November 19, 2024 • 40 mins
Jared learns that his wife suffers from a condition where a woman looks, acts, and feels pregnant. We dive into his wife’s obsession with social media. Manically posting everything from her pregnant belly to weekly pregnancy updates. We also learn that Kristy was escorted from the hospital because she was suspected of trying to kidnap a baby.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Jared spent hours trying to get someone from the hospital
on the phone. He was angry, convinced his wife had
no right to decide what should happen to their children's
remains without any input from him.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He was ready to give them a piece of his mind.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
When a hospital administrator finally called him back, he began
to tell her exactly what he thought, and to his surprise,
she agreed with him except for one thing. There were
no children to claim or to bury because his wife
(00:42):
was never pregnant.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
After the AOC had called me on the hospital line
and told me, your wife was never pregnant. There were
no children that were born or died about, I would say.
Forty five minutes later, call from a cell phone number.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It was the same hospital administrator who Jared spoke to,
calling a second time to check on him and make
sure he understood the information she provided.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Can you just say that again? She is, Yes, your
wife was never pregnant. There were no children born nor
die ons that day. She called it. I don't know
the scientific term the.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Term Jared is referring to is pseudoscisis. Pseudoscisis, or false
pregnancy is when a person believes they're pregnant when they're not.
It's also called a phantom pregnancy. They may have all
of the physical science and symptoms of being pregnant, but
there is no fetus in the uterus, and.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
She kind of went into it's a rare case when
it happens, when it is possible where a woman's bay
can believe that she is with child, look, act, and
feel the whole nine yard.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Jared had never heard of this before. In fact, most
people haven't.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Doctors don't know why. I did ask some technical questions,
like why does it happen? Is it something I did that?
They're like, now, there's nothing that you could have seen
or known to a tea acts like a pregnant moment.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
They're not.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Christy initially told Jared that she was attained by the
hospital police and escorted out in handcuffs because of a
warrant issued in her name due to an unpaid speeding ticket,
but that wasn't true. Christy may have had a warrant
for an unpaid speeding ticket, but that wasn't the reason
she was detained.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So, from what I learned, was basically the reason she
was escorted out to the hospital by the two police
officers was that she was hanging around the maternity ward
and the nurses suspected her that she may try to
take a kid like kidnap a baby.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I'm Tricia la Fog.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
I'm a writer, director, actor at the Federal Criminal Defense Attorney.
I'm going to tell you a story that's all too
real about love, lies and the lens people will go
to for attention. It's a story that will leave you
questioning everything you thought you knew about truth, about reality,
and about what happens when the two collide in the
(03:27):
most unimaginable way. From audio up and just sweet Press productions,
this is unborn.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Pseudosiesis is rare.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It affects approximately for women in every twenty two thousand pregnancies.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
From the research that I've done and talked to the
nurses and things like that, they say it can't happen,
but once they have to see an ultrasound and there's
nothing there, that's when it kind of breaks and they're like, okay.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But what is extremely rare is when a woman like
Christy goes full term with a false pregnancy. In fact,
we spoke to multiple medical health professionals, emergency room doctors, obstetricians, nurses, psychologists,
social workers, and none of them had ever seen a
woman go to full term.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Rarely do they go full thermoe. That doctor had not
seen another one of those. You know, I'm still thinking back,
like why does this happen to me? I mean, I
didn't do anyone any wrong, and here we are.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
A doctor could practice their entire career. In fact, they
could practice ten careers and never see one of these.
That's how rare the condition is. My name is Richard Farnham.
I'm a medical doctor, board certified OBGUI n and subspecialist
in eurogynecology with a practice in El Paso, Texas up
(05:06):
with an academic affiliation at Texas Tech. Pseudocysis. This is
where someone believes they're pregnant and in fact they have
physiologic changes that would accompany the normal signs of pregnancy.
They can get abdominal bloating, they can have fatigue, they
(05:26):
can have nipple discharge, they have the sense that there
are fetal movements. To the casual observer, they appear pregnant,
they have a distended abdomen like they're carrying a baby.
They truly believe that they're pregnant, and it can actually
be very difficult for them even when they're confronted with
the medical evidence that shows that they're actually not pregnant.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We wanted to present a clinical perspective of what someone
suffering from pseudocyesis may be experiencing, so we spoke to
doctor Julia Baird, who is a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
She did not treat Christie.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
She's never met Christie, but she specializes in the treatment
of psychosomatic disorders like pseudocyesis and has treated women suffering
from pseudocisis in the course of her practice. Doctor Baird's
approach to treating patients has an emphasis on healing the
whole person mind, body, and spirit.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
I think the mind is a very powerful thing, and
I think we don't usually focus enough on a more
holistic approach of integrating mental health into just even just
primary care general medical treatments.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Pseudoscisis is a psychosomatic disorder, meaning it has a heavy
mind component, but it manifests physically in the body the
false belief that there's a pregnancy, and you actually manifest
the symptoms and signs of pregnancy.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
So these people will actually feel nauseous, have mourning sickness.
The periods will see, lactation will happen, All the symptoms
of pregnancy can develop, but there is no actual pregnancy
that's ever confirmed. So the ultrasound shows no pregnancy. Pregnancy
tests are false. But yet they look pregnant and they're
(07:15):
having all kinds of symptoms as if they're pregnant.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's one thing to understand something clinically, but what was
actually going through Christie's mind and body. To understand, we
spoke to Carla, a woman who experienced pseudosysis directly.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Carla Jenkins, I am someone who has experienced pseudoscyesis.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Much like Jared and Christy.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Carla and her partner had only been together for a
few months when they found out they were pregnant.
Speaker 8 (07:46):
Alex and I didn't think that we could have kids.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
He's been through like some chemo years ago, so we
were really really surprised that we even got pregnant. It
wasn't purposeful, It just kind of happened. It was a
very big deal to us because of the fact that,
you know, we were both kind of in shock about it.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Carla had already missed two periods when they made the
appointment with an OB. So on her first visit she
was given an ultrasound.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
Got an appointment with my OB. We were at already
like nine weeks. We meet with OROB.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Before we go in to meet with him, they do
like an internal ultrasound, which is what they would do
typically at that time, just to see if there's a heartbeat,
and they couldn't find.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
Carla was experiencing a phantom pregnancy and she didn't know why.
Speaker 8 (08:30):
She still doesn't.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
There aren't a lot of answers, partly because the condition
is so rare in this country, a fact confirmed by
doctor Baird.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
Yes, yeah, it's very rare in the US. It's actually
more common in developing countries where a woman's fertility is
really an important part of like her value as a woman.
Speaker 9 (08:54):
So you see a lot more of this in.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
More developing countries where they are not able to get
pregnant and produce children, they feel that they're not valuable
and maybe perhaps like their partner would not stay with
them otherwise.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Making things more complicated is the fact that even the
doctors who treat pseudocyesis aren't entirely sure what causes.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
It's a number of different kind of theories about what
causes pseudocysis. I think what's important to note is that
typically you have to look at the individual and kind
of think, what is this serving for this particular patient.
So a lot of times it's women that struggle with infertility,
(09:36):
or women that are coming to the end of their
fertility window and are realized, why I never had a
child and I really want a child. There's some kind
of underlying reason that they need to believe that they're pregnant. Also,
you know, looking at the research about pseudocisis and there's
not a lot. By the way, this association with sometimes trauma,
(10:02):
particularly loss, so not just loss of fertility, but like
loss of a child or even loss of a relationship,
loss of a parent. There is this need sometimes to
when you lose somebody that you're close to, wanting to
recreate a relationship or be close to somebody or have
some kind of you know, relationship to replace that one.
