Speaker 1: Hey, everyone. Before we start this episode, I want to
Speaker 1: let you know that this one includes some graphic descriptions
Speaker 1: of pregnancy loss, including both abortion and miscarriage. This episode
Speaker 1: also mentioned suicide and includes allegations of sexual assault and
Speaker 1: domestic violence. When Clayton Eckered walked into the courtroom for
Speaker 1: his June tenth trial against Laura Owens, he wasn't alone.
Speaker 1: The room was packed with supportive family, friends, and dedicated
Speaker 1: content creators like Dave Neil.
Speaker 2: There were fifty people in the courtroom in ten thousand online.
Speaker 1: Clayton says having that support actually calmed his nerves.
Speaker 3: I wasn't nervous because it's bigger than me.
Speaker 1: It was bigger than him. There were two people in
Speaker 1: the courtroom that day who'd been in Clayton's shoes. They'd
Speaker 1: been subpoena to test because they'd been through something similar
Speaker 1: with Laura Owens. The first Greg Gillespie.
Speaker 3: Is he in the courtroom today?
Speaker 1: Yes, you already know Greg's story, but there was a
Speaker 1: third man in court supporting Clayton. When Clayton got on
Speaker 1: the stand, his attorney took a moment to point out
Speaker 1: the two witnesses.
Speaker 3: You're aware that she's filed orders of protection against two
Speaker 3: other individuals seated in the back of the courtland correct,
Speaker 3: what's correct?
Speaker 4: Yes, they are on the left, Greg Gillespie and Michael Marantini.
Speaker 1: Time ran out before Clayton's lawyers could call either witness.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't the point.
Speaker 5: All you need to do is just acknowledge that they exist,
Speaker 5: because then the judge sees it and goes these guys
Speaker 5: showed up.
Speaker 3: There's three of them. This corrob rates the.
Speaker 2: Story that clearly this woman is at fault and she's
Speaker 2: not going to stop.
Speaker 1: As you know, the judge sided with Clayton. She went
Speaker 1: so far as to recommend that the County Attorney's office
Speaker 1: review Laura's actions to determine if they warranted criminal charges.
Speaker 1: It was a win for Clayton and for both of
Speaker 1: the men who'd come prepared to testify that day. One
Speaker 1: of them has been working to clear his name for
Speaker 1: almost a decade, and his story may be the most
Speaker 1: disturbing of them all.
Speaker 3: My name is Mike Marriccini. I dated Laura for a
Speaker 3: year and a half.
Speaker 1: I'm Stephanie Young, and this is love trapped.
Speaker 3: There's no way you'd better believe.
Speaker 1: I'll be raising Holy Helmas if you ever, ever, ever, ever.
Speaker 6: Trastic.
Speaker 1: Six years before Laura Owens met Clay and Eckered and
Speaker 1: four years before she met Greg Gillespie, she was living
Speaker 1: in San Francisco and was swiping on dating apps, which
Speaker 1: is how she met Mike Marraccini.
Speaker 3: When I think back on what originally made me swipe right,
Speaker 3: there was a photo of her in like a plaid shirt,
Speaker 3: jean shorts. She looks like almost like a little country girl,
Speaker 3: and she looked really cute. You didn't see a lot
Speaker 3: of that in the Bay Area. Her bio mentioned that
Speaker 3: she was a big animal lover, which I've always grown
Speaker 3: up around animals, and that was attractive to me.
Speaker 1: So they started messaging and made plans to meet up
Speaker 1: for a drink.
Speaker 3: Our first few dates were actually really fun. We had
Speaker 3: a lot in common. I actually thought, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: this individual is a little on the nervous side or
Speaker 3: timid side, But I gave everybody an opportunity.
Speaker 1: Within a few dates, they discovered they had mutual friends.
Speaker 1: Says he's not a bridge burner. He generally avoids conflict.
Speaker 1: Every woman he dated he tried to leave on friendly terms.
Speaker 3: With That's how I always viewed our relationship as, hey,
Speaker 3: if it doesn't work out as a loving relationship, maybe
Speaker 3: we can be friendly with one another, because we did
Speaker 3: have a lot of similar friend.
Speaker 1: Groups back then. Mike and Laura were both in their
Speaker 1: late twenties. He was dating around, hoping to find the
Speaker 1: right person to settle down with. During the early days
Speaker 1: of their relationship, Mike saw a side of Laura we
Speaker 1: haven't heard much about.
Speaker 3: She was really thoughtful. She was always picking up baked
Speaker 3: goods and bringing him over. She was always just thinking about,
Speaker 3: you know, fun things to do and what we could
Speaker 3: possibly do, and then really asking a lot about my family.
Speaker 1: But within a few months, that side of Laura was
Speaker 1: replaced by something else, intense control, guilt trips, broken promises,
Speaker 1: and constant medical crises.
Speaker 3: I know what.
Speaker 7: This woman is capable of, and though she might be
Speaker 7: small and stature, she's got a pattern of behavior that
Speaker 7: is just diabolical.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we're telling Mike Marriccini's story. It's a
Speaker 1: standout in this case, mostly because he dated her for
Speaker 1: a year and a half. He knows Laura much better
Speaker 1: than Clayton or Greg ever did. Mike says their relationship
Speaker 1: left him with lifelong psychological scars. It also tells us
Speaker 1: a lot about who Laura Owens is. It answers some
Speaker 1: of the big questions I've grappled with since I started reporting,
Speaker 1: like what's her endgame? Why does she do this? And
Speaker 1: maybe most interesting of all, what does her family know.
Speaker 1: If you're one of the people who's been following the
Speaker 1: Laura Owens story from the beginning, then you might remember
Speaker 1: that in twenty twenty five, Mike Maruccini was featured on
Speaker 1: Inside Edition.
Speaker 8: This man says he's been living a nightmare after the
Speaker 8: woman he dated falsely accused him of fathering twins.
Speaker 1: Inside Edition was only able to tell a fraction of
Speaker 1: the story that we'll be telling, but their coverage was
Speaker 1: a turning point for Mike. He wasn't hiding anymore. He
Speaker 1: wanted to tell the truth about what he'd been through
Speaker 1: with Laura Owens.
Speaker 8: According to Michael, after he broke up with Laura Owens,
Speaker 8: he says, she came up with a news story that
Speaker 8: he had abused her. That claim totally up ended Michael's life.
Speaker 1: When Mike looks back on his relationship with Laura, he
Speaker 1: can now see some of the early red flags.
Speaker 3: On the third day, she said that her father was
Speaker 3: terminally ill and she wanted him to meet me just
Speaker 3: in case something was never happened to him.
Speaker 1: When Mike was thirteen, his father passed away from lung cancer.
Speaker 3: Which she brought up to me that her father was.
Speaker 3: I said, I would give everything for just one more
Speaker 3: day with my dad, And I said that.
Speaker 1: Really early on, but the idea of meeting Laura's parents
Speaker 1: intimidated Mike. They were local celebrities, both well known San
Speaker 1: Francisco radio personalities. Her dad's show, The Ron Owens Report,
Speaker 1: had been on the air for over thirty years.
Speaker 3: They were pretty notorious in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: After their third date, Mike agreed to go to dinner
Speaker 1: with Laura's parents. This was his introduction to the unique
Speaker 1: Owen's family dynamic.
Speaker 3: When I first met her father, people were coming up
Speaker 3: to this individual NonStop. Everybody would recognize them right when
Speaker 3: you would walk in, and they would get like VIP treatment.
Speaker 1: Mike noticed that Ron Owens seemed to like the attention.
Speaker 3: You had, like major A list celebrities approaching him, and
Speaker 3: he talked about how close he was with like Bob
Speaker 3: Sagett's and George Lopez all these big names were coming
Speaker 3: up to him, wanting to get a photo with him
Speaker 3: and wanting to hang out with him for the night.
Speaker 3: I come to our table.
Speaker 1: After that night, Laura seemed to be much more attached.
