S10 E8: [Olivia] Was It All a Lie?
52:42 Share

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Something Was Wrong early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

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 seven discounts. Multitask right now. Quote today at Progressive.com, 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.

With Audible, there's more to imagine when you listen. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. And Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as a part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. As an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their ever-growing catalog. Be

Be inspired to explore your inner creativity with Viola Davis' memoir, Finding Me. Find what piques your imagination with Audible. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash imagine or text imagine to 500-500. That's audible.com slash imagine or text imagine to 500-500.

Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences. Episodes can discuss topics that can be triggering, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, suicide, and murder. I am not a therapist or a doctor. If you're in need of support, please visit somethingwaswrong.com slash resources for a list of nonprofit organizations that can help.

Some names have been changed for anonymity purposes. Opinions expressed by the guests on the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself or AudioChuck. Resources and source material are linked in the episode notes. Thank you so much for listening. You think you know me, you don't know me well. You think you know me, you don't think you know me. You don't know me.

My name is Olivia. I am 27 years old and I am from the Midwest. I work as a victim's advocate for an abuse and rape crisis center. So when I began my job at the grocery store, I was 19 and I was

I was kind of freshly out of high school and I wasn't really sure what direction I wanted to go in yet. So I was just working a lot of different jobs at the time. The grocery store was one of them. It was in my hometown and most of the people I worked with were much older than me. Specifically in the department I worked in, it was a group of older women and most of them were

were kind of producing a negative environment. And I think I kind of fed off of that because I was a really impressionable 19-year-old. And the workplace environment, I think, was just very catty. There was a lot of gossip and clicks, and that was sort of the general environment of the store I worked in. A few months after Olivia began working at the grocery store, a woman named Janet was hired in her department.

Her personality was very bubbly, very outgoing, quirky, and she just was a really bright personality. And it was a huge contrast from what I was familiar with working with so far. I had never worked with somebody who was so upbeat, and she seemed like she just was a different type of person altogether that I had never really met before.

And she quickly noticed the cattiness of the workplace. I felt like she kind of understood all of us really quickly, including myself. And we both sort of gravitated towards each other, but there was a little bit of hesitancy on my end at first because I felt kind of like a pushback with how energetic and bubbly and positive she was because that's just not the type of person I really was at the time. Janet is much older than me.

Within a few weeks of Janet being hired, she was taken off the floor and brought into the management office.

I was working the shift that that happened on, and we were all a little confused about what was happening and why she was being brought up to management. Well, because of the gossiping nature of the store, we learned that she had been caught bringing large bottles of vodka into the bathroom and then pouring them into like separate bottles and putting them inside her bag and drinking them throughout the day.

So she was stealing alcohol and then also drinking it while working. And they had footage of this because they had cameras everywhere in this grocery store. It was on a higher end scale of a grocery store. She was brought up to management and they sort of gave her an option of doing alcohol dependency classes instead of firing her. And I believe she chose that because she was never fired and she continued to work there even after they made that discovery.

She never brought that up to me. And I never asked. I think I felt like I partly wasn't sure if I could believe that that was really what happened. And because it was gossip, I also felt like it wasn't my place. And if she wanted to share with me about that, she would.

Olivia and Janet continued working together frequently, and despite her original hesitancy about Janet's peppy personality, they started to become close. She became like a second mother figure to me. I was young. I didn't have the greatest relationship with my own mother because of just different things that I was dealing with from previous trauma in my life.

She was really caring and generous and our relationship was really focused on me, which is typically something I think I am not used to and not really comfortable with. But because of how caring and nurturing she was like a mother, I really felt like...

I could let that be what the relationship was. I could be taken care of by her and nurtured by her. And that was like a really amazing feeling I had never gotten from a relationship before. She also let me know later in our friendship that she didn't have any siblings. So she had no nieces or nephews. She wasn't married at the time and she never had any of her own children before. So...

I really felt like I was kind of a focus point in her life for her. It almost felt like she needed someone to care for and I was that person and I needed someone to care for me. And so that it just like worked the way that it should.

And she also told me a couple months into our friendship that she was living with her mom because her mom had been diagnosed with cancer. And so she was taking care of her because both her parents were in their 70s and she was that extra help that they needed. And she had moved just recently from the West Coast. So she was new to the area. And that's why she got this job at this kind of random grocery store because she was taking care of her sick mom.

