Something Was Wrong - S20 E6: Rot in Hell

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

*Content Warning: cyberstalking, stalking, catfishing, fraud, psychological violence, death, medical trauma, suicide, suicidal ideation, threats of self harm, emotional abuse, harassment, sexual abuse.This season, our theme Song U Think U, by Glad Rags, is covered by Palehound. For music and tour dates, go to palehound.com.Follow El of Palehound and @bachelor_band: https://www.instagram.com/palehound/ Palehound on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/palehound-1 Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips: somethingwaswrong.com/resources FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): https://www.ic3.gov/ Stalking Prevention, Awareness, Statistics & Resource Center (SPARC): https://www.stalkingawareness.org/ Follow Something Was Wrong:Website: somethingwaswrong.com IG: instagram.com/somethingwaswrongpodcastTikTok: tiktok.com/@somethingwaswrongpodcast Follow Tiffany Reese:Website: tiffanyreese.me IG: instagram.com/lookieboo See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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This is the competition. Follow the competition on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences and may be distressing for some listeners. For a full trigger warning for each episode and for a list of resources for survivors and their loved ones, please see the episode notes.

Pseudonyms are given to all minors and some survivors in these stories for their privacy and protection. Testimony shared by guests of the show is their own, and does not necessarily reflect the views of myself, Broken Cycle Media, or Wondry. This podcast and any linked materials should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment. In response to the allegations against Jessica Pauley, she responded with no comment. Thank you so much for listening. At all, at all, at all You don't know anybody

You don't know anybody You don't know anybody You don't know anybody Till you talk to someone Here's Brie So at this point, Brody and myself were talking about me taking a staff job here in Wilmington. He had just taken a travel assignment and Jess had been working here permanently and then I had made some friends through her knowing I didn't want to move home to Iowa. It had been in the plans for me to move here.

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

In the midst of this conversation, I just want to reiterate at this point, this had been going on for almost four years. And almost every day when I woke up, I would ask what his plans were, if we could do something, like what his intentions were for the weekend, like if we both had a weekend off and getting so frustrated that he wasn't going ahead and making plans. And that's what he, Jess, is referring to as me starting fights every day. It would always start a fight.

I couldn't just be calm and happy with texting. He said, I highly suggest you turn this around real quick before I take care of it all. I said, I hate myself. He said, I dare you to try me today. I said, I'm just going to go. And then this is when the all cap starts on his part. And he said, fucking try me. I will pull the trigger in two fucking seconds because of how low you have me right now and how you're fucking talking to me. Try me. I said, this isn't okay. Nothing about this is okay. He said, make something else up, I dare you. He said, I'm not making anything up. He says, say I fucking lied when I never fucking did. Been waiting over a year to be where you said you wanted to be together. I said, I'm hurting and you're hurting and we're just too fucking toxic.

He said, you fucking are. You're crazy and won't fucking stop. Regulate your fucking mind or get on meds. I said, come see me like you promised. He said, you are toxic. You make every fucking day a fight. I begged you not to do this. I said, I'm not happy with texts. He says, I begged you to not start a fight, but you kept pushing and pushing, and now I'm too far gone, with a million exclamation points on all of these. I said, I wanted to be treated like a normal girlfriend.

Why do you want to be with me when this is how you feel? I can't have you threatening to hurt yourself. It's not okay. Neither one of us are in a good spot and I can't handle this." He says, I will never bother you again. Wilmington is yours. I will never come back. You've made it clear how you feel about me and all of it is so far from the truth. Thank you for not caring enough to stop pushing me. I needed this. I said, I don't want to hurt you anymore and I can't keep feeling like this. He said, it won't ever hurt again. I said, I wish you would have given me a real chance four years ago. He said, you pushed me right where you

wanted to and I'm giving up on it all. You ruined me. I begged you to not start a fight and you can't do anything other than fight. You need to get fucking help. You make it hard and you make it hurt. You always have because you make shit up and run with it. It's too late. I want to die. Thank you." I said, I need you to not think or act on emotions right now. I know you're upset, but just stop. He said, enjoy Wilmington. I hope it's fucking great and perfect for you." I said, "...I'm not happy. I've been trying to tell you for so long and you just didn't care. You said I just needed meds and I'd be fine." He says, "...you make it bad. You. I don't

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

I told you to change your fucking shifts. I tried last week, so now you can. I said, I know you're just fine, but I'm not. You can fucking come to me. He said, Keep lying, I dare you. Keep making things up. I said, I have gone to Wilmington four fucking times this contract. Never once saw you. He said, it's not my fucking fault you're bitching about seeing you when last Thursday I tried to change my fucking shifts and you wanted to bitch and be toxic instead of working with me to figure something out. I said, I hate who I've become in this and I don't want to argue every day but I can't keep telling you I'm not happy and you thinking

medication is what I need when I just needed to be properly loved and cared for." He says, "...Just shut the fuck up. I don't feel sorry for you because you did this to yourself and continue just like starting this fight. I begged you not to do and you found a way to do it anyway. Your mind is your worst enemy. I haven't said meds will fix you or us. I said they

would fucking help the highs and lows and 0-100 and how you fucking handle things, which in return would fucking help us. But I'm so fucked. I'm the only one that needs medicated. If you think getting rid of me is your fix and you'll be better, I have sad fucking news for you. Everyone but you sees how I'm fucking trying and you make sure to stop it from happening. You're so fucking perfect in your mind and it's going to ruin a lot for you and make you lose a lot of people besides your damn mom. I'm not this monster. You make me out to fucking be. I came here for you and us not because I wanted to. I've done it twice now, and what have you done for us? You won't even apply to jobs or housing here

when it's almost July. Why? Because you're staying near Minnesota." And I said, I don't think I'm perfect at all. And I had sent him a screenshot of my scheduled interview for a staff job. And that's the end of that. I got so toxic in the end end of that I just, I think

