The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E6: Madison and Christine Become Digital Detectives

Summary

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E6: Madison and Christine Become Digital Detectives

Release Date: May 5, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 6 of Season 3, titled "Madison and Christine Become Digital Detectives," The Girlfriends delves deep into the harrowing journey of twin sisters Madison and Christine Conradis. This episode chronicles their battle against relentless online harassment and cyberstalking, showcasing their resilience and ingenuity in seeking justice.

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The Onset of Harassment

The story begins in 2011 when Madison Conradis wakes up to a distressing message informing her that nude photos of her are circulating online without her consent. (03:22) Madison recounts, “Hey, I don’t know if you know that your photos are online, but there are some few nude photos of you and they're asking for more...”

Initially, Madison dismisses the situation, hoping it will fade away. However, the harassment intensifies, with her photos being reposted thousands of times across various platforms, including sketchy websites like 4chan and Motherless.

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Turning to Sister for Support

Feeling overwhelmed and unsupported by the local police, who dismissed her concerns and blamed her for taking the photos, Madison turns to her twin sister, Christine Conradis. Christine, a budding lawyer at the time, refuses to accept the police's dismissive attitude. She takes matters into her own hands, urging Madison to fight back. (12:53) Christine remarks, “That’s bullshit,” expressing her determination to seek justice despite the obstacles.

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The Investigation Begins

Madison and Christine embark on a mission to uncover the identity of Madison's harasser. They meticulously document every incident, taking screenshots and maintaining detailed records of the harassment. (24:22) Madison explains, “Even from the very beginning, my very first few harassing messages and whatnot. I was taking screenshots and copies of everything...”

Their investigation leads them to realize that the harassment is not isolated. They discover that the same individual is targeting multiple women, including Madison's twin sister Christine. The harassment escalates when nude photos of Christine are also posted online, deepening the personal stakes for the sisters.

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Gathering Evidence

Determined to identify the culprit, Madison and Christine utilize various digital tools and strategies. They analyze patterns in the harasser's behavior, such as unusual typing styles and recurring usernames. (27:31) Madison notes, “...they were saying kick me at and insert usernames,” identifying subtle clues that help narrow down their suspect pool.

A breakthrough occurs when Madison notices a unique pattern in a Snapchat post, linking the harasser to Christopher Buonacour, an acquaintance from their past. (29:26) By leveraging IP addresses and cross-referencing mutual friends, they piece together enough evidence to suspect Christopher as the primary harasser.

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Legal Struggles

Facing continued dismissal from local police departments, Madison and Christine shift their approach by filing a civil lawsuit against the anonymous harasser, known legally as John Doe. This legal maneuver grants them subpoena power, enabling them to trace the harasser's IP address more effectively. (24:22) Christine describes, “We were pulling subpoenas to Facebook, Google, Snapchat...”

Despite their efforts, gaining traction with law enforcement proves challenging. Most departments remain unresponsive, viewing the harassment as minor infractions rather than serious crimes. However, Christine's legal acumen and relentless perseverance eventually lead to the involvement of the FBI, marking a pivotal moment in their quest for justice.

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Community and Other Victims

Through their investigation, Madison and Christine connect with other victims of Christopher Buonacour, forming a united front against their common abuser. This collective effort amplifies their case, emphasizing the widespread impact of his actions. (39:04) Christine states, “And so we contacted them all individually and then ultimately got like a group chat going.”

By pooling their resources and sharing their experiences, the victims create a compelling case that underscores the severity and pattern of Christopher's harassment.

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Closing in on the Culprit

Leveraging the evidence gathered through their civil lawsuit, Madison and Christine work tirelessly to build a robust case against Christopher. Their strategic use of IP addresses and legal subpoenas culminates in March 2020 when Christopher is officially named in their lawsuit. (45:31) Anna Sinfield remarks, “Through the civil lawsuit they had filed, they were now getting information about IP addresses the harasser was using.”

The FBI's involvement ensures that Christopher's activities are scrutinized thoroughly, leaving him no way to evade accountability. The sisters' decade-long dedication finally pays off as Christopher faces six counts of cyberstalking.

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Justice Achieved

In a significant victory, Christopher Buonacour pleads guilty to the charges to avoid a lengthy trial, resulting in a 15-year federal prison sentence. (46:08) Madison shares her profound relief, stating, “It was the biggest relief... a sense of validation.”

The courtroom victory is not just a personal triumph for Madison and Christine but also serves as a beacon of hope for other victims of cyber harassment, demonstrating that persistence and solidarity can lead to meaningful justice.

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Emotional Aftermath

The conclusion of the case brings a mixture of emotions for the sisters. While relieved and validated, Madison reflects on the profound impact the ordeal had on her and Christine's lives. (49:25) She poignantly states, “The loneliness wolf dies, but the pack survives,” highlighting the strength they found in their unity and collective effort.

