Fetal Attraction: The Reality Star And The Woman He Wished He’d Never Met

Summary

Chameleon: Fetal Attraction — The Reality Star and the Woman He Wished He’d Never Met

Podcast Host: Josh Dean
Episode Date: June 4, 2026
Podcast Theme: The intersection of celebrity, obsession, deception, and the internet’s role in unraveling a stranger-than-fiction true crime saga involving a former Bachelor star and a woman whose escalating accusations led to national headlines, legal chaos, and a wider conversation about modern cons.

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Episode Overview

This episode of Chameleon probes the surreal, twist-filled saga of Clayton Eckerd, the much-maligned lead of The Bachelor Season 26, and Laura Owens—a woman whose explosive, ultimately debunked claims of pregnancy triggered online sleuthing, courtroom battles, and a true crime podcast. Journalist Stephanie Young, who has chronicled the two-year ordeal, appears throughout as both a guide and commentator. The story unfolds as a portrait of manipulation, public shaming, community-driven investigation, and the consequences of unchecked obsession, all amplified by a reality TV-obsessed culture.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Bachelor Flameout: Setting the Stage

• [01:21–05:19] Josh Dean and Stephanie recount Clayton Eckerd’s disastrous Bachelor season—the public scorn, failed engagement, and his move to Arizona for a fresh start.
• Quote: “Fans debated if Clayton Eckerd was the worst Bachelor ever … You thought you were in a rom com. Turns out you are in a horror film.” – Josh Dean ([02:12])
• Memorable Moment: Clayton is rejected at the final rose, an unprecedented moment in Bachelor history.

2. Encounter With Laura Owens

• [05:19–06:57] Clayton, looking to rebuild his real estate career, meets Laura Owens via LinkedIn. Their professional relationship blurs into a brief sexual encounter.
• Laura claims pregnancy 11 days after their hookup, despite their sole intimate contact being oral sex.
• Quote: “Pregnant with his child from a blowjob. This is Chameleon and I’m Josh Dean.” ([06:57])

3. The Pregnancy Claims and Initial Reactions

• [07:32–09:03] Laura presents positive pregnancy tests (taken in Clayton’s presence), leading to confusion and cautious belief, despite the improbable biological scenario.
• Clayton requests proof—ultrasounds, appointments, and paternity testing—all are rebuffed or inconclusive.
• Quote: “He was like, holy. Like, she is pregnant.” – Stephanie Young ([07:57])
• Insight: Even implausible claims can exert psychological power, especially in public scandals.

4. Online Communities and The “Fetal Attraction” Investigation

• [09:03–16:43] Laura’s accusations become public, stoking internet outrage and tabloid coverage. Initially, most fans side against Clayton.
• Laura’s own Reddit/blog postings and contradictions prompt a tidal shift, with online sleuths and podcast personalities (notably Dave Neal and Reality Steve) dissecting evidence and inconsistencies.
• Notable communities: Bachelor Nation Reddit, specialized Patreon groups, and a fast-growing online “justice” subculture.
• Quote: “People at home … become participants. These legions of armchair detectives just leap into the fray, for better or worse.” – Josh Dean ([14:44])

5. Pattern Emerges: Multiple Accusations

• [15:31–23:32] A direct message tips Clayton to past cases: Laura previously accused two other men—Greg Gillespie and Mike Maracini (her ex-boyfriend)—of fathering twins and other related claims.
• Quote: “He looks up the case and discovers … Laura Owens had in fact accused another man of getting her pregnant with twins.” – Josh Dean ([15:42])
• Investigation uncovers forged sonograms, including one traced to a stock photo altered by a Fiverr freelancer.
• Greg’s attorney and online investigators piece together a pattern: similar allegations, forged documents, shifting stories.

6. The TEDx Talk and Public Persona

• [20:52–25:46] Laura’s TEDx talk and subsequent restraining order reveal a public-facing narrative of victimhood, domestic abuse, and resilience.
• Her ex-boyfriend Mike describes personal and professional consequences from a domestic violence restraining order that Laura repeatedly renewed, failing to appear for hearings as her own legal troubles mounted.
• Quote: “He’s had a domestic violence restraining order on him up until the end of 2025.” – Stephanie Young ([25:17])

7. Online Manipulation and Sock Puppeting

• [27:03–29:59] The “Justice for Laura” website and online identities (e.g., “Chase J. Jones”) appear, raising new suspicions of Laura impersonating supporters and detractors alike.
• Sleuths link login recovery to Laura’s phone number, strongly suggesting false identities used for media manipulation.
• Quote: “I believe Laura Owens emailed me pretending to be her ex boyfriend … to try to get me to stop explaining to people why she should face the consequences.” – Megan Fox ([29:41])

8. Legal Reckoning and Aftermath

• [30:22–32:56] Multiple courts, including the Arizona Supreme Court, rule definitively: Clayton is not the father, Laura was never pregnant. Criminal indictments—14 felonies—follow, including fraud, perjury, identity theft, and forgery.
• Maricopa County law enforcement executes a search warrant; Laura, on body cam, insists “I have done nothing except get pregnant by the bachelor.” ([31:39])
• Upcoming: Laura’s criminal trial is set for July 29, 2026.

