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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 the
or Wondery. 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 Pauly, she responded with no comment. Thank you so much for listening. You think you know me, you don't. You think you know me,
Hi, my name is Shayna.
am from a quintessential small town in Iowa called Sloan. The way our school worked is it was a kindergarten through 12, one building, and people came from four different small towns to all go to school at Westwood.
Such a small town, one bar, post office, rural, super conservative. Boys would drive their pickups with their shotguns in the back. Farming was the number one goal to aspire to.
My parents went to the same high school as I did. My teachers all knew my parents. Jess's parents went to the same school that I did, or at least her dad. And my parents were friends growing up with him. My aunt dated him. So I've always just kind of known Jess, maybe not been really close with her. But it's such a small town where like everybody knows everybody.
A rumor takes a day to run through all five of the small towns. All these people you went to kindergarten through high school with, you knew everything about everybody.
The summer after my sophomore year, I was going into junior year of high school. So it would have been Jess's freshman summer going into sophomore year in high school. So I did a very deep dive into my Facebook 2007. Shayna, you just made my life that you have 2007 Facebook fucking material messages, girl. This is also the super frustrating thing about this is because we were idiots.
I was posting on her wall and then she would post on my wall. So there's not a clear thread. Like we replied to each other's posts. So I've had to like piece all of these together myself.
When I went back and searched Jessica, the first Facebook post that I have from her is from April of 2007. It seems like we connected over softball right away. She was like, hey, Shana, how are you? Are you going out for softball? We would always do this thing or we'd sleep on the field one night in our sleeping bags. And so she talks a lot about that and how excited she was.
So then there's a few things through April. Then things really kind of ramped up. Then in like June, July, August was when our whole situation happened. But just making small talk through Facebook through the spring, nothing very serious happened.
Okay, but basic friendship stuff. I don't really have the exact text or the exact post of when she was like, hey, my friend thinks you're really cute. And I gave him, you know, he saw your picture on my Facebook or however it went. But from what I can remember is that post.
She was friends with this guy from a high school, East High in Sioux City. And she had told me, oh, I have this friend. He thinks you're really cute. I think he's probably going to reach out to you. And I was like, okay. And so, like she said, I received a Facebook friend request. And at this point, nothing.
That Facebook page has been taken down. I can't find a Callan Austin Facebook page anywhere. But so I immediately hit accept. June is when the first time he was mentioned on my Facebook page. And so I found this was from June 26th.
freaking Mr. Callan Austin decided to tailgate me and another girl that we went to high school with all the way downtown. I have no clue how we got so lucky to run into him, but it was funny as hell. And now I don't want to like get too far off, but it was pretty crazy to me because when I searched Callan, which she spelled it K-A-L-A-N. When I searched Callan in 2007, I
there were other girls that we went to high school with that she was posting his name on their Facebook wall.
a few messages here and there, but I definitely don't think I was the first person she tried to do this with this Callen account. I found a message between Jess and a girl that was in her grade from January 30th, 2007. We were from two very different friend groups, so there would have been no reason why I would have seen this. It's
Ballsy, this girl wrote on Jessica's wall, January 2007. Whoa, Jesse, wait a minute. Are you going to do shit with Trent slash Callan slash whatever one is real? I couldn't help but notice what he said, quote unquote. I just hope that you don't feel like you had to say yes, because I'd still care a lot about you if you never did.
Remember about our first period class? I thought you were going to be a good girl. Like I have any room to talk, but I actually see and hang out with my boyfriend and we have been dating for a while. It was mind blowing. It was the first time I saw this and I'm like, oh my God, she tried to do this with other girls and I was the one who just fell for it. Pages and pages of these Facebook quotes. From other people? Other people. In high school?
From high school. How many?
Three or four, but it was... Three or four? That's insane! Do you know these people well? Yes, our town is so small. And most of these people, this woman I was not friends with. Her husband is in my grade and we used to be babysat together. So it's just all these like weird small town links. She posted on a girlfriend of mine that, you know, again, I don't really talk to anybody that I went to high school with, but she posted on a girl...
was like, oh, Callan tailgated us this night, blah, blah, blah. And I'm just like, oh, wow. I mean, yeah, she was bringing his name up to multiple people. I was not good friends with them at that time because she was good at being friends with just you and prioritizing you and like trying to get you to not talk to anybody else, even as just a friend. Basically from the get go. Oh,
And he immediately, you know, was like, hey, sexy, or immediately said how attractive I was. We basically just talked over Facebook at the beginning. And then probably like two days later, I offered up my phone number and we texted. And we texted nonstop all the time. I remember my mom got this huge bill in the mail because I think at that point, a text that you would send was like 15 cents.