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Conclusion

This episode of The Girlfriends masterfully portrays the relentless struggle against online harassment and the power of sisterhood and community in overcoming adversity. Through Madison and Christine's story, listeners gain insight into the complexities of cyberstalking, the challenges of legal recourse, and the unwavering spirit required to seek justice.

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Notable Quotes

• Madison Conradis (03:22): “Hey, I don’t know if you know that your photos are online, but there are some few nude photos of you and they're asking for more...”

• Christine Conradis (12:53): “That’s bullshit.”

• Madison Conradis (24:22): “Even from the very beginning, my very first few harassing messages and whatnot. I was taking screenshots and copies of everything...”

• Madison Conradis (27:31): “...they were saying kick me at and insert usernames.”

• Christine Conradis (39:04): “And so we contacted them all individually and then ultimately got like a group chat going.”

• Madison Conradis (46:08): “It was the biggest relief... a sense of validation.”

• Madison Conradis (49:25): “The loneliness wolf dies, but the pack survives.”

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Final Thoughts

Madison and Christine's journey is a testament to resilience and the importance of fighting for one's rights, even in the face of systemic indifference. Their story not only sheds light on the pervasive issue of online harassment but also inspires listeners to stand together against such injustices.

Transcript

[Anna Sinfield]

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[Madison Conradis]

I had just woken up, so I was laying in bed, scrolling my phone saw I had a message.

[Dana]

There are moments that divide your life into before and after. For Madison, that moment came one morning with an unexpected message from someone she knew in college.

[Madison Conradis]

Hey, I don't know if you know that your photos are online, but there's some few nude photos of you and they're asking for more, and they're starting to give out your information and asking people to obtain more. Immediately your heart drops and you're like, what the fuck is going on? You know? So I immediately was like, hey, can you send me the links to whatever website you saw it on?

[Dana]

And that's where Madison sees it. A nude photo of herself from a boudoir shoot. A photo she had never expected to see out there on the Internet. At first, she just ignores it. But that single post quickly spirals into something much, much darker. It begins seeping into every aspect of Madison's life to the point where, like.

[Madison Conradis]

When he Googled my name, it was Paul popping up on the first page of Google. What's the first thing people do when you meet someone? If you start dating someone, if you become friends with someone, you go home and Google them, Right?

[Dana]

When Madison turns to the police for help, she's dismissed, told there's no crime here. And yet the harassment keeps mounting. Her photos are reposted in the same thread thousands of times. So she turns to the person who's literally always, since conception, been at her side, her twin sister, Christine. Together, they track down Madison's harasser and hold him to account and free other women from his digital abuse, too. I'm Anna Sinfield, and from the teams At Novel and iHeart podcasts, this is the Girlfriend Spotlight, where we tell stories of women winning. Today, Madison and Christine become digital detectives. I got you. Madison and Christine Conradis are identical twins.

[Madison Conradis]

I technically was born first. I wasn't supposed to be first, but that's how it ended up shaking out.

[Dana]

That's Madison speaking. And I'm gonna have to say this a lot because they are identical in voice as much as they are in their looks.

[Madison Conradis]

I am technically the older one, but Christine definitely has more of, like, the older sibling qualities, she always, like, kind of protected me as a kid. So she was always kind of. Although we're, you know, one minute apart, she was kind of like the more motherly, concerned twin.

[Dana]

Both sisters are blonde and chipper. They share the same sense of humor and grew up in Florida. As you were, like, kind of getting older, did you guys remain close or were you ever at wars?

[Anna Sinfield]

No, we were pretty close. I mean, like, all siblings fight. Like, I remember us getting into a fight in the parking lot of high school. That's Christine and getting in trouble. But the principal calling our parents and being like, okay, they're sisters, but if they weren't, they would probably be suspended. Like, you can't, like, hit someone even in the car in your parking lot, you know, so, you know, we've had our fights like every sibling, but we've always remained close.

[Dana]

Christine, naturally, was the first person Madison turned to when she found out her nude photos had been posted on some dodgy website. And it wasn't just photos. It was also her personal details and a call out for other people to send more pictures of her.

[Madison Conradis]

It was like 4chan, and there was a few others, I think, like motherless mo. So all the typical sites that sketchy shit happened.

[Dana]

4Chan is a website where people can post photos completely anonymously. And that means although the site is on the open web, there's some very dark stuff on there. Discussions of things like rape and murder and sexual images of women taken without their consent.

[Anna Sinfield]

And they're cataloging them by area code. So, like, for example, Madison is in. Let's just make up an area code in four two one, Right? So it would be like, four two one area code in the US and you would go into that sub category, and there would be, like, different women posted by different anonymous users with usually their first name and maybe last initial and a photos. And these people are almost utilizing it, like baseball cards or Pokemon cards. They're like, hey, I have Madison C. Anybody got more of her? Or I have Ashley S. Does anybody have Christine C?