She would talk and joke about how she was a Pisces and both of her parents were Virgos. So she would talk about how the Virgos are very routine and that kind of thing. And she always felt like she didn't quite fit into the routine motion. So I noticed that there was some major differences in how they operated their day to day. She was unconventional and they were very money focused. They were well to do. They had a really nice house. Really

really wealthy. And she did talk to me and share with me about how she felt like she had never really found quite her calling yet. She always was really interested in reading and wanted to be a librarian, but she didn't go that route.

She never told me why, but it just was something I guess she wanted to do but never did. As their friendship developed, Janet began showering Olivia with gifts, which she describes as Janet's love language. And so I felt like that was pretty early in our relationship that she was surprising me with little things at work, buying me like coffee. There

There was a Starbucks inside our store. And so I would always get a Starbucks and she was always buying something for me, bringing in things that she said she had at home that she was never going to use, like makeup and perfume and clothes. And then once we started hanging out more outside of work, she would want to take me shopping and she would take me to my favorite stores and just tell me I could buy anything that I wanted and she would get it for me.

It was hard for me to receive those gifts because my family never had a lot of money. So the way that we showed love was not through gifts or money. But it just seemed like that was what she wanted to do. It didn't really matter if I said I didn't want that. It felt like something that was more for her.

And of course, who doesn't love getting gifts and feeling like they're important? And so I kind of eventually felt more comfortable because it just seemed like that's how she wanted to love me.

Her gifts were always very geared towards a certain point in my life. So when I was starting to reconsider going back to college or starting college, she got me books and supplies and all that kind of the things. And then on Valentine's Day, it was always love stuff or if I had a hard time.

She would get me self-care books or if I had a particularly really difficult day, she would get me bubble bath stuff. So it was always focused on care for me. It wasn't really expensive gifts. It was focused on how I could care for myself and provide for myself.

So when I was around 20, I was definitely trying to find where I belong. I tried church groups and I always felt like I could never quite be enough when I was involved in those. And that was mostly because of my sexuality. I identify as lesbian and I had never really come out to anyone before because my family was very religious. We kind of grew up

believing that you're not supposed to be gay or it just wasn't something that seemed really accepted, especially in my community. So I would get into a little bit of self-destructive behaviors, seeing people that weren't good for me or that just weren't really caring for me. And Janet was very attentive towards that.

And after about a year of watching me go through that, I finally felt comfortable enough that I could share with her that I was gay. And she was the first person I came out to, which was a huge deal.

I was really scared, but it felt really natural to come out to her. It wasn't the same type of fear that you might have. And I know maybe LGBT people would relate to this, but the fear of coming out to like a parent and just that awful anxiety before you come out to them. It wasn't like that with Janet.

I knew that she was going to accept me and she did. I think she was kind of surprised, but she was really excited for me and excited that that was something I finally shared with somebody. And specifically, I came out to Janet because there was someone who started working at the same store as me and she became one of my managers and her name was Skylar. And I had a crush on her. I thought she was cute and I could tell she thought I was cute.

So I just kind of opened up to Janet about it. And, you know, we gushed over it like teenagers would. And she started to kind of play this matchmaker role where she urged me to talk to her and for Skylar to talk to me. And it was just really cute and how young love is.

It was really scary, I think, to meet this other side of me because I had worked so long to push it away or suppress it. So to finally say, no, this is a real part of me. I've tried to hide it, but this is who I am. I've tried dating guys. I've tried being in relationships with men or being intimate with men. And it just was, I couldn't make it work. I was never happy. And I thought it was something that was wrong with me. So to finally accept that,

It's just my sexuality and that's okay. And there's nothing wrong with who I was, was a really freeing experience. And I didn't have a lot of friends who were really accepting when I came out after I came out to Janet. And so I really fell into Janet's caringness and acceptance even more because she was one of the last few people I had who would still accept me.

Though Olivia was excited when Skylar started pursuing her, it took several months for them to make their relationship official. And then after about, I would say a good six months of friendship, we finally decided that we would be in a relationship with each other. And of course, Janet was over the moon when she finally heard about the news because she just thought, what are you guys waiting for?

She would ask me what I'm waiting for because it was really me who was holding everything up. But she was a huge, huge supporter of our relationship. She did a lot of treating us, like taking us out for dinner, taking us out somewhere to like karaoke or to the mall. As I said earlier, she lived with her parents, but they had a second home out west. And so during the winters, because the winters were so harsh where we lived, they would go out there to kind of get away from it.

Janet would take us to her parents' home during times when her parents were not there. It was a huge house, so we would just enjoy the home and the backyard. They had a beautiful garden, and we just would sit in the back patio and just kind of enjoy talking with one another. Olivia's family was supportive of her friendship with Janet, but they did raise some concerns that they had. I remember specifically there was a time that...

