Speaker 1: Hey, it's Stephanie back with another bonus episode. Before we
Speaker 1: get to episode ten, I want to explain a bit
Speaker 1: about Laura and her mom's interaction with the Scottsdale Police
Speaker 1: in November and December of twenty twenty three. The police
Speaker 1: were dispatched to Laura's house for a welfare check on
Speaker 1: her at least four separate times. Two of them were
Speaker 1: recorded on officer body cams and have been made public. Today,
Speaker 1: we're going to play you those recordings. You'll get to
Speaker 1: hear from Laura's mom, Jan Black, and from Laura herself.
Speaker 1: They tell the police their side of the story. We
Speaker 1: lightly edited them to cut out dead air or repeated information,
Speaker 1: but we've left these mostly intact so you can hear
Speaker 1: the whole interaction. We're starting with the welfare check on
Speaker 1: December twelfth, twenty twenty three. Laura's mom, Jan is the
Speaker 1: one who answers the door, and just a heads up,
Speaker 1: you'll hear the officer's phone buzzing from time to time.
Speaker 2: M mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Is Laura there? Yeah? Is this is somebody called in
Speaker 3: a welfare chuck about her?
Speaker 4: Yes? Yeah, it's a friend from New York.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you know who that might be.
Speaker 6: No, what I do know is that she is the
Speaker 6: target of an online harassment campaign that has been going
Speaker 6: on for months.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that they wanted to do.
Speaker 6: It was started by a disgirdled ex boyfriend of hers,
Speaker 6: and he started posting all of this crazy stuff about
Speaker 6: her on Reddit, stuff that is.
Speaker 3: Unbelievable. And so he has encouraged people to do.
Speaker 6: To call in the Scotstale Police Department and do and
Speaker 6: ask for a welfare chock.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is like the third one in a week, okay.
Speaker 6: And I had contacted the I mean she called in
Speaker 6: and talked to Discutsdale Police Department as well and said,
Speaker 6: you know, we don't want your resources. This is this
Speaker 6: is ridiculous. It's a prank, okay thing, But I'm happy
Speaker 6: to go get her. She was she was taking a nap.
Speaker 6: She this has been devastating, beyond belief.
Speaker 4: Is she asleep now.
Speaker 3: She's she's taken a nap, but I can wake her up.
Speaker 5: I don't think that would be necessary.
Speaker 3: Okay, well so I don't.
Speaker 7: For some reason, it wasn't in our notes for your address.
Speaker 7: I'm going to put comments in there that says this
Speaker 7: is an ongoing prank, right, they still may send We
Speaker 7: have to understand because if we don't, if it's not
Speaker 7: us on or it's not the same dispatchers, they still
Speaker 7: might just send on it. But I would work on
Speaker 7: trying to contact Reddit and let them know.
Speaker 6: She has contacted them. They will not take it now,
Speaker 6: they will not take it down and disco he's created
Speaker 6: different fake accounts.
Speaker 3: He I mean, it's he's going to great legs. Have
Speaker 3: you looked into an injunction.
Speaker 6: Against harass she has against him? She's this is part
Speaker 6: of his part of his things. She's had this against
Speaker 6: him for two years.
Speaker 4: And ex boyfriend.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's an old ex boyfriend and she had the
Speaker 6: injunction against harassment against him.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's really.
Speaker 6: Another friend of ours who is an FBI profiler had
Speaker 6: looked at you know what this guy is all about,
Speaker 6: and she said, he's the kind of a person who
Speaker 6: is not going to stop unless he thinks he's got
Speaker 6: a win.
Speaker 3: And he had he had said to her, he texted.
Speaker 6: Her, I will destroy your life. I will destroy your reputation.
Speaker 6: And that was two years ago, and he's just he's
Speaker 6: just continued this.
Speaker 4: Is he local here?
Speaker 3: Or yeah, he's local. What's his name, he's local. His
Speaker 3: name is.
Speaker 6: Frank the last week, do you but he could have
Speaker 6: called from a fake number, or like I say, he's
Speaker 6: tried to start stuff online.