[Dana]

Like, yeah, like, after. I mean, it's sunk in. Really scary. You're like, what the fuck do I do? What did you do after you found out about these images?

[Madison Conradis]

So I definitely kind of, like, creeped around the websites a little bit. And I think we kind of both were like, let's just wait it out, see what happens. Yeah.

[Anna Sinfield]

I think at first the advice was kind of like, okay, take a beat. Let's just ignore it. These type of people, the more you give it Attention like it's gonna fuel the fire. Just ignore it. It'll go away. Not that many people go on these websites. Like, it's not a big deal. Right.

[Dana]

We hear the term revenge porn a lot in the media and pop culture. But the more accurate way to describe this kind of thing is non consensual pornography. And in the early 2010s, when Madison found her photos online, the amount of this non consensual pornography being published to sites like 4chan was really ramping up. In the beginning, the sisters thought it might be something that could just fizzle out, but it didn't. It only got worse.

[Anna Sinfield]

In this case, this person was posting several times a day. By the end, hundreds, thousands of times a day. And so this person was creating a collage. And in the collage would be a picture of Madison from her LinkedIn profile picture and maybe like a Facebook page, and then her nude photos. And then it was telling everyone where she worked, what her home address was, what her parents address was, all the contact information of everyone that she knows and loves. And then there was usually a call to action of, like, go harass her.

[Madison Conradis]

Go call her work.

[Anna Sinfield]

And that's when it got really bad. So I was getting anonymous messages, along with our mother, father, close friends, of her actual nude photos.

[Dana]

I mean, Madison, you must have been terrified. That's so scary.

[Madison Conradis]

Yeah, it's definitely terrifying in a sense of. I didn't know who it was. So I think that's the most terrifying aspect of it.

[Dana]

Yeah.

[Madison Conradis]

Is that it could be anyone. It could be a family member, it could be a friend. It could be the person walking behind you. It could be a receptionist at your dentist office. Like you have no idea who it is. I would have a reoccurring nightmare. And a masked person with a hood in all black couldn't see the person's face just, like, hovering over me. And it was so realistic that there were many times where I woke up, like, jumped up, screamed, slammed the door. And it obviously that stemmed directly from my issues that I was having dealing with this person harassing and stalking me, not knowing who it was.

[Dana]

The first thing Madison tried to do was figure out who was behind this. But the photos themselves didn't offer any clues about who posted them. She'd never shared them with anyone. She had a signed contract with the photographer that explicitly said pictures were not to be posted online without prior consent. So either the photographer had given them to this harasser, which seemed unlikely because that would be a breach of the contract, or someone stole them from the photographer's password protected online folder. Madison was inundated with phone calls, text Messages, emails, Instagram, DMs, Facebook DMs, commenting on the photos and demanding more of them. She changed her phone number and email address and deleted many of her social media accounts to try and make the torment stop until eventually Madison decided to take this to the police.

[Madison Conradis]

The first time I went into the Melbourne Police Department, I was alone. So I walk in and I said, hey, I'm being harassed, stalked. Is there something you can do to help me? I need, I would like to fill out a police report and possibly, you know, try to find the person that's doing this. I brought a few screenshots printed out on paper and he kind of just flipped through it and was like, where did he get the photos? Or where did they get the photos? I don't think this is a crime. I'm not going to give you a police report to fill out. Any sort of victim shaming you can think of was said, well, you shouldn't have taken those pictures, et cetera, et cetera. So I kind of tail between my legs, walked out of the police office that day and felt very defeated, called Christine. That's when Christine was like, uh, that's bullshit.

[Dana]

Oh, and did I mention Christine's in law school and she's got some new knowledge to flex.

[Anna Sinfield]

I kind of emailed them and just ripped them a new one of like, hey, if you need resources or training, I'm sure I can find someone for you. I would be happy to educate your police officers.

[Dana]

Christine had done some digging and found the Florida statute which specifically says that this is a crime and this was.

[Anna Sinfield]

A really new law at the time. So I cited the law and was like, read it. They didn't really take too kindly to that, but I knew that would piss them off and it did. But ultimately she did get a police report filed. Nothing was done, but at least, you know, she was given the privilege to fill that form out.

[Dana]

And then nothing happened. But things seemed to die down. The photos weren't being posted as regularly and Madison tried to move on, try to put it behind her. Around this time, she also started dating a guy. It was a long distance relationship and for a little while at least, life almost felt like normal again.

[Madison Conradis]

We had fun. We went out, went to sporting events, hockey games, basketball games, football games. Just, you know, a typical fun 20s relationship. He was my best friend at that time, besides Christine, obviously.

