S22 Ep3: Murder-for-Hire

Summary

Podcast Summary: Something Was Wrong | S22 E3: Murder-for-Hire

Introduction

In the third episode of the award-winning docuseries Something Was Wrong, hosted by Tiffany Reese of Broken Cycle Media | Wondery, the focus shifts to a harrowing tale of deception, manipulation, and alleged criminal activities surrounding Megan Stoner. Titled "Murder-for-Hire," this episode delves deep into Megan's interactions within online communities, her tumultuous relationships, and the catastrophic impact of her actions on those around her.

Megan Stoner's Behavior in Facebook Groups

Megan Stoner initially became active in various Facebook groups, notably within the Spice Girls group—a community composed predominantly of millennial and Gen Z women discussing everyday issues like relationships and housing. Justin, a 30-year-old member from Portland, Oregon, recounts how Megan's posts began innocently but soon took a disturbing turn.

"She started posting about the most mundane things... but things just started sort of spiraling into great intensity." (Justin, [04:22])

As Megan's contributions grew more erratic and intense, her peers grew increasingly concerned. Her posts evolved from trivial matters to alarming claims of being sexually assaulted and stalked by authority figures.

"We were really concerned about her. We were trying to get her help that she needed and then it just ended in anger." (Justin, [05:47])

Accusations and Removal from Groups

By 2018, Megan's behavior had become untenable. Justin explains that the group administrators realized Megan was co-opting other members' traumatic stories as her own, leading to her removal from the Spice Girls group and its spin-offs.

"She was lying. She was co-opting other people's traumatic stories as her own." (Justin, [06:10])

Attempts were made to support Megan by creating separate group chats to provide her with the attention she sought without disrupting the main community. However, Megan's continuous fabrications and manipulations ultimately forced the administrators to expel her entirely.

"She apologized for lying... She just, after that, got removed from the group." (Justin, [12:26])

Connection to Itown Church and Julie Roys

The narrative intensifies as Jeff Thompson, a pastor from Canada, shares his encounters with Megan. Initially dismissive of her claims, Jeff recounts how Megan integrated herself into the church community, making alarming allegations that culminated in a fabricated murder-for-hire plot against him.

"She is incredibly good at it, creating a false world in which she is a central player." (Jeff Thompson, [24:51])

Megan also connected with Julie Roys, an investigative reporter and founder of Roy's Report. Julie describes Megan as seemingly helpful initially, providing connections and sources for her reporting. However, as Megan's true nature emerged, Julie recognized the deceit and manipulation behind Megan's actions.

"I thought she was concerned and helpful citizen who wanted to see the truth exposed." (Julie Roys, [26:10])

The Murder-for-Hire Plot

The episode takes a dark turn with the revelation of Megan's alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting Pastor Jeff Thompson and possibly others within the church community. Jeff details how Megan convinced him of a conspiracy within the Association of Related Churches (ARC), leading him to take drastic personal measures to protect his family.

"Jeff Thompson, Pastor, Gospel City Church... Megan attempted to impersonate multiple pastors from the ARC and the governor of Indiana." (Jeff Thompson, [26:10])

These fabricated threats were so convincing that Pastor Thompson felt compelled to safeguard his family, showcasing Megan's ability to manipulate and instill fear through deception.

Impact on Others and Legal Consequences

Megan's actions extended beyond online manipulations. She allegedly scammed individuals out of rental homes, causing significant financial and emotional distress. Logan Gay, another contributor, discusses how Megan's schemes led to severe consequences for her victims.

"A Hamilton county woman is facing serious charges, accused of scamming several people out of rental homes. This scheme cost her more than just money." (Logan Gay, [46:16])

Furthermore, Megan's attempts to tarnish reputations through fabricated evidence and false accusations led to public retractions and damaged relationships. Her interactions with David Morrell of Protestia, who threatened to expose her unethical behavior, ultimately backfired when it was revealed that Megan had fabricated the emails he presented.

"David Morrill could not be reached for comment." (Julie Roys, [42:44])

Conclusion

The episode concludes by highlighting the broader implications of Megan Stoner's actions—emphasizing the dangers of unverified claims and the importance of due diligence in online communities. Tiffany Reese underscores the necessity for accountability and the protection of vulnerable individuals from manipulative figures like Megan.

"They need to either get trained as journalists and do their due diligence and do their job right, or they just need to get off the Internet because they're doing a lot of harm." (Megan Stoner, [44:05])

Something Was Wrong S22 E3: "Murder-for-Hire" serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of deceit in digital spaces and the profound impact one individual's manipulations can have on a community. Through in-depth interviews and firsthand accounts, the episode paints a comprehensive picture of Megan Stoner's manipulative behavior and the resulting turmoil within the affected communities.

