Rotten Mango - #79: The FaceBook Killers (Case of The Potter Family)

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

What would you do if someone unfriended you on Facebook? You probably wouldn’t even notice. Maybe you confront them. Or maybe you sneak into their house and brutally murder them and their significant other…  How dare they unfriend you on Facebook? This case is filled with twists, delusions, social media drama, and so much cat-fishing that you start to believe there’s no way this is real.  But you know what they say - social media can be deadly Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to this week's main episode. This one's bonkers. How would you feel if someone that you friended on Facebook unfriended you? Maybe it's an Instagram unfollow and hit that unsubscribe from YouTube. How would you feel? What's an appropriate reaction to something like this? Be trail. The ultimate betrayal. Go out, game of thrones style. That's the only way. This case takes place in Mountain City, Tennessee, and this is a really small town. I feel like I say that in a lot of different cases, but this is a town where there's just a population of

I feel like I say that in a lot of different cases, but this is a town where there's just a population of 2,000 people And so with these 2,000 people, they've got some strange internet habits There's some strange internet bullies, a lot of Facebook drama with a town of just 2,000 people And somehow a CIA agent by the name of Chris gets involved He's just browsing on the internet Just browsing on Facebook and comes across a couple of people really just dug in on this one girl. Just go in it. Full throttle.

I hate her. She deserves to die. He realizes, holy shit. I went to high school with this girl. Her name is Janelle and she's getting bullied. Now mind you, these are all people in their late 20s, early 30s. I mean, this is crazy right?

Notice is that there's a lot of people posting about how genital deserves to die They have these diabolical plans. They want a kidnap her take her out to the field higher a bunch of people to rape her because she's a virgin They said wait this is not this is not private messaging. No, I'm like Facebook posts They want to torture her murder her. You know, it'll be so much fun. They're even willing to like put up a bounty of $3,000. So Chris, the CIA agent, what does he want to do? He wants to warn his high school friend, but he also kind of wants to save her. And the only way to do that in his CIA mind is to eliminate the targets, was to kill the people bullying Janelle, his high school friend.

So what does he do? He emails. He emails... Is he from the same town? No! Okay, I mean, I'm about to say, like they're all drinking some kind of water. Like what is going on? So he emails Janelle's parents. Parents get involved of 30 year olds, okay? And let's some know, there's people out.

They're trying to get Janelle. They start corresponding for the next year and a half Chris CIA agent starts running surveillance hiding cameras in the suspects houses following them around learning their routine and trying to see when are they gonna go after Janelle when are they gonna make their plans final that he keeps reporting back to Janelle and her parents with updates I mean the CIA can't find out about this he would lose his job it's almost like straight out of a romance novel, right? Chris was actually born on the same day, at the same hospital as Janelle. They were born on minute apart,

and then they would later go to high school together. I mean this is that technically they came into this world together. There's gotta be something to that, right? Even Janelle's parents accepted him as a son. I mean, what kind of man puts his life on the line? His career with the CIA on the line for their daughter, a high school friend. Maybe it's a budding romance. No, no, no, but that wouldn't work

because Chris is too busy with his career. I mean, the most important thing in Chris' life is being a CIA agent. And Chris was, you know, kind of the opposite of Janelle. He was everything that she was and he traveled the world, sure he was doing it to kill people for the CIA, but his entire life was filled with mystery and crazy stories, and once in a million life. I thought CIA just do... You thought they just said they're on computer?

No boring stuff. I thought they just listened to podcasts to make sure that they're fighting crime. Okay. Wait, does Janelle know any of this? Yes, she's in, she's talking to Chris. But the truth was, Chris was an imposter. Q, um, I'm honest. Q, I'm honest. Who would want to impersonate a CIA agent, especially to Janelle's parents when Janelle's dad

was a former CIA agent himself? What was this Chris guy trying to get out of this? Why this family in this tiny little town of 2,000 people and how on earth does it end with two young people being dead over a Facebook unfriending. This is a bonkers case I tell you, straight up bonkers. So as always, show notes are available at RottenMingoPodcast.com.

There's also a really good 2020 ABC episode on this called Unfriended, but there is a book, yes, you guessed it. It's called Too Pretty to Live by Dennis Brooks. Here's where it gets wild. Dennis Brooks was the lead prosecutor on this case. Wow. And he wrote it. The criminals in this would actually use this book to try to get an appeal from their sentence saying, hey, the lead prosecutor put out this book before I could even appeal my sentence.

It was like a whole thing, whole shit show. I mean, the amount of detail is gnarly on this book. There are so many text messages, emails, Facebook conversations that you can't find on like ABC 2020. I think the book also adds a great perspective with the fact that it was written by the prosecutor. You feel like you're going through the whole legal process as well. A ton of fascinating information. I feel like with true crime, we get a lot of, you know, journalists, reporters, and maybe cops. But is prosecutor biased? It's tips. Oh, definitely.

Yeah. So keep that in mind when you're reading the book, because there was something times where I was like, I mean, I love you, Dennis. But like, come on, come on. So Mountain City, Tennessee, super small town, 2,000 people live in this small town. And yes, everyone really does know each other.

Like, that's not just the saying. And if you happen to have a road trip through this Tennessee, Eastern part of Tennessee, through Mountain City, most likely you will be welcomed with open arms. It's a very sweet southern town. The typical major crimes committed. Fights, domestic disputes, or maybe someone gets drunk and beats up another person and they end up dying. I mean, it's still murder, but it's not the same type of murder that you might see in New York City. Los Angeles, right? So just not a lot of crime. Now, in moves the Potter family.

The Potter's. So we've got Marvin Buddy Potter, the dad of the family. He's 60 years old. He used to be a Marine. He used to be a CIA agent. And guess what? That's the first thing that he's going to tell you after hello. Hello, I used to be a former CIA agent, but don't tell nobody because it's the CIA.

That's him. He's one of those guys, served him Vietnam, but now he's got this bad back. And he doesn't work. He just, you know, he's retired. And his wife Barbara Potter, she is the matriarch of the family. She's actually the head of the household. Super religious. She looks super sweet, honestly. And then we've got the oldest daughter, Christie. Now, she doesn't live with them anymore. In fact, she moved out as soon as she could. She doesn't really get along with the rest of the family, especially her mom.

She called her mom Barbara. She's like, oh yeah, Barbara. You mean your mom? Yeah. So then we've got Janelle Potter, the victim in all of this. So she was six years younger than Christie and the apple of her parents' eye. Even in her late 20s. I mean her social media filled with pictures of dogs, especially bulldogs, loved any animal

really, even though she was in her 30s, she just seemed incredibly young at heart, possibly for two reasons. Her parents sheltered her. I mean they were incredibly protective of her. They actually had her Facebook password. Like imagine being 28 and you're like, here mom, here's my Instagram account. Have at it. Yeah, she was never really allowed to go outside

without her parents. They never thought anyone was good enough for Janelle. Not even a potential boyfriend, but not even potential platonic girlfriends. Like nobody was on Janelle's level. Janelle never got her driver's license. Never had a job. I mean, certainly she was living a very boring life,

to be honest, especially in a town like Mountain City. She's not even hanging out with a lot of people. Now, the other reason was probably because Janelle was born with an auditory disability. So she had a hard time hearing things, specifically inflection. So if you were to say, oh my God, oh my God, that's so funny, I'm dead. You

know how like the way that I said it, you're in your brain, you're thinking, okay, well she's not actually dead. But in Janelle's mind, because she can't really hear the inflection, she would take it as, oh my God, you're dying. Like literally, you're dying, or you're dead, like what's going on. So ever since she was young, she had been enrolled in these special education classes. She also had diabetes and anxiety issues. Just, I'm gonna list this right now just because it becomes important later. Her IQ was said to be 72 and she was functioning at a fourth grade level when she was in her late 20s. And she was bullied a lot.

This is like so evil but she was bullied a lot. So she's six feet tall, she's a little socially awkward. She was jumped at one point. A girl punched her in the face allegedly because Janelle was pretty. Like that's kind of messed up, right? Her voice had this almost like squeaky mini mouse-esque voice is how Dennis describes it. And so maybe people didn't like that.