It was just immediately everything you wanted to hear. And she was always on the other end being like, I talked to him too. He's so excited to see you. I mean, she was just constantly backing him up, talking him up to me about how great he was and how all of his friends were so great. I wasn't just talking to Callan. He had friends named Trent and Wes. And I found a picture. It's
It's just me because, again, all of these profiles have been deleted, but it's like, Trent, stop looking, naughty boys. His friends were always involved, too. I mean, I don't remember if I was getting text messages from these other boys, but they were clearly interacting with me on Facebook, commenting on my pictures. Callan was always commenting on my pictures.
Very quickly, she, well, Callan was asking for pictures. I think it starts off just like all the other girls where it starts off really innocent. Send me a picture of what you're doing. And I can't even imagine like the grainy ass pictures that were sent to this Callan person.
It quickly evolved to, I think you're so sexy. You should send me a picture of you in your bra. And then maybe you naked. Send me a picture of your butt. Again, I was 14. I think I had maybe kissed a boy. But at that point, I definitely wasn't sexually active. I was not talking to boys in my class like that. So this was all very new.
He was this hot older boy from a different school. So I felt very lucky and special that he thought all these things about me. And he was asking me for these things as like maybe naive as that sounds. But it was awesome to be a 14-year-old getting all of this awesome attention from a guy. And he was going to come watch me play softball. And it was just like, oh my God, it was absolutely amazing.
It's been a long time. So a lot of these details are fuzzy. And that's why I'm so thankful that I was able to do all this Facebook digging, because it really has brought a lot of stuff back to light. I'm assuming that it was all sent through text. And that is the other thing that to this day, I'm still a little bit confused about, because I had to have been texting her as well. She
She had to have somehow used two different phone numbers. I don't know how that could have been possible. Maybe she was using Megan's phone, her sister's phone. I don't know. So very quickly, all that happened. That was all through July, late June, early July. We had a sleepover, like where we tent camped on Jess's property. And it was me, Megan,
And her and I think a couple of other girls, maybe two or three other girls. And at that point, everybody knew about me and Callan. I...
Remember her being there and it was definitely to her phone. It was not, the call wasn't to my phone, but it said his name and she was talking to him. And then she came over and was like, he wants to talk to you. And it was definitely a male's, I think a male's voice on the other end, but it was very much like, hi, how are you? I'm sorry, I got to keep this really short, but I got to go. But I just wanted for you to hear my voice or something silly, you know, kind of corny and cheesy like that. But it was very quick.
Did she get her cousin to do it? I don't know, but she was there and it was on her phone, but it was the same number that I was getting messages from. It was wild. I don't know how she was doing all this back when we were so young. I found a picture of me and a different girl that I was friends with. And it says me and this girl's name in her car waiting in the Casey's parking lot till 4.30 in the morning. This was on July 9th.
I was like, oh my God, I remember this night. He told me that he was going to meet me and I didn't want to meet a stranger alone. I think God was at least smart enough to do that. And so I had my friend meet
sit in a car with me from like 9.30 to 4.30 in the morning and we just waited for him. And I don't remember if I was getting text messages being like, I'm on my way or if I was just being ghosted and had no idea, but we waited forever and it never showed up, but still was able to...
Pull me back in. There are messages all through August talking about him. This is the part that makes me sad is I found a lot of messages starting kind of in the beginning of August, end of July, where I'm starting to get bullied online for
from people at my high school, real people from my high school. I was so open about having an internet boyfriend. And this person was clearly messaging me back on Facebook. These boys that I went to high school with these girls that I went to high school, they were like, well, we've never actually seen him. This person's not real. They were like, Oh, your internet boyfriend, I posted a picture of me and a friend and it kind of looks like we're almost kissing kind of. But
But a guy comes and comments, ooh, I'm going to tell Callan. And I was just like, shut up. Nobody likes you. And then at the beginning of August, I found this really long thread between me and Jess.
It starts August 8th. Hi, so how is Mr. Studley going? Gosh, he is so dang gorgeous, LOL. I'm working on him for you. But anyways, what have you been up to? And then she goes into, hey, remember that girl that said all that shit to you that one time? And I was like, no, LOL. I have no idea who you're talking about. She goes, remember when I went to your house and you showed me an email from her or something? It was something about Callan.
She goes on to be like, it's a really long story. You can call me and I'll tell you, but it's way too complicated to stay over the internet. But I told her about it and she's like, yeah, she's made up and shit, but she won't tell me who it is. But these girls posting on her wall being like, I know this guy's not real. And then they would post on my wall. So these girls would be like, oh, is your internet boyfriend coming tonight? Right.