[Dana]

Not long after they got together, her new boyfriend brought it up. He had seen those nude photos of Madison and asked her about them. And so she told him about the years of harassment that she had endured. And he was the perfect boyfriend about it. Angry on her behalf, outraged that this had happened. He told her that he wanted to help, he wanted to protect her. But you know the unsettling calm after a storm. Yeah, that's the trick. Because the storm is far from over. Not even close. One day, seven years after the harassment started, Madison saw new photos being posted on those sites again. This time these photos were recent ones and there's only one person who could be behind it.

[Madison Conradis]

There was no doubt in my mind it was him. Like he was the only one that had those photographs and videos.

[Dana]

It looks like her best friend, her boyfriend of more than three years, has betrayed her in the most brutal way imaginable. After the break, Madison confronts her boyfriend.

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[Madison Conradis]

Got you, I've got you. Got you. I've got you.

[Dana]

In 2018, Madison's worst nightmare came true. The anonymous online harasser had obtained new more intimate photos of her. These were images she had only ever shared with her boyfriend. Their relationship was up and down, on and off by this point. But when she found these photos online, she broke up with him immediately.

[Madison Conradis]

I definitely knew 100% that he had sent photos to this person. I kind of just called him up and I was like what the fuck are you thinking? Like why? How? Who? He again was justifying like, oh, I'm trying to help. I was just like no, I don't think that like this is like a stereotypical look up the dictionary revenge porn. You're mad that I'm moving on and you knew this could hurt me.

[Dana]

Madison's ex boyfriend admitted in letters and texts that he had sent these private photos to the anonymous harasser. He said he was trying to help her to find out who it was. But this is when things take an even darker turn. Up until this point, the online harasser had been posting about Madison, just Madison, but also every now and then, asking for nude pictures of Christine, her twin. Along with these requests, they posted regular photos taken from Christine's Facebook, just her normal holiday snaps and pictures with friends. And while it was annoying to see Christine targeted, the sisters were reassured that the harasser didn't seem to have anything on her. And then nude photos of Christine got posted.

[Anna Sinfield]

I didn't even know these existed, and now I'm seeing them on 4chan. And I was very involved in my sister's experience, and obviously, I'm very empathetic towards my sister. And so that was, you know, shocking, sad, all of the feelings, but nothing prepares you for when you see your own nude body on the Internet, right? And so, like Madison described it, your kind of stomach just drops.

[Dana]

There were now two photographs circulating of Christine that she didn't even know existed. These were from the same boudoir photo shoot back in college, the one that Madison did.

[Anna Sinfield]

The photographer is taking a ton of.

[Madison Conradis]

Photos at a time.

[Anna Sinfield]

Just think of, like, a photo going click, click, click, click, click, click, click. It's going that fast, and that's just to get, like, natural movements or whatever. And in that, there were thousands of photos, and two were of my breast and my nipple.

[Dana]

Did it change things when it was suddenly targeting the two of you as twins? You know, like, you're both up there. That. That feels like that would change something.

[Madison Conradis]

So for me, I had an insane amount of guilt, right? Like, I brought her into this. She, you know, had bullets being shot at her. Now, all because of helping me, Essentially, in my mind, I just felt so guilty. Like, I obviously love my sister. She's one of my favorite people in the entire world, and something that I did was helping to hurt her. That is true. Like, I kind of always thought, like.

[Anna Sinfield]

Wow, man, I'm just getting punished for helping.

[Madison Conradis]

But, like, that's the point. Point of what?

[Anna Sinfield]

They. They're attacking me. So you don't have resources. You don't have someone to help. And let's be honest, like, I was very motivated to help you, but it's. Nothing's more motivating than your own boobs being on the Internet.

[Dana]

I bet. I bet Madison and Christine believed that the only way these new photos of Christine could have ended up with the harasser was through Madison's ex. During that original photo shoot, both Madison and Christine had chosen their photos, and the photographer gave them all the raw footage on a cd. Years later, Madison backed it up in a secure Dropbox folder. Madison claims that her ex had access to those files, and she believes he went through hundreds of proofs and found the two nude photos of Christine. By now, the sisters had graduated. Madison was working in marketing, and Christine was a young lawyer. And yet the harassment continued. An anonymous profile would share Madison's nude photos on her professional Facebook business page, and her workplace would get these panicked phone calls telling them about the photos. It was relentless.

[Anna Sinfield]

We started looking into the sites, and we were keeping track of it more because they were increasing. Right. And so we were just constantly monitoring these pages and getting things taken down.

[Dana]

The sisters filed a police report against the ex boyfriend, but the local police department decided not to bring charges. They said there wasn't enough evidence to prove that he intended to harm them. Madison's ex boyfriend has never been charged with any crimes relating to Madison or Christine. Feeling frustrated, they decided to turn their attention back to the harasser himself and take a different route, filing a civil lawsuit to try and de anonymize him. The case was filed as Christine Conradis and Madison Conradis versus John Doe. This would then give them subpoena powers, which would allow them to track down the harasser's IP address and hopefully figure out where they were hiding.