I mean, people always tell me I have a squeaky voice and they get very passionate about it. They're like, your voice. Fork your voice and fork you too. And I'm like, okay, sorry. I like your voice. Thank you. So Dennis believes that as a grown woman,

you know, Janelle's closest friends were stuffed animals in her bedroom. So of course, her entire life, I mean, she's just going on Facebook. She's just trying to enjoy what's out there. And maybe she's a little shy. Maybe she's a little socially awkward. She was known for kind of hugging people when they weren't that close.

So they'd be like, whoa, whoa, take it a back. Like, what's going on, right? So she'd go on Facebook, send people requests. If she meets you at the checkout counter at Trader Joe's, you're getting a Facebook request, okay? Maybe you don't even know her. But you live in Mountain City, you're getting a Facebook request. That's kind of how she lived life and nothing is wrong with that. So the potters move in to Mountain City in 2004 and they freaking hated.

I mean they came from Pennsylvania, a bigger town, and they said that this town is so small. There's no movie theater, I have to go to the next town over to go to one mall. All there was, which is a couple of grocery stores and a dollar general and like pharmacies. This is crazy, but they had a move to take care of Janelle's sick grandma. They had no choice. So at this mountain city pharmacy, right, Janelle's getting her diabetes medication. She meets this woman that's working named Tracy Greenwell. And Tracy's like, holy f***ing Janelle, you've got these beautiful blue eyes, you've got the cutest old voice, like I want to be your friend

You were honestly one of the sweetest people out there like this is crazy. How come we haven't met yet? Come on, like let's go to the next town over. Let's go to the mall together Well, you have to come meet my parents What you have to come meet my parents? Yeah, but you're like in your late 20s. What are you talking about? Like I got to come meet my parents. Yeah, but you feel like in your late 20s, what are you talking about? Like, I gotta go meet your parents. I'm not taking you out on a date. We're just girlfriends. She's like, yeah, I get it, but you have to come meet my parents.

So Tracy goes over to the potter's house, and she said that it was really off-putting. I mean, this is bizarre. Like, imagine you meet a friend, and then you gotta go audition for the parents. You're like, I'm not even dating this person. What's going on? So she sits down, gets to know the potters, finds out that they're really protective, but overall the potters loved Tracy. So they become fast friends.

Now that's how Janelle was introduced to Tracy's brother Bill Clay Paine, who was stereotypically quintessential, a Johnson County Tennessee, and that's what people call them, okay? He was from Born and Raised Mountain City type city type suit. He worked at a factory nearby. He was known for like work hard, party hard, very outgoing, had a ton of friends. Just charismatic, easy to be around the life of the party. He might have partied a little bit too much. So in his late 30s, he decided he needed help, started getting treatment for his addiction for pills. Like it was just, you know, sometimes it was a little too much partying.

He had a child already, and his child went to live with their mom in Florida. So he's away from this kid and he feels like, oh, I need to do better with my life. I can't be drinking and just doing drugs and wasting my life away. So he kicks drugs to the curb, he kicks partying, and he's just trying to find some stability. That's when he meets Janelle, and all of them have this great idea. You know, Bill is looking at his sister Tracy, like, are you thinking what I'm thinking? We're gonna set up Janelle with our cousin Jamie.

What? These are all really important people. Otherwise, I wouldn't bombard you with this many names. Okay, so Bill's cousin Jamie Kurt is a 38 year old man who is very similar to Janelle. In the sense that he's really reclusive, just stays at home, doesn't get out a lot, doesn't really a little bit socially awkward,

whereas Bill is this charismatic, just full of life, the party, that type of vibe. This is perfect. They're like two peas in a pod. I mean, it would be the perfect match, right? Both are introverted, they never leave the house. In fact, Jamie, who is 38 years old, has never had a girlfriend. This is gonna be his first girlfriend. I mean, Janab was a little bit hesitant because at first she had feelings for Bill. She kind of thought, well Bill is so cute,

he's so handsome, he's the life of the party. Kind of is leading that way, but the minute that she meets Jamie It seems like she has a change of heart. They immediately just hit it off, but the potters, Janelle's parents hate Jamie They hate him thinks that he is not good enough for Janelle thinks that he is smelly. He's ignorant He's a country boy. Mm-mm. We're from Pennsylvania. We're from Pennsylvania. We're not from the Dirty South I can say that I'm from the South, can I say that? Okay, that's what we used to call it, just very casually, okay? But we're from Pennsylvania, you get it, they just thought that he wasn't good enough for that, they just would not allow Janelle to see Jamie.

So Janelle started sneaking out, she also didn't have a cell phone. So Jamie buys her a phone to text him She's hiding it that gets caught by her parents stolen or taken away and then she gets another phone from Jamie So this is like this secretive romance going on. She starts sending him nudes Which by the way Jamie in the court documents and according to this book You will see that Jamie is very good at categorizing nudes like the way that he titles them It's like open and wet and that's like the final thing Wait, what do you mean fight who who categorizes this?

You know what send it to Jamie and Jamie would you know save it on a computer When he would it it would be like open and wet JPG does that make sense? Why are you naming these nudes? I feel really uncomfortable with this. So Janelle would call him husband, that was her nickname for him. I mean, things are going great. And in 2009, the factory that both Bill and Jamie, the cousins,

the dude cousins, they work at, hires a young woman by the name of Billy. I know. Billy Jean Hayworth. So we've got Bill. And then we've got Billy Jean. Oh, who's Bill? So Bill is the guy that introduced the cousin of Jamie.

Got it. So Jamie and Janelle, the two Jays, they're together. And Bill is working up the factory alongside his cousin, Jamie. Correct. When a woman walks in, the new hire, her name is Billie Jean Hayworth and guess who's gonna hit it off? Bill and Billie Jean, right? That makes it a little bit more simple. And he starts walking past her little workstation nonstop all day, every day,

and eventually they start talking to each other. It blossomed into this serious relationship. Billie Jean moves in with Bill and his dad, who is coincidentally named Bill. Sorry. Who's that is Bill? Bill's dad is named Bill. So in this house we've got Bill and Billie Jean.

God it. Okay. It makes it easier to remember. All the bills, right? So they're living in this house. I mean, this is beautiful. And then Billie Jean gets pregnant And everyone in Bill's life is like this is perfect

He has really just done a 180 ever since he started dating Billie Jean He stopped drinking as much. He started. He stopped the drugs He just wants to be a good dad for his second son Tyler so excited Everything looked like it was finally gonna get better. And as everything's going well, Janelle gets introduced to Billie Jean. So Jamie is like, oh, hey girlfriend of my cousin, meet my girlfriend. So they have this little cute double date. They meet each other and Janelle even meets Billie Jean's close friends, Lindsay and Tara. They all start hanging out. But by the time that Billie Jean got pregnant, all these things started falling apart.

The three girls, Billie Jean, Lindsay, and Tara, they start accusing Janelle of doing some crazy stuff. They keep saying, you keep posting about us on Facebook. You're writing mean things about us on Facebook. You're calling us sleds on Facebook. You're not like, what are you talking about? I didn't call you a sled on Facebook. Show me the proof.

Look, isn't this your account? That's not my account. This is my account with all the bulldogs on there, like what is that? Maybe you guys made a fake account pretending to be me to try to stir up some drama, what it is going on. Gennels, wait, there's that account that's pretending to be Janelle? Gennels, yeah, I mean the girls, the three girls believe that it's Janelle, but Janelle's like that's not me, so it must be someone pretending to be Janelle? Yeah, I mean, the girls, the three girls believe that it's Janelle, but Janelle's like, that's not me, so it must be someone pretending to be me.

The name is Janelle. Yeah, and it's her picture and everything. Love the fact that this is a town of 2,000 people. What is going on here? This is like gossip girl, but like small town vibes. I don't understand. And according to Janelle, the girls just don't stop harassing her, would not leave her alone.

Like, why would you post that? Why did you post that? Bla-baba-baba-bla. And it just spirals and spirals. Into this thing where I mean both all of these lives are just torn apart. So Bill and Billie Jean, Lindsay and Tara, they're all on one team. They're against Janelle. So that puts Jamie the cousin of Bill and the boyfriend of Janelle in a really, really

awkward position. Oh, I'm so sorry. Who's on one team? Bill and the three girls are all on one team and they're against Janelle. And Janelle is saying, I don't know what you're talking about, okay? I would never post that. So Jamie, the cousin of Bill and the boyfriend of Janelle, is a little bit like, do I choose my girlfriend or do I choose my cousin? So he's kind of back and forth and eventually he sides with his girlfriend, Janelle.

