S12 E1: WITPRO

[0] Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to something was wrong early and ad -free right now.

[1] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

[2] I'm Dan Tversky.

[3] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[4] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[5] What's the answer?

[6] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[7] Hysterical.

[8] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[9] Binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[10] Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences.

[11] Episodes can discuss topics that can be triggering, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, suicide, and murder.

[12] I am not a therapist or a doctor.

[13] If you're in need of support, please visit something was wrong .com slash resources for a list of nonprofit organizations that can help.

[14] Some names have been changed for anonymity purposes.

[15] Opinions expressed by the guests on the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself or audio chuck.

[16] Resources and source material are linked in the episode notes.

[17] Thank you so much for listening.

[18] Kenzie submitted her story through the Something Was Wrong website, and I emailed her asking if she'd be interested in connecting to chat more about her experience for what we call a pre -interview.

[19] When I hadn't received a response after about a month or so, I thought, I'll try once more to see if she's interested.

[20] Sometimes emails do get lost in junk folders.

[21] So I called her and I left a voicemail, and I was pleasantly surprised when she got back to me. Hi, Tiffany.

[22] I just got your voicemail.

[23] Yes, I did not see an email.

[24] I would love to chat.

[25] Super excited.

[26] Very cool to hear your voice on my phone mail.

[27] Yeah, give me a call back.

[28] We'll set something up.

[29] Okay, thanks.

[30] Bye.

[31] We then texted back and forth and set up a time to chat.

[32] Before we had our pre -interview, I sent Kenzie what we call a timeline doc to fill up.

[33] which details her story in a linear format.

[34] When Kenzie sent back her story timeline, I began reading through it, and I was completely heartbroken, baffled, enraged, perplexed, furious, stunned, and laughing ragefully at the sheer audacity of this dick.

[35] I had a million questions for Kenzie and her loved ones.

[36] Thankfully, this season, we'll get to hear from her, her sister, and her best.

[37] Christy's Charlotte, Harper, and Sophia, who came together to uncover Joe's lies and save Kenzie in the nick of time.

[38] I'm Tiffany Reese, and this is, something was wrong.

[39] Season 12.

[40] Hey, I'm Sophia.

[41] I've been friends with Kenzie for, oh my God, like eight years, maybe more.

[42] I would describe her as a very open, but also very loyal person.

[43] She's definitely one of those people who can, like, accept you as who you are.

[44] And I always joke with her that her being so trusting is one of her best and worst qualities.

[45] Because she's, I don't know, she just kind of takes people for who they are and doesn't really demand you to be something that you're not.

[46] Hi, I'm Harper.

[47] I know Kenzie from college.

[48] So we've been friends a long time.

[49] I think Kenzie as a friend is one of the most loyal friends, a really trusting friend, and a super supportive friend.

[50] Hey, I'm Charlotte.

[51] So I met Kenzie, man, I feel like over 10 years ago.

[52] Harper and I started at the same first job fresh out of college.

[53] And then slowly over time, we became friends.

[54] And through her, I was able to meet Kenzie.

[55] Since then, we've all stayed connected and grown the group.

[56] But Kenzie as a person, she has this great energy and things just kind of, you know, those friends where you're like, wow, your star is just kind of a line and things just happen.

[57] And she always seems to kind of grasp onto the light of things.

[58] She's so warm.

[59] She's so open.

[60] She can make conversation with anybody.

[61] She's very grounded.

[62] She is bright and colorful.

[63] super smart and intuitive.

[64] She's a creative by every definition of that word.

[65] She's just an amazing human being.

[66] All right.

[67] Okay, so hi, my name's Kenzie.

[68] My story started at the top of 2019, right before COVID, and I had just come home from Christmas break, and when I got home, a bunch of flowers that were on my porch had fallen off and the flower pots broke and I was like, I'm going to clean this up.

[69] No big deal.

[70] Well, in the process, I sliced my hand really badly and I needed stitches.

[71] And I was so frustrated that like after just coming out of the holidays, money was tight.

[72] My health insurance wasn't great.

[73] And I decided that I needed to do some sort of side job or side hustle to bring in a little bit of extra money, which is something that I did a lot.

[74] I went online.

