
S22 E8: We Got Her!
*Content Warning: false reporting, sexual assault, rape, sex trafficking, fraud, suicidal ideation, scams, disability abuse, false reporting, harassment, financial abuse, suicidal ideation.
Sources:
MyCase Indiana: https://public.courts.in.gov/
Elwood woman faces multiple felonies in connection with ongoing rental scheme, by Logan Gay, WTHR.com staff, WTHR News: https://www.wthr.com/article/news/crime/elwood-woman-arrested-for-ongoing-rental-scheme-megan-stoner-fishers-indiana/531-2d3b11fa-5c70-4f05-8ea4-0be0c37cf852
Fishers woman charged in rental fraud; 3 scammed in signing lease for same Home by: Izzy Karpinski, Fox59: https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/fishers-woman-charged-in-rental-fraud-3-scammed-in-signing-lease-for-same-home/
Hamilton County Inmate Records - Stoner, Megan Elizabeth: https://secure2.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/inmates2/Jail/Inmate/Detail/-1282383
Protect the community from ongoing criminal activity by revoking the bond of Megan Stoner, Change.Org Petition: https://www.change.org/p/protect-the-community-from-ongoing-criminal-activity-by-revoking-the-bond-of-megan-stoner
Justin Sexton on X: @JustinSextonIN https://x.com/JustinSextonIN
Megan Stoner Chronicles, X @ChroniclesMegan: https://x.com/ChroniclesMegan
Chloe Anagnos on X: @ChloeAnagnos https://x.com/ChloeAnagnos/status/1651260809362784261
Don't Waste This F*cking Podcast: The Story of Megan Stoner, by Amanda Peterson, Excelsior Studios: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-waste-this-f-cking-podcast-the-story-of-megan-stoner/id1757463535
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One of the reasons I love Audible is because it is an incredibly helpful tool for me as someone who reads a lot of books and does a lot of research related to the work that I do. For example, this month I'm listening to Stolen by survivor Elizabeth Gilpin as I do research on the troubled teen industry and industrialized abuse for an upcoming season.
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Sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com. This podcast is intended for mature audiences and discusses topics that may be upsetting.
For a full content warning, sources, and resources, please visit the episode notes. Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own, and do not necessarily represent the views of myself, Broken Cycle Media, or Wondery.
The podcast and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. Megan Stoner's responses to these allegations
are addressed within this season. I'm Tiffany Reese, and this is Something Was Wrong.
You don't know me well At all, at all, at all, at all You think you know me You don't know me well At all, at all, at all Last episode, we heard from Indianapolis community member Alyssa, who acted as a journalist wanting to buy Stoner's life rights in hopes of gaining her trust to ultimately get her arrested. On August 12th, 2023, Stoner agreed to meet fake journalist Alyssa and her fake sister Vero, who was actually the founder of the Megan Stoner Scam Awareness Facebook group.
Vero called the cops while Alyssa kept Stoner busy, pretending to be waiting on Vero to bring her cash. The police arrived and the community members finally thought Stoner had been arrested on her pending warrant.
But because at the time the warrant was a bench warrant and not an arrest warrant and they were in a different county, the police let Megan Stoner go. Then, after Stoner failed to attend multiple court hearings the following week, an additional arrest warrant was issued.
Stoner continued laying low, renting Airbnbs with what was assumed to be the money of her alleged scam victims. As their frustration and the fear of what Stoner could be capable of next continued to grow, and they continued to learn of more vulnerable populations being impacted by Stoner's alleged crimes and cons, members of the Facebook scam awareness group continued to brainstorm how they could find out where Stoner was hiding to have her arrested.
After the fake journalist sting, Justin and Amanda, who knew Megan through the Young Republicans' political scene, who you heard from last episode, began devising a plan of their own to catch Stoner. Justin and Amanda believed that Stoner would do just about anything to receive her beloved yoni massages.
As a reminder, a yoni massage is, by definition, an erotic or sensual massage that is a tantric practice.
It aims to create an intimate connection with one's body.
A yoni massage is primarily focused on massaging the clitoris, labia, G-spot, breasts, and anus, and many other erogenous zones.