Speaker 3: Every evening she would prefer to spend with me rather
Speaker 3: than do her own thing with friends.
Speaker 1: Laura started saying she was in love with him.
Speaker 3: I noticed that was like the first initial red flag,
Speaker 3: considering I'd only known her for a month, and she's
Speaker 3: just way too into this. She's already throwing out like
Speaker 3: the love's word, and she's just way too emotionally involved,
Speaker 3: and I'm just not there.
Speaker 1: He started distancing himself, taking longer to reply to her texts,
Speaker 1: pushing back their next date. You know, the stuff you
Speaker 1: do when you're getting ready to break up with someone.
Speaker 1: Then came Mike's twenty ninth birthday. He planned to spend
Speaker 1: the weekend away with friends. That's where he was when
Speaker 1: he got the message that changed everything.
Speaker 3: I get the text and just positive pregnancy tests. The
Speaker 3: immediate thoughts are, oh my gosh, how is this possible?
Speaker 3: Because we had really only had like protected sex.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing that happened with Greg and Clayton.
Speaker 1: Just as Mike began to pull away, Laura sent a
Speaker 1: photo of a positive pregnancy test.
Speaker 3: I immediately thought to myself, Oh my god, my life
Speaker 3: is over. Not about having a child, but who I'm
Speaker 3: having a child with. She knew I was falling away.
Speaker 3: I knew that this person wasn't right for me anymore,
Speaker 3: and I knew that I didn't want to have a
Speaker 3: long term relationship with her. So immediately it was a
Speaker 3: pit in my stomach. I felt sick.
Speaker 1: But then he thought about how scared Laura must be
Speaker 1: and decided to put his own feelings aside. The breakup
Speaker 1: could wait.
Speaker 3: I wanted to support her at the time. I thought
Speaker 3: she was going to be going through an abortion. It's
Speaker 3: gonna be really difficult.
Speaker 1: Mike made plans to meet with Laura the next day.
Speaker 3: She then has us do a meeting with her parents
Speaker 3: because they want to talk to me.
Speaker 1: The four of them sat down together at a restaurant.
Speaker 1: Mike was on pins and needles.
Speaker 3: We're at it's like a little Italian dinner, and I
Speaker 3: told her family, like, hey, this is just not the
Speaker 3: right time. Like we don't know each other well enough.
Speaker 3: We've known each other for two and a half months,
Speaker 3: like it's it's just not enough time, and they said like, hey,
Speaker 3: thank you, we respect that you came forward to us.
Speaker 3: I remember jam grabbing my hand during the conversation. She
Speaker 3: put her hand over the top of mind said thank
Speaker 3: you for being such a kind individual, for being stand up,
Speaker 3: and we really appreciate you being by her throughout this journey.
Speaker 3: Now that I think back, it's such an odd scene,
Speaker 3: but I felt like they really cared. At the time, the.
Speaker 1: Whole conversation with her parents felt like a minefield, especially
Speaker 1: because her dad was sick. Mike offered to go with
Speaker 1: Laura when she got the abortion. She said she would
Speaker 1: schedule it as soon as she could. It was settled.
Speaker 3: I felt relieved that we were on the same page,
Speaker 3: and so my expectations were that she would have an
Speaker 3: abortion based off of the conversation we had with her family.
Speaker 1: Soon after, he got a text from Laura's dad. We've
Speaker 1: had that text read by a voice actor.
Speaker 2: Hi, Mike. I was thinking last night that it's been
Speaker 2: unexpected and wonderful to feel as if I've gained someone
Speaker 2: like a son. At this point in my life, I
Speaker 2: feel very blessed. Please always treat Laura, will I know
Speaker 2: she really does like you.
Speaker 1: Mike thought it was a strange message, but Ron was
Speaker 1: sick with cancer. It made the impending breakup feel even
Speaker 1: more difficult.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, I was just about
Speaker 3: to split up with her, Like, how do I do that?
Speaker 1: That's when Mike made a simple, careless mistake.
Speaker 3: So I screenshoted her dad's text because I wanted to
Speaker 3: send it to my mom and myr and I wrote
Speaker 3: under the screenshot something along the lines of how am
Speaker 3: I supposed to break up with her now? But I
Speaker 3: guess I was in a rush and I was rattled,
Speaker 3: and I accidentally sent that text in screenshot to Laura directly.
Speaker 3: Right when I went through. I had like a pit
Speaker 3: in my stomach.
Speaker 1: It's nightmare fuel. He watched Laura's three dots appear, disappear,
Speaker 1: and appear again, and.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget. She responded and said, is that for me?
Speaker 3: I told her that was not meant for her and
Speaker 3: it was a wrong text.
Speaker 1: In the moment, Laura didn't have a big reaction. She
Speaker 1: seemed to accept his explanation that it was a simple mistake.
Speaker 3: I don't know how I talked to myself out of that.
Speaker 1: Mike thought he pulled it off. Crisis averted feeling spared,
Speaker 1: but he was very wrong.
Speaker 3: Me sending the screenshot was the instance that triggered her
Speaker 3: to try and lock me in.
Speaker 1: On July seventh, twenty sixteen, Laura claimed the soonest her
Speaker 1: doctor could provide an abortion was the following week. The
Speaker 1: next day, she had a new plan an appointment for
Speaker 1: July twelfth, but the day before the procedure, Laura texted
Speaker 1: Mike saying she didn't feel right. Then she sent another text,
Speaker 1: which we've had read by a voice actor.
Speaker 9: I'm not feeling comfortable about tomorrow. I'm feeling very insecure
Speaker 9: and embarrassed.
Speaker 1: Now, she said she still wanted to go through with it,
Speaker 1: but just needed a few more days to prepare herself.
Speaker 1: To Mike, this sounded perfectly reasonable. Laura made an appointment
Speaker 1: at Planned Parenthood for the next week. She wanted to
Speaker 1: go with her mom, but after her appointment, Laura told
Speaker 1: Mike the doctor couldn't perform the procedure. She'd need to
Speaker 1: come back the following Friday. It's normal for people to
Speaker 1: go to appointments like these and change their mind, but
Speaker 1: in Laura's case, she claimed it was the doctor who
Speaker 1: couldn't perform the abortion.
Speaker 3: I remember her saying that she couldn't get the abortion
Speaker 3: that day, and I just kind of went with it
Speaker 3: because one being a man and not wanting to push
Speaker 3: her to where I was forcing her to do something
Speaker 3: that she didn't want to do.
Speaker 1: Two days after this appointment, Laura sent Mike a text.
Speaker 1: We've had a voice actor read it. I think it
Speaker 1: speaks to Laura's motivations.
Speaker 9: I went to delete my league in bumble apps. Call
Speaker 9: me sentimental, but I wanted to screenshot our conversation since
Speaker 9: it had led to something special between us. So imagine
Speaker 9: how I felt when I saw you had updated the
Speaker 9: info section of your profile when I clicked on your name.
Speaker 1: Laura must have been checking the dating app where they
Speaker 1: met to see if Mike was active. The truth was,
Speaker 1: Mike already had one foot out the door, especially after
Speaker 1: the text he'd accidentally sent Laura. He assumed she knew
Speaker 1: what was coming. In his mind, he was just staying
Speaker 1: for a few weeks while she went through the abortion process.
Speaker 1: And yes, in the meantime, he dusted off his dating profile.
Speaker 3: I added a photo, a new updated photo that I
Speaker 3: had just recently took and she was very upset.
Speaker 1: Mike says he wasn't meeting up with anyone, but just
Speaker 1: seeing that he was preparing to use the apps again
Speaker 1: made Laura spiral. Her text continued, I don't really.
