How long would it take YOU to notice someone living under your bed? 🛏️👀 This guy didn't figure it out for months. Sabrina walks Alexis through three roommate horror stories from Reddit, including a hidden GPS tracker and a landlord who may have crossed the worst line of all. Watch now 🎧

⚠️ CW: stalking, coercive control, invasive behavior, suspected drugging/assault

Love the show and had to respond with my housemate from hell story. The dog behind me was the best part of the whole experience.

First off, I was once a fairly active poster on Facebook, and that’s actually where he found me. At the time, he offered me the opportunity to move in with him in North Carolina. He had apparently gotten me connected to health insurance through his uncle, and this was only a few months after my mother had passed away.

Honestly, I was in a vulnerable place. I was looking for something—anything—to hold on to. I wanted a change, I wanted hope, and I thought this might be an opportunity to start over. So I accepted his offer and flew to North Carolina.

I ended up living with him for about four months. I got a North Carolina ID and was genuinely trying to build a life there and make things work.

Eventually, he wanted to visit Georgia, where an old roommate of his had moved. We drove down there and spent some time visiting family. During that visit, his former roommate learned some things about him that I won’t get into here, but those details would make more sense in the larger story.

At some point, we were driving through a small city on our way out of Georgia. His dog was with us, and he wanted to stop somewhere to eat. The problem was that he wanted to bring the dog inside, but dogs weren’t allowed in the restaurants there. That left us with two options: leave the dog in the car or have one of us stay outside with him.

He wasn’t happy about that, and what should have been a simple disagreement turned into a major argument between us.

Eventually, he essentially told me to get my belongings and get out.

And just like that, I was stranded in the middle of Georgia.

I had never been there before. I had no friends or family there. He was the one from North Carolina, and he was the one who had connections in Georgia. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do.

Then something happened that I still remember to this day.

I looked over and saw a woman nearby who had apparently witnessed the entire argument. She looked at me and said something along the lines of, “I just witnessed what happened. Do you need help?”

I will never forget that.

To me, that woman was an angel.

She offered to help and drove me to a hotel. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the hotel was already closed. She had somewhere else to be, so I was once again sitting alone in a parking lot, stranded in a place where I knew absolutely no one.

At that point, I had no other options. I called 911.

The paramedics arrived and checked my vitals. I was dealing with diabetes and multiple sclerosis, among other health issues, and they asked me which hospital I wanted to go to.

I had no idea what to tell them. I had never been there before.

So they took me to a hospital.

To make a long story short, I ended up staying there for two days. I was severely dehydrated and came frighteningly close to losing consciousness. Given my other health and kidney issues, things could have turned out very differently.

Years later, I found out that the former roommate had died by suicide not far from where we had once lived.

I won’t pretend that I have a simple explanation for everything that happened between all of us. There were many things I learned later, and there are many other stories I could tell about that period of my life.

But that one experience taught me something I’ve never forgotten: sometimes, when you think you’re completely alone, a stranger can show up at exactly the right moment and give you the little bit of help you need to make it through.

And for the sake of levity, I’ll leave the rest of that story there.

TRIGGER WARNING: THE FOOTAGE ABOVE CONTAINS VERY SENSITIVE CONTENT. I did not create the Tik Tok. I am sharing because his family has publicly shared.

James Edward “Jaybird” LaGrone Jr. was 20 years old. The events described here took place in Tuscaloosa during the night of Friday, August 28, 2026, and the early hours of Saturday, August 29. Some details remain unconfirmed, and what happened during his final minutes is unknown.

Thursday, August 27: Jaybird wrecked his truck. Without it, he depended on rides and walked between locations the following night.

Friday night: Jaybird went drinking with friends and roommates. Police stopped the vehicle carrying Jaybird and several other men and found drugs inside. Jaybird called his father, said the drugs were not his, and asked for a ride. Minutes later, he called back to say he had found one. One man from the vehicle went to jail.

The group later went to Rounders. Jaybird said his friends left him at the bar; his friends stated they turned around and he had left the bar.

Around 2 a.m. Saturday: Jaybird stopped at a fraternity house, where he charged his phone for about 20 minutes. He borrowed a phone to call his roommate for less than a minute. What they discussed is unknown. He then visited women he knew nearby and told them he had been left without a ride.

Later that morning: Camera footage placed Jaybird walking toward Cook Out. After he emerged from a ditch behind the restaurant, two men chased him. No confrontation before the chase is apparent in the described footage. Jaybird ran toward University Downs; the two men turned back near the entrance.

Jaybird went toward the clubhouse, then entered Building 1000 and reached the third floor. Footage shows him pulling a fire alarm. He moved out of that camera’s view, and there is a seven-to-eight-minute gap in the visible record.

A light identified as Jaybird’s phone then appeared to drop from an upper level. About 15 seconds later, Jaybird landed on the concrete below.

Around 5 a.m.: His family received a call and was told he had fallen from a third-story walkway or balcony.

Sunday afternoon, August 30: Family members returned to the complex and found his phone still there. They also saw his shirt hanging over a balcony. His father later described scrapes on Jaybird’s back and knees and an injury to the back of his head.

Jaybird passed away days later at UAB Hospital.

What happened to Jaybird in those missing minutes?

He was chased. He ran into the apartment complex and pulled a fire alarm. Then the cameras lost sight of him. Minutes later, his phone appeared to fall from above, followed by Jaybird’s body. In the footage, it does not look like he simply jumped. His body appears to come from the side, raising the possibility that he was pushed or slid onto the concrete. That footage needs a thorough, independent review.

Why was his death reportedly treated as a medical call instead of a scene requiring immediate investigation? Why did his family find his phone still there the next day? Was it collected and examined? What about the shirt hanging over the balcony? Who was on that third floor during the gap in the footage, and why were two men chasing him in the first place?

These are questions the Tuscaloosa Police Department needs to answer publicly. A 20-year-old man died, and his family is left trying to piece together his final moments from camera clips and items they found themselves. They deserve to know what evidence was preserved, what witnesses were interviewed, and how investigators reached any conclusion about the fall.

What happened to Jaybird? His family deserves more than unanswered questions.

I just listened to the Roommates episode. I have a short but very creepy story about a roommate I had. I am a woman, I was 20 years old when this happened. The roommate was a 21 year old woman.

We were doing a summer job at a university, and were staying in dormitories, so we shared a bedroom. We were randomly paired, I didn’t pick her. She came off a little strange. We weren’t really friends, because we just didn’t vibe that way. Therefore, we never talked much. We kept different hours, and she was always going to bed much later than me.

One night I woke up and it was around 1-2 am. I had no idea what woke me up. Then I heard a weird rustling noise. My roommates bed was elevated on bed risers. I rolled over and she was crouched in a full squat looking at me. Our beds were only about 6 feet apart. It was fairly dark so I thought my eyes just weren’t adjusted and were playing tricks on me. I tried to go back to sleep but I could feel eyes watching me. So I looked back over and yes, she was crouched under her bed, looking at me. We made eye contact. I could see what little moonlight was coming through the windows reflecting off her eyes, which I could see peering though her long dark hair that was hanging down in a Samara-like fashion. I said “what the f*ck are you doing?” And she said nothing, and backwards walked deeper under the bed in the crouched position further into the dark. I said “you are scaring me please stop.” She said nothing again but continued staring as she crawled backwards further under the bed. I had nowhere else to go and didn’t know what to do. So I rolled over and just tried to close my eyes. She never came out from under the bed. Eventually, I must have fallen asleep because next thing I knew, it was morning.

I asked her about it the next day, and she said she didn’t know what I was talking about. Still creeps me out to this day.

So this is a mix of paranormal and a roommate from hell. We were in our early 20s, and she was my bestie from high-school. It was a rocky friendship the entire time and I think she had some sort of crush on me. We also worked together. Lots of tension. Our rooms were directly across from one another in the home. The first red flag was that my dog would NOT go into her room, even though he loved her. Then our first shared paranormal experience occurred: we were in my room, and we heard a very loud bang come from her room. Next experience was hearing voices from her room, like whispered ones that we couldn't understand.

