S26 Ep11: Everything is Not What it Seems

If you love something was wrong and you'd like to help support the show, become a community contributor on Apple Podcasts, or purchase a sticker from our shop at brokencyclemedia.com. Thank you so much. Something was wrong is intended for mature audiences and includes topics that can be upsetting, so please listen with care. All names in this chapter have been changed for anonymity purposes. Opinions expressed by the guests of the show are their own and don't necessarily represent the views of broken cycle media. Sources and resources can be found in the episode notes. This podcast and any linked materials or opinion should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. If you're a survivor looking for resources, please visit somethingwaswrong.com/resources. Thank you so much. Last time on something was wrong. She was on the verge of being expelled. She had just lost a baby. I was like, "Hey, are you going to be here for the presentation tomorrow?" Because at this point I knew she was lying about all this. I was texting her so casually about this because that's how she's operated as long as I know her. I said, "Did we have to use the same vendors?" She said, "I don't know actually. Hold up. Let me ask Glock." I said, "Did she answer?" A little while later, she said, "Not yet, but it's 4.30, so she probably won't see it until at least 5.30 when she gets home from her kid's school." Why does she know her kid's schedule? October 18th, 2022 at 4.03pm. I confronted her. She wrote, "I've been at an all-time low for months. I lied and trust me, I feel terrible about it." Was October 24th, 2024? At this point, I had already graduated and summer was in her master's program. Summer was still in classes and she still had some of the same professors. So she had some more information than I did. She texted me in all caps, "Daniel," and then it was the mugshot, and then it said $5,000 bond. It had her full name. It said that the charge was violation of a protective order, and I said, "We need to find the public information on this." We didn't find it until October. I said that the complaint was from Professor Locke, and I just said, "Oh, poor Locke." She had violated some sort of protection order, and that's why she had been arrested. What is going through your head when you're hearing this information? Remember when I sent your screenshot where they were sending memes to each other? Yes! So I'm trying to think why? Why were they doing that? I'm in shock. Another part of me is filled with sadness because it is hard, even though she was lying. To me, through this whole time, there was some sort of relationship that I had with her. We formed some sort of connection, so it did make me a little bit sad to see that, but then also I'm like, "How is this happening?" It's just a weird range of emotions that I feel. I think a bunch of it is also anger because I'm thinking how is she still doing things like this and how has it escalated to this? What is she going to keep doing in the future? What's wild is after our first pre-interview meeting, I started digging into Allison's background looking into her criminal record, if any, and we found that she had previous stalking charges when she was 17 years old in her home state where she was tried as an adult. There was still a capability to charge minors as adults. If they felt it was warranted, that law ended up changing. October 2017, she received a misdemeanor stalking charge. January 2018, there was a misdemeanor stalking case formally filed, and then 2019, Allison enrolled, so she was really coming off the heels of whatever stalking charges in case she was already dealing with in her home state. We sent a FOIA request, and because the law has now changed, and because she was a minor at the time of all of this going on, they would not release the documents or court records, which I completely understand. There's a lot to know here that we don't know, and that's clear. It's like a perplexing puzzle trying to put the pieces together and make sense of it, and I connected with a former roommate of her during some of this time, who were calling Hannah. Not only had she thrown Allison a gender reveal party, she had lived with her. She wore the fake belly the whole time. She was faking morning sickness, all sorts of things. She had shared that Allison had actually had a previous pregnancy, claiming when they first moved in together that she had previously been pregnant with twins as a result again of sexual assault. Then comes this freaking mug shot, and that whole update, not long after you guys found that, we also had met again, and at that point it was just like my goodness, there is so much here. This might take a minute to untangle this web. You ran into her 2023 ish at the bar. 2024, Allison gets arrested for charges related to Professor Locke. There is a violation of the protection order. What did you know if anything? Professor Ki had explained to me that Allison was found going to her house and sending her pictures, and she went to like a local baseball game that she knew Professor Locke was at and took a picture there of her and her kids. Something about maybe seeing her at church, I remember specifically her saying that she was taking pictures of her family when she wasn't looking and texting them to her. Professor Locke understandably found it so scary. It's almost like a threat. Like, hey, I'm here. I can actually touch your kids, and I remember asking Professor Ki, like, okay, but Allison's not actually going to do anything. And Professor Ki was actually kind of saying on the contrary how she was totally in belief that Allison was absolutely capable that she could harm Professor Locke's kids or even kidnap them. That's a crazy statement, but absolutely shows that there's so much down that rabbit hole that I haven't gone into. Why did Allison fixate on Professor Locke? That's another good question, and it's still very confusing to me. I've heard so many thoughts and theories and alleged facts about it. I think that it could be a similar situation with me, how Allison kind of gravitates towards one person at a time. You become their kind of confidant and she just acts like you're their savior almost. I remember looking up her charges. I even had another professor. He was a chair, and he was telling