[75] I was looking at some job websites, I came across a PA slash nanny position, which I work in the industry.

[76] So I was really familiar with the PA part of it that was, you know, working in television and having to set up just things within film.

[77] And then the other half of it was being a nanny for a little girl part time.

[78] And I had done a lot of work with kids.

[79] I was really comfortable.

[80] And the pay for this job was insane, which definitely at the time I thought, maybe this is too good to be true.

[81] It just so happened that one of my closest friends, her college roommate, was a nanny for a celebrity at the time.

[82] And I was like, hey, can you reach out and find out how much she makes?

[83] Because I want to see if these numbers line up.

[84] She got back to me and within a couple hours and the numbers were exactly the same.

[85] So I was like, okay, so maybe this is just somebody who is well off and works in the film industry and that this is a real job.

[86] I send my resume.

[87] I send some information about me, some photos.

[88] And within about a day, I heard back from the poster's assistant, whose name was Stephanie.

[89] And Stephanie was really great.

[90] She gave me a little bit of information that she was representing her employer who was a young producer in the industry.

[91] He was a single father.

[92] And he was looking for somebody to come and help with his four -year -old daughter, Ruth, and to help in between having Ruth with he setting up meetings and stuff.

[93] setting up things for his job.

[94] We had a pretty good rapport, Stephanie and I. We emailed a couple times back and forth.

[95] I learned that Stephanie, she had been working for this man for about four years, which I was like, that's a really good sign.

[96] Like, he obviously takes good care of his employees.

[97] And that she was leaving to move out to L .A., that he had gotten her a job on, like, a sitcom, like a small job, and that she was kind of trying to let her acting career go off.

[98] And so that's what she was leaving.

[99] She was like, he was really great to me, really kind.

[100] Like, I have nothing bad to say about him.

[101] And I was like, okay, that's great.

[102] I gave her my cell phone number.

[103] She and I texted a little bit as well.

[104] And she was like, it's you and three other girls that really seem to have like exactly what we're looking for.

[105] So we're going to start setting up interviews with you guys.

[106] And in the meantime, here is my employer's number.

[107] You can contact him.

[108] He needs to get a feel for you too because you're going to be working side by side with him.

[109] So that's really important.

[110] I got the number and I was like, do I just like text him?

[111] Isn't he busy?

[112] And she was like, well, this is important.

[113] This is a, daughter, so don't worry about it.

[114] I texted him, and he messaged back, very cold, very quick to respond.

[115] His response was like, hello, how are you?

[116] Totally opposite of what I was expecting because Stephanie was like such high energy and he was very closed off.

[117] And I'm a pretty high energy person.

[118] I can speak a lot.

[119] I really want this job.

[120] So I'm going to just talk a lot and see if I could get this guy to open up to me. She had sent me photos of him.

[121] She had sent me me photos of them together at events and wine tasting and stuff.

[122] She had sent me photos of herself and she had sent me photos of him separately as well.

[123] I felt like I had a pretty good sense of the two people that I was talking to, which was really nice.

[124] I was asking questions about the job, about his daughter Ruth, and trying to get information out of him.

[125] So I started speaking to Stephanie.

[126] We had a back and forth for about three days.

[127] She said that next week we would be setting up interviews.

[128] Then I started speaking to Joe, and him and I spoke for about two days before our interview was actually like on the books.

[129] By the second or third day, it started to get a little friendlier.

[130] I had seen pictures of him.

[131] He was handsome.

[132] He seemed to have his life together.

[133] He was a father.

[134] I'm a big fan of that.

[135] I love kids.

[136] There was definitely flirting going on on both ends.

[137] We set up our interview, but there was two interviews before me, and then there was one interview after me. The interview that went before me, Stephanie told me went pretty well.

[138] Not perfect, but pretty well.

[139] The interview after that, the person didn't show up.

[140] Joe started texting me and I was like, aren't you supposed to be in an interview?

[141] And he was like, oh, no, she ended up flaking.

[142] You know, that happened sometimes.

[143] What are you going to do?

[144] And he was like, so now I'm at this restaurant by myself because she didn't show up.

[145] I was like, oh, that stinks.

[146] He apparently had a couple drinks with the bartender and decided to call me. I was sitting on my couch and my phone was ringing and I was like, oh my God, is this weird?