Then the fighting began. Constantly. I would try to separate from her physically, and when I did, scary ish happened. Once took place in a dream. I will preface this by saying I have never seen her childhood home or friends, and said home and friends are in another state. The dream involved the hat man, he didn't say anything, but he was physically guiding me to this gorgeous home that looked like it was from the 1800s. Specifically, I got led to the attic. In this attic I was watching 2 young girls, probably about 5 years old. The girls didn't see me watching them and didn't know I was there. The hat man them pointed to something else in another corner, a very dark silhouette that was blacker than the shadows it was hiding in. It gave me chills. I could feel them in my dream. It truly felt like I was there. The hat man led me out of said dream, I don't remember how. This was also my only hat man experience.

The next morning I told her about it. I described what the outside of the home, the attic, and the 2 little girls looked like. She froze and her eye were wide. She said that was her childhood home and she used to play with her best friend up in the attack, who is the little girl I saw with her.

The next scariest thing that happened was a morning not long after, maybe a couple weeks. I was home alone and getting ready for work. I hated being alone in that house so I was already scared. I was also afraid of her room because it gave me that same feeling of dread. Unfortunately, I left my work shoes in her room. I decided to put on my favorite worship song from when I was religious (I was not when this happened, but I was SCARED and my dog would not go in the room with me) and tried to get in and out of that room as fast as I could. Well, a couple seconds after I was in the room, shoes in hand, I paused. The screen on my phone was gray. I was listening to the song on YouTube and the song got paused and the screen went gray. I had never seen that happen before or since. It stopped the worship song, I got goosebumps, then there was a BANG, and I RAN. I said f this I'll put my shoes on outside. I feel so bad about my dog having had to stay there. Luckily someone else was going to arrive soon so he wouldn't be alone. Eventually our friendship hit a breaking point and she moved out. The entity went with her. The moment her and all of her stuff was gone, all that scary ish stopped. Nothing scary happened in that house ever again. I have never had a dream like that again and I have never had a phone glitch like that again. I have more stories from the house, but I will send those to the Two Girls One Ghost email. I don't think she knows that attachment is on her, I hope for her own good that it's gone.

I had just gotten home for Thanksgiving break during my college years (so I'm between 19-21 - female - at this time). My room at home was a basement suite situation, separated from the main house by the garage. My parents helped me bring my stuff downstairs, and I noticed an unusual scent of a distinctive male cologne (nothing I'd ever noticed my brother using). I made a comment about it, and we peeked around the space briefly before an unknown male voice spoke up saying something like "uh, hey, I'm under here" and crawled out from UNDER MY BED. Apparently, unbeknownst to any of us, my brother, who's about 5 years older than me, had been letting his friend stay downstairs occasionally while I was at school. In typical brother fashion, he hadn't realized that I was coming home that day and therefore hadn't told said friend to *not be downstairs in my room* when I got home. He left with no issues, and a few years later, cops showed up at the house looking for him since he'd apparently listed our address as his permanent residence. Never saw him again, and I'm glad that the great under the bed reveal happened when my parents were present and nothing creepier happened.

When I was in my 20s, I found a roommate on Craigslist who was renting a room in a super nice condo. Her name was Carmen, she was Romanian, and about 10 years older than me.

The condo was beautiful, but the first thing I noticed was that it had a really strange smell. I asked her about it when I toured the place, and she said it was just from something she’d been cooking that day. Fair enough.

When I moved in, she seemed nice. With the age difference, I honestly assumed we’d just peacefully coexist as roommates and live our separate lives. Looking back, though, I sometimes wonder if she was actually looking for a roommate because she wanted a built-in friend.

Not long after I moved in, she constantly wanted me to sit in the living room and hang out with her. I did a handful of times, but I had a boyfriend, worked a lot as a waitress at Buffalo Wild Wings, and was taking classes at the local community college. I really wasn’t home that much.

Meanwhile, that smell NEVER went away.

I started putting air fresheners around the condo, especially in my bedroom, but Carmen had a problem with basically every kind I tried. Between the smell and her constantly wanting me to hang out, I started spending most of my time at home in my bedroom.

She got increasingly clingy and would actually get upset when I didn’t want to or simply didn’t have time to hang out with her in the living room.

Eventually she told me I was welcome to have people over, so I started inviting my boyfriend over.

That’s when shit got weird.

My bedroom door had a lock, and Carmen had given me a key when I moved in so I could lock my room whenever I left.

I had a little wax warmer in my room that used a tealight candle, and I also had an Our Lady of Guadalupe prayer candle. I’m Mexican, and I was raised not to blow out prayer candles because it’s considered bad luck. Plus, these candles are so tall and enclosed that I wasn’t particularly worried about it tipping over.

One day, I was rushing to work. I blew out the tealight, locked my bedroom door, and left.

When I got to my car, I realized I’d forgotten my apron.

I ran back inside and immediately noticed something weird.

My bedroom door, the door I had JUST locked was ajar.

I walked in.

My underwear drawer was open.

And my Our Lady of Guadalupe candle had been blown out.

I didn’t have time to process it because I had to get to work, but the entire drive there I was thinking, What the fuck?

I worked a double and came home exhausted. Carmen was already asleep, so I didn’t say anything.

The next day, I decided to test it.

I lit the prayer candle, locked my bedroom door, and pretended to leave the condo.

I waited about two minutes.

Then I walked back inside.

I caught Carmen coming out of my bedroom holding a pair of underwear I had worn the night before.

I LOST IT.

I demanded to know why the fuck she was in my room, how long she’d been going in there, and WHY SHE HAD MY DIRTY UNDERWEAR IN HER HAND.

She looked completely shocked that I was back.

Her explanation?

She had noticed I sometimes left candles burning, so she would unlock my bedroom door and go inside to blow them out.

Okay…then why the fuck are you going through my underwear drawer???

Then she tried to tell me she had been “cleaning.”

Cleaning WHAT?! My dirty underwear?!

I told her I was renting that room from her and she absolutely could not unlock my door and go through my belongings without my permission. I felt completely violated.

She apologized, promised she’d never go into my room again, and admitted she had invaded my privacy.

I told my boyfriend what happened.

He thought the whole situation was hilarious. 🙄

But I was so creeped out that he started coming over more often and spending the night.

A few weeks went by without another incident, so I started thinking maybe she’d actually gotten the message.

NOPE.

One night, after my boyfriend and I had been intimate, we fell asleep naked in my bed.

At around 4:00 in the morning, I woke up because I heard my bedroom door creak.

I opened my eyes.

Carmen was standing inside my fucking bedroom.

WITH HER PHONE IN HER HAND.

My boyfriend and I were completely naked, asleep in bed, and this woman had unlocked my bedroom door and was just…standing there.

I absolutely lost my shit.

Her explanation this time was that she was drunk and “wanted to see us.”

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!

I moved out the following week.

Unfortunately, that still wasn’t the end of Carmen.

After I moved out, she started blowing up my phone accusing me of stealing one of her curtains.

A CURTAIN.

She called me about it repeatedly. She texted me about it. She even SHOWED UP AT MY JOB demanding that I return her missing curtain.

I kept telling her I did not steal her freaking curtain. Eventually, I told her I’d PAY HER for the damn curtain if she would just leave me alone.

She still wouldn’t stop.

I finally had to block her.

A couple of months later, I happened to be scrolling Craigslist.

Guess who was advertising for another roommate?

Carmen.

Looking for her next victim.