But Janet had left a whole, like a large bag of gifts at the door for me. And I was still living with my parents at the time. And so it was after I had a surgery because I had some complications due to PCOS and I had to have surgery. And so I was recovering. And of course, that was kind of one of those things. Janet would get me something because I wasn't feeling well.

And so my mom went out to get it. And I remember her making a comment like, how can she afford all of this stuff for you? It seems like she gets you a lot of gifts. And don't you think that's kind of odd that she gets you all these things? And I did.

There was times I did think it was kind of odd that she would spend so much of her money on me. I think I felt mostly guilty, but it always seemed like something Janet wanted to do. And I told that to my parents that she doesn't have any children. She lives with her parents to take care of her mom and they don't charge her anything. So she kind of has very little expenses to spend her money on. And I don't know why she chooses to spend her money on me, but

She does. And I tell her she doesn't have to, but sometimes...

It just seemed like that never really mattered. Despite hearing the rumor that Janet had gotten into trouble when she was first hired at the grocery store for stealing alcohol and drinking at work, Olivia personally never saw her drink when they went out together. So I thought maybe because I thought we were so close, I thought for sure she would, if she was going to drink, it would be in front of me. I just thought we knew everything about each other.

She knew every single detail about me. So when I wouldn't see her drink anything, I just thought it had to be because maybe she really did get some type of dependency treatment and it worked. And hopefully that meant that she wasn't drinking anymore or perhaps she had a drinking problem and now she doesn't because she got some type of treatment. Eventually, Olivia transferred to a different location of the same grocery store chain. I moved to

to follow one of our managers to a different store because the main management, we had a lot of differences, a lot of issues. There was sometimes kind of manipulation coming from her, which that was another reason why I wasn't sure if I could believe the whole stealing alcohol story because it came from someone I already didn't really trust fully.

So one time, it was right before I decided to switch stores to follow my other manager to her new store. This was kind of one of the, I think, breaking points before that made me decide to switch places. And it was a time when Janet was closing. She was doing the closing routine. And so usually when you closed...

the shop that we worked in inside the store, it would close at like 9 p.m. And according to the manager that I was having a lot of like difficulties and confrontations with, apparently she was also closing that night and she had gone outside and she saw Janet talking to herself and they had these large plants outside and she saw her talking like to the plants.

And it was really strange, according to the manager. And she relayed that information to me the next morning. And it felt so odd for her to even tell me because I think I felt really defensive over Janet. And I felt like people were gossiping about her and it wasn't fair. And maybe she was talking to herself. Maybe she has some type of mental illness that I don't know about. And that's not for me to judge on.

So I eventually, I think it was just a couple days later, I told Janet to let her know that this was told to me because I didn't like knowing information and feeling like I was keeping something from her. And she got pretty defensive. And that was probably the first and only time that we, I don't want to say we argued, but she just, she got really upset with me. And it was kind of like I saw a flip in who she was for like a quick second.

But it was scary because I didn't know if it was me making her so upset, letting her know. And I was just relaying the information to her. I wasn't saying that I agreed with the manager about what she had said. I just wanted her to know. And Janet was just very upset, upset at the manager, upset at me, although I wasn't really sure why.

And after a few moments, she came back and apologized for lashing out. But there wasn't like a clear reason why she lashed out. It was just like a strange flip in who she was. What was her response, if you recall?

She did say that's so typical of her to make something up. And I can't believe you would even believe that. And I let Janet know I didn't believe her. I just wanted to make sure that you knew what was being said about you because you're my friend. I care about you.

My perception is that Janet was worried I was judging her. And I really just was trying to come at it as a caring place. But I think Janet felt really judged. And she did deny it, but it also felt like...

She was trying to defend herself. She was talking about how like, you know me, I always talk to myself because she kind of did like when she was going through her motions of doing something, she would talk through what the process was. But from what the manager described, this sounded like a completely different type of behavior because everyone knew Janet to like, quote unquote, talk to herself.

But it wasn't really like the same thing what the manager was relaying to me. She said it seemed like almost erratic behavior. What was Skylar and Janet's relationship like at this point?

