for comment. It's alleged that in March of 2021, Stoner defrauded the Small Business Administration

Starting point is 00:14:33 by obtaining a PPP loan while the program was in effect. In the Fisher's Police reports from 2021, Stoner also called the Fisher's PD several times saying that she smelled marijuana from her neighbors and that it was making her physically ill. During August of 2021, there were several Fisher's Police Department incident reports between Megan Stoner's then roommate, Abby Espy, and Stoner making different allegations about physical disturbances or leaving the property,

Starting point is 00:15:06 taking things that belong to the other person. It looks like their relationship got very volatile towards the end. It's alleged that in 2021, after Abby had moved out and was subleasing her portion of the apartment, Stoner then began doing things that were not in alignment with their lease, such as renting out Abby's room as an Airbnb or the rental scam. September of 2021, the Fisher's police were investigating Stoner for trying to sublease a unit in the district of Saxony apartment complex. A woman told police that she paid Stoner $1,700 but never received a key to the apartment. The woman was paid back a month later. Due to Stoner's alleged rental scheme which she perpetuated to multiple victims in 2021, one of the victims was scammed

Starting point is 00:16:01 out of $1,800 which led to her homelessness. I'm told that the last time Abby and Megan Stoner were in the same room and saw each other was during a civil court case between the two of them. We've heard from Sandy Rusk that from December 2021 to April 2022, Stoner was making a lot of claims about EyeTown Church. Stoner told Sandy many lies about her life and her relationship with EyeTown. The most impactful and painful lie that she told Sandy was that her daughter was in trouble, and when Sandy figured this out, she cut off contact with Megan after many months of assuming that Megan was lying. Hi, this is Anne and I worked at EyeTown Church during the years that Megan Stoner was involved. I worked at

Starting point is 00:16:52 EyeTown for I think six or seven years. So I think she started attending in around a pandemic time or at least that's when we all kind of caught wind of who she was. She tried to get pretty involved. She joined a lot of small groups before the podcast and before she got all mad about things. One thing that put her on my radar, I was working in the missions department and it was a little before Christmas. We partner with DCS and do this thing where people in the church can buy Christmas presents for kids. And then the parents come pick up the gifts so they have gifts to give their kids on Christmas. It's a massive church. So we had like 700 families that we were buying gifts for. So I was orchestrating all the details of that and like people from

Starting point is 00:17:33 the church signing up to give gifts to the children. And we assumed that there'd be some people that would sign up for a child and then forget that they did or not bring in their presents in time. We knew we'd have to go out and buy a couple of presents last minute that didn't get turned in. But there was a really large amount of kids who in the organizational system, all their names were next to each other and it was like 12 or something. But it was a pretty big amount of kids all next to each other on the signup sheet that didn't get turned back in. And we looked and we were like, Megan Stoner signed up to buy gifts for like all these kids.

Starting point is 00:18:05 And most families signed up for like one or two children. And then we realized she came into the office and dropped off the bag from old Navy with like six clearance t-shirts. And I was like, hey, I signed up for a bunch of kids, but like, this is all I could afford, so here you go. We were just like, this is so weird because what's the point of signing up

Starting point is 00:18:24 to get Christmas presents for children and then not following through? By that point, she had kind of had a reputation on the staff for just being a little off. So we were like, OK, another weird Megan Stoner thing. We'll just go out and buy these kids Christmas presents with the church credit card. with the church credit card. In December of 2021, three of Stoner's rental scam victims contacted the Fisher's Police Department and told police that they were victims of fraud involving a rental home that was advertised on Facebook. Each person had signed an individual lease and paid at least $600 to secure the home after Stoner gave them a tour of it. From December 12th, 2021 to March 28th, 2022, Stoner and her co-host, Isaiah,

Starting point is 00:19:11 created the Sinking Ark podcast, which was about the alleged scandals of Ark churches, specifically the Eye Town Church, which has several campuses around Indianapolis. We're told that Stoner mainly attended the campus in Fishers, Indiana. On her podcast, Stoner shared hers and other people's experiences with EyeTown Church and with ARC. On January 7, 2022, Stoner called Fishers PD about a disturbance stating that a person

Starting point is 00:19:40 was beating on her car window and told her that she caused a seven car pile-up due to her dangerous driving. I've been told by many who drove with Megan in the car or have heard about her driving that she is a quote scary driver and many have suggested that she has no place driving at all. You will see on her record several speeding tickets and obviously the OWI that we've spoken about previously on the season. In fact, she was charged with speeding infractions on January 16th, February 10th, and February 12th of 2022 alone. And then on February 28th, 2022, Stoner was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle while in 1922, Stoner was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. As we heard in episode 3, according to investigative reporter Julie Royse, on March 3, 2022, Pastor Jeff Thompson contacted her to inform her that Megan Stoner said there was a murder-for-hire

Starting point is 00:20:38 plot against the three of them. It was later determined by Pastor Jeff Thompson that Megan was lying, and he contacted Julie Royce to let her know that the Murder for Hire plot was in fact a hoax created by Megan Stoner. Pastor Jeff Thompson made a statement to his congregation regarding Stoner's credibility. In the statement, he shared that he communicated with Stoner for a few weeks after meeting her on the All About Cough subreddit. Quickly, the communicated with Stoner for a few weeks after meeting her on the All About Cough subreddit. Quickly, the conversations with Stoner seemed bizarre, including her attempt to impersonate pastors from ARC and the Governor of Indiana, Eric Holcomb, through fake phone numbers and fabricated screenshots. In March of 2022, during Stoner's controversy with EyeTown and her father's alleged approaching