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

help since it's very obvious you just don't care." I said, I'm gonna block you if you don't stop. He manipulates everyone with the threats and it's so messed up. He said, Bree you do whatever you need to do to feel better. I said, he's done this a hundred thousand times now. And he said, I need to find my brother. I said, he just packs up his car and goes for a drive and ends up in a new city. Maybe call him. He said, his dog is dead. He didn't pack anything up.

Tried. I said, he's probably sleeping. He said, he's hurt because he has feelings too. I said, his are the only ones that seem to matter. He said, if that's what makes you feel better, then sure, he's sleeping. I said, his are the only ones that seem to matter. He said, if that's what makes you feel better, then sure, he's sleeping. I said, this isn't okay. He said, well, this doesn't affect you. I said, you have guilt because of the shit you let fly out of your mouth when you're angry. He said, so whatever the outcome is won't affect your feelings

either way. I said, you know he does this. He said, I don't have any guilt. Him and I haven't fought at all. Side note, Brad would blame Brody for their dad being dead. That was his favorite line to throw at him and fights. And then Brody would be in a bad mood with all of us. Back to the messages. He said, him and I haven't fought at all. I said, okay, maybe you don't. You're a mean person. And you don't know me. He said, I just care about him and know at the end of the day, he just needs someone to show they care and he isn't going to get that from you. I said, yeah, I don't deserve that either. And he said, I don't think you want to get started on being a mean person because I could share how I feel about you and you won't like it." I said, maybe don't tell people you wish they were dead instead in fights. And he said, maybe don't make someone feel like they always have to worry about you cheating on them and feel like they're dirt under your feet. If you care about someone act like it. I'm not going to fight with you. You're useless. So we will find some people to help us find him and I'll remind him that you didn't care. It was all

a joke to you. And that was the last message I ever got from Brad Jacobs. Out of nowhere, Jess texts me and says, I'm guessing you two are fighting today. I said, yeah, it was a bad morning. I'm sorry if he texted you, you can block him. She said, he's texting me now, but I'm not blocking him. He's fine. I said, it's just so fucking bad and I can't handle it anymore. I'm so sorry. It's affecting you. She says, it's not affecting me at all. I'm listening to both of you vent and it's okay. And she sent me some tick tock. And then she sent me a screenshot. She doesn't show me the entire conversation, but it's essentially a screenshot between her and Brody. So what I can see is her saying, well, maybe don't say mean things that

she doesn't want to hear. He says, that's what it is for sure. She can either unblock me or never hear from me again. I'm truly over her games, Jess. It's at a level where it's just like what the fuck just says I'm sorry He says it's not a big deal just exhausting dealing with someone that thinks that's the answer to everything She's only digging herself into a bigger hole if she thinks it's just going to go away And then just texted me. I don't know what he wants me to say He needs to unblock his brother and vent to him instead laughing face I said I'm not dating him over text and I made it very clear to say he needs to unblock his brother and vent to him instead. Laughing face. I said, I'm not dating him over text

and I made it very clear. Just said, I just don't know what he wants me to say. I said, I'm sick of it all. I cry every damn day. It's not your job to say anything. She says, okay. I said, I'm just saying he can vent all he wants but like I opened up a lot and told him

everything that was hurting me and what I needed that he's still refusing to give me and it turned into him yelling at me about things I've done. She said, yeah, that's between you two. I said, I just don't know what to do. She said, I wish I had an answer for you. I said, I wish I did a lot of things different and this wasn't so fucked up. She said, like what? I said, I should have left the first time it hurt this bad. She said, oh yeah, probably. And then sent me a screenshot again between her and Brody.

And in the screenshot, this is Brody. Ha ha ha, you know how stupid she sounds, right? Blocks me but doesn't want to date over text. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Why the fuck would we date anyway when she made it clear she's leaving North Carolina in a couple weeks? Jess said, yeah, that makes it hard but I don't know, like I told her, this is between you two.

She's not stupid, she's frustrated and it sounds like you are as well so it's just fighting rather than healthy communication. He said, ball is in her court. I'll stay gone until she can handle an argument like an adult and not block me when she hears something she doesn't want to. And her eyes, she's perfect. And then she just moves on and forgets the conversation and goes on to something completely irrelevant. I travel nurse for a year, year and a half. I didn't do it for as long as I wish I would have. I was in Richmond, I was in DC, I was in Charlotte,

which none of those were good enough for Brody. And then I was just worn out working ICU. I was just fried and I needed to take a break. And I knew that mentally I had to take a step back. I was burnt out from not only my job, but from Brody. And I didn't want to move back to the Midwest. I needed to get some roots and I had always been coming back to visit the beach when I was working in Charlotte.