9. The Human Fallout and Reflection

• [33:22–36:51] Laura, her parents (facing bankruptcy and foreclosure), and the targeted men endure ongoing personal, financial, and emotional distress.
• Quote: “[Mike’s] had a domestic violence restraining order on him up until the end of 2025 … it’s just over their heads all the time. Right.” – Stephanie Young ([25:17])
• Journalist Stephanie Young weighs empathy for Laura’s evident struggles against the wide-reaching harm done to others, the waste of resources, and the “crazy woman” stereotype risked by the story’s details.
• Quote: “The empathy for me comes from, I think that she wanted to have a great life … but you also have to remember that her actions are what got her to where she is now.” – Stephanie Young ([37:32–37:39])

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Memorable Quotes & Significant Timestamps

• “Pregnant with his child from a blowjob. This is Chameleon and I'm Josh Dean.” – Josh Dean ([06:57])
• “When this story became public, people were not on his side … out with pitchforks for him.” – Josh Dean & Stephanie Young ([11:22–12:02])
• “In nine months, you're going to have an answer, yes or no, right? This is a pretty black and white thing.” – Stephanie Young ([13:04])
• “That was enough for Clayton to believe, right?” – Stephanie Young ([08:29])
• “It didn't pass the sniff test.” – Stephanie Young, on Laura’s evidence ([16:15])
• “That’s a Fiverr logo!” – Dave Neal’s livechat discovery of a doctored sonogram ([19:03])
• “I have done nothing except get pregnant by the Bachelor.” – Laura Owens, on police body cam ([31:39])
• “She made this story public … so now that it’s out in the public, it is what it is.” – Stephanie Young ([36:02])

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Important Segment Guide (Timestamps)

• Clayton’s Bachelor Downfall, Arizona Move: [01:21–05:19]
• Meeting Laura, The Alleged Pregnancy: [05:19–06:57]
• Initial Reactions, Testing, Doubt: [07:32–09:03]
• Public Outcry & Online Sleuthing Begins: [09:03–14:44]
• Connecting the Dots—Multiple Accusations: [15:31–23:32]
• Forgeries Uncovered, Sonogram Mystery: [16:39–20:07]
• TEDx Talk & Maracini’s Story: [20:52–25:46]
• Legal Fallout for All Involved: [25:46–27:03], [30:22–32:56]
• Sock Puppeting and Internet Manipulation: [27:03–29:59]
• Final Legal Dispositions, Sentences Pending: [30:22–36:02]
• Reflection on Empathy and Harm: [36:51–38:29]

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Conclusion

This episode offers a riveting, sometimes shocking window into how modern cons unfold—not with criminal masterminds, but with persistent, digitally literate actors who manipulate both individuals and public perception. It is a cautionary tale against online rushes to judgment, underscores the dangers of obsessive behavior enabled by fame and virality, and raises still-unresolved questions about empathy, victimhood, and accountability.

To experience more, listen to the full episode or check out “Love Trapped,” the podcast by Stephanie Young, for a deep dive into every wild twist of the Clayton and Laura saga.

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If you’re intrigued by cons, cults, or the dark chapters of reality TV, Chameleon will be your new favorite obsession.

Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

Since he got out, bad things keep happening.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

Cape Fear, a new series, is streaming June 5 on Apple TV. Why would I want to hurt you?

[Josh Dean]

Why?

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

Starring Academy Award winner Javier Bardem. Why? And Academy Award nominee Amy Adams.

[Narrator/Host]

He is coming after My Family.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

Kate fear. Streaming June 5th on Apple TV.

[Josh Dean]

Back in 2008, nearly 20 years ago now, a man made his way into a Lane Bryant store and left five women dead. Then he disappeared. No name and no clear trail for investigators to follow. However, on the latest season of Counterclock, investigative journalist and host Delia d' Ambra is determined to change that. In this latest thrilling season, she tracked down witnesses, revisited evidence, and scouted the area, trying to separate what's known from what's assumed. Delia isn't just revisiting the case. She's reinvestigating it. Listen to Counterclock Season eight now. Wherever you get your podcasts,

[Narrator/Host]

campsite Media.

[Josh Dean]

Hello?

[Narrator/Host]

What is.

[Josh Dean]

What do you want me to say?

[Narrator/Host]

Chameleon.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

Chameleon.

[Josh Dean]

Chameleon Weekly. Oh. Journalist Stephanie Young is, like millions of other Americans, a big fan of the Bachelor. But she didn't watch season 26.

[Narrator/Host]

There was a lot of stuff going on in my life at that time. I was moving and, you know, Clayton wasn't a popular bachelor.

[Josh Dean]

Clayton Eckerd, the dashing former college football star who was fronting that season, just didn't seem to have the usual pull.

[Narrator/Host]

He was announced as Bachelor before we'd even met him on the Bachelorette. So a lot of people didn't have that, like, kind of connection to him like they normally do with the leads. And I kind of felt that way, too.

[Josh Dean]

So Stephanie probably felt vindicated, like she'd made the right decision not to invest in that season. When Clayton's arc aired in the winter of 2022, fans debated if Clayton Eckerd was the worst Bachelor ever. You thought you were in a rom com. Turns out you are in a horror

[Narrator/Host]

film when your husband thinks Clayton Etcher on Bachelor is the most idiotic bachelor ever.