Starting point is 00:21:27 death online, Stoner claimed that a member of EyeTown Church shot her mom, Gail. It has later been confirmed that her mom had not been shot and that Stoner made up the whole story, which she admitted in a recording with Chloe, which we heard in episode 4, that was made up for attention. We're told by several sources that Stoner lied about her parents being dead before they actually were. Her dad did die on April 3, 2022, and after his death, it's alleged that Stoner had used her dad's likeness to drive for Lyft. On April 4, 2022, Stoner is charged with disregarding a stop sign. On April 14th, 2022, Stoner was charged with improper headlights and a speeding infraction. On July 1st, 2022, according to a Fishers Police Department incident report,

Starting point is 00:22:18 Stoner called the Fishers PD about a road rage incident between her and a quote, white male in a silver pickup. Stoner alleged that she honked her car horn at the man who got out of his truck, walked towards her car, grabbed her phone and dropped it on the ground. Stoner allegedly recorded this exchange on her phone. Summer of 2022, Stoner was allegedly a teacher at a school for only a few days. However, many reported that she posted an Amazon wish list with around 200 items to social media and sent through DMs and wrote a substack article urging people to donate. When I asked Megan about why she

Starting point is 00:22:57 only worked at the school for two days, she told me that she had been bullied by the students, that one of the students had made a TikTok about her and that she decided not to go back. However, I have not been able to confirm this information. Something that really stands out to me when I look at the bird's eye view of Megan's behavior is that she really impacted her community in many ways. If you pull up her name on the mycaseindiana.gov website, there's many small civil cases against Megan for hiring people to do work and then not paying them, or writing people bad checks, many different ways that she impacted her local community. We will hear from some of

Starting point is 00:23:38 those members of the community who were scammed by Megan or taken advantage of or promised funds for work that they were never paid. And many of those victims that had experienced Megan heard about the Megan Stoner Scams Awareness Group and started sharing their stories online. So then people really started to get a better idea of how much of a parasite Megan had been to their community. And I think it really fueled the fire between the community members and made people want to follow her and make sure that justice could be found, not only for the people in the group, but for what's suspected to be many others that we don't even know about yet. Did you know that after World War II, the US government quietly brought former Nazi scientists

Starting point is 00:24:29 to America in a covert operation to advance military technology? Or that in the 1950s, the US Army conducted a secret experiment by releasing bacteria over San Francisco to test how a biological attack might spread without alerting the public? These might sound like conspiracy theories, but they're not. They're well-documented government operations that have been hidden away in classified files for decades. I'm Luke Lamanna, a Marine Corps recon vent, and I've always had a thing for digging into the unknown.

Starting point is 00:24:58 It's what led me to start my new podcast, Redacted Declassified Mysteries. In it, I explore hidden truths and reveal some eye-opening events, like covert experiments In a quiet suburb, a community is shattered by the death of a beloved wife and mother. But this tragic loss of life quickly turns into something even darker. Her husband had tried to hire a hitman on the dark web to kill her. And she wasn't the only target. Because buried in the depths of the internet is The Kill List, a cache of chilling documents containing names, photos, addresses and specific instructions for people's murders. This podcast is the true story of how I ended

Starting point is 00:25:56 up in a race against time to warn those who lives were in danger. And it turns out convincing a total stranger someone wants them dead is not easy. Follow Kill List on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Kill List and more Exhibit C True Crime shows like Morbid early and add free right now by joining Wondry Plus. Check out Exhibit C in the Wondry app for all your True Crime listening. Someone that you're going to hear from, his name is Edward Ma. In 2022, he was a victim of Stoner's.

Starting point is 00:26:39 He first met Stoner through the Twitter mental health space and the two became friends. And he even had come to Indiana and hung out with her before, although he noted her very poor driving skills when they rode in the car together. We just started talking and then Michigan, I know we were talking on the phone and then she said all this stuff about her being like a political consultant and all this like big meeting that she goes to. And I didn't think too much of it. I'm like, okay, yeah, okay, that's really cool. Whatever.

Starting point is 00:27:02 He had expressed to Megan through their friendship. He was unhappy with his living situation and Stoner allegedly put him in contact with Governor of Indiana, Eric Holcomb. And Edward began texting back and forth with whom he was told was Governor Eric Holcomb, who had reached out to Edward saying that because Edward was a friend of Megan's, essentially like, I'm happy to help you. When I was struggling to like find a place to live for my own that's when she really dug in, should I speak, to really try to get more money out of me, promising that Eric would give me a place to live. I was struggling because I had to move back to my parents, which is to me one of the worst things ever. She's like, oh Eric will help you with this,

Starting point is 00:27:44 but he wants you to have some skin in the game if he's going to get you a place things ever. He's like, oh, Eric will help you with this, but he wants you to have some skin in the game. If he wants to get you a place to live. I'm like, oh, okay, I'm in debt. That makes sense to me. But then eventually he comes to the point where he keeps asking for money. And then she'll pretend to be one of his lawyers to be like, oh, we're going to try your legal action.

Starting point is 00:27:59 And I'm like, well, technically we don't have any written agreement, so you can't really do shit. I'm like, well, tell me we don't have any written agreement so you can't really do shit. I'm like, well, I'm not doing this anymore. Stoner pretended to be many political figures while talking with Edward, and she also had a neighbor contact him. Edward eventually paid Stoner about $5,000 for a place to live. There was a lot of manipulation on her part to make her sound like she's this high-level political consultant.

Starting point is 00:28:26 Because she would pretend to be Eric Holcomb and then later on she would pretend to be Mike Pence. Also Donald Trump for a little bit. Donald Trump Jr. for a little bit. And also I think Mike Pence, Brother Greg Pence for a little bit too. And it's like, okay, I know all these people, they're my friends. I'm going to have a dinner with Mike Pence tonight. When I told Quang Kho Aereus I'm not going to, they're my friends. I'm going to have dinner with my parents tonight. When I told Uncle Eric I'm not going to give him any more money, she pretend to be his lawyer to friend in legal action.