Speaker 9: Even know what to think or feel. I spent my
Speaker 9: morning trying to work on seeing if I could expedite
Speaker 9: the abortion process somehow, because you told me how stressed
Speaker 9: out you were feeling yesterday and I wanted to help
Speaker 9: you out. I booked a consultation with a new relationship
Speaker 9: therapist to work on my trust issues because I didn't
Speaker 9: feel like you deserved anything but my absolute best, and
Speaker 9: because your integrity is so important to you. My parents
Speaker 9: individually called me today to tell me how well you
Speaker 9: fit in our family. I'm really trying to be the
Speaker 9: best person I can be for you, and see that
Speaker 9: you're updating your profile, so I guess wanting to see
Speaker 9: if someone better is out there hurts me beyond words.
Speaker 1: Mike owned up to it. He admitted he'd updated his profile,
Speaker 1: explaining that it was a direct result of the issues
Speaker 1: they'd been through lately. He tried to reassure her, promising
Speaker 1: he wasn't actually talking to anyone else and apologized for
Speaker 1: hurting her feelings. The next day, he was slow to
Speaker 1: respond to her. That was until the evening when she
Speaker 1: texted saying she might be having a miscarriage. He replied
Speaker 1: to that right away and helped her triage the situation.
Speaker 1: They texted back and forth for a while before Laura
Speaker 1: determined it was a false alarm. Mike, who didn't have
Speaker 1: a medical background, was just trying to be there for
Speaker 1: emotional support, but his energy was flagging. He was exhausted,
Speaker 1: so he told her he was signing off and asked
Speaker 1: her to please not call for the rest of the
Speaker 1: night unless it was a medical emergency. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: can guess where this is going. These are Laura's text
Speaker 1: to him that night, read by a voice actor.
Speaker 9: Are you still my partner? Do you want to be
Speaker 9: with me? I genuinely love you. I hope you feel better.
Speaker 9: My mom's here trying to determine if it's an emergency
Speaker 9: or if we should wait and see. I know what
Speaker 9: signs to look for if it's getting worse, but hopefully
Speaker 9: no miscarriage. We're on the way to the hospital not
Speaker 9: doing well. Can you give me a quick call so
Speaker 9: I can update you. It's actually super important.
Speaker 1: When they connected the next morning, Laura told him the
Speaker 1: pregnancy was okay after all. In fact, she'd found out
Speaker 1: that she could be pregnant with twins. Through July and
Speaker 1: into August, Laura claimed she kept trying and failing to
Speaker 1: get an abortion.
Speaker 3: It was always for a different reason of why we
Speaker 3: had to wait.
Speaker 1: But then on August second, she told Mike she just
Speaker 1: received a surgical abortion at Planned Parenthood. She sent him
Speaker 1: a document on Planned Parenthood letterhead, stating that she was
Speaker 1: no longer pregnant. You might think that's the end of it,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't, because a few days later, Laura claimed
Speaker 1: the surgical abortion hadn't worked. It's impossible to tell this
Speaker 1: part of the story in a linear or logical way,
Speaker 1: because over the next few months, Laura sent Mike a
Speaker 1: barrage of contradictory, hard to believe medical information. Here are
Speaker 1: some of the things she told him, with her texts
Speaker 1: being read by a voice actor.
Speaker 9: I left my appointment yesterday being super upset because my
Speaker 9: doctor won't confirm that the abortion was successful. I'm guessing
Speaker 9: she can't from a legal standpoint until I get more
Speaker 9: tests done. It's extremely stressful on me and I just
Speaker 9: need some support. I'm completely stressed. I took another at
Speaker 9: home test that was positive today. You are with me tonight, correct.
Speaker 9: I may have to take a pill. I have a tilted,
Speaker 9: retroverted uterus, which makes it complete abortion harder apparently, which
Speaker 9: is why I'm having these horrible symptoms. Not ideal to
Speaker 9: have to take mifipristone on my mom's b day. I'm
Speaker 9: trying to do the right thing.
Speaker 1: Mike was overwhelmed with updates. He didn't understand how any
Speaker 1: of this could be possible, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: it never crossed his mind that a person would lie
Speaker 1: about something this serious.
Speaker 3: It was very confusing for me at the time. I remember,
Speaker 3: in total, she had told me she had two pregnancies
Speaker 3: and six abortion attempts were made.
Speaker 1: In mid August, Laura told him her doctors had a
Speaker 1: new diagnosis.
Speaker 3: She says she had cancer.
Speaker 1: Oh vary in cancer. Laura said the doctors wanted to
Speaker 1: operate immediately.
Speaker 3: She was going through this process of saying that she
Speaker 3: was having are over removed, so I said, like, please
Speaker 3: send me the doctor's notes. She sent me like some
Speaker 3: test results with some members saying that she had cancer,
Speaker 3: and I originally googled it and I said, like, that
Speaker 3: doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: This began a strange three way communication between Mike, Laura,
Speaker 1: and Laura's doctor. Laura sent Mike's questions to her doctor
Speaker 1: through a platform called my Chart, and then Laura sent
Speaker 1: back the screenshots of the doctor's replies. I've seen these messages.
Speaker 1: Some of them are mind boggling.
Speaker 3: Then she had this doctor since she respond to me
Speaker 3: and say, no, you're wrong. Laura's right, she definitely has cancer.
Speaker 3: You need to be a better boyfriend. She's told me
Speaker 3: that you haven't been supportive and she's going to be
Speaker 3: needing your support.
Speaker 1: This reply, allegedly from Laura's doctor, would become an exhibit
Speaker 1: in a later domestic violence restraining order case involving Mike
Speaker 1: and Laura. We'll talk about that case later, but for now,
Speaker 1: we've had a voice actor read some of the note
Speaker 1: Laura sent him, which again she claimed was written by
Speaker 1: her doctor.
Speaker 10: Thank you for your email. I am sorry you're going
Speaker 10: through such a rough time right now and will do
Speaker 10: my best to help you through it. I read the
Speaker 10: messages you sent me from your boyfriend and will answer
Speaker 10: his questions Stage one A is without a doubt, considered
Speaker 10: to be true cancer and something that we take very seriously.
Speaker 10: You were correct, Laura, that this cancer is found only
Speaker 10: in one ovary. He is incorrect in his saying that
Speaker 10: this means you just might have malignant cancer cells. Please
Speaker 10: tell him that, yes, I have diagnosed you with real
Speaker 10: ovarian cancer, not something that just may be there. I
Speaker 10: am not sure what is meant by the message you
Speaker 10: forwarded that says I would only be diagnosing it if
Speaker 10: it were something other than stage one A. That is
Speaker 10: a very real and simply means it has not spread
Speaker 10: beyond your right ovary. I recommend looking at the American
Speaker 10: Cancer Society's website page for more information. In addition, you
Speaker 10: can let him know that your diagnosis and treatment has
Speaker 10: been complicated by your pregnancy, which on its own has
Speaker 10: been extremely difficult and unusual. I would strongly encourage him
Speaker 10: to change his attitude and support you at this time.
Speaker 10: I sincerely hope things get better.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the physical proof Mike had been expecting.
Speaker 3: Why is this so worthy coming from a doctor? They're
Speaker 3: always so short with me, Like I spend no more
Speaker 3: than forty five seconds in a doctor's office, and they're kicking
Speaker 3: me out now.
Speaker 1: I need to say something here. You won't be surprised
Speaker 1: to learn that Mike was later dragged into a legal
Speaker 1: battle with Laura Owens. When Mike was deposed in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: he didn't include any information about Laura claiming to have cancer.
Speaker 1: I asked him why he didn't tell the courts about
Speaker 1: this back then, and Mike told me there were so
Speaker 1: many claims Laura made during their relationship that he honestly
Speaker 1: forgot about the cancer. He also said that for a
Speaker 1: long time he truly believed her alleged cancer diagnosis was real.
Speaker 1: The message Laura forwarded Mike allegedly from a doctor Chan
Speaker 1: at Sutter Health was later authenticated by a digital forensic expert,
Speaker 1: meaning Mike didn't fabricate the doctor's message. The subject line
Speaker 1: of the email is ovarian cancer parentheses Owens. During the
Speaker 1: June tenth, twenty twenty four trial with Clayton Eckered, Laura
Speaker 1: was asked about this cancer diagnosis, and she vehemently denied it.