So he takes his stance and this family is just ripped apart. They just are no longer talking. They don't get along anymore. They used to be like best buds. They used to be almost like brothers, but now they're just split down the middle and just non-stop. It's just hate from both sides. Just like a full-on feud, a family feud.

And in comes to the mix, a man by the name of Chris, a CIA agent. He starts emailing at first. He emails Janelle. Then he emails Barbara, Janelle's mom, to let them know, hey, Janelle's got some bullies that are saying some crazy things on Facebook. And eventually, he'll even start emailing Jamie,

Jenelle's boyfriend. And so they all start talking via email. Now what's bizarre is that Chris never used an online account of his own. So you're thinking how is he emailing these people then? Well, he was emailing them under Jenelle's account. Now I don't know if she had no security, I guess, you know, that's kind of the assumption or she knows Chris. Right. So Chris had duped her into thinking, well know, that's kind of the assumption, or she knows Chris, right? So Chris had duped her into thinking, well, I'm your high school friend, or remember, like, we love each other, we're best friends, and she gave him the password, but it was like a CIA reason that he wasn't emailing from his own account.

There could be no record of him. Oh, that's the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. It's bizarre. In this CIA agent, all he does is talk about how he loves killing. That's it. And he's grammatically very, very horrendous. He needs grammily, okay? That's what this guy needs.

He loves to write in all these typos spelling errors, just rambly sentences. The book has a ton of these emails. And let me tell you, it is like... It's a brain workout to try to decipher some of these sentences. You're like, what is this? I don't think we speak the same language. Because that is grammatically so horrendous. And who is he emailing one more time?

He's emailing Janelle. So it's like, so fun Janelle to Janelle. He's emailing Janelle's mom, Barbara. He's also emailing Jamie. Janelle's boyfriend. Not the father though. Oh yeah, but buddy doesn't like Email that's what he's called buddy his name's buddy. He doesn't like emails. He's over it He's 60 former CIA agent over it. I see so he's just never on the computer

So they're just talking and this CIA agent by the way me making fun of his grammar is because he's saying that he's a central intelligence agent that is why not because I'm saying that he's a central intelligence agent. That is why. Not because I'm just judging people's grammar, because central intelligence agent. That is why, okay? I feel like summertime just makes life feel a lot more like a beautiful, hectic mess. It's summertime you gotta go see a movie, maybe you're trying to hang out at the pool, maybe you're trying to go to the beach, go on vacation. You've got a list of all these exciting things you want to do and the last thing that you want to add to that list is go into the post office. There's nothing about the post office that gets me even.

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Would even get in contact with Jamie and would tell him how to be the best boyfriend for Janelle. How if they get into a fight, he would encourage Jamie, you know what, you love her. And she is the best out there. So just kind of like how an older brother would do it, right? So allegedly, the harassment gets worse. These three girls are telling Janelle, and I quote something along the lines of this. Allegedly, you're a fucking bitch and you know your fucking ass is going to jail and Bill is going to kill you.

He has said that and I hope he does. None of us want you around. Nor living, you're a waste of air in time on everyone. You are nothing. You really think that you're sweet and smart, ha ha. Yeah right, you're dumb and you're very ugly no one wants you Billy thinks you're fat and bill me Fucking Lindsay. Okay, so this is Lindsay writing allegedly. I just hate that you're alive

You will die bitch and I can't wait to see it go to hell bitch This is like post Facebook post an email allegedly or it was like posted on the forum So then allegedly Lindsay posted one more thing that says post, Facebook post? An email allegedly, or it was like posted on a forum. So then allegedly, Lindsay posted one more thing that says, Janelle, I will get you. You know, good bitch. I'm f***ing Lindsay. Remember that.

Your daddy can't do f***ing to me. I'm above the law. You dumb f***ing bitch. Wow, these are really intense. The bullies, Lindsay in particular, according to the potters, would drive by the house almost daily as if taunting gen out, like just freaking around. Like why are you driving by? There was a rock thrown at the house and when they went to go pick it up, I mean, it was

a big ass rock, okay? There were two names written on it, Billy and on the other side, Billy Jean. Allegedly the potters woke up one morning and there was sugar in the dad's gas tank. I don't know how you find that out and I also don't know what that would do to your car. I'm thinking not great things. So there's sugar in the gas tank. They start this rumor that Janelle's dad is a drug dealer which for a former Marine, a former CIA agent, that's a really bad rumor.

And the whole potter family was under the impression that Bill was instigating all of this. And the girls, the three girls, they were just following his lead. But for what? Why was just like bullying someone? Confusing, right? So Tara Osborne, which is one of the girls, she files for a protection order against Janelle.

And tells the judge, you know, Janelle's been calling me 27 times a day. The case gets thrown out by the judge. So this kind of shows the potter, like even the judge doesn't believe this, like why do you think we're harassing you? Then Lindsay files a protection order, same things, annoying calls, she's harassing us, but the judge again dismiss the case because they could improve Janelle Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Now Lindsay, Tara, Billie Jean, the three girls are accusing Janelle of saying things like Bill's a horrible dad, Billie Jean's a bad mom. Oh my god, that baby is so awful. I mean, what? This is crazy, right? Janelle's saying, I mean, why would I do that? Especially for a defenseless baby? A poor child. I would never say these things about a baby.

Are you kidding? I don't even talk about you guys at all. Like, just leave me alone. The potters felt. Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?

Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?

Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you knownell said she was terrified she starts carrying mace, because you know, allegedly these people keep threatening to rape her.

She can't go anywhere alone, not even the grocery store. But thankfully she's got an army of men who love her, wanted the best for her, so she's got her dad, ex-military buddy, her somewhat boyfriend Jamie, and Chris, the high school CIA agent. Do you really need anything else? Especially because Chris was willing to do anything to keep Janelle safe He would come to Tennessee when he wasn't on the CIA job to watch Janelle's enemies to stock them Possibly if given the chance the right opportunity he told the potters he would kill them for Janelle

And Chris and the family got along so well. I mean, Barbara Janelle's mom felt like she just understood him. She was an agent's wife after all. She knows the struggles of being a CIA agent. But they never met. Yeah. And he would keep telling them, I will do anything to help Janelle. I'm already tapping the three girls' phones.

There is nothing that the bullies can do or say without me knowing about it. A CIA agent was intercepting all the dirty plans that they had for Janelle. I mean, it was gonna get messy, right? It's gonna get really messy. So the Potter family confides in Chris. They've actually been having other issues. So Buddy, the dad, he was on a CIA mission in Vietnam, right? But the thing is, the mission got messed up. The mission was to detonate something, and they accidentally ended up obliterating an entire village of innocent Vietnamese lives.

So the CIA pretended that it wasn't them and that it never happened, and they wiped it clean from the government records. Buddy was supposed to have win what a medal for his work with the CIA for that. But now they're pretending that that medal doesn't exist, which is so annoying. They actually arrested buddy. Can you believe that? They arrested buddy for claiming military honors that he didn't earn. I mean, what the fork is wrong with the CIA? He gave his life to them practically. Chris, you're in the CIA. Can you help us? We're just trying to reach a supervisor. And Chris is telling them like the CIA is different from the Vietnam days. Like, trust me, they're trying to make up for all their wrong doings these days.

So I'm going to get my supervisor on him. We're going to get Buddy, his medal is back, his CIA badge back. He's actually in the system when I look him up. So who's talking to Chris right now? The mom? Barbara. Yes. Okay.

So some of the emails, I'm just going to kind of paraphrase. It's all in the book. There's a lot of emails, okay? So starting in 2011, I mean, they emailed for way longer than that, but these are the really critical things. Chris is talking to Barbara, CIA agent Chris, talking to Janelle's mom, Barbara, saying, I've been following the girls last night. They went to your place while you guys were sleeping.

