Something Was Wrong - S15 E9: [Lex Fitzgerald] Willfully, Maliciously and Repeatedly

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

*Content Warning: pregnancy loss, emotional abuse, bullying, defamation, false accusations of child abuse, stalking, cyber gang stalking, harassment, invasion of privacy. For free and confidential resources, please visit: somethingwaswrong.com/resources S15 Artwork by the amazing Sara Stewart @GreaterThanOkay: Instagram.com/greaterthanokayEpisode Sources: Lex Fitzgerald’s Instagram: @lex.fitzgeraldThe Fitzgeralds on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFitzgeraldsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to something was wrong early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast, Killer Psychy Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the cold-butter killers you read about in the news. Listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psychy Daily in the Amazon Music exclusive podcast killer psyche daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Something was wrong is intended for mature audiences as it discusses topics that can be upsetting such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence.

Content warnings for each episode and confidential and free resources for survivors can be found in the episode notes. Some survivor names have been changed for anonymity purposes. pseudonyms are given to minors in these stories for their privacy and protection. Testimony shared by guests on this show is their own and does not necessarily reflect the views of myself, broken cycle media, or wondering. The podcast or any linked materials should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional expertise or treatment.

All persons are considered innocent and less proven guilty in a court of law. Thank you so much for listening. You think you know me, you don't know me well At all, at all You can't fall on me On August 20th, 2021, we announced that I was pregnant with our fourth little one and we were so excited. We've always wanted a really large family. We were actively trying for our fourth and so excited that we were going to be expanding our family. The second that we made a post, that's when the harassment started.

Close to 40 accounts were made with the Playboy name that I had used and with every comment congratulating us they would reply with my Playboy name in some variation of message. They also took to our YouTube channel to do the same. It was so many comments, direct messages, accounts, it was hurtful and completely hindered a happy time in our lives. But the thing that really got to me during this whole situation was that another harassment account had made a real with our announcement video, and my Playboy photos alongside one another. So this person created this video, stitched it together, and put effort into making a video where my children were on screen, directly beside playboy photos of me.

It was such a vial mean thing to do. Then they tagged all the brands that I had recently worked with in this video. They hashtagged my children's names, my name, common hashtags that we've used in the past. They sent it to my family members, to my friends, to other creators in my niche of content creation. They were blasting this video out to everyone. Then these 40 or so accounts started to post my Playboy photos to their actual accounts.

They started posting the photos and then also tagging my loved ones, tagging my friends, tagging the brands that we've worked with, tagging anyone and everyone close to us within our circle. They tagged my children again in each one of these photos, any common hashtags I've ever used. So the second that someone looked me up on Instagram, that's all you saw.

They took one of my photos that showed my tush and put welcome over it. The bio of that account red failed playboy model turned desperate mom. Under the photo of my butt, the caption read, thank you for looking. This is where we expose all the lies hashtag Lex Fitzgerald tells you. The next photo caption is, he's so incredible, he cheats on me so much, I can't wait to see what S.D.I.s he brings home with the hashtags. Lex made me do it, baby fits Gerald and bandaid baby. These accounts also followed all of our friends, family and brands we had worked with in the past. It was Absolutely their mission to not just hurt me but to ruin my life

After experiencing all of this and having two really hard days I woke up and started cramping That was followed by bleeding and then later that night I ended up mis started cramping. That was followed by bleeding, and then later that night, I ended up miscarrying our baby. When I started on YouTube back in 2015, before becoming a mom, I had no idea that I would eventually face

reoccurrent miscarriages. But that has very much been part of my motherhood, and it's something that I have chosen to share openly. This might not make sense to others, but during a time where I feel no control, it brings me comfort to give purpose to something that is happening to me. I've always been okay sharing about it. My husband supports me in sharing because he has seen firsthand how powerful and important it is to talk about things that were once labeled taboo.

It's why I've shared pregnancies early on. It might not be for everyone, but I don't mind giving others some companionship during those early weeks, even if it's in the form of video. I had experienced losses before, but this was especially difficult for me. Whether these feelings are valid or not, it just felt like they took my baby from me. I was already so broken down after going through all of this. It was a really, really low point in my life. Unfortunately, it just keeps getting worse.

When I shared that I was losing the baby, the posts, and the DMs, and the messages began, stating that I was making it all up. Keep in mind, these are new accounts being made. At this point, we still didn't have a confirmation as to who was doing this. I always try to see the good in people and this experience has been really difficult,

trying to figure out why would someone go to this length. I don't know, it's that's been a really tricky part of all of this is I want to try to understand. I just don't think I will ever understand why they chose to do this. I now get to hug my seven month old rainbow baby who is just an absolute incredible little boy. It was a really, really, really hard time for me to feel hopeless and attacked. When the detective with the police department started working our case and when our private detective started working the case that is when things started to change. And we started to get a better understanding of what we were actually dealing with. We really thought at this point it was just one person.

