cover of episode S22 E2: Increasingly Strange

S22 E2: Increasingly Strange

2024/10/29
logo of podcast Something Was Wrong

Something Was Wrong

Key Insights

Why did Megan Stoner initially stand out to Chloe Anagnos?

Megan Stoner initially stood out to Chloe Anagnos because she appeared much older than her actual age, around sixteen or seventeen, during a political parade in Carmel, Indiana. Chloe thought she was in her forties and assumed she was an older volunteer.

How did Megan Stoner's behavior during political events strike Chloe Anagnos?

Megan Stoner's behavior during political events struck Chloe Anagnos as peculiar. She would often sit in a corner and use her phone the entire time instead of interacting with people, which is typical at such events. This behavior contrasted with the usual goal of networking and socializing.

What did Megan Stoner claim about her interactions with politicians, according to Faith?

Megan Stoner claimed that she had been sexually assaulted by various politicians, including the former Speaker of the House, on a regular basis since she was eleven years old. She also alleged that these politicians were contacting Faith with sexual messages and threats.

How did Megan Stoner's relationship with Alex Brister evolve?

Megan Stoner's relationship with Alex Brister started as part of a supportive Facebook group for millennial women. Initially, Alex saw Megan as a lost and overwhelmed young person needing guidance. However, as Megan's posts became increasingly strange and traumatic, the group became concerned for her well-being and tried to offer support, which eventually led to frustration and anger.

What was the turning point for Chloe Anagnos regarding her interactions with Megan Stoner?

The turning point for Chloe Anagnos was when Megan Stoner volunteered to make phone calls for a political campaign but submitted a spreadsheet with all calls marked as 'not home,' which was statistically impossible. This incident made Chloe realize that Megan was not reliable and had falsified her work.

How did Megan Stoner's alleged behavior affect her reputation in the Indiana political scene?

Megan Stoner's alleged behavior, including falsifying data for political campaigns and making false claims about interactions with politicians, led to her being blackballed by many organizations in the Indiana political scene. Her reputation suffered as a result of these actions.

What was the initial impression of Megan Stoner by Justin, and how did it change?

Justin's initial impression of Megan Stoner was that she was a highly efficient and impressive volunteer, breaking records for phone calls and door knocking. However, this impression changed when it was discovered that she had falsified her responses, leading to her being asked to leave the campaign.

Chapters

Megan Stoner's early involvement in politics and her first interactions with Chloe Anagnos at a parade in Carmel, Indiana.
  • Megan Stoner met Chloe Anagnos at a parade in Carmel, Indiana.
  • Megan was perceived as older than her actual age (16-17 years old).
  • Megan's initial interactions were typical volunteer activities like handing out candy.

Shownotes Transcript

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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 opinion shared by the guest of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself. Broken cycle media or wondering the podcast in any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. Making stoner's responses to these allegations are addressed within this season. I'm Tiffany race, and this is something was wrong.

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My name is Chloe anagnos. I am a indian apple as area resident, i'm pretty involved in the center right in in terms of politics, policy and kind of the non profit space. I got to know Megan.

I would say almost ten years ago, I met her at a parade in karmal, inDiana. I think that was the carmo fest parade. And this just happened to be the forth of july parade. And I was walking with the republic party of hamilton county, which is where karmal is, as a suburb just north of indian apple, as, and I was just super concentrating on the float.

The big thing is, you know, you put up york science and then you have a bunch of Candy, right? And so my job IT parades in those days before I kind of moved up the latter, so to speak, in the like political on campaign consulting world, was be the keeper of the Candy. My job was to just hand Candy buckets out to folks.

And I think Megan was volunteering with those in burke, who is the congress swim in at that time, in that area. And I was just introduced to her, someone said, hate as as Megan. I said, I am glowing, nice to meet you and that was IT SHE didn't really talk to me.

He just walked, handed out Candy like a Normal volunteer. The big thing with those types of events that you just need someone hate, hand out t shirts, hand out Candy, hand out bottles of water, you finish walking, you'd go home. It's not super complicated, I will say.

However, though, when I met her for the first time, I thought he was like forty years old, like I thought he was a lot more than me. I don't mean that to sound mean at all. SHE just looked a lot older than he actually was at the time. SHE was probably only sixteen, maybe seventeen years old. I thought he was an older volunteer. SHE just was like a typical everyday volunteering, and I didn't really think much of her and IT wasn't until I started going to some more dinner and working registration tables in in the political world, especially when you are a college student or just graduating from college, no one's gonna hire.

You write off the that kind of like any industry, right? No one is going to say, hey, you twenty year old, i'm gonna have you consult on my campaign? Like, no, you need to earn your strikes, right? So I did a lot of work with my boyfriend at the time, who's now my husband, working registration tables, organizing parades, handing out t shirts, calling volunteers, basically doing a lot of the grant work that college students typically do.