(10:24):
So there is this association with trauma.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So since pseudosysis is caused by trauma, I assume Carla's
doctors would offer her resources to support her.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yeah, in terms of the emotional support piece of it,
it seemed like that wasn't the focus at that time,
and obviously I was, like, you know, started crying really
hard and was super emotional about the whole thing. And
so as my partner, he made it very scientific, which
(10:58):
was upsetting for me. I think there's a little bit
of I guess like resentment, but he was he wasn't
as warm as I would expect like an obe to
be in a situation like that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Carla immediately accepted in her mind that she was not pregnant,
and her body, in her own words, had just not
caught up.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
It was just very shocking that my body like didn't
flu into the fact that there was no baby farming, Like,
why wouldn't our bodies recognize that?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Carla believed the doctors that there was no fetus in
her uterus. But that's not always true for everyone, Doctor Barrett, Again,
I think.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
It depends on how much insight awareness the individual has,
Like can they look at the reasons why they developed
this disorder and what purpose it was serving for them?
Are they able to talk about and process whatever trauma
or loss or underlying reason that they developed this type
of disorder. I think that's really what matters some people
(12:06):
that don't have as much insight and can't really acknowledge
what's going on, and that would be a much more
difficult patient to treat. But someone that can really process
and look at the underlying kind of, you know, motivations
for developing this disorder, that's a treatable individual.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Additionally, pseudosiesis doesn't function in a vacuum.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, I mean, I think from that perspective of realizing
that there was I definitely understood that there was a disconnect,
and I was very disappointed in my body, Like I
was very upset with my body because of the fact
that my brain understood that there was no fetus, but
(12:49):
my body just kept like there was no.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
Connection to the two, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
For some women, even after it's unequivocally clear that they
are not pregnant, it's still hard for them to accept
that they never were.
Speaker 7 (13:07):
Because I think if you get to the point of like,
there's somebody that can't acknowledge that this is not real,
that's almost more of this psychotic kind of delusional disorder.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Much like other mental health disorders, exists on a spectrum
with other mood and personality disorders.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
Definitely depression, anxiety, borderline personality for sure. I think once again,
if we look at what's the theme with borderline personality
is the fear of abandonment or loss. So somebody with
borderline is definitely more likely to develop something like pseudocysis
as a way to maybe cope with loss and not
(13:44):
feel a loss or abandonment.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Can you explain briefly the difference between bipolar disorder and
borderline disorder.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
Yeah, so bipolar is a mood liability disorder, somebody that
experiences likeiods of mania and then severe depressed and they
need a mood stabilizer to really be able and orderline
is more of a it's a personality disorder. They are
kind of see the world in black and white, all good,
all bad. Everything split the idealization, Like they have this
(14:13):
fear of losing that person that they've idealized, the object
of relationship, the individual that's so ideal that they feel
they can't live without. But then eventually that person disappoints
them and then they become devalued, so they go from
being on a pedestal to being shit.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
It was at this point that I shared with doctor
Baird the specifics about Christie's case.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Prior to now. I had not shared with.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Her the specific details, including that Christie went to the
hospital to give birth.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
She was shocked, to say the least.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
I mean this, Yeah, this.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
I think it's interesting though, because she knew what she
was doing. Then almost borders on more of like a
factitious disorder, perhaps because she knows that she's deceiving. Unless
there's this split off part of her that that's possible.
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 9 (15:04):
I think with somebody who's very borderline.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
So the split there's a split off part of her
that is acting and doing these things, that part of
her is so split from the other part of her
that's believing she's pregnant and carrying these children, and so
those parts of her don't live in this integrated whole person.
They're split into almost two separate people.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Factitious disorder is when a patient intentionally falsifies medical or
psychiatric symptoms, similar to Munchausen or Munchausen by proxy. But
doctor Baird is also posing the possibility that Christy is
severely bifurcated or split, which would mean that only part
of her is intentionally deceptive while the other part believes
(15:47):
she's actually pregnant.
Speaker 7 (15:49):
Yes, I need to like, that's another aspect of her
that's not integrated into the part of her that's posting online.
So these are two split parts really of her. I mean,
that's that's a severe border line for you.
Speaker 9 (16:00):
Who's that fragmented?
Speaker 7 (16:02):
Who?
Speaker 9 (16:03):
Yeah, it's split off.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
We all do this to some degree, Like we have
different parts of ourselves, right, but we're not so split
that they don't exist when there's one part that you know, like,
we all have different aspects of our personality, but usually
we're more integrated, so that like the part of us
that acts a certain way at the grocery store while
in line is the same as the part of you
that's like.
Speaker 9 (16:23):
A professional in the office.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
I mean that to me seems like I was going
because I'm like, if it's factitious, then what's her point?
You know, what's the point of just like, you know,
deceiving everybody.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
Somebody that splits.
Speaker 7 (16:35):
So much and splits off parts of you, they never
have to be confronted in a way, right, And if
you bring it to her, she'll be like, what, No,
that's not I don't know what you're talking about, you know, Yeah,
And the body goes along with it.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Christie's body carried her phantom pregnancy to the schedule due
date nine months of a powerful mind body connection. Was
there anything that could have given away that she wasn't pregnant?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
In spite of my in depth quizzing, Jared didn't think so.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Did she get a period, not that I know of.
Did she have breast tenderness or breast enlargement?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
She complained about it probably in the last three months.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
How about abdominal enlargement like a beach ball. How about nausea.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It was terrible the first trimester, run to the bathroom
every five minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
How about weight game?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
It was quick in the face at first, was what
I noticed was her face got very round, But then
it started going to the abdomen and that was kind
of all I noticed.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
How about having to pee frequently.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
All the time? It was even more constantly being sick,
really pull on a record to go to the bathroom,
find the next gas station, and I mean we would
only go fifteen minute trips. We had to stop to
go to the bathroom. I'm like, I've never seen anyone
else have to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Then, well, how about food cravings?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Ice cream, dairy queen? I don't know how many times
I'd got Dairy Queen at ten o'clock at night. She
always wanted to get one of those Snickerdodle blizzards' it's
a I don't know, it's just to have a priced
ice cream with candy in It.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Was Christie complaining about pain in her asiatic nerve during
her pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yes, I mean it was so bad that she had
to go to a specialist massage lady for pregnant ladies
twice a week.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Christy checked off each box.
Speaker 8 (18:44):
Her breasts were even leaking milk.
Speaker 10 (18:46):
It was everything was crazy of how it was happening.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Jenny, Christie's former best friend, also witnessed the ways that
pseudo sayesis affected Christie physically.
Speaker 8 (18:59):
Whenever Jerry's mom said, you're probably dropped.
Speaker 11 (19:03):
Oh, when I tell you, it literally looked like it dropped.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
It dropped.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
The hospital staff was so concerned about Christy's behavior on
the ward that they decided to check her Facebook page,
and they agree with Jared and Jenny and everyone else
we talked to.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Christy looked pregnant.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
So the AOC. While we were on the phone, she
also told me that they had looked at her Facebook.
They saw that I tagged her in that. They saw
the pictures. They had seen the picture of the placard
with the McGee what are they called onesies? They saw
that it was posted by me, tagged her in it.
(19:44):
All these people saw it. They had saw that she
looked pregnant, all these pictures like those maternity pictures. Yes, yes,
And she informed me that. And she didn't look like
the same person when she walked out of that hospital.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Christy didn't look like the same person when she was
escorted out of the hospital in handcuffs.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Bagon's gone. It was like you pump up the beach
ball and it gets a whole one and it's just empty.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Jenny also noticed after the births, Christie's pregnant belly disappeared.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
Whenever we were at the rental house.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
There was no sign the up a belly, just her
regular body act.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
This piece of information was shocking to me, even though
I have no idea why it would be after everything
else Jared has told me, but it was.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I had questions.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Did Christie's belly deflate because she believed she gave birth,
or did her belly deflate as a result of the
confrontation she had in the hospital that led to her
being escorted out in handcuffs by two police officers.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I mean, when you're looking at these pictures we have
in front of us, I mean it's like, where does
that go?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Hospital administration checked Christy's Facebook page and learned that she
had spent the last nine months living as a pregnant woman.