me about the mug shot. Everyone kind of just knew Professor Locke had taken Allison to court. Summer had just ended and I had gone back to teach for my graduate student assistant program, and I remember on the first day back going up to Professor Ki asking what happened at court because I wasn't really sure I never heard an update, and she was telling me that the restraining order I believe was dropped, although they did make certain exceptions saying that Allison wasn't allowed to go to Professor Locke's home, church, or place of work, things like that, but she was still allowed to post online, even if it included talking about Professor Locke. Professor Ki was saying that that was a big deal to Professor Locke because she didn't want her reputation tarnished, which is very understandable. Then I brought up the podcast and how we were actually doing it. Because we had already started talking. Right. We had been talking for a while. Every time we start talking, girl, shit pops off. After this airs, I'm sure she's going to do something even crazier. I remember when we first started talking to Navea Allison's ex-best friend, she was telling us a little more insight. I don't know when Navea and Allison started being really close friends. I just remember nearing the time that Allison was faking giving birth and having a Halloween party. That's when I saw on her private Snapchat and Instagram that her and Navea were really close and seeing each other a lot. After I confronted Allison about her lies, she had invited me to outback for her birthday. I'm pretty sure Navea was the only one that went. That's what I was told from someone else. One day, I just remember seeing that Navea was completely scrubbed from Allison's social media and vice versa, and they didn't even follow each other anymore, and I just remember thinking that was interesting. And it wasn't until way later when we were talking about getting ready to record. I was thinking, okay, well, Navea would be a great person to reach out to because from the looks of it, they're no longer friends. I was a little bit hesitant to reach out, but finally I thought, you know what? What's the worst that can happen? And I texted her. February 10th of this year. I said, "Hi, Navea. I hope you've been doing well. I have a very random question for you and would love to talk sometime soon." And she said, "And how are you?" Is this? I don't have the numbers saved since I got a new phone. I said, "Oh, sorry, it's summer from school." And she said, "Oh my gosh, hi. What's up, girl?" I said, "It's really so random. Ha ha. Do you have a minute to call?" It's just a question about someone I think you used to be good friends with. And she said, "Who? I'm curious." I said, "Are you still friends with Allison?" She said, "Eh, we had a big fallout, so not really friends per se. We kind of made up, but she said some pretty nasty things. So, So I kind of tread lightly with her, "Ha ha." She's also a handful. She said, "Why? What's popping?" And I said, "I'll memo it." And before I get into things, you know about the baby, right? I'm sure. Ha ha. And then Nevea said, "Oh, yes, of course. Her friend is having a baby." And Nevea said, "Are we talking about her?" And I said, "Um, I'm talking about her fake baby, like the faked pregnancy." And in my head, I fully assumed that they weren't friends because she found out about the fake baby. I said, "Jody, you're falling out. Have to do with the baby." She said, "Ha ha, no. She doesn't know I know the baby was fake." As far as her fallout, there was a lot that happened as far as Allison just being a very bad friend and lying about doing things when she didn't. She was supposed to be in charge of setting up this surprise engagement that Nevea didn't know about. And Nevea's now husband at the time had reached out to Allison and they were coordinating setting up this proposal because he lived in a different state all the way across the country. So it was hard because he had to come and do things within a day. He only had the rental place for a couple hours had to set up everything in a very quick span of time. Allison had lied about checking and setting up. I know there was a situation with even these light up letters that she was supposed to check and make sure it worked. And she said, "Yeah, they work." And then when it came to it, guess what didn't work. So there was a lot there. At the time, Nevea had a falling out with Allison when she felt that Allison didn't fulfill her obligation as a friend to help her now fiance with this engagement proposal. She felt like Allison really dropped the ball and there was a lot of drama surrounding it. So they got in a fight about it. Allegedly, Allison's mom then reaches out to Nevea the next day inserting herself in the drama. If that was really her and that's true that that was her texting, that is so wild to me and that tracks what their relationship according to others. She did that with Hannah too, so I believe it fully. To summarize, that was the information, essentially, was that that was more what the falling out was about. Equality in the relationship where it's not just all about one person or the other. This can understandably be the kind of situation that is a deal breaker for people as friends because it feels like this huge moment that this person didn't care about. So essentially, she sends us this information back to the text. Yes. She said, "She claimed she was having a baby a while ago." I wasn't sure if it was legit or not. I said, "It was not." And she said, "I leaned more towards that it was fake," and I said, "Are we talking about the one a few years ago, like right before Halloween?" And she said, "Mm-hmm. I think question mark?" And I said, "Okay, yes. That one." And she said, "Is there more details?" And I said, "There's so much." And she wrote, "I forgot that happened. Ha-ha-ha. I glossed right over that." She said she had a girl and a boy that both died, I think. And I said, "Yeah, that was before then, though. That was like November the year before." She said that she had miscarriages, and then one year later she was pregnant again and wore a bump to school. She wrote, "I'm sure her mama wouldn't like that one. She messaged me after we fought, and I'm like, 'Okay, your daughter is actually crazy, but okay.'" I sent a voice memo explaining the