[147] Like, is this?

[148] Okay, do I pick up?

[149] Like, what do I do?

[150] So I decided to pick up the phone and he starts speaking and I just remember feeling this immense comfort when I heard his voice for the first time because I had just been texts before.

[151] He starts speaking and he has this beautiful British accent, really soft -spoken.

[152] And And sounds so kind on the phone.

[153] He was like, I've had a couple drinks.

[154] I've been here.

[155] I just felt like I wanted to call you and speak to you.

[156] I don't know if that's inappropriate.

[157] I know we're kind of talking a little bit more than is professional, but I wanted to pick up the phone and call you.

[158] We had about a 10 -minute conversation.

[159] It wasn't anything super long.

[160] I could hear the bar behind him.

[161] He was definitely out.

[162] It made me feel so very comfortable that now I knew when I was going to meet him, that it was going to be totally fine.

[163] I felt at ease about the whole thing.

[164] It was pretty sweet and short and to the point.

[165] And he was like, okay, well, I made friends with the bartender.

[166] I'm going to go back to doing what I was doing, and we'll chat later.

[167] So then I was the next day.

[168] And it was sort of thrown out there.

[169] This wasn't just an interview.

[170] This was like a date interview, interview date.

[171] I wasn't sure I felt about it.

[172] I spoke to a bunch of my friends to get their opinions.

[173] I was like, what do you think?

[174] What do you think?

[175] The first time I heard about Joe, Kenzie sent me a text while I was at work.

[176] And she was telling me, she was looking for a job, a different job at the time.

[177] And she sent me a text saying that she was going out with this guy.

[178] I think she said something like, it's like very 50 shades, how they started talking.

[179] I remember thinking, what do you mean?

[180] Does he have like a red room of pain?

[181] But she meant more of they were going for like a job interview.

[182] She was getting ready to Uber over there to meet him.

[183] And I remember thinking that it was kind of weird, that it was this weird date interview.

[184] like she could leave this dinner, maybe employed, or maybe dating him, which I thought was kind of funny.

[185] Did you get any red flags as her sister that it was a job posting that turned into a date?

[186] Oh, absolutely.

[187] I'm like, who is this guy?

[188] And how is he going to murder my sister?

[189] Immediately that was my thought.

[190] But it seemed to kind of like be legit.

[191] After a couple days of going back and forth with his assistant, I was feeling a little bit more comfortable about it.

[192] But that definitely initially was the red flag, that it wasn't on like care .com.

[193] that he was looking for a nanny.

[194] It was on this website that's kind of known to have shady things go on.

[195] So we meet up.

[196] We decide to go downtown, just apps and some wine.

[197] Like I said, it was an interview, not an interview.

[198] But we did speak a lot about the job.

[199] What is it you're looking for?

[200] What have you had in the past?

[201] What did Stephanie provide?

[202] So on and so forth.

[203] But as we had some more wine and he's sitting in front of me, he's very handsome, we're hitting it off.

[204] and we're like, you know what, let's let this be the date side of this.

[205] We confirmed that together.

[206] Like, absolutely.

[207] He did not make me uncomfortable.

[208] He did not say anything inappropriate.

[209] He did not touch me. He did not do anything weird.

[210] Everything felt very comfortable.

[211] From there, we were like, you know what?

[212] Let's bring this date to the next level.

[213] Let's go dancing.

[214] He loved to dance, and I love to dance.

[215] I am a terrible dancer, but I will get out there.

[216] I'm zero good, but I will try.

[217] my best.

[218] He had the favorite spot in the city that he liked to go to.

[219] He was like, we should go here, have a lot of throwback music, and we'll have a lot of fun.

[220] We go and we get on the dance floor and we are just having the best night.

[221] This is the best first date of my life.

[222] We're cracking up.

[223] He's a fantastic dancer.

[224] I find out that he danced professionally for 12 years and he showed it off too.

[225] I was like, okay, this is awesome.

[226] We continue the night and there was a slow song that came on, which, like, I haven't danced for a slow song since prom.

[227] It was amazing that this bar even played this.

[228] We're dancing, and he goes in for the kiss, and it was sweet, it was short, and he pulls back, and he looks at me, and he says, I didn't expect that.