I'm so mad. They're so crazy. I want to kill them all, but I can't. Because he recently broke his arm on duty, so he would have to wait until his arm was healed. Which by the way, I feel like CIA is probably a lot more competent than that. I would say me, a regular civilian versus a CIA agent with a broken arm. I'm dead. I'm dead. They were bragging to, um, yeah, the girls were bragging to their friends about how they were going to go back to your house, the Potter residents, and finish the job.

Listen Barbara, I know that this is probably messing with Janelle, and she's, you know, thinking about, she's going to die and stuff. These girls are playing games. They're hateful f**kers. Nothing scares these girls. So I guess I just need to kill them. Like just saying things like that. And Barbara, this mom, this wife of an ex-ci agent, you would think, oh, Christian, you know, you would think that like, she's gonna be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Chris, like I get that

your angry, but you need to be level headed. How did they let you into the agency? No. She said, they need to back off, you know, but he's mad. And I'm 100% behind whatever happens. You guys meet when you're ready Chris, okay? Maybe Bud will have his ID by then and you guys can you see I.A. guns and get the job done, you know? They all need to go and the ones left need to be given a big scare and they need to watch and wonder. Am I next? Keep scaring these three girls. Keep breaking into their cars.

Make things hard for them because they are making life hard for us. Thanks Chris. Ironically at the end of this email, she also wrote and I quote, I'm glad you and we are Christians because that's something that no one can take away from us. Hang in there. Love you. Side note, she is not the reflection of Christianity,

just to put that out there, okay? This, that's weird, that's a little bizarre. Chris would also email Jamie like, she really loves you, man. Just keep up the good work. You're so blessed for sure, like you've got a great girl. These motherfuckers just want to make her life hell. And I hope that she doesn't think about killing herself.

Jamie's like, my girlfriend's trying to kill herself? What's going on? He starts freaking out. Chris is telling Jamie, listen, I just want to thank you for being there for the Potter family. She needs you in more ways than one. She's a wonderful sweet caring girl. She would do anything for anyone before herself, but I know that you know this about her.

She's a good person. These girls are driving her so crazy and you know they're so crazy. But what they're doing is still so fucking wrong and hurting her like they are. There's just no reason for it because what she's sweet and she's very pretty prettier than them. I'm sure I could kill them right now, but I can't. Janelle just needs someone like you. Then Barbara is mailing emailing Chris. Okay, there's a lot of emails. Just talking about how, oh my God, I heard that Bill's place, that they're raping girls over there. It's no secret.

They're trying to get Janelle next, but there's no way, because we have heavy quantities of ammo and protection. At all times. When we wait, the mom is saying that she heard Bill and the three girls are raping others. Yeah, like their friend group is raping others at these house parties that they throw. Wow. And she said in that quote, if someone wants to bring it, they will all die, including that baby. We know that Lindsay is the one pushing this along, but Bill, Billie Jean and Tara, they all mean buddies are enjoying it.

And just like brands about them, saying that one of them is satanic and mean and a manipulating liar. I mean, it's just really intense. Barbara is also talking about how Janelle is learning second degree black belt, Philippine killing karate. What is going on here? Feel like they all are living like a delusional. You think so? So who do you think

is Chris? I can't say. It feels like it could be any of them. It could be the dad. Okay. I don't think it's the mom because then that's a lot of busy back and forth that she's doing. Can I let you know one thing that the potters share one computer. The mom, that, and the daughter. Yeah, they only share one computer. So you're saying... So you're guessing that there's a plot twist and that see Chris is not a CIA agent, right? And he's an imposter.

He wants to stir things up. He wants to instigate. Yeah. Chris is... ...Jenelle. Okay. Jenelle is Chris. That kind of makes sense. Jenelle is emailing her own parents, pretending to be this love interest from high school,

who is now a CIA agent, and wants the best for their daughter, Jenelle. What? From the same family computer that all of them share. But why? Janelle is catfishing her parents and her boyfriend from that family computer. So you're thinking what I'm thinking? I mean, what kind of adults fall for this? Jamie, Barbara, what's going on? What's going on? Someone must have

Saw something she Chris is emailing from Chanel's goddamn team. Y'all I can't like there's gotta be like one little part of you two percent of you That's like, oh, that's a little weird. Yeah, are they just naive? Maybe they're just not street smart What's going on here? It's something called like self deception. And the Potter family were just masters at it. They're really good at lying. They will lie to themselves so much that they believe the lie and that type of confidence

leads the other family members to believe that it's true. And because they're all functioning from this mentality where the truth is whatever you say that it is, they just take it as it is. So you're saying all three of them does that? Yeah, it's the most bizarre family alive. I don't even know what to say about these people. It's confusing. So it's a family of liars, which makes this a lot more complex. Because I was thinking, if you're a liar and you're constantly lying, like if you're a cheater and you're constantly cheating, you always suspect other people of cheating. You're like, are you cheating on me?

Because you're the one cheating, right? So you would think that these people are more skeptical and less naive and just take in the truth as what it is since they themselves are a little lion assholes, right? But they don't. Chanel's dad was never in the CIA. There is no record of it anywhere. So he made that up. He made that up, and the whole family believed it.

And that's the reason. Part of the reason that they moved to Mountain City is that he told his whole town in Pennsylvania and they found out the truth. Wow. And instead of accepting it, instead of, you know, taking it like a 60-year-old man and saying, you know what, champion, right? I might be having Alzheimer's or something, right?

Just owning up to your bullsh** that 60 years old. He decided we're going to move for Janelle's grandma and just kept going with the lie. There were multiple times he would have conversations with sheriffs and talk about his CIA experience and they're like, that's a little weird. If you were a part of the CIA, usually they're a little bit tight lipped about stuff like that, that's a little weird. If you were a part of the CIA, usually they're a little bit tight-lipped about stuff like that, but okay, go off. Brasar. Janelle's mom was also very interesting.

Barbara, she is someone, her whole personality trait, is that she's gotta be in a fight at all times. Right? She's just gotta be. That like, when she loves people, right? But if they tell her, I don't like your shirt like oh I love you this shirt on you like something as small as like maybe we're the other shirt she believes that this person now wanted to murder her like it's not just

like oh this person hates me it's not like oh I don't like this person anymore she fully believed that this person was out to get her to her, to end her because they were jealous. Some very scary mentalities. Jamie said that Janelle was very opinionated as a person, you know, but when her parents were around she pretended to be very, very weak. So one person that Dennis Brooks, the prosecutor, tracked down for his case, but for also just knowledge, was that other family member, Christie, the other daughter. Why did she move out so quick?

Why did she move out as soon as she got the chance? So he goes, he interviews her and she just did not get along with the whole family. If anything, maybe she got along with her dad, but Buddy just went with whatever Barbara said. That was it, never once, stood up for his own daughter, Christy. And there's some weird family stories. When Christy finally got engaged, she She wanted her fiance to come meet the family

Genelle conveniently Through a temper tantrum and her parents did not care that her fiance was there meeting them for the first time They were just general genelle genelle And Christie is like this is so like genelle. This is what she does all the time She needs all the attention on her. That's it What and Barbara was all in Janals pot. I mean it's confusing because I don't know if Barbara was in Janals hand or if Janal was in Barbara's hand it's it's almost seems like this vicious cycle Got it Barbara was straight up abusive at one point tried to hit Christy

Christy files in order of protection against her own mother Barbara So what does Barbara do? Does she go to counseling? Does she think about wow? What kind of mother am I am that my kid is filing a protection order? No, she calls the police. Hey, uh, police? You're gonna want to know about this. There's a criminal. Okay, well what's going on? My daughter Christie, she is driving in Tennessee with Pennsylvania tags. Arrest her. Arrest her right now. Why would you call the police on your own daughter, especially for something like this?

Just toxic. Just toxic. Almost everyone in their, you know, not immediate family, but their extended family had problems with Barbara and Janelle. They were perpetually victims. That's what everyone said. Just perpetually, these two women would always be victims. Barbara just got off and having fights with people.

She'd be your friend, you'd disagree, then you're evil. You're disgusting. Can you believe that this person duped me into thinking that they were nice person? Turned out they were a snake. Barbara would also always accuse Christy of being jealous of Janelle. But Christy felt like, no! You guys as parents are doing Janelle disservice.