podcast, and the information I had, and if she wanted to share anything. And she said, "Gosh, dang it. I think I deleted the pictures of me and her during that era because there was a specific time during my birthday that I remember about her and the whole pregnancy thing. And I probably used to have text from her too, because I remember her trying to show me pictures of things that she had bought for the baby and whatever. I'll do some digging." She said, "All of the stuff you mentioned, like, Professor Locke, I have so much to say on that specifically." I'd like to thank Wayfair for sponsoring today's episode. I recently bought a new couch for our living room after years of debilitating anxiety over choosing the right couch, and finally it was time to pull it all together with a rug. Thankfully, I found the perfect one on Wayfair. What I love about Wayfair is that you can find quality materials that stand up to real life. I have pets and kids, so I need furniture and decor that is billed to last. 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These kinds of things also happen, but usually we end up speaking with folks. And so we haven't been able to actually get her on the record interview. She's given us information and consented to sharing this information with us. However, without being able to connect with her fully and fully flesh out the details, we're going to include what is said here, but it's important to note that it's extremely speculative without more information. Right. And I can't speak for any of this personally. Nevea wrote, "supposedly, she used to babysit kiddos that lived/went to school with Professor Locke's kiddos." And that's why she ran into her so often, but obviously that was BS. And then I sent her the screenshots of her mugshot and her traffic/criminal case details that I found. And I said, "Professor Locke had a restraining order against her." Also, she didn't withdraw. She was expelled and banned from campus, because I sent a screenshot where she had claimed that she was withdrawing. And then Nevea goes, "I'm not going to, but I wish I could message her and be like, can I ask you something? Then did you really have the babies?" And I said, "That's probably not a good idea." Nevea wrote, "Bout to send her a pic of me watching Wizards of Waverly Place Waverly because of the baby's name." And she wrote and quotes, "Everything is not what it seems, which is like a catchphrase from the show." I had a long text conversation with Nevea saying, "I don't think it's a good idea to reach out. I know you want to. And it feels almost necessary, but maybe just for the time being, don't." And she's like, "Yeah, of course. No worries." And then the next thing you know, it's midnight. And she goes, "She doesn't know I know it was all fake. Ha, ha, ha." And then she goes, "Had to do this. Ha, ha, ha." And sends me a screenshot. It texted Allison and said, "watching Wizards of and then in all caps Waverly Place, thought of you and the babes. Hope you're doing well." We didn't tell Nevea to reach out to Allison, by the way. You guys are like chatting and then she takes a hard left turn solo and decides, "I'm going to reach out to Allison." I said, "That's crazy, OMG. I can't believe you texted her. You are brave." And she goes, "I feel like it's innocent enough because she doesn't like hate me, and she wrote in all caps. I hate that she doesn't know I know it's fake." She sent me another screenshot, and it was a post by Allison, and it's a birthday post for her current best friend. She wrote multiple paragraphs about how she loves her best friend and whatnot. And she goes, "You've stuck by me through thick and thin, comma, through my stalker, never leaving us alone in parentheses, if you know you know. Through my mental health struggles, through my attitudes, and you somehow managed to make it easier." February 24th, I guess, a little while later. Allison responds, "Doesn't answer any of those texts, which is completely ignores them, and instead sends a picture of her smiling, holding ultrasound pictures." And so Nevea says, "I literally asked about Waverly again, which is why I thought I'd get a confession. But then this. Instead of a confession, she tried to face Tommy. I was like, "Uh, no, thank you." This is Nevea's conversation with Allison. She replies with the picture of her smiling, holding up ultrasound pictures. And Nevea says, "OMG, is this right now?" and all caps, and then Allison goes, "Yes, 18 weeks today, baby girl." And then sends more pictures of her bump in the mirror. The photoshopping there is even worse. I think she got a lot messier and more careless and didn't realize that Nevea wasn't going to be the only person looking at this one. Nevea wrote, "You're kidding me in all caps." And Allison wrote, "Nope exclamation point and sent more mirror pictures." And Nevea wrote, "Stop, OMG, you and Emma at the same time in all caps, which this is a whole new thing to get into." So Allison's best friend, Emma, is pregnant. And guess what, now so is Allison. Allison wrote, "Emma doesn't know yet." Like, while on Earth is Allison texting her ex-best friend, who she's no longer friends with and hasn't talked to in over a year, and telling her about her pregnancy when she hasn't even told her best friend. And I actually had a theory I wanted to share. I think it's so interesting that the only person she shared these pictures and information with was Nevea. And she's telling Nevea that she's naming her baby, her baby's middle name, after her new best friend. I think the reason she may have done this was to be like, "Look, I have a new best friend. I don't need you. I have such a good friend that I'm naming my child after her, and this could have been you, but it's not." Nevea sent me the individual pictures of the new pregnancy, the mirror pics, and the ultrasound pictures. Nevea wrote, "It's her old bump for sure." So, Allison goes, "Then I'll caps you next with the eyes emoji." And then Nevea, I guess, took a screenshot and just shows a picture of Allison crying with mascara streaming down, and she just wrote, "Yo." I think she posted that on her close friend's story on Instagram. And so Nevea screenshoted it and sent it to Allison and said, "Also, what are you okay?" And she wrote, "Yes, ha ha ha. Yes, I'm good. Pregnancy hormones." And then she