[Josh Dean]

Or was his train wreck of a season so bad that it was actually sort of good?

[Narrator/Host]

Like the past two nights. Hate watching. Like, it was like, I can't look away from this disaster.

[Josh Dean]

The culmination of Clayton's disaster season was the climactic rose ceremony, where he would make his final choice and pick the woman he would, in theory, marry and spend the rest of his life with. Clayton stood before two of the three finalists, Gabby and Rachel, in a massive electric blue concert hall. But where was Susie, the third finalist? Clayton explained her decision to leave the show.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

This is the hard part to say, but, like, I was in love with her and I was in love with each of you two. I am in love with both of you.

[Josh Dean]

Ah, that's why.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

And I also was intimate with both of you.

[Josh Dean]

Something Susie had found out earlier and so fled. This had apparently not made Clayton's final decision any easier.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

I do see one of you being on the other side of it with me, and I don't have the answers. I don't know who that is. I really don't. Because I promise you, if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't string somebody else along.

[Josh Dean]

Gabby and Rachel were devastated.

[Narrator/Host]

He's in love with two other people. I've never felt pain like this before.

[Josh Dean]

Somehow, Clayton convinced both Gabby and Rachel to stay on the show and come home to meet his family, then revealed that he didn't actually want to be with either of them.

[Narrator/Host]

He tells his family, you know, these two girls are great, but I really love Susie the most.

[Josh Dean]

Gabby and Rachel were pissed, and so was his dad.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

Yeah, I love you no matter what happens, but you screwed the pooch, in my opinion.

[Josh Dean]

Clayton made history in another way, too. After convincing Susie to return, she turned down his proposal, making him the first Bachelor to be outright rejected on the last day.

[Narrator/Host]

I've thought this through and, like, I don't think that I'm your person and I don't think that you're mine, except

[Josh Dean]

that this is reality tv. Things are never as they seem. And in a live bachelor reunion, Clayton and Susie revealed that they had, in fact, gotten together after all. He even moved to Virginia to be with her.

[Narrator/Host]

That didn't work out. They broke up. And at that point, he decided to

[Josh Dean]

move to Arizona, to Scottsdale, specifically. A sunny, wealthy, somewhat superficial city that feels tailor made for a tabloidy scandal like the one that was about to engulf the most unpopular bachelor of all time.

[Narrator/Host]

His brother lived there. He was going to start fresh. He wanted to get his real estate license and just kind of live a normal life after being the Bachelor, he

[Josh Dean]

was about to become the center of a story that Stephanie Young has been tracking for the past two years, along with zillions of reality TV fans online.

[Narrator/Host]

So he gets there. He announces on Instagram that he's a Realtor now. And within a few weeks, he gets a LinkedIn message from this woman named Laura Owens. And that LinkedIn message was just reaching out saying, like, hey, I'm looking to buy some investment properties and I'd like your help.

[Josh Dean]

Good news For Clayton, who needed clients to get his new real estate business launched.

[Narrator/Host]

He gave her his phone number so that they could work on looking at investment properties. And she started flirting with him a little bit, saying maybe they could get drinks.

[Josh Dean]

At first, Clayton rebuffed her, and a

[Narrator/Host]

few days later, he did give into it, and he invited her over.

[Josh Dean]

This was, he'd later admit, after getting extremely stoned one night.

[Narrator/Host]

And she came over to his place and they hooked up, but they did not hook up in the way that makes babies. Okay.

[Josh Dean]

Laura performed oral sex on Clayton twice.

[Narrator/Host]

So the day after their hookup, they actually had scheduled appointments to go look at houses. And when he woke up, and he was like, I shouldn't have done that. They went and looked at homes. And later that day, he said, laura, can we talk? And they got in his car and had a conversation. And. And that conversation was, hey, you're my client. I shouldn't have done this. We crossed a professional line.

[Josh Dean]

Laura seemed to get it.

[Narrator/Host]

She said, no, no, no, no, no. I want to stay working with you. Everything's fine. Like, no problem. And then he said, well, I need you to know that what happened last night is not going to happen again. And she did not like that answer. She was like, can you just give us a chance? Can you give us a shot? And he said, no. And then 11 days after their hookup, she told him that she was pregnant.

[Josh Dean]

Pregnant with his child from a blowjob. This is Chameleon and I'm Josh Dean. This week, the story of a bachelor star who hooked up with the wrong woman and found himself at the center of a pregnancy scandal that spawned a hit podcast and set the reality TV Internet on fire.

[Narrator/Host]

Chameleon.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

Chameleon.

[Josh Dean]

This is Chameleon Weekly. It was the very beginning of 2023, and Clayton Eckerd reacted to news of this alleged pregnancy the way I think any of us would.

[Narrator/Host]

His reaction was like, how? And she showed him the positive pregnancy test. And then after that, he ends up inviting her over to his apartment again to take a pregnancy test in front of him. And she does this pregnancy test in front of him, and it comes out positive. So after that, he's like, holy. Like, she is pregnant.

[Josh Dean]

The question remains how?

[Narrator/Host]

They had oral sex twice, and that was it. And if something happened and she got pregnant during that time, he believed it was, you know, after the second time, she ran to the bathroom and. And he thought there was some sort of spit maneuver that happened.