[Madison Conradis]

We were pulling subpoenas to Facebook, Google, snapchat, Where the first round of subpoenas, you get a location of where the person could be sending these messages from.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah, you're plugging it into an IP search. You're typically getting just, like, a general area. But once you get that IP address, in order to get the identifying information, you then have to subpoena the Internet service provider, which is not quite as easy. And so that took a lot of time.

[Dana]

From the start, Christine and Madison were meticulous, determined, and smart. They kept detailed records of everything that.

[Madison Conradis]

Happened, Even from the very beginning, My very first few harassing messages and whatnot. I was taking screenshots and copies of everything and foldering it in a folder on my computer.

[Anna Sinfield]

4Chan disappears after a while, like 48 hours or something. But there are websites that archive this. And so by this time, we're catching it live on 4chan and getting it taken down immediately and screenshotting. But we can go back through years and years and years to these archive websites, which is good and bad because we're now having to hit multiple websites Including Google Images and all these archive websites. To get these photos taken down, Madison.

[Dana]

And Christine had to move fast. As soon as they spotted a post, they'd take a screenshot, file it, and try and get a subpoena to trace the IP address. Then they would file to take down the photo using copyright legislation. Because the fact is, the law didn't want to recognize this as a crime of harassment, but would address the breach of the photographer's copyright. And you work with what you've got. This was turning into a full on homegrown investigation.

[Madison Conradis]

We call them our breadcrumb map. And we had you look at, like, Law and order, one of those crime shows, and you have the.

[Anna Sinfield]

The murder board.

[Madison Conradis]

The murder board. And we had, you know, like strings and this and that. Basically that, but in a digital form.

[Dana]

Hashtag, Millennials, I would love to see.

[Madison Conradis]

So there was just so many small clues that we started piecing together.

[Dana]

And the anonymous harasser when these photos were posted, obviously it's anonymous, but did he have a username?

[Anna Sinfield]

So again, 4chan is anonymous. You do not need to have a username or anything for that. But as he's posting these photos of both Madison and I, he's saying kick me at and insert usernames.

[Dana]

Kik messenger, or just Kik is an instant messaging app with a focus on user anonymity. It lets people sign up without needing a phone number or a valid email address.

[Anna Sinfield]

We can track this person because he's dumb enough to leave kick names as clues, essentially. And then he also had this, like, very strange way of typing where he would do this thing where it would be like dot, space, dot, space, dot space. And just had a very weird tone about his writing. People don't do dot, space, dot space, dot space. They do dot, dot, dot. If they're gonna do that. Right.

[Dana]

Madison and Christine were piecing together everything like a digital puzzle. They were collecting clues, connecting the dots, space, dots. There was a recurring kick username and the distinct writing style. But then they noticed something far more sinister.

[Madison Conradis]

Another picture of a completely different girl. Yeah.

[Anna Sinfield]

So we're seeing him post other girls, and we're like, okay, who are these girls? What do we all have in common? It's clearly the same person that's posting all of these.

[Madison Conradis]

We had already had all this different evidence, so we just started adding new folders of this victim, this victim, this victim.

[Anna Sinfield]

We went back through all these archive websites and 4chan live to see who he was posting and kind of figured out there was what, five, really? Six, I guess different girls and women that he was targeting.

[Dana]

Six victims. Madison and Christine added these women to the growing digital board of clues. And then another big clue. Here's Madison.

[Madison Conradis]

I had gone to key west, and in key west, they celebrate the sunset every day. They have street performers and street art. So I snapped a photograph of just the sunset, not a picture of me. And I posted it on my Snapchat. Almost immediately, I look down and I have a text message. And it was, oh, that's a beautiful sunset that you just saw. And I was immediately was like, okay. The only place I posted on it is Snapchat. Snapchat has a log of who's seen your stuff. So I immediately went and screenshot it. It was so new that I think only 39 people had seen was a.

[Dana]

Text message from an unknown number. So it must be either the harasser themselves or someone from 4chan who had been encouraged by the harasser. But Madison's social media pages were all completely private. Only people she knew in real life could actually follow her. One of these 39 people who had viewed her Snapchat post. One of these 39 people who Madison knows must be linked to the harasser, Connecting the dots like pins on a cork board. They needed a way to narrow down these 39 suspects, so they decided to have another look at the other victims. If there was something, someone connecting these six women, that would be their suspect. And, well, one of the six victims was shockingly young. And while in her photos she was always fully clothed, There was another clue. Here's Madison again.

[Madison Conradis]

While the underage girl ended up having a catholic school uniform on, it was a photograph of her fully clothed in her catholic uniform. And just, like, posts of, like, soliciting someone to rape her. He wants to watch someone rape her this and that. Just really bad posts. And again, she was underage. So we zoomed in on the photograph.