And I remember this in school, having to defend this boyfriend. And Jess was always right behind me being like, oh, yeah, he's my friend, too. Like, I got your back. I know he's real. I've met him before. And so it was just always her pushing the whole situation.
I definitely got dick pics from that number. And you don't know, obviously, who those photos were of. I mean, it was a dude maybe from belly button down. And I mean, there were rock hard six pack abs that I could see.
A lot of the messages or the frequency of messages goes down middle of August. I was sitting in my house one day and I remember how I felt the details of the whole kind of situation are maybe a little bit fuzzy because it's been so long, but I was definitely excited.
my house and I'm pretty sure that I received a message on Facebook from a person that looked like Callan. It had a different name and if I remember right, the name of this person was Wes with the same picture as Callan messaged me asking me for my phone number. I immediately gave it to him because I thought, well,
Well, this is Callan. I don't know what the name is about, but these are clearly his pictures. And so I readily gave it to him. And then I got a call and I'm like, hello? Because at this point I had maybe talked to Callan once on the phone for a very quick second.
But this person on the other end, I was so excited. Immediately was like, who are you? And I was just shocked. And I don't remember exactly what I said, but he almost immediately, I don't think I could even get a word in edgewise because he was right away. I don't know who you are. And if you keep telling people that we're boyfriend and girlfriend, I'm going to kill you.
I am going to call the cops. I want you to delete things. Like, I want my name off your Facebook. These pictures. I don't know who you are. And I was just shocked. And being 14, I was just like, what the fuck? Who have I been talking to? What does this mean? I didn't know what to do. I was just shaking. And I think I told him, you got it. Okay.
I, of course, tried to be like, I promise I thought I was talking to you, but the other person really didn't want to hear it and was very quick to get off the phone. So we got off the phone and I remember sitting there shaking, being like, what the fuck just happened? Then shortly after, I think it just clicked like that's the real person. The person that I've been talking to is obviously Jess.
She's been the one who's been perpetuating this. She's been the one who's been like, I've met him. I know he's a real person. I talk to him on the phone all the time. After that initial shock wore off, I knew it was her.
I did reach out to her and told her what happened. And her response was, oh, my God, I must have been catfished, too. And I think initially in my head, I'm like, well, you said you've met this person. How is this possible? What do you mean you've been catfished, too? But then immediately following that thought was, oh, my fucking God, she's got my nudes.
Again, being from the conservative small town that we're from, I was so scared. I knew that if these people online who were making fun of me for having a fake boyfriend or having an internet boyfriend found out the amount of hell that I would get in school for sending pictures to a female, I totally support the LGBTQ community.
I'm not a lesbian. And at 14, I just didn't want to be known as a lesbian because I knew that was immediately going to be the next thing. You're an idiot. How did you not know? Like, I just was terrified.
Jess and I as friends, which she was one of those very possessive friends, all we would do is sit in her room, listen to love stories, watch The Notebook, watch A Walk to Remember, like watching all of these lovey-dovey movies. The things that I was being told, it was a fairy tale. I mean, it was just so what you wanted to hear as a 14-year-old. I was being
swept off my feet over the internet. It was incredible. Everything that you would want to hear as a young woman, it was being told to me on the daily. Like flooding on my public Facebook wall too for everybody else to see as well. I don't think I told anybody. Did you stay friends with Jess? A few Facebook posts that I find...
that go through maybe November. They are very far and few between, and they're over very, like, generalized stuff. Is it her reaching out to you mostly? Yes. Yep. The following year, 2008, I tried to call her out,
There's a message, how did you meet your new boyfriend? Because you don't live in Ohio. I had posted that on her wall. So I think that I was getting kind of brave, but no, I never confronted her. And immediately after played it cool because I had watched her fall out with other friends and it was terrible.
She would talk shit about these people and perpetuate these rumors and these lies. And I'm like, I have to play it cool with her or else she's going to do that to me. She's going to leak my nudes. She's going to say all these things about me. And I felt I have to play it cool. I have to pretend like this isn't bothersome to me. I got a boyfriend. I'm over it. Teenagers are so good at denial.
I have grown. I am in a happy, healthy marriage. I have a daughter. Having her has just taught me to feel so strong and to promote that for her. But definitely I was insecure afterwards. I was very promiscuous because I felt like in order for me to keep these guys interested, for these people to be real in my life, I have to give them essentially what they want. My first interactions were
were very sexualized. Even though I knew that it was a girl and I knew that it wasn't real, it was hard for me to keep it detached. It just made me really insecure around guys and made my self-confidence
go way low. And so I wasn't treating myself with respect. We've maybe seen each other once or twice outside of high school. And it would have probably been my freshman year in college, like coming back home. It would have been very shortly after high school. That's the extent. Until all this stuff came out. Until I got sent the TikTok link.