When we began dating, she definitely gave us both gifts. She would often give Skylar like a couple extra gifts just to say, I know I'm giving all this stuff to Olivia. So here's a few things for you too, Skylar. And we also had gotten our first cat together within the first year of our relationship. So she would get all three of us things. Like at Christmas time, we all three had our own gift bags, stuff like that. But Skylar,

She didn't quite take on the same motherly role with Skylar, but Skylar wasn't also really looking for that from her. She really appreciated the relationship I had with Janet and she knew how much that meant to me and that it was like a best friend, like a second mom. And we were like a threesome, but there was always just like a deeper connection between Janet and I. I always said that I felt like she...

reminded me so much of myself. And she always would say that I reminded her so much of me. So we felt like two souls who've always known each other. It was kind of that bond. Janet told Olivia that her hours at the grocery store had been cut back. So she took a second job working at a nearby health center. I was at a children's hospital. And as far as I knew, she was working there most of her days during the week. And then on the weekend, she was working

at the store still. Obviously, I was seeing her less because I was at the new store now. And I had started college finally, which she had really pushed me towards. And she didn't want to see me work at this grocery store my whole life. She knew that I was really passionate about working with survivors of domestic violence. And she wanted to see me work towards that goal.

So she was really excited when I began school, but because of that, we just were seeing each other less. And so oftentimes I would text her to meet up one night and she would say, I'm sorry, I've got to be at work early in the morning. I'm just so tired from all these shifts at the hospital. They've been really long days. Did she say her mom had recovered from cancer? Did she update you about any of that throughout these years?

I always felt like there was very little information I got about her mom's health condition. It always seemed like it was something I knew of when I first met her. And then I never really seemed to hear of it after that. There was a few times I would ask and it seemed like maybe the treatment was working. And because we started to talk more and more about me moving out of my parents' home and Janet wanted...

me to move in with her somewhere. And we were looking at places that we could live at together. But that plan wouldn't work if her mom was still really sick and she needed the type of care that Janet was giving her when I first met her. So I would ask about that and making sure I didn't want to like

push Janet away from her parents or anything like that. I wanted her to be there for them. And Janet really seemed like she was trying to move on to the next chapter of her life. Like her mom was better. Her stepfather didn't need her there either. They were doing well. They were spending more and more time out West at their second home than they were at their home where we lived. And so it just seems like that was kind of her next step was to move out

The friends began seriously talking about getting a place to rent together, and Janet even began purchasing furniture for their future place. But it always seemed like we would talk about it and we'd be ready and then it would never happen. It was like a dream we all wanted, but she would never really pull the trigger on the deal. ♪

One evening, Olivia and Skylar were out and decided to pop by the grocery store around closing time to say hi to Janet. And I don't think we had seen her for like a couple of weeks because of work. And we saw her at the holidays, but then we didn't see her for like a good week or two weeks maybe. And I was missing her. And so we thought we would just come by the store. Well, we parked back where we always knew she parked her car and we were like,

When we pulled up next to it, thinking we would go inside, we saw her asleep at the wheel. And she was parked, but it was really odd because it just seemed like really out of her character for her to be asleep. And so we thought maybe she just was so exhausted from such a long day working her two jobs. So we kind of tapped on her window. She wouldn't wake up. Her doors were locked, so we couldn't like open them up.

And I started to get worried that she wasn't really waking from just like the tapping on her window. Skylar honked her horn to see if that maybe would make a difference. And even then, it still took a couple of times to really get her attention.

And finally, after a couple of horn honking and tapping on her window, she finally woke up. And it just seemed like she was really almost confused about where she was and why we were there. And I tried to ask her, was everything okay? Like, you are really out. Have you not been getting rest? I know you're working a lot. And she just seemed really agitated with us being there and seeing her like that almost. It felt like we caught her doing something wrong.

And she said, everything's fine. It's been a long day and she was really agitated. And so she just kind of quickly left. Usually if we would come by the store, she would want to go out and get late night food or something with us or even just like talk in our cars. She was always open to that. And so this specific instance felt like she kind of wanted nothing to do with us. Like she was very annoyed with us. I guess I would say Janet...

was kind of on her own spiritual journey. She was not really a spiritual person as far as I knew when I first met her, but it seemed like it was starting to become something she really wanted to do.

learn more about herself in that way. And the type of spirituality she was really gearing towards was metaphysical things like using tarot cards, trying to communicate with spirits and past ancestors and stuff like that. And she was going to a metaphysical shop that was near where we lived. And she kind of met a whole group of women who were sort of like teaching her these different things. And she was so excited about what she was learning.

And I was really intrigued by it too, despite my, I don't want to call them failures at church, but I didn't fit with churches. It just made me want to know more about it because I always thought, I want to be Janet when I grow up. I want to be this person exactly when I'm her age. So anything that she was into, I think I kind of felt an interest in as well.