Notable Quotes

• Justin ([04:22]): "She started posting about the most mundane things... but things just started sort of spiraling into great intensity."
• Jeff Thompson ([24:51]): "She is incredibly good at it, creating a false world in which she is a central player."
• Julie Roys ([26:10]): "I thought she was concerned and helpful citizen who wanted to see the truth exposed."
• Megan Stoner ([44:05]): "They need to either get trained as journalists and do their due diligence and do their job right, or they just need to get off the Internet because they're doing a lot of harm."

Final Thoughts

This episode of Something Was Wrong meticulously unravels the complex web of deceit spun by Megan Stoner, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of the psychological and social ramifications of her actions. By spotlighting real-life consequences and emphasizing the need for vigilance in online interactions, the episode not only tells a compelling story but also serves as a vital resource for those seeking to protect themselves and others from similar manipulative behaviors.

Transcript

[Tiffany Reese]

Wondery subscribers can listen to Something Was Wrong early and ad free right now. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Listening to Audible helps our imagination soar. Whether we're listening to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre we love, we can be inspired to imagine new worlds, possibilities, and ways of thinking. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exceptionall in one easy app. As an Audible member, I get to choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog. This month I selected Evil Thoughts, wicked deeds by Dr. Chris Mohandi. Take Audible with you through your week. Listen while doing household chores, going for a walk, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine. New members can try audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.comSWW or text SWW to 500500 that's audible. Or text SWW to 500500 this episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average and auto customers qualify for an average of 7 discounts. Multitask right now quote [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This podcast is intended for mature audiences and discusses topics that may be upsetting. For a full content warning, sources and resources, please visit the Episode Notes Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself, Broken Cycle Media, or Wondery. The podcast and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. Megan Stoner's responses to these allegations are addressed within this season. I'm Tiffany Reese and this is Something was wrong.

[Megan Stoner]

You they can know me. You don't know me well at all at all, at all, at all.

[Alex Brewster]

You.

[Megan Stoner]

Think you know me? You don't know me well at all.

[Justin]

Hi, I'm Alex brewster. I am 30 years old and from Portland, Oregon. I met Megan through a Facebook group of women who are all roughly millennial age Gen Z called Spice Girls and it's just a Facebook group where we talk about life, talk about issues with partners and parents and rental agreements and how to find apartments and all of that fun stuff and that's where I initially met Megan. There was a group chat created by one of the admins of the group because Megan's posts became so consistent and constant and a bit draining on the group. So there was a group chat created and I was one of the people who was added to the group chat. The goal was to try to give her the support and interaction that she desired from the group without bringing the entire group down with her.

[Tiffany Reese]

And what kind of things was she posting about?

[Justin]

She started posting about the most mundane things. Everything from has anybody pinned their bangs back with a bobby pin? A lot of things like that. And things started to get increasingly strange. It got to, I need advice on how to communicate with my therapist. And then my therapist is out of town and I have a stand in therapist and now the stand in therapist is stalking me and I'm being sexually assaulted by my mentor or my manager. And things just started sort of spiraling into great intensity. So everybody really tries to be really supportive to one another and that is really the spirit of the group. So with Megan's post, it was bit cringy at first and so it was a lot of like, oh, oh, honey, oh goodness. Trying to empower her to be a little bit more independent, a little bit more, I would say, aware. But it got to a point where we were scared for her. We were really concerned about her. We were trying to get her help that she needed and then it just ended in anger. It was a very high stress situation. Near the end.

[Tiffany Reese]

What years would you say that you started being in this group with her?

[Justin]

I want to say Megan joined around 2017 and she was removed in 2018 from the group and all of its spin offs, which she did her best to get in every single one of.

[Tiffany Reese]

What was the reason she was removed from the Spice Girls group?