[229] And I was like, expect what?

[230] He goes, I didn't expect to feel a connection.

[231] I was just, like, melting at that point.

[232] I was like, oh, my gosh.

[233] So our date ends, and I go home, and the next day, I am very hungover and I decide to go to a close friend's house and tell her everything that happened and my friends and I will send each other videos.

[234] I have a other friend group where I sent them a really long video telling them about my date and I was like, you know, who knows I might not hear from him again but it was the best first date.

[235] I have to say, screw the job, the date was awesome.

[236] I heard from him right away the next day in the morning and honestly from there it was pretty full speed.

[237] He was texting me good morning, texting me good night, texting me all day throughout the day, constantly, asking how my day was, asking how I'm feeling, we're having great back and forth conversations, we're laughing, we're sending memes, we're hitting it off great.

[238] He sounded really cool.

[239] I mean, the fact that he was British, off the bat, you're like already intrigued.

[240] The way she described him sounded a lot like he was a good fit for her.

[241] It sounded like he was super successful.

[242] Of course, the fact that he was a dad was not just appealing.

[243] to her, but also to me as a mom.

[244] I have three kids.

[245] He sounded like a gem.

[246] I was pretty excited.

[247] Initially scared, but I was pretty excited for her after like hearing about him enough for the first couple weeks.

[248] Beginning stages, I hadn't met him quite yet at this point, but I knew that she was really excited about him.

[249] I had never seen her so excited until she had started talking about Joe.

[250] She sounded so excited, like almost like hysterically, like we would tease her.

[251] I'm like, oh, you're really into this guy.

[252] Like, you're really, really into him.

[253] First impressions.

[254] I'm trying to remember how I felt.

[255] It's so hard because there's so much that's happened since, but I felt like he kind of matched her energy.

[256] It seemed like he had a very active life.

[257] And it was kind of nice to see someone who brought out something very positive out of her, accepted her, everything you want to see in a friend's new relationship.

[258] We set up a couple more dates.

[259] Our first date, we kind of went out and we got drunk and we kind of got a little crazy.

[260] The second date, I wanted it to be a little more intimate.

[261] I wanted some more FaceTime.

[262] I didn't want to be drunk.

[263] I wanted to really get to know him.

[264] So I invited him to come to my house, and I said I'd cook him dinner, and we can hang out.

[265] Hold on one second.

[266] I'm going to take a sip of my wine.

[267] Don't want it to make gulping noises.

[268] There's just so much.

[269] Oh my gosh.

[270] I'm already living for the details.

[271] I hope you're sitting there with popcorn.

[272] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[273] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[274] In January 2020, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[275] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[276] What happens next?

[277] Depends on who you ask.

[278] Was it a crime of passion?

[279] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[280] This was clearly an intentional act.

[281] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[282] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[283] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[284] Everyone had an opinion.

[285] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[286] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[287] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date.

[288] of the sensational case in Karen.

[289] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[290] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

[291] I'm Dan Tibersky.

[292] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[293] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[294] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[295] She's like, I can't.

[296] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[297] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[298] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the download.

[299] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[300] Well, you were holding something back.

[301] Intentionally.

[302] Yeah, well, yeah.

[303] No, it's hysteria.

[304] It's all in your head.

[305] It's not physical.

[306] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[307] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[308] Or is it something else entirely?

[309] Something's wrong here.

[310] Something's not right.

[311] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[312] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios.

[313] Hysterical.

[314] Follow hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[315] You can binge all episodes of hysterical early and add free right now by joining Wondry Plus.

[316] How would you describe his personality?

[317] When you meet him, he's pretty quiet.

[318] I almost would have said that he was shy.

[319] But then he had this way of blossoming when you'd be around him where if you got a drink or two in him, all of a sudden this energy would come out of him and he'd start getting funny and he would start laughing and dancing.

[320] And it was very intoxicating and nice to be around.

[321] But he wasn't that way from the jump.

[322] He didn't come in like some smooth talker.

[323] He didn't come in as some guy with confidence.

[324] No way.

[325] Then he would just loosen up.

[326] And he was a delight to be around.

[327] He wasn't a jerk.