That's a sad part too about this whole thing. 99% of the people are so incredible and uplifting and supportive and wonderful and it's like how do you stop showing up for those people because of a few people who'd want to destroy it? I refuse to allow that to happen. The community that we had built, the kindness that we have all shared with one another and the support we've leaned on each other all over across the world. That's the beauty of social media. We can connect with people all over the world. It's why I held on as tightly as I did for so long.

I did not want a few unsafe people to mess that up, but it just gets worse. So after many more posts throughout the rest of the month, to mess that up, but it just gets worse. So after many more posts throughout the rest of the month, October 2nd rolls around, I received a direct message on Instagram from an account, and this seemed to be a real account. She stated that she had a friend who used to like me,

but became a hater that friend told her she's in the discord group chat about me. This friend told her that they had found our Airbnb location when we were in Montana, which we were currently in at the time. And she wanted to quote unquote give me a heads up because that's fucked up. Along with this message, she sent me the link to the listing for our Airbnb. We had gotten really good at not giving any information regarding our Airbnb's, but they had to have gone through the entire state of Montana until they found one that looked like our view we had shown. So much effort put into figuring out our information, like it was a game at this point. She also had said to me,

you don't need to confirm or deny, but if that's where you are, I'm just worried about your family, if the stalker or other creepy people are in that discord. Along with the help of our private detective and the detective at the police, we were able to comb through our old messages and started to realize everything we had experienced over the last few years was actually, in fact, not just one person, but a small group of people. Behind the scenes, they were all conspiring, egging each other on to cause us harm. One by one, we began to figure

out who they actually were. No longer were they allowed to hide behind their computer screens. behind their computer screens. What we found out later is that on October 2nd was the same day she also wrote in the Discord herself, pretty relaxed putting that out there with a stalker using the Discord screen name Mitz, while she was messaging me on Instagram that she was scared for my family. She was laughing and engaging in the same discord she warned me about conspiring with this group as one person wrote, oh please, please, please tell her this, meaning tell me that they know where my location is or where we're living. So the person who had messaged me was actually one of the people harassing our family in this discord group. She fabricated a story, messaged me like she was looking out for me, but actually was telling me to scare us and then

report back to this discord group. The saddest part though is that this was a group of your everyday people. One of these women had just became a foster parent. One of them is a high school English teacher and a few of them actually have experience working for CPS, whether they currently work for them or once worked for them. One of them, she had lost her mom unexpectedly and two days later, she was just right back into the group saying horrible, horrible things about us. One of them is from Canada and she makes a lot of comments on my body even though she's spoken about her own struggles. With her self-image, there's even two of them, a husband and wife couple. They joke, obsessing over me has brought their relationship closer together.

The husband had made a comment like five out of five stars, Yelp review, hating her as for sure brought our relationship closer together, something along those lines. They will post photos in this Discord group of one of them on a computer and the other one on their phone, the one that's on the computer is in the Discord saying, viol things about us and the other ones like, yeah, I'm just behind her like watching what she's saying

and laughing with you guys. It became a game to these people. I felt like I was the mouse and I was being chased by a cat. A few of these people that I mentioned, they're aspiring influencers as well. One of them actually had left this group. She deleted everything because she ended up establishing

a following on TikTok. She deleted all of her comments, but at one point was a really big contributor to this group on Discord. All of these people, they all have kids. The same age as mine. One of them is from Kansas City and it's scary because we were there. And she has a little girl that's the same age as my youngest baby. So everything that they were doing to us, she was doing while holding her newborn. It seemed just baffling to me. These are everyday parents, mostly moms.

They're the people you see at church or your child's teacher, your neighbor. They're everyday people with children who behind closed doors are spending all their free time day in and day out trying to have someone's babies taken from their arms. They want this narrative of me being an unfit mother to cause me to not have my children. The worst part, it's a thought that hunts my mind. My children be in taken away from me. They want that to happen to me. And yet

they're holding and loving and giving affection to their own babies or at least I hope they are. I was so grateful for our private detective and the detective figuring out who these people were and to get a better understanding of what was going on. But also, my goodness, you want to talk about going through a lot of confusion. It was almost 5,000 entries into this discord. 5,000 posts. I can't imagine how you physically have that much time in your day. I step away from a group chat sometimes and I'll have 150 messages, and I'm like, whoa, what did I miss? I couldn't imagine people were talking all day long every day, all about how horrible I am as a person, trying to figure out different ways that they could cause chaos in our lives. This discord chat was the meeting ground for these people. I was just completely unaware that the amount that they were

reaching out to me, which felt so intense and so excessive, wasn't even the tip of the iceberg as to how much they were engaging, communicating, and thriving off of this hate that they all seem to have collectively together against me. The discord name Nashville TN. This is the person who's the new foster parent from Virginia and her husband worked for CPS, this person. She doxed this information. She posted our address and everything to the discord. She actually was the other person to dox my initial phone number. She said, do the damn thing, aka giving everybody the go-ahead to harass me. Since bringing both the police department and our private detective on board, we slowly had begun piecing together who each person was.