While there are many people who believe that yoni massages can have all sorts of
health benefits, at the end of the day, there's no scientific research to support this. Also,
from a legality standpoint, erotic massages given by another in exchange for money is illegal in
every state but Nevada. Megid started posting about these yoni massages from a guy named Haribo,
real name Harry Friedman. He
lives in New Jersey. Later, it would be alleged by Meghan herself that she had spent over $17,000 with Haribo for these yoni massages.
I'm told that when Haribo started to learn more about the allegations against Meghan online and was more focused on his upcoming wedding and honeymoon, Stoner started speaking to a new yoni practitioner named Leo from California. Stoner connected with Leo because Haribo is out of town for his honeymoon the summer of 2023.
According to Stoner, she never actually met up in person with Leo. Between Stoner's avid social media posts, spending allegedly thousands of dollars on her yoni massages, and seeking out multiple practitioners, it was clear to Amanda and Justin the lengths she was willing to go in order to receive these massages.
So with Amanda's graphic design background and Justin's deep knowledge of all things Megan Stoner, they created a fake yoni practice called True Renewal Bloomington and connected with Stoner on Instagram through its fake account. Stoner took the bait.
She accepted and DMed the account asking for an appointment. From that point on, Justin took care of messaging Stoner pretending to be a Yoni practitioner named Xavier St.
Clair. Here's Justin.
Amanda made all the branding and stuff for the business, but she was like, you know, Megan, you've watched her closer than I have. You've talked to her a few times in person.
You go ahead and you take the lead on messaging her. And so I messaged with her a few times, and she was very instantly rude with me, like very demanding.
She wanted us to message through a specific app. I think it was Telegram.
We were chatting through Instagram DMs. She very quickly was like, I feel like my boundaries aren't being respected because I've asked you to move to this other platform, and you won't do it.
My character is like, well, Megan, I'm not familiar with this app. Give me a couple of days to feel comfortable with it.
And then I would be happy to try to meet you where you're at. But she was very difficult to deal with it, like in that professional setting.
Here's Amanda, who you met last episode. She's a friend of Justin's who originally connected with Stoner through mutual friends online.
Megan would have recognized Justin's voice, so our friend logged into the account and did a call with her for like 10 minutes. Hello? Hi! Hey, is this Megan? It is! Good to connect, thank you.
Hey Megan, this is Xavier. I'm so glad that we get connected.
Yeah. How has your night been? Pretty good.
Thank you for making time. Oh yeah, of course.
Sorry, I probably only have maybe five to ten minutes. It's been exhausting with the research work this week and I definitely need to go to bed sometime soon.
But I wanted to make it a priority to connect with you and kind of just get to know you. So tell me more about yourself and I know we've talked a little bit on Instagram.
I would just like to know more about you. Yeah.
So I live in Indy and I have been with a couple of different practitioners that do this work. And unfortunately, as you know, no one here does it.
And so I've had to deal with flying them in or flying out to them. And it's been really, I feel like that part has been really hard.
And I don't know, it's hard. It's been really hard having an out-of-state coach.
There's something about the connection of this work. And I don't know for you, but there definitely is a lot of power to the in-person work, you you know yeah you know one thing that you know stuck out to me too is i'm i'm you know more surprised that there's people in indy that you know are looking for this work and are aware of it too you know most people that i'm familiar with are on the coast there's not too many people kind of in the heartland that are interested in this so i was glad that when you messaged me and figure out that there are people that are interested in this sacred space too.
Yeah, have you had a lot of people reach out, Lynn? Not really. I mean, maybe two.
And so I was really thankful to see that you reached out just to see if we could explore this together. And I was really just surprised it happened kind of so quick as well.
It's really exciting to see somebody that cares about this you know as much as i am you know, this together. And, you know, I was really just surprised it happened kind of so quick as well.
You know, it's really exciting to be, see somebody that cares about this, you know, as much as I am, you know, believes in the healing that can result from it too. Oh, without a doubt.
Um, I am definitely a big, big, big, big, big fan of this work. Um, if you can't tell first, when I first did it in February of this year, I thought it was a little, I was like, Oh, this sounds a little woo woo.
