Taking the Identity of Another | EP 17

On August 28, 2026, Laura Owens pled guilty in her criminal case in Arizona.

So, Ms. Owens, I've been handed a plea agreement that indicates you want to resolve your case by pleading guilty to count one, fraudulent schemes and artifices, count six, perjury, count nine, fraudulent schemes and artifices, and then count ten, taking my identity of another. Is that what you want to do today?

Yes, Your Honor. One charge she pled to was from her fraud against Greg Gillespie. Two of the counts were related to fraud and perjury in her case with Clayton Eckerd.

We are on the right step towards full justice, and obviously we still need to have sentencing, but it's not lost upon me that her being a convicted felon is huge.

The fourth and final count Laura pled guilty to was taking the identity of another. That charge was for using someone else's ultrasound and passing it off as her own. We've talked about that ultrasound before, the one Laura stole. After everything you've heard about Laura, the ultrasound might seem like a minor thing. But for one woman, the image held significance. It was from a real pregnancy she lost.

I see this picture and I was like, that's my ultrasound. But it looks a little bit different. But that's my ultrasound.

That's Stormy Mitchell. She's the state's third victim in their case against Laura Owens. When I first reached out to Stormy, she wasn't ready to talk. Then, on the night Laura pled guilty, I finally got an email from Stormy. She wanted to tell her story.

Someone reached into my life and stole something from me. And not just an item, but something that means more to me than I can even express in words.

I'm Stephanie Young, and this is Love Trapped.

There's no way out.

You'd better believe.

I'll be raising holy hell my love.

If you ever.

Ever, ever, ever try to leave.

This episode is coming out on Friday, October 23rd, 2026. So if you're one of the people who's been following closely, listening to these episodes on the day they come out, then you know that it's a very important day for the victims of Laura Owens. Right as we're releasing this episode, Laura should be in a courtroom in Arizona, finally facing consequences for her actions. Soon, we'll find out if Laura will go to prison or jail. And if so, how much time she'll spend there. When Laura pled guilty, she waived her right to a trial. That means we never heard from the 64 witnesses the state of Arizona planned to call. We might never get the full story. All the details we would have learned if there had been

a trial. But you've already heard from many people on the state's witness list. People like Clayton Eckerd, Greg Woodnick, Mike Maricini, Deandra Arena, and Dave Neal. Someone else on that witness list is Stormy Mitchell, the state's third listed victim. On August 6th, 2021, Laura Owens texted a photo of an ultrasound to Greg Gillespie. It showed twins. Laura said it was her ultrasound, but it wasn't.

We noticed that this ultrasound image that she used to claim she was pregnant with twins with Greg Gillespie had like sort of a circle mark on it, like a orb.

That's content creator and comedian Dave Neal. This is the ultrasound he and journalist Megan Fox were examining on a live stream when they realized it was watermarked.

It says Fiverr.

It's... Oh, no!

Oh, hold on.

Okay, hold on. Hold on.

This is why you do it live.

Fiverr is an online marketplace where you can hire freelancers to do pretty much any digital task you can think of, like photoshopping an image. The online sleuths tracked down the original source of this ultrasound to a 2015 blog written by a mom named Stormy. Their suspicions were confirmed a year and a half later, when the state of Arizona listed Stormy as a victim in their criminal case. We talked briefly about this in a bonus episode after episode six.

The bonus is titled, Where Did the Ultrasound Come From? Stormy herself has been hesitant to speak publicly about her experience with Laura Owens. But after Laura accepted the plea deal, Stormy felt like she could finally share what happened from her perspective.

If I had heard about this case, and it had not been me, as a mom who has experienced losses, it would have broken my heart for that woman. I know that it's important to be that voice for so many other women. Ultimately, that's why I decided to do this.

A few weeks ago, Stormy sat down with me for a virtual interview. She works as a nurse, and she talked to me on one of her days off. When she joined our call, she was surprisingly calm. I asked her to introduce herself.

I always think of myself in the relation to other people, I think because other people in my life are so important to me. I'm a wife. I'm a mom. I'm a sister. I'm a friend.

I'm a daughter.

I'm an aunt. I'm a nurse. I feel like I am someone who loves other people, who wants to help other people, who just tries to make the world a better place.