And I wasn't really sure what caused that for her, but she was kind of determined to seek out this spiritualness and this new way of life. And one of the ways that she was going to do that was taking her trip

She wanted to go to the outer banks of North Carolina, one of the islands that have the wild horses. And that trip was where she wanted to kind of really like work on meditation and speaking to spirit. She was really kind of nervous before going on her trip, like really scatterbrained. And Janet was kind of a scattered person anyway.

She made sure to send Skylar and I plenty of pictures of what she saw. And she sounded like she was really like connecting with herself the way that she wanted to and with what she called spirit. And so it seemed like the trip was going how she wanted it to. There was a few times I wouldn't hear from her. I remember thinking that she was supposed to come home on a particular date.

And I didn't hear from her that day. And I ended up hearing from her one or two days later. And she was coming home like those days. So there was some couple odd things like that where I didn't really know what her plan or schedule was. But I also knew that she was her own grown woman and she had her own schedule.

We typically would share all of the minor details like that with each other. So I think I just was surprised when I wouldn't know where she was or if she was coming home because it seemed like maybe we would see each other when she got home. When Janet got back from her trip, she told Olivia she was busy with work and getting caught back up after her time off. I didn't want to bother her. I almost would start to feel like I was kind of being too...

or too needy, which was something I don't think I felt before. Even in the past months, I hadn't really felt that way. It was like a recent thing. We would still text every day like we always did, but it just was like less and we weren't seeing each other. In hindsight, do you think she felt like something was coming? I definitely had moments where I wondered if maybe she had planned all of this beforehand

This season, Instacart has your back-to-school. As in, they've got your back-to-school lunch favorites, like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back-to-school supplies, like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow.

Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first call your parents to say I'm sorry, and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install?

Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well. Electrical upgrade? Done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Hire high-quality, certified pros at Angie.com.

So the week that Janet and I met was Valentine's Day week. She started on Valentine's Day and every Valentine's Day was really special for me and her. I don't think we really meant for it to be a anniversary of our friendship, but it just kind of became that. My birthday is also the same week of Valentine's Day, so we just kind of celebrate the whole week together.

And I never really was a big birthday person. I have a twin, and so I've always shared my birthday. And I never really had it like my day. But Janet, she made it my day. She made it my whole month, really.

And then on top of it, she celebrated every holiday like it was the best and biggest holiday, no matter if it was St. Patrick's Day or Christmas, because she got to celebrate two holidays in her eyes. It just was a really special week.

And it made me really love Valentine's Day. I wasn't really into holidays before, except for Christmas. But Valentine's Day was never something I celebrated until I met her. And then after that, I just always loved it. So about a good three years into our friendship was when sort of everything changed.

It was on February 13th, so the day before Valentine's Day. Jan and I each had a closing shift on that day. And so we were going into our closing shifts around noon, one-ish. And we were texting like usual, texting about, I think she had sent me some ideas for my birthday, gifts that she wanted to get me. We were talking about what I was hoping to do with Skylar on Valentine's Day.

I knew that we were going to celebrate Valentine's Day all together because we always did. And we had just kind of ended our conversation because we were going into work and we each told each other, I hope you have a good day at work. And then we did our shifts. And then at probably 9.30 or 10 after I left work, I saw it was a full moon that night. It was really pretty.

So I texted her and let her know, it's really pretty out there tonight, and I hope you get a chance to look at the moon. And I hadn't heard back from her, which wasn't totally out of the ordinary. If she had a particularly rough shift or something, just a rough day, I wasn't too concerned when I didn't hear from her. The next day, Olivia was surprised when she checked her phone that morning, and she still hadn't gotten a reply from Janet.

Valentine's Day was our day, so I was surprised I hadn't heard from her. I mostly thought that maybe she had a really bad day the day before. And so I texted her just to check in. I wished her a happy Valentine's Day. And I sort of go on about my day.

But as the day went on, I kind of grew more concerned that I still hadn't gotten a text from her. So I texted her a couple times just to check in. I was pretty certain she also had a shift that day to work. So I thought at some point she has to be checking her phone. But I just hadn't heard from her.

Skylar checked in with her as well in the middle of the day because she thought it was really odd too. Because that's just how often we spoke with her. It was every day, all day. It really had me concerned when by the end of my shift, I still hadn't heard from her. After her shift ended that evening, Olivia headed home to check in with Skylar to see if she had heard anything from Janet.