And meggan would come around to some of these events, fund raisers, different conferences. And most of the time it's just the typical boring hay reception, free drink, heavy orto wars you write to check, you go home. Nothing that or super exciting run of the mister.

Around twenty sixteen, I had just graduated from college, and my husband was a year behind me in school, but was the one who was leading a campaign at this time, a statewide campaign for atterley general. And I have to be clear, because he tells me all the time. Well, when you tell the story, sometimes IT sounds like you're the one who's actually working on the campaign.

And you have to make a clear that you never got a paycheck. I never got a paycheck. I was just roped in a volunteering to manage all of the other volunteers, as you know, a lot of passion projects inside projects, first spouses ago.

So he actually was running the campaign for this guy named curtis m. Well, then Megan came along and things got weird. But what IT happened was the way. And it's important for people to understand that campaigns like this in inDiana are different when you have an elected official who is not the governor.

So think we tent governor, treasure auditor, eternity general stuff that's not really on the news er in the limit ite, just executive people that they had a special job and it's an important job, but you don't read about them in the news like they're not everyday household names. We don't run those campaigns like a typical primary where everybody in the republican or the democratic party can go in vote. We run them as a convention.

So what will we do? Is your political party kind of like the D N C in the R N. Cy, that was just on T. V.

Recently you have your people in your state, they go to indian apples and they have a convention and they say, hey, these are the people that we're putting up. And you eighteen hundred delegates, you get voted in by your county party. You come in here and you basically get to pick who you want to be our party's nominee in the fall.

So it's a lot like you have these people who are very like grass roots like, hey, no, come over vote for this person. But for this person and you're moving around the room trying to whip votes, it's almost like your running for a mayor of a small town is eighteen hundred people that you have to convince to vote for your candidate. So imagine that you are making phone calls to eighteen hundred people saying, hey, who are you voting for? Can we get your support? What can we do to change your mind? And then we have multiple rounds of voting.

So when you know that OK clothing ago for medicine country is gonna a delegate, but he doesn't have your first vote, she's got your second vote. You're trying to get that person to give you their support the whole way through if voting goes two, three, sometimes even four rounds. So it's like hyper localized grassroots campaigning.

So my husband, senior college at this point, is like I got to lead the grass roots for all of this. This is a lot of work and so I was helping him manage some volunteers. And I think Megan had reached out to either him or myself.

I can't remember who I was but said, hey, I know you guys are working on current hills campaign for returning general. I'm interested in helping and we said, okay, great. We need all of the volunteers that we could possibly get and we need you to make phone calls because again, we need da 17 hundred people, right? That's a lot of phone calls to make.

So I said, hey, I need you to call through all of the past delegates from the second congressional district, like that's the part of inDiana kind of closest to chicago, think university of the day, self end in the area. I said, I need you to make about three to four hundred phone calls and go through the script. Who are they voting for? Are they planning on to attending the convention if they're not gonna curtis first boat, can we have their second?

It's easy, like as long as you can make a phone call and not freeze up on the, you can ask these questions and record them into a goop shit. I expected that I should have taken her maybe a week, maybe two weeks to make all of those phone calls. I mean, you're leaving voice mails.

People are having to call you back. I kid you not SHE emails caring. I back maybe two or three days later and says, up made all the calls.

Here they are. I was like, all right. That's cool. SHE gives me back a spreadsheet Marks that every single person was not home, didn't answer their phone. Three hundred and four hundred people.

Do you know how statistically impossible that is to not get a single person to answer their phone? I was absolutely baffled, absolutely flawed. And I said, well, great. I said she's never gonna lunch er again because she's matting with our data. This is ridiculous.

So I said, I guess i'm just gonna to redo all of her work because I was going through, and I think at the time, I was calling the fourth congressional district so that when I knew that something was wrong, very, very wrong with this person. Political campaigns, no matter your party, whether you are republican, democrats, independent, your goals to get Young people to volunteer, to get involved, to get engaged. And so when you have this Young person who is hungry and says what this opportunity give me, whatever work that you have, you're like, all my gosh, this is a unicorn.

This is awesome. You get super excited, but then to have them completely fumble the ball like this, it's very this hearts name. And it's not just because, oh, it's, hey, you know, the data for the campaign that SHE messed up, but it's like, hey, you are a hungry person who shows ambition and who shows at least some initiative and you're just completely scaring yourself over.

And now ten years later, i'm no longer an intern or like an entry level person. I'm nationally a marketing director for a center right non profit. And my husbandman's estate rip.

And we have been blessed to have a lot of opportunities and like to pay that forward. So somebody like Megan stoner is not going to be the first person on our call us when we need help. That was probably my first really negative, weird interaction with her.

SHE did reach out to my husband a couple times, and again, not my husband at the time, but SHE did reach out to kye a couple more times. Like, hey, do you have any more lists that you need? Is there anything else that you need help with? But I think we just ignore red because it's like, hey, how do you you know our middle st nice, right?