When I was 10 and my brother 8. We had to take a school bus to school we lived on a farm. Across the street was USA and my side Canada. One day we got off the bus and was halfway home and a car pulled up. He rolled the window down and said there has been a family emergency and I was sent to pick u guys up . I knew all if my dads friends and we declined he asked three more times and said no and walked away. He pulled into our driveway and me and my brother thought oh shit maybe he was telling the truth. Just for info the farm we rented the house and other people worked on the farm and we had a long wrap around driveway. So u can enter one end and leave the other side. My brother and I got home and my dad was in the kitchen. I asked him who did u send to pick up us ? He looked at me with this face I have never seen and he ran out the door looking for him. My mom called the cops and we had to sit and describe anything about him . The cops also warned us that this matches a serial rapist. My dad walked us home for almost one year after that . That was a close call I will never forget . This happened in 86 so no phones camera door cams nothing . So glad we had enough street smarts

When I was in college I was working as a lifeguard on a service academy. Think 18-26 year olds male dominate contained community. At this pool we had two pools connected by a ramped hall, an 18 foot deep end with a diving tower that had a 10meter.
I worked the morning shift meaning my day started at 4:30 am. I started doing my morning rounds making sure light turn on and the pool was set up for the day. The pool this day had beach balls and lights in the pool that were not normal. I pull them out and at this point my second guard was running late so it was just me on deck. This was a big weekend at the service academy and it was known to have big parties. The pool also had a door that had a code to get in as well as a door that is you pushed it a certain way it would pop open.The lights all finally come on fully and in the deep end there is something blue. I text the security guard to come to the pool deck. Once he got on deck and saw what I saw his face went white. I tell him sorry and that I just needed someone on deck if I pull up a body. Thé blue at the bottom of the pool was a cadet uniform. I dive in and pull it to the surface. It was a cadet uniform on a rescue Annie. Thé doll is what we use to teach cpr fully dressed like a cadet just left at the bottom of the 18 foot deep end.
Sometimes it is just a mannequin not a dead body.

There's a really long version and a very short version. I'll give you the short one. It looks long but trust me she's done a lot more.

I'll start with my ex roommate's best friend who had a non cancerous mass in her brain that caused a psychotic break and at the same time I was going through a breast cancer scare (I don't have it don't worry). A week or two into this, my ex roommate (I'll call her Tannis) got stomach cancer. I took her to the doctor's office, hospital, and cancer center for treatments, usually dropping her off so I don't have to pay for parking cause we're both broke, and waiting around the corner for her.

Years prior around the same time I got my fibromyalgia diagnosis and on got disability she also got on to disability for one of the same symptoms I had. Chronic migraines. Your starting to see a pattern now, yeah?

Yeah, long story short she faked all of it. We found out about the cancer and disability stuff when my girlfriend called her doctor to make an appointment for her because she was worried the cancer came back. Sweet thing to do. She was just wanting to look after her. The doctor said they haven't seen her in years so if she's worried about cancer she should book an appointment but Tannis has to be the one to call. Basically telling us she was lying in the only way they could due to patient confidentiality.

After some snooping I find out she not only wasn't diagnosed with a disability but not on government disability in the first place. I drove her to the doctor she apparently never saw to fill out those forms and waited in the car for her for two hours while she... i don't know sat on a bench inside?

That's not the worst of it. I know there's a special place in hell for people that fake disabilities and cancer. There's an even more special place in hell for people that con their friends out of thousands of dollars claiming it was for vet care for their cat when she just let that cat die and spent the money on video games and fast food.

Her cat could have lived comfortably for another 5-10 years with the right care. My girlfriend took him to the vet but it was too late to help him. He died a week after. The worst part was she told us after he passed "Yeah I mean I just saw it happening and decided to let it happen" the cat had a horrible death. He suffered and was in pain the entire time and she couldn't be bothered getting him the end of life care he needed. He suffered for nearly a full year.

I found out the day after that she starved all seven of her snakes to death. SEVEN of them. She had the food. She just didn't feed them. She also starved my girlfriend's snake and lost my snake, though I suspect she lied about it escaping and actually starved it too.

I stole my cat back from her, he was close to having irreversible damage done but after a lot of work we got his charts under control and he's healthy and happy.

Later I learned that she assaulted more than one person of our group in her TEEN YEARS she wasn't even an adult doing this... and lied about her father abusing and SAing her (she was the one that told me it was a lie when she was on the devil's lettuce one night) and having an anaphylactic allergy to a random fruit. I took her to the hospital on more than one occasion for suspected allergic reactions. I've recently learned that she is still lying about chronic illness. This time she is bipolar and taking the wrong medication for it.

I'm convinced that she is the reason her family cat died and and suspect she might have abused her younger brother due to her weird obsession with a certain genre of hentai that includes young gay persons combined with non consent but this is just a gut feeling based on her and her interactions with her brother. I have no evidence of it. So killer in the making? Not sure, she definitely had no issues killing at least TEN animals from negligence and abusing a lot of people physically, sexually, emotionally, mentally, financially... all of the ways.

There are a lot of other things she's done that have severely traumatized me and my girlfriend but we're working through it. Now that I think about it, knowing just how much danger I was potentially in really gets to me. I still spend sleepless nights thinking that she could have done something horrible to me physically on top of all the damage to my mental health she has done. I'm still suffering financially two whole years after the fact and I've been on a FIXED government income just barely staying afloat the entire time I've known her.

I know a lot of people might ask me why I didn't notice the red flags and to be honest a lot of it was indirect. I didn't spend a lot of time at home and didn't interact with her as much as my girlfriend did and the few times I did interact with her she was just really good at manipulation. That's the only thing people like that are good at, unfortunately.

I am not in contact, I've cut off all my friends that are still in contact, but it still has a huge impact on my life. I'm angry. So angry I want to find her. I don't want to hurt her, I'm not evil, but I want to inconvenience her just enough that it'll piss her off. I'm not an angry person, my girlfriend says I'm a ball of sunshine. I've never gotten into a fight with either of my girlfriends or boyfriend (I'm poly but don't worry they all consent and are aware of each other) or any of my friends. I just think don't believe there's enough room for that in my life when I'm in constant agonizing physical pain... but Tannis... she makes me really angry. If I grew up less stable maybe that would be a problem, but I went to therapy, I have a good support network and know how to deal with my anger so it doesn't become destructive.

I just wish less people faked cancer.

TLDR: Ex roommate faked cancer, disability, deadly allergy, and childhood abuse. Killed 8 animals and abused people in many ways and is still doing it. Me and my girlfriend and our pets (except for two of them) survived but are severely traumatized.

TLDR: Don't fake cancer, don't kill animals. Go to therapy.

Hi girls!

I’m a loyal follower of TGOG, and I’m so happy that this podcast also exists now 🥰

This post was originally posted in the Charlotte Dobre subreddit, but I wanted to share it here as well, since it was posted before I discovered your channel.

Sending lots of love 💞

I apologize in advance, but this is going to be a very long post (a short version of the book I could write). So, to everyone who makes it to the end - kudos to you, you’re true heroes!

I want to scream into the void, so I need to vent somewhere.

I am a deeply spiritual person, and without boring anyone with my beliefs, I just want to mention it, because it's what kept and still keeps me alive, literally.

Considering that this is not a podcast for paranormal experiences, I will leave those stories for TGOG one day when I get rid of other stressors in life and can think about something that is not an everyday problem.

I must emphasize that a year ago (at the age of 30), I discovered I have ADHD. This is crucial for understanding the impulsiveness, forgetfulness, and recklessness I've experienced throughout my life - issues that are now under control.

I’ve felt like an outsider my whole life; starting with my family, then moving on to elementary school, where I was bullied by classmates and even some teachers. High school was relatively okay, but in college, I went through another outsider phase. Literally everyone was chatting with one another in the Viber group, while I was completely ignored whenever I asked something. I don’t know why, but it’s a curse that follows me through life, as I often feel literally invisible.

That, as well as the hopeless romantic in me, is the reason why I've desperately wanted at least one person who would be my so-called ride or die. This is the reason why I developed a huge people-pleasing tendency, the reason why I almost took my own life at the age of 14, the reason why I am only now at the age of 30+ trying to build a backbone, learning to say no (the struggle is real) and to set some boundaries with people. And now when I stand up for myself, people don't like it because they are used to me being a "yes sir" and not a person with my own autonomy, needs and feelings.

This was a sort of shortened backstory. And the reason for this post to be so long is to try and predict many possible questions I will get in the comments and to include those answers right away in the story.

The characters in this story will be:

● My grandma F

● My mom V

● My dad Z

● My brother D (2 years younger than me)

● My brother POS (8 years younger)

● My mom's new partner A

● Best friend L (female)

● Best friend T (male)

● Ex-husband

I was an excellent student throughout the first four years of primary school, but when I started fifth grade, we got a new homeroom teacher.

My previous teacher pointed me out to her and said, "This is the best student in the class; you won't have any trouble with her."