[Justin]

Ultimately what we discovered is that we were, in a strange sense, we were being catfished by her. We started to notice she would have these very consistent and very intense traumatic situations. And I can't remember what the pinnacle of this where we really figured this out. But ultimately we figured out that she was lying. She was co opting other people's traumatic stories as her own. Somebody would say, I'm being stalked by my ex. I've tried all of these things. I have talked to the police, like I've done all these things. What other options do I have? What have I not thought of to help me feel safer? And then a few days later, Megan would come in and say, well, I'm being stalked by my therapist. And this is all that I have done. What else need, you know, what have I not thought of? She said that either her parent or her grandparent had completed suicide a day or two after somebody else had said my grandparent had completed suicide. And the post was eerily similar. At the time, we didn't necessarily notice the similarities between the posts and their content until somebody pointed it out and said, she seems to go through a lot of the things that the rest of us are going through that we were able to sit down and sort of piece it all together to say that, oh, she's actually genuinely co opting people's stories here. At the time when Megan was in the groups, I was going through my own personal journey. I was going through a hard time. It was a bit tumultuous. It was a lot. When Megan was sort of at our peak, I was sharing some personal growth that I was going through. And Megan used a lot of those instances and co opted them into her own story and made them much more intense, much more draining, way more traumatic than it ever was, even for me. Again, like, this is a very connected group and I've had a lot of Internet friends over the years from those groups. And at the time they were all going through something. I mean, everybody was experiencing something really, really difficult. I was in a lot of chats and a lot of group chats, comforting people who had gone through loss or gone through a breakup or things of that nature, just to sort of hold them and make sure it's known that they might be alone in their living room, but they're not alone, spiritually or emotionally. The biggest issues that she spoke to us about was her life in politics. She claimed that she was being sexually abused by her boss. She was saying that she was having these really long, grueling and emotionally draining days working at the State House, that she was gonna have to go to events where her rapist was at. You know, these very intensive, scary situations. But they were mainly political leaning.

[Tiffany Reese]

There was a mention of an article around 2018, the MeToo movement is happening. And at this time, allegedly Stoner claimed she was working with a journalist from the Indianapolis Star. Were you aware of that and what did you know about that situation? If so, yes, that was a huge.

[Justin]

Point of discussion for Megan was her talking about what she was experiencing. There was somebody in the group who was going through their own MeToo journey and was sharing their own story of how conversations were going with their journalist conversations that were going on in their own community regarding the situation. Megan was also speaking out on her story with a journalist and was going also through harassment. And it was even more intense because it was the journalist who was harassing her. So that was a strange kind of flow of events that absolutely raised alarms for me, and I know it raised alarms for other people because Megan would say, well, I got sent this bulk sized pack of tissues from the journalists and they put in the note that these tissues were for my flashbacks, which, I mean, what journalist, frankly, has the spare money to send somebody this massive passive aggressive gift? And what benefit would any journalist have by harassing a subject and a source in that way? It really didn't make any sense. She specifically said that she was working with the journalist who uncovered the US Gymnastics abuse, Larry Nassar's victims. So these journalists have really made a name for themselves of lifting up voices of survivors. Why would they go out of their way to so sickly and disgustingly attack a source for something going on in their own state? Like the math is not mathing. Two plus two is not equaling four in this situation. But she kept going with that. I don't even really necessarily think that she ever admitted to lying about that specifically. She did admit to the fact that she was co opting anybody's story in that if you look at when stories or perspectives were being shared about what that person was going through and they were working really hard to share their story, a few days later, Megan was telling the same story with much more heat and much more intensity.

[Julie Roys]

Please note, at the time of this episode's airing, the Indianapolis Star did not respond to my request for comment.

[Tiffany Reese]

How did the removal get handled and did she have a response to those accusations? I mean, I imagine it was a little bit awkward and sensitive.

[Justin]

There was a group chat created of all of the admins and moderators of not just the Spice Girls group, but the spin off groups from that. So there was a mental health spin off group, there was a dating spin off group, there was a online dating group, streaming, sharing different shows or movies or documentaries or whatever that you're watching that you have reviews on. There was a book one, there was a parent one. We created a big group chat to basically more or less get all on the same page. Because we realized that we all had sort of the same ideas about what was going on with Megan, but none of us were on the same page. And so if one group removed her, then we figured that other people would have to deal with the fallout from that. So we got in a group chat and we compared notes and said, what have you noticed what's going on here? What's the situation? How is she acting in your group versus how is she acting in this other group? And from there it was sort of all decided we were going to remove her from everything. I can't remember if she was removed, then added back in or what the plan was. But in the Spice Girls group, one of the admins allowed her to do an apology post. It was an apology. That wasn't an apology in the sense of if you hadn't been in the discussion, hadn't been following along, you would look at that and go, I have no idea what she's talking about. She apologized for lying. She said that she was going to be seeking out mental health services and that she appreciated the support that she received from the group. But when people would go and comment and say, hey, you did this or you hurt me or this doesn't make any sense, those comments would get deleted and then Megan would promptly block them. And my comment, I'd said, where did you get this particular story from? And the comment was deleted. And then Megan promptly blocked me on just about everything. So it was very strange about why an apology was even allowed. But she apologized and there wasn't any sustenance to it. And she just, after that, got removed from the group.