Here's some of the posts they would have seen. This
is me reading Christie's posts to Jared. Picture of baby
clothes and some stuffed animals are two signs.
Speaker 11 (21:11):
One reads adding a bit more love, the other reads
coming soon.
Speaker 8 (21:18):
Comments beneath read congratulations.
Speaker 11 (21:21):
Can't wait, so excited, so happy for you too.
Speaker 9 (21:26):
We are over the moon.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Christie's aunt writes.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
Hello, Christy, I did not know you were pregnant.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Wonderful.
Speaker 9 (21:35):
Do you know what you're having on the expected date?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You look beautiful?
Speaker 9 (21:40):
Lots of love, Aunt Kelly.
Speaker 11 (21:43):
Christie responds, I'm pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl.
My due date is December seventh, but they won't let
me go past November twenty. First, it's been a long
time since seeing you. Miss you.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Here's a post of Christie's from June tenth, twenty a
picture of Christie's pregnant belly and a chalkboard reading.
Speaker 11 (22:05):
Akron Babies ten weeks measuring three point two centimeters and
two point nine centimeters size of kumquats.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
It doesn't stop there.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
June twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
A picture of Christie's pregnant belly and a chalkboard.
Speaker 11 (22:19):
Reading Akron Babies thirteen weeks size of plums.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Another picture of Christie's pregnant belly, with the caption.
Speaker 11 (22:28):
Big growing stage for the babies. Babies have popped off
mom's siatic nerve finally.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
In all caps, and have moved so much better. Jared
was clearly uncomfortable with hearing.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Some of this anger. I mean lots of it, just
hearing her when you're saying it. All I hear is
her voice, remembering taking all those pictures, the time wasted.
It lies the sequel.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Finally, we have a picture of a very pregnant Christie
sitting on the floor of a super ador rible nursery,
looking at her watch with her mouth agape.
Speaker 11 (23:03):
Sign reads me, I'm exhausted, Apple watch. You have taken
nine steps a day hashtag almost done all caps.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Did you build this nursery?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yes, I'd probably have to say that it was that
I know that all that time in my life is wasted.
Nothing was what was genuine and true. And then that's
looking back on it, I feel like I wasted that time,
and I know I'm not going to get it back.
But just hearing that again kind of threw me for
a card fall, because I haven't thought of those words
(23:37):
until you read them up.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Jared talked to me about the last photoshoot they did
in the nursery that did not go particularly smoothly.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
That was a disaster. I bet you. We had a
half hour wrapped up and taking that picture, fixing a
peg board. Oh I don't like the lighting. Oh my
belly looks weird. I'm like, it's a picture. It's yes,
you have them forever. But if you're that worried about
what other people perceive and oh it's not a perfect picture.
(24:07):
Are you looking for that picturesque life? But there had
to be every bit of hundred pictures I'd take. Yeah,
at the end of it, I'm just like, Okay, let
me hold the shutter. So just takes a couple hundred
of time.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
And there was something about posting to social media that
made Christy change.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
It was like a flip of a switch. Okay, let
me just stare at my phone for the rest of
the day tomorrow, there was no okay, yeah, I posted
it for people to see. Yes, I understand that part,
but to obsess over. Oh look, they like this picture,
someone commented. I'm like, great, I just that doesn't appeal
to me. It's a waste of my time to sit there.
(24:46):
She would fall asleep playing on her phone.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Christy and Jerry did not get the same high off
posting on social media, and he believes that the thrills
and attention she received from posting as a pregnant woman
played a big part in what was going on with her.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Take a picture my belly. It doesn't look big enough
at this point. I'm just like, all right, I hold
the just shutter button where it takes a couple hundred
every second. I'm like, here you go, pick one out.
Because she wanted she was so into that in that chalkboard.
There was a chalkboard. She wrote like X amount of weeks.
(25:20):
I'm like, you know what, we'll just do it. Do
the shutters, you can take your picture. Made her happy,
but she was she was all into putting it all
over social media. Like wanted that attention one of that
Oh look, you're having twins. You're not just pregnant with one,
it's twins. And I think that goes into kind of
(25:41):
feeding that psychosis.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
She was in nine months of post after post after post,
and then on December tenth, twenty twenty, comes the paramount post.
Christia's Jared post a picture of two babies she was
passing off as theirs, and Jared felt complicit.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, how did you get that board? I made that
peg board into this picture? Or did you just pull
some picture off the internet, photoshopped this in there, send
it to me, make me look like an ass on Facebook? Craft?
You wrote everything you told me to put.
Speaker 9 (26:15):
In there, right, she sent you the caption.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Correct, the entire thing. I didn't put anything in there.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Copy and paste, copy and paste.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Almost four years later and Jared still has no idea
where Christy got the photographs that she asked him to
post announcing the arrival of their twins.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I mean, you look at those photos after I find out, Okay,
you didn't give birth. Where in the hell did you
get that picture from? Those were my ghey hospital onesies?
Did you find that on the internet? Did you take
that in person.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Jared was that alone in his quest to find out
where Christy found those babies. His best friend, Molly, was
determined to find out.
Speaker 10 (26:56):
My dad had called me at work and had told
me that this was all a sham, and I was
very upset and angry, and so I was convinced that
I was going to prove that she was a liar.
I was at work at the time, and I had
my two associates with me. We were on Google for
the rest of our four hour shift trying to find
the picture of the babies.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
We did a reverse image search on those pictures and
we could not find it. We did bing and Google,
but we tried to search and reverse search, and we.
Speaker 10 (27:32):
Even went to McGee hospital facebook page and went all
the way back through all of their labor and delivery posts.
We tried Washington Hospital because they had the similar blankets,
and then there was some other place we looked too,
but we could I don't know where she got the
pictures because they weren't on the internet.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
There was hundreds of comments, congratulations, let me know if
you need anything. It was all every place, and that's
just the way that kind of goes. And I just
I don't know how you can find that picture, hide
it from a reverse image search, get that photoshopped, and
send it to someone and pass it off as your own.
(28:11):
I mean, it's just it's tough to understand.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Where did she find those babies and why did she
send them to Jared to post to the world when
they didn't exist. Like most things relating to Christy, we
were looking for answers, but with each answer, more questions
are raised.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Where was Where was her endgame?
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We searched a long time to find someone who would
talk on record. Carla was similar to Christy and that
she had experienced a phantom pregnancy, but that's where the
similarities end.
Speaker 8 (28:58):
So that was really shocking.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Obviously, when you're having some pregnancy symptoms and then you
know you're it's only nine weeks in, but you're kind
of expecting that you would hear a heartbeat.
Speaker 8 (29:09):
You don't think anything's gonna go wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
For Carla and her partner Alex, the news from the
doctor was abrupt but true.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
He basically sat down and said, I think I'm trying
to remember exactly like how it happened, because my brain
has probably blocked it out from like PTSD and so
he said, so we're not seeing a fetus.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Carla was told that even though her body is indicating
to her that she is pregnant, there is no fetus
in her uterus.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Still like looks like I still feel pregnant, look like
I'm pregnant.
Speaker 8 (29:45):
I'm about I think eleven weeks in.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
At that point, again, my body hadn't clued in to
the fact that there was no fetus.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Her doctor explained that her pregnancy symptoms should go away
now that she knows the truth.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I think the emotional process was difficult, but it was
It was something that really like worried me in terms.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Of my future.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Carla felt that this doctor was not as warm as
she would have thought he would be given the situation.