Speaker 3: She had she contacted the Scout Sale Police Department with
Speaker 3: a lot of.
Speaker 6: Instances of these and they sent it to the prosecutor's office,
Speaker 6: and the prosecutor's office said that they didn't think they
Speaker 6: could get a conviction, or that they said there was
Speaker 6: a lot of stuff, but they didn't know that they
Speaker 6: if they would be able to get a conviction on it.
Speaker 6: So I think that one of his motives is to
Speaker 6: try to make it so that when her order against
Speaker 6: him comes up for renewal next year, that he can say, well, look,
Speaker 6: you know she's you know, she's crazy. You know, look
Speaker 6: at all this stuff that he's posted online about her,
Speaker 6: and you know, well.
Speaker 7: And then especially for her document it, get copies of
Speaker 7: it so then she can go right back to the
Speaker 7: judge and be like, right, let's go on.
Speaker 6: Right, And he's contacted a podcaster who has also been
Speaker 6: doing just relentless posts about her and.
Speaker 3: Might know, well what happened, what prompted a.
Speaker 6: Lot of this stuff is my daughter became pregnant by
Speaker 6: the guy who was the bachelor last year, and she
Speaker 6: became pregnant by him in May, and then he was
Speaker 6: acting like, oh, you're not really pregnant, or if you
Speaker 6: are pregnant, it's not mine, and and and then other.
Speaker 3: Times he was saying to us like, oh, but he.
Speaker 6: Wanted to be involved in the pregnancy and all this
Speaker 6: kind of stuff. So anyhow, when this ex boyfriend found
Speaker 6: out about her pregnancy with this guy, then it send
Speaker 6: him like into kind of an overdrive thing, and then
Speaker 6: he reached out to him. And it's like my daughter
Speaker 6: finally did a big post on Medium the other day explaining,
Speaker 6: you know, just the toll that all of this has
Speaker 6: has taken on her and how it's just.
Speaker 3: It's just it's crazy.
Speaker 6: On the link, I think there's probably somebody our neighbor,
Speaker 6: maybe sits dogs. So I think that this is like
Speaker 6: pick up Okay, I know, I know, I'm always kind
Speaker 6: of like that too.
Speaker 7: Get one. I also try to get online. You can
Speaker 7: contact Google at different places and have her information remove
Speaker 7: from online like house phone, number of things like that.
Speaker 3: Work on doing that too.
Speaker 7: Try to get as much information as you can offline.
Speaker 3: I know it's hard. We we have to do it,
Speaker 3: and that's exactly how they tell us to do it.
Speaker 7: And there's ways to like whitepages dot com and you
Speaker 7: can go on there's a link it says remove my
Speaker 7: information and you can go on that. Have her start
Speaker 7: doing all that information too, and then I get that
Speaker 7: they'll come into the house.
Speaker 3: But see what you can do to block that information,
Speaker 3: right right right? Well, I just feel I feel really awful.
Speaker 6: For you guys, because you know this is this is
Speaker 6: it's a waste of it's a waste of resources, and
Speaker 6: it's obviously you know ranks.
Speaker 3: Do you know what phone number had contacted? It's a
Speaker 3: four and five area code. It's out of New York.
Speaker 3: Four and five is is San Francisco. You're from San Francisco.
Speaker 4: Our number the four while four day.
Speaker 5: The person that called us gave us that phone number.
Speaker 4: Contactor said that whoever called doesn't have it's.
Speaker 3: Getting old information online.
Speaker 8: Okay, do you have do you because I just like
Speaker 8: to give me it's not can I'll walk out and
Speaker 8: the rabbit, Oh that would be great.
Speaker 5: Do you notice spelled?
Speaker 4: Greg's last name?
Speaker 9: Is it g I L L E. S.
Speaker 3: S p i E.
Speaker 4: Has he been harassing her by stopping by the house
Speaker 4: at all or anything like that.
Speaker 3: He has gone into her email.
