Relationship Cheating Stories

A Stranger Left His Shoe: The Sandra Sanders Case

A size 10½ brown leather oxford and a red rose were left on Sandra Sanders's porch on March 11, 2019 - details that should have been reclaimed, but were not. The shoe was left-footed, lightly worn, and belonged to a carefully constructed fraud that used scripts, rotating performers and a shared phone to make one woman fall for a man who did not exist; how did they tune the deception so precisely to Sandra's life?

In this episode, we trace the timeline from the porch step back through Sandra's routines, the introduction by a coworker, and the operation run by a man who wrote scripts and coordinated multiple impostors; what keeps appearing is the same question: how did the frauders replicate a credible life well enough to bypass Sandra's caution?

Person: Sandra Sanders
Date: March 11, 2019
Location: 414 Birchwell Drive, Kellerton Heights
Person: Victor Malone
Person: Stanley Schultz

- Sandra Sanders was 53 years old and a senior billing coordinator at Weston Medical Group.
- The shoe found on the porch was a size 10½, left-footed, and lightly worn.
- Sandra had lived alone at 414 Birchwell Drive for three years before January 2019.
- Osgood, Sandra's Belgian Hare, was 12 years old and required medication twice daily at 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM administered by syringe.
- Victor Malone, 44, wrote the script, controlled the shared phone, and recruited at least three men in their late 30s to early 50s to impersonate "Stanley Schultz."

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Promised Healing - He Stole $63,400 and 11 Years of His Life

A young man trusted a wellness app match who promised real improvement and ended up losing $63,400 and years of stability; the first red flag was a $2,000 “logistics” request that was refunded nine days later - so why did every subsequent transfer grow and never return? What did a string of warm conversations, a fake story about a daughter in São Paulo, and a small notebook of numbers lead him to do in the end?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from the 4:47 a.m. roadside discovery to the weeks of wire tracing that uncovered how a pattern of small favors, returned funds, and escalating requests built trust until it broke. We cover William Hoffman’s diagnosis, his connection to NutriPath, the matching with Carl Graham, and the financial trail that answers why William ended up alone in a frozen ditch.

Person: William Hoffman
Age: 22
App: NutriPath
Contact saved as: Carl
Amount stolen: $63,400

- Found in a ditch on Route 114 at 4:47 a.m., phone screen lit with 41 outgoing calls to a contact saved as "Carl."
- First money request in November was $2,000 framed as lab equipment for a project in São Paulo and was refunded nine days later.
- William was diagnosed at 19 with a chronic gastrointestinal condition and withdrew from college two years after enrolling.
- William was matched with user Carl Graham via NutriPath and reported more progress in two weeks than in the prior three years.
- The pattern of transfers cycled roughly every three weeks, with initial refunds followed by progressively larger amounts that were never returned.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Stole Her Memory - How a Stranger Emptied Dena's CDs

Fear that the person who knows your grief can also know your bank balance-Dena left five CDs totaling just under $212,000 staggered across three years, and a stranger used her memory to strip them away. How did a contractor’s two-hour kitchen visit, a forged UN document, and a grief-forum friendship turn into coordinated withdrawals that emptied those accounts?

In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that led from a service visit on Felder Road to messages from a man calling himself Wade Hicks, and the transfers that followed; what began as online consolation became a financial spiral-how did Curtis lose the protections Dena built for him?

Person: Curtis Schultz
Person: Dena Schultz
Date: January 9, 2022
Location: Felder Road house, eleven miles east of Orrin
Amount: just under $212,000

- The front door was found open at 7:41 AM on January 9, 2022, by utility lineman Gail Mitchell.
- Dena left five certificates of deposit at Copeland Savings totaling just under $212,000, staggered to mature across three years.
- Contractor Terrance Odom spent approximately two hours in the Felder Road kitchen installing herd-management software and asked about Dena and the CD ladder plan.
- Curtis first received a message from someone calling himself Wade Hicks in late March 2021 and moved to private email within weeks.
- On August 19, 2021, the first monetary request arrived from Hicks; Curtis wired $7,000, and on September 4, 2021, he liquidated the first CD for roughly $40,000.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Chessboard, the $14,000 Receipt, and the Man Who Wasn't Real

Cold stillness, a frozen chessboard and a $14,000 bank receipt tucked beneath it - a woman’s name on that receipt, left in a park at 5:40 a.m., became the first clue in a case of romance fraud that cost six thousand dollars and unravelled a life. Who was the man Brenda Bell trusted, and how did an online chess community lead to a wire transfer and a vanished identity?

