Real People. Real Crimes. | Introducing CRIMES OF REDDIT

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The world is full of crime, but there's a type that doesn't make the evening news. It exists in comment sections in Reddit threads with hundreds of subthreads spiraling underneath them. A stalker who won't stop, a family secret that was never supposed to surface, a funny story that turns out to be a confession.

That's why I wanted to introduce you to the Crimes Of Reddit podcasts. They take you past the front page news and down the threads that took a seriously dark turn. Real stories, real users, real consequences, pulled from the deepest and most anonymous corners of the Internet.

Every Tuesday, they bring you the most unhinged and unnerving stories to the forefront with real-time reactions from the co-hosts. Then they piece together every thread until the puzzle is complete. Search for Crimes Of Reddit available now wherever you get your podcasts. Here's a preview of what to expect.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (0:57)

My mother-in-law suddenly passed away in a car accident last month. At the same time, my stalker disappeared.

Alexis Linkletter (1:04)

Coincidence? Probably not.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (1:06)

Probably not.

Alexis Linkletter (1:07)

That's so sad.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (1:09)

Messed up. My mother-in-law and I have never had a good relationship. She has tried to sabotage my relationship with my husband since the day she met me.

I wasn't good enough for her handsome and successful boy.

Alexis Linkletter (1:22)

Which is a crime on its own, like women protecting their sons like this and being obsessive with their children.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (1:28)

My handsome, successful boy.

SPEAKER_1 (1:30)

Give me a break.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (1:32)

Anyways.

Alexis Linkletter (1:33)

You can think your child is successful without being obsessive.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (1:36)

You can think they're handsome without babying an adult man. I contemplated ending my relationship several times, but my husband always showed that he is on my side and I love him.

Alexis Linkletter (1:47)

Okay, that's good.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (1:48)

A few years ago, I started getting very threatening scary emails and texts from a PAX.

So PAX is the name of the texter, emailer. This PAX knew everything about me. It didn't matter how many emails and phone numbers I changed. They or he always found me.

I made several reports, but nothing happened. My husband tried everything to trace these emails. Nothing came out of it.

Alexis Linkletter (2:13)

Okay, so this is going in the direction of what's that documentary? Where like the mom was...

Sabrina Deana-Roga (2:19)

That documentary Unknown Number. Yeah.

Alexis Linkletter (2:21)

Okay, so this is the direction it's going in. Because I went, when you read that, like subreddit, or the title of the post, I thought it was me like, the stalker accidentally killed the mother-in-law. But now we're like, oh, okay.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (2:36)

Well, yeah, and to torment your own high school daughter is so deranged.

It's like that is a dangerous, dangerous woman. And we'll talk about how tangled relationships are. When you even find out your parent is doing something like this, how hard it would be to accept. Yeah. But the husband in this situation was really helpful in trying to get to the bottom.

Alexis Linkletter (3:03)

Which I appreciate. Great, great husband. Green flag there.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (3:06)

Totally. So no matter what, Pax always found her.

And she was under the impression that Pax was a guy based on the language that was being used. And the original poster says, I made several reports, but nothing happened. And this past year, I basically never left the apartment alone. So saying that she got so scared of this, that it was she was afraid to leave the house. To be alone.

Alexis Linkletter (3:32)

Yeah.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (3:33)

So she says, I haven't received a single threatening text or email from Pax in a month. After a few days, I wasn't surprised. I felt like I always knew it was my mother-in-law deep down.

My husband hasn't reacted yet. He's consumed with his grief and I don't want to bother him. Especially when he bitterly told me, you must be very pleased now, when we heard the news and I tried to comfort him. He apologized later and said he was just feeling guilty that he loved and chose me more than he loved her.

Alexis Linkletter (4:03)

Well, that's so complicated. Also, it would be one thing to find out your mom was this Pax person while she's still alive, but to be dealing with the grief of losing your mom, regardless of how complicated your relationship is, you could hate your parent and if they die, people still have so much grief and that feeling of loss.

Sabrina Deana-Roga (4:30)

It's primal. They're the most foundational relationships human beings can have. I mean, they mold who we are and we feel totally intertwined with them. So it makes total sense like it's impossible to let go.