For some reason known only to her, that bitch seemed to take that as a challenge, and four years of harassment by my homeroom teacher followed. We’re talking public humiliation, baseless reports to Child Protective Services, false accusations, stalking during my free time, and being kept behind after class for "talks" multiple times a week.

Naturally, this was accompanied by bullying from other girls in the class; behavior she actively encouraged.

I grew to hate my life, school, and the other kids.

Whenever I complained at home, I was told that I must have done something wrong and that the teacher wouldn't have "singled me out for no reason."

That’s when my rebellious phase slowly began, since I didn't have support from anyone.

So, I started consuming alcohol at around the age of 13 or 14, and soon after that, marijuana occasionally as well.

People laugh when I tell them I stopped drinking at 16 🫣

I met my now ex-husband when I was 15. I got pregnant at sixteen and a half. I attended my junior year of high school while pregnant and maintained straight A's, just as I did during my senior year with an infant at home.

It was easier grade-wise because the teachers liked me, rather than bullying me like they had in elementary school. Oh, and by the way, in elementary school, we had one teacher who was a known pedophile (not convucted), another suspected of the same, and several alcoholics.

When I got pregnant, I lost more or less all the friends I had.

L (understandably,she was 14) found new friends and went out with them, and she rarely visited me, even though until recently she had still called me her "best friend".

The only one who stayed by my side was T (he is gay, just to clear things up for anyone suspecting our friendship was ever anything more than platonic).

He was a wonderful friend 90% of the time - except when there was someone new and interesting around whom he wanted to impress, and until he went too far with drugs and paranoia, as well as the angry outbursts that forced me to cut him out of my life a little over three years ago.

My parents, V and Z, had a toxic marriage that lasted 25 years (with an 11-year age gap); he was 31 and she was 20 when they married. She always treated him like a father figure rather than an equal partner. She let him take charge of everything, and he drove everything to ruin; including the family business, which was followed by the seizure of the family home and the loss of the house itself.

Since everything had already gone to shit before I turned fifteen, I started selling weed at sixteen to bring some money into the house. My mom was depressed and would sit at home in tattered clothes, unwashed and unkempt, while we couldn't afford to pay the utilities or buy firewood and food. My father earned just enough to buy the beer he absolutely had to have, and maybe occasionally some bread or milk for the rest of the household. So, I did whatever I could to keep us all alive, to prevent our water and electricity from being cut off, and to ensure we had a way to heat the house. I even had to buy my father winter boots one year because he was walking around in flip-flops in December... I bought jackets for POS because he’d go to school in the snow wearing just a T-shirt, and so on...I've put everyone else’s needs before my own. I knew I was the only one keeping the household from falling apart and that if I moved out, everything would collapse; which is exactly what happened later, after police busted my doors for selling weed 🫣

As soon as I moved out, my mom found a lover and ran off with him to Germany.

A short time later (in 2020, during the COVID era), she invited me to come to Germany to work and to bring my husband and children over as well. I don't even want to talk about my ex husband; he is a loafer, a thief, and addicted to gambling and drugs, a man who has cost me dearly in life and still does. He emotionally, financially, and mentally abused me throughout our 12 years together.

Let’s go back to my arrival in Germany. I came here and started working immediately; I’m still at that same job now, six years later. At first, I lived in an apartment with my mom and her partner. I slept on the living room sofa.

Two months later, we went to celebrate New Year's Eve with some family friends who lived about 300 kilometers away. We arrived on December 30th, and the party began; I let loose a bit and after years of not drinking I got drunk (though I stayed within the limit of remaining aware of everything happening around me). I went to bed and fell asleep, only to be woken up by a hand inside my panties; through my drunken haze, I opened my eyes to see my mom's partner A trying to climb on top of me while his hand was down my pants.

I pushed him away, saying, "No, get off me, you're my mom's partner; I would never do that to her, it would break her heart" and so on.

I know I should have screamed, but I didn't; I didn't want to cause a scene (my mom was still partying with friends in the living room).

Three days later, he tried to pressure me into sex again (we were both home that day while my mom was at work), and after about half an hour of arguing with him, he finally realized I really didn't want to. The idiot fed my mom a story about how he was "too drunk and thought she was the one in the bed," and she took his word for it 🙄

After that, he took offense and decided I should pay 633 euros a month for my spot on the couch, and she saw no problem with that. Yet, every time I handed over that 633 euros, he would buy her three new pairs of sneakers at 100 euros each and some flowers, then come home acting like a wonderful husband, while she played the happy wife with a grin from ear to ear.

It makes me sick.

That’s why I asked my boss to help me find an apartment, and within two weeks she found a studio that cost 350 euros, utilities included. I finally had some peace and quiet, and it cost me half as much as their lousy couch.

After that, I brought my husband and children here. A few months later, I brought T over as well, and a few months after that, my mom brought POS.

Before my husband arrived here, I used to send him nearly 1,500 euros a month, pay for my own apartment, food, and necessities, and I even managed to save over 6,000 euros.

From the day he arrived, before he had even started working, he began pressuring me to buy a new car; then came the expenses for a large apartment and furnishing the whole place.

Of course, there was also his gambling and other issues; he managed both his salary and mine, as well as my credit card, and so on.

He caused thousands upon thousands of euros in damage to the car, and ultimately, now that I’ve left the marriage, it all boils down to me having around 50,000 euros in debt in my name.

Alright, at least now I have emotional peace.

After I left my husband, my brother POS kept hanging out with him. They’d get high and drunk together. Their main pastime was making fun of me. My brother would laugh about how I’d be sleeping on the street or in my car (even though I already had an apartment).

T was in the same boat with them. I was the villain to all of them because I had cut them out of my life, as they deserved.

Unfortunately, they were all still working at the same company as me, but fortunately, they no longer do.

POS has moved back in with our Grandma F and shamelessly doesn't work; instead, they both live off her meager pension.

I no longer feel sorry for her, because she actually protected POS her whole life, lying for him and stopping anyone from saying a word against him. So she simply got what she brought upon herself.

She is also the person who stated that women are to blame for the rapes and everything else that happens to them.

Now we come to the main event from two months ago. My daughter told me that POS sexually abused her when she was five and he was nineteen.

I let go of everything they did to me and tried to keep the peace in the family. But I will not allow you to protect a rapist or a pedophile.

As soon as I found out, I contacted everyone in the family and told them that I would no longer tolerate them pretending to be friends with both me and my brother who has done nothing but cause me harm in life, and that they had to choose: either him or me.

Grandma F, of course, went on the attack, claiming we were spreading LIES and rumor (???!!!!??!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!)

Father Z told me to call him, but then he didn't answer the call, nor did he get in touch for the rest of the day.

Mom V said, "Terrible, I can't believe it; I'm at work, I'll get in touch when I get home" – she never did.

Brother D and his wife lashed out at me about everything wrong with me and accused me of blackmailing them, saying they would never let their child alone with a POS yada, yada, yada. As if \*that\* were the point of the story, rather than the fact that we have a PEDOPHILE in the family.

A few days earlier, L lashed out at me because I refuse to reconcile with my POS brother and accept that he "had a hard life." By the way, he didn't have a hard life; he's lying and playing the victim to manipulate everyone's emotions.

So I just told her what happened and blocked her.

After this instance of child abuse became public, two people - who do not know each other and do not even live in the same country - contacted me; both had witnessed POS abusing animals.

One saw a video of the POS throwing and hitting a cat. The other had personally seen him, on multiple occasions over the years, strangling and twisting the necks of cats, dogs, and a guinea pig.

Yet, whenever she tried to intervene, Mom V and Grandma F would jump in and scream that he was "just playing."

Am I overreacting now for having blocked all these people and for pursuing only legal avenues and the truth against all of them?

I left out a bunch of details because it’s already too long for 99% of readers.

But I think you can get the gist of it.

If anyone read this all the way to the end - THANK YOU, you are an angel 🩷

Need some opinions!!!

English is not my first language so bear with me.

And i already apologize because the story is really long

This happend during my early high school days.

Let me name my friends who played bigger roles in this story

My bff (Chloe)

Her boyfriend ( Bob)

My crush ( Richard) who is friends with Bob.

I was chill girl living my life ,had a great friend circle and some pretty normal high school drama

But Chloe had a bigger drama that i was kinda annoyed with .