Another component to this is when we were able to positively ID some of the people in this group, we started to realize how invested they truly were. Like I had mentioned previously, our YouTube videos were in fact delayed. After looking at one of the women's Instagram pages, we realized that she had traveled from Virginia to Knoxville then to the hotel that we were staying at and documented it on her Instagram.

Her trip was days after we first mentioned being in Knoxville. That was also where someone had texted us and told us that they saw us outside of our hotel. But it was just all really concerning. Even more so, she had traveled to New York right around the time that we were in fact leaving while we'll likely never know her actual intent to think that someone could have possibly taken this that far is just very unsettling. We had partnered with that specific hotel and then days later after the video was posted, she all of a sudden is showing photos of her at that hotel. It's just so scary and so concerning. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal.

We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern, Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers and often for committing only minor offenses. The FBI began looking at two local judges, and when the full picture emerged, it made national headlines.

The judges were earning a fortune, carrying out a brazen criminal scheme, one that would shatter the lives of countless children, and force a heated debate about punishment and America's criminal justice system. Follow American scandal wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wonder App. November 7th, 2021, I received a message from someone stating that they received a message from an account called Hudson Valley mom I didn't know it at the time, but we found out shortly after that the catarenas meow account and Hudson Valley mom These were the same people her bio had stated love to adventure with my kid I guess she was trying to become a blogger

and had her blogger information posted to her bio. But the message that she had sent the person was, Lex Fitzgerald is so mean, you're not the only one she's been rude to, along with that message was the discord link. The person who messaged me stated that this person had reached out to her from two different accounts and she was hoping that it wasn't the person who had been harassing our family. At this time, every couple of days they would make contact with one of my socials. So whether it was through comments on YouTube or comments and DMs on Instagram, they wanted to make sure I knew that they were always there in the darkness.

When we had posted a video of Dan's reaction to finding out that we were expecting our rainbow baby, they had commented on the YouTube video that Dan's reaction to the news reminded this person of Chris Watts when his wife let him know that she was expecting. They also wrote, Dan, if you need help, where yellow in your next post. This was probably one of the worst things that they've all ever said. It was really hard for me to read that. They basically were comparing my husband to a man who murdered his wife and kids.

Then on the same video, we're referencing Dan practically being held against his will. At this point, I was so chronically exhausted from dealing with this that those really hit hard. I feel like that broke me a little bit. I'm not the type of person to allow someone else's words to really get to me, but reading that on a video that I was so excited to make and to post. It makes me sad too, because my husband experienced our losses as well.

He was so excited, but he was also scared. He was right there along with me, experiencing it all. His reaction was so perfectly down. It was so real and honest and genuine. It's one thing to read these comments in general, but to know who they were coming from, the same people who had caused our family so much pain, it was really scary and exhausting at this point. Because they were

getting worse week by week. It felt like mob mentality on December 8th, 2021, we decided to reach out to multiple attorneys seeking help. We had reached out to attorneys through our travels, but it was always a dead end because we were traveling and we were on one income. We could not afford the thousands of dollars we needed for a retainer. So we were able to have some legal guidance, but when it came to actually trying to utilize that root of trying to get these people to stop, it's just not something that we were really able to do. On December 16th, the Julia Elizabeth 1017 account that was posting a bunch of different posts about me. Its username changed to Martha MarkaRecher.

And it's at this point that this account really began posting excessively. They began putting more and more effort into their attacks. Everything once again was continuing to escalate. If they get bored, what are they going to do next? And I was right. It did end up getting so much worse. December 21, 2021, we've reached out to the state of Texas and requested a protective order. Then we reached out to the state of Texas and requested a protective order. We knew that we would be going to move to Texas and be there for the birth of at least our baby and possibly longer if it ended up being a place we wanted to live. Even though we weren't technically there just yet, we still reached out to the state of Texas

and we requested a protective order against this person. After filing all that paperwork, we were then told that protective orders are for domestic issues only. It was so disheartening. I asked over and over again how could that be possible, But it was just one shutdown after the other of, no, this is not going to be possible. It would be against their protected rights, et cetera. But at this time though, the police department was working that active investigation.

And there were no charges yet, yet being the key word there. We also had reached out to sources, but they did not provide services or guidance directly to victims of stock Texas, an Instagram account was brought to my attention. It was called JoinFVG. JoinFVG was JoinFamilyVloggerGate, is what it was called. And the bio states did Lex Fitzgerald block you too for no good reason. Join us on the FamilyVloggerG Gate Discord server with the invite link attached. They had made two posts, one of EclipseArt created with the words Lex is a liar, and the second with directions to joining the discord referencing it as their little community. They were calling themselves now their own little community of people who were coming together to hate me and be vile towards my family.