Speaker 6: Be so as you.
Speaker 1: Also failed to tell me that in twenty sixteen, doctors
Speaker 1: Chan and Yee diagnosed you with cancer.
Speaker 11: They did not Okay, so as you say here today,
Speaker 11: you're denying.
Speaker 4: That that happened.
Speaker 11: I will absolutely deny that that happened.
Speaker 1: Interestingly, in her deposition with Greg Woodnick during Clayton's case,
Speaker 1: Laura mentioned the same doctor named on this note, doctor Chan.
Speaker 1: And this time she tells the court doctor Chan treated
Speaker 1: her for potential pre cancer in your.
Speaker 4: Medical records, which we're going to talk about as we
Speaker 4: get to exhibits you mentioned having.
Speaker 3: I'm going to butcher this.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, polycystic ovary syndrome.
Speaker 3: Correct. Who's your doctor that treats you for that?
Speaker 11: That would be nobg y N. But I haven't established
Speaker 11: regular enough care with an obgyn. But I was treated
Speaker 11: for the PCOS in San Francisco by.
Speaker 3: A provider who is the provider in San Francisco.
Speaker 11: I was treated by doctor uh Chan. He is uh
Speaker 11: uh a kind of called kind of called just for
Speaker 11: uh He's like a specialized one for fertility. No he's not.
Speaker 11: He's for cancer. Okay, yeah, for cancer. They thought that
Speaker 11: I might have pre cancer for for ovarian cancering else
Speaker 11: but that's I just can't She recalled. The last time
Speaker 11: you saw a doctor Chan uh maybe twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: At the end of August twenty sixteen, Laura allegedly told
Speaker 1: Mike Marriccini she had a surgery to remove her right ovary.
Speaker 1: She texted Michael letter from Sutter Health dated August thirty first,
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. It appears to confirm that she had her
Speaker 1: right ovary surgically removed. This letter would become an exhibit
Speaker 1: in that same restraining order case we mentioned earlier. Once
Speaker 1: Laura was back home recovering from the surgery, she reached
Speaker 1: out to Mike.
Speaker 3: Laura had been texting me to please come by, like
Speaker 3: she just went through a big operation. She was really sad.
Speaker 3: She needed somebody there to be with her.
Speaker 1: As we said earlier, Mike's dad died of cancer when
Speaker 1: he was a kid. Laura's request for him to come
Speaker 1: be by her side as she recovered pulled on Mike's
Speaker 1: heart strings. Despite everything that happened between them, Mike decided
Speaker 1: to show up for Laura.
Speaker 3: So I go over. There's like an ice pack on
Speaker 3: her head.
Speaker 1: But Laura wasn't alone. Her mom, jan Black was with.
Speaker 3: Her mom's icing her Laura abdomen.
Speaker 1: Immediately the scene felt off to Mike. There was no
Speaker 1: hospital bracelet, no medication bottles, and as he looked closer,
Speaker 1: no abdominal swelling, no bruising, no wound at all. He
Speaker 1: blurted it out.
Speaker 3: Where are your lacerations? Like, there's nothing here, there's no bandages,
Speaker 3: there's nothing. Her mom started to speak, and she's like, Oh,
Speaker 3: they don't have to do that.
Speaker 1: Laura and her mom, Jan explained that the surgery is
Speaker 1: done through the vagina with no visible external incision.
Speaker 3: I said, WHOA, There's no way she's lying about this.
Speaker 3: No way. Her mom is gaslighting me right now about
Speaker 3: her daughter having cancer.
Speaker 1: During Mike's relationship with Laura, her parents, Ron Owens and
Speaker 1: Jan Black were major players.
Speaker 3: Her mom and dad would always pressure me to try
Speaker 3: and stand by Laura, like, our daughter is such a
Speaker 3: good person, Why can't you just make this work. She's
Speaker 3: going through so much, whether it's physical ailments, abortions, She's
Speaker 3: doing all these things to try to make your relationship last.
Speaker 1: The summer and fall of twenty sixteen had been incredibly chaotic.
Speaker 1: Laura told him she'd had repeated abortion attempts and complications,
Speaker 1: and now she was recovering from cancer surgery.
Speaker 3: She told me they removed her right ovary and her
Speaker 3: mom was right there essentially operating at I remember saying
Speaker 3: to her, I don't get what is happening. I don't
Speaker 3: know how this is possible.
Speaker 1: Mike knew all of this couldn't be accurate. He figured
Speaker 1: there must be some exaggeration on Laura's part or a
Speaker 1: game of telephone gone wrong between Laura and her doctors,
Speaker 1: especially when it came to her cancer diagnosis.
Speaker 3: She knows that my dad had passed away from cancer.
Speaker 3: She knew that my stepfather currently had it. She said
Speaker 3: that her father had it, and then I just I
Speaker 3: couldn't even like wrap my head around it that somebody
Speaker 3: wouldly about having cancer.
Speaker 1: Since their third date, Laura had been telling Mike about
Speaker 1: her father's cancer diagnosis, and to be transparent, we don't
Speaker 1: have Ron's medical records. We can't say if he did
Speaker 1: or did not have cancer during this time. What we
Speaker 1: do know is that almost every time Mike started to
Speaker 1: pull away from Laura, she told him about a new
Speaker 1: crisis with her father's health. Here are some of the
Speaker 1: texts from Laura to Mike read by a voice actor.
Speaker 9: Doesn't seem great, but my dad got pulled from the
Speaker 9: air because they think he may be having a stroke.
Speaker 9: So dealing with that, I'm in a really bad mood.
Speaker 9: My dad went to the cardiologist and he said, my
Speaker 9: dad has to have open heart surgery to replace his
Speaker 9: valve asap. He got the worst possible news. I think
Speaker 9: we could have gotten this afternoon.
Speaker 1: At the time, Mike believed that Ron's health was declining.
Speaker 1: He could see it with his own eyes, but Ron
Speaker 1: was still working full time in radio, hosting his daily
Speaker 1: talk show. Then in December twenty sixteen, Ron presented Mike
Speaker 1: with a career opportunity.
Speaker 3: Laura's father thought that I had a good radio voice,
Speaker 3: which I did not.
Speaker 1: What Mike didn't have was a background in radio were broadcasting,
Speaker 1: but he was in the middle of a career transition.
Speaker 3: Ad would say to me, are radio stations looking for
Speaker 3: people to like meet the next generation of individuals. They
Speaker 3: want somebody who's young, who connects with like the millennials.
Speaker 1: Ron took Mike and Laura out to dinner to discuss
Speaker 1: the possibility with them.
Speaker 3: So we're having dinner. Ron's bringing this up to me
Speaker 3: and Laura then starts really pushing this radio gig. She's like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I've talked with the station and the station really wants
Speaker 3: us to talk about like a dating show.
Speaker 1: Co Hosting a dating talk show with Laura was the
Speaker 1: last thing Mike wanted to do. Then Ron mentioned the money.
Speaker 3: The contract we're talking about with Laura is like quarter
Speaker 3: of a million dollars a year, and you don't have
Speaker 3: to work that much. It's maybe like a couple hours
Speaker 3: a day.
Speaker 1: Having eighteen years of radio experience myself, let me just
Speaker 1: say these numbers are unheard of. In twenty sixteen, I
Speaker 1: worked part time as on air radio talent in Chicago.
Speaker 1: I worked my ass off, picking up every extra shift
Speaker 1: I could, and I made about twenty grand that year.
Speaker 1: I had another full time job to supplement my income.
Speaker 1: All that to say, no one new to the industry
Speaker 1: is paid a quarter million to get on the mic.
Speaker 1: The highest starting salaries for full time work in twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen would be about sixty K. But Mike didn't know that,
Speaker 1: and why would he question Ron Owens the voice of
Speaker 1: San Francisco. That's how Mike found himself recording radio shows
Speaker 1: like this one.