[328] He was not a douchebag.

[329] I do not like douchebags at all.

[330] I very much identify as Demi, where I am attracted to somebody's personality so much.

[331] That is the driving force for me. And looks are great.

[332] I understand.

[333] when something is good looking or someone is good looking.

[334] I understand that.

[335] But for me, it's personality.

[336] And if he had a bad personality, I would have been gone.

[337] If he was an asshole, I would have been gone.

[338] But he was none of those things.

[339] So it was always really nice being around him.

[340] That's how I would describe him.

[341] He was certainly a good looking guy.

[342] Like, that was definitely there too.

[343] But I explained this in my video to my friends.

[344] I was like, I mean, he's not like Brad Pitt, but he's attractive.

[345] He wasn't the hottest guy I've ever seen.

[346] but he was definitely attractive and his personality was just so great.

[347] He had told me about things.

[348] So he had Ruth, his daughter.

[349] We had spoken in depth about his life and relationships and such.

[350] I started to ask about Ruth and about Ruth's mom.

[351] And he told me that he and her had known each other from college, that they were together for about six years and decided to separate.

[352] They'd fell out of love.

[353] And they were still living together.

[354] and every once in a while they were still intimate and they accidentally fell pregnant with Ruth.

[355] And since they were separating, they decided to parent Ruth together and to be amicable and to work on this as best they could together, but they didn't want to be together.

[356] So he was like, I have a very good relationship with Ruth's mom, no issues there.

[357] I have Ruth half the week, usually.

[358] And he had her that night, so he had to get home to her.

[359] And so he told me about that.

[360] He told me about his life growing up.

[361] Then he had gotten a hockey scholarship which is what brought him to the U .S., which I thought was interesting because I didn't know hockey was really big in England.

[362] His accent, I remember comparing it when I was telling people, he sounded like tan from queer eye.

[363] That's softness.

[364] I love tan, France.

[365] Yes, tan France.

[366] That's how he sounded when he spoke.

[367] There was just, it was a soft British accent.

[368] And it was always so endearing.

[369] I always said to him, your voice is one of my favorite things about you.

[370] It's just so beautiful.

[371] He told me a lot about his family.

[372] He had eight siblings.

[373] He was the oldest of eight.

[374] His mom had gotten pregnant really young with him, basically in high school.

[375] He told me his father was a famous baseball player, not a super well -known one.

[376] I had to actually look him up.

[377] He was British.

[378] So I looked up his dad.

[379] And I remember being like, oh, yeah, you're from so -and -so.

[380] Because I looked up his dad, and that town was in my head.

[381] And he was like, no, no, I'm not from there.

[382] I'm from here.

[383] I told you that.

[384] And I was like, well, but your dad says there.

[385] And he was like, that doesn't mean that I'm from there.

[386] Early on, when he told me he was in production, he was very forward and was like, hey, just so you know, I also work in porn.

[387] I don't know if that makes you uncomfortable.

[388] Sometimes it does make people uncomfortable and I like to be open and honest.

[389] It's so funny, I've looked back at my messages to my friends after that first day where I'm like, yeah, my only red flag.

[390] My only red flag is that he said he worked in porn, but at the same time, I'm not looking my nose down at sex workers or people who work in that industry.

[391] He said, but it was good money, and he's not in it.

[392] He just has, like, been a producer on it and wanted me to be aware of that.

[393] That wasn't his only job.

[394] That was just, like, something he dabbled in.

[395] I asked him, you've never been in it, right?

[396] And he was like, no, and I was like, have you ever slept with anyone in it?

[397] And he was like, no, no, no, I never, like, mixed, like, work with that.

[398] We plan our second date.

[399] And I'm very nervous at this point because I really like this guy.

[400] And I hope I don't burn the salmon that I'm going to cook.

[401] And I'm real nervous.

[402] And because I'm nervous, I had a whole plan.

[403] I was going to go into work early that day so I could leave work early that day so I could go to the grocery store so I could get everything in order when he got there.

[404] So that really the meal was basically like 75 % cooked.

[405] I'm not the best cook.

[406] I needed to cut and measure and stuff with nobody else there looking over my shoulder because I was going to mess up.

[407] Otherwise, our date was at 6 .30 and I was going to get home by 515.