Like I mentioned, December 27th, that was also the day that we settled down in Texas. It only took the members of this group until the 29th, two days later, to locate our rental property. I just feel obligated to reiterate that before all of this we were very careful as to what we would show in our videos. After going through this though, we were even more careful, like extremely careful, but they would attach on to the tiniest detail. For example, our rental property has this weird chicken coop in our backyard, and it came with it. So they searched through every single rental property in the Fort Worth area for a chicken coop in the backyard.

So not only was this group actively making direct contact with me and conspiring together to harass, but they would also be talking about hating me and analyzing my life behind their computers and their phone screens. On January 27, 2022, on my way to an ultrasound for my baby, one of the best days. I get a call from the detective, from the police department, and gave me such great news. She had gone ahead with official charges. They were being filed against one of the women who was harassing our family. I cannot even put into words what that conversation was like to feel so let down and so alone to know that charges were being filed for stalking three total counts. I'm so grateful to that detective and that intake police officer into the PI for working

together and for taking us seriously and allowing that to take place. It felt like finally somebody truly had listened and looked at the greater picture of what we had experienced. I'm just so grateful to them. On the phone, the detective had told me that she was officially being charged and that there would be an active warrant. The warrant states, the state of South Dakota, count one stalking, follow or harass, class one misdemeanor, count two stalking, harass by communication, class one misdemeanor. Count 2 stalking harassed by communication. Class 1 misdemeanor. Count harass another person Alexa Fitzgerald contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the state of South Dakota. My PI had access to the discord because they had publicly posted the invitation link, but the group and the whole chat was subpoenaed by the police department as well. The first time that I read the warrant was a moment of clarity. I feel like I finally had people who realized and understood what we had gone through.

And to be able to read the words willfully, maliciously, repeatedly, it made me feel seen. I was really losing hope that we would ever get to this place. It's been nearly four years now. I thought that my life would forever be this way. Finally, to see on paper that the law was on my side. This was the beginning of the end in my eyes. I thought that this would stop everyone else. They would all be like, oh, well, I don't want to get in trouble with a lot. I thought that they would stop at this point. But that is not what happened.

They thought that this was hilarious. And even went as far as to actually change some of their usernames in the discord group to like felon for hire and things like that. This didn't stop anything. So here I am just waiting for her to get picked up for me to get this phone call that she's been arrested. When she got arrested, we could then get that emergency restraining order and I was counting down the minute days we're going by and weeks started to go by and we are trying to figure out what is going on. January 2022, the same time, this Martha marker account that was posting all of those

horrible things about me, there was a YouTube channel that they started to promote which I feel like is them. I haven't ever been able to confirm or deny whether it is but my suspicion is that it is also their YouTube channel. They started making videos now so there's accounts, there's posts, there's engagement in this discord and now there's a YouTube channel that is also making content just saying mean things, vile things about me. They would edit together these intricate videos. It was so over the top I just kept thinking that to myself. This is so much. But in the back of my head I was like okay what

we have this warrant, it's going to stop soon. I just have to hang in there a little bit longer. But January is when I honestly began pulling back a lot on my socials and that's when our income really began to suffer immensely. I could not do it anymore. I was broken. I had tried for years at this point to try to move past it all and keep going. The mean comments and causing lost wages, that was one thing, but these people were so relentless with me and I think that I broke I finally could not push through anymore. finally could not push through anymore. The person who had this active warrant out for them would even go as far as to find the locations of places that I would go to. If I said I went to a quest lab, they would search all over trying to figure out which one I had gone to. This was all

documented in their Discord group chat. Her account name on there was I deleted myself and she wrote, this is definitely the one she went to. It's in a supermarket and she would post a screenshot of the business. In the same conversation, she also shared a screenshot where she reached out to a brand that I had shared in an attempt to work with them in the future.

She wrote in the group chat, yeah, I just did that. And in this screenshot, she basically was telling this brand how horrible of a person I am and they should not work with me ever and to not be associated with me. be associated with me. And if that wasn't enough, she also would go ahead and find screenshots of my LLC information and she would share that with the group. It felt like they were craving, learning new information about me and they were all trying to one up one another and figure out more information about me and my family. They always wanted validation from the others in this group. They would egg each other on to keep going. The person with this act of Warren wrote in the discord once, Lex Honey, you read here, you know your shadow band. I reported all your links today to just a special little something from me to you. She also states that she has a folder of all of my posts I've ever made, even refers to herself as a creeper for having them. She would find things about

my best friend. Forget me, now she was trying to isolate me from my friends, she found my friends blog from over 10 years ago and was posting that there. She has to have dug so deep. And that means that she wasn't just focusing on my life. She was focusing on everyone who was around me too, and so I was so scared for all of my loved ones. During all of this time, the posts on Instagram and on YouTube videos as well as like the group chatting, it never stopped, it was constant. On March 9th, 2022, I was supporting a brand

that had sent me a gift for my baby and posted the item to my Instagram stories. I had my hand covering the name, but wanted to show our baby's name tag for when he made his arrival. This name tag that was made to announce my baby's name was sent to me and it was a small Etsy shop and I really wanted to support her store.