[Dana]

Christine's husband, Dana, a photoshop whiz, helped them sharpen the photo.

[Madison Conradis]

So he zoomed in, did his little magic, and he ended up being able to read the school location, which is terrifying.

[Anna Sinfield]

If we can figure out where this young girl is going to school and find her, like any creep on the Internet could, right? Cause he's posting again a photo of her in her school uniform with calls of action to rape and harm her.

[Madison Conradis]

So that was kind of the second clue, breadcrumb clue that we had.

[Anna Sinfield]

And so we're trying to, at the time, piece together who all these people are. And then Dana went on Facebook and, like, cross referenced, like, mutual friend. Bam. Mutual friend.

[Dana]

Mutual.

[Anna Sinfield]

And so he was like, holy shit, it is him.

[Dana]

Dana discovers he has a Facebook friend in common with all of these women. A man called Chris.

[Anna Sinfield]

We figured out one's an ex girlfriend, one's a family member, and one's a family friend when there were lots of other, like, little, like Madison said, breadcrumbs.

[Dana]

There was also that strange way of typing. The dot, space, dot, space method. They cross referenced it with Chris's posts on Facebook. It's how he wrote, too. It had to be him. Chris had mutual friends with all six women and family in the same city where the schoolgirl lived. And one final check.

[Madison Conradis]

So that Snapchat story ended up being one of our breadcrumb clues that we pieced together. And he was the last person that had viewed this story.

[Dana]

Madison and Christine finally found the culprit behind the years of harassment, the years of paranoia and fear and stress and extortion. Someone both of them knew, but neither of them had thought about in years. Someone who had even been a guest at Christine and Dana's wedding. Christopher.

[Anna Sinfield]

We both went to college with him. He was, I would say, a friend of my husband's. By the end, they were probably, I would say, friends in college, acquaintances later on in life, but still invited to our wedding.

[Dana]

It sounds like the other women and this girl that he harassed were much kind of closer to him. Like, why would he pick you guys?

[Anna Sinfield]

Like, the only thing I can think of is maybe he, like, had a crush on Madison. Like, Madison and him. Never had a romantic relationship, never went on a date, never did anything physical.

[Madison Conradis]

Yeah, nothing. Like, I don't even think I ever, like, hugged him in, like, a social setting. Like, I don't. Again, it's like, was I too nice? You know? Like, you always, like, as a victim, especially in this society, you're always questioning, like, well, what did I do? And it's like, at the end of the day, you, as a victim, to do nothing. It doesn't matter what you're wearing. It doesn't matter what you look like. It doesn't matter anything. It's the person doing it to you. That's whose fault it is.

[Dana]

And the moment when you realize that it was him. Can you just kind of describe that feeling?

[Madison Conradis]

It was the biggest relief, in my opinion. Like, weight off of my shoulder. I can, you know, start trying to trust people around my life a little bit more since I know that they're not trying to. To hurt me. And then I was also, like, excited a little bit. Again, weird emotion. But we had worked so hard, spent countless hours, countless sleepless nights working till 3, 4 or 5am on this stuff that it was it was nice to see some of the hard work paying off.

[Dana]

So they found their guy. But now they needed justice. The sisters faced another daunting challenge, turning their digital detective work into a case that law enforcement couldn't ignore. After the break, Madison and Christine go after Chris.

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[Dana]

Discovering Christopher Bonacour's identity was a major win for Madison and Christine. But knowing who he was didn't make him any less dangerous. To stop his harassment, they would need an airtight case that even the most dismissive police officers wouldn't turn away. And they had a responsibility to the other six victims.

[Anna Sinfield]

And so we contacted them all individually and then ultimately got like a group chat going. And every single one of them was very receptive and helpful. Right?

[Dana]

One of the women was Chris's ex.

[Madison Conradis]

Girlfriend and some of the photographs that were being posted of her she didn't even know were being taken of her. So yeah, it's so creepy, like truly.

[Anna Sinfield]

Voyeurism where she was, you know, getting changed and he would like post photos of her and things like that. And then there was an ex girlfriend who he attacked a lot.

[Dana]

As they talked to the victims, they learned that two of the other women had already confronted Chris directly about his harassment. To one, he apologized and promised to stop. But with the other, his response was much more callous.

[Anna Sinfield]

I think he said, good luck, call the cops, they're not going to do anything. And was a complete asshole to her about it. And so she had filed a police report in Orlando, Florida area years prior and had just set idle for years and years and years.

[Dana]

These girls with nothing in common except the man who had violated their privacy, united against Chris. They started sharing their stories and pooling their resources. The pack was forming and it was about to hunt.

[Madison Conradis]

There is a strength in numbers when you're reporting crimes. They can ignore one person, they might be able to ignore two people. But once you start getting more and more people involved, I think it helps elevate the seriousness of the crime.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yes, we're joining forces with all of the girls and we're like, okay, there's so many of us, like, they cannot ignore us. This is a bigger issue. This is a societal issue. Not like a one person fighting with one person issue. We were scattered all over the country too, but kind of in a stance of unity. We decided, like on this day, we are all going to the police department and we're going to get our police report.