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Hi, I'm Chloe. I have known Jessica my whole life. My mom and her mom were best friends growing up, and my dad and her dad were really good friends growing up. We went to school together. We lived in the same town.
I feel like she was the type of person to always care about what other people thought of her and how they looked at her. Even as far as who she hung out with, they had to be, I'm going to say, quote unquote, pretty enough to be her friend. Because I feel like she cared about what other people thought of her friends, if they were pretty or they were ugly or being made fun of.
So this happened to me back in 2007. And back then, I had known that it was her. I never came out about it. I never talked about it because I was like, people are going to think I'm crazy. We were kids, well, teenagers. And I was like, this is just like a thing, right, for now. I never thought that it would blow up into this. And seeing her,
what it has turned into and advanced to since 2007 to 2024 is absolutely insane. Insane. Insane. When did you meet Mac, which was the fake name she was using with you, right? Yep. So there was actually Zane and there was Mac. I remember myself and Kim saying,
We're talking to this guy named Mac. We would receive letters from this guy and we would write back and forth. Kim and I did not like each other because of this. And eventually it came down to Mac choosing Kim over myself and made me feel like I was not good enough. I wasn't pretty enough.
Zane, the only memory I really have of him is commenting on my photos on Facebook, like, oh, you're so beautiful, or you look sad. I just want to come cheer you up, things along those lines. The Zane relationship was over Facebook. Now, the Mac, quote, unquote, relationship was through notes, right?
Kim and I would write letters to Mac and Jessica was the middle person. And now looking back on it, it sounds so silly and I'm like, are you serious? But we would give Jessica the letters and Jessica would come back with Mac's response. And that's how we exchanged our notes. We were
We were supposed to meet this guy and it never happened. And if I remember right, Kim and Max continued their quote unquote relationship. They were supposed to meet up multiple times and there was always an excuse like he had a softball game or whatever it may have been. I started putting pieces together and I was like, it doesn't make sense. This isn't right. There's something off. It's about 15, 20 minutes from where we lived.
There was actually a Mac in Mapleton, and that's where we were always supposed to meet this person. So if I remember right, I reached out to that Mac, and he had no clue what was going on. Can you walk me through just going places with you to meet up? Was that with Mac or with Zane?
That was Mac. I do not remember that much, unfortunately. But essentially, you used this fake person and then was like, I choose Kim over you?
Yes. Yes. I'm so sorry. That's so fucked up. It is. It is. Well, even as a friend with Jessica, just being her friend, her being Jessica, she always made me feel like I was not good enough. Like I was not the pretty friend. Our friendship was, I'd say, behind closed doors.
At school, we weren't really friends. We were more acquaintances. When it came down to any outings or anything, it wasn't really me being invited to groups of her outings. Definitely bullying mean girl behavior, for sure. Yeah, that tracks. Jess is passing the notes for you guys. So how did she, if you recall, had she been like, I'm friends with Mac and he wanted me to pass you this note, basically? Yeah.
Yes, Jessica knew Mac. Mac and Jessica were friends. Yes. Quote unquote friends. Did he go to a different school? He did. Yes. I think Mac came first. And after Mac had chosen Tim and made me feel like I wasn't good enough, then came along Zane.
I feel like the relationship lasted probably the school year through that summer. It's been so long. So I can't recall how long after Mac. I feel like it was not long after. He added me as a friend on Facebook and he would comment that I look sad and he wanted to come comfort me, stuff like that.
I feel like that was Jessica's way of making me feel better after breaking me down and making me feel like complete shit.
She was always the friend trying to keep friends separate. She always had different friend groups. Ones that I would say were more acquaintances in public. And then there were the group of friends that were more popular and quote unquote, so to speak, prettier. So she fought. I don't know. I really don't know her thought process. It's crazy.
So Kim and I, we did not get along after this. And I have recently spoke to her about this. She's like, I do not have the best memory of this. Refresh my memory. And she's like, I don't even remember why we didn't like each other. And I went back through it with her, like what I could remember anyway. And she's like, oh my gosh, yes. So you talked to Zane on Facebook. Did you guys text too? Did you have your own phone then? Yes.
No, I did not. So it was all through Facebook? It was all Facebook. He was states away, if I remember right. So did you guys ever talk on the phone? I don't remember. I don't.
Did you guys exchange photos? I'm sure that we did. There was a photo of him on Facebook. And I do have the comments still that he had commented on my photos. Yeah. Is there any way you could text it to me? Absolutely. Yep. And this profile was actually just, he had wrote a status in 2020. Oh,
Oh, my God. Don't quote me, but yes, it's been recently used. Yeah. How did the relationship end between the two of you? I don't remember. So did you ever figure out whose real photos it was then? Zane, I have no idea. I feel like the 2007 Jessica and victims are so much different than the 2024 Zane.