She felt resentment towards him for his indifference. Doctor Barrett
explained that, in her opinion, this approach to a psychosomatic
disorder is common and part of the problem.
Speaker 7 (30:25):
I think we still have a long ways to go
as far as Western medicine and these psychosomatic disorders. I
think a lot of people that come in first of all,
presenting with a psychosomatic disorder. They come into like the
er with symptoms are misdiagnosed. This psychological component is missed
or it's just the set. They're told that it's all
in their head, they're not really experiencing real symptoms, which
(30:48):
they are. But yeah, there is a psychological aspect, and
I think that needs to be acknowledged, but not in
a way that's like pejorative, you know, in a way
that's like, we look at the holistic picture here the
mind and body, like if there's something going on physically,
and we don't see the medical kind of underlying origin,
and let's look at what's going on psychologically, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Sadly none of that was explained to Carla.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Anyways, it was just very shocking that my body like
didn't flew into the fact that there was no baby farming,
Like why wouldn't our bodies recognize.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
That it wasn't like her body wasn't showing symptoms.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
It was real.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
So I think I had missed my period and my
boobs were pretty like sore, Like I could tell like
physically things were kind of weird or off, so physically
I noticed that maybe something was like, you know, awry.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
This was all clearly a very difficult experience for Carla,
but she still finds way to make light of it.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
So it was pretty It was funny because I think
what we said the whole time, I had this like
I joked about it, which was so stuff, but I
had this feeling and I kept on joking about how
I was like, Oh, there's probably like nothing in my body,
like it's probably not even a real thing.
Speaker 8 (32:09):
And then we get there and the doctor's.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Like, oh, there's no Like this baby has ghosted you,
is what we keep saying, Like it's ghosted us, it's gone.
It never it never like showed up to the party
that it was invited to in my uterus, and so
I feel like maybe deep down I kind of knew
something was off.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
And for Carla, there was a light at the end
of the tunnel.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
I've gotten pregnant since I have a baby, so we
have a fifteen month old.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
He's very cute.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Just even after the fact, you know, it felt like
I was very alone, and I think that's why I
wanted to like share with my family, because so many
women go through this without any support and it's really
disappointing and like hard for us.
Speaker 8 (32:56):
It shouldn't be, you.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Know, I mean it should be, but we we should
be more open about it.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
I would say, so that you don't feel as alone.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
And I remember vividly thinking like how hard, how hard
this must be for women who don't have partners or like,
don't have any support system.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Carla attributes the fact that she understood and accepted that
there was no fetus immediately because she works in the
medical field and generally trusts doctors.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, I think that as a as someone who is
like kind of science brained, I would say that it
was much easier for me to come to terms with it.
I mean, it was shocking. I did ask questions like,
when is my body going to figure this out?
Speaker 8 (33:44):
Is it? You would hope that your body would understand.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Not having any idea what Christy went through.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Carla expressed her opinion that she could understand how some
people might not accept what the doctors are saying. We
know that Christie was going to the hospital for doctor's
appointments regularly because Jared took her there. But what we
don't know is prior to the birth, how many times
was Christie told she was not pregnant.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
It's just crazy how that like tie hasn't been made
in our bodies, that your body wouldn't pick up on
the fact that there's nothing growing in addition to your
brain being told that.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
So for me, the connection was confusing.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I think I knew that there was nothing to be done,
like it was over.
Speaker 8 (34:33):
I needed to move on. I needed to more.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I needed to get as much support as possible from
the people around me to be able to do that.
I think for someone who may not have or may
not be as like strong of mind or may have
like other mental health issues happening, yeah, I could see
(34:56):
it definitely being something that would wouldn't at be feasible,
like you just wouldn't be able to connect because your
body is still pregnant, like you're still feeling hormonal.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I go back to doctor Baird and the possibilities of
Christie's mental health issues that her actions paint the portrait
of someone with severe borderline personality disorder. If those issues
did exist from a psychoanalytic standpoint, they'd have a strong
part to play in Christie carrying a phantom pregnancy for
nine months. If Christy did see a doctor and hear
(35:32):
the truth, did part of her mind just stow it away?
Was living the life of a pregnant newlywed posting every
pregnancy update for the world to see that important to her.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It's possible. Doctor Baird has seen similar.
Speaker 7 (35:48):
It was a woman who had struggled with infertility for
years and finally was able to get pregnant and she
gave birth and her child was very so and so
she then dedicated her life to taking care of this
very sick child that had a number of health problems
over the years, and it really destroyed her marriage because
(36:11):
she was so busy with the child and the husband
was working all the time. And then she got pregnant
again and she was so excited and then come to
find out it was a false pregnancy and she ended
up going to therapy really working on it, but realized
that she had this fantasy of actually having a healthy
child and that's what this child was going to be
for her, because she did have a child, but that
(36:34):
was caused trauma to her too, having a sick child
that she had to care for. So there was this
sort of underlying fantasy for her of what that pregnancy
was going to.
Speaker 9 (36:42):
Be to her.
Speaker 7 (36:44):
So I think for each individual that develops pseudosysis, you
kind of look at what fantasy they're trying to fulfill.
Speaker 9 (36:51):
With the pregnancy.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
In addition to trusting the science behind it, Carla says
it was the image on the ultrasound that caused her
one hundred per sent to accept what the doctor was
telling her.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
I believed what I saw on the ultrasounds that photo,
because you're you're in the room while they're.
Speaker 8 (37:13):
Doing an ultrasound and you can see it. They show you.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
That there's you know what it looks like, and so
I could.
Speaker 8 (37:22):
And now that I've had a baby, I can.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Tell obviously what the differences at like a nine week
scan versus you know, it's a little nugget versus the
missing baby nine week scan.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Jared's images of his babies too.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
There were some pictures of sonograms.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Even at the gender reveal. According to Jared's friend Sarah,
we had.
Speaker 10 (37:45):
A gender reveal and she had real sonograms and I
remember looking at the sonograms and seeing her name.
Speaker 8 (37:52):
And I was like, oh, her name's on it.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Obviously they're real sonograms because her name's on it.
Speaker 8 (38:00):
She had one of each baby with her name on it.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
The date, but the sonograms that Jared saw were fake.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
It's nineteen ninety nine plus shipping.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
At this point. The lines are completely blurred. Christy experienced pseudocyesis.
But she also faked your pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Oh yeah, it's pitch your perfect family, which furthest thing
from the truth.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
And unfortunately for Jared, we haven't even begun to scratch
the surface. Next time on The Unborn, they called them
(38:43):
baby snatchers.
Speaker 10 (38:44):
She had planned to kill the one baby off and
then since the one baby was said, bring another baby homes.
I think if she went through this whole nine months
of tricking everybody, stealing a baby wouldn't be that far off.
Speaker 8 (38:55):
I had seen her in person.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
And you'd be like, oh, yeah, she's pregnant.
Speaker 8 (39:00):
She's definitely got two babies in there.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You would never have known how happen.
Speaker 8 (39:06):
It is a full blown psych disorder.
Speaker 12 (39:09):
Police warrant her to the hospital when this was reported
that grandmother told me a woman posing as the mother's
sister came. He had dressed in scrubs and somehow removed
the baby from the nursery as the family was preparing
to be discharged. Today.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
The Unborn is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Audio Up
and Jesuite Press productions.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Created by Trisila Fotch and Frank Rodriguez mal produced by Alvin.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Cohen and Rachel Foley.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Executive produced by Jimmy Jellinek, David Dwaits, and Jared Gusta.