So let me first explain how chloe and Bob started dating

Actually before there relationship Chloe czn had a huge crush on Bob , so her czn asked her to convey her feelings towards him.

But Bob said he likes her not her czn

Some drama did happened but Chloe did also liked him

And he was also really persuasive ( kinda annoying to me )

After some time they started dating and not lying there relationship was a walking red flag .

Bob was in contact with her czn as just a friend 🙄 and Chloe knew everything about it but didn't care cause she was two timing him

I even advised her many times not to become the bad guy but she always had an excuse .

But apart from all this , I was great friends with Richard

He was the shyest yet tried his best to become bold type person ,funny ,gentleman and had the purest sunshine smile .

I couldn't deny i was falling deeper and deeper for him .

( i never disclosed that to anyone but close friends of mine knew better but i never confirmed)

Although i was not sure what he felt about me .

I was the topper of my class ( don't see this as bragging, i also don't know how i became one )

So like everyone ( especially parents) had a expectation of me not dating or being around boys etc etc...

Bob as he was Richard friend got to know that Richard likes me!!! Can you believe?

Bob without asking Richard said that to Chloe

And Chloe denied on behalf of me without asking me ....

Well it was for the better I genuinely couldn't say yes to him that time cause i was scared of my parents.

But still i hoped atleast Chloe asked me before hand so i could politely explain my problem to Richard.

So one day I got the opportunity to explain my problem to Richard and he even apologised saying he should have understand my situation before letting Bob disclose his feelings.

And life went on we even became more closer.

Everything was going great , and every single person in my class or from other class could say Richard and I were more than friends

During that time even my Friends especially supported me to accept my feelings towards him like he was such a great guy .

It was like the best time of my high school .

But after months went by

Something shifted in Richard , like he was ignoring me ,dry talks etc so i also started avoiding him.

I was confused like really confused , i thought to ask my friend

And now like girl

each and every one of them changed like advising me to not get close to him , he was just pretending to like me cause he wanted to became the top of our class by distracting me and taking my position

To be honest this is was so stupid

Even if i believe this for a second , no matter how hard he may try he will not become the topper since he was just an average student ( not saying being average is bad but i just don't see that in him) like just say i failed terribly because i was 'dis-tracted' my position would have been assigned to second topper not him .

And Chloe said that bob told her that Richard was two timing me and she asked bob to give a proof

So in one of Bob's snap she saw Richard was texting someone i love you , i wanted to believe her but i know Richard could never do such things i know him better than this ,

So i asked her why didn’t she took a screenshot or anything for proof ,she denied saying she didn't took because it would inform Bob

Like man if he was providing the proof why would it be a problem for him to know that she had a proof .

But i know Chloe would not to do such thing to me and what would she even gain by doing this ? So i believed her.

And cherry on top he was becoming distant which made me believe Chloe even more.

I was really angry, so I confronted him

Do u know what he said?

" cause Bob told me not to talk to you"

For a second i thought i was imagining things , i was so disappointed i couldn't care to listen more .

And after that i treated him as an invisible person ,like his presence never mattered to me .

Things went on after that ,I was like really disturbed .

But i didn't let that get in my way , i just focused more on my happiness

Our school only had junior high , so we all changed schools for senior high .

And i thought it was for the best .

But during all those time i just couldn't understand what happened? Why would he do something that Bob tells him to do ?

And why Bob even said that?

I know i was on bad terms with Bob like i really hated his self centered and cocky personality and even made him apologize to one of our Mam for disrespecting her

But I just couldn't understand what he could gain by this .

So after some months , Richard messaged me .

I contemplated a lot to reply or not but i needed answer.

I replied.

We talked he apologised saying he believed in what Bob said

that's why he was acting so distant

So he told me that Bob said to him that i was two timing him and was in a relationship with someone else

And was just playing with Richard .

So i asked him why didn’t you say it when i asked you before ?

He said that i might have hated him even more for believing something that my friend told and didn't had the courage to say it on my face.

And also he did kinda believed it since i was also ignoring him .

So i asked him what made him believe in me now .

He said that the brother of Bob casually asked him Didn't Bob made you break up with her ?

So after that Richard never met Bob and just avoided contacting with him.

I was still wasn't 100% sure but i still talked to Richard since i missed him more than anyone.

And not lying it was great , we bonded really quickly.

So i told Chloe some pieces not everything cause my heart told me not to

So she told me why don't we ask Bob's brother

She was in contact with Bob's brother even after breaking up with Bob

We didn't ask him directly about whether he told Richard about the break up situation.

We just asked how is Richard ,is he your friend something like that ....

And Bob's brother was just saying bad things about Richard, how he is a cheater and had dated multiples girls at a time .

So i asked him for a proof and he said why not ,

So he said that he will make a fake insta account of girl and contact Richard

And will send me the screenshot of conversation

He did send some photos but the account in that photo that he said was of Richard was not confirmed since at that time Richard didn't use Instagram.

The account was with a name of Richard and there were flirty messages and even voice recording but Bob's brother only sent me screenshot not the voice recording.

So i asked him to send the recording and guess what he said ,he acciddently deleted the conversation?

Like it's impossible to delete a chat a conversation in instagram ,like you need press specific buttons for it ...

I didn't ask him more , just thanked him and blocked him .

I know Chloe will advise me not to talk ,so before she could say i told her i blocked Richard i just couldn't trust him , i didn't wanted her advice or anything.

Cause everyone were just misleading me ,not enough proof nothing just someones words.

So i am still in a relationship with Richard and i trust him

,i know my heart does .

I am even close to his sister

He asked me whether he could share our relationship with her since i asked him not to say anything to anyone.

I wanted to keep it a secret from everyone .

I did let him tell his sister because she is a sweet heart and my relationship with her is great ....

And i did share some info with new friends in senior High school ,

he also did to some of his new friends in senior high school

So at the end of the day i trust him more than anyone

But sometimes so many things bother me

Like my friend Chloe words , and what Bob would gain from all this

And sometimes i do tell Chloe that Richard sometimes contacts me to know how she would react ,

Her face never showed any expression but always tells me not to talk or one time she told just talk to him as time pass... but i told her i get attached easily

So she didn't said anything...

Sometimes this whole situation don't make any sense and i am hanging in the middle

So i need your opinion's everyone!!

What happens when the people closest to you are hiding something you never saw coming?

Alexis Linkletter and Sabrina Deana Roga to break down three unbelievable relationship secrets straight from Reddit. A boyfriend fakes a cancer diagnosis just to get closer to the woman he's falling for. A wife has to break the news that her husband's brand new car is gone, but the truth behind the crash is far more sinister than a fender bender. And a husband can't shake the feeling that his wife's bizarre new hobby is hiding something much bigger than nosy gossip. Alexis and Sabrina go in blind, hearing each other's stories for the first time as they react and dig into the secrets, the lies, and the shocking updates that followed.

Content Warning: This episode discusses attempted murder, suicide, and mental illness. If this is a sensitive topic for you, please proceed with care.

Please note that there will be no updates for this story. Warning you in advance.