goes, "Valid, ha ha ha." And Allison wrote, "I haven't really told anyone yet because I found out not long ago." And then Nevea wrote, "Baby daddy isn't Professor Locke's ex, right, with some laughing faces." And Allison wrote, "And all caps, ha ha ha. OMG, no." And then she wrote, "Her father is actually from a sexual assault, but I don't like to talk about it." Although, fun fact, dot dot dot, she's my neighbor now, referencing the professor. So then Nevea wrote, "And all caps, Professor Locke." And she wrote, "Yeah, dot dot dot." She wrote, "Your mom knows?" And then Allison wrote, "I moved into a new apartment complex and found out days later that her house is a few down from the complex. I have to pass her house to get to mine. My mom doesn't know yet. I'm telling her when I go home in two weeks." And then Nevea wrote, "Oh shoot, that's kind of awk, ha ha, about Locke, I mean." And Allison wrote, "Eh, it is what it is. She hates me and I couldn't care less." And Nevea wrote, "That's fair, ha ha ha." And you know, Summer was sending this over to me in Daniel and we were gagged in the chat. Like, I cannot believe this. Literally, the conversation that started with a follow-up about her lie is now spiraling into another alleged fake pregnancy. This was at 11 p.m. I immediately called Daniel. He doesn't answer. I call Tiffany. I'm like, "You need to see what's going on right the second." I texted in our group chat. I go, "It's happening again." Yes, I'll never forget seeing that. Then we go to Emma's page, which is also public. And we're like scroll, scroll, scroll. Girl just announced her pregnancy like literally two weeks ago. Also, looking at her pictures on Allison's Instagram page, which she's very public now. The behavior in the Instagram wasn't supporting a pregnancy narrative. She has a lot of videos and things out there of herself. And one of them she was talking about. If you really want to like see who your real friends are, you learn who they are when you find out your pregnant. It just struck me. Maybe that's how she sees it as like a loyalty test or a way to test people's empathy. It's all effed up. It's not okay, no matter what her reason is. It is endlessly perplexing when we look at people that behave this way. You can't help but question in some capacity. Why does this keep happening? What is this person getting out of this? And I think even with her saying you find out who your true friends are when you're pregnant, that doesn't even make sense because when we did think she was pregnant, everyone had her back. She had a lot of people that were trying to give her mercy with homework extensions and group partners that were helping pick up some of the slack that she wasn't putting in. Even before I met her knowing two of her ex-room mates, they planned a baby shower for her and bought her things and treated her so well. So I don't really understand her saying that because she had great friends during it. And obviously things went down and they found out that she wasn't pregnant. So yeah, they're not going to stick by you then, but at the time when they believed it, people did stick by her and people were good friends to her. So it is interesting that she says that. Of course, Navea now knows everything and she knows that even right now she's currently faking this. Who knows what's real? We later find out that this pregnancy, just like all the other ones, is fake. But at the time, we're assuming it's fake. I'd like to thank Delete Me for sponsoring today's episode. Worrying about your privacy is not being paranoid. It's being smart. Your personal info is already out there more than you think online and it can put your personal safety at risk. That's why I use and partner with Delete Me. They remove your info from hundreds of data broker sites so you don't have to track them down yourself. As we've explored deeply on this podcast, online safety is extremely important, especially in our growing digital age. Delete Me sends you regular personalized privacy reports showing what info they found, where they found it, and what they removed. Delete Me isn't just a one-time service. It's always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing personal information you don't want on the internet. Stay smart out there. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/sww and use promo code SWW at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to joindeleteme.com/sww and enter code SWW at checkout. That's joindeleteme.com/sww code SWW. Summer then got in contact with Navea. As their conversation unfolded, Summer Daniel and I hopped on the phone to chat through what we've learned. Hey. Hey. Oh my gosh, it's happening again. This is crazy. Yeah, well she's pregnant. She's been pregnant since 20 September. So I get her being like, this is too much right now. I feel like the way this is playing out is better than it could have gone because I was nervous that she was just going to flat out tell her. So I feel like this could be best case scenario. Yeah, I can't even keep track of how many potential pregnancies this is at this point. She's claiming that she was married. Yeah, she eloped. We're at the same time that she would rate by her ex-boyfriend. And what was the alleged name of the ex-husband? That's so confused about because the only guy I've heard of as far as like who's been involved with the pregnancies and stuff is Jake who is also her abuser. She's right. Right now we have Jack and in the mix. So I don't know who that is. Yeah, we don't know who he is. Oh wait, I got another text. Oh wait a second, wait a second. The blood test said she had a boy, but was not, it was a girl and her miscarriage was never a miscarriage. So it's the same pregnancy. That's what she's claiming. Yeah, I just had a screenshot. It's loading. Yeah, she said well apparently the blood test she had that said boy wasn't. She mispelled something. It says wasn't. I think she meant to say not. It was a girl and her miscarriage was never a miscarriage. Didn't she say it was a girl before? Yeah. I thought so. She's just making herself. Oh my gosh. Did it still not send? No, it's loading. No, I don't think. Don't worry. There it goes. Oh, there we go. Oh, good. Wait. Oh, there's another. It was with this girl and her typos. Every single time she texted some, uh-huh. I can't read her language. It's