Edited by Gerard Bauer and Preston Dawson. Sound design and
mixing by Jeremiah Zimmerman.
Jared spent hours trying to get someone from the hospital
on the phone. He was angry, convinced his wife had
no right to decide what should happen to their children's
remains without any input from him.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He was ready to give them a piece of his mind.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
When a hospital administrator finally called him back, he began
to tell her exactly what he thought, and to his surprise,
she agreed with him except for one thing. There were
no children to claim or to bury because his wife
(00:42):
was never pregnant.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
After the AOC had called me on the hospital line
and told me, your wife was never pregnant. There were
no children that were born or died about, I would say.
Forty five minutes later, call from a cell phone number.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It was the same hospital administrator who Jared spoke to,
calling a second time to check on him and make
sure he understood the information she provided.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Can you just say that again? She is, Yes, your
wife was never pregnant. There were no children born nor
die ons that day. She called it. I don't know
the scientific term the.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Term Jared is referring to is pseudoscisis. Pseudoscisis, or false
pregnancy is when a person believes they're pregnant when they're not.
It's also called a phantom pregnancy. They may have all
of the physical science and symptoms of being pregnant, but
there is no fetus in the uterus, and.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
She kind of went into it's a rare case when
it happens, when it is possible where a woman's bay
can believe that she is with child, look, act, and
feel the whole nine yard.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Jared had never heard of this before. In fact, most
people haven't.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Doctors don't know why. I did ask some technical questions,
like why does it happen? Is it something I did that?
They're like, now, there's nothing that you could have seen
or known to a tea acts like a pregnant moment.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
They're not.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Christy initially told Jared that she was attained by the
hospital police and escorted out in handcuffs because of a
warrant issued in her name due to an unpaid speeding ticket,
but that wasn't true. Christy may have had a warrant
for an unpaid speeding ticket, but that wasn't the reason
she was detained.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So, from what I learned, was basically the reason she
was escorted out to the hospital by the two police
officers was that she was hanging around the maternity ward
and the nurses suspected her that she may try to
take a kid like kidnap a baby.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I'm Tricia la Fog.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
I'm a writer, director, actor at the Federal Criminal Defense Attorney.
I'm going to tell you a story that's all too
real about love, lies and the lens people will go
to for attention. It's a story that will leave you
questioning everything you thought you knew about truth, about reality,
and about what happens when the two collide in the
(03:27):
most unimaginable way. From audio up and just sweet Press productions,
this is unborn.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Pseudosiesis is rare.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It affects approximately for women in every twenty two thousand pregnancies.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
From the research that I've done and talked to the
nurses and things like that, they say it can't happen,
but once they have to see an ultrasound and there's
nothing there, that's when it kind of breaks and they're like, okay.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But what is extremely rare is when a woman like
Christy goes full term with a false pregnancy. In fact,
we spoke to multiple medical health professionals, emergency room doctors, obstetricians, nurses, psychologists,
social workers, and none of them had ever seen a
woman go to full term.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Rarely do they go full thermoe. That doctor had not
seen another one of those. You know, I'm still thinking back,
like why does this happen to me? I mean, I
didn't do anyone any wrong, and here we are.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
A doctor could practice their entire career. In fact, they
could practice ten careers and never see one of these.
That's how rare the condition is. My name is Richard Farnham.
I'm a medical doctor, board certified OBGUI n and subspecialist
in eurogynecology with a practice in El Paso, Texas up
(05:06):
with an academic affiliation at Texas Tech. Pseudocysis. This is
where someone believes they're pregnant and in fact they have
physiologic changes that would accompany the normal signs of pregnancy.
They can get abdominal bloating, they can have fatigue, they
(05:26):
can have nipple discharge, they have the sense that there
are fetal movements. To the casual observer, they appear pregnant,
they have a distended abdomen like they're carrying a baby.
They truly believe that they're pregnant, and it can actually
be very difficult for them even when they're confronted with
the medical evidence that shows that they're actually not pregnant.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We wanted to present a clinical perspective of what someone
suffering from pseudocyesis may be experiencing, so we spoke to
doctor Julia Baird, who is a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
She did not treat Christie.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
She's never met Christie, but she specializes in the treatment
of psychosomatic disorders like pseudocyesis and has treated women suffering
from pseudocisis in the course of her practice. Doctor Baird's
approach to treating patients has an emphasis on healing the
whole person mind, body, and spirit.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
I think the mind is a very powerful thing, and
I think we don't usually focus enough on a more
holistic approach of integrating mental health into just even just
primary care general medical treatments.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Pseudoscisis is a psychosomatic disorder, meaning it has a heavy
mind component, but it manifests physically in the body the
false belief that there's a pregnancy, and you actually manifest
the symptoms and signs of pregnancy.
Speaker 7 (06:53):
So these people will actually feel nauseous, have mourning sickness.
The periods will see, lactation will happen, All the symptoms
of pregnancy can develop, but there is no actual pregnancy
that's ever confirmed. So the ultrasound shows no pregnancy. Pregnancy
tests are false. But yet they look pregnant and they're
(07:15):
having all kinds of symptoms as if they're pregnant.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's one thing to understand something clinically, but what was
actually going through Christie's mind and body. To understand, we
spoke to Carla, a woman who experienced pseudosysis directly.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Carla Jenkins, I am someone who has experienced pseudoscyesis.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Much like Jared and Christy.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Carla and her partner had only been together for a
few months when they found out they were pregnant.
Speaker 8 (07:46):
Alex and I didn't think that we could have kids.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
He's been through like some chemo years ago, so we
were really really surprised that we even got pregnant. It
wasn't purposeful, It just kind of happened. It was a
very big deal to us because of the fact that,
you know, we were both kind of in shock about it.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Carla had already missed two periods when they made the
appointment with an OB. So on her first visit she
was given an ultrasound.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
Got an appointment with my OB. We were at already
like nine weeks. We meet with OROB.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Before we go in to meet with him, they do
like an internal ultrasound, which is what they would do
typically at that time, just to see if there's a heartbeat,
and they couldn't find.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
Carla was experiencing a phantom pregnancy and she didn't know why.
Speaker 8 (08:30):
She still doesn't.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
There aren't a lot of answers, partly because the condition
is so rare in this country, a fact confirmed by
doctor Baird.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
Yes, yeah, it's very rare in the US. It's actually
more common in developing countries where a woman's fertility is
really an important part of like her value as a woman.
Speaker 9 (08:54):
So you see a lot more of this in.
Speaker 7 (08:56):
More developing countries where they are not able to get
pregnant and produce children, they feel that they're not valuable
and maybe perhaps like their partner would not stay with
them otherwise.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Making things more complicated is the fact that even the
doctors who treat pseudocyesis aren't entirely sure what causes.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
It's a number of different kind of theories about what
causes pseudocysis. I think what's important to note is that
typically you have to look at the individual and kind
of think, what is this serving for this particular patient.
So a lot of times it's women that struggle with infertility,
(09:36):
or women that are coming to the end of their
fertility window and are realized, why I never had a
child and I really want a child. There's some kind
of underlying reason that they need to believe that they're pregnant. Also,
you know, looking at the research about pseudocisis and there's
not a lot. By the way, this association with sometimes trauma,
(10:02):
particularly loss, so not just loss of fertility, but like
loss of a child or even loss of a relationship,
loss of a parent. There is this need sometimes to
when you lose somebody that you're close to, wanting to
recreate a relationship or be close to somebody or have
some kind of you know, relationship to replace that one.