Speaker 6: He they they dated very briefly, and she became pregnant
Speaker 6: by him, Okay.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 6: He was very shall we say violent in his effort
Speaker 6: to get her to have an abortion, so she filed
Speaker 6: an abortion coercion case against him, which really ticked him off.
Speaker 6: She didn't ask for any money for her She asked
Speaker 6: for a charitable donation for abortion coersion.
Speaker 3: Did you get it? Yeah, it's for DOES And I'm
Speaker 3: going to actually give them a call to follow up
Speaker 3: with them.
Speaker 4: Okay, what is what does Greg drive? Do you know?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't she didn't.
Speaker 6: He's made I mean absolutely, he's made crazy things. He's
Speaker 6: posted online stuff saying that that he went to high school.
Speaker 3: With her, which he never did.
Speaker 6: I mean, he's posted on these fake accounts saying that
Speaker 6: he knew her in high school and that that she
Speaker 6: was pregnant by a developmental, developmentally disabled kid, the father
Speaker 6: of somebody else, the principal, the school principle. I mean,
Speaker 6: things that are so unbelievably outrageous. I mean, it's just
Speaker 6: like it's to really, I think, try to discredit her
Speaker 6: again so that when her order against him comes up,
Speaker 6: then it'll look like, oh wow, you.
Speaker 3: Look at the stuff online.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 3: You know, so there is a current order of protection
Speaker 3: against him. Yes, yes, there is.
Speaker 4: Still yeah County okay.
Speaker 3: And I mean and the guy is the guy is unhinged.
Speaker 3: I mean, I had no I had no clue when
Speaker 3: you know, I had said.
Speaker 6: To her when she wanted to file this abortion corrosion
Speaker 6: case in the first place, they said, you know what,
Speaker 6: just let sleeping dogs lie, just be done with him
Speaker 6: and everything like that. She was like, no, I feel
Speaker 6: really strongly about about what he did and the way
Speaker 6: he did it to me, and uh so, you know,
Speaker 6: she went ahead with it, and as I say, it
Speaker 6: just started this.
Speaker 3: Torrent of of yeah, you know, really really bad stuff.
Speaker 6: But anyway, I I I appreciated it, and no problem.
Speaker 3: Look and definitely look into trying to get any.
Speaker 8: Information you can removed online. They had your name too,
Speaker 8: they did. What did they have as Elizabeth? Okay, that's
Speaker 8: my that's my given name. Jam is my nickname James Robert.
Speaker 3: When I took a picture of.
Speaker 6: It, Okay, I had your husband's name, Ki okay, wrong, okay, so.
Speaker 7: No address, so I would I would definitely try to
Speaker 7: see whatever you.
Speaker 3: Can move from online.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well they've they've been trying to post on our
Speaker 6: social media stuff.
Speaker 3: They've posted on her social media stuff.
Speaker 6: They've h and and this guy, as I say, when
Speaker 6: she was going out with him, he said like, you know, well,
Speaker 6: I'm really suspicious of people, So you know, would you
Speaker 6: give me your passwords because I wouldn't want to think,
Speaker 6: you know, I want everything to.
Speaker 3: Be prought, you know, to I wanted to trust each other.
Speaker 3: So she gave it. She was like, oh, okay, sure,
Speaker 3: no problem.
Speaker 6: So he's gone in to her emails from years and
Speaker 6: years ago and doctored emails and sent them as though
Speaker 6: they were from her.
Speaker 3: He's doctored let her head.
Speaker 6: He did come here one time when she was dating him,
Speaker 6: and the first thing he said is he said, hey,
Speaker 6: I nat your parents WiFi information. He was out here,
Speaker 6: I need their WiFi, what's their password and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So he's he's been doing.
Speaker 9: Yeah, if later, when you speak to Laura, like I said,
Speaker 9: I don't necessarily want to wake her up. If she
Speaker 9: wants to speak with someone from the police department about
Speaker 9: everything that's been going on lately, because you said it's
Speaker 9: been the like the third time and about the last week.