like, it's as if auto correct doesn't even exist. No, right. What's going on? She said she was doing a month after me. But I'm almost 29 weeks. So that's two months, first of all. Yeah, the math is not mathing. No. She's kind of like starting to realize that she's probably was lied to you about some. Because like, who knows how many stories made up and stuff, it gets confusing to keep track of. Yeah. And how could you, if I had a friend who told me that they faked a pregnancy and all that whole thing, which it seems like she knows some of it? Like, I would have a really hard time trusting that person, personally. Yeah, for sure. I don't understand. That's why she's waiting to go to the baby shower to confront. I'm not as patient as she is. Wow. She's once doing all kinds of things. I feel like she's like, she's also self-sabotaging her own baby shower by doing that. Like just true. Why would you do that to yourself? I just need to know the motive there. Oh my god. That's just, I can't. I just am wondering if like, she's done this two neck dozens of times with anybody, anybody, and everybody. I think it's a good job. She has had like 20 plus jobs. And I cannot even fathom that one person. I've got much experience. She used the pregnancy stuff to get slacked up for assignments and for like getting on a work shift and things like that. So I'm sure it's like a great excuse at this point. And we know she was fired once. Yeah. I think multiple times. I'm pretty sure there's been like three, five or seven. out a lot. Yeah, I mean, I guess these people are job hopping like crazy. I mean, did they not, I guess a lot of people don't run background checks these days because if they did, they would see that she has been in some trouble. Well, for the jobs that she's had, they're all like more minimum wage jobs that I'm in. So I don't think they're really doing crazy searches on her. Yeah, it's wild. The amount of people who don't actually do like reference checks or background searches. Yeah, scary. If you look at her, you don't assume criminal. You kind of just think, oh, cute girl, she looks innocent. Yeah, sure. And the, her whole like kind of persona, so to speak. But then she's also just posting all the her TikToks. I can't keep up with all this. Yeah. Like on top of all the lies, she's fabricated. She just posts herself following online. What is she? Who, who is that for? Like, who is she doing? Who is that? And who is the ex husband? Yeah, I need to know this thing. What is all about about that's crazy. Oh, wait, he's typing. Did you ask what the ex husband name is? She said, I don't know, I want to start something. How did they came? Jackson Cole. Yeah, Jackson Cole. Yeah, so was it Jackson or Cole? Or was his name Jackson Cole? I think Jackson Cole. Which is the most basic name you can come up with along with Jake Ryder. Why does Jackson Cole write so familiar to me? Yeah, because it's not like you don't like to look that out of one of her baby names. Like just like not use it. Yeah. As a list of all these names for her future fake pregnancy. She hasn't all picked and lined up. She's a pro. Wait, really? Aspen? She's like, I don't want to say anything else that's like, wait, she's like, yeah, bet. Uh, here's more questions. She does not care at all. She's like, no, I need information. I don't care. This is wild. Well, I know you're in an Uber and I got to run myself, but please keep us updated. Yeah. I mean, live your life, but like keep us updated when you can. Yeah. All right, thanks y'all. Talk soon. After finding out about Alison's newest alleged fake pregnancy, Summer and Daniel heard Alison would be having a sale to clear some last items out of her apartment. Curious to know if Alison was continuing to allegedly fake pregnancies, they saw it as an opportunity to confirm whether Alison was lying or not. Summer Astro friends Isabel and Emily to go check out the moving sale. Okay, I just called my friend. She doesn't even know this girl. I was like, okay, what are you doing right now? She goes, nothing. Why? I'm like, I need you to go to this address. She goes, okay, why? So he centered the address. I told her what happened. I center pictures of what her belly should look like right now. And she's just going to show up at the door and let us know if she is a belly or not. Hi, my name is Isabel. How did you first meet Alison? I was just told a bunch of information for the past few years. So I knew what was going on, but I was never specifically involved or like met Alison until we went to the apartment sale. What do you recall that strikes you as the first thing that you heard, which was like, that's weird. I think I was just quite taken back. In my mind, she was a serial data. But then she would have the same accusations about these guys getting her pregnant. And then her going along with these pregnancies. And then later on, sharing that she would lose the babies in some sort of way. I knew her as somebody who got expelled from the university. And then based off these accusations, she was just known as someone who would lie about some pretty serious things. Honestly, I just didn't know that people lied about this stuff in real life. You remember the first time she told me about it? I was like, no way. But it's like so much worse. So I was in my apartment. And I received a call that morning saying that Alison was claiming to be pregnant once again. And I was a little shocked. She said not only that, but she's having an apartment sale and that it wasn't too far away from me. And that I just needed to do whatever it took to get there. So I and a few other friends went to the apartment. We went inside and we were tasked with just figuring out if she actually looked pregnant or not. I received the picture. She told me that was probably taken a week prior so if anything, she was to look a little bit more pregnant. We go inside and there's not many things left to sell. She had mentioned that she had moved all of her bigger stuff. And this was just some of the final things that she didn't feel like moving. So I remember her saying that whatever wasn't being sold would just get thrown away. She was sitting. And so I was like, darn, I can't really tell because she's wearing this sweatshirt and she's also sitting. She had to look quite far along in this picture and to be wearing those