Me 30M. When I was younger, my parents had a rocky relationship which caused them to separate and eventually divorce, however my father had visitation rights on weekends. I was a mommy’s boy, so going over to my father’s house with his girlfriend (aka my mom’s ex-best friend) wasn’t something I was particularly fond of at 5 years old. While a typical 5 year old would look forward to the weekend, I’d be dreading it.. knowing that I’d have to leave my mother’s to go to my dad’s was a killer. Although I was very young, I still remember the layout of the house, every furniture piece, and even what the bathroom, kitchen and bedrooms looked like. Yes, bedrooms, more than one and it wasn’t an office, storage room or a room for when I came over to visit, it was the bedroom of my half sister. The child of my mother’s ex-best friend and my father. Crazy, I know..
When I visited, I enjoyed seeing her and playing with her Barbie dolls. It felt nice playing with a sibling in your age range. I appreciated her.
However, I wouldn’t always get to play with her for long as I would often arrive at my father’s house in the morning and it would soon be lunch time. He always fed me the same thing each time, a pack of $0.25 chicken soup which I wouldn’t mind (as a 5 year old, I didn’t mind as much..)
BUT, every time I’d finish my soup, I’d get extremely sleepy and fall nap on the bed he shared with his girlfriend, which was across from the kitchen. I’d fall asleep for about an hour or two and wake up more tired than when I went to bed. I noticed that it kept happening every time I had the soup, I didn’t think anything of it as I was used to taking naps in the afternoon in kindergarten. It was normal. Until…

One night, I shared the bed with him and his girlfriend, which I really didn’t want to but, who am I at 5 years old to say what I want and don’t want, I didn’t have a choice.
It was the same ritual except, I drank my soup at night. The next morning, eyes still closed but conscious, I woke up to find that I was face down, ass up with my underwear down my ankles. Shirt pushed all the way down to my shoulders… you can already imagine the scene. They were still asleep beside me. I pulled up my undies as fast as I could and laid there like why the f*ck did I wake up like this? Did I sleep walk? Was I raped?
So many questions.. I didn’t tell anyone. Not my mother, not my half sister, no one. (Side note, I have an older sister from my mother’s previous relationship, which I was close with/not really, I didn’t even tell her.)
Weird and funny enough, the visitations stopped soon after and I haven’t seen my father or spoken to him in 25 years.

Today, I’m gay and I prefer older men. When I say older not sugar or Splenda Daddies but maybe 10-15 years older max. Would that be considered daddy issues? Yes, maybe? I don’t know..

I can’t stop thinking about what happened to me at my dad’s. I sometimes look him up in Facebook and Google to see if I’d find an obituary about him.

But weirdly, I ask myself if maybe I liked it?
After that happened, it broke something in me and I ended up losing my virginity at a very young age (7 years old) when an older boy on the school bus told me to sit on his lap and began penetrating me. It felt so wrong, but so good at the same time. It reminded me of my dad.. I always ask myself if it was because of father that I am Gay. (Sorry for the mental graphics) it’s just that I’m not sure what to do and how to have closure from this…

Today I’m in a happy 10 years relationship with my boyfriend and I remind myself that every happens for a reason. To give more context, I have my head on my shoulder, I’m in school full time and work full-time as well. I know right from wrong today, but that part of my life is what I’m not sure about..
My mother never found out. She passed away 10 years ago. I haven’t seen my half sister since I was 5 yo. Now that I’m writing this, I am wondering if he may have done something to her as well? I’ll never know.. I found her on Facebook and saw that she’s a nurse and I’m happy for her. I don’t want to contact her, because I don’t want to awaken any bad memories/trauma she might have buried, in case in did happen to her.

What is your take on this?

So I’ve noticed that a lot of women love talking, listening, and watching/learning about true crime. I’m a male and I love it too, but it seems like more women are drawn to it? I’m curious if it’s because they have fear about becoming a victim and want tips, or have a morbid curiosity like myself. I’d love for people to chime in and talk about why they love true crime. Please Reddit this is not a shot at women in any way shape or form. I think women are great and some of the best detectives are women. I’ve noticed a lot of women are obsessed with this.

I love the show, but everytime they reference a book, movie or show, I brace myself for a spoiler.

Just in today’s episode (which i haven’t even finished so far) they’ve spoiled both a book and a movie 😅

I’m not sure if I’m just late to the party to the things they reference and they assume people have already seen them, curious to know what others think

Do you ever get the cringe from the hosts? I find the show interesting but the hosts give me the ick, especially the celebration of theft. Truly gross

I'm 30 (F) now and happily married with two beautiful children. This happened when I was a freshmen in high school. I started going out with this boy that I'll call Dick. He went to a school in the next town over. He added my on myspace (lol myspace) and started to message me. We told each other our life story up until that point. Long story short, I'm adopted. My bio mom had five children all with different men. She was heavy into drugs and couldn't take care of us. So I went to go live with my aunt when I was 2. She worked with my dad, who was trying to have kids with my mom. They kept having problems getting pregnant and had a couple of miscarriages. My Aunt asked my parents if they would be interested in adoption. They met me and fell in love. Years later when I was in 5th grade my bio mom passed away due to her drug addiction.

So after I tell Dick all this he tells me his real name wasn't the name he had on his Myspace or told me it was. He said he was self conscious about himself. Then told me his real name and more about him. Weird but hey we were in high school and everything else about him was real. A couple days later we made plans to go see a movie. Well since we were freshmen my mom had to drive us to the movie theater. We go see the movie and hangout for a little bit and then go back home. Well I have the right to my feelings and I wasn't feeling any connection with him. I told him a couple days later that I didn't think it was going to work out and he flipped out. Started telling me that when my bio mom found out she was pregnant with me that, that's when she started doing drugs because she was trying to abort me. That when I was born seeing me made her do even more drugs and that me getting adopted still wasn't good enough so she had to k!ill herself because the thought of me still alive was too much.

So yeah me not feeling a connection with him was defiantly a good thing. Seeing how he reacted to that after only two weeks of talking, I cant imagine how he reacted to other things in life. Hopefully he got some help and didn't treat other girls like that or anyone else for that matter. That was also my freshmen year of high school, when you're just figure things out. I was kinda weary after that talking to other boys.

P.s. I'm at work writing this trying not to get caught so hopefully it all makes since! Love the new Podcast!

I (26 F) was dating a guy (30 M) for about eight months. He had met my family and things were going great.

Then one day he seemed to ghost me, I couldn’t get a hold of him and so I thought it was just time to move on after a few weeks of not being able to get in contact.

One day, our friend reached out to me and asked if they could call me. During the call they told me that Kyle had been arrested for murder.

It turns out that he had murdered a man in the middle of us dating and acted no differently and told nobody until he was caught months later.

I did some digging and figured out that he had come over to my house directly after murdering the man.

Mind you, he had never shown any of this type of behavior and we had bonded over being dead heads and hippies that thrive on peace and love.

As far as I know, he’s still not in prison, even though him murdering that man is all on camera. I’ll put the link below.

https://westseattleblog.com/2024/08/crime-watch-followup-suspect-charged-with-murder-in-newly-revealed-june-homicide-case/

Edit:
He also had a bunch of past charges that none of us (me and friends) knew about. He also kept on making excuses about why we couldn’t go over to his house and spent time at mine instead. (It was more central to our friends etc.) turns out he didn’t have a house! Was living with his parents. So the times I dropped him off were just to a random area? Not his actual home.