Speaker 6: Or so, right, And she had talked with Detective Ready,
Speaker 6: I think had had he had come up with he
Speaker 6: had sent the stuff and forwarded it to the prosecut us.
Speaker 6: But the prosecutors just said that they're you know, they'd
Speaker 6: have to be assured of getting out to have a.
Speaker 7: Reach out to Detective Reading again and let him know
Speaker 7: what's going on with this now that may be able
Speaker 7: to kind of help maybe refile.
Speaker 6: I think what his thing was that it would be
Speaker 6: difficult for him to be able to prove.
Speaker 3: You know, she was suspicious of all this stuff. But
Speaker 3: I mean we pretty you know, there's nobody else who
Speaker 3: would have the motive to.
Speaker 6: Do it's approven because he goes under names. He like
Speaker 6: I say, he obviously you know doctor that did they
Speaker 6: say what their concern was when they called suicidal comments? Okay, Well,
Speaker 6: because she had when she posted this thing on medium,
Speaker 6: she she had written in there that that this unrelenting,
Speaker 6: this has gone on for months, that this had made
Speaker 6: her feel borderline suicide. Okay, so you know, but she
Speaker 6: she she said the borderline suicideal think.
Speaker 3: But that's not, you know, not the case right right.
Speaker 6: It's like she she had said to me, like, oh
Speaker 6: my god, how much more of this can I take?
Speaker 3: Does she have any friends in New York?
Speaker 6: My daughter lives in New York, My other daughter lives
Speaker 6: in New York, but she's she's well aware of.
Speaker 3: What's going on. She would and she would contact you,
Speaker 3: oh of course, of course.
Speaker 6: And Laura talks to her like twenty like two hours
Speaker 6: a day that they're on the phone. So, and I
Speaker 6: was just with my daughter in there like five minutes
Speaker 6: before you guys rang. And the reason I she lives
Speaker 6: in the casita, and the reason I left was because
Speaker 6: she said, Hey, I'm just I'm spent from all this.
Speaker 6: I just want to close my eyes for a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, why did she pose that? When did she posts
Speaker 3: the medium thing.
Speaker 4: Yesterday?
Speaker 3: No, it was before you.
Speaker 6: I mean it was was on there yesterday, but I
Speaker 6: want to say it was maybe, uh, today's Tuesday, maybe
Speaker 6: Friday night or Saturdaykay, that.
Speaker 3: Kind of goes with the timeline.
Speaker 10: I'm going to give this to you, not that you
Speaker 10: guys are in crisis, but they might be able to
Speaker 10: kind of help just give her someone else to talk to,
Speaker 10: or they have resources that we don't even know exists.
Speaker 3: Oh, really, reach out. They might be able to help
Speaker 3: you guys in a good direction.
Speaker 9: Okay, okay, And also reach out to the detective again
Speaker 9: and yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, let him know what's been happening, and yeah, that way,
Speaker 7: he's kind of apprized of it Tuesday, It might it
Speaker 7: might be able to help kind of open a different.
Speaker 3: Door, a different direction. But reach out to him again.
Speaker 10: But these guys have a lot of a lot of
Speaker 10: resources that we don't even know exists.
Speaker 3: Okay, so give them a call.
Speaker 6: Okay, Okay, Yeah, I can't hurt no, I mean because,
Speaker 6: like she had said, she had tried to be anonymous
Speaker 6: with this whole thing, initially with the pregnancy with the
Speaker 6: bachelor guy, and then and then people were saying, well, wait,
Speaker 6: you can. This guy was starting the conversation that wait,
Speaker 6: you can google the case and then her name comes
Speaker 6: up and it's Laura Owens and she's a podcaster.
Speaker 3: She and I do a podcast and we've done it for.
Speaker 6: I guess since twenty seventeen and iTunes named as one
Speaker 6: of the top twenty five most downloaded new podcasts in
Speaker 6: twenty eighteen. So we've had we've had success with it,
Speaker 6: but I mean, this is just, you know, she really
Speaker 6: had wanted to stay under the radar on this, and
Speaker 6: then she finally decided like, hey, you.