[408] And that was going to give me like an hour to prep everything.

[409] take care of my animals, take care of my house.

[410] And then when he got there, it would be easy, peasy.

[411] I'd stick it in the oven, 15 minutes, we'd pour some wine.

[412] I was ready for this.

[413] I leave work, and I get home at 5 .15, and he's sitting on my doorstep.

[414] And I'm like, what the heck?

[415] I'm totally frazzled.

[416] My plan is very messed up at this point.

[417] And I'm also really confused, because why are you here?

[418] Why are you here an hour early?

[419] Why are you here an hour early and didn't tell me you were going to be here an hour early?

[420] Where is your car?

[421] I had a lot of questions.

[422] I pulled into my driveway really fast because I was in a rush for my own personal reasons.

[423] And he's sitting on the stoop of my house.

[424] And you could see he's totally freaked out that I came home early.

[425] I get out of the car and I'm looking at him and he's looking at me. And I'm like, hi.

[426] He's like, I'm so sorry to be here early.

[427] And I was like, yeah, what's up with that?

[428] He's like, well, I got out of work early and I don't usually drive to work.

[429] I usually Uber.

[430] And so it wasn't worth it for me to Uber home and then Uber here.

[431] I just Ubered straight here.

[432] I didn't think you were going to show up right away.

[433] And I was like, yeah.

[434] He's like, I didn't mean to like freak you out.

[435] You do whatever you need to do and I'll just hang out.

[436] And I'm in my brain thinking that was the point of me coming home was that I didn't want you to be hanging out while I was going to do what I needed to do.

[437] Fine.

[438] I let him in the house.

[439] I've got all my groceries in my hand.

[440] I'm totally thrown off.

[441] He is very sweet and kind.

[442] And he's like, I'm just going to sit on the couch, take care of your stuff.

[443] And I was like, okay, so you don't drive to work?

[444] He was like, I don't really drive very often.

[445] I don't like driving.

[446] And I was like, why is that?

[447] And he was like, I think probably because I grew up in England and you guys drive on the other side of the road, I don't drive a lot.

[448] I just prefer to Uber or sometimes I'll have just like a car service.

[449] Okay.

[450] So I continue making dinner and we catch up.

[451] I kind of come down from my frazzled state and the date, it goes totally well.

[452] He didn't stay super long, only a couple hours.

[453] He had to get back to his daughter, which was.

[454] fine because I've still a little thrown off.

[455] Despite Kenzie feeling a little surprised by the beginnings of their second date, she was charmed by Jo.

[456] They were pretty much in constant communication since their first date, and they had a really strong chemistry.

[457] There might have been a couple dates in between, but early on he told me that he and his brother were going to Thailand in the next couple weeks.

[458] He wanted me to know about that because he was going to be gone for two weeks.

[459] And when you're in the beginning stages of dating somebody and they're going to tell you they're leaving for two weeks, that feels very much like a death sentence for the relationship.

[460] You're like, oh, well, this is going to obviously fizzle out.

[461] So he was like, I'm going to Thailand for two weeks with my brother.

[462] And I was like, oh, my God, that's amazing.

[463] I spent a lot of time in Thailand.

[464] I was super excited to hear this and ask questions.

[465] And I was like, why are you going?

[466] He's like, one, to just have some time with my brother, him and I. Two, my brother just got engaged.

[467] And I bought it for him as an engagement gift.

[468] And I was like, oh, my God, that was so nice of you.

[469] And he was like, yeah, well, he deserves it.

[470] We're pretty close.

[471] He kind of reassures me when I'm there.

[472] I want to still stay in touch with you if you're okay with that.

[473] And I was like, yeah, absolutely.

[474] I feel like this is going very well.

[475] I would like that.

[476] He was calling me all the time, sending photos, constantly texting.

[477] And when we did have our dates, he was very attentive to me, just little things.

[478] For example, he saw I had a Red Bull in the fridge the night that I cooked him dinner.

[479] And so the next time he came over, he had a case of Red Bull.

[480] Oh, I see that you like Red Bull.

[481] Things like that where he was just like really attentive to everything I was doing, my day, my job, my life.