It's advanced so much since 2007. We didn't really have cell phones. We didn't just have the option to hop in our car and go meet these quote-unquote boys. So I feel like things have changed so much.
Jessica and her dad didn't have the best of relationships. I mean, what she claimed anyway, some abuse going on. I do remember cops being at her dad's home one night. Something physical had happened and her mom was trying to get her to live with her. Nothing ended up coming about that. What about her sister, Megan? Were you close with her?
I was that close with Megan, but I knew Megan very well. I feel like they're complete opposites. Now, this is opinion, outsider looking in. Megan really did no wrong. Megan was the quote-unquote favorite. Again, opinion. Megan was into sports and stuff like that. Jessica really was not.
Growing up, my theory was always that she was lesbian. That was my theory. Because her family is pretty religious. My theory was that she was lesbian and could not come out in her own skin. So she hid behind these boys and was able to live through these fake people that these women were falling in love with. But now in 2024, as it is,
It's advanced. It's so much more than that. It's got to be like personality disorders or something. I don't know. Speaking of lesbians and whatever, I am one. Like I am engaged to a girl right now and she just recently came out to her family. And I'm going to tell you, she did not act like this before she came out. So this is not normal. This is not normal, guys. Thank you so, so much. Thank you.
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I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah. Yeah.
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I was, I guess you could say one of those bookworms. I was a cheerleader, softball player, straight A's, was going to college originally to be a doctor. So I was pre-med in college. And then my life after meeting Jess took a turn and I actually ended up being a lawyer.
I feel like Jess came into my life at a very pivotal moment. The events that took place with my interactions with Jess, I feel like have put me on a different course, not necessarily a bad one, but it did sort of drive me where I am today. - Did you originally start as roommates? - We were not. I just had a random roommate. She was fine. We didn't become close. I met Jess through a mutual friend.
College starts in August. I probably met Jess late August, early September. She worked her way into becoming my best friend. And so we had put in for a transfer to become roommates, which had been approved. And we, I think, moved in together around November, maybe late October.
It's difficult now looking back in hindsight because, you know, now there's a very different perception of her. But originally she's a girl's girl. I had going into college, went through a breakup. I was fine with it. It was my choice to break up with that individual, but she was there for me. She was rooting for me. She was there for everything. I was a cheerleader in college. She would be there for all of my events. She seemed like the type of best friend anybody would want.
Did you feel like you guys got like super close super quick?
Yes, super close, super quick to the point where it was a little suffocating. So anytime I would go home on a weekend, she would want to come with. She wanted to meet all of my hometown friends. She wanted to latch on to them. She often borrowed my clothes and wanted to do things with me at all times. She would become jealous if I were hanging out with anyone else. She would always want to be there.
Had you experienced that in a friendship before? No. And I haven't since. I haven't ever had a friendship with a girl like that. It's almost like a relationship with like my husband. He would be the only other person that I could compare who behaves that way. It felt more like someone that wanted to be in like a romantic relationship. And were you blonde at the time? I was blonde and I am blonde. Yep. That tracks.
When I met Jess, this was 14 years ago. So this was before the TV show Catfish. TikTok didn't exist. I don't even think Vine existed at the time. So meeting people online was not very common. You don't have the same guards that you would have up today, you know, that we know about the internet today. Mitch was introduced by Jess...
fairly early into our relationship. It started off as, hey, I've got this friend that I think that you would be really great to be with. Let me hook you up. I'm going to give you his phone number. He wants to connect with you on Facebook. She really drove that connection or me to start to have conversations with Mitch. And admittedly, she was a very attractive guy at the time. There
There were multiple pictures. Anytime she would go home on the weekends, she would say, "Yep, I hung out with Mitch this weekend. My friend hung out with Mitch." Always, Mitch is real. There's someone to vouch for him. At the beginning, I had no reason to doubt that it wasn't a real person.
He was charming. He wanted to get to know me. Jess had already, quote, fed him information about me. So he said, I want to get to know you better. Very complimentary, telling me based on pictures how beautiful I was. The conversation just went really smooth. So it was easy at night or in between classes just to have someone to text and talk to. A
Looking back, it feels like a long time, but in reality, it could have only been a month or two. The conversation before I started trying to actually meet up with this person would have been only a couple of weeks before I tried to start initiating, I want to meet you in person. So there were several times where we were supposed to meet up and then something would happen. There are a couple of times in particular that really stand out. Now knowing that it was Jess is absolutely horrific.