[Josh Dean]

Technically possible, I suppose, if Laura had captured that sperm to impregnate herself.

[Narrator/Host]

The chances of getting pregnant when everything is going right for women is actually really small. Like everything has to be lined up perfectly for people to get pregnant. And then when you add in, you know, a spit maneuver, you're decreasing those odds dramatically. So there's like this tiny, tiny, tiny little percent chance that something like that could have happened. But that was enough for Clayton to believe, right?

[Josh Dean]

Put differently, that tiny chance was enough for Clayton to not completely dismiss the alleged pregnancy and run from Laura Owens.

[Narrator/Host]

From June to September, there are hundreds of emails back and forth. Clayton begging for her to send him an ultrasound, asking to go to an ultrasound appointment with her, and she won't do it.

[Josh Dean]

You can hear more about this back and forth and all the twists and turns in this story in the podcast Stephanie Young made about it called Love Trapped.

[Narrator/Host]

And something else you have to consider is that a pregnancy test is not telling you that you're pregnant. It's saying that you have elevated levels of hcg.

[Josh Dean]

That's the hormone which your body produces after a fertilized egg attaches to the uterine lining. But HCG is also in certain medications. So a pregnancy test is not irrefutable proof that a woman is actually pregnant. The only way to prove it for sure is by ultrasound or sonogram. So Clayton was pushing for that. He was also asking for a paternity test. Because of course, the other possibility here, everyone's first thought, I'm guessing, is that Laura could have been pregnant with someone else's baby.

[Narrator/Host]

Clayton offers to pay for it. I mean, the emails are chaotic, they're exhausting. And they both eventually end up taking this paternity test and it comes back, little to no fetal DNA. And you have to remember that these paternity tests are testing for paternity. They're not testing for pregnancy. So at this point, you're not gonna get an answer on if she's pregnant or not.

[Josh Dean]

In August, Laura filed documents with the Arizona Family Court. She wanted to prove paternity, stipulating that Clayton Eckerd was the father of the babies she was supposedly carrying. Because I forgot to tell you, it wasn't just one baby. Laura claimed to be expecting twins.

[Narrator/Host]

And so she takes these court documents and is sharing them with the tabloids and the US sun decides to pick up the story.

[Josh Dean]

The US sun is the digital only American edition of a notorious gossip driven UK tabloid also called the Sun.

[Narrator/Host]

They asked Clayton for a comment. He's like, this is absolutely not true. And they published the story on September 18, 2020. 3.

[Josh Dean]

Under the headline Baby Mama Drama, it identified Clayton Eckard, but not Laura Owens. She was anonymous, despite planting the story herself.

[Narrator/Host]

And immediately when this story became public, people were not on his side. People were coming with their pitchforks and being like, yeah, of course Clayton did this.

[Josh Dean]

Bachelor fans swarmed Reddit and many were vehemently anti Clayton. This is a lot of trouble to go through just to be proven wrong by a paternity test. So I'm inclined to think that Clayton is full of shit and needs to take a long look in the mirror. We've already seen just how cold and nasty he can be when upset. Just imagine how he would react off camera. I've always found Clayton repulsive, and I don't believe there's anything redeeming about him. I'm 100% certain that Clayton is the father.

[Narrator/Host]

People immediately were out with pitchforks for him.

[Josh Dean]

But that all changed dramatically after less

[Narrator/Host]

than a week, because that's when Laura Owens started posting on Reddit, started posting a blog talking about what was going on. And it didn't seem right to the people that were following the story.

[Josh Dean]

Laura's identity was still unknown when she did her first Reddit post three days after the sun story. It was titled, I am the Anonymous Woman in the Clayton Scandal. Here's the proof.

[Narrator/Host]

What she was saying did not seem to make sense. And that's when the tides turned and people were like, oh, maybe Clayton didn't do this. Maybe Clayton is telling the truth.

[Josh Dean]

This may be obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway. People in the US care a lot about reality shows and the legions of stars they create and release into society. They are deeply invested in the lives of these previously unknown people, typically very attractive people, and a sprawling ecosystem has emerged to cover them. People didn't necessarily doubt Laura's pregnancy right away, but they did question her methods. And they also began to wonder why this was all so murky.

[Narrator/Host]

In nine months, you're going to have an answer, yes or no, right? This is a pretty black and white thing. There's either babies in nine months or there are not babies.

[Josh Dean]

But until then, the saga was destined to play out in the public eye

[Narrator/Host]

with this particular thing like the paternity test. Clayton didn't get the answer that he necessarily wanted, but the little to no fetal DNA answer for him was kind of enough for him to take it to Instagram and be like, see, he made an Instagram post. I believe it was October 6th of 2023.

[Promotional Voice/Announcer]

Well, test results came back early and they said little to no fetal DNA present. Let's go, baby.

[Josh Dean]

But Laura didn't stop, and fans began to want to know more about her.

[Narrator/Host]

There were enough clarifying details in the sun article, Scottsdale woman podcaster that people were able to find out who she was pretty quickly.

[Josh Dean]

That podcast was one that Laura hosted with her mom, Jan Black.

[Narrator/Host]

So anyways, she posts this blog and people that were following the story, something didn't add up to them, something didn't seem right. And that's kind of how the narrative shifted.