[Jeff Thompson]

As time went on, she did sort of get phased out of the campaign world.

[Julie Roys]

That's Justin. We heard from him in episode one and two. He's a former political acquaintance of Stoner's.

[Jeff Thompson]

I actually met with her one on one in 2018 or 19, and it was when I was sort of getting out of the political world myself. She in 2018, and again, she wasn't really around politics much for the 2018 cycle. After the 2016 cycle, she was very much sort of phased out. And nobody really saw her much in 2018. But she did have a very big social media presence because that was the year of MeToo. And she was constantly tweeting about how she was a sexual assault victim and how she had been assaulted by a very powerful man in the state of Indiana. And she made that very clear. And she would often interact with women on social media as like a sister survivor and made that a very big part of her personality. That had already happened by the time I met her. But again, after me too sort of cycled out of the news, Megan very quickly kind of dropped that. I did not know at the time who she was referring to. Just knowing of her and knowing about her, I always suspected it was not true. I couldn't Imagine anyone would have done that to her. Just because, frankly, she was never important enough to have been alone in the room with a powerful man. Like she was a very grassroots level volunteer who would come in and out. But I didn't think that was plausible. But she did make a very big deal of it on social media. But Megan had reached out to me a couple times and wanted to get coffee, which is, you know, a thing people do. I went mostly as a joke because we had followed Megan and her crazy Facebook posts and her exaggerations for a long time. The funny thing is, when I first remembered it and I went back to look through my DMs, I think she canceled on me like four or five times before it actually finally happened. I wasn't even really that serious about it. Well, I went and it was the first time I ever spoke to her beyond, oh, hi, how are you? At a big event. People laugh at me when I say this, but I always say she's not foaming at the mouth. You sort of think you would instantly know this person is really unwell or disturbed. That's not the impression you get when you meet Megan. You think she's perfectly nice. She's maybe a little off, but not anybody that should be disregarded or in the way that she was often spoken about. I came away from it having a little bit more compassion for her, having participated in some trolling of her and some memes and stuff that had been made and sent around different group chats. Like, I felt a little guilty that I'd been a part of that because she was nice. I think this would have been directly after the 2018 midterms. And that was when I was sort of done with politics. Personally, I just. I had some issues and didn't feel like it was the place for me anymore. And I sort of said that early on in the coffee. And I did notice she very much lost interest in me and was not looking to stay for a long time, which was fine and she was pleasant. But I did notice once she realized she wasn't going to get anything out of me, I couldn't be an end to events anymore or whatever. She was kind of over it. Then she got very into her religion and churches, specifically the Itown megachurch, which is a very large network of megachurches. They have a couple of campuses around the Indianapolis area. And she went to, I think their main campus, which is in Fisher's, which is close to where she lived. And she very quickly like gets in this big pissing match with the church. And it sort of triggered like this year long feud that she had online. I think what happened was she sort of found the church hurt community online. People who have had trauma relating to the churches they grew up in and people that have had bad interactions with pastors, people who had me too issues in the church that weren't dealt with the right way. There's a big community and space for that online. And I think she sort of came across that. And so she needed to sort of find a reason to hate her own church. And so she got into this really deep feud, or I always say it was a pissing match with Itown, which is a very big church. I mean, we're talking tens of thousands of members. I never fully understood. It was very unclear just from her social media posts what she was mad about. It almost sort of seemed like she found the church hurt community. So now I have church hurt and my church is terrible. And she started a podcast of her own called the Sinking Arc.

[Alex Brewster]

Hi everyone. Welcome back to our first full episode of the Sinking Arc. I want to make a disclaimer to everyone that in the past few weeks there have been many allegations made about me on social media. Just want to reassure everyone they are not true and in fact, they are, unfortunately, how the truth church has responded. Well, Taverner. Hey, buddy, we got a problem here. You chose to have the affair. You had daughters when this happened. And I, as a journalist am supposed to feel sorry for you. Now, I never will say that harassment is okay, and I'm not saying that everyone should go harass Taverner. As someone that I've been harassed myself, it's not fun. But my situation, I didn't make. I didn't have an affair. I didn't do something egregious to warrant that behavior.

[Jeff Thompson]

The most bizarre story was Megan has a DUI on her record and she posted on Facebook that night that she got run off the road by somebody who went to Itown churches and that's why she got a dui. She posted the sex toys online and said she thought someone from Itown had sent them to her because they thought it would be funny to send that to somebody with sexual trauma. Funny enough, in that picture of the dildos, there's tickets to a Christian concert on the table and if you zoom in, the date is not right. So either she sent them, went and bought them all herself and then took the picture, or she found the picture online or this was somebody else. I don't know exactly what the deal was, but I found that very interesting that the date of the tickets on the table were not the correct date that she's saying she got this.