So I thought, why don't I just move to the beach? Give it a try. I officially moved to North Carolina July of 2023. I was thinking, well, Brody likes it here. Jess likes it here. I said, even if it doesn't work out, which it hadn't been for a very long time, I still had a friend group here. So it wasn't like I was going to be completely alone in a new place, but it wasn't solely for him by any means. The fighting, it just got worse and worse. Ever since Matt died, the fights got really, really bad and continued escalating the words

and the damage done there. But Jess and I stayed close. We didn't have as many, I'd say roommate rifts like her and Lauren did. I definitely think Lauren got the worst of the fighting with actual Jess because she did live with her for so long while this was going on. I don't doubt that it would have gotten like that with myself, but also Lauren working from home, she couldn't really escape it.

She was immersed in it 24-7. That definitely contributes to how bad it got between the two of them and Lauren just feeling completely trapped in her room. I met Dani and her boyfriend, Kayden, for the very first time at Jess's birthday party. Both super nice. We clicked right off the bat. They're super easy to talk to, easy to get along with. I could see myself being friends with Dani

once I moved here, which we are. Before I came here, which we are. Before I came here, Jess liked Danny. Jess always was trying to like portray this, I don't want to say girl gang, but essentially she's like, you have a group of friends waiting for you here. And I had met them all a couple times before I moved here. It's not like we were all besties, but nice girls that we could all go out to dinner and get drinks and it would be fine. At that point, Jess and Dani were pretty tight. And I know that Dani and Kayden had helped Jess with her child a few times when I first started seeing the problems. Jess had mentioned that Dani had posted on

Facebook about a trip her and Kaden were either planning on going on or they were there and they had posted about it. And she was so upset that Dani would post that. She's like, you know, some of us live paycheck to paycheck and can't go on vacations like that. And she was so jealous. And I remember looking at her. I was like, you're actually mad she's posting about her vacation? I don't know, there was a lot of jealousy there. Dani's awesome.

I don't know why she had to have issues with literally everyone in her life. Here's Dani. When I met Jess, we talked about how we both didn't have that many friends here, like me and Kayden and Jess also said she didn't have that many friends here. And she said, well, I want you to know that I don't want you to feel like Kaden is just a boyfriend like I want you to feel like he is also my friend I want you to feel like you can bring him around at any time and invite him and we could just be a friend group I want you to feel safe in that later we all talked about how Jess would talk shit about each of us. I learned that she would say that I brought my boyfriend around too much. So it's just funny that she

would always reassure me or like if I didn't invite Kaden, she would ask me, where's Kaden? If I showed up to the pool, she'd be like, oh, why don't you invite Kaden? Where's Kaden? Our friendship was only a year long, like at the marker when I found out everything. But I would say we were very close friends. We were constantly carpooling. I was talking to her every single day. I shared my location with her for safety purposes. She said, we hung out probably once or twice a week at least, like pool days.

We went paddle boarding a lot. Kaden would even pick her child up from school if she needed it, take him to soccer practice. He would go over and help her with her apartment and hang stuff for her, like, way too good to this actual demon. And then find out later on that she talks so much shit about him and us, it's just so stupid,

because we were way too good to her, it's annoying. Hi, I'm Danny's boyfriend, Kaden. I met Jess shortly after Danny and her started to get to know each other. When we had first moved to Wilmington, we were looking for some sort of friend group and we didn't have a whole lot of luck. We tried some social groups on Facebook, we tried talking to people at work and we just didn't have a whole lot of luck. So one day when Danny was going through her TikTok comments, Jess had reached out and said, Hey, like I'm new to Wilmington.

I don't have a lot of friends either. She said that she works as an RT and we have some common interests. So we'll just see how it goes. I'm Shimon Y, and I have a new podcast called The Competition. Every year, 50 high school senior girls compete in a massive scholarship competition. I wouldn't say I have an ego problem, but I'm extremely competitive. All of the competitors are used to being the best and the brightest, and they're all vying for a huge cash prize. This will probably be the most intense thing you've ever gone through in your life. I remember that feeling, because I was one of them.

I lost. But now, I'm coming back as a judge, and also a kind of teen girl anthropologist. Because if you want to understand what it's like to be a young woman in America today, the competition's not a bad place to start. Hopefully no one will die on station night. From Pineapple Street Studios and Wondry, this is The Competition. Follow The Competition on the Wondry app

or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Competition early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus. Hanging out with Jess for the first time, she seemed very friendly and she seemed cool Wondry Plus. Hanging out with Jess for the first time, she seemed very friendly and she seemed cool wanting to make friends because she was new here and nothing seemed bad about her at first. Danny got like a feel for her and she said, no, she's cool. She's like a photographer and she has a kid.