Like, I don't think this is going to work. But you know't tell first when i first did it in february this year i thought it was a little i was like oh this sounds a little like i don't think this is gonna work but you know what i was open-minded i tried it and i was like holy fuck this stuff moves mountains quicker than anything i've ever done in my healing journey my first relationship in this work my first practitioner definitely could not hold the complex trauma that I bring.
Um, and so our work ended, um, abruptly, um, we were in a three month container and then, um, it ended up, uh, we had continued on for about two or three more weeks and it ended up abruptly. And it was just, he couldn't hold me and that was fine.
And, um, he was great at what he does, but you know, like you said, this work can really take a toll on someone. And, um, I've been doing some coaching virtual work with, um, someone now from LA and, you know, he only takes on two to three clients at a time because this work can really take a toll on a practitioner.
So, um, I'm glad you recognize that cause you know, some clients, I think that that's a challenge that I've seen in just in this field and something that I've heard from other practitioners as well as about a fear that they have, you know, when working with new clients, because it takes a while to build up the trust and rapport as well. Yeah.
Um, and so I was really excited because like I said, there's something about the in-person aspect of this work and it it's it's really hard to coordinate when you're dealing with someone that's out of state that also has a schedule it's just it's really hard and um I can't travel to the east coast um we we went out uh my significant other and I my partner we went out um over memorial day weekend um but it's also something we do regularly. And so, and obviously we can't go to California regularly.
So it's just, it's really hard to not have that in-person aspect in my work. I mean, that's such, you know, I think that's a systemic problem that we have is that, you know, people that need this care can't get it.
It's a luxury for a lot of people when it needs to be you know basic need and be treated as like a lot of health care i know that's probably way forward looking in the future but hopefully we can get to a point where people see it as needed health care not kind of this you know weird manifestation um because i think it is some of the most powerful work that i've seen especially in the the field of trauma, healing, and sacred spaces. Oh, without a doubt.
Yeah, so... Well, I'm getting close to probably when I need to get ready for bed tonight.
But, you know, maybe we can continue this. I don't know if you'd be interested in meeting in Bloomingtonton or I could come over to Indy, you know, whatever
works best. But I think that may be the next step and we can connect in person.
If that's something
that maybe interests you or if you know the phone call, let me know, but I think that might be the
next step for us. Okay.
All right. Let me know when you can come up to Indy.
Um, and I will be
glad to meet you. Okay.
Fantastic. Well, Hey, I really enjoy this Megan.
Um, and I know we'll
probably talk on Instagram, uh, well before then. So, okay.
All right. Thanks.
Have a good night. Take care.
Yeah. Bye-bye.
Thanks. Once we started messaging, it didn't take long for her to just start trauma dumping in a way that you would not believe.
I'm talking 30 to 40 messages to every reply she would get. And the thing that stands out to me the most now is it was immediately back to the same lies she had told.
She starts alluding to Brian Bosman. I don't think we got to her using that name, but the same story was starting to be told.
She started telling me about how Haribo, her previous practitioner, had assaulted her. The same story that she had threatened to accuse him of.
Again, she doesn't know she's talking to Justin here. I've already heard all these stories.
Outwardly, she's presenting as though she's trying to turn her life around. But then to someone new she's latched onto on the internet, she went immediately back to all her old lives.
We play along for about two weeks. This goes back and forth, messaging.
It was really taking a toll on me to just sit and have conversations about sexual assaults that didn't happen all day. I sort of reached a point where I was like, listen, we either need to like, get her to agree to meet up somewhere and try this, or we need to punt the football and I can't talk to her for a few weeks.
I can't do this. Then he reaches out on Telegram.
At this point, we have not talked to her about her legal troubles. We've never mentioned that to her.
She just starts bringing up and she's just trauma dumping. She's like, so how will this work? And he's like, well, I send you a workbook and then you fill out the workbook.
We can get a hotel room. And she's like, well, I was raped and trafficked in a hotel, so I don't want to do it in a hotel.
And he was like, okay. And then she's like, and don't you think it just feels like a one night stand? Like, what are you talking about? She was just bombarding him with text after text after text.