Skylar had told me that she received a text just a few moments before I got home from Janet. And the text basically said, Skylar, I need you to come pick up this furniture that is in my garage before my parents get home. It can be sometime in March, but it just has to be gone before April. And we were really confused at that.

It was a really bizarre text for us to get, especially after not hearing from her the entire day. And so at this point, we knew something was going on, something wasn't right, because it was so out of context to receive something like that from her.

So after Skylar received that text message, she texted her back and said, I'm not going to get the furniture unless I know what's going on. Will you please answer Olivia or myself? And she never answered back. That was the last text message that Janet ever sent to Skylar. And that was the last one Skylar ever sent to her. ♪

The couple was so concerned about their friend, they ended up canceling their Valentine's Day plans and stayed in instead. They were trying to figure out what was going on when Olivia's phone rang.

I received a call from a coworker at the store that Janet still worked at. And it was someone I also worked with when I was at that store. So we kind of all knew each other. But she called me and she said, "Have you heard about what happened yet?" And I asked her what she was talking about. I said, "Janet's been acting weird, but I don't know anything else."

And she said that Janet had been arrested that night before. So on the 13th, she had been arrested.

And I asked what for, what happened. And the coworker had told me that basically she had been caught shoplifting. She had a bunch of things in her bag that she carried with her and in her arms that seemed like it was kind of birthday stuff, flowers and balloons and a card and then a bunch of other stuff in her purse. And she was arrested for shoplifting.

I was really confused. I was really upset. I didn't really understand why she would be stealing these few little things when I knew she had money and had been working two different jobs. But it didn't really stop there.

The coworker kept going and said that apparently the grocery store that we worked for had been working on a case against her for a good several months. And there was a lot of footage of Janet shoplifting and stealing things from the store. She learned this because her mother worked at the same grocery store and was really close with management. And her mother had heard this from management.

And I trusted what this coworker was saying because she was always really honest and just a good friend at the store. And she wasn't really one of the people who kind of was a part of the gossip. She was just, I think, trying to look out for me. She realized that there was a possibility I didn't know yet since I didn't work at that store anymore. And she just knew that I needed to know.

After I got off the phone with her, that's when I really started kind of freaking out. I think I really sort of shut down after hearing that because it wasn't anything I was expecting, especially to know that she was arrested, stealing things for me. I felt a lot of guilt and just confusion, and I was worried about her.

I continued to text and call Janet. But while I was doing that, Skylar looked on the court websites to see if she could find out any information on her being arrested. Did she have a court hearing coming up? Well, we find out that she was arrested and taken into custody on the 13th. But in the very early hours of Valentine's Day arrest,

Around midnight or one, she was released due to an overcrowding situation at the jail, which that will always be something that really frustrates me because had they not released her, then none of what happened afterwards would have happened.

But she was supposed to come back that morning at 8 a.m. on Valentine's Day for her arraignment. And she was charged with a felony charge, which means she was being charged at the time with grand larceny. And we later would find out that the grocery store she had been stealing from had evidence of her stealing upwards around $170,000 worth of merchandise. ♪

over the past, I believe it was nine months, that they had evidence of. Once Skylar and I read about the arraignment that she was supposed to show up and she never did, and now she had a warrant out for her arrest, I think that's when we kind of realized this is a lot deeper and more serious than we really ever knew before.

And I was really starting to wonder who is this person that I've shared my life with and shared every detail with and every success and celebration and every horrible, awful moment. Who was this person now? And that was kind of, I think, where my brain really shut off because it just was too much to process at the moment.

Most Americans think they spend about $62 per month on subscriptions. But get this, the real number is closer to $300. That is literally thousands of dollars a year, half of which you've probably forgotten about. Thankfully, Rocket Money can find a bunch of subscriptions you've forgotten all about and then help you cancel the ones you don't want anymore. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions,

monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so that you can grow your savings. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's features.

Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash wondery. That's rocketmoney.com slash wondery. rocketmoney.com slash wondery. Getting the smile and confidence you've been dreaming about all from the comfort of your home isn't a total mystery with Bite Clear Aligners. Just don't be surprised if all your friends start asking, what's your secret?

Begin by ordering your at-home impression kit today for only $14.95. BiteClear aligners are doctor-directed and delivered to your door. Treatment costs thousands less than braces, plus they offer flexible financing, accept eligible insurance, and you can pay with your HSA FSA. Get 80% off your impression kit when you use code WONDERY at Bite.com. That's B-Y-T-E dot com. Start your confidence journey today with Bite.