It's important to say Stormy has never met Laura Owens. And before she got dragged into this case, she didn't know who Clayton Eckerd was.

I don't follow The Bachelor at all. I didn't even know it was happening. I had never heard of Clayton. I couldn't name any other Bachelor at all. I live across the country and live my normal little life with my family.

I asked Stormy if she'd listen to this podcast. She told me she hadn't she felt like it would bring up too many painful memories. Before we go further, I want to let you know that Stormy is going to talk about pregnancy loss. Stormy and her husband met in college. After they got married in 2003, they were ready to start a family. But like so many people, they struggled to conceive. Finally, in 2011, they were pregnant with their first son.

I had years of infertility. And so he was this huge miracle getting pregnant with him to begin with. So on May 17, 2011, our oldest son, our first baby, was stillborn. I was 33 weeks pregnant with him, and it was indescribably devastating for me, my husband, our families. My grief was so heavy. My husband's amazing, but he was grieving on his own. and my family helped. Our friends came together and helped us, but I needed an outlet.

I needed somewhere where I could, unfiltered, talk about how I'm feeling, and it wouldn't hurt someone else.

After this unimaginable loss, Stormy turned to writing. It was a way she could process what happened, her emotions, and feel connected to her baby. She started a.

Blog, And so writing became this place where I could share what I was experiencing. And in 2011, blogs were the thing, right? So everyone was writing one. So I thought, I'll write one. And I wanted it a place to be able to let my family and friends who maybe didn't live near me or friends from college could follow what was happening. And so starting that was just kind of a way to let them in on what we were experiencing, how we were grieving, how we were healing.

Stormy's blog was just for her close friends and family. She said the most viewers she ever got were a couple hundred. She shared about her stillbirth, her grief, and her ongoing fertility journey. And then in 2012, she shared the good news that she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. A few years later, Stormy found out she was pregnant again.

When I went in for my ultrasound and my doctor, who's the sweetest man in the world, and he was my doctor through all my pregnancies, he was like, okay, so there's two of them. And I just started laughing, just laughing hysterically. Like I couldn't even stop. I was just like, this is insane to me. It was just like this joy that we had. And it was so crazy.

When I told my husband, same thing, like laughing. We were like, oh my gosh, how does this even happen? And then we're like, our car's not big enough for this many children. And so this woman who was told at one point that it was very unlikely that I would ever have children, I was now pregnant with two babies.

As soon as she saw those two heartbeats on the monitor, Stormy began imagining her life as a twin mom.

I had already dreamed of having both car seats in the back of the car and making them wear goofy matching outfits because that's fun, and imagining both at their first day of kindergarten together holding hands. And all of those dreams are already there. from the start.

Twin pregnancies are higher risk stormy's doctor told her that from the very beginning.

I was somewhat prepared but hopeful you know there's always that chance that good things do.

Happen On the day of their next appointment, Stormy was feeling optimistic. But as she watched the ultrasound monitor nervously, something was wrong.

Only one baby was there. We had lost the other baby, and it was horrible. You're devastated. In this case, the baby's there, and then the baby's not. With no evidence other than the one ultrasound I have of them together.

Stormy experienced something called vanishing twin syndrome. It's distinctly different than other types of miscarriages. There aren't the usual symptoms someone experiences, like bleeding or cramping. It's reabsorbed into the body. And in Stormy's case, the surviving twin was still healthy. All of a sudden, her first ultrasound image took on a new meaning.

That's the only thing that we have. That and then the dreams I had in my heart for them. But the only physical evidence I have is an ultrasound picture of both of them together that sits in my living room on a shelf that I can see every day.

During this time, Stormy turned to her blog and wrote about how she was feeling. She shared her grief about losing one of the twins, her anxiety about the rest of the pregnancy, and that ultrasound photo of the two babies together.

Once that grief hit me again, I knew I needed that same outlet. I wrote about how it felt for me and how devastating it was because that was one of the places I could go and be completely open and just be able to share my heart. And so I did write about it on the blog and posted pictures like I had before.

