Transcript of Where is Laura? | EP 11 New

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1979, that was a big moment for me. '84 was big to me.

I'm Sam Jay.

And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors, like Marc Lamont Hill on the '80s.

'84 was a wild—

I mean, it was a wild year.

I don't think there's a more important year for Black people.

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In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckard was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct?

I doctored the test once.

It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg Gillespie and Michael Marancini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.

I vowed I will be his last target.

He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that. Trust your girlfriends.

Listen to The Girlfriends. Trust Me, Babe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I got you. I got you.

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag, and there was a pool of blood.

Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Over the past year, Laura's found herself in quite the bind. She's facing a complicated patchwork of consequences. And it can be hard to follow. That's because we're talking about cases across two states, Arizona and California. We're talking about multiple different court systems, civil courts, family courts, and now criminal courts. So I want to regroup and give you an overview of what Laura's up against. In June 2024, Clayton won his family court case against Laura. That's a civil court judgment. Along with her judgment, Judge Mata ordered Laura to pay Clayton's legal fees, a number that after Laura's failed appeals is nearing $200,000. Then, 7 months later, in January 2025, the police raided Laura's family home in Arizona to serve a search warrant. By that summer, she was indicted in Arizona on 7 felony charges. That's the criminal system, you know, the one that sentences people to prison. Here's Clayton.

I hope for justice to be served. And to me, what that looks like is her going to prison. No matter what she's faced up until this point, she has not once said, you know what, I'm sorry.

Even after 7 felony charges, Laura still decided to renew her domestic violence restraining order against Mike Maraccini. This one in the San Francisco court system. It's a civil case. But for Mike, it's a legal battle he's been fighting for almost 10 years. And while she battled Mike in court, the prosecutors in Arizona weren't quite done with her yet. Their investigation had uncovered more.

What we know is coming down the pipeline is bigger than anything she could ever imagine. And bigger than any of us could ever imagine.

I'm Stephanie Young, and this is Love Trapped. At the end of the last episode, we left off in San Francisco. Laura Owens filed to renew her domestic violence restraining order against Mike Maracini, but this time Mike had secured legal counsel and was ready to fight back. The evidentiary hearing was slated for October 2025, and I flew to San Francisco to be in the courtroom. The night before the hearing was set to start, someone in Laura's camp emailed Mike's attorney, Omar Serrato. Omar and Mike thought Laura was agreeing to drop the DVRO renewal, but 12 minutes later, they found out that wasn't the case. Here's Omar.

There was like that surreal moment where you have all this adrenaline and then it's over, but the adrenaline's still there and you're trying to like calm down. Mike is crying and he's like raising his arms in triumph and hugs all around. And then I get this mysterious email come through my phone.

In the email, Laura requested a Zoom link for the next day's hearing, which Omar expected. She would need to agree to the deal in front of the judge. But she also asked for a Zoom link for her former attorney and nurse practitioner. That didn't make sense. If she planned to dismiss the case, why did they need to be present?

Everybody's still in celebration mode. And so I'm like trying to sitting on that for 5 minutes, like, what does this mean? And then I emailed her, hey Laura, my understanding was we had an agreement. Is that still the case? And then like 10 minutes later, no, we don't have an agreement. That was it, just a one-liner. And then I had to break the news to Mike, hey, this is still on. But he took that remarkably well. He's like, well, fuck it, game on then. I guess back to the original plan.

I arrived at the San Francisco Superior Courthouse early on Tuesday morning, October 21st. The hearing was scheduled for 9:00 AM. It wasn't long before a familiar face joined me, Clayton Eckert. He traveled to San Francisco just for this hearing.

I am in San Francisco for the first time in my life. I'm here to support Mike. I'm here because he showed up for me. And that was it. No matter what happens, no matter what the outcome is, I'm here to show Mike that I appreciate him. That's it. I'm like, I can pause all the shit in my life right now because honestly, this is more important than all that.

When Clayton had his family court trial against Laura the previous year, the courthouse in Arizona was full. Filled with his supporters, including the content creators who'd been covering his story. Now, in San Francisco, that same energy surrounded Mike. Outside the courthouse that morning, I ran into journalist Megan Fox.

I'm reporting out from in front of the Superior Court in California in San Francisco. We're gonna wait for Laura Owens to appear by Zoom, we think, maybe, or maybe she's not gonna show up at all. We're not sure, but we're going to go in and find out. We're all here. Where is she?

What do you think is going to happen today?

God, it's one of three things. It's going to get dismissed because she doesn't show up. Secondly, it could be continued. It's possible she could show up and argue for continuance. And the third option is that we fight it out. There's a trial. They're open.

Should we go in?

Let's do it.

We all piled into the small courtroom. I sat next to Clayton. Since it's a domestic violence related proceeding, audio recording is not allowed in the courtroom, but I took plenty of notes, so let me summarize. Laura joins by Zoom along with her former attorney David Gingras. Although, Gingras clarified that he was there as a witness, not as Laura's counsel. Because Laura is the petitioner in this case, the judge told her that she needed to be there in person. But Laura refutes this and says she thought it was only strongly suggested that she be there in person. The judge agreed to pick up the hearing the following day, but when they did, she said Laura needed to be in the courtroom, no exceptions. If she wasn't there, the case would be dismissed. Laura said she would try her best to be in San Francisco the following day. After that, the judge moved on to another case. There were so many people there to see what would happen. So much anticipation and buildup, all to be told, come back tomorrow. After the hearing, I caught up with Mike Maraccini and his wife Danielle. And how are you guys feeling?