Speaker 12: Hey guys, my name is Laura Owens and I am
Speaker 12: joined by my co host, Mike Marraccini.
Speaker 3: Like Feticini, it's kind of a ton.
Speaker 11: Twista Marcini, like Fetacini.
Speaker 1: That's how you guys need to remember his name. Mike
Speaker 1: worked in real estate. He knew that radio was not
Speaker 1: his forte.
Speaker 3: I want to be very clear. It was terrible.
Speaker 1: Apparently, Ron Owens and his agent thought the pilot was
Speaker 1: solid gold. Mike wasn't exactly passionate about the radio show idea,
Speaker 1: but the money on the table was too good to
Speaker 1: pass up, so.
Speaker 3: On the weekend start doing these radio things with Laura.
Speaker 3: I looked at it as just another revenue string to
Speaker 3: put myself ahead in life.
Speaker 1: This was back before everybody had a podcast. The segments
Speaker 1: they did never aired on the radio, but they were
Speaker 1: posted online on the KGO website. That December, Ron and
Speaker 1: Laura claimed the radio station wanted the duo to fly
Speaker 1: to Iceland for New Year's Eve to do a boots
Speaker 1: on the Ground travel episode, all on the station's dime.
Speaker 3: I was like, hey, free trip. I don't have to
Speaker 3: stay with you. I'll have separate rooms. Let's go do this.
Speaker 1: In the months since the abortions and cancer surgery, the
Speaker 1: relationship had drifted apart. I've read Mike's texts with Laura.
Speaker 1: During this time, he's distancing himself and asking for more
Speaker 1: verification about her medical claims. Laura didn't handle this well.
Speaker 1: She started texting Mike grand romantic overtures. We've had a
Speaker 1: voice actor read one of those texts.
Speaker 9: I love you so deeply there aren't words for it.
Speaker 9: I will go to the end of the earth to
Speaker 9: make your dreams become reality if you need me to.
Speaker 9: I will be that reliable of a partner, not being
Speaker 9: the one you have to worry about all the time.
Speaker 9: I'm going to be the great Netflix and chill girl
Speaker 9: hooking up in laningerie glacier, walking, spontaneous New Year's Eve, kissing, supportive, understanding,
Speaker 9: co dog owner, and eventually wife that you deserve and
Speaker 9: that is my life's mission that I will paint tomorrow.
Speaker 9: I love you more than I ever have loved any
Speaker 9: man in the world.
Speaker 1: Mike responded to that text by saying that all sounds nice.
Speaker 1: I know what makes you feel better to look ahead,
Speaker 1: but you need to live in the present while you
Speaker 1: get help. A few weeks before their trip to Iceland,
Speaker 1: Mike asked Laura to stop telling people they were dating.
Speaker 1: Apparently this upset Laura in a huge way. Mike says,
Speaker 1: she started talking about taking her own life. He encouraged
Speaker 1: her to get professional help. Then Laura's dad texted Mike
Speaker 1: something alarming. We've had this text read by a voice actor.
Speaker 2: We are desperate to get a hold of her and
Speaker 2: nothing yet. She said, you are talking. Can you please
Speaker 2: respond to her? We need her back.
Speaker 1: Mike was done being in the middle of this triangle.
Speaker 3: He told Laura, we need to have a meeting right now.
Speaker 1: He decided to bring a witness so he wasn't alone
Speaker 1: with Laura. He picked up his sister's boyfriend now his
Speaker 1: brother in law, and when they arrived at Laura's house,
Speaker 1: they saw that she'd brought a witness to her.
Speaker 3: Dad, Ron does the majority of the talking. He says,
Speaker 3: why are we here? So I clearly lay out why
Speaker 3: we're all there.
Speaker 1: Over the last nine months, Mike had been on a
Speaker 1: an emotional rollercoaster pregnancies, abortion's gone wrong, and an alleged
Speaker 1: cancer diagnosis. Mike didn't know what to believe anymore, so
Speaker 1: he told Laura and Ron the truth.
Speaker 3: I feel like I've been lied to this entire time,
Speaker 3: and I would like an explanation of why I've been
Speaker 3: lied to.
Speaker 1: Mike's brother in law would sign a witness declaration testifying
Speaker 1: to what he saw that day. We're not naming him
Speaker 1: at his request, but that declaration would later become an
Speaker 1: exhibit in a restraining order case. Here's Mike's brother in
Speaker 1: law reading from his foreign statement.
Speaker 13: During the meeting which your father, Ron Owens dared, mister
Speaker 13: Owens told Michael and his daughter had a tendency to
Speaker 13: exaggerate or even flat out make things up.
Speaker 1: He remembers being struck by Ron's nonchalance.
Speaker 13: He did indicate knowledge of her just being this way
Speaker 13: and doing this. This was a first rodeo, he'd been
Speaker 13: down this road before.
Speaker 1: At this point, Mike needed to state the obvious. Anything
Speaker 1: romantic between him and Laura was over.
Speaker 3: Laura then is crying because I'm breaking up with her.
Speaker 1: Laura became inconsolable. That's when Ron pulled them aside.
Speaker 13: He had this kind of smile, a weakened nod moment
Speaker 13: with Mike to get him to to no doub Laura.
Speaker 1: Here's Mike's now brother in law reading another excerpt from
Speaker 1: his witness declaration.
Speaker 13: Laura was complaining of depression and suicidal thoughts at the
Speaker 13: fear of her relationship with Michael ending, and was very distraught.
Speaker 1: Mike's brother in law signaled to him to just focus
Speaker 1: on getting or calmed down. So Mike said what Laura
Speaker 1: and Ron wanted him to. He agreed to stay with
Speaker 1: her for the time being, even though everyone knew it
Speaker 1: was just delaying the inevitable.
Speaker 13: He was doing what and playing nice for a couple
Speaker 13: of weeks or a month so he can get his
Speaker 13: daughter in the right state of mind. It wasn't like
Speaker 13: You're gonna fall in love with my daughter and Mary
Speaker 13: or Ron was just asking him to give them some
Speaker 13: time to get her help and get her in a
Speaker 13: better place before making that step. It was unlike anything
Speaker 13: I've ever been a part of by a long shot.
Speaker 13: Laura had this kind of guilty look on her face.
Speaker 13: I guess is the only way I can describe it.
Speaker 13: She knew she was caught. It was just going along
Speaker 13: with whatever arrangement would keep Mike in her life. She
Speaker 13: was desperate for him, that was very apparent. She was
Speaker 13: really just wanted to do anything to salvage the relationship.
Speaker 1: After they left, Mike says he got a text from
Speaker 1: Ron Owens a screenshot of that text was later submitted
Speaker 1: as an exhibit in a restraining order case. Here's the
Speaker 1: text Ron sent Mike, read by a voice actor.
Speaker 2: Please call Laura and promise her anything she wants to
Speaker 2: keep her alive, and I promised to help you get
Speaker 2: out of it as soon as she's safe. Please.
Speaker 1: Now, this wasn't the only promise Ron had been making
Speaker 1: Mike over the last nine months. There was the quarter
Speaker 1: million dollar radio contract and the trip to Iceland, which
Speaker 1: was already booked and paid for. In the wake of
Speaker 1: the confrontation, Laura told Mike the Iceland trip was off
Speaker 1: and she was no longer going.
Speaker 3: And I thought I was just going to be going
Speaker 3: by myself.
Speaker 1: But on December thirtieth, when he boarded the Red Eye
Speaker 1: from San Francisco to Iceland, he realized he'd made a
Speaker 1: serious miscalculation.
Speaker 3: She's sitting right next to me, which is going to
Speaker 3: be worse.
Speaker 1: This flight will later become part of the Laura Owens mythology.