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

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

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

out, I got more of a sense of Jess. This was the time that me, Jess, Lauren and Dani all went to go watch the sunset with her kid. Jess, she poked fun a lot and she was really curious about learning about how I take photos and what to do better. And I was flying my drone down there too. So she was like asking a bunch of questions about that. So she seemed curious, but it was almost like a degrading type thing because she would ask me about how to be better photographer, but then also brag about all the clients she's getting and all the work she's getting. I think that was just a little seed that was planted about me thinking that she was a constant hater. The rest of the night, whenever we just walk off,

separate from Lauren, she was just like, oh, Lauren left her room so messy again. Lauren is not paying me. Lauren is not doing this. Beautiful sunset and all she's doing is talking negatively about her family or Lauren or everything else. So I just immediately knew right off the bat, she was a really negative person and taught myself to keep boundaries from her, but it didn't seem like dangerous or I didn't seem to raise any red flags at first, if that makes sense. Plenty of people are pessimistic and haters and bratty and all this other stuff. Adam Backer I've hung out with Brie and Lauren pretty often. Brie is a very caring person. She is a bit timid. She is very quiet, passive. She doesn't try to assert her own way, but very determined. She seems like she has a lot of

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

We're going to plan trips to California, to Nashville, you name it. So we saw Lauren a lot because they were roommates and they seemed kind of like they were good friends. So usually Jess would invite Lauren and we'd hang out and whatnot. Lauren, she was funny, she was talkative, she was really relatable. You know, I've heard nothing but bad things from Jess about, oh, she's so selfish and she's so messy and she's so rude, la da da da, all these negative things. And I'm like, to myself, I'm like, what's so bad about

Lauren? She seems awesome. I like to think I have some good intuition about people. My gut feeling was saying like, no, I think there's just something about Jess and she's bitter towards Lauren for something. Here's Lauren's mom. Oh, it was crazy. She would get so upset with Lauren if she had other plans. I mean, the majority of the time Lauren was there, but once in a blue moon, she would need to go out and do something or want to go out and do something and Jess would get so upset. I'm sure she told you about having to come home in the middle of the night from a wedding

because her dog was whining and Jess couldn't handle it. She had to work the next day. Jess has to watch Lauren's dog one night and Lauren has watched her child almost every day for, well, they ended up living together for years. Well, right before they moved into the last apartment together, they might've been there a month before Lauren found out. Every time they would start moving to a new place together,

which they moved several times and stayed roommates. And every time I'd say, Lauren, are you sure you want to do this? And I would beg her not to do it. I would be like, please don't live with her again. Please get out of it. Here's your opportunity to get out of it. Well, she called me the night before they were supposed to sign the lease. And she was very, very upset. And she said, I think I've made a really bad decision. I think this is a mistake. I don't think I should move in with her again. And I was like, then don't do it. I was like, one, you can get out of it. If you're feeling this way, there's a reason. Don't go through with it. I don't care if we have to pay a fee or fine or whatever.

Don't do it. And she didn't know what to do. She was really upset. Here's Lauren. do it. And she didn't know what to do. She was really upset. Here's Lauren. Anytime we would fight, I would be like, okay, I'm not living with her anymore. And I would make that clear to her that I don't think we should live together. This isn't working. She would flip completely and just start being this really good friend. And she just completely changed personalities. That's the best way to describe it. She would cry to me and

give me victim stories. She would also say like, well I need to know if you're moving out because her son he has school. We need to know these things because if I'm not living with you we don't have anywhere to live. We're gonna have to go home. So she would always play that card and I would never know how to handle it. I would talk to my mom about it and she'd be like, she's just baiting you back in. She's just doing this because she doesn't want to not live with you. This was after mom knew quite a bit. She knew about the tormenting from Jess's side and like how Jess could be as a roommate and a friend. It became more aggressive before you could kind of tell Brody was holding back and

trying to play the nice guy, but it just got worse and worse. The more that I clung to Megan, the more he was losing control and you could just see him spiral through these text messages. He said, rather than being a heartless bitch in the moment, treating me like you don't give a fuck, maybe you'll care the next time like you did last time you pulled this. I hate you for ruining me. Tomorrow will be too late, and I hope you're happy about it I hope you feel like the shitty person you are. A liar, a cheater, a sneak. You're all of it Even when I've asked you to stop. We spoke on this after it happened last time But drunks like you can't close the bar chapter and you'll always be there. Even if it's not every day

I ask you to stop doing it knowing how it made me feel and you have proven that you don't give a fuck how it makes me feel. Don't be at my fucking funeral. Live with it and be fucking happy knowing how badly you broke me over and over and didn't give a fuck. Goodbye." At this point, I'm out with Megan this night and I get sick. I fell asleep on the way home and I threw up when I got home. So, I was pretty sick, I wasn't checking my phone. And he's thinking I'm hooking up with somebody because I was not responding to him for about two hours. He's like, this is killing me.