[Tiffany Reese]

When I viewed the photo too on one of the twitters somewhere on the.

[Julie Roys]

Web where I saw the picture, I.

[Tiffany Reese]

Was just like and I apologize, Justin, I'm going to be a little crass with you here. These seem like dildos from the 1980s. Like I don't know where she would.

[Julie Roys]

Have ordered these from.

[Tiffany Reese]

But it also struck me as like this feels like something that has been lying around for a while. It looks like clearance section. These were not your modern woman's.

[Jeff Thompson]

This is not top of the line.

[Tiffany Reese]

Even that just felt so odd to me. It felt like she found this old box in a warehouse or something.

[Jeff Thompson]

Exactly. It was like something's not right here.

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[Jeff Thompson]

One of the most bizarre things you're going to find is you're going to come across people talking about a murder for hire plot that she got involved in. There was a guy named Jeff Thompson, he was a pastor in Canada. He had dealt with Megan and he also come across Julie Royce, who is a prominent person within the church, her community. I think the two of them were trying to sort of bring some reforms within our churches. They came across Megan, but essentially Megan told Pastor Thompson that there was a murder for hire plot out against him and it was coming from the other pastors within our churches. And he said it got so serious and she was so convincing that he had to put his kids in the car and like think about leaving the house one night. And it was just because Megan was playing so many different characters in a world that she had made up, texting him from multiple different numbers about these conspiracies within the church that he believed in. And I've heard him say she is incredibly good at it, creating a false world in which she is a central player.

[Megan Stoner]

My name is Julie Royes and I'm an investigative reporter and the founder of the Roy's Report. I used to be a talk show host on the Moody Radio Network, but discovered a lot of corruption there and blew the whistle and got fired as a result from my radio job, which I knew would happen. But what I didn't expect was on the heels of that, I had a number of people coming to me begging me to report their stories of abuse and corruption within the Christian community. And for the past six years that's what I've been doing exclusively.

[Tiffany Reese]

When did you meet Megan Stoner and what was the nature of your relationship?

[Megan Stoner]

Well, it was when I was reporting on the association of Related Churches or arc, as they're known, one of the largest church planning organizations in North America. And she kind of piggybacked off the back of some of my reporting and she began doing her own, as she called sort of citizen journalism. She's not trained as a journalist, but she had some connections at a church, I believe in Indianapolis and was able to get some people to talk to her. And so initially she just reached out and she connected me with some folks and she seemed to know a little bit about the background of what was going on there. And so she was not somebody I ever interviewed as a source, but she connected me to some other sources and seemed to be helpful in what she was doing. And I remember in particular she did a podcast with Jeff Thompson, who was a pastor within the association related Churches at arc. He was just a phenomenal interview. I remember listening to her podcast. I didn't think the podcast itself was that well done, but I thought he as an interview was an incredible interview. And so I reached out to Megan and said, hey, I'd love to get in contact with this guy if you don't mind. And she was helpful. She put me in contact with Jeff and Jeff and I ended up recording a podcast. And it's still one of the most, most insightful podcasts that I have about how these ARC churches operate and how they train their pastors and how they launch large and all of this, their whole philosophy behind what they do, which was really, really revealing. At that point I just thought she was concerned and helpful citizen who wanted to see the truth exposed.

[Alex Brewster]

Hey everyone, it's Megan here with the Singing Ark. Welcome back to a mini episode of the Singing Ark. It has been quite, quite the busy week. Julie Roy, someone that we have mentioned in this podcast, in the last episode with Jeff, she broke a story with Jeff about the 2% that Jeff said is obligated to give back to ARC, the Association of related churches. You take out these interest free loans and then after you pay them off, you have to give 2% back to Ark. And I believe that's like every month or so in any way. That story has absolutely blown up. Julie Royce has done a great job covering it and I plan to house make sighting Gaston in the near future. I've taken a bit of an exile from all of this because I've been making the rounds in the media. I appreciate everyone that has listened to this podcast that has shared it, that has reached out to me to let me know how much this really means to everyone. This has really been quite the experience to say the least. Honestly, not only has my life changed due to all the harassment, but it's been quite the honor to really be the vehicle for stories and to hear people and to talk with people and really getting to the bottom of this. I have suffered very vicious attacks, but I promise I don't want to make this about me. So I will just say that I appreciate everyone reaching out to me. I love the idea that we have surpassed a hundred thousand plays. It has been absolutely insane the amount of listens that we've gotten since Julie mentioned us. I'm gonna link everyone to the article Julie Roy's did where she mentioned this podcast and when she had Jeff Thompson on and really dug into all the scandals that are Mark's been a part of.