In this episode, we follow the timeline from a routine Thursday visit to a mother to the messages that moved from Gambit Ladder to long phone calls, and the moment Brenda wired money she believed would be repaid. What gaps in trust and verification allowed a fabricated profile to become real enough to empty an account?

Person: Brenda Bell
Age: 62
Platform: Gambit Ladder
Date found: December 11, 2019 at 5:40 a.m.
Amount on receipt: $14,000

- A chessboard was found open on a bench in Orrins Creek Park with both kings still standing.
- A bank receipt for $14,000 with the name Brenda Bell was tucked beneath the chessboard.
- Brenda Bell worked 19 years as a medical records coordinator and lived on Fenwick Drive.
- On March 2019 Brenda joined Gambit Ladder and received messages from a profile named Marcus Hale.
- On September 18 Brenda wired $6,000 to an account given by Marcus Hale.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Watched My Walk: How a Cancer Survivor Was Groomed and Betrayed

Fear and pity click with the same urgency here: a 26-year-old cancer survivor was watched from forty feet away, photographed by a meter reader, and messaged months later by a man who had scouted him in person - so how does a careful, remission-era life unravel into near silence? The Renwick case shows grooming that began offline and finished online; what exactly was dismantled to leave Douglas Allen “destroyed” in his apartment?

In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events and the connections between the people, places, and digital identities involved to show how the contact began and escalated, and we ask what choices and gaps allowed a targeted deception to succeed.

Person: Douglas Allen
Age: 26
Diagnosis: Hodgkin lymphoma, in remission approximately 14 months
Suspect: Melvin Sullivan, age 51, prior wire fraud conviction (2017), served 14 months
Rent: $840 per month at Sallow Creek Drive

- The meter at 414 Sallow Creek Drive showed exactly the same kilowatt-hour reading two months in a row.
- Douglas had been in remission for approximately 14 months at the time of the events.
- Douglas saved $11,000 from overtime pay plus a life insurance payout he never had to use.
- Melvin Sullivan created a Facebook persona claiming to be a 43-year-old colon cancer survivor and used photos of a Spokane gym owner.
- The first message from the persona arrived in February on the platform Douglas checked most evenings after his night shift.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Letters from a Man Who Never Left Ohio: 41 Lies Revealed

You will feel the slow, tightening betrayal of someone who built intimacy from paper - forty-one handwritten letters, a cast-iron skillet with seasoning still on it, and a debit card drained to zero; how did a woman who audited fraud for a living miss a scheme that used U.S. paper and Midwest postmarks to impersonate a refugee in Accra? What was really inside those letters that made Erin Zeller send $11,000?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from a cardboard box labeled KITCHEN ITEMS to the discovery that the man Erin thought was in Ghana was actually in Columbus, Ohio. The episode lays out the timeline, the forensic details, and the moment the correspondence asked for money - and asks how a meticulous auditor came to trust a fiction.

Person: Erin Zeller
Location: Alderton
Age: 48
Letters: 41 handwritten letters over 28 months
Transfer: $11,000 wire transfer

- The box contained a cast-iron skillet, forty-one handwritten letters, a drained debit card, and a wire transfer confirmation for $11,000.
- Erin Zeller volunteered every Wednesday for six years at the Alderton Refugee Resettlement Collaborative.
- Fourteen of the letters bore Ghanaian postmarks; twenty-seven carried U.S. Midwest postmarks (Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis).
- The lined notepad used for every letter was a brand sold exclusively through office supply chains in the United States and Canada.
- The Accra partner program had been officially suspended in March 2017, and no official correspondence had moved through it during Erin’s period of writing.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

The Photo That Lied: How a Stranger Stole James's Heart and Identity

The photograph in the mud was dry on the bottom half - a laminated 4x6 in a frame, found two hundred meters from James’s mailbox after two nights of rain. A stranger’s face had been grafted beside James in a fake restaurant booth, then mailed and placed in his town; how did a manufactured image become the anchor for eight months of a relationship?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the first message on a dating platform to the discovery of the framed photo and the investigative traces that followed. What did the assemblage of a digital composite, a mailed object, and a coordinated inbox of messages accomplish that simple texts could not?