On that blog, Stormy posted the ultrasound of her twins, that precious image that she keeps framed in her living room. In the end, Stormy gave birth to one healthy baby, another boy. After that, her life became busier. Years went by. She stopped posting on her blog in 2016. She barely even thought about the fact that it was still out there on the internet. That was until early 2024, when Stormy got a notification on her phone.

I remember exactly where I was sitting. I was sitting on my couch. The kids were playing and I pull up Instagram. I see I have a message. And so I open up my message and it's from a woman that I do not know who was very sweet and told me, hey, there's a YouTube channel that's talking about your ultrasound.

The message also included a screenshot of an image that Stormy was very familiar with.

I was like, that's my ultrasound. But it looks a little bit different. But that's my ultrasound.

In 2024, Stormy Mitchell was at home with her two sons when she got an Instagram DM from a woman she didn't know. It was a screenshot of one of Dave Neal's videos. On the screen, Stormy saw a picture of her own ultrasound.

I didn't even know how to respond at first because I was like, this can't be real. But I see this picture and I couldn't even wrap my mind around what was happening.

Stormy didn't fully understand what was going on. So she decided to reach out to Dave Neal.

The woman that reached out to me, she had given me his information. He was the YouTuber that was talking about me. And so I emailed him because I needed more information. I didn't know anything. And he is so kind and just supported me and gave me information that I needed to know. It was really nice to be able to connect with him because he filled in a lot of those gaps that I didn't know and didn't even know where to look.

Somehow, Laura had found Stormy's old blog from 2015. Then Laura downloaded or screenshotted Stormy's twin ultrasound. It looks like that image was then sent to a freelancer on Fiverr, who likely changed a few key details. For example, the name at the top of the ultrasound. In our interview, Stormy repeatedly compared the violation to the feeling of a home invasion or robbery. That's something she and her husband experienced early on in their marriage. When she discovered what Laura had done, it brought back the same feeling.

Someone had reached into our private space, stolen something, and violated this safe place. It feels like that, but infinitely more because that picture is not just a picture. It's more precious than that. It is a representation of the love that we have for our children. And that's what she stole.

Through her correspondence with Dave Neal, Stormy learned more about who Laura was and what she was capable of.

It was very scary, and it made me scared that she would be able to find me, or that she would find me, or hurt my children somehow, or my husband. And I have a lot of family that I care about, and could something happen to them?

Despite that fear, Stormy kept tabs on Laura and her ongoing case in Arizona. When Laura was referred to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for Criminal Investigation... Stormy felt compelled to speak up.

I reached out to the judge and wrote a letter saying, this is me. She took my ultrasound picture. She took this picture of my babies and used it to fabricate a pregnancy and hurt someone else. This is not okay.

In August 2024, Stormy agreed to an interview with the Maricopa County investigators. They flew to her to conduct the interview at a public library.

That's when they asked if I would like to be named as a victim. And while that was so scary to me because it meant that this was going to go even further and that I would lose more control over who knew things and who, you know, could potentially find us, I knew I had to.

Stormy agreed to be listed as a victim in the criminal case against Laura.

I didn't choose to have her in my life. She drug me into her life. She needs to be held responsible for the things that she has done because she's hurt so many people. I'm just one of them.

Stormy says her interview with the investigators was emotional. It reopened old wounds.

It was very difficult to bring all of that up. You carry grief. You learn how to get stronger when you carry it. Like, I don't feel like grief gets any easier. We just get stronger to bear it. That suitcase of briefly carries always the same size and always the same weight. We just build muscles to be able to carry it. And so when I had to meet with those detectives, I had to open that suitcase again and dig through it. And it's not right and it's not fair that she made me do that. I shouldn't have had to do that. I shouldn't have.

But that interview was critical. What Stormy told the investigators was an important part of the second set of indictments brought against Laura Owens. Today, Stormy gets updates on the case from a victim's advocate. That's how she found out Laura pled guilty to four felonies, including one charge related to her. Stormy said the relief of that moment led her to respond to my email.

I felt a little bit more safe because maybe there will be some sort of consequence for what she did. And that's why I reached out.

The legal process is long and drawn out and consistently asks victims to give more. Stormy told me about writing her victim impact statement.