[Josh Dean]

Some of those super fans, especially the ones who had public platforms, started to sniff around. In particular, two of reality, Steve, a podcaster who was recognized as one of the top Bachelor experts around, and the YouTube creator Dave Neal, who hosts Bachelor Nation News, both of whom are prominently featured on Stephanie's podcast.

[Narrator/Host]

They have pretty big audiences. And then this whole community of online Internet detectives were in Dave Neal's Patreon talking about this. Then there was a subreddit that was created.

[Josh Dean]

It's an increasingly common phenomenon in the world of true crime for people at home to go beyond fascination with a mystery. They become participants. And these legions of armchair detectives who get hooked on a certain case just leap into the fray, for better or worse. We've seen it with the Idaho murders, the Karen Reed case, and with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

[Narrator/Host]

What happened here is everybody just kind of banded together and wanted to find the truth and wanted to find accountability.

[Josh Dean]

We'll get into just what the amateur investigators uncovered after the break. Welcome back to Chameleon. The first major break in the case that online fans had dubbed the, quote, fetal attraction case, came in a shocking message that Clayton received via Instagram.

[Narrator/Host]

Clayton got a DM from a woman named Ashley. And Ashley said, clayton, you're not the only one look up this court case in the Arizona court system.

[Josh Dean]

So Clayton does just that. He looks up the case and discovers that, yes, Laura Owens had in fact accused another man of getting her pregnant with Twins back in 2021. His name is Greg Gillespie. And as he tells it, he and Laura went out twice and had sex once using two forms of birth control.

[Narrator/Host]

Then all of this starts lining up and like this story starts to blow up because the attorney that represented Greg Gillespie then took on Clayton's case.

[Josh Dean]

Clayton is convinced now that Laura is lying and so are the Internet sleuths.

[Narrator/Host]

And meanwhile, Laura posted a Dropbox full of evidence on Reddit. So people were going through her evidence, the sonograms, the pictures, the court documents, all of those things were in this Dropbox and also part of her story was just not believable to people that have experienced pregnancy or experienced sexual something like she's going through. It just didn't. It didn't pass the sniff test.

[Josh Dean]

Like all kinds of confusion over a series of sonograms that appeared.

[Narrator/Host]

We see a sonogram that comes in on, I believe it was early October, and that sonogram she later says was not hers, and she did not send him that sonogram. And then we see another sonogram later, and she also says that was not hers. And then the initial sonogram was one that was taken in July. But she admitted in her deposition and in court that she altered the name and the date and the location on that sonogram, but said that the actual picture part was hers.

[Josh Dean]

If that sounds confusing, it is for me, too. And for Stephanie and Clayton and all the sleuths who joined the investigation. Laura's stories just kept changing about the sonograms and even about the hookup itself.

[Narrator/Host]

At first it was consensual oral sex, and then her version of the story changes. So when she was at court, she said that they did have sex and that she did not say that they could have sex. So she basically said that Clayton raped her. Clayton, on the other hand, has been adamant the entire time that it was two blowjobs, oral sex only, and that they did not have penetrative sex.

[Josh Dean]

There's a paper trail for this ever evolving account of the sex.

[Narrator/Host]

Initially, there are some communications that I have seen where she writes into a telemed asking about, I believe it was plan B and said that she hooked up, but they didn't have sex.

[Josh Dean]

It was actually an email to Planned Parenthood from mid 2023 explaining that they'd had consensual oral sex only.

[Narrator/Host]

So initially it was that story, and then it changes throughout the different deposition. It changes at the court. There's one time where she says that Clayton was too high to remember what happened. So, yeah, I mean, the story has changed a few times on her end, but Clayton remains adamant that it was only oral sex.

[Josh Dean]

Perhaps the most explosive moment in the amateur investigation came when the Sleuths dug into the Greg Gillespie case. Laura had also produced a sonogram to prove that she was pregnant from Greg, who she saw twice and slept with once. And during one of Dave Neal's live streams for his Patreon subscribers, it came up they'd found it on Laura's Dropbox of evidence.

[Narrator/Host]

They had that sonogram up on a live YouTube stream. And they were just kind of talking about it, evaluating it, and they see kind of like a little blurry thing in one of the pieces of the sonogram. And so they start zooming in, and the live chat is going off, and they're like, that's a Fiverr logo. That's a Fiverr logo.

[Josh Dean]

Fiverr being the online marketplace for freelance gigs. It's where you go to hire a gig worker to do something, often creative, make art, write a song, or digitally alter an image. Spoiler alert. It wasn't Laura's ultrasound. She'd paid someone to make it look like hers.

[Narrator/Host]

Laura had taken that photo from a blog that a woman wrote in the early 2000 and tens. She had a thing called vanishing twin syndrome, where she was pregnant with twins and one of the twins passed away. And she was writing this blog about how she was dealing with the grief and going through that painful process. And Laura used that photo from her blog and sent that to Greg Gillespie.

[Josh Dean]

I should point out here that Laura's fight with Greg wasn't even about paternity.

[Narrator/Host]

So basically, what Laura was saying with this court case was that Greg had coerced her into getting an abortion. And ultimately that case ended up with the judge dismissing it, and they both walked away.

