Where Did the Ultrasound Come From? | BONUS

Stephani Young (0:05)

Hey, it's Stephani, back with another bonus episode. And just a content disclaimer here, we will be talking about pregnancy loss. In episode six, you heard about how content creator, Dave Neal and journalist, Megan Fox, discovered a Fiverr logo on an ultrasound that Laura Owens had given Greg Gillespie. They made this discovery while Dave was on a live stream.

Dave Neal (0:29)

We already knew she had a, you know, penchant for lying. We knew that she was faking and stealing all of these ultrasounds.

Stephani Young (0:37)

The ultrasound that Dave Neal is talking about, the one they discovered a Fiverr logo on, didn't just appear out of thin air. It was taken from somewhere, and Dave Neal's community tracked down the real person behind this ultrasound.

Dave Neal (0:52)

This lady in Texas had written a blog about enduring the death of one of her twins. She's a member of MEND, Mothers Enduring Neonatal Death. She's an advocate for helping women going through such a devastating time.

Stephani Young (1:06)

The blog was originally written in 2014 by a woman named Stormy. We're not going to use her last name here for her privacy. But she later gave a statement to the Maricopa County investigators, where she said she'd started a blog in 2011 to help her cope with grief after she had a stillbirth. She posted about her next two pregnancies on the blog, including a pregnancy she had in 2014 When Stormy went for her first ultrasound, she learned she was having twins. But a few weeks later, one of the fetuses died and was absorbed by the other twin. The blog was about something called Vanishing Twins Syndrome, which actually happens in about 20-30 percent of twin pregnancies. In most cases, the other twin will develop normally, which was true in Stormy's case. She wrote about it on her blog.

Dave Neal (1:56)

And now several years later, her own story is being used against her because somebody stole the ultrasound off the Internet.

Stephani Young (2:03)

Members of Dave's audience ultimately found the source of the ultrasound through a reverse image search on Google. And Dave got in touch with Stormy.

Dave Neal (2:12)

We reached out as compassionately as you could because we're reopening a wound. We just wanted to help her and we really felt like she should know and maybe find out from us rather than from someone else that she had this stolen.

Stephani Young (2:23)

Stormy told Maricopa County investigators that when she saw the ultrasound Laura was using, she immediately recognized it as her own. She said the image holds special significance to her because it's the only physical evidence she has that this second baby existed.

Dave Neal (2:41)

It's important to know that because Laura would later steal this lady's story, which I don't need to tell people how offensive that is. We all understand this lady's put together a mission to help out other mothers because this was such a tough time period of her life.

Stephani Young (2:55)

The blog has since been taken down. Stormy said she didn't know anyone outside of her friends and family had been looking at it. Something I've learned throughout my research for this story is that Dave Neal and his community always want to help out.

Dave Neal (3:11)

I just knew my audience wanted to do something good. And a lot of times in cases like this, you have to wait for the court to play out and you really can't do much. And my audience has been known to help fund raise people in the past. And I said, let's just put together a fundraiser.

Stephani Young (3:27)

Dave started a GoFundMe for Stormy.

Dave Neal (3:30)

We raised a bunch of money. I think we raised probably $6,000. And we just said, go at it, have fun.

Stephani Young (3:36)

Dave's community was hoping they could raise enough money for Stormy to throw her son an extra special birthday party or take a family vacation.

Dave Neal (3:44)

There's so much collateral damage from this story. There's so many victims. And you watch a story like this and it feels senseless. It feels like you can't do anything. And it was just another instance where the audience almost proves Laura wrong. Like she decided to live in this hostile world. My audience didn't. My audience is in a world of justice, compassion, and we have to just constantly remind each other that even though it's such a tough subject to cover, we can focus on the survivors. We can focus on the victims and not on what might happen to Laura throughout this. Whatever happens to her is a consequence of the truth coming out.