[482] We were really moving at, I don't want to say, at a fast pace, because it almost felt like a fast pace on his end.

[483] It just felt like we spent a lot more time together than we did.

[484] Before Joe left on his trip to Thailand, Kenzie was confused by a text she received from him.

[485] I made a joke, and it was a funny one.

[486] I don't remember what it was, but clearly it was funny.

[487] And he laughed, and then he said, I love you.

[488] And it was in a text message.

[489] And I went, that wasn't for me. That was like for his mom or something.

[490] Like, I messaged back and I said, was that for me?

[491] And he sent me an emoji of the guy slapping his forehead.

[492] I'm really confused.

[493] He just said, I love you to me. We've only been dating for like a month and a half.

[494] We've gone on like four actual dates, constantly in touch.

[495] Yes, but still, there was a 30 -minute pause between him slapping the face emoji and my silence where I don't know what to say.

[496] Then my phone rang.

[497] And I was like, oh, no. So he was calling and I picked up.

[498] And he was like, I'm sorry about that.

[499] I didn't mean to freak you out.

[500] I do feel this way.

[501] I do.

[502] I feel this way.

[503] We're hitting it off so well.

[504] I can't help it.

[505] I had to say it.

[506] I know it's not the most romantic or best way to say it over a text message, but it's how I feel.

[507] And I was like, okay.

[508] And I didn't say it back.

[509] He was a little flustered and he was leaving the office at the time.

[510] And I heard him leaving, taking the elevator down and saying hi to people on his way out.

[511] We hang up the phone.

[512] And I was just sitting there going, oh, wow.

[513] And I checked in with my emotions.

[514] Does this make me feel icky?

[515] No, it doesn't.

[516] Do I feel like I'm I'm in love with him yet?

[517] No, I don't.

[518] Do I feel like we're hitting it off really good?

[519] Yes, I do.

[520] So I communicated back to him.

[521] I feel really good about us.

[522] I really like where we're going.

[523] I'm sorry I didn't say it back, but I definitely see me saying it back soon and in the future.

[524] And I did.

[525] I ended up saying it back within the week probably after that.

[526] So we're hitting it off.

[527] Things are good.

[528] The one thing that was bugging me was that I kept asking for proof of his job or things in his life that he was telling me because he would be like, I'll send you over some examples of some work I'm working on or some things from set or whatever.

[529] And I get, there's a lot of NDA things when you work in film.

[530] I work in film.

[531] I totally understand it's not good if you send that stuff and you get caught doing it.

[532] And even though everything was good when I was with him, he didn't have social media.

[533] He just was like, I'm not a fan.

[534] I don't like social media.

[535] And for someone being in film, I couldn't find him anywhere.

[536] And I thought that that was kind of suspicious.

[537] I didn't really like that.

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[540] And I'm Sarah Haggy.

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[544] To the infamous scams of Real Housewives stars like Teresa Judice, what should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame.

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[547] right now on Wondry Plus.

[548] So after asking him respectfully for him to prove things to me, I decided to do some research on my own because he wasn't really providing what I was asking for.

[549] So I'm looking up his name, I'm not seeing him anywhere.

[550] Then I took the liberty of taking one of his photos and doing that reverse image search trick that we all know now.

[551] Let's see if anything pops up.

[552] A profile comes up for him, and it's for a manager in the city.

[553] The profile was like half correct about him, which I found to be weird.

[554] It talked about that he had siblings, but it was a different amount than he told me. It said that he played hockey, but at a different place that he told me. It had his name, but it was flipped around differently.

[555] And I was like, what is going on here?

[556] This is really weird.

[557] What I basically took away from it was he didn't work in film, or that if he did, he didn't work in film in the way that he portrayed himself.

[558] In which case, I don't care.

[559] That wasn't why I was there.

[560] but I'm definitely mad that you lied to me. I text him, and I was like, how come you haven't sent me anything or showed me anything that I asked you for?

[561] And he was like, I'm so sorry, I've just been so busy, yada, yada.

[562] And I was like, look, it's not an excuse.

[563] I figured out who you are.

[564] I found you online, so you don't have to lie about it.

[565] This is where I kind of gave him an opening to be like, okay, I'm not really in film, whatever.

[566] I don't know.