[Tiffany Reese]

Did you ever meet with her in person or was your relationship mostly digital?

[Megan Stoner]

It was all digital, either email or I think we probably talked on the phone a couple of times. That's all. We never met in person.

[Julie Roys]

Now, did she ever share with you.

[Tiffany Reese]

Anything about her qualms with Itown church specifically? She's made some claims online, from her being ran off the road by them to them mailing her a box of sex toys. I'm curious if she shared any of that with you.

[Megan Stoner]

Oh, the sex toys is new, but.

[Tiffany Reese]

Truth is stranger than fiction, right? But her truth is stranger than any fiction I could imagine.

[Megan Stoner]

Yeah, she did share with me some of the bullying and intimidation and I know to a lot of listeners you might think, oh, that should have like tipped me off that. That that's just crazy talking. Right. If you look at my website, it's not necessarily crazy talking. In fact, ARC has been sued multiple times for bullying and intimidating people or for covering for sex abusers within their network. So that sort of thing doesn't surprise me, unfortunately, because I've seen a lot of that. So she did talk about that with me. Itown was the church in Indianapolis, the ARC church that we initially connected over. So I remember her mentioning some of those things. I always rely on documentation and I have to see the original thing. So I don't believe she ever gave me the sort of documentation I would need to report anything. I never reported any of it. But again, I think she did connect me with some people, some other people that I talked to about that particular story. I remember she reached out and said she wanted to come to we host these RESTORE conferences primarily for survivors who have been through some sort of church hurt, a place where they can come for healing and safety. She had reached out and wanted to Come, but said she didn't have money. And so I had actually connected her to somebody within our organization who helped get her a scholarship so she could come again. At this point, I didn't know anything about some of the terrible things, really terrible things that she's done and participated in and some of the hoaxes that she's been a part of. But I remember Jeff reaching out, very concerned for me, saying that there was a murder for hire plot, that the association of Related Churches was involved, and that they had threatened him and that they were threatening to do something to me as well. And my first response to Jeff was, well, if that's happening, we need to file a police report immediately. And I think that was maybe a new thought to him. Of course, he's in Canada, so, you know, maybe he was. I don't know whether he was thinking that jurisdictionally it's different because she's in the United States. But yeah, that was my thing. And I said, you need to talk to her right away about going to police with what she has, because he was saying that he had texts and documentation and all these different things. And I'm like, well, that's crazy. But again, she needs to go to police, and I'm going to go police too. I mean, that's just not something I trifle with. And it's not the first time that I've gotten these kind of threats or hearsay of threats. And, you know, as an investigative reporter, you can be a target for things. And so I just don't trifle with that stuff. So my recollection is that he called her back and then there began to be, it seemed like some waffling on her part. And then he called me back, I think it was the next day, and said, julie, this whole thing is a hoax. I am so, so sorry. She just totally had me duped. And that's when I was like, oh, man, this is really, really not good.

[Julie Roys]

Pastor Jeff Thompson forwarded to Julie Roy's his statement that he sent his congregation in regard to Megan, Quote, out of love for the church and because she has repeatedly attempted to insert herself into the victim community, I feel the need to make a public statement regarding the credibility of Megan Stoner. I interacted with Megan over the course of several weeks and appeared on the second episode of her podcast after meeting her on the All About Cough subreddit. Our interactions rapidly devolved into a bizarre situation in which Megan attempted to impersonate multiple pastors from the ark and the governor of Indiana. Yes, really. She created multiple fake phone numbers to text from, forged multiple phone screenshots, attempted to impersonate the governor of Indiana on a Skype call, and created entirely fictional narratives with no basis in reality. While I cannot speak to Megan's mental health, I can attest to her desperate desire for attention and her willingness to prey on vulnerable persons, including victims of abuse, in order to satiate it. I pray she gets the help that she needs. I have spoken with multiple individuals who have had similar experiences. All have cut ties with her. The All About Cough sub also quickly figured out what she was doing. Simply put, Megan's testimony cannot be trusted and neither can any screenshots she produces of anything. To be clear, I am only releasing this statement because it has been brought to my attention that Megan has not repented and is once again actively trying to insert herself into the victim community. I would encourage anyone considering working with her to see if she can produce character references from those who have been pastoring her in a local church for the past three years. Again, don't trust their text messages or any screenshots provided by Megan. Ask to speak to the pastor via Zoom. If you're considering working with Megan and would like to discuss my testimony further, please feel free to reach out to me. Blessings. Jeff Thompson, Pastor, Gospel City Church I reached out in September to Pastor Jeff Thompson, but he did not wish to be interviewed for this podcast. I also reached out to Itown Indianapolis for comment and at the time of this episode's airing, have not received a response.