Starting point is 00:28:52 That was the line where I'm like, okay, I'm done now. I'm not going to deal with this person anymore. One of my really good friends on Twitter, she mentioned that I should talk to local law enforcement. I'm like, I could, but this is going to be international. It's important to note that part of the reason that Edward was more hesitant about going to police regarding the $5,000 that Megan Stoner had taken from him is because he was located in Canada at the time.

Starting point is 00:29:21 It's going to be a mess. I don't have money to pay for a lawyer. Even if I go for court, I'm not gonna get my money back. I can either just be like, you know, let's learn I lost five grand. It sucks. I'll be more frugal and save my money back again. And the only thing I can do is talk about it. So I started talking on Twitter about it. I want to tell everybody what you did because at this point I feel like if I could help there would be no more less victims, the better so that people know that oh no like we cannot

Starting point is 00:29:52 deal with Megan Stone. I feel like with all that that's been out there about Megan, they're probably gonna find out a lot more about her character and how she manipulate people just to get whatever she wants. And there's a good chance that when she's out of jail in 29 days, she's going to get her way back to it. I mean, like four or five months ago, when she got out in the community corrections, she started bagging onto it like right away.

Starting point is 00:30:16 And then somebody reported her and then she went way back to jail. She can't be trusted. She just keep doing what she does. On December 7th, 2022, Stoner was charged with a civil collections case from Bulldogs Moving Company LLC. I spoke with Seth of Bulldogs Moving Company about his experience. I co-own it with a buddy of mine. We're the two owners and pretty much just manage everything from there. We started back in 2021. So it was pretty early into us actually having the business that Megan

Starting point is 00:30:53 reached out to use us. It was weird. It was on a property, but it was like a side house. So it wasn't the main house on the property, but it was kind of like a guest house. And it had like a little detached garage. I think she had mentioned something about potentially owning both of those at the time, but we later found out that she was just renting the house and then she moved into like a tri-level condo type of place, which she also said that she owned it and later found out that she didn't own it. I believe she was just renting both of them out. The move itself, it was fine.

Starting point is 00:31:30 She had reached out the same week and then she wanted to move on Saturday. We already had two jobs booked for that Saturday, but we had two separate crews knocking those out. And then we all met up at Megan's house in the afternoon. We had like two trucks and six guys and she ended up wanting packing, moving and unpacking. So we ended up bringing a bunch of boxes and stuff to get her house packed up and upon meeting her at the beginning of that to do a kind of a quick walk through and there's nothing like crazy about it. All of her stuff was

Starting point is 00:32:03 pretty nice. It wasn't super expensive, but it definitely wasn't used or cheap or anything. I guess some decently nice stuff. And she had pictures of her in politics and pictures of her with the state capitol building and a bunch of signs up around her desk that said like self-made woman and stuff like that. So we thought that she was pretty legit. She left after like going through the walkthrough and she just stayed at Starbucks the whole time.

Starting point is 00:32:28 So we packed up her whole house. And then once we got everything loaded, they started to get into the evening time. So we drove over to the unload and she was there for the whole unload with us, obviously to tell us like where she wanted things. Once we got there, she was moving into a tri-level, which is a movers nightmare,

Starting point is 00:32:46 because it is three full stories of the house. So all of her bedroom stuff, the guest bedroom, and her office room all went up to the third floor. And I was kind of the person that was walking her through the whole unload, trying to help her figure out where she wanted stuff set up. And she had her main bedroom, a guest bedroom and office, you know, a bunch of different rooms of stuff.

Starting point is 00:33:09 It wasn't something that you would typically find someone that young to have that much house space and that much furniture, because we didn't realize how younger she was. We thought she was a little older than us. But when we found out that she was a little younger than us, we were like, how does she have all this stuff? And then we saw like all the pictures on the wall of her in politics and we're like, oh man, she must be like a big deal. And then saw her social media following and they're like, man,

Starting point is 00:33:35 she is kind of a big deal. When we got done loading at her house, she came to do a final walk through at the old house. And then she was like, oh yeah, can you guys get my Tesla tires out of the garage? I guess she didn't have her Tesla at the time, but we were like, oh shoot, like she has a Tesla. So we loaded up her tires at the end of the truck and we were like, man, she is legit because she's even got a Tesla.

Starting point is 00:33:56 I mean, I don't know anybody younger than us that had a Tesla. She was constantly like in and out on the phone throughout the time with her mom, talking to her mom and stuff. I think she was just kind of tired at that point in the day, but she was fairly pleasant. The crew had a lot of fun. Some of those longer days when you keep the energy high in the crew, it just kind of keeps the morale going and everybody is super hyped up. We created a lot of good memories on that move.

Starting point is 00:34:23 She handed us the check and we ended up leaving on good terms. And that was the whole moving process with her. Gotcha. So do you recall about the bad check, if it was just bounced, like the account had insufficient funds, or if it was a check from a closed account? Yes, it was a check from a closed account? Yes, it was a check from a closed account. And when I called her about it,

Starting point is 00:34:49 she had said the bank had just recently closed her account because she had insufficient funds and she was trying to get the money put into the account to be able to pay us, but they had closed her account. And so I was like, it's okay if you pay us from like another account. And we even offered her to like pay with card. And we usually have like a processing fee if we're taking cards, but we said we'd eat the processing fee and we'd just be able to use a card. And

Starting point is 00:35:14 she just kind of ghosted us from there. So we ended up having to get our lawyers involved to be able to try to get the money and she wasn't cooperating with the lawyers as much. So they ended up having to go through the court system and whatnot to try to get it figured out that way. So it looks like you guys moved her on or around November 19th of 2022 according to this paperwork. He owed y'all five grand. Is that sound about right?