(10:24):
So there is this association with trauma.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So since pseudosysis is caused by trauma, I assume Carla's
doctors would offer her resources to support her.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yeah, in terms of the emotional support piece of it,
it seemed like that wasn't the focus at that time,
and obviously I was, like, you know, started crying really
hard and was super emotional about the whole thing. And
so as my partner, he made it very scientific, which
(10:58):
was upsetting for me. I think there's a little bit
of I guess like resentment, but he was he wasn't
as warm as I would expect like an obe to
be in a situation like that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Carla immediately accepted in her mind that she was not pregnant,
and her body, in her own words, had just not
caught up.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
It was just very shocking that my body like didn't
flu into the fact that there was no baby farming, Like,
why wouldn't our bodies recognize that?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Carla believed the doctors that there was no fetus in
her uterus. But that's not always true for everyone, Doctor Barrett, Again,
I think.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
It depends on how much insight awareness the individual has,
Like can they look at the reasons why they developed
this disorder and what purpose it was serving for them?
Are they able to talk about and process whatever trauma
or loss or underlying reason that they developed this type
of disorder. I think that's really what matters some people
(12:06):
that don't have as much insight and can't really acknowledge
what's going on, and that would be a much more
difficult patient to treat. But someone that can really process
and look at the underlying kind of, you know, motivations
for developing this disorder, that's a treatable individual.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Additionally, pseudosiesis doesn't function in a vacuum.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, I mean, I think from that perspective of realizing
that there was I definitely understood that there was a disconnect,
and I was very disappointed in my body, Like I
was very upset with my body because of the fact
that my brain understood that there was no fetus, but
(12:49):
my body just kept like there was no.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
Connection to the two, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
For some women, even after it's unequivocally clear that they
are not pregnant, it's still hard for them to accept
that they never were.
Speaker 7 (13:07):
Because I think if you get to the point of like,
there's somebody that can't acknowledge that this is not real,
that's almost more of this psychotic kind of delusional disorder.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Much like other mental health disorders, exists on a spectrum
with other mood and personality disorders.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
Definitely depression, anxiety, borderline personality for sure. I think once again,
if we look at what's the theme with borderline personality
is the fear of abandonment or loss. So somebody with
borderline is definitely more likely to develop something like pseudocysis
as a way to maybe cope with loss and not
(13:44):
feel a loss or abandonment.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Can you explain briefly the difference between bipolar disorder and
borderline disorder.
Speaker 7 (13:51):
Yeah, so bipolar is a mood liability disorder, somebody that
experiences likeiods of mania and then severe depressed and they
need a mood stabilizer to really be able and orderline
is more of a it's a personality disorder. They are
kind of see the world in black and white, all good,
all bad. Everything split the idealization, Like they have this
(14:13):
fear of losing that person that they've idealized, the object
of relationship, the individual that's so ideal that they feel
they can't live without. But then eventually that person disappoints
them and then they become devalued, so they go from
being on a pedestal to being shit.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
It was at this point that I shared with doctor
Baird the specifics about Christie's case.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Prior to now. I had not shared with.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Her the specific details, including that Christie went to the
hospital to give birth.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
She was shocked, to say the least.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
I mean this, Yeah, this.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
I think it's interesting though, because she knew what she
was doing. Then almost borders on more of like a
factitious disorder, perhaps because she knows that she's deceiving. Unless
there's this split off part of her that that's possible.
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 9 (15:04):
I think with somebody who's very borderline.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
So the split there's a split off part of her
that is acting and doing these things, that part of
her is so split from the other part of her
that's believing she's pregnant and carrying these children, and so
those parts of her don't live in this integrated whole person.
They're split into almost two separate people.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Factitious disorder is when a patient intentionally falsifies medical or
psychiatric symptoms, similar to Munchausen or Munchausen by proxy. But
doctor Baird is also posing the possibility that Christy is
severely bifurcated or split, which would mean that only part
of her is intentionally deceptive while the other part believes
(15:47):
she's actually pregnant.
Speaker 7 (15:49):
Yes, I need to like, that's another aspect of her
that's not integrated into the part of her that's posting online.
So these are two split parts really of her. I mean,
that's that's a severe border line for you.
Speaker 9 (16:00):
Who's that fragmented?
Speaker 7 (16:02):
Who?
Speaker 9 (16:03):
Yeah, it's split off.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
We all do this to some degree, Like we have
different parts of ourselves, right, but we're not so split
that they don't exist when there's one part that you know, like,
we all have different aspects of our personality, but usually
we're more integrated, so that like the part of us
that acts a certain way at the grocery store while
in line is the same as the part of you
that's like.
Speaker 9 (16:23):
A professional in the office.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
I mean that to me seems like I was going
because I'm like, if it's factitious, then what's her point?
You know, what's the point of just like, you know,
deceiving everybody.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
Somebody that splits.
Speaker 7 (16:35):
So much and splits off parts of you, they never
have to be confronted in a way, right, And if
you bring it to her, she'll be like, what, No,
that's not I don't know what you're talking about, you know, Yeah,
And the body goes along with it.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Christie's body carried her phantom pregnancy to the schedule due
date nine months of a powerful mind body connection. Was
there anything that could have given away that she wasn't pregnant?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
In spite of my in depth quizzing, Jared didn't think so.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Did she get a period, not that I know of.
Did she have breast tenderness or breast enlargement?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
She complained about it probably in the last three months.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
How about abdominal enlargement like a beach ball. How about nausea.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It was terrible the first trimester, run to the bathroom
every five minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
How about weight game?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
It was quick in the face at first, was what
I noticed was her face got very round, But then
it started going to the abdomen and that was kind
of all I noticed.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
How about having to pee frequently.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
All the time? It was even more constantly being sick,
really pull on a record to go to the bathroom,
find the next gas station, and I mean we would
only go fifteen minute trips. We had to stop to
go to the bathroom. I'm like, I've never seen anyone
else have to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Then, well, how about food cravings?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Ice cream, dairy queen? I don't know how many times
I'd got Dairy Queen at ten o'clock at night. She
always wanted to get one of those Snickerdodle blizzards' it's
a I don't know, it's just to have a priced
ice cream with candy in It.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Was Christie complaining about pain in her asiatic nerve during
her pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yes, I mean it was so bad that she had
to go to a specialist massage lady for pregnant ladies
twice a week.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Christy checked off each box.
Speaker 8 (18:44):
Her breasts were even leaking milk.
Speaker 10 (18:46):
It was everything was crazy of how it was happening.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Jenny, Christie's former best friend, also witnessed the ways that
pseudo sayesis affected Christie physically.
Speaker 8 (18:59):
Whenever Jerry's mom said, you're probably dropped.
Speaker 11 (19:03):
Oh, when I tell you, it literally looked like it dropped.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
It dropped.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
The hospital staff was so concerned about Christy's behavior on
the ward that they decided to check her Facebook page,
and they agree with Jared and Jenny and everyone else
we talked to.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Christy looked pregnant.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
So the AOC. While we were on the phone, she
also told me that they had looked at her Facebook.
They saw that I tagged her in that. They saw
the pictures. They had seen the picture of the placard
with the McGee what are they called onesies? They saw
that it was posted by me, tagged her in it.
(19:44):
All these people saw it. They had saw that she
looked pregnant, all these pictures like those maternity pictures. Yes, yes,
And she informed me that. And she didn't look like
the same person when she walked out of that hospital.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Christy didn't look like the same person when she was
escorted out of the hospital in handcuffs.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Bagon's gone. It was like you pump up the beach
ball and it gets a whole one and it's just empty.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Jenny also noticed after the births, Christie's pregnant belly disappeared.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
Whenever we were at the rental house.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
There was no sign the up a belly, just her
regular body act.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
This piece of information was shocking to me, even though
I have no idea why it would be after everything
else Jared has told me, but it was.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I had questions.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Did Christie's belly deflate because she believed she gave birth,
or did her belly deflate as a result of the
confrontation she had in the hospital that led to her
being escorted out in handcuffs by two police officers.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I mean, when you're looking at these pictures we have
in front of us, I mean it's like, where does
that go?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Hospital administration checked Christy's Facebook page and learned that she
had spent the last nine months living as a pregnant woman.