types of jeans it just raised a flag in my mind. Then we were trying to make small talk and form conversations with her that would give any kind of opening for her to maybe share about the pregnancy. We were asking some good questions for it to be easy for her to open up about the pregnancy. I also remember seeing an engagement ring that she had on her hands. I could be wrong about that but I specifically remember trying to take in my surroundings and see any details that I can find. Her mom was there and what I noticed that things are kind of complicated with her mom and that she would have never admitted she was pregnant in front of her mom anyways. So we were just kept talking to her and the pregnancy just never came up. And then she finally stood up. And at least for my eyes I did not believe that she looked pregnant, especially from looking at pictures of her just on social media. And so after making some more small talk we left. What did her personality seem like to you? She just seemed like your average girl in your early 20s. I remember her mentioning that the university that she had left was because the major was too broad and it was communications. Also I remember her and her mom talking about how she does not like going home and all and her mom just wants her to move home. And so she kept mentioning that a little bit but she was never like rude or mean. Me and my friend she ended up giving us our stuff for free and then she wanted to like connect on social media. I think maybe that was the only thing where I was like oh she seems like the person to want to be friends with somebody fast because if I was just meeting somebody for the first time at like a yard sale or apartment sale we talked for like 10 minutes. I wouldn't offer my Instagram up but she did. I thought it was a little odd that she was moving to another and apartment complex that wasn't too far away. But I mean I guess that's not too out of the ordinary at all. And then just the fact that we in my mind we're giving her so many opportunities to talk about her pregnancy and was not mentioned at all. I don't understand the goal of trying to convince these people that you're pregnant. Yeah. Like what is the payoff? Exactly. But makes me feel like at the root of it has to be some sort of longing for attention or like maternal care. Yeah. It was very fascinating to me too because I was trying to read her non-verbals with her mom. They were sitting close together on the couch. They were even making conversations when we weren't talking to them. So it's all very hard for me to understand. And her mom just kind of struck you as an average mom. Yeah. Honestly typical mom behavior. It's just yeah fascinating to me because meeting her in person compared to hearing all these stories and seeing the online presence. You would never think that she's capable of this stuff. Hi I'm Emily. I originally met Alison very briefly in college. I was friends with her ex-boyfriend. I remember thinking she seemed sweet. Nothing really stood out about meeting her I guess. When did you next hear about Alison post-college? When I heard about her moving sail that she was doing, my friend as well texted me about her moving sail. Alison was claiming to be pregnant and apparently in the past she had claimed this a couple other times or something and it had been false every time. So we were gonna go and just check it out. Had you been filled in on the false pregnancies and if so what were your thoughts hearing that? I sort of was over the phone a little bit when Isabella had called me about it and then before after we went in to check out the moving sail they told me some more of the details about it. I remember it triggering a memory that I had heard in college. I believe that she had a pregnancy before and that's circulating as a rumor amongst my friend group at one point. Can you walk us through what you recall about going there and what the sort of vibe was from your perspective? I met Isabelle and another friend there and we went into her apartment and she was there with her. her mom. Nobody else was there. It was just me and my friends. So it was a little awkward at first, but then we started making conversation with her asking her about why she was moving, what her job was. She was sweet, nice, and was conversational. She didn't say anything about a pregnancy. I remember Isabelle mentioning one of her other friends who just had a baby. There were kind of conversational prompts that wasn't saying anything about a baby. Did she appear to be pregnant from what you could physically see? No, definitely nothing obvious. Isabelle had showed me pictures she had apparently recently sent somebody. I'm not sure who had them originally of her in the mirror with her belly, and it definitely didn't look the same as in the pictures. She didn't look obviously pregnant at all. She was wearing like jeans and a sweatshirt. And what did the relationship between her and her mother seem like from your perspective? Nothing striking about it. Her mom, a couple of times, joked about how she wished that Allison would move back home, but Allison wanted to stay here. Was there anything else that you feel like stood out to you? As we were leaving, she asked for my friends Instagrams. She was like, if I'm getting rid of any more stuff, I'll DM you guys. She was almost like wanting to connect. If I didn't know any of the previous information, like the pregnancy, then I definitely wouldn't have thought anything about the interaction. It seems kind of sad, I guess, because there's definitely deeper issue there in my unprofessional opinion. Do you feel sure today that it was faked, and when do you think you came to that conclusion? I would say I'm still at 99%. I'm 100% sure it was alive, but it's what parts were lies because she intertwined so many other things into the story, like sexual assault or checking herself into the mental hospital. For me, it's more of I'm 100% sure that it was fake. The smaller details, I don't know. Which of her lies or her suspected lies for you felt the most egregious? What bothered you as a person the most? I would say it didn't even actually have to do anything with her. She lied about a 17 year old underage girl being sexually assaulted from a man and having to carry his baby. Her miscarriage, her sending herself to the psychiatric