PRETEND
From cult leaders to con artists and undercover FBI agents, PRETEND exposes those pretending to be someone they're not.
Episodes
August 5, 2025 • 52 mins
This week on PRETEND, we’re bringing you something special: a feed drop from Nobody Should Believe Me, an award-winning investigative true crime podcast created by author Andrea Dunlop.
With over 15 million downloads and a spot on The New York Times' radar as “a rich and harrowing chronicle of the condition,” this show dives deep into one of the most disturbing forms of abuse—Munchausen by Proxy. Told through the voices of survivo...
Mark as Played
July 29, 2025 • 43 mins
Melanie dies. Jayson takes control of her estate. Then he moves in with her mother.
Her children are stunned. They suspect something isn’t right, especially as questions about Melanie’s will and health begin to surface. Jayson was the last person caring for her before she passed.
Just when we think the story is over, another woman comes forward. We’re calling her Julie. She says she was seeing Jayson during this same time.
In th...
Mark as Played
July 23, 2025 • 7 mins
In the year 2000, the merger of AOL and Time Warner seemed like the
moment that the pendulum shifted from offline to online media. But the
megamerger went off script fast. In-fighting, cooked books and incompatible
corporate cultures would turn it into a marriage from hell, one that would scar
both companies. But before any of that could happen, AOL had to overcome
the odds…to take America online. In this season of Business Wa...
Mark as Played
July 22, 2025 • 39 mins
In Part 2 of The Playwright, we shift focus to the show at the center of it all: The History of Now.
Written and directed by Jason Bartlett, the play was billed as a bold, political drama. It was a plan meant to honor a woman he claimed to love. But former cast members and collaborators started noticing red flags. Was this play ever really meant to open? Or was it all just a front?
Was The History of Now a sincere artistic proj...
Mark as Played
July 15, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode, we investigate the mysterious Jayson Bartlett and the many women whose lives he upended.
Emma was a single mother in England who fell for Bartlett’s charm and artistic persona. At first, everything seemed perfect. But soon, she realized she was being gaslit, lied to, and emotionally manipulated.
Then there’s Melanie. She lived in North Carolina and had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She thought she had f...
Mark as Played
July 9, 2025 • 13 mins
What if your phone could place you at the scene of a crime—years later?
In this bonus episode of PRETEND, we uncover how nearly 200 mobile devices that visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island left behind invisible data trails. Using just a free trial from a location data broker, an outsider was able to map those devices back to homes, offices, and even gated communities across the U.S.
This episode dives into how mobile adve...
Mark as Played
July 1, 2025 • 44 mins
David Crow says he was his father's criminal accomplice.
In today's episode, we delve into the extraordinary story of David Crow, author of the book titled "The Pale-Faced Lie." It's the story of a father and son entangled in a life of crime.
David recounts his experiences as his father's criminal accomplice, always by his side. And what it was like growing up with a violent and convicted felon who used the Native American reserv...
Mark as Played
June 24, 2025 • 32 mins
Rick Fernandez—yes, the same Rick who thought he’d escaped six felonies—just got slapped with brand-new criminal charges in Phoenix Municipal Court. I flew in a court-runner to watch the hearing, dug through fresh police files, and pieced together how a self-published book and two midnight phone calls may blow up Rick & Tanya’s “clean-slate” diversion deal.
🎧 New to this saga?
Binge the entire 20-part series first: The Stalker...
Mark as Played
June 10, 2025 • 48 mins
This week on PRETEND, we're doing something different. I’m bringing on my friend Johnathan Walton, the mastermind behind Queen of the Con, to share the premiere episode of his brand-new podcast series: Cocaine Air.
Jonathan isn’t just a victim of a con artist—he’s turned his trauma into a storytelling empire. And in Cocaine Air, he tells the true story of TJ Dominguez, a Cuban-American businessman who got scammed out of $100,000 a...
Mark as Played
June 3, 2025 • 39 mins
In part 4 of 'The Internet Saves the Bachelor,' we examine the growing cracks in Laura Owens’ story as her pregnancy timeline collapses under scrutiny.
At one hearing, she claims to be 24 weeks pregnant. In another, she says she miscarried months earlier. The dates keep shifting — July, August, October — and still, no medical provider can confirm that she was ever pregnant.
Clayton Echard’s legal team seizes on the inconsist...