So I covered the name with my hand and I showed the name tag. Within like an hour, they had gone to her Facebook page, searched her photos, found the name tag, she had taken a photo of and began saying that that was our baby's name. That started getting posted everywhere.

The shop owner then posted another one that said a different name but was close to the name that our baby's name was to try to get them to stop. It was all silly. It wasn't a big deal. We don't hold our children's names that intensely. The reason I'm sharing this is not because it was that big of a deal. What they ended up doing, how intense they were and dedicated they were, they ended up taking both photos and superimposed the placement of the name and then the placement of the other name tag and wanted to see which one my hand was covering exactly. That's the level of energy that these people were putting into trying to cause me sadness. They were doing

electronic crafting behind the scenes, trying to figure out as much information about us as they could. I was getting fed up. So March 9th, after a conversation with those in our circle, we decided to go public with the police investigation, in hopes that this would deter the group from continuing with the harassment. On Instagram, I'd made a single story post and said update for the last eight months there has been an active police investigation into the criminal actions of the women who have been relentless in harassing and stalking our family. Officially, there is now an act of warrant for at least one person involved. This investigation is ongoing with multiple involved and there are more charges to come. It didn't work. They thought that it was hilarious. Half of them, like I said,

changed their username to some sort of words regarding a warrant or a felon. The person with the warrant wrote, I want to know more, I work from home, so I'm just over here looking out the window, waiting for my warrant to arrive crying laughing emoji I reached out March 9th 2022 to discord themselves and asked for them to remove the discord They gave me some nonsense response that I have to send them specific links to the discord But it was not something that I had because I wasn't in the discord itself. I refuse to be. I did not want to have access to this group.

Anything that I've gotten or have heard of from the discord has come from investigations that have taken place or from someone else who is close to me who was able to just monitor the group in case anyone said they were going to do anything that would cause us physical harm. If any of them ever referenced anything that was like, I'm gonna go to their home or I'm gonna go to their schools or anything along those lines, I would know about it right away. They didn't want to do anything about it. Discord was a dead end. It didn't seem like they cared enough. On the 14th of March, I reached out to the local Sheriff

Department of where the person with the warrant resides. This Sheriff's Department had a deputy contact me and we spoke a few times, he was part of the warrant department. He had told me that this person was in fact involved in a domestic dispute with charges against her. That scared me a lot. Is this true? I have no idea. But it was that information that made me then pull back once again from the amount that I would be posting and sharing. This was the first time that violence was brought into the conversation. So that really scared me a lot. The deputy had said that unless the state had extra-dited, there is nothing that they could do. It was upsetting to hear that.

I feel like what was happening, the fact that it wasn't an extra-ditable offense and that they weren't going to go all the way from South Dakota to the East Coast. That's what was taking so long with the warrant and pretty much why it's still an act of warrant to this day. I had asked the police department if it was possible for them to take over the case since technically the harassment took place also in their jurisdiction and he very abrasively stated that that would never happen, and there's not much that they can do, which didn't make sense to me.

Because we figured out who it was because of the detective work in South Dakota, before that we had no idea where this person even resided. So I wouldn't have known to go to that state, to file charges, but that also became sort of a, not a dead end, but like an open ended what if? The worst part is that two of these people,

the one with the warrant and the one her mom who had passed away, they live in the same exact jurisdiction. So as of right now when it comes to the warrant, it's up in the air. In May and June of 2022, the stocking and harassment continued, but it for sure slowed down, because I had slowed down with being active on social media. I was hoping this would finally start to be behind us, but they would for sure pop up from time to time. That YouTube page that was making harassment videos about me had then changed

to spin-fluencer and looked like they were trying to become YouTubers themselves. Then on July 7, 2022, they escalated their harassment and really crossed the line again. I made a post on my Instagram stories about my daughter wanting oranges, right? Really innocent and no big deal. So in the Discord group, they conspired together to drop ship dozens of oranges to my home. So they literally laughed and joked about how excited they were to imagine me opening the door to like a ton of oranges. It was such an invasion of privacy and was once again another step closer to just showing up at our doorstep. One of the people wrote, if I ever see her again, I'm about to show her a sock full of oranges. I take that as it was being said as a threat to hit me with a sock full of oranges. Somebody said I'm down to throw oranges at her oranges or like $3 a pound.

How much is your Starbucks milkshake you cow is what she then goes on to say. It just feels like invasion of privacy after invasion of privacy. Not only did they docks my address now online, but now they're sending things to my home. And not only that, they're enjoying it and laughing about it, egging each other on like, I can't believe you did that. that's so amazing. They're seeking validation and attention from each other all at me and my family's expense. Yes, I had a ton of oranges show up at my front door randomly and I'm like, what? This is so strange. Having no idea that it actually was them. It feels like one blow after the other. Why are you doing this?