[Josh Dean]

It was in the process of defending himself that Gillespie became aware of a third man and a third case via his attorney, Greg Woodnick.

[Narrator/Host]

Laura sends Greg Woodnick, the attorney, an email saying something about how the this story doesn't need to go public. And the attorney's like, why would this story go public? Like, neither of you are public figures. And she's like, well, I have a podcast and I have a TedX talk. And she sent, I guess it was like a Screenshot of her TEDx talk,

[Josh Dean]

a TEDx talk posted in January of 2022. It's titled the Life Saving Power of Kindness to Strangers.

[Narrator/Host]

We'd had a fairy tale start, and then it came down fast. It seemed like overnight his charm and compliments turned to criticism. His comments became more and more menacing, until finally the verbal abuse became physical.

[Josh Dean]

Laura is in a black dress against a white backdrop, telling a story about what she claimed was a physically and emotionally abusive relationship that she chose to leave because a stranger on a plane passed her a note offering to help.

[Narrator/Host]

And underneath that Screenshot, where the TEDx talk was, it said, like, Owens versus Maracini. And so at that point, the attorney was like, who is Maracini?

[Josh Dean]

Mike Maracini is a guy from the Bay Area. He's married now and has Two kids. But before meeting his now wife, he too had dated Laura Owens after the two met on a dating app called the League. This was back in 2016 in San Francisco where Laura grew up. Her father, Ron, is a legendary San Francisco radio guy who is in the National Radio hall of Fame. Laura and Mike dated off and on until early 2017. And during that period, Laura claimed to be pregnant multiple times, once with twins, and claimed to have both taken abortion pills and had a procedure at Planned Parenthood.

[Narrator/Host]

So at that point, everybody knows about Mike Maracini. So then Mike gets re involved in the case. When everything came up with Clayton, Stephanie

[Josh Dean]

spoke with Mike at length. He explained to her that he and Laura dated off and on for more than a year. And the tension between them developed pretty early on when she first told him she was pregnant.

[Narrator/Host]

But they continued to date and they continued to try to make it work, and Mike believed her at the time.

[Josh Dean]

Things ultimately didn't work out after months and months of incredible drama that should you be interested, you can experience in great detail via pages of evidence in the forms of text messages and emails on a website called Victims of Laura Owens.

[Narrator/Host]

After they broke up, they still continued to meet up every now and again to have coffee. He wanted to keep things on good terms. He's a people pleaser. And eventually he ends up going to dinner with a new girl that he was dating and runs into Laura. And this kind of is a catalyst for a few things that happened, like

[Josh Dean]

Laura contacting that girl to tell her that this guy she's dating is an abuser.

[Narrator/Host]

Mike ends up going to dinner with his sister and they see Laura outside the restaurant.

[Josh Dean]

After things were tense, Laura got angry.

[Narrator/Host]

And at that point, Mike was kind of concerned about his safety because she was kind of showing up in a lot of the places that he was. And she refutes that and says it's the other way around. But he was concerned for his safety, so he called and made a police report. He didn't want to file a restraining order, but wanted it on the record that he was concerned.

[Josh Dean]

The next day, on January 8, 2018, SFPD contacted Laura to alert her to the report that had been filed.

[Narrator/Host]

And I believe it was the day after that police report happened, she filed a restraining order against Mike Maracini.

[Josh Dean]

Laura alleged that he'd been abusive.

[Narrator/Host]

Laura's TEDx talk is still up and it's about her encounters with Mike. Even though she doesn't say his name, that's who it's about. And she goes into pretty graphic detail of what she believes happened to her. And Mike refutes that.

[Josh Dean]

Still, Laura filed a temporary restraining order and was granted a hearing. And ultimately Mike gave in.

[Narrator/Host]

He stipulated to it, and he says that's one of the biggest mistakes he ever made.

[Josh Dean]

Mike says now that he didn't feel like he had much of a choice.

[Narrator/Host]

Mike's attorney at the time said, like, you're kind of not going to win this no matter what you're saying, because there's no proof really that you didn't do it. So he ended up agreeing to stipulate to it because he thought that it was just like something I sign up for two years and then it goes away. He didn't realize at the time that in California it would be considered a domestic violence restraining order because they had a relationship. It wouldn't just be like a civil restraining order.

[Josh Dean]

A domestic violence restraining order, or dvro, is even more serious.

[Narrator/Host]

It's affected his employment trying to get jobs because it shows up on background checks. And when they travel, especially internationally, he gets pulled over at customs because it flags him, and he gets pulled into a room and is interviewed. And, you know, it takes. Takes a lot longer, but it's also traumatizing because it's just over their heads all the time. Right. So he's had a domestic violence restraining order on him up until the end of 2025.

[Josh Dean]

A DVRO that was dismissed finally last fall after all this came out when Laura tried to renew it for a third time, but then ignored the judge's repeated demands to travel from her home in Arizona and appear in person. Not only did Laura fail to show up, Sluice discovered that she had attended a horse event that day in Arizona. Laura Owens of Scottsdale, Arizona, by 7 0. As Dave Neal explained during one of his live streams, she was showing her horse at a Scottsdale event. Spending thousands of dollars when I know she owes hundreds of thousands of debt. The three men who've tangled with Laura Owens, Clayton Eckerd, Greg Gillespie, and Mike Maracini have become quite close.