Starting point is 00:35:43 Yeah. So that was the number that we had agreed with her to be able to fit her in last minute. That was pretty much actually kind of a lowered amount for how much we did with the packing, the moving and the unpacking for two full trucks was kind of a good deal for her at the end too. How much of the court process were you a part of? We weren't really a part of it.

Starting point is 00:36:05 Myself or my business partner, like, we just kind of let our lawyers handle all that stuff. So they would keep us updated, but we never ended up going to court or actually having to attend anything. I think she even missed actually going to court when she was supposed to, which I think is a reason why the judge ruled in our favor, because she just never even showed up. But my case record says the times that she failed to show up. I know that our lawyers ended up going and they said that we could try to garnish things from her, but she didn't really have anything to garnish to her name. So it was kind of worthless to continue trying to, you know, get the money from her.

Starting point is 00:36:47 She like rescheduled things a bunch. It looks like it didn't end up getting settled until May 23rd of 2023. And we're talking about $5,000. I mean, most attorneys cost at least 300 an hour. We used our attorneys to like write up our liability waivers, but we have all of our customer sign and it's in there too, that when when they pay up they have to pay for like the attorney fees As well, I think that's how the judge ruled But I'm pretty positive that she would owe us the money she owes us plus like attorney fees and stuff like that as well Did you guys end up getting paid back anything to your knowledge?

Starting point is 00:37:22 No, we only require $50 deposit on the front end that she paid before the move so that's the only money that actually cleared. Since then I don't think she's made any attempts to pay us. A few months later we started getting on the Facebook group and we were just shocked by all these people coming out with stuff that you know they've been scanned by Megan and then we ended up seeing that someone posted on the Facebook page like a picture of a moving truck at her place that she was moving again and so I was sitting there I was like I can't let this happen again so I called the other moving company that was moving her that

Starting point is 00:37:57 day he had already taken one truck worth of stuff to a storage unit they had moved like a full truck into her storage unit. And I told him, I was like, Hey ma'am, she used us a few months ago and she never paid us and he was like, Oh man, all right, I'll figure out what to do. And I think that's when he decided to like put the second truck worth of stuff into his own storage unit. We followed her on Facebook and we were just shocked to like all the other stuff that she did and realized we could have been way worse off Well, she could have done even more damage to us

Starting point is 00:38:28 especially with like all the following she had if she made a bad post about us with all the people that were buying into her stuff and Luckily, you know The only thing that we were out was the money which at the end of the day wasn't not the biggest deal to us Like we're not gonna spend time wasted over it. But I mean, we ended up seeing all the other people that have been devastated mentally and emotionally because of her. I think it's like a dopamine hit for her every time she lies about something or every time she is successful. It's just another shot of dopamine that makes her crave doing it again and again and again. It's like at some point she's going to get caught,

Starting point is 00:39:06 which obviously she did for some of the things that she's done. I had talked to her a lot during the unload. I talked to her a lot about Itown Church. I talked to her a lot about Christianity in general. It's just like, that's another thing about this girl. It's like she's a good, solid Christian girl. Just to figure out that all the damage that she's done, she's talking about being a Christian, but she's doing, like, the exact opposite of what Jesus did.

Starting point is 00:39:30 She's hurting people, and she's playing it off like she's a sweetheart. She is actually, like, really sweet to us most of the process, but I wish that she would do this work for good. Like, imagine, like, how good she is at scamming people and she's actually really talented at what she's doing because she's done it to a ton of people without insane repercussions. If she could take all that talent and put it towards actually helping people, how much people would actually love her and like enjoy her and give her a platform that's worth standing on instead of her having this platform of being someone who abuses and takes advantage

Starting point is 00:40:06 of people. It's unfortunate. I was told by a man who spoke with Stoner over Facebook in April of 2023, who produced screenshots of their conversations, that Stoner was also pretending to be a car sales representative. She had four to five phone calls with the man and his wife and had been urging them to send Stoner $2,000. Communication stopped when Stoner was arrested at the end of April. And then on April 25th, 2023, Stoner is charged with nine felony charges, corrupt business influence, fraud, theft, fraud, theft, fraud, theft, fraud, theft. On April 26, 2023, there was an order issuing a warrant for Stoner's arrest. And on April 28,

Starting point is 00:40:57 2023, Stoner turned herself in and then posted bail quickly and was released from Hamilton County Sheriff's custody. On May 1st, 2023, Stoner attended her hearing virtually and agreed to hire counsel. Something we haven't talked about yet on the podcast is that at some point, Stoner began posting on social media about yoni massages. Now, for those that are not familiar, Yoni massages. Now for those that are not familiar, let's break this down. Now a Yoni massage by definition is a erotic or sensual massage and is a tantric practice that aims to create an intimate connection with one's body. A Yoni massage primarily focuses on massaging the labia, clitoris, G-spot, breast, and anus and other erogenous zones, which is illegal in every state but Nevada. And Megan started posting about getting these Yoni massages from this guy named Haribo.

Starting point is 00:41:56 His real name is Harry Friedman. He lives in New Jersey. He's a younger guy, which was not what I was expecting. I don't know why I was expecting him to be like a 70 year old hippie from Berkeley Hills, but he was not. I don't know how Stoner and him got in contact, but Stoner basically began paying Haribo for these vagina massages.