Like we don't want we don't want to piss people off or make feel uncomfortable. But at the same time it's like, hey, we you do more harm than good. We don't need you to volunteer for us anymore.

And I do remember he did go to the convention. I can't recall if he was a delegate or not. I remember that he was there.

But i'll tell you what tifany. One of the other really weird things about Megan stoner is that he was always around, but would never interact with people. For example, those events, those receptions, you know, just your basic cocktails, heavy appetizers, kind of things.

The goal is to go around, shake hands, kiss babies, talk to all of your people, catch up with folks. Like, that's the goal. SHE would literally go to stuff like this, and I remember this convention too. He would go and he would sit in the corner and he would sit on her phone the entire time.

And it's like, hey, the point of this stuff is to be social, to bum belt those with people, to make connections and I just always felt very odd that he would say stuff like, go, I was at this convention oh, I was here on social media and it's like, well, I didn't know that you were there unless you posted IT on facebook or twitter or something, because I literally would only see you in the corner or I wouldn't even see you at all. And then the other thing that he would also do, and I think if you talk to other folks in the kind of the inDiana republican political scene. SHE would very often and talk about going to the statehouse.

Oh, i'm working at the statehouse, so i'm going to, you know me, decline at the statehouse. All this B, S. And SHE would basically just go and hang out.

Shouldn't actually have a job there. SHE didn't have any kind of real reason to be at the statehouse. Now every statehouse across the country is a public building. Is the people's statehouse. Like if you want to go and sit there and read a book all day or eat tackle bell, you do whatever you can like that within your right but for her to just go and dress up and being a sue and post on social meeting a oh no, i'm going to meet so we're and now that my husband's are state rap here and is part of the process I kind of understand like why in the world are you there for ten hours a day if you're not working there? That makes absolutely no sense.

And I think a lot of that stems back to obviously the fact that he has something going on mentally and just had to keep up this facade, that he was an important person. I think the next time I encounter her after that, sh'd added me on social media. And back then I was kind of one of those people that was like, I had met you at some point, and you added me on like facebook.

Look, sure, i'll go ahead and accept you. And I think that's what a lot of people did ten years ago. It's like, oh, have all of the facebook friends right? And then now, because I have kids, it's pretty locked down.

And it's like, if I don't know you in real life, I don't want you looking at my stuff. SHE had reached out to me and said, hey, I know you work in downtown in the an apple is do you want to get lunch? I'm interested in learning more about what you do.

Bb, blow, and I was like a cash. She's an odd one. SHE mess up this data.

I think she's just Young and need some guidance. So I thought to myself, okay, again, mid d west, nice, fine. And we ended up getting lunch.

We went to a little place by the statehouse. SHE was asking, you know, I K, I know you went to ball state universe study journalism. Now you work kind of in like digital media with politics, campaigning and not profit advocate space.

How do you get involved in that? And so I just kind of give my basic pitch like i'm just two years out of college, but I really find that wink, wink, nudge, nudge if you show up and do the work, opportunities will come your way, right, like that in any industry, he had said. Or I might be interested in going the media around and I said, all of all states, you know the best in the state to do that and is the to downed and d an apple. And there's a lot of opportunities for internships.

Source said, you know, why not do that? That was weird because we're sitting there eating lunch and she's asking me for career advice and what not and then I started to talk and she's on her phone entire time and I don't know if anyone else I were felt that way but it's like, hey, hello, who i'm over here trying to impart a little bit of wisdom on you and you're not paying attention and I just felt really strange and I know that i'm not the only person that she's ever done that too. I was just add IT was just a really, really add and she's one of those people.

And I don't know if you've ever felt this way, but there's people that you come across in your life for your life. I can't figure that personal like I just cannot figure this personal and SHE will always be one of them. She's probably like number one person, I just cannot figure out. And then I think the next time I interacted with her after that, and okay, this is this a little petty of me, but I like to say that sometimes I can be the mayor of petty vill SHE had started a public facebook page for herself because I think he wanted to really, you know, work on her personal brand. And SHE had a facebook page, so SHE was inviting a lot of people to like IT.

And at the time, I was running a facebook page for center right political non profit that was based in downturn in the appeals, and I was posting a lot of like means talking about policy like a taxation is like don't let you know in the fed, just very like red kind of libertarian, conservative leaning political stuff. And then any blogs that our website had, I would repose those. And then I noticed that meggan on her page had started to post a lot of my graphics that I had posted on the facebook page in the exact same order that I had posted mine.

So in a sense, he was copying all of my content. Now I will say none of IT was copy written, but IT was annoying. It's like, okay, I know you copied my school project.

Can you not like? This is really weird. And SHE would cover my captions to top libertarian on facebook, like, you know, just even down to the hash tacks.

SHE would copy all of that. And it's just a very like small interaction. You can kind of see how a lot of the stuff, just like build and builds and builds. And then he got a facebook argument, and this, again, is just so petty and small, but SHE gotta a facebook argument talking about.