She made up this weird thing with Haribo and his now wife being like, Haribo's wife tried to make me kill myself. The most bizarre thing.
And what's so uncanny about it is Justin was texting her, but he was consulting me for a lot of it. The whole time, all of it that she's saying is lies.
When she finally tells about the legal troubles, it's like, well, they say I left them homeless, but I don't really care. That's their problem.
So flippant, no remorse. She got really close a couple times to being like, okay, I want to meet up.
Actually, no, I don't want to meet up. And Justin finally was like, I've made it a priority that I must start taking clients by the fall equinox.
If you don't want to do this,
fine. But like, I'm only able to take on a few clients at a time and I'm going to take on some
other clients if you won't get back to us. So we're messaging her on the Instagram.
She's
very enthusiastic to the point where I'm like, Justin, this weekend, she's going to want to
meet up. We didn't know what a meetup would look like because Justin and I are not the most sex positive people in the world.
We did no research. I think he had listened to the Haribo call and that's the only reason he knew how to talk to her in the, in the way that one of these practitioners would talk.
But she's so overeager just texting him nonstop on the Instagram. He had a dog show or something that weekend and I don't live in Indiana.
And we were thinking like they would have to meet up in person. And so we'd have to have somebody who could be sitting in a coffee shop, who could call the police when she got there.
We're thinking she wants to do it now. So we were like, we need to loop someone in on this to get help.
So we knew Alex would be more open to us telling her this. So we text Alex.
We're like, we are very ashamed of something, but we have something to tell you. She was laughing.
She's like, this is hilarious. She's an Oregon liberal.
And she's like, okay, the two young conservatives have come up with this. She knew how like out of character it was for us.
We knew that she was one of the admins, but we didn't know she was in this other group
of people who were like trying to get Megan.
We were telling her like, what do you think we should do if Justin's out of town and Megan
wants to meet up this weekend?
And she's like, I can loop you in with some of these guys and we can figure it out.
So she made a Facebook chat with Kyle, Mike, herself, me and Justin.
I was at work and I get a text message from Justin and Amanda in a group chat. That's Alex, whom we heard from in episode three.
She met Stoner in the Facebook group called the Spice Girls back in 2017. After learning of Stoner's crimes years later, Alex joined the Scam Awareness Facebook group.
She later became an admin to the group and got more involved with the efforts to hold Stoner accountable. You'll hear Amanda, Justin, and Alex mentioning Mike, Kyle, Chloe, and Alyssa, some of whom you've already heard from this season.
These local politicos and community members were involved in the efforts towards accountability as well. And they said, Alex, we have to tell you something.
We've done something really bad. And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, okay, there's a scale of bad for me.
And there's a scale of bad for them. What version am I going to get? And I was like, okay, what's going on? And Amanda's texting me.
She's like, I'm so embarrassed. I cannot believe I've done this.
And I'm like, girl, it's okay. Tell me what's going on.
I'm not a judgmental person. You know this.
And they said, we created a fake Yoni account. And Megan has messaged us.
I needed to get up from my desk and go into a conference room to bust out laughing. I mean, that was the funniest, most out of left field thing I'd ever heard in my life.
I know their hearts and I know their values. Amanda is not somebody who would even talk about relationships or dating.
Hearing the fact that she was involved in that is hilarious. And that Justin was driving that conversation was somehow even funnier.
And they said, we just needed to tell somebody. And I was like, of course, if there's anything I can do to support you, I'm here.
If we need to bring other people into the conversation, let's do it. I was given the green light to discuss with Kyle and Mike.
They thought it was hilarious. And they were like, okay, this is a great opportunity to get her.
And then we all had a group chat together. We added Alyssa in as well because she had had that experience, that first attempt to try to get Megan.
So she was able to share a lot more perspective of this is what worked and this is what didn't. Here's Alyssa, who posed as a journalist in the previous sting operation that we heard from last episode.
Alyssa was brought into the Yoni sting as well to offer her perspective. Justin would send messages to the other people in the chat and be like, oh my God, how do I respond to this? She was like, this is what I've had in the past.