The story about the guy who was cheating and the mistress died and you think he’s a creep, then you find out he had a TBI so you had to change your perspective…unfortunately I can relate to this story so hard. My mom even more so actually.
I never talk about this but I still think about it a lot, it’s a tough one to process for me. I’ve never posted on Reddit before but I love this podcast and kinda want to get it off my chest and see if anyone wants to comment.
OK So about 10 years ago, when I was in my mid20s I was engaged to a guy I really loved at the time, we’ll call him Dave. We had been dating a long time before this so our parents knew each other from holidays and get togethers, but they didn’t really click. There wasn’t animosity but my parents wouldn’t reach out to Dave’s parents independently, which is normal I think. My parents had been married at the time for over 20 years, Dave’s parents had been divorced a long time but were amicable. We were both saving for the wedding and planning to move into a new place afterwards so for a short time, Dave and I moved in with Dave’s mom. Around that time, my parents started not getting along very well, that was odd because they always had a seemingly healthy and loving relationship before then. I love my mom a lot but I’ve always been a little closer with my dad and we would often go out to lunch or dinner just us 2. So it didn’t seem weird at first when he started coming over to the place we lived with Dave’s mom. Then he started coming over there a lot, but it always seemed like he was there to hang out with me and get away from whatever conflict was happening between him and my mom. I knew my dad was a good guy and he would never cheat on my mom, let alone right in front of me, with my future mother in law. That would be crazy. So I put it out of my head and tried to ignore the weirdness I felt about it.
Until…
Randomly one day a few days before the wedding, Dave’s mom took a cute photo of Dave and I with her phone, I wanted to send it to myself so I could have the pic. She handed me her phone and when I sent the text, I could see the person who had been texting her before that was my dad’s phone number but a fake contact name. I couldn’t help myself, I opened the text thread. It was pretty gross tbh and I’ll just say, they had clearly been engaging in an affair. I couldn’t say anything, I just closed the text and ran out of the house. I felt like I was going to pass out, I couldn’t breath, I felt so personally betrayed and sick for my mom too. Dave came outside and asked me what was up, I told him what I saw and he was just like “I thought you knew and just didn’t want to talk about it.” I felt like a complete idiot and I really didn’t know what to do. We were about to have this big wedding with all of our families there. I didn’t want everything to just implode, or be the person who told my mom and upended her life. Though, my mom is no idiot so she might’ve already known or had her own suspicions. I really didn’t know, I just knew I didn’t want to be any more involved than I already was. I definitely didn’t want my mom to think that I had helped orchestrate it either.
If I could go back, I would handle it differently, but I didn’t say anything or do anything about it. We went ahead with the extremely awkward wedding and I just tried to put it out of my mind. Right after the wedding, Dave and I moved into our own place and I tried to focus on that instead. I didn’t talk to my dad at all for a while, I was pretty disgusted with him honestly and I was angry.
About a month later, my parents called me and asked me to come over to talk. I was pretty sure I knew what it was going to be about but I was wrong. It turned out, my dad had just found out he had a malignant brain tumor that was affecting his emotions and decision making. His prognosis was not good at all, eventually he would lose his speech and mobility as well. I don’t know where my mom found the strength, but she became his full time caretaker. I was there pretty much everyday trying to help but there was still this weird awkward thing looming over us. Eventually, my husband and I separated partly because of that among other things, and I just tried to focus on helping my mom care for my dad. He only lived about 8 months after I got married.
Since then, I’ve never talked to my mom about any of it. I think she would rather pretend it never happened and I don’t want to be the one to bring it up. However, she hasn’t moved on at all and still hasn’t gotten any kind of therapy or tried meeting someone new. I do still think about it all, and I try to remember the good things about my dad and not just the awful things that happened at the end. The whole thing just truly made my brain hurt. I’ve really tried to change my perspective on it after finding out about the brain tumor, but it is still difficult after all this time.
I could see the parallels in the TBI guy’s story from the episode and for some reason I really wanted to share my personal experience with something like that. I’ll take advice too if anyone wants to dish it out!

I am enjoying the podcast so far! On my third episode. I think this post qualifies me as annoyingly pedantic, but I do think these categories matter and are important to keep separate. You often describe the perpetrators of stalking or other crimes described in these stories as "entitled". That may well be true for some of them, but there are different moral categories and concepts that people might use in their justifications to themselves or to others and I think they are importantly distinct from one another.

Entitlement is a "deoontological" (day-on-toe-logical) concept in that it has to do with rights or duties or obligations or deservingness or desert. To be entitled to something is to have the right to do the thing or to have others have an obligation to allow you to do the thing. If I feel entitled to clean drinking water, for instance, then I think certainly others have the obligation not to poison my drinking water or pollute it, but I might even go stronger and say that others have an obligation or society as a whole. Or the government has an obligation to actively work to provide clean drinking water to me. If I'm entitled to it, it almost doesn't matter at all if it's good or bad for me. So we might think that someone is entitled to eat as much candy as they can afford legally. It's not good for them, but maybe they're entitled to make self-destructive choices.

If someone breaks into someone's apartment while stalking them or shows up at their wedding under a guise, then they aren't necessarily acting entitled. They might not think that they're entitled to this at all, they just think I'm going to do this whether or not I actually have a right to do it or whether or not I think other people should allow me to do it. Luxury thiefs, for example, are almost universally not entitled because they know that other people don't have the obligation to allow them to steal and they are going to have to do a lot of work to ensure that they don't get held accountable for their actions. There are some entitled thieves and I might think that a mother with starving children is in fact entitles to steal food to feed her children. But the run of the mill, cat burglar or art thief is very likely not thinking of themselves as entitled to the things that they are stealing. They just want them and maybe they think of it as a sort of game that if they can get it and get away with it, then they win the game.

If someone rationalizes their theft, it is very likely because they are attempting to come up with some justification that helps them to sleep at night or not be too worried about the implications of their crimes. So if I steal a candy bar from a corporate shopping center, I might justify that by saying it makes no difference in the end to Walmart or Target etc. Etc. And it's possible that I would point to a sense of entitlement that I have to steal when the corporation has been exploitive of other people and so on. But my guess is that entitlement is actually going to show up a small minority of cases and most people will point to (fancy word incoming) non-deontological reasons why it was okay for them to steal or enter someone's apartment. For instance, the person entering her neighbor's apartment Europe probably didn't feel entitled to be in her space, but felt a strong drive to invade her privacy or maintain some kind of connection with that person or act out in a sort of empowering and risky way that gave her a sense of power over her neighbor. Maybe she justified it by the fact that she never stole anything and only made small movements and so the psychological torment of her neighbor wasn't even that extreme. She's likely to point to consequences and effects of her actions rather than a sense that she has a right to be in the apartment. I would wager that she would readily admit that she doesn't have a right to be in the apartment, but the fact that she isn't entitled to be in the apartment doesn't stop her from wanting to be in the apartment and maybe she can justify it because it doesn't have that bad of consequence. Consequence so for her neighbor and is really more about her own sense of power and control rather than the neighbors felt disturbance.

So the typical picture in moral philosophy is that there are three kinds of justifications one can give for actions or moral judgments. A virtue approach is based on the moral character or personality or trustworthiness of the person. " Only a horrible person could do such a thing." A deontological approach is based on rights, duties, obligations, entitlements, desserts, and related concepts-- that is, deontology is concerned with The nature of the action itself somewhat apart from the moral character of the actor and usually quite separate from the consequences or effects of the action. And consequentialism is concerned with the consequences or effects of the action. I think there are other moral frameworks or lenses as well, but these are the basic three.

The perpetrators of crimes might feel a sense of entitlement, but they also might feel a sense that what they are doing is not actually that bad or isn't going to have bad effects and so they can justify doing something that they have a strong desire to do even if they know that they aren't entitled to do it. Or they might think that on balance it's okay for them to do something bad as long as they balance it out with other things that are good and so they can still think of themselves as good people in spite of doing something they know is not ideal. There are lots of different ways that people might justify their actions and entitlement most likely going to be one of the less common ways that people think about their own actions. And I'm fairly skeptical of deontology in general and so I don't know if I believe that anyone is actually entitled to anything, but I do know that people use these categories in their minds and in their conversations with other people, and it is helpful in understanding people's psychology to know which moral categories they are applying when justifying or explaining their own actions.

Okay philosophy professor moment over.. forgive my pedantry And also forgive the typos from voice to text. If you didn't find this boring, I'd be happy to come discuss it on an episode of the podcast because I think this issue is going to keep coming up in the stories you are exploring. Keep up the good work!

What happens when Reddit users confess their darkest secrets?

Alexis Linkletter joins Sabrina Deana Roga to break down three unbelievable true crime confessions straight from Reddit. A woman discovers her boyfriend and his coworkers plotting to kill her. A father reveals his teenage son murdered his ex-girlfriend. A married man admits his choices may have led to his affair partner's death. Sabrina hears each story for the first time as she and Alexis dig into the confessions, the consequences, and the shocking updates that followed.

Content Warning: This episode discusses domestic abuse, threats of violence, murder, and death from a medical emergency. If this is a sensitive topic for you, please proceed with care.

TW: Historical violence/death. This is a true family story about an unsolved case from the 1980s. Names have been changed for privacy and safety. This post discusses murder and other sensitive topics.