I think that was like food stance or government assistance and SHE basically instituted on a facebook status that she's super tired of seeing people at her grocery store use footsteps and use benefits, and they're eating Better than her. And just thinking to myself like, wow, that's a really crappy thing to one complaint about. Regardless how you feel about conservative or republicans, do we want everybody on government assistance? no.

But like it's there is a safety net when people needed short term, right? Like the long term goal, obviously, is to help people pick themselves back up and, you know, find employment and all that good stuff. So I just thought I was a very like unemphatic tic thing to say.

Talk about the irony, which is just wild there, about the other thing, too, is that IT was ridiculous, that SHE started to get in the comments with one of my cowards who was like, hey, this was not a really nice thing to say and I think was just trying to nicely like goober on the nose and say, I K, if you're really thinking about one to get involved and like, apply to internships and what not, you shouldn't say stuff that super polarizing, a wild thought almost ten years later, uh, people say stupid stuff on the internet that happens. I think it's important, especially during these very polarize zing times, to know that most of the time republicans and democrats in the statehouse go on really well. We all know each other.

I think we all have the same goals. We just believe in different ways to get there. And he started to get super defensive, and we d use this line a lot that really urged to me. And he would say something on the lines of, i'm glad and eighteen year old can ruffe your father's something like that always talking about how, hey, i'm Young and the Young person in the indian of political scene. I'm got a thousand facebook followers.

I'm Young, i'm glad and eighteen year old could rub l your feathers 8888 but then when someone would call her out sh'd say like, hey, i'm only eighteen years old, okay, i'm still learning and i'm still growing IT was very much that hypocritical like you can't have IT at both ways kind of thing that around the time where I was like I don't want her. I don't feel like he should be on my facebook anymore because she's just she's just a drama but it's also one of those things works like the drama is very interesting. And I like to watch IT as as I think most people with Megan star, the only other interaction that I can remember having with her around that time before he started to get black balled by a lot of organizations was that he would post a lot of the vogue booking that you see a lot of bombers do.

Now, where sh'd say, like, today was the worst, today was just terrible, really going through IT, just really struggling right now. And so again, trying to be nice thinking to myself, like, okay, maybe if I kind of take her under my way, maybe if I just continue to be nice, her SHE just means a friend so I D emr on facebook and I said something along the lines of, hey, is everything okay? Like what's going on? And she's like, can't talk about IT.

okay. Well, if you can't talk about IT, why put stuff out on the internet? But IT is what IT is and then SHE said something along the line of, oh, i'm going through a break up and I thought to myself, all right, well, i've never seen you post a picture with a boyfriend or anything.

So this is kind of interesting, but that's definitely for shadow, all of the fake relationships that Megan stoner has had. And then I think one of the last times I soccer in person, I was trying to remember before this interview like, gosh, what are all the weird instances that you've had with her in person? SHE reached and let me back up to, you know, I can reach out.

I said, here you doing okay and SHE said, oh, you know, break up something like I said, okay. Y well, you know, if you need to talk, no, i'm here a bob block. Well, then like a week or so later, he reaches out to me again on messenger and says, hey, Chloe, are you around? I need some help.

And I was driving at the time, is going to downtown in the in appeals for a board meeting for this nonprofit that i'd worked for at the time. And I said, I am around. What's up? SHE said, what can I call you? And I said, okay, sure.

Said to give myself phone number and driving, you know, that's Better and SHE says, hey, i'm trying to check into this hotel downtown and they won't let me check in because i'm under the age of twenty one. They are not letting me check in that something important that's filling on. I need someone with an ID who's already age twenty one to check me.

Can you help me? And I was like, okay, sure, thinking to myself, why are your parents not there checking you in? That's odd.

Your eighteen years old in a hotel by yourself? Little strange. But okay. And I all right, well, let me know what hotel IT is and I can check you and really quickly. But I said, you know, IT has to be quickly because i'm on my way to something and I get there and she's just. Pupping and puffing won't even like, look at me he was sitting down on her arms, prost.

And I go over to the front deck and I said, hi, i'm under the impression that I need to give you my idea to check her in and she's like, guy, I do and I said, okay, do sheet have a credit card on file because I said i'm not comfortable giving you mind for any incidentals because I don't know her very well and it's a good that I asked because she's like, owl. I don't even know if he has a credit card and so I said he mega and come over here like, i'm happy to check you in, but we need to get this sorted out and SHE did give a critic or debit card and Megan was just very happy puppy and just was acting like he was super entitled at the time, which as we now know, not uncommon for. Megan and I was just making small talk with the receptionist.

She's like, okay, she's all checked in, all good to go and meggie storms off and didn't even say thank you to the receptionist or to me. And I was like, wow, okay, you are an entitled bread. This is a very strange.