For their own peace of mind, Olivia and Skylar decided to drive by Janet's house that evening. I was really worried that she was going to do something to hurt herself because I wasn't hearing from her. The way that she was trying to get rid of her furniture and stuff, it just all seemed very ominous. And then on top of it, now that we're finding out about this whole secret identity, I was just worried.

mostly worried, what is she doing right now? And is she going to do something that she's going to regret? So we drove past her home and we ended up seeing her truck out in the driveway and all the lights were on because it was night. We could tell it looked like there was someone in the home moving around.

Skylar really did not want me to go inside or go up to the door. So we ended up just going back home and figuring that she doesn't want to talk to us. She doesn't want to see us. Now is not the right time to see her.

I thought that if you had a warrant out for your arrest, police were going to be going to your door and looking for you. That was always my understanding. I think probably I got that from TV or just never knowing the difference. But because her offense, even though it was a felony and it was serious, it wasn't a violent crime.

I believe that they could still drive past the home and if they see the license plate or something like that that matches who the offender is, then they could possibly try to make an arrest that way. But really, it kind of depends on the situation, maybe how long the person had been missing and not showing up to court.

I think because it was the same day, she didn't show up that morning. You know, maybe they weren't actively out looking for her.

I do know that previously when, and this was something I found out, of course, later, but when she had been arrested for a DUI and she was supposed to show up in court the next day and didn't, they did go by her home and make an arrest that way because they saw her truck out in the driveway and license plate number. So sometimes they do that. Sometimes they don't. I'm not sure exactly.

why all of the circumstances were perfect, that none of that happened. But that's just kind of how it decided to go that day.

So Skylar and I, after leaving her house and deciding not to go into her home or knock on the door, we went home. And I think we just both decided right now there's not really anything we can do, which was, I think some of the worst parts about all of this was that there was so little that I could really do, especially not being truly family, even though right before this happened and before she went on her trip,

Janet told me that she wanted to try to have a conversation with my mom about being my godmother. So it felt like family, felt like we were family, but we just weren't, there was nothing I could do. So we went home that night. I don't think I really slept. I was up searching the court sites thinking maybe something would be updated in the middle of the night.

I was searching the jail site where it would say who was in custody, trying to see, refresh it every 20 seconds to see if she was on there. I was already quickly obsessing over it. But also, there's so much that I don't remember because I know that I kind of shut down too quickly.

I sent Janet one last really long text that night just saying, I love you. I really hope you read this and you talk to me because you're like another mom to me. You're my best friend. And no matter what you did, I want to talk to you. I want to be there for you and we'll get through this. And I was really hoping that that would get through to her.

But she never answered a text message. The following day, Olivia had another shift at work. She was anxious to talk to her manager at the news store, as she was also pretty close to Janet. We would go out together sometimes, and I wanted to make sure she heard about what happened for me, because I know news can kind of spread like wildfire at the store, in the different store locations even.

So I went into work really early that day. I also couldn't sleep. So I think I just at six in the morning, I was like, okay, I'm going to go in there and let her know what happened. So I went in, had a really long conversation with her, trying to fill her in on everything. And while I was sitting there with her, it was around seven in the morning at that point. Janet texted and said, everything's okay. Sorry for scaring you. And that was all that she said.

And I was very surprised I received a text from her. I was scared but excited all at the same time. And then when I read it, I was so disappointed because everything was clearly not okay. And it was like she was still wearing a mask when she sent that, like trying to protect me, even though I knew what was going on and she knew that I knew.

So when I read that, I knew I had to drive past her house again.

And this time, I convinced myself I was actually going to go in. I didn't have Skylar with me. Skylar was at work. And I just thought, if I go in and I see something or something happens that I shouldn't have, at least I can have that peace of mind that I tried to go in and talk to her, especially since she sent that message. As soon as she got off work, Olivia drove to Janet's house as quickly as she could to check on her. And when I drove up to her street...

her truck wasn't there anymore and it seemed like all the lights were off and it was like nobody was ever there. I knew she couldn't be in the garage hiding her truck in the garage because all of that furniture was there that she wanted Skylar to get out and so there was no room for her truck in the garage and I knew she was probably gone.

I think I went home. I told Skylar what was going on, and I was rechecking the court sites, rechecking the jail sites. I was calling Janet, texting Janet, but it was just more of the same dead ends. I wasn't getting information from the courts. Janet wasn't answering my calls at that point. I think it just was going straight to voicemail like her phone was off, and it just was like I was screaming into a void.