I get it, she does have a learning disability, but you baby her too much. Whatever she wants, you give it to her. And I know because she doesn't hide her personality from me. So Christy is explaining that Janelle would play games with her parents. She would pretend that she can't do something or she's too sick to do it.

The parents would do it. And Janelle, she would prove right away, just in front of Christie. Look, I actually can do it. Janelle told everyone at school that she had cancer. She would do this thing where she would collapse in the hallways at school. And if it was empty, she would just stay in that position until people came

and made a big fuss about it. Now, am I saying that she's faking all of this? We don't know, but Christy, her own sister, was a bit skeptical. You know? Like, I don't know because I wasn't there and I'm not her doctor, so I have no idea. But her own sister was like, yeah, I don't think that she was actually sick at that moment. That is so bizarre. So this seems like the mom acts a certain way with the daughter and the daughter just kind of took it in every since she was young. And now she can't help it anymore, right? No. Then now based on that information, I feel like the whole story you just told, on that information. I feel like the whole story you just told, everything has changed. Oh, everything's about to change. Yeah. And God forbid that you confront Janelle with

wine. If you catch Janelle in a lie, you know, most adults, they will probably just be like, oh, I lied because I didn't want to hurt your feelings or ABC&D, right? No, she would turn into a child and just start screaming, flapping around, full on, temper tantrum. I mean, Christy herself believed that if Janelle claims that she's being harassed by people, she probably caused it. She's really mean. She's a really temperamental person. I mean, she's got this really high pitched voice

pretends to be sweet all the time, but no, she's really mean. That's what Christy kept saying. What? She's just a mean person. And, but no, she's really mean. That's what Chrissy kept saying. What? She's just a mean person. And you know, Chrissy mentioned that it's a little strange because there's a history of girls hating Janelle for being too pretty. And then that weird, you know? And that a little weird.

That's what Chrissy said, you know, a little weird. That's a little weird. She also mentioned to Dennis that it's funny because Barbara, the mom, would also complain all the time. Especially after moving to Mountain City, Tennessee. Why? Well, I just can't find a church! Because I'm prettier than all the other women in the church, and you know, ugly women love to hate. Because I'm too pretty. What's the title of the book again?

Too Pretty to Live! What? Yeah. Tide of the book again too pretty to live What yeah So Dennis was obviously as a prosecutor. He was concerned does Janelle have a learning disability? What is the truth here? So like I said doctors did analyze her and they said that she there was no insanity plea or anything That could be done But she has like an IQ of 72 she does function at a fourth grade level But people are saying fourth graders are really good at manipulating people as well.

So just saying that someone is at a fourth grade level does not mean that they are incapable of manipulation. And if you look at this manipulation, it is not a well-seasoned one. It's not one that would fly past most adults radar. It's not like she did this master- crazy impossible for her to do. I mean, emailing us, Chris was, it was pretty noticeable on all fronts. So Dennis asks Chris Christie's opinion. So Dennis, the prosecutor, asks Janelle's sister about her opinion. What do you think?

And she said, well, I just feel like Janelle was coddled her whole life and she knows how to manipulate my parents. And most of her learning disabilities are centered around auditory processing disorders, like she can't hear things. So that is how Christy feels and I am not saying anything, I'm just giving you the facts. Now what makes this heartbreaking is that Dennis had to tell Christy that she was a part of all of these emails as well Barbara and Chris who is you know we're emailing a lot about Christie

Barbara wanted Chris the CIA agent to beat up her eldest daughter What? I feel like summer has approached and my brain has not realized this. You know, my brain is still lagging a little bit. I'm ready to barbecue with the family. I'm ready to go to the pool. I'm ready to go to the beach, right? But my brain is like, I want to feel like Summer time too.

And now you can, by playing Best Fiends, you're thinking, well, how does this make sense, Stephanie? Tell me. Listen, I started playing Best Fiends like years ago, right? And it's just one of those games that you just don't wanna stop. I don't know what it is about it. Right now I'm on level like 382 to be exact.

And best fiend is way more fun than any other matching puzzle game out there. It's one of those games that makes 30 minutes feel like 30 seconds. So nowadays, if I'm getting some vitamin D out in the sun, I just like to play a couple levels of best fiends or maybe it's like relaxing after a long day in my bed And it gets my brain going without overstimulating it. It's not so challenging where I'm like oh my gosh Am I a gamer or something and it's totally free to download They have thousands of fun puzzles to solve and there's something new every single day

So you never run out of stuff to play. Like I said, I'm on level 382, but there's so much more to go. They've got these adorable, collectible characters that just keep coming, and they release new challenges, characters, and themes all the freaking time. So you just stay on your toes. I can't seem to put it down. I love it so much, and I mean, 100 million downloads. So a lot of people love it, and my favorite thing is that it's casual

So I can just pop it on my phone and have a good time So download the five star rated puzzle game best fiends free today on the app store or Google play that's friends without the R best fiends So Chris aka Janelle, would encourage Barbara. Oh, I've been stalking her when I was in town, and Christie, your eldest daughter, she's a mess. You can't help her, it's too late. She needs to grow up, and guess what? I can kill Christie at any time, and your family in Pennsylvania.

Christie is also friends with Lindsay, and she's after you guys too. I'm so mad! Barb's, I don't know what to do, but if anything happens to you, she's gone for good. And maybe before. She's doing nasty things. She's trying to get guys to give her cash for blow jobs, but all the men have denied her. How does Barbara react to this? When a CIA agent is threatening her daughter? Barbara sneaks into Christie's room to take pictures. So Christie at one point moved in with the grandma in Mountain City. She sneaks in. Barbara, her mom sneaks in and takes a blurry picture, sends it to Chris to have the CIA analyze it. Thought it looked

like bags filled with drugs in the corner. They had to get out of there because they heard a noise, but doesn't that look like like meth bags or something? And Chris is like, oh yeah, for sure. Chris aka Janelle is like, oh yeah, for sure, Chris A.K. Janelle is like, oh yeah, for sure, meth bags. The police investigate later, it was a ceramic penguin. It was a little trinket, it was a little penguin design. There was no meth. Christie was not doing meth. Barbara would also aid on just, oh yeah, you should put a listening device in Christie's room.

She is killing my love for her. Most mothers would have walked away a long time ago. She is mean to her parents, no respect at all for anyone in fact, and hates Jen and lies on all of us. So Chris aka Janelle keeps talking about how he wants to kill Christie, the sister. Barbara says this. You're welcome to shoot any of them, but let Christie's body be found. We have life insurance on her, and so we may as well collect it.

I know that sounds mean for me, as a mom to say, but she hates me. She wants me dead as well, as dad and gen out. She wants us all dead. What can I do? She'll get me someday, if not here, and soon, or have me killed I'm afraid. So you're saying the mom actually believes that she's talking to? I don't even know. I don't even know.

You know? That is bizarre. Because if she does, then we've got a whole other thing to investigate. And if she doesn't, it's like, what? What's going on? That's bizarre. I mean, the amount of effort that she put into her emails, it's in the book, there's a lot of emails and Barbara just goes on and on. So it's mainly just them two talking back and forth.

Yeah. Okay. And I mean, and Jamie. So it's actually a comical at one point because Janelle would get into a fight with Jamie. Right. And I'm just immediately Chris will email Jamie saying like hey, you got to apologize because this is the best girl that you will ever have in your life She is this reminds me of ass Simon. You know the game. Oh, yeah, I'm on my website Yeah, you type it in and hide the answers. Yes. Yes, and then you're like who should I date in my ass over here is typing Stephanie Yeah, I believe that should I date in my ass over here is typing Stephanie? Yeah. It's my crush. I'm like, oh yeah, for sure. I believe that when I was in high school. Yeah.

Exactly. Mm-hmm. So he would email and be like, no, she's the best girl that you'll ever have. She's honestly too good for you. You should apologize. And so he'll be like, no, I'm so mad. And Chris will keep emailing, right? The minute that he emails Chris saying you know what you're right

Like I really do love her and I can see myself like spending the rest of my life with her. Guess who emails Who hey, it's Janelle I guess just immediate it's so immediate and what is Jamie's response? So the police asked you know are you confident like how did you not we don't get it? Yeah, and he said no I would know who was emailing me because when it was Chris, he would always start up with, hey dude or hey man. Okay, okay Jamie.