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

I mean, it's always about the driving. It's always about the drinking. It's lot about the person you are. And I said, LLW you just said the same thing. I mean, it's always about the driving. It's always about the drinking. It's always about the going out. It's always about other friends. I literally could not do anything without there being a problem. Brody came to my apartment complex while I was out. So he's like sending all these messages. I hope you're happy. I'm sorry I ever came into your life. Goodbye. Leave me alone. I'm not responding to any of these. You got what you wanted. Go be happy. I'm sorry I wasn't enough for you. I'm sorry I put you through the things I did and I'm sorry for just ever needing you. Focus on the guy that's with you. Forget me. Which one do you live in or was that you?" And he sends that at 1150 and I said, what? I don't

know what you're talking about. And he said, I bet you don't. You're clearly busy with another dude. So driving here was a waste of my fucking time. I fucking knew you were with someone else. He said, I told you I'm in Surf City and you refused to tell me what building is yours because you're with another guy. Your replies and the way that you're avoiding me proves that. I saw it. If you wanted to fucking see me, you would, but you're caught in a fucking lie now. If you didn't do anything, you'd be doing everything to see me right now, but you fucking can't. I'm going to head to Wilmington to drink with my friends. Thanks for ruining me." So I said, I was not sober last night, but I didn't do anything with any fucking guy,

and for you to only come and see me or try to see me under those terms is pretty fucking shitty, considering I asked you to come here earlier and all I got was a fuck you and I was at a restaurant you fucking twat. You started making threats and that's when I didn't wanna be sober anymore because I can't deal with it. It's not fair for you to do to someone yet you continue to do it anytime you're upset.

I sent that at 9.27 a.m. and then at 9.31 a.m. I said, I know this is Jess and you don't exist. I've known for a while. He said, I'm gonna let you say whatever makes you feel better. I have a lot of friends there that I've met from being there and yeah, I heard you were out and you know I fucking lose it after the shit that's been pulled. And it gets even worse when you do it without even talking about it. Brody responded to this at 1050. And so when I sent that she came in my room and laid in my bed.

I was sleeping at the time. So she woke me up in my bed and she said, so what's this I hear about me being Brody? And I said something along the lines of, oh, I was just saying that just to see what he said, because I was so taken back by her, first of all, being in my bed while I just woke up. But also saying that when I had actually maybe started thinking that it was true, I probably had a little bit of fear inside me that what if she is all of these violent tendencies that this person keeps saying and doing and it's this person right in front of me.

Like my brain couldn't process that at the time. So I just quickly shut it down and I was like, oh, I don't know. I was just saying that. And then we just went back to normal. Summer of 2023, we were just going to have a fun little day at the pool. We get to the pool. We're just like back to normal. Summer of 2023, we were just gonna have a fun little day at the pool. We get to the pool, we're just like hanging out, drinking, and this fairly attractive man comes by

and he's doing his own thing, like laying out by the pool and stuff. I remember mentioning one thing about it. It wasn't this overarching theme of our conversations. So it was me, Jess, and Bree's roommate. And Bree's roommate calls the guy over, very innocently, playfully, doesn't know anything about Brody.

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

situation and Jess is pretty hammered at this point. I went home and Jess came and talked to me about it. And I told her how uncomfortable that made me and how I do not need help like that. I don't need a wing woman if you're gonna act like that. So apparently Jess took a Snapchat panning around the pool and I was talking to the guy in the Snapchat. And Brody texted me right away asking like, who's that guy?

Blah, blah, blah, blah. I bet you got his number. And so I sent that message just clarifying right off the bat, like, yeah, I did get his number. It was a very uncomfortable situation for me and I felt like I was backed into a corner. Brody made me text this guy and tell him that I was not interested and that I was talking to somebody else. I was sick of being told what to do. I was sick of being told that I can't have friends.

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

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

I'm straight up bumming it. Just haven't caught up with her and need some girl time. He said, nice. And then he said, do you not have a job anymore to get drunk on a Thursday night? Go to the bars and spend money when you don't have an income. Most people that want to catch up spend time together, not at the bars, but I guess it is what it is. when you said you were hanging out with her I knew you'd be at the bar since that's all she knows how to do I said, okay pipe down if you want to see me tomorrow because it's not happening if you keep running your mouth And I said I'm the one that suggested we have a drink because I could use one and he said lol

I don't need to be threatened. I said I'm not threatening you. I'm just telling you and he said okay, don't see me then I said, are you gonna keep talking shit? He said I don not threatening you, I'm just telling you. And he said, okay, don't see me then. I said, are you going to keep talking shit? He said, I don't trust you at the bars. I said, you don't trust me ever and I don't trust what you say, so it's fair. And then he said, then why are you still here? Makes sense, doesn't it? I said, same with you. He said, I don't beg you to stay and someone that doesn't care about hurting me isn't

someone I want to marry. I said, you hurt me all the time and don't care. Don't be hypocritical. And he said, lol, this is done, goodbye. And I said, okay, that's the last time you'll say want to marry. I said, you hurt me all the time and don't care. Don't be hypocritical. And he said, LOL, this is done, goodbye. And I said, okay, that's the last time you'll say that to me and blocked. Just never talk to him again. And then those messages that I was getting with Brad.

It's obvious reading these messages that he wants me to feel bad and he wants me to worry about Brody. He wants me to think that he's hurt or dead. He wants me to feel like just a piece of shit. Like he's just saying, if you feel like showing you care, you can reach out. I think you've shown it very clear this morning. Take care.

I hope it all works out for you. He keeps texting me even after I'm not responding. And he's like, he left a note. Sorry, I probably shouldn't have told you that. Just thought maybe you'd want to know. I blocked him. Then I got a text from Will, one of the cousins of Brody, being like, hey, have you talked to my cousin?