ward, her grandmother dying. Those are all terrible things, but to lie about minors being assaulted in that way. And the way she poses herself has some light for the unheard and whatever it's just completely disgusting to me. And what's kind of sad about it is it's just that's a supporting lie in the bigger scheme of the whole story of whatever she created. In hindsight, what are some of the other red flags that stick out to you that were running through your mind in the days after you guys had confirmed that this was a false pregnancy and that what she was saying in a lot of circumstances could be untrue? I don't know if it's red flags, but it made me think about everything she's ever said to me, which was so strange because if she's lying about such big things and I know she had lied about smaller things as well. I'm like, do you actually have a sibling? Are you actually from the state that you say you're from? Like all these little things. She lies about her work experiences, her internships, her portfolios. I went to her LinkedIn. I went to go look out a bunch of the certifications that she had that were made up. They weren't even real certifications, but she had 10 of them or whatever listed on her profile. I think she gets away with it for a while and then people start to realize you're lying to me. I think that's why she jumps from different circles and different best friends and cycles through a bunch of different people and jobs. My opinion is that this is not the only time she's lied about something like this. I think she starts a new job. She creates a new story. She has a new friendship. She creates another new story. She's done this countless times that I can't even imagine what the number is, but that's all speculation. Obviously, however, knowing how she's acted with us in the web of lies, I would not put it past her that this is a common trait that she does. At first, I definitely thought she was lying for attention, but because she was sort of controlling the narrative, I think she got some joy out of seeing that people would believe her lies. When you're dealing with what I can only describe from my perspective as the pathological liar, they lie for sport, they lie for fun, and so it's just hard to understand what's real and what's not. I think that's what can be so damaging about the level of deceit and how it can really make people question themselves and reality in a way. She's clearly troubled and she's also still at the beginning of her life. I would love nothing more than if she were to hear this or were to reflect deeply on how her actions continue to harm people and honestly harm herself and she could change that behavior or get into some sort of intensive therapy or something that could help her live differently. I want that for her and that may very well be possible. I'm not the judge of that. That's also the reason why we changed everyone's names, why we're not using her name and why we're focusing more on the behavior. What she's done is extremely harmful to a lot of people and obviously the stalking is its own harm and trauma. There's obviously some sort of mental health crisis going on, even though she's been putting me and my friends and professors through the ringer, they're still a part of me that felt bad. It makes you realize like you really don't know anybody, even the people that you think you know, it's just a weird balancing act in my mind of who really is Allison. How did this experience impact you emotionally and did it change your perspective of friendships or people's behavior? It was definitely weird because that semester outside of my relationship with her, it was a really good time in my life. It was my senior year of college. I was having a great internship during that time and so everything was going good but it definitely was a stressor just emotionally because it was always in the back of my head if I'm hanging out with my friends or I'm working on a project for my internship with classmates. I'm having a great time and then I get a text like, "Hey, I'm in the hospital." I feel like inconvenience the wrong word because if that were true of anybody, I would never say it's an inconvenience. I would say call me anytime at any time of the day but because I knew it was fake, it definitely drained me. Okay, well maybe is this the one time where it's true? I think that's kind of where it emotionally was challenging for me and it just made me a little bit more hyper aware of people's actions. I would say it changed my perspective on how I view people. Everybody has some skeletons in their closets. Everybody has things that they don't present to the world. People present themselves to you in the way that they want to be perceived and that doesn't necessarily mean that's who they are. Somebody like Summer though, she's just authentically herself and I think when you find those people in the world, that's how you know who your friends and family are. Why did you agree to support Summer and speak out about this? What are you hoping that listeners or the public will take away from this? Initially, I wanted to be a part of this because of how Allison used people's emotions and that really upset me. It just didn't sit right for me to be manipulating people in that way. Yeah, I've been lied to and I've lied as well. We all have told a lie in our lives but I think to this magnitude is something that I've never experienced and honestly, I don't think I'm naive or anything but I didn't think people had that in them to carry on such a long plethora of lies and obviously you see it in movies or online on date line or whatever but then for it to be something that you were a part of and honestly, my relationship with her was probably just the tip of the iceberg of the things that she's done or has been doing. When I first submitted for the podcast and just wanting to tell the story, I remember feeling like wow this is such a great story, it's so entertaining and it is. I think now I have so much sympathy for everyone else that she's affected, that I just want this story out so that people know people like this exist and how to recognize the signs. Even just in the couple years it's been since everything went down. I've met so many people that have these same tendencies as her. People have even come to me because I've told this story so many times to