It was difficult to now explain to a judge why this impacted me so much. She used my babies for a lie. She took my identity as a mom and made it her identity when it was never hers. She didn't use this stock image on the internet. My pregnancy was real. My twins were real. We named our baby that we lost. I put that in the victim impact statement.

My love for them is real, and she took it.

Stormy isn't planning to go to Laura's sentencing hearing on October 23rd. She has a job and two young kids. But the judge will read her victim impact statement and take it into consideration. Stormy told me that she would like to see Laura face some prison or jail time for her crimes. Since Stormy isn't going to be in court for the sentencing, she won't get the opportunity to address Laura in person. As we wrapped up our conversation, I asked her what she would say to Laura, if she could speak to her directly.

You need to be stopped. You can't continue to hurt people the way you do. hurt me, the way you've hurt other people. And honestly, I feel a little sorry for you that your life is full of just deception and lies. When this is over, I'm going to continue on with a beautiful life. And it's sad to me that I don't think you'll ever really have that.

Our last episode ended with a major turning point. Laura's guilty plea. That was the first step in accountability. The next one is sentencing. That's when we'll find out what consequence she'll face for her crimes. At the hearing, the state of Arizona and Laura's defense attorney will each make their case for the appropriate sentence. After that, Judge Jeffrey Reuter will make the final decision. Will Laura face incarceration or not? It's something we've all been wondering. And on the day of sentencing, there are a few variables that could tip the scale. To help explain those variables, I reached out to Clayton's attorney. Greg Woodnick. He said that for the hearing to proceed, Laura has to be there

in person.

She's got constitutional rights that are ridiculously important here. She's already admitted her guilt when she entered the plea weeks ago, but she has a right to address the court directly. That's what we sometimes refer to as an allocution, where she can express remorse or apologize or explain her actions directly.

The judge will be looking to see if Laura shows genuine remorse. The big question is, is she capable of saying she's sorry?

Laura wants to minimize her sentence. I don't know and I won't know until I'm sitting there in the courtroom next to my client whether or not I honestly believe Laura's accepting responsibility for what she did and she's truly humbled by her mistakes. From what I've seen so far, I am really incredulous of that.

If Laura doesn't speak on her own behalf, her attorney Christian Luters will speak for her.

Courts are really big on making sure people are not recidivists, that they're not repeat offenders. And convincing the court that your client learned from the process, that this process has been so important to the defendant, that they've grown, that they've gone to therapy, that they've addressed their issues, is, I think, pretty critical in convincing a court that a sentence should be minimized.

Then, the prosecutors for the state of Arizona will make their case to the judge. Part of that includes calling the victims to speak in court.

The victims actually appear in court and have the opportunity to speak in front of the judge. So some victims just submit their concerns, their positions in writing, and the judge will read them prior to sentencing. And some victims show up in court and share directly with the court their insight, their opinion.

As you heard earlier, Stormy submitted a written statement in advance of sentencing. Clayton did too. But he also plans to speak in person. When I asked him if he knows what he's going to say to the judge, he told me he plans to speak from the heart.

I definitely think I'll go off script when I address Laura. Because I do think if there's any part of this in which my emotion rises quickly and it just comes out, I think it'll be when I'm looking at her and explaining to her why I have to say what I'm saying. She was being reckless. She was going after everything in my life. She tried to destroy my job security. She tried to get my loved ones to see me in a different light. She tried to wreck my dating life.

She tried to completely destroy every aspect of my life. And that's what I'm going to make sure that the court knows. This is where accountability is finally had. This is the 12th hour.

Clayton genuinely believes that incarceration is the best thing for the whole community. and for Laura herself.

I'm not being unfair. I'm being just, Laura. And this is for your own well-being as well.

Something I've learned about Clayton is that he always tries to look for the good in people. And even after everything Laura put him through, he's still trying to find it in her.

What I want to put out to the That's been the thing that I've always tried to get people to just at least consider is like giving grace for second chances. It hits really close to home for me because so many people tried to cancel me and write me off after The Bachelor and say, you got your one chance, you're done, you're dead to me. You can never recover from this. You will always be the piece of shit that you are. And so I genuinely feel that we should extend out grace for redemption for everybody, if they're willing to actually change.

After hearing from the victims, the judge will hand down his sentence.

My understanding is that on three of the offenses, she's getting probation.