I texted him earlier because he was coming to town and haven't heard back. I didn't say anything back to that. Here's Lauren's friend, Megan. I remember Lauren sitting across from me, telling me what Brody was saying and then we were just talking it through. And she said she was going to block him.

Here's Lauren. Something changed me right then and I knew that I wasn't going to go back. I didn't have that sadness like I felt before. And even Megan noticed that. I got to see like a little taste of what it was like on the other side. I didn't want to like go with that and just be at home and just be miserable. And having met the guy yet, I keep getting let down over and over and over again. You were getting sick of it.

And I think the reason that you were able to end it is because you were happier than you had been in a long time because you had other people in that area besides just Jess, who were again, showing you that you are capable of having normal relationships. You are capable of having girlfriends that you don't fight with. You're capable of having fun enjoying your life. It allowed you to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to see the life that you were missing out on. Lauren questioned herself so much that I think that's the reason why Lauren was looking to outside sources to clarify or confirm that the way she was feeling wasn't crazy. And I think it's because Jess was so convincing and was so relentless,

it would not give up her opinion and her battle to make Lauren question herself and feel like a bad person. So I think that's why you were constantly looking at other people to say, can you look at this situation and tell me if I'm thinking about it the right way or not? I did not want to look back. In the past, I had felt convicted to want to go back to him, but this time I just was done. I did not want it. And Jess picked up on that pretty quickly. She realized that she wasn't going to get any information out of me about me and Brody because I had nothing to say. I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to think about it. And she came to me multiple times asking me like, hey, are you guys good? Are you still talking to

him? How are you feeling? So she was trying to get information for me to see if he should still keep entering my life in other ways and gauge that response. Jess started going to Brie and Brie's roommate all the time. She was staying there for hours and hours a day after her son was out of school. I could feel a switch in her pretty quickly.

She started acting weird to me over text. She started getting more controlling with little things. The door was being painted by the maintenance man. And she called the leasing office lady because she was watching on camera and he wasn't doing it right. And I think that really just boils down to her losing control. And she's just trying to grasp any type of control she could have.

So things were just getting really weird with us. She owed me a lot of money already because of CMA Fest and other things that she hadn't paid me back for. She owed me money and I couldn't pay her for whatever reason the 20 something dollars that she needed from the Wi-Fi bill. I was already paying half of her son's rent and she told me I didn't have to do that. And then she went back on her word and said that she never said that and she needed help. I'm also self-employed and I was having a hard time with work, with this breakup, quote unquote, with moving and all

these different changes. And I just hadn't paid her that week. And she somehow disconnected my devices from the Wi-Fi. So I contact the Wi-Fi guy and I have a recording of this. I can tell you right now that both your laptop and your cell phone for some reason do not have access to this system. How do you even do that? Well, I can't tell you how, but she has the ability to do that. But yeah, those two devices are not allowed access for some reason.

That's all I can tell you. Alright, okay. That's all I needed to know. Thank you. You're quite welcome. You take care and have a great rest of your day. You too. I needed the computer that day. So I go over to Megan's place and I'm hanging out at her place and I was like, okay, let's just have a glass of wine

and we're gonna sit down and we're just gonna do some research. It was still toxic to live with her and we had just signed a new lease together. And I knew that the only way I would be able to get out of that is if I was somehow able to prove that I needed a restraining order. I had a gut feeling to start looking

and I'd been looking before, but I had never taken time to just sit down and really digest everything and look at pictures, look at numbers. There were so many numbers coming through recently, you know, with all those random numbers that were texting me. So we started searching these numbers. She's cooking dinner and I'm just sitting there with like a glass of wine doing my investigating and I start putting it together that they're all texting apps.

I FaceTime my mom and Julie and Megan was sitting there with me and I said, guess what? I was shaking and my voice was all over the place. She was like, you were not going to believe this. She sent me a text and all these phone numbers of all Brody and his family were, I guess they're apps like where you go through when you don't want to show your real phone number. Lauren, she had me and Julie, her cousin,

on a three-way call. And so we're all finding out this at the same time. And Lauren's like, wow, that's when Lauren knew that all these people were fake and they were all Jess. Because that was the only connection between them all and Jess. So it finally, it hit Lauren. And so boy, the ball was rolling in, she was on fire.

She started doing everything she could to find out what was going on. When she was in my apartment, she was on her computer looking up different things on Reddit, different strategies, using different sites, and doing all this digging. And she was really quiet for a long time. And then she finally called me over.

You called your mom. And that's when I was like, oh shit, because you called your mom and you laid everything out and you said something along the lines of, I now know Jess is involved. I knew something I was trying to convince myself that some other something was happening, but I knew something was very wrong.