Speaker 3: Know, this guy is controlling the narrative and I have
Speaker 3: to speak out. I have to.
Speaker 6: Explain what's been going on, because otherwise she was feeling
Speaker 6: like she was getting no support from anybody because she
Speaker 6: didn't really want to go tell her friends and everything
Speaker 6: like that that this was all going on. So it's
Speaker 6: just it's a nightmare, a nightmare, but I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: We'll put comments in there so they know.
Speaker 6: Officer Rannick was the guy who who contacted her the
Speaker 6: other night, Like okay, yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 7: He comments in there with the address and then it'll
Speaker 7: come up in the history. We'll go back and read
Speaker 7: through the comments. So we'll try to do that to
Speaker 7: help you guys out a little.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, no, I really appreciate anything. Hey, way, I've
Speaker 3: got something for you guys. Hang on side.
Speaker 1: At the end of the video, Jan hands a candy
Speaker 1: bar to one of the officers. He takes it and
Speaker 1: thanks Jan.
Speaker 3: Thank you chocolate. So thank you.
Speaker 1: Another welfare check happened a week earlier, on December fourth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, and this time Laura joins the conversation.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, are you looking for Laura?
Speaker 3: Laura's my daughter?
Speaker 11: Okay here, yeah, uh she called the FBI, and the
Speaker 11: FBI called us to come check her, make sure she's okay.
Speaker 4: Oh, she was reporting something to him, but she was
Speaker 4: upset and sounded like she made some statements. They just
Speaker 4: wanted to make sure she's okay. This a long time, No,
Speaker 4: this was supposedly this morning.
Speaker 3: Can I just make sure see your car?
Speaker 4: They said, she's back here, but she was gonna come on.
Speaker 3: Where is your police car? The police car? I just
Speaker 3: we've had some really strange things. Where's your police car?
Speaker 4: There's two of them sitting right here.
Speaker 12: Okay, okay, okay, all right, we'll come on.
Speaker 4: But she lives in the back in the little.
Speaker 3: Why don't you come on in?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 12: Yeah, she's had some real issues with an ex boyfriend
Speaker 12: who It is the most complicated bizarre story ever.
Speaker 4: But well, our mab our Main. The only reason we're
Speaker 4: here is she evidently gave the FBI talked to them.
Speaker 4: They just wanted us to swing by to make sure
Speaker 4: she's okay. Okay, that's all we need.
Speaker 3: One second, let me just go gather.
Speaker 4: Hang on, why did.
Speaker 3: You contact the FBI this morning, cyber Crimes Unit?
Speaker 4: Yeah, did you talk to somebody or.
Speaker 3: Nobody contacted me?
Speaker 5: I like just submitted it like an hour ago. If
Speaker 5: it's the same thing she helped me with, did the report.
Speaker 13: So the information we got was that you submitted something
Speaker 13: to the FBI. It didn't say whether you talked to
Speaker 13: somebody on the phone or electronically, like made a nonline complaint. Yeah,
Speaker 13: is that some something you said was borderline suicidal?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: That was from the guy that that was also from.
Speaker 14: So I called us to come check on you to
Speaker 14: make sure you're okay. Yeah, yeah, No, that was like
Speaker 14: you were were you talking about whatever you said where
Speaker 14: you talked about yourself or someone?
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it was like from a couple of months ago.
Speaker 5: She was saying she's been targeted, like she's had a
Speaker 5: horrible situation with cyber from an ex boyfriend, from another
Speaker 5: guy that was obsessed with her.
Speaker 12: Yeah, and I had fifty videos of me on YouTube,
Speaker 12: so and yeah she has she has simply asked him
Speaker 12: to stop. She's filed to cease and desist asking him
Speaker 12: to stop, and they're not. They haven't stopped, and so
Speaker 12: she she thought that that, you know, it needs to
Speaker 12: go to some kind of cyber crimes unit.
Speaker 5: She had said in there that the harassment I.
Speaker 3: Had, well, I can say it.