Person: James Stewart
Date: September 11, 2019
Location: Tallow Creek Greenway, Farlow, Ohio
Platform: HeartBridge
Perpetrator image used: David Reardon, age 47, Flagstaff

- The printed photograph was a laminated 4x6 in an acrylic frame found against sycamore roots two hundred meters from James’s mailbox after two nights of rain.
- James, age 31, had lived alone on Cotter Lane for three years and joined HeartBridge in January 2019.
- The profile "Kenneth Griffin" listed age 44, occupation architect, and claimed to be prelingually deaf; James communicated with that profile for eight months.
- The man pictured as "Kenneth Griffin" was actually David Reardon, age 47, whose image was pulled from a professional portfolio and dormant social media.
- Investigators found eight workstations and laminated materials in a suite on Akron’s east side when they entered on September 23, 2019.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Built Her from Three Strangers - He Stole $61,000 and Lloyd's Heart

He was an orderly man with a paid-off ranch house and a laminated road atlas, and within three months he wired $61,000 to people he'd never met - all for a woman who never existed. The deception used three stolen online identities, a waterlogged notebook with three handwritings, and seven prior refinements; what broke Lloyd Bennett was both intimacy and engineering. Who built Elena Voss, and how did the scheme turn a careful property assessor into a willing donor?

In this episode, we follow the factual thread found in a soggy notebook and in Lloyd Bennett’s online messages to Harborside Connect to outline how the con unfolded, how the fictitious Elena was assembled from real profiles, and how the transfers were justified as emergencies - can a manufactured person really steal a life?

Person: Lloyd Bennett
Age: 52
Platform: Harborside Connect
Perpetrator: Marvin Marshall, 38
Amount stolen: $61,000

- Lloyd created his online profile in February using a cousin’s wedding photo from October.
- Elena Voss messaged Lloyd within days, claiming to be 47 and on contract in Aberdeen, Scotland.
- Three real people’s online content (Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook) were combined to form Elena’s identity.
- The first wire transfer was $4,000 sent in May to an account in Singapore for a claimed medical emergency.
- Lloyd missed his regular Thursday poker night for the first time after making the initial transfer.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

He Stole Her Grief: Widow Scammed Out of $214,000 by a Fake Lover

Grief made her vulnerable and a stranger turned that vulnerability into a methodical scam: forty-one photos laid out beside forty-one wire transfer receipts in a broken garage that recorded $214,000 gone from a grieving widow. How did a Facebook message and a borrowed identity convince a teacher to hand over months of savings?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of events that began with a message in a widows' support group and ended with stolen money, identity theft, and a shaken man whose likeness was used without consent. What tactics did the scammer use to build trust and avoid detection?

Person: Monica Whitley
Age: 44
Occupation: seventh-grade science teacher
Amount stolen: $214,000
Group: Widowed and Whole (about 3,000 members)

- Monica joined the Facebook group Widowed and Whole in October and posted in February about "learning to want things again."
- The fake profile "Beverly Brooks" had 41 photographs matched to 41 wire transfer receipts found in a garage.
- The garage latch had been broken since May and was reported to the township but never repaired.
- Monica's husband Dennis died at age 51 of a cardiac event 11 months before the garage discovery.
- The real Beverly Brooks is a 62-year-old civil engineer from Clarksburg, West Virginia, who was married and never used the Widowed and Whole forum.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

Laminated Lies: The Photo That Unraveled a Romance Scam Network

Fear and fascination collide the moment a laminated five-by-seven photo is found balanced on a septic riser - a deliberate, weatherproof message left where a service worker would certainly kneel. Why would someone laminate a smiling boardwalk snapshot and place it on Vickers Road, and how did that single image set off a six-week search that crossed three states?

In this episode, we follow the sequence of events triggered by that photograph and tracing back through wire transfers, shell companies, and online messages to reveal how a private online relationship turned into $171,300 in transfers and multiple linked accounts. How did one networking message become a romance scam that reached into the finances of three women?

Person: Marcia Marshall
Location: Vickers Road, Dunmore, Ohio
Date: second week of June 2019
Amount: $171,300 in wire transfers
Duration: fourteen months of transfers

- The laminated five-by-seven photograph was found on a drain field access riser at roughly 7:30 a.m. on a Tuesday in the second week of June 2019.
- Marcia Marshall sent $41,300 over fourteen months to "Philip Myers," beginning with an $1,100 wire transfer.
- Two of five repayments totaling $9,000 were wired from a domestic bank account in Gadsden, Alabama belonging to Connie Spear.
- The investigation lasted six weeks and crossed three states, uncovering a house purchased in cash through a Delaware shell company.
- Marcia called her mother every Wednesday at 11:15 p.m.; she had lived in the Vickers Road rental for three years and moved out two months before the photo was found.

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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].