So again, I should have known that that something was wrong, but I didn't see her again or hear from her for a while. I had taken a couple of contracts working out of the state, and so I kind of always in an out of inDiana around that time. Then I had heard through the great fine, I heard that he was coming around in the spring of twenty sixteen, which is typically when the inDiana primary is.

And for folks who are not from here, inDiana always has a relatively late primary when IT comes to presidential election years. And IT was at this time, the inDiana was actually going to have a say in terms of the republican party, in terms of who the nominee was going to be. So you saw a lot of people who work campaigning here who were still in the game.

So that was at the time, carly ferenc, ted cruz and then john casey out of ohio. And then, of course, on the trump. But I don't remember him having a big fundraiser here, at least one that was publicize.

But I did hear from some friends that when carly ferenc was in town, that meggan had attended. And if you look on her social media, you can scrawl back and find a picture of Megan wearing a bright pink sweet, getting a picture with carling ferenc. And it's important to note that those dinners are you Normally anywhere from, like, a thousand to five thousand dollars a plate, is very expensive to attend.

And so I always thought to myself like, wow, how in the world was he able to pull that off that's very expensive or a teenager to go to something like that and come to find out that she'd written a bad check and that IT had bounced. And that, to my knowledge, is not the only time that she's written checks to fund raisers or to other things where it's like, hey, you have to pay a fee to go to the convention to be a delegate. It's Normally like a hundred box.

And I do know for a fact that he still oes hundred dollars to the medicine county republican party for her delegate fee, I think, and either twenty sixteen or twenty eighteen, which is wild. So that's the first that I have heard about her writing bad checks. And so I remember around this time, too, he had started to volunteer. And this is where the bad data goes a step further. He was volunteering on the general campaign for tag yon, and that was a very bury close race.

And so one of the things for big races like that, what they ask volunteers to do is they say, hey, can you come in to our party Operations or to our campaign headquarters? Ers, we've got all these folding chairs and tables, and we've got these phones, an older, like office phone that's corded, and we need you to run through the script. You're gonna making phone calls to people that we identified as either independent or non confirmed voters.

And basically you're saying, hey, my name's low. Am a volunteer with todi ang for senate. He's a pro life programme who's focused on X, Y, Z, E can account on your road on november seven. Something like that, very simple pitch.

And then you go through on the computer that's attached to the phone, and you, mark, like, okay, did I speak to barber Becky sue? Whoever does that lives here to confirm that? That indeed is the voter that you talk to, where they home? Yes, and you can go through and IT says, like, are they voting? Are they not voting? Do they hate a yang? Or they like, oh yes, he's the best ever marker stone is voting for him and oh, by the way, we will take a yard sign and then you give that information over to another volunteer and i'll drop yard side it's the front lines of information gathering, but it's very important we had heard because my husband night had volunteered.

Two, we had done some bond banking. Everybody in the political scene, no matter who your candidate is, we all kind of run around and help whoever IT. Is that up for election or reelection? Or who needs the most help? We had heard from some folks on the campaign that Michael stoner had gotten into trouble when he was making phone calls.

And we like all what SHE do. And we had heard through the great fine that he went through and had marked on the tablet that connected to this phone. Not home, not home.

Boys meal, boys meal, boys meal. I could probably sit and make in the span of like three to four hours. If people are actually home on like a weekend or something, I could probably make a hundred meaningful phone calls.

SHE went through those three, four hours and had made a thousand phone calls, something astronomical. Where is like, hey, lady, that data does not check out. That does not make sense. And so what you're doing is you're making all of this extra work for the campaign because now they have to go through those records and figure out that, oh, my god, is, well, who did he talk to or who did he hang up on?

Those are actual people that we could have talked to and made an impact and tried to get them to vote for us or vote for our side, at least figure out where they were so that we can mark them off the list. So I had heard that he got caught doing that and was told by campaign leadership, hey, we know that you lobed these phone calls. We know that you fake them.

If we catch you doing that again, you're not going to work with us anymore. You're not volunteering. You're not being an intern.

Whatever is that he said that he was doing for this campaign at that time. And I I will get to what her actual title is because that's also an interesting story. And I heard that he said, OK, OK, you know, i'm sorry, i'm sorry.

Did IT it's not going to happen again? Well, then they said, hey, Megan, we need you to go out in your hometown, which is all in inDiana, maybe an hour a half north of inDianapolis, over in medicine, counting or island made thirty, twenty five minutes for me and they said, hate, we're going to set you up on this APP that will show you where registered motors live IT will show you who the republicans and independence are and we need you to go through and knocked doors and basically say, hey, i'm meggan and door knock yang he's a pro life program marine who's gonna x zy. Can you have your boat in them? The pom t, walk away.

And mark, if they were home, if they said that they were going to support him or for her, I, K, i'm not voting or no. I'm never going to vote for him anyway. Again, the front lines of collecting data for the campaign, very easy, very important.