Starting point is 00:42:16 And it's alleged that he not only would cross state lines from New Jersey to come to Indiana to give her these, but that she would also travel there. She sometimes referred to him as her coach, etc. Later we would find out that the money she was using allegedly is over $17,000 that she paid this guy for her happy endings. A lot of it came from her theft victims, some of them who believed they were Stoner's friend and had known her for years and Stoner went on to con, manipulate, lie, and get that money from people whom trusted her and believed they were helping

Starting point is 00:42:50 a friend, which we're going to hear about later from Tom and people like Edward. So basically through 21, 22, 23, Stoner was stealing and scamming as much money as she could get out of people to pay for her Yonis and her Teslas. She also had over the years started posting about herself as if she had some grandiose importance talking about things like how flying private has ruined her. She definitely was trying to give people the impression of importance. And I think for some people who were either out of state or

Starting point is 00:43:25 less aware of what was going on in Megan's life at this time, they were seeing these pictures with this young girl who says she works in politics, she says she's connected to all of these local politicians, she has pictures with a lot of these people, and she did some of these interviews, etc. And so I think it especially digitally made Megan look like she was more important than she actually was. That was part of her grift. The Teslas were also part of her grift, I believe.

Starting point is 00:43:52 Many people even noted it. She was driving a Tesla and Megan often talked about how online, how it made her feel good and it made her feel important to drive it. It's never okay to steal, but to be stealing for Tesla's and happy endings is ridiculous. It is so atrocious, especially when people were losing housing, not being able to buy their kids gifts during the holiday season, not to mention the psychological stress of just dealing with Stoner throughout these things many people reported. And if you review a lot of the

Starting point is 00:44:24 text messages between Stoner and her victims And if you review a lot of the text messages between Stoner and her victims, you'll see a pattern of skilled manipulation and a complete lack of boundaries. What appears to be complete unawareness of other people's feelings or considering of other people's feelings, she'll take her lies to the most unimaginable places to be emotionally manipulative to get what she wants, going as far as making up children and deaths of children just to manipulate people and further her grift. [♪ MUSIC PLAYING FADES INTO FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES OUT, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, FADES out, F Megan Stoner as an advocate for people with disabilities. I invited her as a guest speaker to my organization at Indiana University Bloomington. Megan was extremely charismatic.

Starting point is 00:45:15 There's no doubt about it. And she was very open about her struggles with mental health and also her experiences with sexual assault. And that's a subject we had not touched on in our organization before. So I thought by inviting her into the fold, she could touch on a subject that while very controversial and very triggering for a lot of people, her contribution could create yet another discussion on campus about how such a violent act affects those with disabilities. And we had negotiated the possibility of her speaking at a meeting. A few weeks later, she said she was too busy

Starting point is 00:46:08 and that she was in Indianapolis and couldn't come down to Bloomington. That was unfortunate because I thought, here's somebody who works in the Indiana State House who's very passionate about mental health, who's very passionate about the people who are forgotten in Indiana and throughout the United States. So I'll admit I was disappointed, but we didn't end that conversation on ill terms. In fact,

Starting point is 00:46:34 we grew a lot closer when I moved to Indianapolis to partake in Teach for America. You know, we went to hockey games together, we would grab meals together. We were purely platonic, by the way. I had a girlfriend at this time, so we were just very good friends. And I told my girlfriend about Megan quite a bit. She was cool with it. She didn't really know Megan. She never met Megan. But she was happy that I had a friend in Indy who I could hang out with. At a time where everybody was social distancing,

Starting point is 00:47:08 where joy was so hard to come by, where we couldn't just enjoy those little moments of togetherness with friends and family, I'm talking about the COVID-19 pandemic, Megan was there for me, and I thought I was there for her. That's what friends do, particularly during difficult situations in the world around them. So that's how we got together and grew close as friends.

Starting point is 00:47:39 Then I moved back to Bloomington a year later. So introduced in December 2019, a speaking slot at my disability advocacy group fell through in January of 2020. I moved to Indianapolis for Teach for America in August, and we went to hockey games throughout that year up until the last day I taught in June of 2021. And then I moved back to Bloomington in August of 2021. And we basically drifted apart for a bit of time. Teach for America is an initiative where college graduates are trained in a two-week seminar known as Institute and are then placed in classrooms. They can be in charter schools, they can be in private schools, they can be in public schools.

Starting point is 00:48:33 You teach for two years, so you're on a two-year contract with the school you choose. In Indiana, where I taught, you had to either accept the first offer that a school offered you or if you decline that offer, you would take the second and stick with it. For me, I took the first one because I wasn't sure what the second option was going to be. It was an interesting year. You're not always prepared for new situations. Nothing is set in stone. And particularly during a worldwide health crisis, it can be very difficult to teach

Starting point is 00:49:12 students and I did the best I could at that time, but it was not easy. And I take accountability for the fact that I struggled and that my students struggled, but I am secure in the fact that it was a learning experience and it made me a stronger person because of it. And having Megan there as a confidant helped. This was before she said she was a teacher. This was when I believe she was still working at the Indiana State House or claimed that she was working at the Indiana State House.

Starting point is 00:49:48 I left after one year just because teaching during COVID really burnt me out and I wanted to go back to town where I had participated in a lot of activities. I had participated in a lot of activities. I hope I'd made a difference for the disability community and wanted to pursue an opportunity in communications. And luckily, I was able to find that with WFHB Community Radio. When you've lived as long as I have, you begin to see friends and acquaintances as mirrors of your values. So for me, those values are open and honest communication, trust and honesty, and most importantly, commitment. Commitment to promises and commitment to friendship and closeness. So of course, seeing Megan as an employee of the Indiana State House and as a leader in her community, I didn't have any reason up to 2023 to think that she had any ill intent at all. So that made the revelation that she wasn't who she said she was, particularly painful for me,

Starting point is 00:51:02 and I'm sure for the community as a whole because there were probably several people who believed in her. I mean, she ran for county commissioner, I believe, a few years before we met. She didn't get many votes, but she got quite a few. So that shows that people did trust her. I trusted her. People just aren't always as they appear. But I think the biggest lesson I learned from this is that you need to vet people very carefully. And you need to be aware of what you're going into, whether it be a friendship, whether it be a job, whether it be a decision of great importance, it's important to thoroughly