This is what I'm looking for. Do you offer this? How do you feel about situations like this? And she was like asking pretty deep questions.
And they did such a wonderful job at responding. From my perspective, it was just a lot of back and forth.
Strange questions, strange answers. We're all really cringing at the conversation and where it went.
There are times where conversations were uncomfortable, but he did such a good job of staying in character, dealing with these hard conversations. I'm not even sure that the other people in like our specific group chat really knew what was going on, but I was told on the side about what was happening.
And I was like, this is brilliant. I love this.
I want to see this maybe a week or two that this went on. And then she finally agreed, like, let's schedule our first appointment.
They're like, okay, great. Do you want to come to us? Do you want us to come to you? And she's like, well, you can come to me.
And at the time, she's like renting a room in a house that has multiple rooms being rented out in an Airbnb. Here's Justin.
Her excuse was actually the fall equinox because I was like, what's something that a Yoni would be into? So the fall equinox was coming up. And so I said, Megan, I have a long list of potential clients that are wanting to do consultations and sign the paperwork and move forward with the process.
And I promised myself I would have this business up and going after the fall equinox. It's coming up.
I kind of need a decision if you want to meet up for a consultation or not. And she immediately was like, okay, I'm ready and just gives me an address.
I was very skeptical that this was a real place that she was at or like, is this a setup? But I ran it online and I think it was like a red fin posting of the house that the address was. And she had sent me a picture to the fake Yoni of her like having breakfast in the morning.
And in the background, you can see the tiles of the bathroom. And when I found the red fin for the address, it was the same bathroom.
So I knew this is the place she was hiding. This was late at night, and we agreed to meet in the evening of the next day.
You never know what Megan's planning or what she's plotting. She's probably listening to a police scanner right now to see, does anything happen after I put this address out into the world? I haven't told anyone where I'm at.
Here's Amanda. Justin and I were very, very clear about we will not accept any payment upfront because we didn't want her to go try and scam someone else.
I think that that's where we could have gotten into legal trouble if we had gotten payment. We were like, we will not discuss payment with you until we've met and we're a good connection, whatever.
We didn't want to call 911 because we believed that Megan listened to the police scanner. So if we called 911 to report her, she would have known to run.
So we sat on the address all night. The next morning, Justin's working.
I think Kyle, Chloe, and Mike were at a YR convention and Alex was at a convention in Oregon. So then they invited Alyssa to the group.
And Alyssa is the one who ended up calling the non-emergency line, but she called me during it. It was like a three-way call, but they didn't know that I was on the call.
Alyssa was so well prepared. I mean, she had everything down.
She knew that it was an Airbnb, but there was a back entrance. So she's like, I think that she could get out of the back entrance.
I'm worried that if you go knock on the door, she won't come. Before she hung up, she said, would it be okay if you called me back to tell me that you got her if you get her? And they were like, yeah.
It was like the longest half hour of my life. Here's Alyssa again.
I was like, I'm going to go ahead and make the call. I wrote everything down.
And what's really funny is that I'm looking at it right now. All the information I needed.
I first looked up the owner of the Airbnb, found him, found his contact information. I let them know like how long she had been there, what her name was, physical description, address of the Airbnb, owner of the Airbnb, the phone number I've found for the owner, all of this.
So I write it all down on a piece of paper. I'm like, all right, I'm going upstairs.
Let's make this call. Amanda, do you want me to like three weigh you in? She's messaging me on the other side while I'm talking to them in case I forget something.
I have that piece of paper at my work desk on my cork board.
I've saved it all this time because it was like such a fantastic moment for me.
Because I had told her previously when I tried to get arrested the first time and she was like, oh, they let me go.
And I'm like, I will do everything I can to like get your victims justice.
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So I make the call. I think they told me that they needed to speak to the sheriff's department about this regarding a warrant.
Just a couple minutes later, maybe they transferred the line, and I start speaking to someone at the sheriff sheriff's office and I tell them what's going on. I give them the address, name all the information that they need.
And I'm like shaking while I'm doing this because I'm like, this might be the moment that this girl really gets some justice. This is it.
So I talked to the guy and he's like, we're headed to the address provided. And I was like, sweet.