The interesting thing tifany about the APP that those campaigns use is that IT will use your GPS data to tell the campaign if you are actually walking those doors or not. So when they get a spreadsheet back that says that Megan stoner knocked down one hundred doors while he was still sitting in her house, what do you think they figured out that SHE was marking? Not home, not home, not home, not home didn't answer.

SHE was doing IT again. And so then he was called in and said, hey you, donny, we saw that you did this again and you're out. You're done.

It's not going to happen again. And we had heard again through the great fine that Megan stoner was told, like you're done, you're not volunteering. You're not doing this ever again.

And the funny thing was SHE put on social media that he had to quit this job, and he had to quit this internship that he had had. But, you know, IT was the right step for her. And it's like, ate no asking you.

He's asking. No one's paying attention to this. You're just act in a fool. And everybody sees through IT.

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My name is Justin. I have known of Megan since the fall twenty sixteen. I first became aware of her. I was volunteering on the india and a senate race in twenty sixteen, which was a very expensive, very centrally profiled race that drew a lot of attention and was a big thing to be a part of.

I was a part of inDiana university college republicans at the time, and we basically spent almost every week night that summer volunteering for the future center because we ended up winning that race tag. Young and I was made aware of Megan because one night we were doing a lot of work, and you folding, sacking phone calls, that type of work that unpaid interns usually get, and somebody said, you guys are such good interns, you're much Better than the one we had in our indian applies office. We are like all what happened.

And they told us the story of Megan stoner. Essentially what he did on the campaign for tag. Young was, he got involved, to my knowledge, may first got involved with republicans lights around fourteen.

He would have stuff in in high school d at the time. So sh'd been around a couple years. And so she's able to get an intern position with the campaign.

And her first couple of day is SHE like shattered the record for, like most phone calls made at the point that I just looked a little fish. I like, who is this girl? Why is he so good at this? IT just wasn't quite plausible the number SHE was putting in.

So they sent out door knocking the next day. Because when you use the APP that we use for door knocking, you can see where the responses were submitted because there's a geo located on that APP on the phone call APP. You don't have that.

Obviously, SHE shattered the record for dorothy as well and that they found that SHE summit, all the responses from her house. So SHE wasn't out knocking door. SHE was making up responses.

And if you've ever done any work on a campaign, you would understand that the data is a very big part of a modern campaign. If we see like women between ages, you know, twenty and forty or swinging more this way than that way, that really does affect the messaging. And so to just be making up responses and putting into the campaign's wider database is a huge problem.

So after like a week of her being on the campaign, he was asked to leave. And so this was the story I was first told of Megan. This, the first I have became aware, was that story that would have probably humiliated anyone else and made them kind of tuck their tail and move on to something else besides politics.

But that fall, I wiped to several advanced indian apple, is for the campaigns. And Megan would show up. And we know SHE was, and he would very, IT was very peculiar. SHE would, like, come in, set by yourself towards the back, take a lot of pictures and then leave. SHE was kind of just lapping, stocked to us at the time.

And then he would usually make a facebook post, like a day or two later when, and to sit with a always elaborate stories, if you were there, you were like, you came in. He was there for fifty minutes. He left. That was my knowledge of Megan for the first couple of years.

Hello, hi there. This is taken me reefs for you and not bad. How are you?

That's faith, a former friend of stones.

Well, I appreciate you so much making the time and speaking with me. Like I said briefly over email, IT sounds like you're another victim of Megan creates, and i'm very sorry to hear that IT sounds like she's been at this for quite a long time.

No, yeah, he has been.

How did you meet? I was in a Young adult to the high facebook group that was mostly through the online college I was attending, if you like, a club basically in 安全 说。 And somehow I have no idea how.

But he ended up getting added to that. We start talking, we will solve, are from the men in the politics, and had bunching me to your friends. So we ended up adding each other on facebook.

This time he was sixteen, and I was about eighteen. We begin, friends just started chatting and what not and the yeah, the fit time started. So IT is something that was mostly an online relationship.

At first I will I have actually never met for in person. We have a lot of mutual put a little cold condition. SHE was friends with all the right people. He would just friend every politician. And then they see all the other person they trying with her, so they'd friend her.

And so, so huge facebook that with Frankly, I was still getting in the politics at the time, but I had a few connections that I 了 里面 我 working in in the state politics at the time。 At least when you working in politics, you had a they just held to work IT and SHE was friends with all the right people. So my friend at her, and yeah, we have a lot of mutual connections through that.

And then the funny thing is he goes through and find your friend and ask. So like, you found a bunch of my friends through this on my college program. I was, and he became friends with them through that.

And so SHE created a network of, so we had other to IT sound like that, something that a quite a few people have reported to. So that must have then how you just keep building upon finding this person and finding their network in their network. And I imagine like indian apple is in general, as sure is a lot of people, but in certain pockets or groups, obviously, things feel smaller. yeah.