Just leave us alone. Months go by where I'm about 20% active of my normal 100% posting schedule. And I decide to post very generally about an incident that happened with my son in the second week of kindergarten. I received so much incredible guidance and advice about how to navigate the public school system, ways to have my son evaluated, information from the teachers, both current and former teachers in our community, online. It was a wonderful experience of my community showing up to help me be the best mom that I could be. I specifically didn't give any identifying information. I didn't discuss his actual school in any way. It was very general with what had happened and where it had happened.

But I gave important details where the type of advice that I could receive would make sense and actually be effective. Even after an apology from the principal, we ultimately still made the decision to withdraw him from the school. We had the intention of homeschooling him for a little bit until we found a better suited academic environment for him. In the state of Texas, they have wonderful homeschool laws where you essentially are given the freedom to educate your child how you see fit as a parent. And so all that we had to do was send an email to the school stating that we would like to withdraw him. Also in the state of Texas, kindergarten is not a mandatory grade level. You don't actually have to send your child to kindergarten if you choose not to. Having said that, we absolutely want to send our child to kindergarten and we

want to educate them the best to our ability. I had always wanted to homeschool, but I also always want to give my children the opportunity to succeed in any way that's best for them. So I didn't want to instantly say no to the public school experience just because I thought that he wouldn't like it. So we went into it knowing that it was a possibility that he might not be there permanently. After what had happened, we were like, we're just going to take this as a sign that it's not for us. I started to homeschool him and he loved it. I was helping him sort of feel comfortable again with education and learning, slowly getting acclimated to the idea of going back to a school building and feeling safe and comfortable there. We had actually come across a school that was incredible and out of protection for my child, I'm not going

to say any more details after that. But he is back in school even though the majority of the people who follow me on social media, they aren't really aware of that. But once again, you know, you decide what you share on social media. I was completely unaware, but while this was all going on, the group was egging each other on to call child protective services again on our family. So CPS once again shows up and once again my children are put through conversations that no four or six-year-old should ever have to experience. This group member also shows an email she sent to the principal of my son's school. So not only did they make another false claim to CPS,

but they also sent a direct email to the principal of my child's school. They made direct contact with them. This was getting to the point where no matter what we did or did not share, they found ways to cause harm and fear to our family. The case workers stood there at my door reading off the complaints. Once again, it was things like, the dad is a nice guy and means well, but Lex spends all his money at Target. She took him out of school

to homeschool him, and she had her baby at home, because I had a home birth. They must have even sensed how out there their claims were, because they would always make sure to add in some sort of wordage like I neglect my children while I'm on my phone or things of that nature to wear these key words would in fact trigger the need to look into these claims. That was just really hard again. This person wasn't as open and instantly understanding of everything that we have been through. She didn't communicate as openly as the other caseworker had. And so that was even scarier. I don't know what's going on inside this person's mind. All I know is that this person could decide

that they get to take away my children from me. And it's petrifying to think that both of the CPS claims came back unfounded and were closed. but I still to this day replay those days in my mind often. On October 23, 2022, the member with the active warrant she posted screenshots to the discord implying that she had spoken to my mother-in-law, aka my husband's mom, it was so far fetched and weird, it scares me to think that she likely took the effort to construct that conversation with herself. Because I know for a fact that my sweet mother-in-law would never ever ever communicate with anyone in the way that this person had stated that she had communicated with. We sort of think that when I got boring to these people, when they found all the things they could possibly find about me, now they're just starting to make things up.

They're starting to construct these pretend conversations so that they have something to bring to the group and to have reactions, responses, attention. We have no idea what would come next after that. We are so fearful that this is going to continue to escalate and that no one is going to be able to help us in time. After nearly four years of experiencing this, that's not such an out there concept to think that this could just get worse and worse. In November, I was asked in a Q&A that took place on my Instagram stories if one day I would share openly what we had been through and I stated that one day I will share everything, the screenshots, the details, everything.

And one of the group members, the one who had lost her mom and the one who lives in the same area of the one with the warrant ended up sending me an email. It's to be noted that she sent it through my agency email, even though she knew what my personal email was. It's likely that she did that because she hoped that it would cause my agency to drop me. For the record, it was forwarded to my personal email with the same enthusiasm as the coffee gift card. She sent me this email.

Before I read it, I can't even begin to explain to you what it feels like to read this. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. I felt like I was on a different planet and I could not believe what I was actually reading. This is the email that I get. Hi Lex, we've never really directly spoken. We have a lot of reasons to speak. I followed your channel, which you know, and I used to really adore your content. Apparently, it's come to your attention that I no longer do. I've discussed this on private forums about YouTubers and influencers, which is my right. You've been upset by criticism and negative attitudes, which is your right. As a social media influencer and YouTube celebrity, you've opened

yourself up to criticism as well as praise and have received both. This is part of the position and career. Discussing and criticizing you or your content in no means by any law is considered stalking. However, collecting and distributing my personal information with the intent of causing my emotional distress via you or your followers is. I have screenshots that are proof that under 18 US code 2261A, you've expressed to cause me emotional distress by intimidating and harassing me via your Instagram stories. You recently posted about me and your stories as one of your stalkers. This is untrue and defamatory.