Because again, she was the connection. Lauren was starting to realize that there was proof that Brody wasn't real beyond just the fact that he wouldn't meet up with you and talk to you on the phone. And it was because of all the phone numbers that he would reach out to you through were all generated from the same texting app. And then your brain went to, okay, well, Brody's not real. The brother's not real. The sister's not real. Nobody's real. Then that means that Jets has been lying to me when she's been claiming that Bertie is real. So that's when I could see a change on your face and you started shaking and I realized that it was actually sinking in and you

knew something was wrong and you called your mom and you made a plan to move out of your apartment. I remember the secrecy around it or like strategy around it, meaning Lauren and her mom and myself and other people that were Lauren's support system were concerned about Jess catching on to what was going on. And so the plan was, how do we get Lauren and her belongings out of their shared living space as fast and seamlessly as possible so that there's no damage done to her belongings or any continued damage done to Lauren. So it was a lot of just hush, hush and moving fast, kind of a frantic, nervous, unsettled energy of, I can't believe this is

actually happening. You surprised me a little bit with how energized you were and ready you were to tackle all of the steps you had to tackle in order to get out of that situation. Rather than go take a nap and cower and cry, Lauren was like, all right, I'm doing this, I'm doing it now, I'm going to talk to the police, I'm getting my mom to come down, I'm getting all my stuff out of there, I'm moving out.

And she just had her little checklist and fired away. I didn't think I was going to find what I found. I didn't want to think that it was as bad as it was. I didn't want to think that she was emotionally tormenting me and coming home and being my friend and laughing with me and playing video games with her son and acting like everything was fine. So I went home with it and I was sitting with that thought and with that new evidence that I found.

I kind of just accepted it as it was. And I was like, she's somehow involved. I need to at least get out of here. I don't know the full situation. I may never know the full situation. That's when my mom came was the next day and she helped me pack everything up. We like talk about what to do

and we go and talk to the police, which is that day that she saw me with the police station. Here's Bree. I knew they hadn't been getting along. Jess had been clingy and wanting to stay at our house a lot, which was not that uncommon. She just liked to be with her friends a lot whenever she could. So we're sitting at the table and unprompted, I don't know why, she opens her phone and she looks at Lauren's location and she says, why is Lauren at the police station?

And she looks at me, her face is white as a ghost. I look at my roommate, we're both speechless, and I said, I don't know. And then you can tell she's panicking. All she knew was that Lauren was at the police station and I just know they had been fighting nonstop since they had moved into this new place. They had just signed another lease. They were almost three weeks into living at this new place.

And I remember saying, why did you guys sign another lease? You do not live well together. Neither of you do. And Jess was like, I can't afford it by myself. So they signed the other lease, they'd been fighting it had been toxic. That's all I knew. We knew she's at the police station. And then Jess tried to play it off by saying something like, well, maybe she's like dating a cop and trying to just save her butt there for a second, but I was very alarmed that she was there. Here's Lauren. I asked if I could get a restraining order if I had enough information. I talked to the police.

He said he had no idea. He could not find anybody in the system with that name. I asked about the brother. The police said that they could not find anything. He was like, look, if there was anything there, we would have found it. There was nothing. I go back home. I started reverse image searching all the photos that he had ever sent me. I found this website called facecheck.id and I found the real guy's photos through that. My jaw is on the floor as this is happening because I had tried this many times and I could not find the real guy. I'm by myself at this point. I find this photo of the real Brody and this girl and they're at this gala looking thing and I find through that photo, I reverse image search that one and I found his LinkedIn page. I contact him on Instagram

through the information I found on his LinkedIn page and I talked to him for the first time. I messaged him on Instagram. Hey, this is really weird, but I just found out that I've been catfished using your pictures for the past three years. Da da da, any chance we can talk? And he said, this is the second time this has happened. I'm sorry, sad face. I said, how long ago did it happen? I know who did it and would love to press charges. He said, who did it? I said, my roommate. He said, what's their name? I said, Jessica Pauly. And he said, oh my God, she's the one who did it the first time. I said, shut the fuck up. Tell me everything. And he said, yeah, to this girl, Reagan. I said, I literally live with her because

I hadn't moved out yet. This was the day before I moved out. He said that's unreal. Are you in Iowa or what? I said no, I'm in North Carolina. She's been obsessed with me this whole time. This was before I realized there were other victims too. He said I'm literally messaging the first girl right now. She's beyond shift that this happened again. I said the guy's name was Brody and he would threaten to kill himself if I didn't do what he wanted. He said that's the name she used the first time in all caps. I said she's fucking sick dude please please come to North Carolina and walk in the apartment with me. And he said beyond fucking sick I need this to end. I said I went to the police

station yesterday and they said there was nothing I could do. And I said I'm shaking what the actual fuck. He said I I'm literally so sorry. She basically started right when she moved to North Carolina. I told him the story. He said, bro, that's crazy making me look bad. I said, please don't reach out to her if you haven't. I don't know what she's capable of. And he said, don't worry. I don't want to put you in danger. He said, what's your number? I'll call you later. I called my mom right away and she's like, do you want me to come get you right now? I told her, no, let's just wait till tomorrow. I'll get everything moved out tomorrow. It all just happened really fast. So my mom comes the next morning. We move out.

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

It was supposed to be like the stepbrothers picture, but I put our faces in it. I just think that was like a symbolization of our friendship being over. In my mind, I don't know if it was just like the adrenaline or something, I was very calm and level-headed. And I wrote rotten hell on a piece of paper and I wrote down all the furniture that I was gonna take

and the amount that it was compared to the furniture that I was leaving for her. And as soon as I walked outside, she had removed me from the access of the cameras. I woke up, I went to the police station, got a restraining order. I told them at this point, she's a catfish. I have the photos, this is who she's pretending to be. I live with her, I need to get away from this.