Can you call me afterwards? Is that okay? Is that like against protocol? He's like, no, I can give you a call when we're done. And I was like, cool.
So I messaged both group chats and I'm like, all right, they're on their way. We'll see what happens.
She doesn't have to answer the door. That's the whole thing.
They can't kick the door down. They can't even gain access to the main house, let alone her bedroom that she's renting out.
If no one answers the door. It's like 40 minutes.
I'm like almost giving up hope.
And I'm like, maybe she didn't answer the door.
Like, this is just another lost cause.
I keep looking at my phone and waiting and waiting and waiting.
I was in the bathroom or something.
And my mom and my daughters comes right in there with my phone.
She's like, mommy, your phone's ringing.
Your phone's ringing.
And it's the sheriff. And so I take the call and I'm like, hello.
And he was like, hi, is this Alyssa?
And I said, yes, it is. And he was like, well, I just wanted to let you know that we got her.
I didn't mean to, but I screamed, fuck yes, so loud. I could hear him laughing in the background.
And I'm like, thank you so much for letting me know. She scammed a lot of people.
She's done a lot of people wrong. And this is going to make a lot of people happy to know that she's going to be finally brought to justice.
And he was like, yeah, we talked to the Airbnb owner and he told us that he had already had some issues with her, not wanting to pay. She'd only been there for a few nights saying, you know, I can pay you in a couple hours.
Can you give me a little bit longer? Can I stay a little bit longer? And he was like, no, you know, you got to pay me. And this has gone on for a couple of days.
So in true Megan fashion, she was already pissing off the Airbnb owner, which is why when the police showed up, the Airbnb owner answered the door and led them to Megan's door. And had he not done that, I don't know that they would have gotten in.
But luckily the owner was home at the time. So yeah, that's how all of that happened.
That's how I was brought in on the situation because I wasn't directly involved with the Yoni page.
But at the end, they were kind enough to let me make that call.
After that, I was like, I told you.
I told you the last time I talked to you on the phone,
which was the night that the other cops had let her go,
that I wasn't going to stop until she was behind bars.
It finally happened.
We had been trying for like four months to get this girl arrested.
She's running from the law. She's staying in different Airbnbs every night.
Like, catch me if you can. And I messaged the group chat and like, she's in jail.
And everyone like blew up and was like, this is it. This is truly the moment we have been waiting for.
And I remember asking in the group chat, I was like, who's going to reach out to Tom and let him know? That was my first thought. He's always been in the forefront of my mind when it comes to all of this with Megan.
And they were like, why don't you make the call? So I got to pick up my phone and call Tom. I'd never heard him hoop and holler so loud in his life.
He was truly so excited to know that she was just in jail and not even for crimes that she had committed against him. Here's Tom.
I still can't wrap my head around how Justin and Amanda were able to take her down with someone who didn't even exist. She was so wrapped up in her own way of thinking that she let her security barrier down.
and it cost her it cost her big time i learned in college about how vigilantes were this disorganized ragtag group of bounty hunters but with modern technology today and a few intelligent and hard-thinking individuals vigilante justice is a lot easier to come by. Here's Justin.
I was at work at the time, and I do a job where I work with my hands. My hands were shaking for the next hour because I was like, this is it.
If she told this person who she thinks is a healer, all of this stuff, and she finds out it was us trying to get her. She will not trust anyone ever again.
It really did feel like a do or die. We're either going to get her now or she's never going to get caught.
And then the officer called Alyssa back and he was like, yep, they found her. And she messaged me through the Telegram app and said, I believe you've turned me in.
I've just been arrested. And that's one of the most exciting things that's ever happened to me.
I mean, to realize we got her. This is the interesting thing.
She could see my cell phone number on Telegram the whole time. And she never looked it up.
She never ran the number. I didn't think she had my phone number because we had talked that one time over Zoom.
And all of my messages with her from the past had been on Twitter and Instagram. So I didn't think she had it.
But if she had Googled it, I've had that number for 10 years. She could have figured out who it was.
She called the number from inside the jail and she said, are you even a real practitioner? And I said, no, Megan, this has all been fake. And she said, how were you able to fake it so well? The sound of defeat in her voice.