Yeah, so they were like, okay, I mean, what? Okay. To be fair, the book does mention the prosecutor who's the closest to this case, you know, did mention that he believes that if Jamie had dated prior to this, you know, they think that he was just too excited to have his first girlfriend at 38 years old. He had never experienced these before, so think of him more as like a 17 year old romantically. Right?

Versus a 38 year old man in a relationship. Yeah, okay. So, let's get to the truth, right? Everything was going well. Janelle was dating Jamie. No harassment claims from either party. You know, just things are great. But the minute that Bill found a girl that he wanted to settle down with,

Billie Jean from work, shit started hitting the fan. So Lindsay says that she got a Facebook request from Janelle Accepted it no big deal. I mean a Facebook request. That's like the most. That's not even I think a Facebook request is less intimate than a hug You know, okay, whatever moves on with life But one day Billie Jean keeps telling her that hey, I keep seeing these people telling me that Janelle is talking badly about us Like going into these forums, talking on Facebook about us, what is up with that?

So Lindsay's like, well, I'll just confront her. Confronts Janelle and Janelle keeps going, like, what are you talking about? I didn't do that. But more people would come up to the three girls and saying, hey, Janelle keeps like posting these things about you and then deleting it and posting it. And it's just, I mean, I don't know.

So they call her house. They call Janelle's house and confront her. And she said, I didn't do that, I don't know what you're talking about. And at that point, that's when the phone calls started. These three girls were bombarded with like 27 calls a day. Someone on the other line would just be breathing or panting or would scream into their ear. And they would call back and guess who picks up. Buddy, Janelle's dad so these

calls are coming from the Potter house buddy picks up and they said can you tell your daughter to quit calling us and buddy would say no you guys quit calling us what are you talking about your daughter is the one calling us and stop driving by our house what we're not what are you talking and then you would hang up. So Lindsay's like sitting there like thinking, I'm not even, I don't even, I don't drive by their house. Oh my god. I drive on that road that their house is on because my parents live a mile away from them and I need to take that road. So let's say you live on Mango Road, but you live at the very end and I need to take Mango Road to get to my family's house,

but I never drive past your house. Technically, I guess I'm driving on the road that your house is on. So she's like, are you kidding me? Is that what he's talking about? Because I have never driven past the potter's house. So in the prosecutor shows Lindsay all these alleged things that she said about Janelle.

Like I'm gonna kill you. You're an ethnic BITC age, you know, all these things. She genuinely looked shocked and she was slightly offended because her grammar is really not that bad. Where did they find those things? So we know that they were posted somewhere, but the way that they were sent is Chris would send it to Barbara in an email saying, like, look what Lindsey said about Janelle.

So either they were posted or Janelle was straight up bringing them out of her brain. It wasn't posted on like Lindsay's account. So Chris is basically making this up? Yeah, and Lindsay confirmed it. But the whole family was under the impression that Lindsay, well I guess maybe Janelle can't be under that impression. It's really confusing. Now Lindsay still didn't have it as bad as Billie Jean.

Billie Jean was actually getting the most harassment from Janelle, but she was the least confrontational out of their friend group. Janelle would even reach out to Billie Jean's other friend, saying like, oh my god, your friend Billie Jean is harassing me! Would tell them the whole story, and these girls who have been friends with Billie Jean their whole life, they're like, I just really doubt it like I don't Maybe she was like hacked or Are you sure it wasn't a different Billie Jean? I just I just can't see that happening

And she would just get mad and block them on Facebook Janelle would just be like okay fine and then would block them There was an instance where Billie Jean was at a local gas station filling a pertank and her friend actually worked in the gas station I'm telling you everybody knows everyone in this town, okay? So her friends inside just pumping gas a car pulls up two women inside We later know to be Janelle and Barbara. They're just yelling at her threatening her Billie Jean starts crying Her friend sees this rushes out of the gas station calls the cops Billie, what did they say? They called me trash. They said that I shouldn't be here And I shouldn't be a mother

and that I don't deserve Tyler, her son, and that I was trash. And she's like sobbing. The police don't really care because they're like, what is this Facebook drama? We don't care. So then Tara Osborne, the other friend, who is actually the closest to Janelle at one point,

they had somewhat of a friendship. She just decided that she was gonna unfriend Janelle because Janelle's whole life is boo is me, boo is me, people are harassing me, what do I do? Either my dad is being mean to me today, my mom is being mean, oh my boyfriend's doing this, like there was always like this problem with someone. And it was just you couldn't really talk to her without her feeling like the world was out to get her. Like everyone was colluding behind the scenes to take down

Janelle from mountain city Tennessee. You know, it's just a lot. So Tara, she starts distancing herself from Janelle and eventually just unfriended her. And that's when the call started for her. And Janelle would keep telling her boyfriend, Billie Jean is just another one of Bill's horse. He's gonna throw her away eventually. He's gonna get sick of her. So it seems like she's really bothered by this, refused to believe that Bill was in love with Billie Jean. So she's actually in love with Bill? Yeah, it seems like it. And this caused a huge wedge between the cousins Bill and Jamie. They actually worked together in the same factory, and the boss had to split them apart. Like work in separate parts of the factory. Now Jamie is even more isolated from his friends and family now and he was fully sucked into the Potter's drama

life and his own main mission in life was to get the Potter parents to approve of him so that maybe one day he could marry Janelle. And maybe that's why he didn't notice the absolute obvious that Chris was Janelle and that this was just what the fork is going on. So the truth gets out. And even Janelle's response to the police later is just pretty much, yeah, well, I got hacked. They hacked me. They spoofed my number. So spoofing is like when you, a third party takes your number and calls under it, if that

makes sense, they spoofed my IP, she said, oh yeah, well, the police can get IP addresses, well, they spoofed it. If that makes sense. They spoofed my IP, she said. Oh yeah, well the police can get IP addresses, well they spoofed it. They've got better tech than you. You know, they made fake Facebook accounts of me. No, this isn't me. And Janelle was wild. The more that you dig, Janelle was stirring up stuff. She would have actually anonymously go onto these web forums that like local web forums, like I guess your neighborhood app, and she would post about these three girls under a fake name.

And she would say things like, they're no good horse. They sell drugs, they drink, and if they ever hit Janelle, Lindsay, you're asked better watch out. She don't even know you, and you will always have to pick on her and hurt her and her family. You guys are so unhappy with your dumb little lives, and all you guys do is sleep around and make people's lives hell. All you fucking sluts know what to do is hate on someone else.

You all are not happy with your damn lives. Fucking Lindsay better watch your damn mouth. You have no clue who you're dealing with, none of you do. So it seems like someone like passionately loves Janelle and is defending her. And then someone else would respond to that. So cringe. Saying, right, Matt, they're all horrors. No good people have nothing else to do. They're nasty sluts and don't you know, Lindsay has HIV. That's what I heard. She's so ugly and she's mad because Janelle is so pretty and sweet and nice and they're just trying to hurt Janelle all the time. Like they have other girls. It's so sad. I went to school with Lindsay and she's a bitch. Nastya asks, she has HIV

now and she will give it to a lot of guys I bet. They better get arrested. I agree with you and I will always back Janelle. And then another person would respond to that. Wow, Matt and Kristi, I knew that Lindsay was bad, but I had no clue that she was off the deep end. Saying that they have HIV, you know, slept with 80% of the men in mountain city, they're all horrors, like that's what this person's posting. They're just jealous that Janelle is a sweet girl that was brought up nice and they're just jealous. She's so sweet, I will be praying for

Janelle, damn those other girls. They live like they're in high school still and they need to grow up. I mean how obvious is this? How obvious is it but also like how do you live with yourself? Like how do you take yourself seriously enough to like make these accounts and think that nobody's gonna see through your BS? Even when I like my own comment, I'm like, mm-hmm, someone's gonna know that I liked my own damn comment. I like my comment right now. Sometimes if I like my own video,

I'm like, mm-hmm, this feels nasty. Gonna unlike it. I'm kidding. But this girl is just wild. So one day, buddy and the whole Potter family, they ask Jamie, can you come? Can you come super early one day you just need to help us out with something but leave your phone at home because we got a lot to do

so he's like okay so he goes early the next morning and they get just Jamie and buddy Janelle's dad they get into the car and they start driving they park at a church nearby and they're just looking through the woods Jamie, oh we're looking at Bill's house. That's weird. They watch Bill's dad drive away. Jamie claims that he didn't know what they were doing there, but I mean it seems a little bit doubtful. They told him not to take his phone, he agreed.