[Narrator/Host]

The guys have banded together and support one another. And because this happened with Clayton and because it went public with Clayton, now there's an online community that supports not only Clayton, but Mike and Greg as well. And in fact, Mike and Greg both showed up to Clayton's trial on June 10th of 2024 to support him. And we're going to provide testimony if needed.

[Josh Dean]

Does Laura still have any supporters? Well, not really. And the support she does have is suspicious.

[Narrator/Host]

There is a website called justice for Laura, and we don't know who runs that, but I certainly have a few ideas.

[Josh Dean]

The website presents a very different situation than the one on Love Trapped and in the various YouTube channels and Reddit posts it reads justice for Laura exists because of a prosecution that simply does not resemble anything we normally see in American courts. At the center of it all is Laura Owens, a nonviolent autistic woman with no criminal record, and Clayton Eckerd, best known as the former lead on the Bachelor. From a legal perspective, this began as a straightforward paternity case. On this site, Laura is the victim of Clayton, of the legions of online bullies and of Arizona law enforcement. Most case obsessives assume the site is run by Laura or her family, and there does appear to be some history of Laura perhaps pretending to be other people online. Sock puppeting as the Internet folks call it. But she's never admitted to doing it and it's never been proven.

[Narrator/Host]

In the podcast we talk about Chase J. Jones and that was a Howard University student that was trying to get Clayton canceled that the Internet believes was Laura doing that.

[Josh Dean]

Chase J. Jones was supposedly a journalism student at Howard, a very well known historically black College in Washington D.C. who emailed more than 100 journalists a link to a blog post titled Former Bachelor Clayton Eckard has an N word problem and linking to a TikTok of Clayton dancing to a song that happens to have an N word in it. Dave Neal and the sleuths immediately sensed that this was fishy and attempted to prove that Jones was a sock puppet. When Jones signed up for Dave Neal's Patreon, Dave tried to speak with him via video to confirm his identity and Chase refused. He then filed a subpoena to reveal Jones identity using Patreon records and Jones tried to quash those motions. Finally, one clever sleuth tried to log into chase J. Jones YouTube account, pressed forgot email and put in Laura Owens phone number to reset the password. The number worked, indicating that it was the phone used to create the chase J. Jones YouTube account, which they thought proved Laura was behind the account, though she denies it. There's even speculation that Laura pretended to be her own victim in the form of an alleged ex boyfriend named Tag, who reached out to two female YouTube personalities via encrypted emails back in May 2024. One of those women, Megan Fox, explained this on her own livestream. No, it's not that Megan Fox, I

[Narrator/Host]

believe Laura Owens emailed me pretending to be her ex boyfriend to try to get me to stop explaining to people why she should face the consequences of her actions. Now, I believe that Tag is one of her alternate Personas. That's what I believe. I believe all available evidence shows me

[Josh Dean]

that my reaction to hearing this all play out, first on Love Trapped and then by diving into the various Internet rabbit holes, was to experience an escalating amount of shock. I just kept thinking that surely at some point, Laura Owens is just going to give up the charade and fall on her sword, because this has to be awful for her, too. But she never does. She still hasn't.

[Narrator/Host]

The best example that I can give of where I think she stands with all of this is in June of 2024 in Family Court in Arizona. She went to court. And the whole purpose of that hearing was to prove if Clayton was the father of these twins or not and if Laura was pregnant. And that was adjudicated in June of 2024 that Clayton Eckerd was not the father of the twins and that Laura was not pregnant. It went to the Arizona Court of Appeals. It went to the Arizona Supreme Court. All of those appeals got denied. So it has gone as far as it can go. It's adjudicated, but Clayton was not the father. She was not pregnant.

[Josh Dean]

But six months after that ruling, the Maricopa County DA filed criminal charges against Laura for a pattern of behavior that included fraud. And local police went to her house to serve a search warrant as part of that investigation. They wore body cams. And the footage captured that morning was later released. You can hear it on Love Trapped or watch it online.

[Narrator/Host]

The body cam footage that you see is January of 2025. So. So six months after that, after Arizona's

[Josh Dean]

highest court confirmed what two lower courts had already ruled, Clayton was never the father of Laura's twins. Laura was never pregnant.

[Narrator/Host]

And you hear her say in the body cam, I have done nothing except get pregnant by the bachelor. So even though it was adjudicated in court that she was not pregnant by the bachelor, six months later, she's sticking to that story.

[Josh Dean]

It was the judge who ruled against Laura who referred her case to the Maricopa County DA's office, recommending they investigate the disturbing pattern of behavior that had emerged in the aftermath of the Clayton Eckerd matter, a pattern that played out in eerily similar ways to at least two other men.

[Narrator/Host]

And then in May of 2025, Laura Owens is indicted on seven felony charges that include fraudulent schemes and artifices, forgery and perjury. And then the November of 2025, we see another seven felony charges, and those are Perjury, fraudulent schemes and artifices, taking the identity of another, and forgery. So by the end of November 2025, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office had indicted Laura on 14 felonies. Now of course they haven't gone to trial, so she's not convicted until that's all adjudicated, but she right now is facing 14 felony indictments.