One time we were supposed to meet in Jess's hometown and Mitch was going to meet us there, but his younger brother had been in an accident that caused him to pass away. So that was the story and why we couldn't meet up. And then obviously wanting to comfort this guy that I felt like I was forming a relationship with, tried to meet up again. This time Mitch
Mitch had gone to Wisconsin and Mitch got into an accident. I think it was either an ATV or some sort of motorcycle accident story where he was in the hospital. His quote, dad began texting me saying, you know, Mitch really wants you here. It would mean a lot. So Jess and I loaded up in my Jeep and the middle of the night and drove 500 miles to Wisconsin to this hospital that Mitch was supposedly at.
call the hospital. They have nobody by this name sitting outside this hospital for several hours where with just no text from Mitch, absolute silence. Then suddenly I get a text that says, Oh, Mitch was discharged. We're going home. Nevermind. So drove to Wisconsin, sat for a couple hours,
turned around and drove right back just in the car with me that entire time, knowing that this was a story that she had concocted and that she was driving. 500 miles each way. Yep. And, you know, as a broke college student, that's not easy to do. Forking over the gas money for that. I think that was the first time where I started getting really suspicious about what was going on. Did she feign ignorance?
like worry about Mitch and him losing his brother and all that? Yeah, she was devastated. She said she knew this little boy. She seemed genuinely upset. Her story was that her and Mitch had been friends for a very long time and that he was the greatest guy and she was just so happy that he was with me. We were on the road for at least two days total. I don't understand
We were roommates at that point in time. There was a lot of parties, a lot of alcohol involved where I was in very vulnerable positions when it was just her and I. So to think, you know, she had all that opportunity. She didn't need to make up some story to get some alone time with me.
endlessly weird and harmful. Yeah, it's sick. And it's hard to even try to rationalize it or understand it or even put yourself in that position and trying to answer the question of why did she do it is going to drive anyone else insane because we will never as I hate to use the word normal people, but people that don't act like this, it would be impossible for us to even begin to understand. Yeah.
the why of why she's doing it. And there's like no real reason for it to ever, you know, it should never happen. It didn't even cross my mind that it was weird. We were best friends.
My family was going on a week-long ski trip to Breckenridge. My parents had rented a cabin. It was a very nice place and it was the opportunity where you can bring a friend. I was the only one that actually brought a friend that trip, but it wasn't uncommon for my parents to allow us to bring friends or boyfriends on our vacation. So I feel like it's a great opportunity
I figured this is going to be a really fun Christmas vacation. I would love my best friend to be there. It was a full week in Breckenridge. Jess had never skied, so it was also an opportunity to teach again my best friend how to ski and to just have a good time together. It was actually a Breckenridge trip from hell. We'll start at the beginning.
This trip was a little unusual. My parents had also let us know, us being me and my siblings, that there would be this other couple and their kids joining us on this trip. It's a Christmas vacation. You don't necessarily think anything of it.
All eight of us kids and Jess got to go pick out our own stockings. We take it to Breckenridge. Skiing first couple days went okay. There were starting to be some weird things going on. This is more of like a side story, but my parents, so my parents were supposed to be in one room. The other couple was supposed to be in a different room. Well, I noticed that my mom's things were in the other couple's room and my
The other woman's things were in the room my dad was staying in. So that was weird. You start to pick up on that. So I've got this side story going on with my siblings and we're, you know, what's going on here. Day three or four, I ended up in a ski accident. So I was skiing in the trees, which back in 2010, we didn't know as much. Well, we knew it. We just took bigger risks. So I wasn't wearing a helmet.
I hit a tree, had to be taken down the mountain by ski patrol, taken to the ambulance, taken to the hospital. And Jess was with me for that. During that time, that would have been something where I would have been texting Mitch to say, look, this just happened to me. I'm in the hospital. And
And Mitch had been texting me this the whole trip, the whole car ride there. There was never a time where he wasn't talking with me. And so I found it weird that when I'm telling him I'm in the hospital, this just happened. I wasn't getting any response from him. Fortunately, I was discharged. I just had some oxygen for a while. I had ended up with a pretty bad concussion. But then as soon as we got back to the house and Jess was able to get to her phone, I received a text from Mitch saying,
It was, I'm so sorry that happened. I'm sorry I wasn't texting back. I was like, okay, that's really weird. Mitch should have been texting me back. Us being back at the house shouldn't have been a trigger for him to suddenly start texting me back. I started to put together whenever Jess was alone or whenever Jess was able to have her phone and no one kind of around is when I started getting a lot more messages from Mitch.