It just seems like, I feel like he maybe knew what was coming. Keeps asking, what are we doing here? If Bill sees us, he's gonna flip, like what's going on. Buddy passes him a gun and says all you need to do is stand at the door. Now Jamie claims that Buddy was so focused, had never seen him like that. You know, Janelle's dad was a man on a mission. They walk into the house through the back door

because that was always unlocked. This is a small town. Jamie stood at that sliding back door while Buddy went into Bill's room and shoots him in the face. And then slices his neck. Billy Jean ran down the hallway trying to protect her six-month-old son.

And Jamie sees which way she ran. So when Buddy comes out of the room, he looks at Jamie and Jamie points to which way she ran. Buddy runs in that direction, and he kills her too. He shoots her in the head. And he leaves that baby smeared in his murdered mother's blood. For hours. They leave the house.

A couple hours later Roy, who is a good friend of the couple, he had sent all of his male to be picked up at the couple's place, right? So him and his wife, they drive, they park, and they see that, oh, Bill Sr., the dad is gone, but their truck is still here. So that means they're home, right? So him and his wife, they drive, they park, and they see that, oh, Bill senior, the dad is gone, but their truck is still here. So that means they're home, right? He lets himself in through that back door that's always unlocked. They know this. Jamie, the cousin knows this. Hello. He said that he didn't want to walk into the conception of another baby. So he was like, hello, right? No response. Okay, but their car is outside. That's so strange, right? Starts making his way upstairs, sees Bill lying first, laying in his bed still. And thinks, okay,

like let me just wake him up, like what's going on? Why is he just dead asleep? That's weird. Goes closer, tries to shake him and realizes that his throat had been slit and his, there was a gunshot wound on his face. So he starts freaking out. He runs downstairs, screams for his wife, call the police, call the police, right? Starts looking for Billie Jean and the baby, what happened, what happened? Seas are on the ground with the infant still in her arms and he froze, because it was blood everywhere. But then he saw the baby move. So he pulled baby Tyler out of her arms. He was quiet, he wasn't crying, and his wife, who has children, says, I think that he's probably just cried out everything he could already. The police arrive at

the crime scene. Nothing was stolen, no break in, no mess, which means this wasn't like a passionate struggle. It's almost like someone snuck in here and executed the couple. This feels planned. Bill had been killed with a single gun shut to the face, sliced on the neck, Billie Jean found laying on her side on the ground, holding Tyler, wearing Grinch pajamas. So the police explore all the avenues first. Maybe it was a drug-related crime, you know? We found some drugs in their house, but none of them were taken. Nothing was stolen, so that rules out robbery as well. It's also not murder suicide because the murder weapons were not in the house anymore.

That's impossible. I mean was this personal? This person knew the house layout. They knew that the back door was unlocked. That's how they got in. But who on some debt? They interview their friends. And this is how little they thought of Janelle. They said nobody, I mean they really have no enemies at all. Like we just live our lives. That's it. I mean, okay. I mean this is crazy.

The smallest thing would be that there was some internet drama recently. Like we recently unfriended this girl, this other resident, because she was like harassing us by calling us. We try to get a protection order, but the calls had recently stopped, and that's crazy, right? So the police go to investigate the potters to question them. And that just Janelle sitting there just mentioning how evil the girls are. And how they're into drugs. Oh, it's so bad. But of course I would never do anything. Did you ever make threats towards these girls? Oh God no! If there's staff, it's the hackers.

They actually made up three Facebooks of me using my picture. They hacked into my staff and stole everything. I'm not mean. I just tell people to leave me alone. I mean, that's as mean as I get. So the police straight up, according to the book, said, you know, it's just, it's just hard to grasp the idea that someone would pick on someone for no reason, you know? To know that I have had other girls pick on me for no reason, it's been like that ever since we came down here. Okay, we just have to ask, Janelle, did you do anything to them?

Did you kill them? Why would I do it? I'm not strong enough, especially with a guy, girl, and a baby, and just why would I do it? According to Dennis, during the entire interview, Janelle made four references to rape. How this group of friends were going to rape her. She kept mentioning that like four times. Bizarre.

So they thought, well maybe Janelle's boyfriend knows a little bit more. They bring in Jamie to be interviewed. And they just wanted to ask a couple of questions. He consented to a polygraph test, and there was a lot of deception. So they just, they keep amping up that heat. They start buttering them up. That's what they do with everyone, right? They do this with serial killers.

It's crazy. They're like, you didn't mean to decapitate and disembowel the victim. You know, you're just like fed up with life. You snapped. 24 times. You just snapped each time. You were angry.

Your mom abused you. I didn't. You were raised in a strict household. Mmm. That's it, that's all right. They started doing this to Jamie. You were scared of Buddy. You didn't want that. You loved them, you loved Bill, you loved Billie Jean.

You would never do that to parents. But you felt like you had no choice. And he started to open it up a little bit like, yeah. And right at the end, he looked at the police officers and Jamie said is the CIA here? Huh? No? Wait why why why would the CIA be here? Uh nothing is it's gena's brother named Chris or something and he's anyways he's mad I think they went to like high school together they're like family friends. Anyways, he works for the CIA. The police were like, this is weird.

But they move on! They just move on! Because they got bigger fish to fry! They tell him, we want you to call Buddy and ask him if he got rid of all the evidence. We'll be recording the call. So he calls. I know, I know. I can talk to you guys about anything, right? I can post a video on YouTube tell you guys how I feel, talk you through my life, right? But sometimes I'm sure for you

like it's repetitive, like how many times can I sit there and tell you about my feelings? You're gonna get sick of it, which is why I love using better help, because there's someone out there that wants to listen to me, and it's just so nice being able to talk to them. And if you feel like there's something that's just interfering with you, feeling your best this summer, from you, you know, achieving your goals this summer, better help can assess your needs and match you with your own license professional therapist that you can actually start communicating with in under 48 hours. It's not a crisis line, guys.

It's not self-help, but it is professional counseling done securely online. They have a broad range of expertise available, which may not be locally available in many areas, and the service is available for clients worldwide. Which I'm excited to start traveling again, and let's say, you know, next year or this year, we take a trip to Korea. I'm excited that I can still talk to my counselor, because sometimes traveling brings up some emotions, you know? You get timely and thoughtful responses, plus you can schedule weekly video and or phone sessions,

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And thanks to Dennis we have these really in depth conversations where he says hello Listen buddy, they're pointing fingers and the dad says Jiminy Christmas What what what are you saying Jiminy Christmas? What does that? I guess it's like a saying like holy smokes. Okay. Jiminy Christmas. Yeah, so I just got a call and ask, did you get rid of everything that was from um bills? You did right? Uh-huh.

Okay, okay, good. That makes me feel a little bit better. That's when the dad says, listen Jamie, they ain't got no reason to point fingers at you. You get that? Because Jiminy Christmas, all that Bill was in, I've heard more stuff about gangs in the last few days. I mean, everything's crazy. I bet it was a drug deal gone bad.

And they hung up. But that was all the police needed. He said, uh-huh. What are you getting rid of? The evidence? So Jamie was taken to jail, and a restaurant was out for buddy Potter And they were nervous to arrest body because uh the sky uh this town is known for everyone carrying guns legally But buddy would always carry two guns on him even when he was mowing the lawn

What? So Why? They were a little bit nervous, but thankfully nobody got hurt during the arrest and brought buddy to be interrogated while they searched the potter home. So they played buddy the phone conversation, tried the same tactic, you know, James is discussing, he's trying to throw you under the bus, huh? You're not evil, you're not evil because you let that baby live. You were just protecting yourself, you were protecting your family, And he's just sobbing. And he says, listen, when you hear people plotting to take you or trying to take your daughter into a restroom, take her out the back of the store, take her to a field.