Starting point is 00:51:47 vet your actions. And with Megan, that was not easy, but lesson learned. She would message me from time to time, text soliciting money for teaching or for walking in a suicide prevention walk. As somebody who has gotten these texts before, as I'm sure many people have, I took it with a grain of salt. I did not give, I did say in one of the texts, and this was I believe December of 2022, maybe October, that yes, I will donate to your suicide prevention campaign. Ultimately, that didn't come to pass because the link did not work. And she gave up on that pretty quickly. And then in January 2023, I'm talking about, she asked for money again. I was at home here in California for New Year's Eve and I get this text from Megan that she's struggling financially

Starting point is 00:52:51 And that she is moving because of her dad. She was struggling financially and she had moved to Pendleton, Indiana. I declined to help at that point because I I declined to help at that point because I don't tend to loan money out to people just because that's not really something I do anymore because I was taking advantage of a lot as a kid when it came to money. Megan said, oh, okay, that's fine. And she apologized for it and even emphasized, no, I'm not using you for money. And I said, Oh, don't worry about it. No need to apologize. You're one of my close friends. And she said that some friends had taken offense to her even asking.

Starting point is 00:53:33 And I said, well, I'm not offended. In fact, I'm honored that you would come to me and communicate with me about this because we're friends. So that was probably the last message I received from her that was authentically Megan. The last one though, and this had to do with her teaching at a quote-unquote alternative high school here in Indiana, she asked that people donate to her Amazon wish list and after I saw what was on the list, I was not convinced that she was teaching.

Starting point is 00:54:09 So I did not donate to that either. She had a pair of shoes on the list and I thought, oh, you know, in case a student doesn't have shoes. But then there were explicit books, inappropriate books. And bearing in mind that this was an alternative high school, I just assumed by the word alternative that it could be a school that didn't permit this type of material. Now, that's not to dump on the type of material that she had in her list, but I just didn't think as a former middle school teacher that it was appropriate reading material.

Starting point is 00:54:45 So it was very suspicious. After July 31st, 2022, when she sent that text that seemed as though it came from artificial intelligence relating to her Amazon wishlist for teaching, I did not follow up with her. We drifted apart. We just didn't really communicate after that, as far as I remember. Up until May 6th of 2023, we hadn't talked. I hadn't looked her up on Twitter. I hadn't followed her on Facebook. Obviously, we were friends on Facebook at that time. But I really didn't pay her any attention. I was busy with my own stuff at the time, and my grandpa had just passed away.

Starting point is 00:55:46 There wasn't time to even think about what Megan was doing at the time. May the 6th, I got a number of random texts throughout the day saying, I'm in a crisis, I need help. It's not mental health. I said, oh, what's up? She says, oh, I'm at a low point in my life. I need money for bail. Yeah, I wish I'm at a low point in my life. I need money for bail. Yeah, I wish

Starting point is 00:56:05 I was lying. So me being very surprised considering this is a former government employee and now whom I presume to be a teacher, I say, okay, explain what is going on. She says, their charges from three years ago, 2021, I have a friend that can pay you back. They're an elected official and just don't want their name traced back to the bond. So, if I have the money, I'll pay the bondsman and my mom is co-signing the bond. I don't answer her throughout the rest of the day. And around one o'clock the next day, this is May the 7th, she says, can you please help me, I can't sit in jail. So she's ramping it up, she's very panicked.

Starting point is 00:56:48 And then on May 8th, she says, I can pay you on Friday. I said, hmm, just not normally one to loan out cash, how much are we talking about? She says $500. And then she said she was happy to meet in person. As it turns out, she then explains that the charges were from a moving company, that she couldn't pay them. And I said, well, I can't really help you right now.

Starting point is 00:57:13 I'm working out. And then she said her all too famous phrase, which would become rather infamous in the months to follow, I hear you. That phrase irritated me so many times because I knew she didn't hear me several times and she didn't hear the people she impacted. She said, I need to turn myself in, I really need help, I don't want to sit in jail, I won't have access to my phone, I can pay back Friday. So she's pleading at this point. And I said, hmm, I might, let me know who it is. Of course, I'd be willing to help, but I have to be sure. And she said, hmm, I might let me know who it is. Of course, I'd be willing

Starting point is 00:57:45 to help, but I have to be sure. And she says, oh, well, when will you be for sure? I'm really in a tight crunch. I need to turn myself in. I would never pressure anybody, but I have to get the money together. And I said, okay, how about Tuesday afternoon? And the deadline for payback is Friday at noon sharp. And she said she couldn't wait till the next day. I said, I hate to do this, but I have to charge interest because of my past experiences with loaning money out to people. And so she agreed to that. So three days past payback day, I would have just charged her 50 bucks per day, the first three days that she didn't pay back. And then I would up the ante to 100. So I thought it was perfectly fair. And I said, okay, I'll help you out. And then she asks for the first 100 bucks. At one point, she

Starting point is 00:58:30 said that she was having trouble with a moving company in the past. And I said, oh, you had trouble with a moving company in the past, right? And she said, no, it's a different company. So that should have raised red flags for me. But at the time, I was thinking about, wow, I really got to help this friend here. She would have been one of the last people I would have expected to text me that she was in a legal bind because I thought she was a government leader. I thought she had done all this incredible stuff. I mean, she co-sponsored legislation to allow 18 year olds to run for the Indiana State House. It didn't pass, but the fact of the matter is that she tried and I was very impressed with that.