So that night, Mitch wanted to, quote, meet up. I was like, great, you're in Breckenridge. Of course you're in Breckenridge the same time I am. So Mitch said, I just don't have a way to get up to the mountain where you're staying at because the roads are too difficult for my vehicle. Can you come get me? Well, I had just had the ski accident. So my mom and her friends, they're like, we'll go get him. Tell us where to go. So Jess said,
Did you notice any weird behavior from Jess?
She was calm, cool, and collected, but also weird, if that makes sense. After the incident where my mom went down to go meet him, I would have been, quote, fighting with Mitch at the time, thinking, like, that is really fucked up. Why would you make my mom drive downtown? And then it became, oh, I'm so sorry, bitch.
and started turning sexual, almost like make-up sex, I would say, via phone. He started saying things like, "I'm so sorry. Why don't you let me take care of you? Why don't we do this? Or why don't you send me this? Why don't you do that?" It got really weird, and this was the first time that Mitch started going sexual. Looking back,
Jess was picking this time. I had just been in a ski accident. There's rumblings about something going on with my parents. And she starts ramping up the predator behavior, really preying on me in that moment of vulnerability and weakness. Do you feel like she used that moment of vulnerability to essentially coerce you into sexting?
Absolutely. Yeah, 100%. That was very clearly her intent. And what's crazy is some of these sex messages. We were in the same room, we would flip flop, I was in the bathroom taking a shower, and she would be out in the living room, and then she would go in and take a shower.
So we were within feet of each other and she's doing this and she knows that I'm going through a crazy time personally. And she's choosing to pile on top of that. She's choosing to take advantage of that situation. My parents were preoccupied with their own situation going on.
After the situation of going downtown, that started putting them off because Jess was vouching for Mitch. So the whole time she's like, yes, he's real. He's my friend. So that was really off-putting. But then on Christmas morning, my parents and this other couple sit all of us down. Jess was there with us as well. And they came out and said, paraphrasing, but we're swapping spouses. So...
So my dad is going home with the other woman. My mom is going home with the other man and we can all get on board if we like it or not. That's just how it's going to be. Obviously, this is a very personal experience.
family situation. There's a lot of screaming, a lot of tears. There's eight kids involved, ranging from ages. The youngest kid at the time would have only been four years old. And then the oldest one being my older sister, who would have been 19 or 20 at the time. So lots of confusion, lots of conflict. And then after they sat us down and told us all of this, it
I kind of just went into autopilot. I don't remember packing up our things, getting ready to go. But I remember the silence of the drive home because they had initially told us that they'd be going home with their new person. But it ended up being everyone's going to stay in their same car. So like my mom and dad...
in absolute silence for eight hours, drove home and Jess was with me the whole time. Mitch was texting me the whole time. She got to be a firsthand witness of this really traumatic point in my life and continued her game, her sick, sick game of this fake Mitch, even after sitting there and being witnessed to one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I'm so sorry. Yeah.
It's so cruel. Was your relationship with Mitch impacted or were you continuing forward? After we got back, I will say I was a different person. So I was angry. I was bitter and I was honed in on Jess being Mitch. So after the drive home and the sexting and starting to pick up on little cues, I had already decided that Jess was Mitch.
We had only been back from the trip less than a week and I was ready to expose her and fully just cut off that part of my life. I was angry. A mutual friend of mine, we came up with a plan to catch her in the middle of this. So we were sitting in our dorm room, all three of us. I was up on the second bunk and Jess was down on the futon with our mutual friend.
The plan was that I was going to text Mitch and our mutual friend was going to sit there and look over Jess's shoulder, see what she's doing or see what would happen when my text would come in. One text in, I send a text to Mitch, Jess's phone goes off. Our mutual friend is able to see that it was my text to Mitch. She immediately jumped up and was like, why are you and your college roommate texting each other? You're sitting right next to each other. Why don't you just talk to each other?
And that's when I jumped down. I said, Jess, you know full well, I'm not texting you. You know, I'm texting Mitch. And I saw red at that point. She started coming up with, oh, Mitch just lets me have access to his accounts because we're that good of friends. Mitch lets me monitor his Facebook. Mitch lets me send texts for him. And I said, absolutely not. This was a text message to the phone number that is tied to Mitch's quote phone.
And I said, I don't ever want to see you again. If you want your things, your family can come pick up your things. But I do not ever want to see you again. And she left. But it wasn't the last you heard from her, right? Correct. So she kept the story going. I reconnected with a boy from back home and we started having a relationship.
He was a real person. And after we started dating, he would get texts from Jess saying he was hanging out with Mitch last night.