Speaker 8: I had told the guy specifically that like, creating these
Speaker 8: daily videos about me had made me Phil.
Speaker 5: Porter's really suicidal.
Speaker 12: I was like last month, I messaged him and he
Speaker 12: continued to make videos about me.
Speaker 5: But I'm fine. He's like this guy has made.
Speaker 12: Like forty fifty fifty Yeah, I mean it's just insane.
Speaker 13: Somebody at the actually saw your yeah right and saw
Speaker 13: that where it's like these videos thinking and they're like.
Speaker 5: Right, We're like, oh, we better call make sure you're.
Speaker 13: Not actually gonna hurt yourself right now.
Speaker 4: And you're not. You don't need any assistance or okay.
Speaker 5: I'm good.
Speaker 12: No, yeah, unless you can get the guy to to stop.
Speaker 5: But I mean it's been it's been horrific. Absolutely sounds like.
Speaker 13: Somebody at the FP I got your plans hopefully hopefully.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I'm the mom.
Speaker 4: You're aware of everything going on, right, so you're here, okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everything that's going on.
Speaker 5: No, it's been it's been well.
Speaker 4: And if you do start feeling like, yeah, you can
Speaker 4: always call us because we can get you help too.
Speaker 5: All right, appreciate that. I mean, what would be great
Speaker 5: is just for the guys to stop.
Speaker 3: It's just very scary.
Speaker 12: But it's just that he's he's just really tried to
Speaker 12: incite online online hatred of her, and he he was
Speaker 12: She has protective orders against two prior boyfriends and one
Speaker 12: of them is a real is a real stalker, kind
Speaker 12: of a nut and has done every He swore that
Speaker 12: he was going to ruin her life and he was
Speaker 12: able to happen it too her computer, he had her passwords,
Speaker 12: he had all this kind of stuff, and uh, it's
Speaker 12: just he did contact with this YouTube guy, and he's
Speaker 12: just tried to do, you know, just to ruin her,
Speaker 12: to come up with all these fake stories, this craziness
Speaker 12: and and posted online about her. And so so you know,
Speaker 12: she was finally thinking like if a seasoned assist didn't work,
Speaker 12: and she's tried to get a temporary restraining order against
Speaker 12: this guy.
Speaker 5: First Amendment, right, right.
Speaker 2: And I figured I had to contact and he's claiming
Speaker 2: he's got a right to postuff, but he doesn't have
Speaker 2: a right to post lies. But anyway, but but so
Speaker 2: Laura was saying, well, maybe you know, he has violated
Speaker 2: these cyber stalking and cyber crime stuff.
Speaker 5: This guy posted a map of my house.
Speaker 3: I have another house, so he posted we have a
Speaker 3: layer B a B.
Speaker 12: He posted a thing was showing how to get to
Speaker 12: our house with pictures of the house. I mean, he
Speaker 12: had that on his computer up in the background when
Speaker 12: he was posting one of these the other the other day. So,
Speaker 12: so Laura was thinking, you know, maybe if we contacted
Speaker 12: a cyber crimes cyber stalking unit, that maybe that Yeah,
Speaker 12: I mean.
Speaker 2: People have said like they helpe I'm an organ donor
Speaker 2: because that's thank good would come from my pathetic existence,
Speaker 2: and like I'm a waste of skin like they've been.
Speaker 3: They're very mean.
Speaker 5: So I'm hoping to.
Speaker 12: And yeah, yeah, we we just you know, because it's
Speaker 12: like where do we where do we even turn if
Speaker 12: if they won't respect the court system, and and you know,
Speaker 12: they've they've just tried to do everything to hurt us,
Speaker 12: to hurt you know, the family, to I.
Speaker 5: Mean, they've it's just it's just been an absolute night.
Speaker 4: As long as you're okay. That's why we're here to
Speaker 4: make sure.
Speaker 3: Really appreciate you look at everything.
Speaker 4: I really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much for listening. Stay tuned for
Speaker 1: new episodes and bonus content on the Love Trapped Feed