Mark as Played
May 28, 2025 • 36 mins
In Part 3 of The Internet Saves the Bachelor, the truth—or at least, what remains of it—is put on trial.
Laura Owens takes the stand. Under oath, she admits to altering the ultrasound she submitted as evidence. Her pregnancy timeline, once shaky, now completely collapses under cross-examination. The judge wants answers. The internet sleuths want accountability. And Clayton Echard? He just wants this nightmare to end.
Part 4 i...
Mark as Played
May 20, 2025 • 40 mins
The story isn’t over. In Part 2, we dig deeper into the chaos that followed Laura Owens’ accusations against Bachelor star Clayton Echard.
Internet sleuths start pulling court records, police reports, and medical documents. Their findings are wild — fake identities, stolen ultrasounds, and a pregnancy that might never have happened.
Laura pushes back. She sues YouTuber Dave Neal and threatens to sue other podcasters for even ...
Mark as Played
May 14, 2025 • 32 mins
After a one-night hookup with a fan-turned-client, former Bachelor star Clayton Echard faced an unexpected legal battle — and public accusations that threatened to ruin his life.
In this episode, we unpack the early timeline of Clayton’s explosive case with Laura Michelle Owens, who claimed she was pregnant with his twins… despite his insistence they never had sex.
But Clayton wasn’t her first target. When no one else believed him...
Mark as Played
May 10, 2025 • 28 mins
In this episode of PRETEND, recorded live at the GISEC cybersecurity conference in Dubai, I spoke with Hieu Minh Ngo, once one of the most prolific identity thieves in the world.
Operating out of Vietnam, Hieu stole and sold personal data on over 200 million Americans. We're talking names, birth dates, Social Security numbers—everything you’d need to become someone else.
But he didn’t hack his way in. Instead, he used open-sourc...
Mark as Played
May 6, 2025 • 29 mins
While speaking at a hacker conference in Dubai, Javier revisits a conversation with professional pickpocket and entertainer James Freedman. James reveals how a childhood scuffle led to a lifelong obsession with the art of pickpocketing, evolving from swiping coins to mastering social engineering and even digital fraud.
🔗 Listen to Part 2Click here for The Digital Pickpocket, Part 2 →
💬 Connect with Javier on social
Instagram/...
Mark as Played
April 29, 2025 • 21 mins
How LaDonna Humphrey Used a Children's Event to Funnel Money Through Oasis of Northwest Arkansas.
What happens when a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt turns into a glowing red flag?
In this bonus episode of PRETEND, host Javier Leiva exposes a so-called family event that promised “magic,” but delivered mayhem — all tied to LaDonna Humphrey and her questionable nonprofit, Oasis of Northwest Arkansas.
Held at Mt. Hebron Park on...
Mark as Played
April 22, 2025 • 40 mins
Can you really fake being insane—and get away with it? In this episode of PRETEND, host Javier Leiva sits down with forensic psychologist Dr. Tristin Engels to pull back the curtain on the high-stakes world of mental health evaluations in the criminal justice system.
We explore how some criminals try to game the system, what psychologists look for when evaluating claims of mental illness, and why even experts can be fooled. Plus, ...
Mark as Played
April 15, 2025 • 35 mins
Interview with a man convicted of a Ponzi scheme. Bill Livolsi says he was just trying to help his wife, Linda—the ringleader of a multi-million dollar investment scam.
In this episode of PRETEND, Bill opens up about how he got roped into the scheme, ignored every red flag, and ultimately landed in prison. He describes fake hedge funds, imaginary employees, and a key investor who also happened to be a self-proclaimed witch and lot...
Mark as Played
April 8, 2025 • 51 mins
Trigger warning: This episode contains graphic discussions of emotional, financial, sexual, and physical abuse. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
When Lindsay first met him, he was charming, successful, and convincing—a financial advisor with all the right answers. What started as a storybook marriage quickly spiraled into a nightmare of manipulation, gaslighting, and escalating violence.
In this episode of PRETEND, Lind...
Mark as Played
April 1, 2025 • 15 mins
After publishing the story of a woman trapped in a marriage with a narcissist, I wasn't sure how it would land. It wasn’t flashy. It didn’t end in violence or arrest. But the response was overwhelming. Listeners wrote in to say, “That was me.” Some still carry the trauma years later. Others are just now realizing what they went through was abuse.
In this episode, we hear from listeners who saw their own relationships reflected in...
Mark as Played
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