It's like a GPS router. Get her so sick. Rave her, murder her. There's just so much shit. When you hear that someone put a $3,000 bounty on your head, on your your wife and your daughter? I didn't care about anything else. I said, yeah, you felt like you had no other choice, buddy.

Why don't you call your wife? And you know, tell her that you're not going to be coming home today. And they're doing this because the police want Barbara and Janelle. They know that the woman in the house masterminded this whole thing and they want them for it. Barbara picks up and you straight up like I did it to protect our family. It's over. I told the police the whole story. You with, oh I mean what's an appropriate reaction? What are you talking about? You're right? What are you, are you, are you, are you, undrocks? What are you saying? What are you, I don't know what? Yeah. What do you mean? Oh about the people murdered? Well that doesn't make sense because you were home

But right over I told them no because I saw you I saw you at home remember Listen you're without sleep. You haven't gotten a good night's sleep. You don't have your oxygen Your supplemental oxygen tanks. You're not drinking straight. Because I saw you. You can even hear Janelle in the back saying, yeah, dad, I saw you! And finally, when he said, listen, Jamie talked. For the first time, Barbara sounded shocked. So that's kind of an indication of like, come on. Either way, it didn't work because in Buddy's truck, they found the same bullets

that matched the ones at the crime scene. They also uncovered tons of shredded papers. Barbara liked to print emails then delete them from the actual email inbox. So the police spent hours and hours and reassembled 100 pages of shredded paper. Wow. Yeah. So eventually the two women were arrested as well. Because they believe that these two women, I mean, if Janela is Chris, she's egging on the murder. This is like conspiracy to commit murder, right?

The prosecutors believed that Jamie should be offered a deal. They need a testimony. And Jamie, I mean, Dennis goes into great detail about why and how in the whole process of this. But overall, I mean, most people believed that if it weren't for the Potter family, Jamie would have lived a life without crime. I don't think that this excuses it

But they just felt like with his testimony We can put the three potters behind bars and he's probably like the least. I don't know. That's what they thought That's what the prosecutors thought. So first testimony They gave him a charge of facilitation of first degree murder which is 25 years But he has the chance of parole after seven and a half years. They hired top-notch friends that can all assist to prove that in fact, Janelle was Chris, which was really hard to do, you know, you can easily try to convince a journey without that jury that wasn't me. What are you talking about? Someone had to come into my Gmail.

Well, so many people have access to this computer. Could have been my mom, could have been my dad, could have even been Jamie. He has access to this computer, could have been my mom, could have been my dad, could have even been Jamie. He has access to this computer. So there would be two trials. The first one would just buddy Potter, the man who actually pulled the trigger, and then the second trial with Barbara and Janelle, and Jamie would testify. So Buddy's trial was in 2013, and he was found very quickly a guilty of two counts of first degree murder. The only family member to be there to listen to the verdict was Christie, and she was

the closest with her father, versus the other two. But he never even looked at her, he never even acknowledged her, just went away, and he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. At Barbara and Janelle's trial, they had some really nasty evidence, you know, as they were searching the Potter house, they could hear tearing paper in the back. Like, like someone just... They are tearing paper while they are... So the police walk over to the next room and sure enough Barbara is tearing paper.

So the police said, hand me that. What are you tearing? You stupid idiots. Hand me the... What are you... Give me this. They snatched it from her and it's pictures of the three girls wearing flirty costumes for Halloween, Billie Jean and a bikini at the beach, Lindsey Thomas at a pool and written

on them were things like Billy Hore. Lindsey's a pan face, saying like she has an ugly face and saggy skin. So like, what? So that was really harsh evidence. Dennis, the prosecutor also found it really strange that Barbara would be wheeled in on a wheelchair every single day to trial. So what they would do is they would have to do this in advance because they did not want the jury to see her in a wheelchair because that taints the jury.

The jury's like, oh my god, look at this weak old woman, right? So she'd be wheeled in, but they were confused. I mean, they watched the CCTV footage of the prison yard a week before trial, and she was playing basketball with fellow inmates. But now she, in a wheelchair, what's going on? This family's weird. They read the worst of Janelle's writings, right?

Well, it wasn't written under Janelle, but we now know through the forensic analysis. So it's kind of like a handwriting expert. They find the way that you type things, the way that you're spelling errors. So for example, Janelle did this thing where spell loving, it's LOV, I-N-G, but she would never drop the E. So she would always write LOV, E, I-N-G.

So that was apparent in all of things, but she would constantly talk about Billie Jean saying, she's a damn whoreore a waste of being on earth They're all whores. They sleep with all these men Them Janelle is so sweet and caring. I Hope they all die die die and that baby and Bill I'm about to fight with you Billie Jean. Why don't you shut up and shut your fucking mouth you bitch one day girl You're gonna end up getting beat up, really good and left for dead.

You better shut up, go fuck a cow for all I care. Damn hooker, slut bag whore, and your bastard baby, take it with you and leave this fucking town. It's really nasty. There's a lot more in the book. I'm not gonna go into like the real nastiness of it, because it's just so gross. Like these writings, it's just, I have never seen such hateful words. Like they're just I don't even know how to describe it. They're just like venomous like it's vile.

Now the biggest court bombshell was when the prosecutors brought in Chris Jaden. Who? The picture the Janelle was showing her family. Oh, this is Chris from high school. Well Chris Jaden does exist and he did in fact go to Janelle's high school But he's not CIA agent. He is in law enforcement, but not CIA local law enforcement I believe so he gets up on the stand and he straight up says yeah

I was a popular kid in high school and Janelle was bizarre She never really fit in with anyone after graduation. I never thought I'd hear from her again or see her like she was a, she wasn't even a blip on my radar, but I got a Facebook request, you know, years after high school. I accepted it, went on her page, she has these really intense ramblings, so I freaked out and I unfriended her and that was it. So he's testifying. I mean, this was so shocking, the jury was on the edge of their seat. Dennis expected Janelle to look embarrassed. Like how embarrassing is this? You pretended to be him. You kept fished with his pictures in his name and you made up this elaborate bizarre CIA story

with the whole time. Janelle not once looked embarrassed. She just stared at Chris the whole time. Never looked away. She likes Chris maybe? Seems like it. Wow. So they ended with it seems like Janelle instigated the whole thing, right? Plotted and manipulated her family and friends. Barbara and Chris aka Janelle poured fuel on the fire. Egged on the whole situation would nonstop tell buddy the dad, look at what's happening to your daughter, wouldstop tell buddy the dad look at what's happening to your daughter Would non-stop tell Jamie look at what's happening to your girlfriend Until they felt like these two men felt like they had no other choice

So both the women were found guilty of first degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison However, Janelle does have the possibility of parole when she's like in her 80s So in an interview with 2020, it's a prison interview. General claimed that she was being harassed by the victims, but she didn't hate them. She just disliked them, right? She denies being Chris. I don't know who that could have been, but they hacked me, obviously. I thought this was the real Chris from my high school. I believed it too. Our family is working really hard to find out who this imposter is. But the ABC 2020 interviewer kept pushing. No but your Chris. So that's when you literally see Janelle on

camera just starts you're like no no no and just sobbing and tells her like I can't end the interview. Scary. Scary stuff. I mean this is is bonkers it's hard because there was so many times where I really wanted to feel frigginal because I get it she does have a lot going on she was probably bullied for her disabilities which is never pleasant I mean it's horrendous it could be life altering life changing right yeah but but the difference is people usually try to overcome it versus someone just ready to take down the whole world you know it's like when a serial killer has been sexually abused as a kid you have so much sympathy and so much pain goes out to that yeah but there are

so many people who have been sexually abused unfortunately and they don't end up being serial killers so for this situation it feels so so strange it's a bizarre case. Is there any follow up on the other two girls or? Yeah, they're just trying to live their life now. Move on. I mean, I'm sure that that is traumatizing. And I don't know what happened to Tyler. I don't know if maybe family took the baby or if, you know, he was put up for adoption. But how do you just take a young couple's lives like that like it? Billy June was 23

Wow, and how do you kill someone when they're holding their bit? I Hope you guys enjoyed this week's main episode Let me know and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye Bye!