Here's some of the posts they would have seen. This
is me reading Christie's posts to Jared. Picture of baby
clothes and some stuffed animals are two signs.
Speaker 11 (21:11):
One reads adding a bit more love, the other reads
coming soon.
Speaker 8 (21:18):
Comments beneath read congratulations.
Speaker 11 (21:21):
Can't wait, so excited, so happy for you too.
Speaker 9 (21:26):
We are over the moon.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Christie's aunt writes.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
Hello, Christy, I did not know you were pregnant.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Wonderful.
Speaker 9 (21:35):
Do you know what you're having on the expected date?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You look beautiful?
Speaker 9 (21:40):
Lots of love, Aunt Kelly.
Speaker 11 (21:43):
Christie responds, I'm pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl.
My due date is December seventh, but they won't let
me go past November twenty. First, it's been a long
time since seeing you. Miss you.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Here's a post of Christie's from June tenth, twenty a
picture of Christie's pregnant belly and a chalkboard reading.
Speaker 11 (22:05):
Akron Babies ten weeks measuring three point two centimeters and
two point nine centimeters size of kumquats.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
It doesn't stop there.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
June twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
A picture of Christie's pregnant belly and a chalkboard.
Speaker 11 (22:19):
Reading Akron Babies thirteen weeks size of plums.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Another picture of Christie's pregnant belly, with the caption.
Speaker 11 (22:28):
Big growing stage for the babies. Babies have popped off
mom's siatic nerve finally.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
In all caps, and have moved so much better. Jared
was clearly uncomfortable with hearing.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Some of this anger. I mean lots of it, just
hearing her when you're saying it. All I hear is
her voice, remembering taking all those pictures, the time wasted.
It lies the sequel.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Finally, we have a picture of a very pregnant Christie
sitting on the floor of a super ador rible nursery,
looking at her watch with her mouth agape.
Speaker 11 (23:03):
Sign reads me, I'm exhausted, Apple watch. You have taken
nine steps a day hashtag almost done all caps.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Did you build this nursery?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yes, I'd probably have to say that it was that
I know that all that time in my life is wasted.
Nothing was what was genuine and true. And then that's
looking back on it, I feel like I wasted that time,
and I know I'm not going to get it back.
But just hearing that again kind of threw me for
a card fall, because I haven't thought of those words
(23:37):
until you read them up.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Jared talked to me about the last photoshoot they did
in the nursery that did not go particularly smoothly.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
That was a disaster. I bet you. We had a
half hour wrapped up and taking that picture, fixing a
peg board. Oh I don't like the lighting. Oh my
belly looks weird. I'm like, it's a picture. It's yes,
you have them forever. But if you're that worried about
what other people perceive and oh it's not a perfect picture.
(24:07):
Are you looking for that picturesque life? But there had
to be every bit of hundred pictures I'd take. Yeah,
at the end of it, I'm just like, Okay, let
me hold the shutter. So just takes a couple hundred
of time.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
And there was something about posting to social media that
made Christy change.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
It was like a flip of a switch. Okay, let
me just stare at my phone for the rest of
the day tomorrow, there was no okay, yeah, I posted
it for people to see. Yes, I understand that part,
but to obsess over. Oh look, they like this picture,
someone commented. I'm like, great, I just that doesn't appeal
to me. It's a waste of my time to sit there.
(24:46):
She would fall asleep playing on her phone.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Christy and Jerry did not get the same high off
posting on social media, and he believes that the thrills
and attention she received from posting as a pregnant woman
played a big part in what was going on with her.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Take a picture my belly. It doesn't look big enough
at this point. I'm just like, all right, I hold
the just shutter button where it takes a couple hundred
every second. I'm like, here you go, pick one out.
Because she wanted she was so into that in that chalkboard.
There was a chalkboard. She wrote like X amount of weeks.
(25:20):
I'm like, you know what, we'll just do it. Do
the shutters, you can take your picture. Made her happy,
but she was she was all into putting it all
over social media. Like wanted that attention one of that
Oh look, you're having twins. You're not just pregnant with one,
it's twins. And I think that goes into kind of
(25:41):
feeding that psychosis.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
She was in nine months of post after post after post,
and then on December tenth, twenty twenty, comes the paramount post.
Christia's Jared post a picture of two babies she was
passing off as theirs, and Jared felt complicit.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, how did you get that board? I made that
peg board into this picture? Or did you just pull
some picture off the internet, photoshopped this in there, send
it to me, make me look like an ass on Facebook? Craft?
You wrote everything you told me to put.
Speaker 9 (26:15):
In there, right, she sent you the caption.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Correct, the entire thing. I didn't put anything in there.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Copy and paste, copy and paste.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Almost four years later and Jared still has no idea
where Christy got the photographs that she asked him to
post announcing the arrival of their twins.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I mean, you look at those photos after I find out, Okay,
you didn't give birth. Where in the hell did you
get that picture from? Those were my ghey hospital onesies?
Did you find that on the internet? Did you take
that in person.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Jared was that alone in his quest to find out
where Christy found those babies. His best friend, Molly, was
determined to find out.
Speaker 10 (26:56):
My dad had called me at work and had told
me that this was all a sham, and I was
very upset and angry, and so I was convinced that
I was going to prove that she was a liar.
I was at work at the time, and I had
my two associates with me. We were on Google for
the rest of our four hour shift trying to find
the picture of the babies.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
We did a reverse image search on those pictures and
we could not find it. We did bing and Google,
but we tried to search and reverse search, and we.
Speaker 10 (27:32):
Even went to McGee hospital facebook page and went all
the way back through all of their labor and delivery posts.
We tried Washington Hospital because they had the similar blankets,
and then there was some other place we looked too,
but we could I don't know where she got the
pictures because they weren't on the internet.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
There was hundreds of comments, congratulations, let me know if
you need anything. It was all every place, and that's
just the way that kind of goes. And I just
I don't know how you can find that picture, hide
it from a reverse image search, get that photoshopped, and
send it to someone and pass it off as your own.
(28:11):
I mean, it's just it's tough to understand.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Where did she find those babies and why did she
send them to Jared to post to the world when
they didn't exist. Like most things relating to Christy, we
were looking for answers, but with each answer, more questions
are raised.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Where was Where was her endgame?
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We searched a long time to find someone who would
talk on record. Carla was similar to Christy and that
she had experienced a phantom pregnancy, but that's where the
similarities end.
Speaker 8 (28:58):
So that was really shocking.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Obviously, when you're having some pregnancy symptoms and then you
know you're it's only nine weeks in, but you're kind
of expecting that you would hear a heartbeat.
Speaker 8 (29:09):
You don't think anything's gonna go wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
For Carla and her partner Alex, the news from the
doctor was abrupt but true.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
He basically sat down and said, I think I'm trying
to remember exactly like how it happened, because my brain
has probably blocked it out from like PTSD and so
he said, so we're not seeing a fetus.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Carla was told that even though her body is indicating
to her that she is pregnant, there is no fetus
in her uterus.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Still like looks like I still feel pregnant, look like
I'm pregnant.
Speaker 8 (29:45):
I'm about I think eleven weeks in.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
At that point, again, my body hadn't clued in to
the fact that there was no fetus.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Her doctor explained that her pregnancy symptoms should go away
now that she knows the truth.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I think the emotional process was difficult, but it was
It was something that really like worried me in terms.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
Of my future.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Carla felt that this doctor was not as warm as
she would have thought he would be given the situation.