Is that less? no. You know the political scene in any state, but specifically in the end, is very small and tightened. And so everyone knows everyone.

So what happened was, and I do think my relationship with her and my situation is party much, and I really, you need to be honest. But so, you know, we like I said, we became friend on facebook. We start talking about, had last interest, and we just talked on regular basis.

He was talking about wanting to get involved more in politics and eventually running one thing to run for office. We are friends, had a lot of inside joke, different subjects to talk about. SHE and I often on different and of the political spectrum. I will not spectrum, but we were both for republicans, but he was one side manager.

So we were IT was then in about twenty seventeen that SHE started sending me information like saying that that was happening to her and she's all a long kind of thing, said that she's been actually halted and I had no reason without t that. And I still kind of don't doubt that a little bit, but SHE start telling me about that. And then he had brought in another friend of bars and me, tall friend, and have her feeling with the situation as well.

And basically he told me that the and speaker, the house had assaulted her. Starting yet, I think SHE said the age of eleven well and was doing IT on a regular basis, and I just grew from there. I don't know you're familiar with pec gate handle.

basically. The concept is that there is basically CBA Carol of political figures who are at the idea dying. IT was widely, this problem, this kind of happened not exactly the same time, but around the time.

And so basically, SHE lme me the story. And IT came to the point where he was saying that basically every politician was equally assorted, her on regular base. So from Normal prompt to hilly quench to local state, SHE said that all of them had actually assault at her.

yeah. So at this point I don't believe everything SHE was say, but there was enough that you could say that I could see happening in the world that made me leave for someone. He was hope to have a point where I just switch shot from time, different time plot.

So I had gone immediately from working from three to eleven to nine to five, and was very tired. But also, way magan works is SHE overwhelms you. So SHE was texting me constantly after the day I was that worthless.

The homework is doing other activities. And then SHE would talk to me for anywhere from one to four hours every night on the first. And so I was staying up to all hours when I talk to her.

At one point, my brother, who was on our cell phone plan, commented about how what china is spending on the phone. So is just constant talking, telling me all the stuff, telling another friend we have group calls, oversize. So yeah, that kind of tell IT snowboarded into that.

This, did your friendship continue over the years? Or d what was your sort of history leading up to her criminal activity? So we were friends, and again, like I said, I ve never made from person, and we just never ended up connecting.

We will see that in the same area at times, but never ended up connected your friends. He would send me, you know, a different political, that we didn't talk every day, but we just chat here and there. So after this point is you have the seventeen big part of my story happens at this fine.

When SHE telling me all this time, SHE is eventually, at some point, told me that somehow at some point he had lit up and told the speaker about me, or proposer SHE told him about. And at that point I started to get text from google members claiming, and they never said IT directly, but he would claim that he was gonna text me. And then I get this text, and then IT spired from there, other politicians were supposedly texting me, and these texts were just extremely like pornography.

S, uh, talking about how they were all going to come. And due to me, what have been doing to her, essentially in regular day, right? So SHE would just send this text messages and I don't know how SHE does IT because he would be talking to me on the phone and i'd be getting text from like four different SHE got some sort of superpower testing.

I don't know how I work. SHE was sending, needing to, extremely graphic messages, supposedly from politicians, but I now know there for her. And then enough pieces began to fall apart that me and my friends figured out.

We don't think this is true. We had already been suspecting IT for some time then, and also apart at this point, I told her, I don't think you're telling me the truth. I'm not going to a purchase the in the city more.

I stayed friends with on facebook because he had spoken many times of one in to run for office. And so I didn't want that. I don't want her running profit in the state I live in.

So I say thanks to and take. 其实 看你 忙 的 事 我不懂。 Our relationship definitely took a downturn from there.

We didn't talk hard at all. Yeah, we'd still chat about political there. SHE told me different things in the state of anything, and others political, mAiling less, and IT costs money to beyond.

And I didn't want to do that, so he would send IT to me. So that was basically a relationship check here there about something similar, interested, but not really talking. And so that was about two thousand seventeen.

Do you remember, besides bosna any of the other politicians names? yeah. So one was, my sense, air poking the governor variant. A several other state representatives that can remember all their name might lead the senator from you talk double trump.

At one time, I did not believe that one of you that that was a straight like that not happened at one point IT was like terror yan, which was so bizarre. Yes, so those people, sure. And there's a few others.

They are all he said that they were contacting you with sexual messages like painting you. Yes, really, IT was saying, basically long the lines of, i'll help you get involved in politics if you do this things. And then when I was not CoOperating, they would get violent.

A lot of times I would lost these numbers. Sometimes I will feature what was going on. I wouldn't block them.

And yeah, was huge. Man, I was raise, very conservative, very sheltered, so does not something I have a little experience with. So like, I didn't know what we know, what was going on half the time.