[Josh Dean]

Laura has been offered a plea, but if she chooses not to accept it, the case will go to trial right now.

[Narrator/Host]

That is set to begin July 29, 2026.

[Josh Dean]

Laura denied multiple requests to be interviewed for Stephanie's podcast. She denied all media requests, period. And she continues to live in that same casita you see in the body cam footage behind her parents house in Scottsdale. But she also won't be there for much longer I imagine because Laura's parents declared bankruptcy last year.

[Narrator/Host]

They were not granted the bankruptcy, which meant that the house that they live in is currently in foreclosure and is set to be auctioned off in Maricopa county on May 26.

[Josh Dean]

Laura also filed for bankruptcy, but then retracted that filing before it too was dismissed. It's unclear how she's paying her legal fees. Laura obviously has her own version of events, but when you see the evidence of all this laid out, it's pretty hard to accept that anything she's saying is true. There's also on the justice for Laura website what seems to be a very telling passage. If we accept that Laura herself is behind the site, it's even if someone believes the worst, that Laura was never pregnant, it still doesn't come close to justifying what has happened to her. People lie, exaggerate and contradict themselves in family court every day about paternity, income, custody timelines and they are not met with a SWAT raid, a six figure sanctions order or 14 felony charges. Clayton suffered no financial loss, no physical injury and no lasting legal damage. The harshest possible view of her conduct still does not match the punishment being pursued. Is there perhaps a bit of a confession there? This is honestly a deeply uncomfortable story. Infuriating for anyone who hears it, I think, but also just sad. And somehow, despite even the criminal charges

[Narrator/Host]

still not over, Mike Maracini's in the process of trying to find an appellate attorney to help with the appeal of the DVRO that Laura is trying to appeal. Greg Gillespie is one of the victims for the criminal case. So those seven felony charges that came down in November, the additional seven are in relation to his case. So he's a victim for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for this upcoming criminal trial. Now, Laura still does have an active order of protection against Greg in the state of Arizona, so just want to make that clear too.

[Josh Dean]

And the bachelor, Clayton Eckerd.

[Narrator/Host]

Clayton doing better than ever. He's living his best life. He's still doing real estate in Arizona. His parents moved out to Arizona last year. So he's got family around him. He's taking salsa dance class lessons. And ultimately, you know, he is the victim related to the first seven felony indictments. And he just wants us to be over. He wants accountability and wants this to

[Josh Dean]

be over accountability in court beyond just the vindication that he did not shirk responsibility, deny a pregnancy. All three men seem to want to see Laura not just admit to her wrongs, but also to be punished for them.

[Narrator/Host]

If she is convicted, there is likely prison time on the table. I don't know that she'll get it because she doesn't have a criminal record, but it is a possibility. I mean, she is the one that made this story public by going to the sun in September of 2023. So now that it's out in the public, it is what it is.

[Josh Dean]

Stephanie warned me in advance that she couldn't speculate about Laura's psychology or comment on what underlying conditions she may have, if any, that helped contribute to all of this. But I had to ask her anyway. What could possibly compel someone to behave in such a self destructive way? Because the way I see it, no one in this story in the end was will have suffered more than Laura Owens, who of course brought it all upon herself.

[Narrator/Host]

I've had a complicated relationship with this story because I am a person that I believe has a lot of empathy towards situations. I've been in a lot of hard situations myself and I think that one of the things that got me through those situations is having a really wonderful support system. The empathy for me comes from, I think that she wanted to have a great life. I do believe that she had a lot of privileges growing up that a lot of people don't have and could have been set up for a wonderful life. I believe that she probably wanted that and the empathy comes from where she's at now.

[Josh Dean]

But, but, but you also have to

[Narrator/Host]

remember that her actions are what got her to where she is now.

[Josh Dean]

People flocked to love, trapped and devoured this story. It's twisty and juicy and at times almost impossible to believe. But it's also unsettling because there are some very complicated issues underlying this mess.

[Narrator/Host]

Telling these stories sometimes can be scary and dangerous because you don't want to perpetuate that crazy woman mentality. And we have to remember that this is like one specific story. Not all women do this. And with the damage that this does and false allegations do to real victims and the amount of resources that have been wasted, judicial, legal, financial, in fraudulent cases like this, and those are all things that I thought about and had in the back of my mind the whole time I was producing this podcast.

[Josh Dean]

You can find the podcast Stephanie is talking about, Love Trapped, wherever you get your podcasts, including the platform. You're listening on now. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audio Chuck. It's hosted by me, Josh Dean, and was written by me and Joe Barrett. It was produced by Joe Barrett. Our associate producer is Emma Siminov. Sound design and mix by Tiffany Dimmack. Theme by Ewin lytramuin and Mark McAdam. Our production manager is Ashley Warren. Campside's executive producers are Vanessa Gregoriadis, Matt Sher and me, Josh Dean. And finally, if I can ask a few favors before sending you on your way today, please rate, follow and review Chameleon on your favorite podcast platforms to help spread the word. Word I know everyone says this, but it's true. Ratings and reviews really do help, and if you have any feedback, tips or story ideas, you can email [e-mail] or leave us a message at a special number we've set up, 201-743-8368. Add a plus one if you're outside North America. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

[Narrator/Host]

I think Chuck would approve.