And I said, it honestly beats the hell out of me. I don't know how I was able to do it.
I've spent a lot of time in 12-step rooms and DBT therapy. I've done some work in those spaces.
I guess I knew enough kind of yogi speak from some of the people i met through that that i was able to get by i'm not usually the kind of guy that would have ever done anything like that but one of the most exciting things in my life here's spice girl alex again i had taken my mom to a lego convention as a delayed Mother's Day present. It was the best day of my life.
We went out to breakfast and we were at this Lego event and we were just living our best girly lives. The weather was phenomenal.
And I found out she was arrested. My mom and I participated in a build your Lego race car and send it down this ramp drag strip.
And I think if you won, you got like a sticker or something. And I was filming the race and my car was winning to note.
So this is how glorious this moment was for me. My car wins and crosses the finish line.
I was one sticker richer in my life. And right as it crossed the finish line, the notification pops up on the top bar of the screen saying, we got her.
And we got her officially this time. And it was the most incredible moment, second most incredible moment of my life besides marrying my husband.
We got her for good this time. We were so relieved that she was in jail at that point.
There were days where I couldn't fall asleep at night because I was like, she's hurting somebody right now and I just know it and there's nothing anybody can do about it. I felt very lost because there's a lot of big differences between how we do things in Oregon versus how they do things in Indiana.
I'm learning with other people, you know, a whole different civil justice system and how things work there. And I felt a huge, huge sense of duty to do right and to do something about this and also do it correctly.
So knowing that the world and specifically that community in Indiana was just that much more safer was a huge, huge relief for not only myself, but for everybody else as well.
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Take two. The following is audio from a Twitter space live that Justin and Amanda hosted shortly after Stoner was arrested.
Ladies and gentlemen, we got her. We got her.
Thank you everyone who has been so kind and everything that they've said the last few days. I mean, it's been, people have said a lot of really nice things about the work that Amanda and I did.
And it was not just us. So we'll get to all that.
But it's been very nice, all the nice messages you all have been sending. Yeah, I'm really grateful for everyone we've met throughout all of this.
I feel like we've come together through kind of a traumatic situation, which is Megan Stoner. But I'm grateful that some good has come with the bad.
You know I was talking to somebody last night and they said like do you feel like you were a part of a mob like doing all of this and I said I mean a little bit yeah I do but like and this goes back to like she had no one else to call but the fake Yanni guy coming to like meet her who she already probably knew was a fake at that point that was the only only person she had to call besides her mom. And I said, you know, like she had no one, there's no one here tonight who wants to speak on her behalf.
We've done four of these now. Nobody's come up and been like, she's a really great person.
Like I'd like to think if it was me, like a couple of you guys would speak up on my behalf if there were this many people. No one is defending her.
No one. There's 1,400 people in a Facebook group about her for a reason.
And this has all been of her own making. So, yeah, let's open it up.
Who else wants to talk? Yeah, so I was just going to say, I mean, I've been part of the Megan Stoner saga since her behaviors really started in 2015, 2016.
And, you know, I think nobody that has been part of this has really been seeking attention. You know, right? Like, we've all been involved in this because of the behaviors Megan exhibited.
She brought this on herself. and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Justin, Amanda, Alyssa, Alex,
everyone that has put so much time and effort into taking her off the streets because literally every day it was a new scam, a new person that was being, you know, scammed out of money or scammed out of their house or something else. And so I just want to, you know, again, like echo the saying that you guys deserve a medal.
And thank you all for your hard work and look forward to the trials. Hi, everyone.
I helped out with some of the earlier operations. I'm so glad you guys caught her.
Thank God. But I wanted to say that for anyone who isn't familiar with this or is just jumping on the bus now, that this group 1400 people in it and i've met amazing people in it and megan stoner could have had 1400 friends if she had been anyone but herself and that's really all on her this wasn't a hate mom this wasn't something that was anything but people who could have been really good supporters of her and actually really on team meg and just to thank you to all the friends i've made along the way totally totally thank you to everyone who helped a little bit a ton like and i just my biggest thing is i'm thankful that that's now we can all get our lives back and this is all over and we don't have to worry about other victims.