It was clear she was running from this. Day after day passed, and still no one had heard from Janet. I worked at the time two different jobs, and I couldn't stand to be at the grocery store because it reminded me too much of her. And so I would try to go to my other job, and it's like I couldn't even do the smallest task. I was just so consumed with everything else.

about her. Every thought was about Janet. It was really painful to not know. I felt a mix of deep concern. I felt like some days the only way I could get by was being really, really pissed at her because that was less painful than how worried I was for her and how abandoned I felt. To leave someone like that with no answers was...

one of the most painful things I've been through. And so I really think I just was a little dead inside for that time. It was like I was in this horrible limbo and I didn't know when it was going to stop. And that was really, really hard. I didn't try to reach out to law enforcement because it seemed like probably something they wouldn't share with somebody who wasn't family any information on.

She did work with someone else at her store who happened to be the mother of one of the detectives on her case, which how that happens, I don't know. But she had three sons who were all in law enforcement and one of them was on Janet's case. And she was giving me information that he had, which seemed really problematic and probably not legal or okay information.

And I was always a little skeptical of how true that information was. And was it really just coming from the rumor mill?

But they were pretty much telling me things I already knew anyways, that the company had a long span of evidence dating back several months that showed she hadn't been stealing from them. And the amount that kept being thrown around was the $170,000. During the days following Janet's disappearance, Olivia started to think back to all the gifts Janet had given her.

I started going back and looking at the tags and you could see the security tags were ripped off. And I just started wondering how much stuff did I have in my room that was really stolen.

I stopped going into the grocery store that we worked at because I was scared they would think maybe I was in on it somehow. I also stopped going to the department stores I knew she went to for me because I figured if she was stealing from the place she worked, what stops her from stealing from other places I knew she would go to? And so I think the biggest thing was that during that week, I was piecing together things on my own and just wondering, was it all a lie?

And I was getting Facebook messages and phone calls and text messages constantly from people that we worked with. But I just didn't want to answer them. I didn't want to share any information I had with them because it felt like it was all a part of that reason to gossip. And I just felt

very protective over Janet still. And I didn't want who she was and her legacy to be slandered because of everything that had just happened. So as angry as I was at her, I was still trying to protect her. It was only just a few days later after Valentine's Day that I made the decision to call her mom and let her know what had happened.

We were out at Skylar's parents. Of course, Skylar was telling her mom everything that had been going on because her mom was very familiar with who Janet was, just from always hearing about Janet with us. And also, Janet had even met some of Skylar's siblings before because we were really close with them and would have them oftentimes over in our home, and

And Janet had met them before. So even Skylar's family was really familiar with who she was. So she was feeling her in on this. And as Skylar was discussing all the details, it had dawned on me that in all of the madness, her parents probably don't even know what's been going on.

And Janet's parents, although they lived together and I knew that Janet had been there to take care of her mom, I also always kind of got the feeling that maybe their relationship wasn't the closest. It always seemed like there was just a lot of misunderstanding between them that I didn't really understand or have a lot of context for because Janet just never really talked to me a lot about details.

I knew that her mom had a tendency to be judgmental towards Janet's decisions. So I was a little apprehensive about calling her, but I knew her well enough that it seemed like something I should do.

In the past, Janet would organize get-togethers with Skylar and I and Janet and her parents when we would come over sometimes in the summer. Janet's parents would have a whole dinner spread made for us, and we would just all get together. I wouldn't say we were close, but I had her phone number, so we were close enough. So I had gone inside just to get privacy and be away from everybody, and I called her mom and said,

It felt really strange to be letting her know this, but I just tried to tell her as best as I could. I let her know, your daughter was arrested at work for shoplifting. She was supposed to appear in court on the 14th, and she didn't. And she has a warrant out for her arrest, and I have not heard from her since before she was arrested. And I don't know where she is or where she's gone.

And her mom was just devastated. She was really almost hysterical over the phone, really loud crying and screaming and cursing Janet's name, just angry. And then she started saying, I can't believe this is happening again. Not again. And I was like, hold up. Again? The second half of Olivia's story is next time on Something Was Wrong.

Something Was Wrong is an Audiochuck production, created and hosted by Tiffany Reese. Our theme song was originally composed by Gladrags, covered this season by Basic Comfort. You think you know me, you don't know me. What do you know me, you don't know me. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? No!

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. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

No, it's hysteria. It's all in your head. It's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since The Witches of Salem? Or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here. Something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder. A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Hysterical.

Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.