It has also come to my intention that you are following my local police department, leaving me to believe you've collected my personal information, including my home address, with the same intent. Unbelievably, you've recently condemned me for my mother's accidental and traumatic death. I've been well enough to leave all alone and agree to live different lifestyles and have different opinions, but you have now absolutely crossed lines that are illegal and immoral. I've collected a full docket of screenshots and videos in

which you are clearly referring to me personally, as well as your intention to make me pay for or own up to my actions of discussing my dislike for your channel. Moving forward, I am considering these a direct threat. I've been in touch with my attorney about the situation and plan to file paperwork with my local PD to solidify this history of your behavior and intent. You'll be receiving a certified cease-and-dissist letter

in the mail shortly. This email is a courtesy to alert you of that, if you express intent to harass or distribute my personal information with intent to harass or distribute my personal information with intent to cause me distress, I will be pursuing legal action by any channel available to me. I also write to you in advance so that you understand, I do not mean to cause you or your family harm, distress, or fear.

Though I disagree with a lot of your beliefs, I do wish the best for you and your family. However, I will absolutely not allow you to harass or defame me, especially by condemning my own family. I hope this letter reaches you well and that you will take the time to metabolize what I'm saying, my intentions, and do self-analysis in a place of peace and compassion that allows you and your family to live a fruitful and authentic life. I simply will not allow you to do it at my expense. What is going through your brain when you're receiving this email and you and your husband are discussing it? I looked at him and I don't think I said anything.

My jaw was just wide open. I was just staring blankly at him and he was like, what? I don't even know how to explain to you what I just read. There's so much to unpack. First, I never received a cease-and-dissus letter, ever, so I feel like the whole intent of this was just to scare me. Second, the first time I actually had the guts to say out loud that I am going to share my experience, this person starts panicking and this is the letter that I get. The fact that she's stating that it's causing her distress and that I need to do self-analysis in a place of peace and compassion,

hope that I live a fruitful and authentic life, get truly shocked my system. Because what I had experienced for so long, and they were doing it non-stop consistently, and they were part of this group, then to receive a message, I should have sent to her, but instead she sent it to me.

I'm reading it, and then I'm starting to defend myself. I'm like, this is gaslighting. I wanted to respond. Honestly, part of me wanted to just post it to my Instagram stories and just be like, here you go. I don't know what to do with this anymore. If you're going to contact me, if you're going to harass me, it's going to be for everybody to see. Part of me wanted to do that. Here's the icing on the cake. I just couldn't believe what I was reading. That person who sent me that email took a screenshot of the email sent and posted it to the discord. This was the message that she wrote the discord. She states, with a picture of the email, it ends today, wake up bitch. I'm gonna have

enough paper to fill a shoebox by the time I'm done lol. So that very put together, there's been a misunderstanding, you need to metabolize what I'm saying, I'm a victim, x, y, and z, then in the discord she was telling me to wake up bitch. To go through years of harassment and stalking and abuse only for one of the members in this group to send me an email like that, talking about the intent to cause emotional distress and using the words like intimidating and harassing and defamation, it felt like I was on a different planet. This person who sent me this actively took place in this discord group encouraging people

to like send things to my home. She got excited over others contacting CPS and reaching out to brands to have make lose wages in the discord. She also stated at one point, can you call CPS on people without a permanent living situation? She also said, I'm going to call her County Sheriff and protect my own ass. I'm going to see if I can preemptively file a cease and desist or an order of protection against her remotely. If you want to play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. This person also wrote, if she's not out to get me, I'm going to get her ass first. I'm not going to jail for this fat racist.

That's the person who wrote me this email. I don't know what to say about it. It's like this odd parallel. They're telling me that CPS should come to my home because I could potentially be neglecting my child while I'm on my phone and then they're posting all day long every day, harassing me, sending things to my home, reaching out to my children's schools, and doing all of these things, you all have kids. So where are they? Where are your children while you're doing all of this? The weirdest thing too, I have a post on my Instagram if you scroll all the way down, you'll find it eventually where I literally say like, hey, I've had somebody

who has been making new accounts and sort of sending me the same stuff. I'm here. If you want to message me from your real account, let's chat, let's hash it out. I just want to keep a safe space. If I get it wrong, then I get it wrong. But we're not at that point. This is not a normal reaction. If you were blocked by somebody, you would be like, well, that's annoying, and you would just carry on, right?