[Dana]

This is when Christine, the lawyer of the group, really comes into her own.

[Anna Sinfield]

I had compiled a printout of all of our circumstantial evidence, our breadcrumb map. I had emailed this to all the girls all over the country. I had listed out any law that this might be breaking if you were in New York. I looked up your New York laws and your local laws, and I added all the federal statutes, like cyber stalking that I thought it might fall into if you were in Florida. I included the non consensual pornography law. Like, I included everything that I think that I could point to with a straight face and be like, listen, this is illegal. I had some screenshots of all the different types of harassing messages, including some of the the more egregious ones, like the call to action to harm, specifically Madison and the underage woman.

[Dana]

Christine essentially created a 59 page legal roadmap that the victims could take to their local police departments.

[Madison Conradis]

I definitely did a lot of like the piecing together, like visually.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah, I think it was kind of like the dream team between Dana being like our in house tech guru, me being in house counsel, and then Madison kind of piecing together everything, like paralegal work like she's doing.

[Madison Conradis]

I was kind of learning from the best, AKA Christine.

[Dana]

The girlfriends planned a coordinated approach. All of them would go into their respective police departments on the same day and asked to file a police report against Christopher Buonacourt. But despite having these huge files of evidence, most of them were turned away. Only Madison and the Mother of the underage girl actually managed to put in the reports. Even legal expert Christine was dismissed, which.

[Anna Sinfield]

Again, was just absolutely mind boggling to me because of all the work that we had put into to give them like this perfect little with a bow wrapped on top evidence in a summary for them. And personally, I went into my police department and I can't even fill out a police report. It blew my mind, like, how they treated me. I mean, he asked all the questions, right? Like, how do they get the photos? This isn't a crime. If anything, it's a misdemeanor. Do you really want to go through all of this? A jury's never going to understand this. Those are some of the things that actual quotes that this man said to me. And so finally I demanded to fill out a police report and said, listen, bud, like, you're behind a desk, like, why don't you let the actual detective decide if this is a crime? Just give me the form and pass it on. If the detective wants to rip it up, that's on him.

[Dana]

Eventually, the police officer gave in and handed Christine the report to fill out.

[Anna Sinfield]

It did get to the detective. The detective determined, okay, this is bad, and then was like, okay, we also don't have the resources to do anything about this. I'm going to forward this on to the FBI.

[Dana]

Finally, someone in law enforcement saw this situation for what it was. As for the police departments that had dismissed the other women, well, Christine wasn't letting that slide. She made calls, pushed back, found the right people to talk to. All that paid off. An additional two of the victims walked back into their local police departments and filed reports.

[Anna Sinfield]

At that point, we know who it is, but in the eyes of the law, it's circumstantial evidence. Right? And so we knew that we needed to get solid proof, which means IP addresses connecting to a person.

[Dana]

Through the civil lawsuit they had filed, they were now getting information about IP addresses the harasser was using.

[Anna Sinfield]

But some of them were coming back to, like, the New York area, the greater New York area. And so they're like, okay, this is good, this is good, this is good.

[Dana]

Guess who lived in New York. Chris Buonacour.

[Anna Sinfield]

So we're just saving all these IP addresses and everything, but when you go to subpoena the Internet service providers, that actually alerts the user and gives them the opportunity to fight it.

[Dana]

And Madison and Christine were firing off subpoenas every few hours, every day, new post online subpoena, another picture subpoena, and on and on.

[Madison Conradis]

During this time Obviously, the ISP was alerting him, and he was like, oh, shit, who is this? Whatever. But it's funny seeing in the background, like, the FBI was doing their thing, and he still had no idea that the FBI was cracking down on him.

[Dana]

The FBI and the sisters were closing in on Chris from all sides until finally, after a decade of piecing together breadcrumbs, they had enough to take him to court and press charges. In March of 2020, the civil lawsuit, Christine Conradis and Madison Conradis v. John Doe, was officially amended to name Christopher Buonacourt. In a separate criminal case, he was charged with six counts of cyber stalking. To avoid trial and get a lighter sentence, he pleaded guilty.

[Anna Sinfield]

We encouraged as many of the women to go as possible because I think it's great for the judge to see that this affects real life people. And so we were there from eight until after five because there was so many victims that wanted to, you know, tell him and the judge how he felt. We get to the next morning and they're reading the sentence out, and ultimately the judge agreed with us that this was abhorrent behavior and not suitable for society and sentenced him to 15 years in federal prison.

[Dana]

Wow. How did that feel?