Starting point is 00:59:13 This isn't somebody who you think is a criminal or somebody who is going to trick you. This is somebody who has temporarily fallen flat and needs help getting back on their feet. I thought at the time, yeah, this is alarming, but this is somebody who helped me get through one of the hardest years of my life. And frankly, one of the hardest years I believe the world has ever faced in the 21st century. I felt that I out her quite a bit. Looking back at it now, I thought it

Starting point is 00:59:45 was pretty stupid that the alarm bells weren't going off, but you can't really change the past. She is texting me all throughout the day, Tuesday, saying, I need to get this squared away. Now for two days, I hadn't really said much to her. She immediately, within two days has started bombarding me with texts she asks me to download this money app wise and All this time she keeps telling me I'm really panicked. Oh, I'm so nervous I Open up wise she requests the first amount and It didn't work. So then she said oh,, I'm going to run to my mom's. Can you be awake for 20 minutes?

Starting point is 01:00:30 And I said, OK, this is weird. It seems like the system is really rigged against you. And then she says, I'm so dirty. Sorry. So me being a big fan of Dateline NBC and Chris Hansen, I replied with and I'll do my best, Chris Hansen, I replied with, and I'll do my best Chris Hansen, I'll tell you what's dirty is this situation. She says, well yes, hey, I'm almost there, please don't quit on me. I mean, what is this?

Starting point is 01:00:54 Some sort of athletic motivational movie, like Remember the Titans or Rudy, where it's, oh please don't quit on me. Bring on the string quartet. I'm at this time saying, oh no, I'm just falling asleep. So a few minutes later she says, I just got here. I'm here if you need me. I'm never ever going to jail again, lol. So she's convinced that I'm her savior. Then I say, well, just make sure to pay me on time and that promise will be fulfilled, I'm sure. The money I sent to, I say, well, just make sure to pay me on time and that promise will be fulfilled, I'm sure.

Starting point is 01:01:25 The money I sent to, I presume, the bondsman at that time on Wise, the money was declined. And I said, I'm trying to do everything I can, just short of having to drive all the way to jail. Then she says, I could drive to Bloomington and get the cash. I guess I'll have to spend my day doing it tomorrow. I can use Wise. I said, I really need to go to sleep. She begs me to call my bank in the morning and she offers to pay me back extra for the trouble.

Starting point is 01:01:54 I'm saying, okay, okay, I'm just cranky from the workout tonight. Give me some time to relax so I can help you out. I said I would do everything I could and she says do you have the cash tonight? So again I already told her we'll deal with it tomorrow so she's getting very desperate at this point. She's saying oh are you still awake are you still awake? It was three in the morning at this point. This is Tuesday May 9th the very next night I'm settling down to go to sleep and I text her hey listen I'm not really one to give cash out. Sorry. So she says, hey, I'm scared. And I said, listen, I'm not comfortable with it. And she said, are you calling the bank when they open? Sorry, I was unclear what the plan was.

Starting point is 01:02:34 I said, listen, my bank says it doesn't loan out to bondsmen. It doesn't have listed. I'm going to have to bow out. Now, I know that wasn't exactly true, but at that point, I'm just trying to think of any reason to get out of this situation because we're just going around in circles. She requested the initial deposit for herself. So I'm thinking, oh, she's just going to pay the bondsman. A little bit unorthodox, I suppose. She then says, all right, can you please do Venmo? And you don't even know the name of my bondsman. She says, oh I have a friend's Venmo I can help you please I'm losing it all. So I'm like okay well what's the Venmo? Now we bring in Curtis so she then says at KL

Starting point is 01:03:20 so that's the first appearance of Curtis and that occurred on May the 9th. She said, Oh, let me know when I send it. I send her a screen cap with the subject line Megan Bond with Curtis name right there. And I say, all right, money up front Friday. And she said, yes. So I pressed the button and we were off and running. She initially said it was for the movers, then she said it was for the bondsmen, and then she gave me Curtis's Venmo and I text her after it went through saying, did it work? And went dead silent. So not a word from her. May the 9th, 2.33 in the afternoon, I say, so apparently you're free. Hey, can Curtis refund me please? Is it possible that he can pay me back? And Megan's air quote, mom, texts me saying, hey, this is Megan's mom.

Starting point is 01:04:15 She's still in lockup. And I told her, hey, so I sent the money to her friend Venmo Curtis. I just heard from the bondsman that apparently the charges could be dropped. Her mom again air quotes says, hi the charges have not been dropped Enterprise has to be paid first. So that's the moving company Enterprise and that the bondsman has been paid Enterprise hasn't. I'm thinking to myself so how much does Enterprise want? And she gives me another amount and then she'll be cleared and the bondsman can just have Enterprise run the card directly so you won't have to mess with

Starting point is 01:04:50 anything so I'm saying all right now I'm confused you just upped it even more than we had before and I say all right can they run the card again it's May 10th and it's the next day I didn't say anything at this point. I'm still processing the previous night so I'm thinking should I do it again? I mean this is a close friend. She then gives me Harry Friedman. I'm just thinking oh there's another friend but why is she not giving me Curtis's info again since Curtis did it before. So her mom says, just put for Megan S.

Starting point is 01:05:26 And once again, I send yet another amount. Same amount as before. And her mom says, thank you, I'll let you know when Megan is out of jail today. I said, perfect. So the next night, we're on May 11th now,

Starting point is 01:05:42 her mom says, hey, Megan's dealing with a health crisis. She'll be in touch as soon as she can. And I'm like, Oh, wow. Okay. Has she been freed? Not yet. She had a medical crisis in lockup. Nothing further is said. I decide to leave the situation alone for a little bit, allow her mom to get over this, allow Megan to get over it. So on the 15th of May, I say, oh, hey, how's Megan? Still waiting. May 22nd, Megan out yet.

Starting point is 01:06:10 I don't get a reply until May the 29th at 2.35 in the morning. I'm under the impression that this is Megan's mom and she has Megan's phone. And Megan's mom says, hey, she's been in the hospital. I'm not getting a lot of texts from Megan. I'm not getting a lot of texts from Megan. I'm not getting a lot of texts from her mom. And I'm thinking at this time, oh, well, they're probably very busy.