Speaker 3: The flight takes off and she immediately starts crying on
Speaker 3: this Red Eye flight, and it's progressively good. It's much
Speaker 3: worse and much more hysterical. She's asking me, like, do
Speaker 3: you forgive me, do you love me? Do you see
Speaker 3: a future with us? And it would be like the
Speaker 3: same repeated questions, and I just said, please leave me alone,
Speaker 3: like we can talk about this at another time. I
Speaker 3: didn't even expect you to be on this flight and
Speaker 3: you're here. You just gonna give me some space. That's
Speaker 3: really what I'm looking for. If you ever want a
Speaker 3: relationship like friendly and or romantic, like you need to
Speaker 3: give me some space. People around us are all like
Speaker 3: turning around looking at us, and she's like lifting off
Speaker 3: my headphones saying please talk to me, Please talk to me.
Speaker 3: And I just said, like, hey, I'm going to go
Speaker 3: to the bathroom. I don't want to have any more
Speaker 3: discussions with you. I don't think it's a good place
Speaker 3: to be doing this. So I get up and I leave,
Speaker 3: and I sit in the bathroom until somebody comes and
Speaker 3: knocks on the door and tells me that I have
Speaker 3: to essentially leave. I never yelled, I never raised my
Speaker 3: voice once, never did anything. I was just annoyed and
Speaker 3: just said, please just leave me alone.
Speaker 1: The flight was emotionally draining for Mike. He wasn't even
Speaker 1: prepared for her to show up on the trip let
Speaker 1: alone sit next to her for six grueling hours. It
Speaker 1: felt like it would never end, and in a way,
Speaker 1: it hasn't. We'll come back to this later. By the
Speaker 1: time they landed in Rekievic on December thirty, twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: Mike regretted getting on the flight.
Speaker 3: We then arrived and I said, I'm flying back, like
Speaker 3: there's no point for this trip anymore, like I don't
Speaker 3: want to be around you, and she says, no, I
Speaker 3: will fly back, and I was like great.
Speaker 1: He went to his room, but the next morning Laura
Speaker 1: was still there.
Speaker 3: She then decides not to leave.
Speaker 1: It was New Year's Eve. Laura began begging Mike to
Speaker 1: spend the evening with her, but Mike had no desire
Speaker 1: to do that.
Speaker 3: Later that night, her father then calls me and says, like, Michael,
Speaker 3: you guys haven't seen each other at all. Would you
Speaker 3: please just spend time with her.
Speaker 1: Mike had a hard time saying no to Ron. Remember,
Speaker 1: they were technically there for work, or at least that's
Speaker 1: what Mike believed. He hadn't made any money from the
Speaker 1: job yet, but it's true his whole trip had been
Speaker 1: paid for, so he gave in and eventually agreed to
Speaker 1: participate in a couple of activities with Laura. Before they left.
Speaker 3: I said, okay, we'll do like the last two events together,
Speaker 3: which was the Blue Lagoon and the Dog's Flooding. I
Speaker 3: didn't hang out with her much. She wanted to take
Speaker 3: a photo of the two of us there together for
Speaker 3: the podcast purposes. She posted the one photo of us
Speaker 3: to her Instagram, like we were dating. I saw her
Speaker 3: at Lake Breakfast and I was like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: Like we are not together? I'm getting messages from people
Speaker 3: asking for together, and I was like, we're not together.
Speaker 1: After Iceland, Mike didn't see Laura except for when they
Speaker 1: recorded a radio show. Laura was asking him for a
Speaker 1: full time commitment to the show, but Mike was skeptical.
Speaker 1: He hadn't spoken to anyone at the station directly. Instead,
Speaker 1: Mike's only contacts were Laura, Ron, and somebody who Mike
Speaker 1: believed to be Ron's agent. Despite Mike's doubts, the supposed
Speaker 1: success of their first travel episode somehow led to another offer,
Speaker 1: a trip to Dubai.
Speaker 3: They said they had listened to it and was really successful,
Speaker 3: and they wanted to promote another destination. Spose so that's
Speaker 3: why they purchased Dubai trip.
Speaker 1: Ron really wanted them to take this opportunity, but he
Speaker 1: felt like it would be unsafe for Laura to go alone.
Speaker 3: He was like, but she's going to a country in
Speaker 3: the Middle East. She definitely needs somebody. Because I don't
Speaker 3: women very well there. I was like, okay, being a
Speaker 3: typical wet wipe that I am, I just went with it.
Speaker 1: Looking back, Mike can't explain why he went to Dubai.
Speaker 1: He didn't know how to get out. He'd never been
Speaker 1: in a situation like this before with anyone, much less
Speaker 1: with an entire family.
Speaker 3: You can't say no to Ron. You definitely don't want
Speaker 3: to be on his bad side.
Speaker 1: Mike said that trip to Dubai was pretty uneventful, and
Speaker 1: they stayed in different rooms in the same hotel. One
Speaker 1: thing he said really stood out to me though.
Speaker 3: She did try to like solicit me to a sex
Speaker 3: and I would not have sex with her.
Speaker 1: At the tail end of the trip, Mike got bad
Speaker 1: news from back home. His stepdad, who was like a
Speaker 1: father to him, had suffered a massive stroke. He'd been
Speaker 1: placed on a ventilator. As soon as they landed back home,
Speaker 1: he rushed to be by his stepfather's side.
Speaker 3: We go to the hospital and within a couple of hours,
Speaker 3: they essentially unplunked the ventilator in front of me.
Speaker 1: Laura didn't go with Mike, but he told her what
Speaker 1: was going on.
Speaker 3: She saw me like breaking down the airport, but she
Speaker 3: seemed like very kind in the moment, and she's like,
Speaker 3: I'm just so sorry. And her family was very kind
Speaker 3: at the time, like I was very upset with them,
Speaker 3: and they sent my family flowers and all these other
Speaker 3: things to try to butter us up. After everything that
Speaker 3: had transpired.
Speaker 1: After the du Bai trip, Mike continued to distance himself
Speaker 1: from Laura, at least romantically. He also told her he
Speaker 1: was out of the radio deal.
Speaker 3: I was still very friendly with her. I did not
Speaker 3: want to make enemies of them, and I wanted to
Speaker 3: be as friendly as possible as I was exiting the relationship.
Speaker 3: I made it to the point where we would have
Speaker 3: a coffee every few months, where it would just be
Speaker 3: like a friendly conversation because I just wanted to keep
Speaker 3: the peace.
Speaker 1: But Laura wouldn't let it go. She continued to push
Speaker 1: for a relationship. Mike clearly wasn't interested in It got
Speaker 1: to the point that Mike could only see one way out.
Speaker 3: I told her that I was moving out of San
Speaker 3: Francisco just because she kept trying to press a relationship.
Speaker 3: And I said like, hey, I'm moving away, like there's
Speaker 3: going to be no more of this anymore.
Speaker 1: To be clear, Mike wasn't planning to move. He just
Speaker 1: needed a way to get her to stop communicating with him,
Speaker 1: and for a few months it seemed to work. He
Speaker 1: thought the whole Laura Owen saga was finally behind him.
Speaker 3: That all changed though, the night she met my next girlfriend,
Speaker 3: and then the tides turned back to chaos with her.
Speaker 1: He started dating someone new who happened to live four
Speaker 1: blocks away from Laura's apartment.
Speaker 3: A new restaurant opened up right next to Laura's house
Speaker 3: that my girlfriend at the time wanted to go and
Speaker 3: try it.
Speaker 1: As they walked into the restaurant, Mike saw something through
Speaker 1: the front window.
Speaker 3: Out of the corner of my eye, I think I
Speaker 3: see Laura and her friend in this restaurant. We walk
Speaker 3: in and I look over like lock eyes with Laura
Speaker 3: and her friend, and I was like, oh shit, she
Speaker 3: now sees me with this blonde and she knows that
Speaker 3: this is probably a girl that I'm on a date with.
Speaker 3: So I turned to my girlfriend and I say, hey,
Speaker 3: there's somebody in here that I do not want to see.