So we're at the point where these people found each other and found comfort, I guess, in their paint for me, and they found the attention that I wasn't willing to give them. I became the mouse that they chased. them. I became the mouse that they chased. Whoever would cause me and my family more suffering, more pain, would get the most attention in this group. I knew that there would come a day where I would want to share everything that has happened to us. And I didn't know exactly how I was going to do it. So I'm very appreciative to you for allowing me to speak openly and honestly about what we've been through. When we have felt so silenced for so long, it feels healing to be

able to be open about it. I just wanted to say that I'm really appreciative to you for giving me this opportunity to do this. It's an honor to work with you and to be trusted to share your story, especially when you've already been through so much online. It takes a lot of bravery. My heart just goes out to you. The lack of safety in the stalking and the relentless harassment. The CPS piece to me is just so heartbreaking. False allegations. They're not only hurting your family, they're wasting people's time and resources that could be helping real victims,

real hurting children. It's truly scary. The levels of need for cybersecurity and increasing in laws, these laws are not caught up to these technologically based harassment crimes. Oh, for sure. And that's the reason why I also wanted to share my story. The amount of people very close to me when I finally open up and sort of explain to them what we've been experiencing, the

amount of times they respond with. I had a feeling there was people being mean, but I had no idea that it was to this extent. Unfortunately, this is far more common than anyone would think. Our laws do not protect us in a cyber capacity. Getting it out there and sharing, that's what's going to protect us far better. What if this was happening to a child, to a teenager?

I'm a 32 year old woman and they knocked me down, figuratively, emotionally, to the point where it was so bad I still feel like I experienced trauma when I think back to what we went through and I just keep thinking to myself what if this happened to a teenager or somebody who wasn't as comfortable and with who they are as a person and who is still finding themselves we need to do better.

Our cyber laws need to get caught up. Social media is not going to go anywhere. People who are seeing the life of social media and never knowing anything different, how are we going to set up this world to be better for our children, to utilize all of the wonderful, beautiful things that social media can give us,

connection, education, entertainment. How do we have our system of law do a better job protecting us all from harm? We have to start it now. We're already seeing the statistics. We're already seeing a change and effect from social media, and it can no longer be like the wild, wild west. I really hope that there comes a day where nobody has to experience what we have experienced

and that there are laws put in place that will protect us. I just hope that me sharing my story even, if this is all that comes of it, it makes people a little bit more aware as to what is going on. Maybe why your favorite creator doesn't post as publicly anymore or that you might be able to keep your own family safer. If you are experiencing this, what is happening to you is against the law. Do not feel invalidated if those who are supposed to protect us are dropping the ball. Keep pushing forward, keep trying to make police reports, keep a paper trail of everything, keep a documented list of all types of contact.

Know what your laws are in your local area. One of the biggest changes for us was actually getting a cyber-private detective, so that is someone who you can reach out to find one in your area or someone who seems right for your case or your experience. They specialize in figuring out who people are online, who are doing things similar to what we've experienced. Also something that I was unaware of that has recently changed our lives. There are cybersecurity firms out there.

I have my own cybersecurity firm that I have hired and they have helped us be protected a lot more online. They've helped us with better safety measures online. When this first started financially, we were doing well for ourselves and then as time went on, we started to struggle more with finances and when you are getting a lawyer telling you that you need a $15,000 retainer to even begin you're like I am losing my wages Just from what I've been experiencing. I don't have that kind of money and you feel so helpless we at the time had the money to the time had the money to hire our private investigator but I just wonder how many people are in this situation and just don't have the funds needed. Not

only that, I think about this component all the time. This happened to me and I have a social media following. It was always in the back of my mind that when I truly started to feel scared and that they might actually do something to me that I had the ability to be open about it more on my socials and have more eyes on me and be able to help me keep myself safe. I couldn't imagine not having that following and to still go through what I was going through to feel so isolated and so alone and so scared. I always knew that I could reach out to my community for help if I needed to, for resources or whatnot. My heart breaks for people who could potentially be going through what I've gone through and not have as many people both physically with them and electronically, I guess you could say, around them supporting them. We'd have to start really making some changes because those are the people that I really think about.

The people who don't have the means to hire these experts, they don't deserve to live this way. And so, thank you for having all of your resources available. That is such valuable information, especially for people who feel like they have nowhere to turn. Something that stood out to me that I wrote down when you were speaking is normalized doesn't mean normal. I think that is so succinct, it's so applicable here. This behavior is so normalized online and it's not normal or healthy for us to be so harmful towards one another. Certainly discourse will happen. I'm not trying to like preach toxic positivity here. I hope that people's eyes will be opened through hearing your story and I think they will because mine were. I learned a lot. I hope that ultimately what

people will also walk away with is let's all make a little bit more effort to be kind online and talk to our kids about how important it is to be kind both in person and online. Thank you so so much. I genuinely appreciate all of your time and energy. I think your story is so powerful and speaks to so many current issues and in almost nuanced ways that people experience abuse. Trauma can absolutely take place online and through online interactions. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share my story. I'm grateful that we connected, for sure. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, stay safe friends.

Something was wrong is a broken cycle media production, created and hosted by me, Tiffany Rees. If you'd like to support the show further, you can share episodes with your loved ones, leave a positive review, or follow something was wrong on Instagram. At something was Wrong Podcast. Our theme song was composed by Glad Rags. Check out their album, Wonder Under. Thank you so much. Hey, prime members, you can listen to something was wrong early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple

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