She felt resentment towards him for his indifference. Doctor Barrett
explained that, in her opinion, this approach to a psychosomatic
disorder is common and part of the problem.
Speaker 7 (30:25):
I think we still have a long ways to go
as far as Western medicine and these psychosomatic disorders. I
think a lot of people that come in first of all,
presenting with a psychosomatic disorder. They come into like the
er with symptoms are misdiagnosed. This psychological component is missed
or it's just the set. They're told that it's all
in their head, they're not really experiencing real symptoms, which
(30:48):
they are. But yeah, there is a psychological aspect, and
I think that needs to be acknowledged, but not in
a way that's like pejorative, you know, in a way
that's like, we look at the holistic picture here the
mind and body, like if there's something going on physically,
and we don't see the medical kind of underlying origin,
and let's look at what's going on psychologically, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Sadly none of that was explained to Carla.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Anyways, it was just very shocking that my body like
didn't flew into the fact that there was no baby farming,
Like why wouldn't our bodies recognize.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
That it wasn't like her body wasn't showing symptoms.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
It was real.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
So I think I had missed my period and my
boobs were pretty like sore, Like I could tell like
physically things were kind of weird or off, so physically
I noticed that maybe something was like, you know, awry.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
This was all clearly a very difficult experience for Carla,
but she still finds way to make light of it.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
So it was pretty It was funny because I think
what we said the whole time, I had this like
I joked about it, which was so stuff, but I
had this feeling and I kept on joking about how
I was like, Oh, there's probably like nothing in my body,
like it's probably not even a real thing.
Speaker 8 (32:09):
And then we get there and the doctor's.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Like, oh, there's no Like this baby has ghosted you,
is what we keep saying, Like it's ghosted us, it's gone.
It never it never like showed up to the party
that it was invited to in my uterus, and so
I feel like maybe deep down I kind of knew
something was off.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
And for Carla, there was a light at the end
of the tunnel.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
I've gotten pregnant since I have a baby, so we
have a fifteen month old.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
He's very cute.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Just even after the fact, you know, it felt like
I was very alone, and I think that's why I
wanted to like share with my family, because so many
women go through this without any support and it's really
disappointing and like hard for us.
Speaker 8 (32:56):
It shouldn't be, you.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Know, I mean it should be, but we we should
be more open about it.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
I would say, so that you don't feel as alone.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
And I remember vividly thinking like how hard, how hard
this must be for women who don't have partners or like,
don't have any support system.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Carla attributes the fact that she understood and accepted that
there was no fetus immediately because she works in the
medical field and generally trusts doctors.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, I think that as a as someone who is
like kind of science brained, I would say that it
was much easier for me to come to terms with it.
I mean, it was shocking. I did ask questions like,
when is my body going to figure this out?
Speaker 8 (33:44):
Is it? You would hope that your body would understand.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Not having any idea what Christy went through.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Carla expressed her opinion that she could understand how some
people might not accept what the doctors are saying. We
know that Christie was going to the hospital for doctor's
appointments regularly because Jared took her there. But what we
don't know is prior to the birth, how many times
was Christie told she was not pregnant.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
It's just crazy how that like tie hasn't been made
in our bodies, that your body wouldn't pick up on
the fact that there's nothing growing in addition to your
brain being told that.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
So for me, the connection was confusing.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I think I knew that there was nothing to be done,
like it was over.
Speaker 8 (34:33):
I needed to move on. I needed to more.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I needed to get as much support as possible from
the people around me to be able to do that.
I think for someone who may not have or may
not be as like strong of mind or may have
like other mental health issues happening, yeah, I could see
(34:56):
it definitely being something that would wouldn't at be feasible,
like you just wouldn't be able to connect because your
body is still pregnant, like you're still feeling hormonal.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I go back to doctor Baird and the possibilities of
Christie's mental health issues that her actions paint the portrait
of someone with severe borderline personality disorder. If those issues
did exist from a psychoanalytic standpoint, they'd have a strong
part to play in Christie carrying a phantom pregnancy for
nine months. If Christy did see a doctor and hear
(35:32):
the truth, did part of her mind just stow it away?
Was living the life of a pregnant newlywed posting every
pregnancy update for the world to see that important to her.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It's possible. Doctor Baird has seen similar.
Speaker 7 (35:48):
It was a woman who had struggled with infertility for
years and finally was able to get pregnant and she
gave birth and her child was very so and so
she then dedicated her life to taking care of this
very sick child that had a number of health problems
over the years, and it really destroyed her marriage because
(36:11):
she was so busy with the child and the husband
was working all the time. And then she got pregnant
again and she was so excited and then come to
find out it was a false pregnancy and she ended
up going to therapy really working on it, but realized
that she had this fantasy of actually having a healthy
child and that's what this child was going to be
for her, because she did have a child, but that
(36:34):
was caused trauma to her too, having a sick child
that she had to care for. So there was this
sort of underlying fantasy for her of what that pregnancy
was going to.
Speaker 9 (36:42):
Be to her.
Speaker 7 (36:44):
So I think for each individual that develops pseudosysis, you
kind of look at what fantasy they're trying to fulfill.
Speaker 9 (36:51):
With the pregnancy.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
In addition to trusting the science behind it, Carla says
it was the image on the ultrasound that caused her
one hundred per sent to accept what the doctor was
telling her.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
I believed what I saw on the ultrasounds that photo,
because you're you're in the room while they're.
Speaker 8 (37:13):
Doing an ultrasound and you can see it. They show you.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
That there's you know what it looks like, and so
I could.
Speaker 8 (37:22):
And now that I've had a baby, I can.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Tell obviously what the differences at like a nine week
scan versus you know, it's a little nugget versus the
missing baby nine week scan.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Jared's images of his babies too.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
There were some pictures of sonograms.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Even at the gender reveal. According to Jared's friend Sarah,
we had.
Speaker 10 (37:45):
A gender reveal and she had real sonograms and I
remember looking at the sonograms and seeing her name.
Speaker 8 (37:52):
And I was like, oh, her name's on it.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Obviously they're real sonograms because her name's on it.
Speaker 8 (38:00):
She had one of each baby with her name on it.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
The date, but the sonograms that Jared saw were fake.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
It's nineteen ninety nine plus shipping.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
At this point. The lines are completely blurred. Christy experienced pseudocyesis.
But she also faked your pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Oh yeah, it's pitch your perfect family, which furthest thing
from the truth.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
And unfortunately for Jared, we haven't even begun to scratch
the surface. Next time on The Unborn, they called them
(38:43):
baby snatchers.
Speaker 10 (38:44):
She had planned to kill the one baby off and
then since the one baby was said, bring another baby homes.
I think if she went through this whole nine months
of tricking everybody, stealing a baby wouldn't be that far off.
Speaker 8 (38:55):
I had seen her in person.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
And you'd be like, oh, yeah, she's pregnant.
Speaker 8 (39:00):
She's definitely got two babies in there.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You would never have known how happen.
Speaker 8 (39:06):
It is a full blown psych disorder.
Speaker 12 (39:09):
Police warrant her to the hospital when this was reported
that grandmother told me a woman posing as the mother's
sister came. He had dressed in scrubs and somehow removed
the baby from the nursery as the family was preparing
to be discharged. Today.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
The Unborn is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Audio Up
and Jesuite Press productions.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Created by Trisila Fotch and Frank Rodriguez mal produced by Alvin.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Cohen and Rachel Foley.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Executive produced by Jimmy Jellinek, David Dwaits, and Jared Gusta.
Edited by Gerard Bauer and Preston Dawson. Sound design and
mixing by Jeremiah Zimmerman.
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