Speaker 3: Would you mind if we leave? We can come back
Speaker 3: here different evening. My girlfriend was like, absolutely, let's get
Speaker 3: out here, no questions asked whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Mike hadn't told his new girlfriend about Laura. Honestly, he
Speaker 1: didn't know how to explain it or where to start.
Speaker 1: So they left the restaurant and made plans to come
Speaker 1: back the following night. There was no way Laura would
Speaker 1: be there two nights in a but when they showed
Speaker 1: up the following evening, we go into the.
Speaker 3: Restaurant the next night. They walk us to the back
Speaker 3: of the restaurant and they sit us down at a table,
Speaker 3: and directly next to us is Laura and her mother.
Speaker 1: This time there was no way out.
Speaker 3: They stand up and she walks up to us, and
Speaker 3: her mom walks up and I say, hey, how are
Speaker 3: you doing? And they introduced themselves to my girlfriend, which
Speaker 3: then got a response out of my girlfriend to tell
Speaker 3: them her first name.
Speaker 1: The conversation ended there, and Laura and her mom left,
Speaker 1: but Mike still owed his girlfriend an explanation.
Speaker 3: It opens up a whole can of worms of who
Speaker 3: is that? Why do they approach us like that? Why
Speaker 3: were they kind of weird?
Speaker 1: Mike gave her a simple answer.
Speaker 3: That is who I was trying to avoid last night.
Speaker 3: This is a person that I used to date, and
Speaker 3: they caused me a lot of pain.
Speaker 1: The next day, Mike went over to his girlfriend's place,
Speaker 1: but when he got there, something was very wrong.
Speaker 3: She is like visibly shaking. I was like, what's wrong?
Speaker 3: It looks like you just saw a ghost. Laura had
Speaker 3: found her on social media because she gave Laura her
Speaker 3: first name, and she pulls up these messages from Laura.
Speaker 1: Mike stared at the messages in.
Speaker 3: Disbelief, and it says, all these really vile things about me,
Speaker 3: that I took her within inches of her life. I
Speaker 3: would strangle her, I would beat her, that I ranked her.
Speaker 1: After Mike Marriccini ended his relationship with Laura Owens, he
Speaker 1: ran into her. Mike was with his new girlfriend, found
Speaker 1: her online and contacted her. Laura told her that Mike
Speaker 1: had assaulted and raped her during their relationship. I had
Speaker 1: to ask Mike about these allegations.
Speaker 3: I never abused Laura Owens. I can say that with
Speaker 3: one hundred percent certainty.
Speaker 1: But Laura was telling people he had and those messages
Speaker 1: to his new girlfriend were just the beginning.
Speaker 3: The next night is what really took it to the
Speaker 3: next level. You gotta understand, two nights in a row,
Speaker 3: I see her, I then deal with my girlfriend at
Speaker 3: her place on that third night, and on the fourth night,
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm gonna give my girlfriend of a little
Speaker 3: bit of space for me. I'm gonna go out to
Speaker 3: dinner with my sister.
Speaker 1: Mike grabbed dinner with his sister Stephanie that night. He
Speaker 1: spent the whole time catching her up on the chaos
Speaker 1: of the last three days.
Speaker 6: Michael was terrified. He had always wanted to give her
Speaker 6: the benefit of doubt, but I think he felt a
Speaker 6: tremendous ament of shame. He had no peace, He was
Speaker 6: constantly worried.
Speaker 1: He was very depressed.
Speaker 6: He wasn't his jovial fun self.
Speaker 1: Stephanie couldn't help but worry about her brother. They finished
Speaker 1: dinner and made their way out of the restaurant. Then
Speaker 1: Stephanie saw Mike jump.
Speaker 3: Laura is standing at the exit of the restaurant.
Speaker 1: His sister walked right up to Laura.
Speaker 3: My sister essentially says, leave my brother alone. Why are
Speaker 3: you following us? And in the middle of the street,
Speaker 3: she goes, you don't know who your brother is.
Speaker 6: He was terrified. He went white. He like went to
Speaker 6: the side and put his head down. I'm the one
Speaker 6: that got in her face and said, how dare you
Speaker 6: put my brother through all this trauma? And I am
Speaker 6: the one that responded to her. Mike did not he
Speaker 6: knew what he was dealing with. I didn't at the time,
Speaker 6: which is why I was just as loud as she was.
Speaker 6: And I will always have a regret responding to her
Speaker 6: because I think that antagonized her.
Speaker 1: The confrontation ended with Laura saying that if she ever
Speaker 1: saw Mike again, she was going to call the police.
Speaker 1: Mike couldn't get away from her fast enough. He was
Speaker 1: spooped in a way he'd never been before.
Speaker 3: I've now seen her three out of four nights after
Speaker 3: not seeing her for a while. I need to be
Speaker 3: on the offensive here. I just want to make a
Speaker 3: repolice report because I actually got scared of so I
Speaker 3: called the police that night. They come and they file
Speaker 3: a report, and the next day is when it all
Speaker 3: starts erupting, and that's when she starts utilizing the justice
Speaker 3: system to take advantage of me.
Speaker 1: Once the police notified Laura that Mike had filed the
Speaker 1: report against her, she responded with the filing of her own.
Speaker 3: She filed a restraint uarder against me and said that
Speaker 3: I had been harassing and stalking her and taking her
Speaker 3: with the niches of her life. And that's when the
Speaker 3: next seven years of lawsuits begins.
Speaker 1: Mike was thrown into a legal battle similar to what
Speaker 1: Clayton Eckered and Greg Gillespie would soon go through, except
Speaker 1: Mike spent nearly a decade fighting it. The whole time
Speaker 1: he thought he was the only one. That was until
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, when a family law attorney in Scottsdale
Speaker 1: took on an unusual case.
Speaker 4: I remember thinking during Greg's case that this would eventually
Speaker 4: be a lifetime television movie because it was so bizarre.
Speaker 1: Attorney Greg Woodnick hadn't seen anything like this before. An
Speaker 1: allegation of abortion coercion brought by a woman named Laura Owens.
Speaker 1: While Woodnick was working on Greg's case, Laura sent him
Speaker 1: a link to a video. It appeared to be Laura
Speaker 1: herself giving a TED.
Speaker 4: Talk TED Talk Who is this person?
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, Laura gave a TEDx talk titled
Speaker 1: the Life Saving Power of Kindness from Strangers. Just to
Speaker 1: be clear, TEDx is the localized version of the program,
Speaker 1: not the national TED stage. Wouldn't it Click the link
Speaker 1: to Laura's TEDx talk and watched dumbfounded as she began
Speaker 1: to tell a story of a plane ride to Iceland
Speaker 1: gone horribly wrong.
Speaker 12: December thirtieth, twenty sixteen, After months of planning a once
Speaker 12: in a lifetime trip to Iceland, it's finally here. It's
Speaker 12: finally time to go on flight one sixty two San
Speaker 12: Francisco to Reraikiyevik. This plane ride should be a time
Speaker 12: to drift off to sleep and dream about seeing the
Speaker 12: northern lights, to wonder what it's gonna feel like, to
Speaker 12: soak in the blue lagoon, to go dog sledding for
Speaker 12: the first time. Only you can't because of the noise
Speaker 12: in the background. And no, it's not the roaring of
Speaker 12: the jet engines. It's the loud voice of the man
Speaker 12: sitting behind you who helped you with your luggage. He's
Speaker 12: speaking to a woman who's incessantly sobbing. He's spewing insult her,
Speaker 12: demeaning her, and the more she cries, the harsher they become.
Speaker 12: She can barely get out a word to respond to
Speaker 12: him through her tears. She keeps crying and he sounds disgusted.
Speaker 12: Look at you. You've never been my type. You're ugly.
Speaker 1: I'm going to skip ahead a few minutes. Laura continues,
Speaker 1: speaking from the perspective of a passenger witnessing the incident,
Speaker 1: a woman who will later become known in the online
Speaker 1: community as Napkin Lady.