And they tell me that they are able to get a restraining order. On August 20th is when I said, did you have the internet disconnected? It didn't deliver. They tell me that they are able to get a restraining order. On August 20th is when I said, did you have the internet disconnected? It didn't deliver. And then I sent it again and then she didn't respond. And then August 24th is when I sent,

I got a restraining order against you. I'll be back tomorrow to get the rest of my stuff. You're a sick, sick person, Jess. You need serious help. And I honestly pity you. I know everything and I'm telling everyone what a pathetic excuse of a person you are. I'll be taking this as far as I can and so will the real Brody and Reagan. Fuck you, enjoy

your karma you fucking psychopath." And then I blocked her and then I sent the text. I sent it to every person that I ever knew through Jess. I sent it to Danny, Bree's roommate, Megan, my mom because she wanted to read it. I sent it to Dani, Bri's roommate, Megan, my mom, because she wanted to read it. I sent it to Bri through Instagram. I don't even have her number. Okay, here it is. Just wanted to let you know I'm pressing charges on Jess. She's been catfishing me for three years using this guy's photos, emotionally abusing me, manipulating me, and using him to control my every move. She tried to get me to fly across the country to see him, tried to get me to send naked photos, and would threaten to kill himself if I was out with other guys

or girls. I found the real guy and he said Jess has done this before, and I talked to the girl who used to be Jess's friend that she did it to. Same exact shit. I'm worried about her son, so please make sure he is safe, and please look out for yourselves. I don't want her to do the same thing to you. I understand there are two sides to every story, but I have all the proof. It didn't feel right not telling you what she did knowing I could have saved someone else from this traumatic experience. Here's Dani. I was sitting on my couch in my rot spot and Lauren texted me like a novella. So I click on it to open it and it was basically a copy and pasted text message that she sent to a bunch of people and I just knew it was not going to be good. I start reading it and the beginning of it, this is paraphrase because

it's just off the top of my head, it's like, hi, I just wanted to let you know that I'm just gonna paraphrase because it's just off the top of my head. It's like, hi, I just wanted to let you know that I'm pressing charges on Jess. She's been catfishing me for the past three years, sexually abusing me and manipulating me. I'm sitting on my couch, mind fucked, and I screenshot it and send it to my boyfriend and I'm like, what do I do? Here's Danny's boyfriend, Kaden. She had sent me screenshots of Lauren explaining like, hey, so Jess is a fucking psychopath

and I'm moving out immediately. She's been catfishing me as my boyfriend Brody for this many years, yada, yada, yada. And so she texted me that and I'm like, I had to stop what I was doing at work. I was in the middle of something. I had an HVAC system ripped apart and I had to stop and sit down and I'm like, what the fuck? Because I had only known Lauren is this girl who's trying to quote unquote ruin Jess's life because

Lauren is evil and a hater and out to get Jess and completely against Jess in every way. So, now that Lauren is like, oh my god, Jess is just this mean, this crazy psychopath that's been catfishing over two years. I almost had to process it a little bit. Like I was in shock. The first thing I felt like I should do was reach out to Lauren and be like, Hey, I know you and I haven't really talked much, but that really sucks to hear. And I can't imagine how devastated you are. If there's literally anything you need, if there's any

way that we can help feel free to let us know because I couldn't imagine how insanely crazy she might have felt, how hurt, how devastated she might have felt to find all that out because that's a major thing. You're losing your roommate, you're losing your idea of your boyfriend that you thought you had for years that you deeply loved, that you grieved and mourned over because he apparently was going to kill himself. Now you find out this is all a lie. I just couldn't imagine feeling that. She was appreciative of it. She was grateful. But Danny and I were like, I fucking knew it. I knew there was something weird about her. I knew she was fucking crazy. I knew she was demented. It all makes so much fucking sense now. So we were just going back and reliving all the things we noticed about Jess.

Like, why was there a privacy screen on your phone? Why were you always on your phone? Why did you not give a single shit about Lauren in any circumstance? And so we were finally like piecing things together. And next thing you know, Danny gets back to me and she's like, you're not going to believe this. Next time on something was wrong. He just kept gaslighting me and making me feel crazy. And then he was like, I don't even want anything to do with this anymore. If you don't think I'm a real person, like this is insane, Bri and just kept making me feel so crazy. She was just blowing up my phone as Lauren's texting me.

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

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

Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, stay safe, friends. Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media production created and hosted by me, Tiffany Reese. This season, our theme song, You Think You by Gladrags is covered by Pale Hound. For music and tour dates, go to palehound.com. If you'd like to support the show further, you can share episodes with your loved ones,

leave a positive review, or follow Something Was Wrong on Instagram at SomethingWasWrongPodcast. As always, thank you so much for listening. They know me, they don't know me Well, at all At all, at all You think you know me, you don't know me well at all You think you know me, you don't know me, at all, at all You don't know anybody You don't know anybody Till you've talked to someone free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.