Starting point is 01:06:32 They're recuperating from what's a really shocking event. I don't text again until around June 8th. And I say, I really need her to pay me back. And her mom says, three days later no less No, sorry She's still in a mental health facility and I say well the problem is that the bond agent isn't processing my card And I know her situation is really precarious right now, but it's still important that she pays me back I do hope she feels better Megan's mom. Hey there totally understand

Starting point is 01:07:04 I'll see what I can do to get this take care of please know Megan values you as a friend This has been a hard season for her for sure and I know she does I want the best for her and She parts the message and she says I'm sorry about the stupid bond office. So I said, yeah, they're not very reliable She says hey, let me get the funds from them and I'll circle back with you I'm sorry again on Megan's behalf that this has been a nightmare. So after not hearing from Megan for some time, I'm already a bit annoyed that this is still going on. This is actually June 14th. Another late night marathon of texts. One thirty four in the morning, Thursday, June 15th. I know you were trying to be a nice

Starting point is 01:07:46 friend of Megan I'm sorry for the run around can you double check you got the number right and I said oh no it was correct and she says oh okay I know you're annoyed but is the number correct if I was in the country I would do something but I'm out of the country and I just have iCloud through my MacBook for Megan. So what do I do? I give up the card info. Took a pic, front to back, they enter it, it doesn't work. And the person who I presume is her mom at this point says, Oh, just so you know, I'm not pulling your leg. I said, Oh, here, try again. Same error.

Starting point is 01:08:28 This is June 16th now. It's one in the morning when I took the picture initially on June 16th of the card and sent it. Later that afternoon, Megan's mom says, Oh, sorry, it's not working right now. We tried again around six and it still didn't work. So it's nine now on the same Friday, June 16th. So it's already happened three times in the span of two days, it hasn't worked. So on the 17th of June, I say, all right, I'll call the bank and figure it out. And as it turns out, because of strange charges starting to pour in around that time, I said I had to get a new card. Now up to this point, I'm just assuming,

Starting point is 01:09:15 oh, it's just a classic case of identity theft. It must have happened at the gas station or something. So I canceled the card and I got the new card. At this point, it's June 22nd when I had to get the new card. Four days later, on that Monday, June 26th, take a picture of the card again. Take a picture of the back. I tell the person who I presume is her mom, some charge was weird, all is good now. June 27th, still trying to figure things out. No reply from Megan throughout June 27th when I tell her, hey, what's going on? On the 28th, I got yet another card because again, the false charges kept pouring in and my bank kept forgiving them. I've already gone through three cards at this point in the span of a few weeks. June 28th I give out the card again. That card got cancelled again. This is four cards at this point and

Starting point is 01:10:13 now I've got some very strange charges on my checking account and I have no idea where they're coming from. On June 30th Megan's mom presumably says, well, when you get it, maybe don't add it to your Venmo. I can probably refund it, but I'll still need the new card. And that's the last message in the whole month of June. We're getting some strange charges. One of them was from the restaurant Twin Peaks. It's very similar to a Hooters bar in Indianapolis. I have no idea who's spending the money.

Starting point is 01:10:45 I just know that it's DoorDash from Twin Peaks. There's one from something called iRobot in Massachusetts. Then I get some strange Amazon bills and PayPal bills from some random number called Sennebagle. Never heard of them. Then I get a cash up from a Jasmine in California and then a T-Mobile charge. So I'm assuming now she was paying for her phone bill,

Starting point is 01:11:18 paying for food, all the while masquerading as different people on cash app. Now, I don't know how she got the money out of my account and I don't know how she was able to use the card when all of these cards were frequently canceled. At this point in time I am on a road trip to Kansas City for a radio broadcasters convention so we don't talk for a little bit. All of this is going on while I'm at the convention And I'm not taking a lot of notice of it because at that point I'm thinking she's gonna pay me back Coming up this season on something was wrong I

Starting point is 01:11:59 Didn't know anything about a Facebook group until after Mike Neal and Justin and Alyssa talked to me. They offered me a membership in the group. I messaged her and I said, you're a scammer, how could you? I had sent her a text and I said, you know, I'm a reporter and I wanna pay you for your life story. This was my way in with her. And we start having these conversations. At this point her rearrest warrant had been out for a while. She hadn't been turned in. She was

Starting point is 01:12:43 running from the police. The admin group was running a couple different schemes to catch her that we were not all aware of at the time. Megan agreed to meet me. And she's like, I'll come pick you up. Tell me where, tell me when we can do it tonight. Thank you so much for listening. Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media Production, created and produced by me, Tiffany

Starting point is 01:13:09 Reese. Thank you so much to our associate producers, Amy B. Chesler and Lily Rowe. Thank you to our audio engineer, Becca High, and our social media marketing manager, Lauren Barkman of Luxury Media. Additional thanks to our partners, Grant at Wondry, Marissa, Travis, and our team at WME, Jason and Jennifer at KSCO, our cybersecurity team, Darkbox Security,

Starting point is 01:13:35 and my lawyer, Alan. And to all of you who make our show possible with your support and listenership. Special shout out to Neon Honey and Gabanes for covering our theme song, Gladrag's original song, You Think You, this season. For more music from them,

Starting point is 01:13:51 check out the episode notes or your favorite streaming app. In the episode notes, you'll always find content warnings, sources and resources, with links to our websites and social media as well. Thank you so much to every survivor and ally who has trusted us to help share their stories. We are forever grateful.

Starting point is 01:14:11 Until next time, stay safe friends. If you like Something Was Wrong, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.

Something Was Wrong - S22 E5: Self-Made Woman

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.