Speaker 12: There's a napkin under your cocktail and a pen in
Speaker 12: your purse. You quickly scribble a nope, you're write, dear girlfriend.
Speaker 12: I know the Lord had me overhear your conversation to
Speaker 12: let you know that you are a very beautiful young
Speaker 12: woman that should have a man that makes you cry
Speaker 12: with wonderful laughter, not bullying.
Speaker 1: The woman who allegedly passed Laura this note is named
Speaker 1: Karen Ilmberger. Karen later signed a witness declaration corroborating Laura's
Speaker 1: account of what happened on the flight. I've reached out
Speaker 1: to Karen several times, but have never received a reply.
Speaker 1: Here's how her note to Laura concluded.
Speaker 12: You are being abused and he will never love you
Speaker 12: like you deserve. I'm very concerned about you, and I'm
Speaker 12: praying for you. Run from him. My name is Laura Owens.
Speaker 12: I was the crying woman in seat twenty two eight.
Speaker 1: The tedex Talk continues with Laura describing how she survived
Speaker 1: domestic violence at the hands of an unnamed ex boyfriend.
Speaker 12: We'd had a fairy tale start, and then it came
Speaker 12: down fast. It seemed like overnight. His charm and compliments
Speaker 12: turned to criticism. His comments became more and more menacing,
Speaker 12: until finally the verbal abuse became physical.
Speaker 1: Laura's tedex talk went live in January twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: nearly five years after her relationship with Mike Maruccini ended.
Speaker 1: The video is still up on YouTube. It has one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand views at least at the time
Speaker 1: I'm recording this, but the comments have been turned off.
Speaker 1: The video has been reported numerous times on a platform
Speaker 1: with over forty four million subscribers. Laura recounted not only
Speaker 1: being verbally abused, but physically abused.
Speaker 12: The first thing he did once we landed in Iceland
Speaker 12: and got to the hotel. Was asked me to pick
Speaker 12: a number, not knowing why I picked forty. He said
Speaker 12: that was how many times he was going to slot me.
Speaker 12: He did, and then he choked me. The less oxygen
Speaker 12: I breathed in, the more he smiled.
Speaker 1: Attorney Greg Woodnick treated this video like evidence back then,
Speaker 1: he was working on Greg Gillespie's case, and Laura's TEDx
Speaker 1: talk raised a question who was the unnamed ex boyfriend.
Speaker 4: We obviously immediately scrambled to figure out what the hell
Speaker 4: she was talking about. That's actually how we found Mike Marraccini.
Speaker 1: Would N'tick made some calls and finally got in touch
Speaker 1: with Mike Marraccini.
Speaker 4: I remember getting off the phone with him after I
Speaker 4: first spoke with him, and I found him to be
Speaker 4: very guard I think I misread the situation. In hindsight,
Speaker 4: I think Mike was traumatized.
Speaker 1: Before we end this episode, there's one more thing I
Speaker 1: need to say. Michael Marriccini denies that he ever physically
Speaker 1: or sexually abused Laura Owens, but that is at odds
Speaker 1: with Laura's account and her mom's account in a sworn
Speaker 1: witness declaration from twenty eighteen. Her mom, Jan Black, told
Speaker 1: the courts quote one morning in or around late May
Speaker 1: or early June twenty sixteen, Laura came over to our
Speaker 1: house with a black eye. When I asked her what happened,
Speaker 1: she started crying and explained that Mike had hit her
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night while she was sleeping.
Speaker 1: Laura told me that she thought Mike was asleep when
Speaker 1: it happened, and said it was probably involuntary. She expressed
Speaker 1: fear about the idea of sharing a bed with Mike
Speaker 1: because he'd hit her so hard. However deliberate or accidental
Speaker 1: it may have been, that would have been in their
Speaker 1: first few months of dating. In the same witness declaration,
Speaker 1: Jan details multiple instances where Laura appeared to be injured
Speaker 1: after alleged physical abuse from Mike Maruccini. Here's another quote
Speaker 1: from Jan's sworn statement. In or around spring twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: Laura told me that Mike had strangled her again. I
Speaker 1: told her it needed to stop and that she needed
Speaker 1: to get out of the relationship. She said that Mike
Speaker 1: had apologized to her and promised he wouldn't do it again.
Speaker 1: She expressed hope that he would change and would treat
Speaker 1: her like he used to before the abuse started. I
Speaker 1: had thought the Iceland incident was an isolated event until
Speaker 1: Laura shared this with me. In all of her declarations,
Speaker 1: Jan never mentions her daughter having cancer, but in this statement,
Speaker 1: Jan Black does corroborate Laura's account of receiving a handwritten
Speaker 1: note on a napkin during her flight to Iceland. Jan wrote,
Speaker 1: and I quote. On November seventh, twenty seventeen, I sent
Speaker 1: an email to the address listed on the cocktail napkin
Speaker 1: Laura was given. I explained that I was trying to
Speaker 1: locate the woman who took the time to write Laura
Speaker 1: the note and asked if I had the correct email address.
Speaker 1: The following day, November eighth, twenty seventeen, I received a
Speaker 1: response from a woman named Karen Elmberger, saying, I remember
Speaker 1: your beautiful daughter. A true and correct copy of the
Speaker 1: email is attached here too as exhibit one. I sent
Speaker 1: miss Elmberger an email that day, explaining that Laura was
Speaker 1: doing much better since she had broken things off with
Speaker 1: Mike and thanking her for the note. I told her
Speaker 1: Laura's eyes were really open to what a bad relationship
Speaker 1: she was in when she received the note from her
Speaker 1: on the flight that day. As I said before, our
Speaker 1: team has reached out to Karen Ilmberger multiple times for
Speaker 1: confirmation of this account, she has never replied. On the
Speaker 1: next episode of Love Trapped.
Speaker 3: Wait there's another guy, I was like, who's Clayton?
Speaker 10: And that is when we found the Reddit thread.
Speaker 3: Point. I saw mm and I was like, are they
Speaker 3: talking about me?
Speaker 4: That laptop included a trove of medical records from years before.
Speaker 7: When I think of Mike's laptop, I just think of
Speaker 7: it like sitting alone in a giant room in a
Speaker 7: museum with just a spotlight sitting on it.
Speaker 5: We hope that justice has served and that this individual
Speaker 5: is referred to the DA for prosecution so that a
Speaker 5: future victim doesn't have to go through what we've went
Speaker 5: through the last few years.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to
Speaker 1: follow Love Trapped on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts, and please leave us
Speaker 1: a review. A five star rating helps others find this show.
Speaker 1: We're grateful for your support. If you would like to
Speaker 1: reach out to the Love Trapped team, email us at
Speaker 1: Love Trapped Pod at gmail dot com. That's Love Trapped
Speaker 1: Pod at gmail dot com. Love Trapped is a production
Speaker 1: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
Speaker 1: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. This show was executive produced by
Speaker 1: Nancy Glass, Andrea Gunning and Ben Fetterman, Written, produced and
Speaker 1: hosted by me Stephanie Young. Our story editor is Monique Laboard.
Speaker 1: Producer on this episode is Sidney Gladou. Additional production support
Speaker 1: from Todd Gans. Our production manager is Kristin Melchiri. For
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts, Ali Perry was our executive producer. Audio editing
Speaker 1: and mastering by Anna McClain. Additional editing support by Tanner
Speaker 1: Robbins and Matt Delvecchio. A special thank you to our
Speaker 1: voice actors Leslie Tolly, Dean Welsh and Tanner Robbins. This
Speaker 1: podcast was developed in collaboration with Danny Passman and Lev
Speaker 1: Abramoff at cry Baby Media. The Love Trapped theme is
Speaker 1: composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by Mybe Music.
Speaker 1: A special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, Jessica Crincheck,
Speaker 1: Ali Canter and the entire iHeart podcast team.
Speaker 3: And for more.
Speaker 1: Podcasts from iHeart, Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.