First off, she already knows that I know she's Mitch. She's already been caught red-handed. And she's keeping this story up because she thinks that I'm going to be too embarrassed to admit it to my new boyfriend that I had been catfished, that she could get away with it. And I still have text messages on my phone or in my Facebook Messenger. He's now an ex-boyfriend. But with the boyfriend at the time, he says, like, I'm so confused. You said you wanted to be with me. Why is Jess telling me that you're with Mitch or that you're actually hanging out with Mitch?
And I'm trying to explain to him, Mitch isn't real. Mitch isn't a real person. Jess is a liar. So she tried to manipulate and mess with my life for months to come to the point that I transferred colleges after that semester.
Even after it would have been 10 years had passed, I was still almost scared to run into her. I was in the wedding, so I'm getting ready with the bridal party. My husband came with me. He knows the whole story. He's known since I met him. I was forewarned by the bride that Jess would be there. I was very nervous because the last time I had interacted with Jess was a fight, was me confronting her.
I think she popped in for a second and I just cold shoulder, not interacting with you. You know this. Don't even try to approach me. I gave that vibe immediately. She didn't even try to approach me. I walked out and met up with my husband and he knew he was going to protect me. He wasn't going to let anything happen. And I did not want anything to happen at the bride's wedding. It was her day. Not about me. Not about Jess.
I noticed she had a friend with her and I don't know if it was just paranoia. Like I always wondered if just...
told her friend who I was because the friend also never tried to approach me. Or if Jess probably told her some story about me, maybe not. Maybe they just didn't know and we just didn't confront each other. But I did not say a word to Jess at that wedding. I avoided her like the plague, which COVID was going on. So I had a legitimate excuse to stay away from people. But she also had her son there. But I did at the time wonder if...
Here's Monica.
I had absolutely no idea when I attended this wedding with Jess that obviously any of this at that time. And this was after Brody and I were done talking and I was just going with Jess as a friend. Her son was in the wedding and it was back kind of by her hometown area. So a little bit of a jaunt, but she didn't want to go alone. And I was like, sure, I'll go with you. So we went back to her hometown area that weekend and
After discovery, we also found out that that same exact weekend that I was attending this wedding with Jess that her son was in, Lauren was talking to Brody and Brody was in a wedding that same weekend. So Jess was attending a wedding with me and playing to Lauren that Brody was in a wedding. That just all still blows my mind completely.
Back to the college roommate, after we had talked to her, I was like, holy cow, I was at that wedding she's talking about. Of course, I had no idea. Imagining how scared and uncomfortable she was in that situation just breaks my heart.
After talking to the other girls, we all realized that Jess had us all individually watch the movie Roommate with her, which if you haven't seen that movie, it is about a girl named Sarah who ironically moves from Iowa to a new city and these two girls become friends.
And then Rebecca, the other girl, becomes extremely jealous and possessive and obsessed with Sarah. In the movie, it gets to a point where it is physically abusive and she like rips out one of the other girl's belly rings and it gets a little gory. But the fact that that's pretty much exactly what Jess did to all of us...
I look back and I'm obviously very happy of my choice for not being roommates with her after she asked me to move in with her. But essentially, she was extremely jealous. Any other friends we ever had, she hated and would be extremely jealous of and possessive over us. In a sense, it's exactly like the movie that she made us all watch with her.
It makes me absolutely sick. There's nothing I could have done back in 2010, and I know this, that would have prevented her from doing it again. I know that, but then I still also have a little bit of guilt. I was a minor at the time. There was nothing I could have done differently. I could have tried to press charges, but there was no laws on the books. I wish there was something I could do to stop her and prevent her from doing this again.
You know, if someone would have told me while I was in the middle of it, while I was quote in love with Mitch or falling for this person, if someone came to me and said, your best friend is actually pretending to be this person. I don't think I would have believed them. I truly don't know how we stop this or prevent it again, other than getting ahead of it and getting out there and warning people ahead of time before they become friends with her, before they get deep into this web.
If she can find all these pictures and she can somehow get photos from my camera roll, what's stopping her from finding out where I live? Everywhere I go now, I don't know if she's watching me, if she's around me somehow. God forbid I run into her.
We were in line and she's like, "Yeah, it looks like you guys are both present as is Jessica Pauly." And I looked at Lauren and she turned around and looked back at me and she goes, "She's right behind you." Meanwhile, the entire time she's catfishing other people still. We would reach out to every single person that we came across and we just kept finding more and more victims. That's when the other person came in and said, "Look, I know who you are. You're going to be going to jail. We know everything."
Unless Jess was outside of the restaurant staring at me, seeing me in the sky sitting at the bar and being able to describe where I was, the restaurant I was at, knowing what he looked like. There's no way unless she was actually there watching me. 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 Palehound. For music and tour dates, go to palehound.com.
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