[567] I was hoping for the best.

[568] And so he goes, what did you find?

[569] I'm curious.

[570] I sent him the screenshot of the profile.

[571] file that I found.

[572] And he was like, oh, I was like, that wasn't the reaction I was expecting.

[573] I expect him to be like, okay, yeah, you know, blue smoke and made it sound like I did more in film than I did, maybe.

[574] And working in film is a very fluid job.

[575] You're not always on projects a lot of time.

[576] So I could absolutely see somebody being a manager and then also working on film on the side.

[577] I wasn't too weirded out, but I was weirded out that some of the information was off.

[578] I send this to him.

[579] And I'm like, what does that mean?

[580] And he's like, okay, it's just, it's a lot for me to explain.

[581] Let me come over tomorrow and I'll tell you.

[582] And at this point, no, you're not going to come over and tell me. You're going to tell me over the phone because I don't really know who you are right now.

[583] And that's kind of freaking me out.

[584] So I was like, no, no, you can tell me the basics of the story here.

[585] And then if we feel like we need to discuss it further in person, we can do that.

[586] but that's how I would like to move forward.

[587] And he goes, it's not that easy.

[588] It's not that simple.

[589] And I was like, okay, this guy's being real dramatic about this.

[590] And he's not really a dramatic guy from what I've seen.

[591] So he's like, it's more complicated than that.

[592] And I'm like, okay.

[593] And he was like, I can't believe you found that.

[594] And I was like, okay, why?

[595] And then he goes, I'm in wit pro.

[596] And I was like, wit pro?

[597] Like witness protection?

[598] And he was like, yes.

[599] I am in so much trouble that you just found my profile and that you just figured out that it was me. I'm about to go vomit.

[600] So then he apparently went and vomited out of stress and then sent me a screenshot instantly.

[601] Like after he said it to me, this was within five minutes.

[602] This didn't like drag out.

[603] He was always very responsive.

[604] He sent me this screenshot instantly.

[605] I don't understand.

[606] At the top of it, there's the name said preacher.

[607] And it said, we got some flags.

[608] someone found your profile were coming over.

[609] And I was like, I don't know what I'm looking at.

[610] And he was like, this is one of the agents.

[611] And what happens is they have these faux profiles out so that the people who are looking for me and they come across one of these, it helps the agents tie back to the people who might be looking for me so that they can try to keep me safe.

[612] But it throws red flags up.

[613] And he's like, so now that you found a profile and you're talking to me and they're tracking this conversation and they're seeing that I just said to you Whitpro, they have to come over here and talk to me. And I'm like totally overwhelmed.

[614] And this was not what I expected to hear out of his mouth at all.

[615] So I'm like, what?

[616] And he's like, I have to go and deal with this.

[617] But I would really like to speak to you in person and look you in the eyes and tell you what is happening here.

[618] Because I know this is weird.

[619] I know this is weird.

[620] But I swear to God, like, this is totally true.

[621] This is more common than you think, please just let me speak to you tomorrow because I'm at the place where I'm like I'm about to never talk to you again I'm about to cut you off I don't want to hear from you this is weird and so he's like please please please let me come over the bleeding heart in me was like he never showed any signs before this where I had any big sirens going off so I was like all right I'll hear what you have to say what is going through your head are you just like what were you texting your friends I had no idea what to think it was 11 o 'clock at night at this point none of my friends are awake.

[622] I'm the night out of my friends.

[623] My sister would be my first go -to.

[624] She goes about like 7 o 'clock.

[625] He's coming in the morning.

[626] I went to bed that night, freaking out, and I had nightmares that the government was going to show by my front door, because I knew that he was in witness protection and that they were going to have to debrief me or take me away.

[627] I didn't sleep that whole night.

[628] I had these weird, lucid dreams of the government coming for me. I also sat up and was doing research all night, what to expect.

[629] So I was like, okay.

[630] So you can come over.

[631] That's next time on Something Was Wrong.

[632] Something Was Wrong is an Audio Chuck production, created and hosted by Tiffany Reese.

[633] Our theme song was composed by Gladrags from their album, Wonder Under.

[634] So what do you think you know me?

[635] Chuck, do you approve?

[636] If you like something was wrong, you can listen early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

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