We finally did it, y'all. Oh, my God.
Sorry. Well, it's a very good feeling to be out here.
I was the anonymous person who came forward before the last Twitter space. I will be very brief in my remarks this evening because this was a team effort.
But I, again, cannot thank all of the people here, Kyle, Mike, Justin, Alyssa, Alex, all of you guys for getting her Megan and I go back a ways and Jesus, she really gaslit me. It was shocking.
I mean, I never thought I'd be manipulated to this extent the way that she did with me. It was manipulative.
It was aggressive. um, you know, my job became collateral because of it as well.
I mean, I, you know, mentally I was gone and, uh, it killed me. Needless to say, she milked me for quite a bit of cash.
And, um, you know, obviously, uh, it is really good to know though, that she cannot do this to anybody anymore. Forget me.
I mean there are over 280 some odd people here who have been brought together by her. So I mean obviously the rabbit hole goes deep so I don't want to put my case over anybody's.
But it just somebody who struggles with disability that's you know it was a low blow for her to do and I guess before I get off the line here I just have one thing
to leave you all with
for all you
White Sox fans you know what I mean That's what Megan gets. Nah, nah, nah, nah.
Hey, hey, hey. Stone Soup.
So yeah, a big thank you to the entire Megan Stoner Chronicles team for what you guys have done for me and everybody else. We couldn't have recovered without you.
So just thanks for letting me share my story, whatnot. More details will come available.
Netflix, give us a call. But thank you all so much just for everything you guys have done.
That's all I got to say. On behalf of a lot of us, I want to say to Justin and Amanda, thank you so much for orchestrating this operation.
It was clever. Y'all deserve a medal.
But to paraphrase that old Frank Sinatra victory song, when every time the Yankees play, start spreading the news. We've won today.
We're leaving today. You're going.
Marrying bread and breakfast. Yeah.
You're going back to Hamco jail. Oh, yeah.
Jail. Sweet jail.
You know, there's too many people to thank by name, but thank you, thank you, thank you. Everyone who's been following along, who's been helping with this, like, I'm just so glad she can't scam anyone anymore.
Yes, or emotionally drain anyone anymore, which is arguably just as bad. My hope is that I never have to do another one of these again.
But you know, it's Megan. And you know, we'll see.
So thank you, everyone. It's been a pleasure.
But that's all. Have a good one.
Bye, everyone. Next time on Something Was Wrong.
I mean, did your daughter actually die?
Yes.
It's a long story, and it has to do with a private adoption.
A private adoption? I don't care that no one...
Yeah, my kid was adopted out.
Why is everyone saying that your child died?
Because I have a child that died.
You have a child that... My kid was adopted out.
Why is everyone saying that your child died?
Because I have a child that died.
You have a child, Megan?
Yes, I did.
You gave birth to a child?
I did, yes. That's normally how they come about.
I think you are absolutely delusional at this point.
This is the best thing I've heard yet.
Do you have any pictures of your baby bump? I don't know. Did I have a warrant out of Anderson? Did you have a child out of your vagina? Did you have a conversation with me? Will I have a conversation with you? No, I've had enough conversations with you.
I've had enough conversations where you make up bullshit about having dead kids that don't exist. So, no, I Lily Rowe.
Thank you to our audio engineer, Becca High, and our social media marketing manager, Lauren Barkman of Luxury Media. Additional thanks to our partners, Grant at Wondery, Marissa, Travis, and our team at WME, Jason and Jennifer at KSCO, our cybersecurity team, Darkbox Security, and my lawyer, Alan.
And to all of you who make our show possible
with your support and listenership. Special shout out to Neon Honey and Gabbana's for covering our theme song, Gladrag's original song, You Think You, this season.
For more music from them, check out the episode notes or your favorite streaming app. In the episode notes, you'll always find content warnings, sources, and resources, with links to our websites and social media as well.
Thank you so much to every survivor and ally who has trusted us to help share their stories. We are forever grateful.
Until next time, stay safe, friends. If you like Something Was Wrong, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Bollin, the host of Mr.
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