[Madison Conradis]

I personally felt very emotional. Just getting up and having to speak and talk about the impact of his actions was scary enough. And to think about having one judge decide the fate of what you've worked so hard to try and do, which was put him in prison. It was so scary because, like, how many men told me throughout this whole process that, like, it wasn't a crime or you're not going to get anything out of it. So when the time came and they read out the sentence, it was like, there's no explanation. It was just, like, emotional and relieving.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah, I'd say, like, validating. Right. You're told in the beginning, this isn't a crime. A jury will never believe this. This is a misdemeanor, if that. And then you're sitting there years later realizing that this person just got 15 years in federal prison, and it just feels good.

[Madison Conradis]

Fun fact, too, is we thought it was very, like, poetic that the FBI agents, all the victims, the prosecutor, it was a team of all women. So we thought it was kind of cool and poetic.

[Dana]

Oh, wow. And did you talk to any of the other victims after that?

[Madison Conradis]

Yeah, yeah, we still talk to them sometimes. That's what was so strange about this whole situation and who he chose as victims. Like, none of us besides Christine and I obviously have much in common, from location to Interest to where we're at in life, like ages. Like literally nothing besides that we're females and happen to somehow run into Christopher at some point in our lives.

[Dana]

This nightmare stretched for almost 10 years from that first post on 4chan in 2011 to finally naming Chris Bonacour in the civil lawsuit and then getting him a conviction. 10 years of looking over your shoulder, of feeling exposed, hunted and dismissed. But it was also 10 years of grit and determination. It took a decade to say, this is finally over. Well, I hope you guys feel a sense of, I don't know, ease.

[Madison Conradis]

Yeah, I do. And I really think that we really liked that we could help other people around this too. And that was my last sentence of my victim impact statement was the loneliness Wolf dies, but the pack survives. And it hits me every time because I couldn't have done this without every single one of those girls and they couldn't have done it without us. We survived because we stayed within a pack. The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.

[Dana]

Thanks to Christine and Madison for joining our girlfriends pack here. Here too. Hope you know that you've got a big group of us rallying, howling around you now. If you've enjoyed this conversation, you can find loads more incredible women on our feed. Do check them out and please do spread the word and tell your friends about us. We want as many people as possible to be part of the Girlfriends gang. Next time on the Girlfriend Spotlight. Eilish runs the ball barn.

[Madison Conradis]

Hey Willow, got a question for you. How hard are orchiectomies? The orchiectomies are removal of the testicles. Have you ever done one? No. Would you like to?

[Dana]

Hey, it's Anna. You've reached the girlfriend's hotline. Leave your story after the tone. Okay, gotta go. Love ya.

[Listener]

So a few years ago, my Nani passed away. My mom's mom's my grandma. We were very close, but also my mom and my Nani were very close and I'm very close with my mom. So there was a lot tangled up grief and secondary grief and seeing my mom suffer and not being able to be there. I couldn't travel back in time for the funeral. It was near the end of COVID I think in 2021. To make me feel better, my friends all came over and let me perform line of karaoke for them and they would sing to me. And one friend in particular brought out her piano from her room which is very heavy and played every song that I love and let me sing along. Yeah, I really can't sing. So you know they loved me with them tolerating 60 minutes of me. Just like howling Adele.

[Dana]

If you have your own story like the one you just heard and you'd like the whole Girlfriends gang to hear hear it, then please send it to us. You can record it as a voice memo under 90 seconds please and email it straight to thegirlfriendsovel audio. Please don't include your name. We're keeping things a little anon. We want stories like say that one time you faked an emergency on an awful date and your bestie bailed you out with a phone call. We love her. Or that time we when all of your girls showed up on your doorstep with five pizzas, two tubs of ice cream and three bottles of Sauvignon Blanc because the man of your dreams just dumped you. I want stories that are meaningful or silly. I want big. I want small. I'm desperate to hear them, so send them over. This season the Girlfriend Spotlight is supporting the charity Womankind Worldwide. They do amazing work to help women's rights organizations and movements to strengthen and grow. If you'd like to find out more or donate to help them secure equal rights for women and girls across the globe, you can go to womankind.org UK the Girlfriend Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit Novel Audio. The show is hosted by me, Anna Sinfield. This episode was written and produced by Al Shaybani. Our assistant producer is Lucy Carr. Our researcher is Sayana Youssef. The editor is Hannah Marshall. Max o' Brien and Craig Strachan are our executive producers. Production management from Joe Savage, Cherie Houston and Charlotte Wolf. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson. Music supervision by Jake Otyvich, Nicholas Alexander and Anna Sinfield. Original music composed by Louisa Gerstein and Gemma Freeman. The series artwork was designed by Christina Lemkul. Willard Foxton is Creative Director of Development. Special thanks to Katrina Norville, Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson at iheart Podcasts as well as Carly Frankel and the whole team at wme.

[Christine Conradis]

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[Anna Sinfield]

This is an iHeart podcast.