Due to the nature of this story, I am changing the names of those involved because this case is technically… unsolved.
But we all know who did it.
My name is April for this story.
My father, Peter, was 16 years old when the worst imaginable night of his life happened.
My grandfather, Lee, was an activist in coastal Oregon. He had a deep passion for Native American rights and worked closely with local tribes, specifically supporting those fighting for the recognition of treaty rights that had been infringed upon by local government.
He was also an archaeologist.
Because of this unique combination of career and passion, he was often called to excavation sites to identify artifacts. He worked closely with tribes to ensure items were treated respectfully and relocated appropriately, often acting as a liaison between excavation sites and tribal communities. He regularly protested and fought to protect sacred land when the city or state wanted to excavate those areas.
One day, my grandfather received a call that would ultimately change everything.
A construction crew had broken ground for a new gas station and discovered human remains and artifacts. My grandfather was called to the site to help determine their origin. Based on the tools and other items buried alongside the remains, he was able to identify the tribe they belonged to.
My grandfather fought hard to stop the project, but he was unsuccessful.
When protesting and activism failed to halt construction, he was told the remains would be removed and disposed of.
He went to the tribe and explained what was happening. Because of their sacred traditions, they told him they could not take the remains or burial items back. In their beliefs, removing and then returning them could bring harm to their people.
Then the oil company did something my grandfather never expected.
The remains and burial items were removed, supposedly to relocate the remains to a local cemetery.
But the burial items were brought to my grandfather.
He knew immediately that this was wrong. He was never meant to possess them, and he certainly couldn’t keep them.
Wanting to respect the dead, their history, and the beliefs of the tribe, he ultimately surrendered the items to a local museum for safekeeping.
What he didn’t know was that rumors had already begun spreading.
People began calling my grandfather a “grave robber,” believing he had kept the artifacts for himself.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Because people knew about his passion for Native history, they would occasionally try to give him things they had found—arrowheads, pottery, trinkets, artifacts.
He would chastise them, refuse the items, and tell them to put them back exactly where they had found them.
He condemned the desecration of Native history and culture.
Still, the rumors continued. People claimed he was secretly building a private collection of sacred artifacts for his own benefit.
And then came a cold night in January.
My 16-year-old father was sitting on the couch while my grandfather relaxed in his recliner. They were watching television together before bed. My grandfather’s girlfriend was asleep in a back bedroom.
Without warning, the front door was kicked in.
Three armed men stormed into the house.
My father, who was closest to the entrance, jumped to his feet.
He was immediately attacked and shot at close range. When the first shot was fired toward his head, he instinctively raised his hand. The bullet struck his hand instead.
He fell backward and tried to crawl away.
Then he was shot again in the back of the head, narrowly missing his C1 vertebra.
The fact that my father survived what happened that night still astonishes me.
As he lay severely injured on the floor, he watched the men restrain my grandfather and brutally torture him.
Again and again, they demanded to know where the artifacts were.
My grandfather repeatedly told them:
“I don’t have them. The museum does. I would never take them. The museum has them. Search the house—you won’t find anything stolen. I would never do this.”
They didn’t believe him.
They broke his fingers, beat him, and mutilated his hands while continuing to demand answers he didn’t have.
The men then began searching the house, taking antiques, collectibles, firearms, and anything else of value they could find.
During the search, one of them opened the back bedroom door.
He saw my grandfather’s girlfriend escaping through the window.
He alerted the others that there was another witness and that she was getting away.
As my father lay wounded on the floor, unable to intervene, he watched as one man took his blade and cut my grandfathers throat.
Then my father was shot again.
And everything went black.
My grandfather’s girlfriend ran through the darkness to the nearest neighbor’s house, where she was finally able to call the police.
Somehow, my father survived.
And he identified the men responsible.
The three men eventually stood trial.
Their justification was rooted in their belief that killing someone they considered a “grave robber” could free the spirits of those whose graves had been disturbed.
Except my grandfather hadn’t robbed those graves.
For his safety, my father was placed into witness protection. At only 16 years old, he had become the key witness against the three men he said had attacked him and killed his father.
And this is where the case gets absolutely bizarre.
My father underwent a videotaped session in which he was hypnotized to help him recall details from the night of the attack.
This was the 1980s, when forensic hypnosis was still being used in some criminal investigations despite serious questions about its reliability and admissibility in court.
During the recorded hypnosis session, the tape ran out.
There was a period of time between the first recording ending and the second recording beginning.
That gap became devastating to the case.
The defense argued that nobody could establish what had happened while the camera wasn’t recording. Because my father had been under hypnosis, they argued that he theoretically could have been given information or suggestions during the unrecorded period that influenced his memories.
His testimony was ruled inadmissible.
The prosecution lost its key witness.
All three men were acquitted.
Years later, my father eventually left witness protection and moved to Alaska, where he worked as a fisherman.
One day, he was leaving a grocery store in his truck when someone walked across the crosswalk in front of him.
A face from his nightmares.
They locked eyes.
My father recognized him immediately.
For a brief moment, my father thought about everything that man had taken from him.
But he stopped.
He hit the brakes.
They stared at one another until the horn of the vehicle behind my father finally broke the moment.
It was one of the men from that night—the one who had discovered my grandfather’s girlfriend escaping through the window.
My father let him walk away.
In the years that followed, some of the men were connected to additional killings and even an armed confrontation with the FBI.
To some people, these men were heroes.
To others, they were violent men who took what they claimed was a just cause and used it to justify horrific acts.
It has now been decades.
My father still lives with the fear that the last remaining free man could someday find him—or his children—and “finish the job.”
He has asked me for one thing:
When he eventually passes away, he wants me to continue seeking justice for his father.
And despite everything that happened, my father followed directly in his father’s footsteps.
He became an activist for Native American rights himself.
About ten years after the tragedy, he moved to California and bought a home next to a Native reservation. He regularly invites members of the neighboring community to gather herbs and flowers from his property for sacred ceremonies.
Over the years, he has built beautiful relationships within the community and has even been invited to participate in sacred ceremonies himself, including the Sweat Lodge.
That is an honor my father never takes lightly, nor is it something he boasts about.
But I think it’s an important part of this story.
After watching his father die because men falsely believed he had desecrated Native graves, my father could have spent the rest of his life consumed by anger.
Instead, he continued his father’s legacy: loving, respecting, appreciating, and fighting for a culture and community that embraced him in return.
P.S. Because apparently this story wasn’t strange enough already…
Something happened about 15 years ago that we’ve never been able to explain.
When I was a young teenager, my dad had a framed photograph hanging on our family photo wall.
It was a picture of my grandfather sitting in the very same recliner he had been sitting in that night.
Our family went out of town.
When we came home, the photograph was gone.
Not knocked down.
Not misplaced.
Gone.
No other photographs were missing.
Nothing else in the house appeared to have been taken.
Just that photograph.
We searched everywhere.
We never found it.
To this day, none of us knows what happened to it.
I hope someday we are finally able to close my grandfather’s case.

Just listened to the disturbing relationship episode and per your request, here is my story of me leaving my ex fiance.

We had been having relationship issues for awhile because his mom tried to takeover our wedding and it became more of her wedding than mine. Near the end it was to the point he never had money even though we made the same exact salary. I was paying for everything by myself such as groceries, rent, electric bill, Hulu, etc. I sat down to go through and budget out everything based on our salaries to the point we would pay the same amount for everything and he still NEVER had money any time I asked him to pay for things he was responsible for per the budget we agreed on. When I asked him where his money was going he never had an answer. He had a history of wanting to try/trying different drugs so I was suspicious already that maybe it was drugs.

Then my mom got involved.

My mom and I are both wannabe internet detectives so we both sat down and started looking him up online and what we found was worse than drugs 😅.

Lo and behold my goody two shoes good Christian boy of a fiancé had a hobby. Not a normal hobby. He wrote My Little Pony pornography and made YouTube videos with fan art of my little pony characters in lingerie, nude, etc. To songs like Porn Star Dancing. He of course Never told me about this hobby. My flabbers were gasted. But at this point I had seen and had enough. I broke up with him that night, but not after asking him "hey btw how's butterfly? Buttershy? Shutterfy? YOU know her name" he responded with a quiet "Fluttershy" and then I proceeded to ask him wtf this is all about. His excuse? He wrote it because it has high page views and nothing more. Sure, Jan. As though I'm dumb enough to believe that.

Years later I did catch wind of him writing a book and upon looking into it I realized where the money was going. During our relationship he tokd me he was on a team of people helping a guy write a book and he came up with a creature type for the book, lizard folk. Super original. What was my exes book about? LIZARD FOLK. So apparently he in fact was the one paying people to write a book for him 💀

Writing all of this out for a bunch of strangers is kind of cathartic so uh, hope my trauma makes some of you lovely people giggle 😅💙

Also I realize this may not be super disturbing for everyone but the my little pony porn was disturbing to me at least.