[Logan Gay]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

Recently I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous two year contracts, they said, what the F are you talking about, you insane Hollywood ass? So to recap, we're cutting the price of mint unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a [e-mail] Switch $45 upfront.

[Megan Stoner]

Payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only Taxes and fees Extra speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. C details it had been a while since she had reached out and said she was coming to the conference. I'm involved in all these different stories and I'd given it to a staff member, so I forgot about the fact that she was coming to the conference. And I remember one of my staff reached out to me long after and said that she was coming and she was going to stay with somebody. And I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we cannot do that. And that's when I reached back to her and said, I'm sorry, we're going to have to talk about this. And then I basically said there was going to be a problem with her coming to the conference because again, it's a safe place and we don't want somebody that behaves like that at the conference. So this was April when I reached out to her. I sent an email to her and she had said something about her father had just died. So I was like, take as long as you need to get back to me. But I did say to her that I have some concerns about you coming to the conference based on some information relayed to me by Jeff Thompson. And then she said, oh, I think you and I have the same goal. You've been an inspiration at kind of this very flattering talk to me. And then said, can you send me my questions and I'll respond to them when I'm able. And I'm like, I don't have time for this. So I just said, I can't commit to a process like that. I just think we need to go our separate ways. So I just basically cut it off at that point. And I hoped, because I know Jeff had talked about trying to get her some help, that that would happen. I mean, I was really concerned for her, to be honest, because of her behavior and what I had seen about her mental stability, all those things. And I was hopeful that him as a pastor, he might be able to help her.

[Tiffany Reese]

So then fast forward. David Morrell, who blogs at Protestia, had started making claims, I believe it was on Twitter, that he had some breaking news about you or this big bomb he was going to drop about you. What do you recall about that and what was the impact it had on.

[Megan Stoner]

You, David is very much in the camp of John MacArthur and he doesn't really do real journalism. It's kind of a tabloid type thing. And he doesn't follow the ethical rules of journalism that we do. For example, that you always reach out and you don't report hearsay, but you reach out to the person if there is an accusation, give them a chance to respond. It's something that purports to be journalistic and it's not journalistic and it's not run by journalists who have been trained in journalism and they really are unbelievably loose with the facts and always making these accusations. But the number one defense against slander and libel is truth. And the problem is they publish things that aren't true. We're very careful about fact checking and documentation and not reporting hearsay, but going to the firsthand witness and hearing it directly from that person. These are the sorts of things that we do and we double check the documentation and all those sorts of things, but they just don't do that. And normally I just ignore what Protestia does because it's so off the wall. But this the way he was saying, oh, I have something about Julie. Roy's exposing her as unethical or immoral and that's going to come out soon. And all his threats and then he's post like, see you tomorrow, Julie. He was taunting me on Twitter at that point. It wasn't X, but he was taunting me about it. And so, yeah, that's a little bit unnerving. And I'm trying to figure out again, I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, but what I've noticed is you don't have to do anything wrong necessarily if people can craft a lie and sell it to people. That's the age we're living in right now. Yeah, I was nervous. I was just like, what on earth is he going to drop? What is he going to say? So, yeah, the whole weekend I'm waiting, and then on Monday, he drops another taunt, you know, see you tomorrow. Like, I guess something had happened where he wasn't going to publish the story on Monday. Now after all, he's going to publish it the next day. And then as you said, then he came out with a retraction and it turned out that Megan Stoner had reached out. He published the emails he got from her. It's not even that good of a fabricated email that she sent. It looks very cut and pasted, but she crafted a narrative with these fabricated emails saying that I encouraged her to come forward with this juicy information that wasn't true, but just because I was into like the juicy information and I would never do something like that, ever. That's what he began to realize. And I forget exactly what tipped him off to it, but he began to realize that he might be taken in, but again, for three days he's publishing that I've done something immoral, that I'm this awful person and with no documentation at that point, again, being duped. And that's just shocking. It's shocking that somebody who purports to be a journalist, again, I wouldn't call him a journalist, but that purports to be a journalist, would behave in that manner. And it was an awful thing to do. It was somewhat traumatic for me.

