S20 E1: [Preview] S20: Becoming Brody

[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] This is Tiffany.

[11] Hey, Tiffany.

[12] This is Jess.

[13] I just talked to you on the phone.

[14] I need to know how you got my number.

[15] I'm reporting these things.

[16] Oh, it's publicly listed on the Internet.

[17] It's not because my phone number is a brand new phone number.

[18] Oh, is your privacy important to you?

[19] It is.

[20] It's important to all your victims, too.

[21] Okay.

[22] Yeah.

[23] You have no proof that I did anything.

[24] I have so much proof.

[25] It's insane, baby girl.

[26] So I'm sitting there at work, and I get this message request on Instagram.

[27] I open it, and it's literally a whole -ass book talking about someone using my pictures in Iowa to Catfish Girls.

[28] And I was like, you're kidding.

[29] I don't believe this for one second.

[30] And they're like, no, this is real.

[31] I had to tell her three years into the relationship, quote -unquote, with Brody, that I've been talking to this guy I haven't met.

[32] and she's terrified for me. I wanted to fly there because he was in the hospital and she just had the worst feeling about it.

[33] I feel like the reason she took so long to tell me was because deep down, she knew something was not right.

[34] From the moment Lauren met Jess, I thought that Jess was Brady.

[35] Did you tell her that?

[36] Yes.

[37] Yeah, I did.

[38] I was laying in Jess's bed.

[39] I was crying my eyes.

[40] eyes out.

[41] She's rubbing my back and playing Christian music, hoping that I can get through this.

[42] He said this sounds like a true crime documentary waiting to happen where there is someone obsessed with another person and they ultimately end up dead.

[43] I never thought or never could fathom it getting worse or crazier or weirder because it was already so bizarre.

[44] And then I'm on the phone and we connect the dots and it's like 10 steps way worse.

[45] I met quote Brody in July of 2019 and then Jess only a month or two after.

[46] I don't know that Jess could be physically that close to Bree and Bree not realizing that as she's sending texts, Jess is responding.

[47] So there has to be somebody else.

[48] There has to be somebody else in this picture, right?

[49] Jess was screaming at me. and just basically saying, I want nothing to do with you since you think I'm a fake person and played it till the very end.

[50] I'm like blowing their phones up.

[51] Like, please answer the fucking phone.

[52] Finally, Brie's roommate picks up.

[53] And I'm like, has Brie ever met Brody in real life?

[54] And it was like a deadpan silence.

[55] And then I just hear her like scream cry.

[56] Oh my God, it was horrible.

[57] That's when it truly sat in that I'm dealing with a social.

[58] that I welcomed her into my home.

[59] She has this crazy twisted mindset.

[60] She somehow manages to somehow have this web of knowledge for all of the people she's talking to and all of the stories that she has to keep straight.

[61] I genuinely had the purest of intentions and it's so sick and cruel how someone can keep something going like that, especially your best friend, who you do everything with and you live with, and you confide in, back -sadming.

[62] I didn't know she still had access to that camera in our common space.

[63] He was just very angry with me. That was the first time he scared me. That's when I tried to get away.

[64] And the first time he had overdosed, ended up in the hospital.

[65] I hear bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, right on the window.

[66] I run upstairs.

[67] I grab her son.

[68] I grabbed the dogs.

[69] And we go upstairs and the person is shining their flashlight in my bedroom window.

[70] I'm freaking out, calling the police, crying, but also completely frozen.

[71] Like, I couldn't move.

[72] All I could say was, please hurry, please hurry, please hurry.

[73] The suicides, everything was exactly the same, and it was just like a scary, insane movie.

[74] And for all these years, she was friends with both of them and kept them so separate.

[75] They were like, let's just take this to social media.

[76] I'm done.

[77] Let's just expose her.

[78] I watched the first one, and then I called her, and I'm just like, Like, what the fuck?

[79] She is still doing this and we were jumping up and down.

[80] Freaking out, I cannot believe that she is still doing this.

[81] And to this extent, the similarities are so crazy.

[82] Her thought process and her games and manipulation is all still the same and it's all heightened to this expert level.

[83] Bree's like, oh, there's another victim.

[84] There's this victim.

[85] adding more girls, we're getting more stories.

[86] This Brody time period of my life was the lowest I've ever been.

[87] I was in a very, very dark place.

[88] It takes a special kind of sick individual to do this to one person, let alone the 20 plus it's criminal and she should be in jail.

[89] Unfortunately, based on the evidence that we have, Jessica Polly has been doing this for 18 years.

[90] I'm not surprised by that.

[91] I am working on a case, and your name has come up on it.

[92] So I was wondering if I could reach out to you for comment.

[93] What case?

[94] Who is it in regards to?

[95] Jessica Polly.

[96] Um, oh.

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[101] Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught.

[102] I'm Sachi Cole.

[103] And I'm Sarah Hagey, and we're the host of scam influencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims and what's left once the facade falls away.

[104] We've covered stories like a Shark Tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment, but soon faced mounting bills, an active lawsuit followed by Larry King, and no real product to push.

[105] He then began to prey on vulnerable women instead, selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs.

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

[107] Follow scam influencers on the Wendry app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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