close friends and family. Sometimes I'll have those same people come back to me and say hey, I just met a person that did X, Y and Z and I know you went through a similar situation. These people exist and it's important to know what to look for to see when someone's lying to you just so they don't take advantage of you because as someone that was very sympathetic to her and really tried to be a support system for her at one point or another, I think it's important to know who these people are and what they're really like because they're exploiting you for your kindness and your sympathy and abusing it. Anyone that is doing what she does, there's something clearly wrong with her and it's sad you don't want to see anyone dealing with that and you don't want anyone to think that's the only option or your only resort and you want them to get the help they need. It's just hard when it is a pattern that keeps repeating over and over and every time I gain a little bit of sympathy, I see another lie being uncovered, and it almost brings me back to square one. And we can have empathy for people's mental health troubles and know that they know right from wrong. And at the end of the day, if you keep making these wrong choices over and over, you can't use your mental health or your diagnoses as an excuse. I hope that she gets the help she needs one day. I really hope and pray that she does. But until then, I have no sympathy for her, as long as she's going to continue doing what she does. Allison had me so concerned for her this whole time. I had my entire family praying for her while she was going through her pregnancy. I remember even crying for the girl. My mom had put her name down for her prayer list. And the day that she told me that her baby died, I remember tearing up and thinking how awful this was and feeling so horrible. It's really frustrating to think that all of that was for nothing. And all of that was just for her to gain some kind of attention. Thank you so much to each and every survivor for speaking with us this season. And thank you for listening. Coming up in chapter three, we'll hear from Aaron and his group of close friends. After spending years pursuing his dream of becoming a filmmaker in LA, Aaron returned to New Mexico following the release of his independent film to be closer to his roots. Back home, he reconnected with a former high school acquaintance, Martha. The two met for coffee. At first, it seemed harmless. Martha was struggling. She spoke of personal hardships, difficult relationships, chaos unfolding around her, and people who had wronged her. Aaron listened, he sympathized. And like many people who encounter someone in distress, he wanted to help. But the emergencies never stopped. There was always another crisis, another threat, another victim, another investigation, another person who needed help. As Aaron became more involved in Martha's life and as she tried to cement herself in his, he found himself drawn into an increasingly complex web of stories involving alleged stalkers, criminal activity, harassment campaigns, law enforcement involvement, FBI investigations, and a revolving cast of friends, witnesses, and victims who appeared to validate everything Martha claimed. The deeper he became invested, the more difficult it became to separate fact from fiction. Then the inconsistencies started appearing. And Aaron began uncovering evidence suggesting that many of the people surrounding Martha's life might not be independent individuals at all. What followed was a year's long effort to understand whether he had been helping a woman in crisis or participating in an elaborate deception built on fabricated identities, false victimization narratives, impersonation, alleged stalking, and psychological manipulation. As former friends, acquaintances, and romantic partners began comparing experiences, a larger picture emerged, a pattern in which nearly every story positioned Martha as the victim, nearly every conflict demanded someone's rescue, and nearly every road somehow led back to her. Aaron's story explores what happens when compassion becomes a point of vulnerability, and when one person's need for attention, validation, or control begins consuming the lives of everyone around them. Chapter 3 will begin airing in October, but don't fret. While we put the finishing touches on the next chapter, we'll be airing some inspiring episodic survivor stories and behind the scenes content you won't want to miss. Thank you so much. Until next time, stay safe friends. Next time, on something was wrong. We had chapel every week. The girls would go and have a conversation about purity and how it was our responsibility to make sure that we weren't a stumbling block and how to say no in a way that makes him still want you as a wife. He would tell me, you know, your hugs are what I look forward to. I come to church so I can get hugs from you at 17. I was okay with him being older because then he could provide for me. I heard a fire flight if an animal was chasing you, but I had no idea that that was something that I was going to experience with someone that I would call a friend. Thank you to each and every survivor and guest for sharing their experiences with us. Something was wrong is a broken cycle media production created, hosted, and executively produced by me, Tiffany Reese. Special thank you and shout out to my co-producer Amy B. Chessler, who also hosts our sister podcast What Came Next, which you should absolutely check out if you haven't already. Thank you to our social media maven Lauren Barkman of Luxury Media and our glorious graphic artist, Sarah Stewart. Thank you to our amazing audio team, our head audio engineer Becca Hy, with additional editing support by Stephen Wack. Thank you to our behind-the-scenes partners, our lawyers, accountants, agents, cyber security, delivery workers, and anyone who contributes to the work we do. Thank you. Last but certainly not least, thank you for listening. If you want to help support the work we do, you can purchase a sticker from our shop at brokencyclemedia.com or become a community contributor on Apple podcasts. Other ways you can help support the show are by leaving us a review or sharing the show with your loved ones. Or, hey, even those you don't love, they might need it most. Until next time, stay safe friends.