And I did yeah I definitely did not have the knowledge how to and that the politicians would have like twenty seventeen ish yes, the world trump was sitting president yeah he shot present you you about abusing you basically or but he had a business making yeah anything he was very much about IT because he knew I didn't like him so SHE show people I didn't already didn't want to learn uh, to make you yeah to be like all you hate them now this wait yeah and then IT was interesting because he then for the tying and people I did like like I had previously worked for more tents in his campaign, still know well, but I had worked for him. And then my lee at the time 没 准备 起来。 And so SHE started in with people I didn't like, but then begin adding people I did.

Essentially in my option. I think SHE started with people I was like and then started making IT. So I didn't trust anyone except for her.

That was, how long do you think that went on? The text went on for the whole situation started around easter twenty seventeen and went through maybe jua. Hy, I didn't turn exactly the day, but kind of the earth spring and summer of twenty seventeen. The text itself, we're not the whole time, but were much of that time. So maybe too much.

Oh, okay, so they were texting you on your phone, but IT was obviously from like google numbers basically for your OK got to go which with what you would expect every politician was doing and if he did have all the pictures with some of these people in such, did that make me feel like I was more potentially true? Or did you kind of think IT was B. S.

The whole time? I would like to say I got in B. S. The whole time I didn't. I never believed her fully because I already didn't know that he was prone to evacuate ating, but I did believe her in certain parts again because I was not a fan of brian.

But so I believe what he said about and there's also like i'm not get through this versions on the character, but there's an old story about him having inappropriate relationship interview back. So like it's a thing that people know. I knew he was involved.

State politics in some people I knew, knew her and he had these pictures. So IT is that legitimate? I could tell that he had actually been there is not the even used to in the world to get a picture with the politician.

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Hi, I am alex brister. I am thirty years old and from party lin, or again, I met Megan through a facebook group of women who are all roughly millennial age genie called spicy girls. And it's just a facebook group where we talk about life, talk about issues with partners and parents and rental agreements and how to find departments and all of that fun stuff. And that's where I initially made making.

Would you consider yourself at any point close with Megan?

So I wouldn't say I was necessarily close with Megan, but he did peak my interest if that makes any sense that whenever he would post something or say something, I would sort of take note of IT. My first initial impression of Megan was that he was very, very Young. I believe at the time he had just graduated from high school, I perceived her to be afraid of the world, so to speak, afraid of failure, overwhelmed.

Just somebody who needed a little bit mark guidance. To be honest. There is nothing about anything that he said that I found personally interesting or personally related able.

But she's in this group now. She's one of us. I need to do my best and a sense to be sort of a older sister.

In a way. I have one Younger brother, and all of his friends are just as lost, confused as I perceived Megan to be. And I sort of have taken them under my wing and treated them as one of me.

And that's how I kind of saw a lot of the people in the group. So my sort of closely with Megan was there was a group chat created by one of the admins of the group because Megan's post became so consistent and constant and a bit draining on the group. So there was a group top created, and I was one of the people who was added to the group shot. The goal was to try to give her the support and interaction that SHE desired from the group without bringing the entire group down with her.

And what kind of things was SHE .

posting about? SHE started posting about the most monday things. Everything from, has anybody pinned their bangs back with a Bobby pin? These very monday things.

There was a lot of fashion advice. SHE really was interested and trying to find every opportunity to wear a blazer. So SHE would post outfits and say, you know, what colour of blazer should I wear with this? Even if I didn't call for IT?

A lot of things like that, and things started to get increasingly strange. I got to, I need advice on how to communicate with my theriere, and then my therapies out of, and I have a standing theriere. And now the stand and therion is stocking me, and i'm being sexually assaulted by my mentor or my manager.

And things just started sort of spiring into great intensity. We all try very, very, very hard to be very supportive of one another, even when it's hard. This group is done.

Incredible things for each other. There was a girl whose daughter passed away from a horrible genetic condition, and we all came together in fundraised for a headstone for her. We've done a lot of really great things.

I met two of my bridesmaid through the group. There was a girl in the group who drove and to my college town to sit with me one night because I was having a really bad night. So everybody really tries to be really supportive to one another.

And that is really the spirit of the group. So with Megan's post, IT was bit Cindy at first. And so IT was a lot of like, oh, honey, oh goodness, trying to empower her to be a little bit more independent, a little bit more, I would say, aware.

But IT got to a point where we were scared for her. We were really concerned about her. We were trying to get her help that he needed. And van tt just ended in anger. IT was a very high stress situation near the end.

Next time on something was wrong.

Ultimately, what we discovered is that we were, in a strange sense, we were being configured by her. He would have these very consistent and very intense traumatic situations SHE got .

into this really deep view, or I always say, was a pissing match with I. Town, which is a very big child.

So this is now the third disabled person that you've targeted of multiple thousands of dollars. This is what we like to call a pattern.

Thank you so much for listening. Something was wrong is a broken cycle. Media production created and produced by me to fines.

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