[Julie Roys]

Please note, at the time of this episode's airing, David Morrill could not be reached for comment.

[Tiffany Reese]

How closely have you followed Megan Stoner's legal charges since this event took place?

[Megan Stoner]

Hardly at all, to be honest.

[Tiffany Reese]

Have you had any further conversations with her or any contact with her?

[Megan Stoner]

No, I cut off communication with her. The last time I remember having any conversation with her is that I did reach out to her at the point where she was just publishing some false things about me on social media. I remember reaching out and just asking her to stop doing that, that I was concerned for her and the way that she was behaving and that I would have to publicly say the stuff that she did. Again, at this point, I was really concerned for her mental state and for her as a person. I was really reluctant to go public with some of the stuff that she had done because I just didn't know how that might impact her. But it became clear when she's praying on a lot of people, not just me, that she needed to be exposed and people needed to be warned. And so at that point, that's when we did.

[Tiffany Reese]

Thank you so much. I cannot thank you enough for your time and energy and I'm so sorry for how you've been impacted like the other victims by Megan. Is there anything else that you'd like to add or go back to?

[Megan Stoner]

Well, I think the reason that Megan's able to wreak the kind of havoc that she does is because there are too many people out there, self described advocates without training, self described journalists without training, who are not acting professionally, who are not going back and checking to see if things are true. The harm to me by Megan was done by people who repeated her lies and didn't do due diligence to find out whether or not what she was alleging was true. If I behaved that way as a journalist, I would not have the platform I have. The reason that I have the platform I have is because we do our due diligence and we publish things that are true. And when we make mistakes, which everybody makes a mistake, we always imagine immediately own our error and we put it out there and we let people know. We've never had a story debunked in the way that these stories should be and have been debunked because we do our due diligence. This kind of reporting by people who don't know what they're doing just needs to stop. It really does. And they need to either get trained as journalists and do their due diligence and do their job right, or they just need to get off the Internet because they're doing a lot of harm.

[Tiffany Reese]

I really appreciate you being willing to speak with me.

[Megan Stoner]

Well, thank you. I appreciate speaking with you as well and appreciate your work.

[Tiffany Reese]

Next time on Something was Wrong.

[Unknown]

But then when I realized, like, what she had done, that's when I, like, hit it into high gear. And I was like, no one deserves to be treated like this. No one deserves to put trust in someone and then have someone completely ruin that trust. And that's what she had done with him. And it was scary. I started texting her and shortly after that is when she met me for the first time and I actually saw her in person.

[Logan Gay]

A Hamilton county woman is facing serious charges, accused of scamming several people out of rental homes. Logan Gay talked to one woman who says this scheme cost her more than just money.

[Tiffany Reese]

On this Fisher's police department report, it says the suspect, Megan, bit Abby in the hand. Thank you so much for listening. Something Was Wrong is a broken cycle. Media production created and produced by me, Tiffany Reese. Thank you so much to our associate producers, Amy B. Chesler and Lily Rowe. Thank you to our audio engineer, Becca High and our social media marketing manager, Lauren Barkman of Luxury Media. Additional thanks to our partners, Grant at Wondery, Marissa Travis and our team at wme, Jason and Jennifer at ksco, our cybersecurity team, Darkbox Security, and my lawyer Alan, and to all of you who make our show possible with your support and listenership. Special shout out to Neon Honey and Gabanez for covering our theme song, gladrag's original song youg Think youk this season. For more music from them, check out the episode notes or your favorite streaming app. In the Episode notes, you'll always find content, warnings, sources and resources with links to our websites and social media as well. Thank you so much to every survivor and ally who has trusted us to help share their stories. We are forever grateful. Until next time. Stay safe friends. If you like something was wrong, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

[Julie Roys]

Before you go, tell us about yourself.

[Tiffany Reese]

By filling out a short [e-mail] did.

[J]

You know that after World War II, the US government quietly brought former Nazi scientists to America in a covert operation to advance military technology? Or that in the 1950s the US army conducted a secret experiment by releasing bacteria over San Francisco to test how a biological attack might spread without alerting the public? These might sound like conspiracy theories, but they're not. They're well done, documented government operations that have been hidden away in classified files for decades. I'm Luke Lamanna, a Marine Corps recon vet and I've always had a thing for digging into the unknown. It's what led me to start my new podcast, Declassified Mysteries. In it I explore hidden truths and reveal some eye opening events like covert experiments and secret operations that those in power tried to keep buried. Follow redacted Declassified mysteries with me, Luke lamanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts to listen ad free. Join Wondery plus in the Wondery App.