When Laura took the plea deal, she agreed to probation for three of the four offenses.

That could be three years, it could be more. As part of probation, you can also be sentenced to jail. There's a difference in Arizona between jail and prison. Jail is usually for shorter periods of time.

But the sentence for one charge was not decided in the plea agreement. It's one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices related to Clayton Eckert. And the judge gets to make the final decision on if prison time is appropriate for this charge.

The offense that is open for the court to incarcerate her in prison... She could be incarcerated for up to 12 years. I'm being really clear here. There's no universe where Laura is going to prison for 12 years. I know people want it. I understand why people want to see her in prison for a decade plus. It's not going to happen.

Even though Woodnick doesn't think Laura will receive the maximum sentence, he told me he's confident that she will be incarcerated for a period of time.

Do I think it should be prison? Yeah, of course. Do I think it should be prison for 12 years? No, even I don't think that, and I'm Clayton's attorney, but I do think she does need to be incarcerated for a significant period of time as an appropriate consequence and to protect the community.

Like Woodnick said earlier, perhaps the most important variable in sentencing will be Laura herself. If she decides to speak, how she shows up, and if she can finally take responsibility for her actions. Admitting legal guilt is one thing. Feeling genuine remorse or even believing what you did was wrong is entirely different.

Laura's got a really good lawyer. Laura is smart. She can present well and she's articulate. Is it possible that Laura, at sentencing, says all of the right things to the court, accepts responsibility, explains what she's going to do for this to never happen again, explains that she's humbled, apologizes to her victims, tears up appropriately, all the things that you would expect someone who was humbled and accountable to do to appropriately convince the court that they're not going to come back and that they're going to do their probation, they're going to do their jail consequence, and that the court is never going to see them again, and that the court at that moment, believe, you know what, she's

a first-time offender, she's a non-violent offender, I want to give her some opportunity here to be successful, sentences her in a forgiving but appropriate way at the moment. We walk out of the courthouse. The very first camera she sees downstairs, that the first words out of her mouth are, blaming social media, blaming others involved in this process, and says something entirely different than what she presented in the courthouse.

Is that possible? Yeah, I think it's possible.

Clayton is leaving the door open for Laura to choose accountability. Regardless of her sentence, that's the thing that has the best chance at bringing him real closure.

It's taking all of the blame off the victims and placing it all amongst her own camp and her environment. That's what I would need to see, is no more finger pointing at the victims, but pointing at her own tribe.

Maybe it's wishful thinking. But hey, that's Clayton. If Laura's sentencing goes ahead as planned, I'll be back with a quick update to bring you the news. After that, Clayton is finally ready to close this chapter. So was Greg Woodnick.

We had really big things happen at that court complex in Arizona. Miranda, you know, read your Miranda rights happened at that courthouse. Jodi Arias was tried at that courthouse. Lori Valdebelle was tried at that courthouse. Cases that have national and historic context. Laura Owens is not one of those cases. Laura Owens is a story of fraud and the consequence of what happens. when someone is finally caught doing something and held accountable. And I hope that comes to a rest, a healthy conclusion with an appropriate sentence on October 23rd. There's no way.

Out Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to follow Love Trapped on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And please leave us a review. A five-star rating helps others find this show. We're grateful for your support. If you would like to reach out to the Love Trapped team or have a similar story to share, email us at lovetrappedpod at gmail.com.

That's lovetrapped, P-O-D, at gmail.com. Love Trapped is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. This show was executive produced by Nancy Glass, Andrea Gunning, and Ben Fetterman. Written, produced, and hosted by me, Stephanie Young. Our story editor is Monique Laborde.

Producer on this episode is Sydney Gladue. Additional production support from Todd Gans. Our production manager is Kristen Malkiri. For iHeart Podcasts, Allie Perry was our executive producer. Audio editing and mastering by Anna McClain. Additional editing support by Tanner Robbins and Matt DelVecchio. This podcast was developed in collaboration with Danny Passman and Leb Abramoff at Crybaby Media. The Love Trap theme is composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by Mibe Music. A special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, Jessica Kreincheck, Allie Cantor, and the entire iHeart podcast team. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Taking the Identity of Another | EP 17

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