Anxious.

Yeah, anxious.

She's just crying. It's always chaotic. There's nothing that's ever just smooth sailing.

Yeah.

Did you expect the judge to be that hard on her?

Yes.

No, I didn't.

I did, because she told Laura she had to be here in person. So I'm not surprised by the judge playing hardball.

Are you ready for tomorrow now?

Yeah, I'm ready. I personally don't think she's going to win.

I asked Mike what it was like to have Clayton there.

It was great to see Clayton. I told him he did not need to come, like, don't waste money on a plane ticket. And he said, Mike, you supported me for the June 10th hearing. Like, this is the least I could do. I want to be there to support you.

I joined Clayton, Mike, and Danielle for lunch that afternoon. This was my first time finally sitting down with Mike and Danielle face to face. And spirits were surprisingly high. Here's Mike.

Going into day 2, I was like, okay, this is going to condense the entire trial into one day, but we can knock this out. My team still felt very confident, which is one day instead of 2 days. So I still felt good going into day 2.

I returned to the San Francisco Superior Courthouse the next morning. Yes, I just did this the day before. What I didn't know at the time is that we'd all be doing it again. When I arrived, I found Megan Fox already at work, live streaming, joined virtually by Dave Neal. The question of the day: would Laura show up? Because of her 7 felony indictments, she needs to ask the courts for permission to leave the state of Arizona. As far as anyone knew, she hadn't done that. That's what Dave and Megan were talking about on that live stream. Outside the courthouse.

So you're waiting for the trial to start. What are the odds that Laura shows up?

Uh, she's not coming. Zero. She did not file for permission from the prosecutor in Maricopa County to come, and she has to do that. She can't leave the state without permission from the prosecutor. Court was going forward whether or not Laura was here, and I did want her to know that we're covering this case. Whether she shows up or not, we're all going to be here. And I think it's important. We've been following this case for how long, Dave? 2 years now.

2 years.

2 years.

And I actually wanted Laura to be there because I wanted Mike to be able to face her and come out victorious. But what's your feeling, assuming she isn't there? She's going to what, just have to drop it? Will she then make an excuse that she didn't want to drop it but she did?

If she doesn't show up today, I have a feeling that the judge will dismiss it.

With regards to the sort of vibes with Mike and Clayton, who was there yesterday, what's, uh, is Mike's family there? How are they feeling? What's the update with that?

Mike's wife is here. She is feeling very frustrated. She said to me yesterday, we have children, real babies at home that need us, and she would just rather not be here. And Laura's wasting everyone's time. Laura's the one who brought this. She needs to show up and fight her case. You can't file something and then decide at the last minute you don't want it. This is where the fight is, Laura. You should have shown up. You wanted it. Where's your evidence? She says she has evidence, so come and make your case in front of Judge Gold.

When we got there that morning, we were all waiting in the hallway. Me, Clayton, Mike, Danielle, and Mike's legal team. Besides us, there were 20 or 30 people packed into the hallway. They were strangers to Mike, but told me they'd been following Justice for Clayton online and came to support Mike in person. And the demographic of supporters was surprisingly diverse. Young people, older people, men and women, The hearing was supposed to start at 9 AM, but 9 AM came and went and the doors didn't open. The group started to become tense. No one knew what was going on. At around 9:30 AM, the bailiff finally opened the doors but only allowed Mike and Omar to enter the courtroom. Everyone looked confused. 10 minutes later, Mike and Omar came back out. Mike was in tears. He went over to Danielle and they left the building. I didn't have a chance to speak with them. Later, Mike explained what happened in his closed-door meeting with the judge.

We walk in and Laura's up on the screen and she was in a car and she's got like just like a laughing smirk on her face like, oh, I got you guys again. So I immediately sat down knowing something was wrong. Because the judge told her to be there in person the day before, and she's up on the screen, confident as can be, with her smirk. And the judge says, "We received some information about an ADA. We are going to be continuing the court date." And they use a lot of other legal jargon in between.

An ADA. Laura filed a formal request for accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's a federal civil rights law that all courts are obliged to comply with.

We asked if we could essentially argue this ADA accommodation, and the judge is like, "No, it's already been processed.

We're going to be pushing court to November 5th." In other words, they all thought it would be over. But by filing for an ADA accommodation request, the deadline was pushed back by another 2 weeks.

I walk out of the courtroom.

I'm—

emotional, I'm crying. And I talked with my wife immediately, and I talked with Clayton, I think, right after that. And Clayton was like the first line of defense. He said, she's just delaying the inevitable. She knows she's going to lose this. You have to stay strong. You cannot give up now. You've come too far. And my attorney said the same thing. And I was just upset with the court system that day and the justice system. I said, I just want to go home and spend time with my family because that's what's going to make me happy right now.

Later, I asked Danielle Maracini about this moment. Like Mike, she'd been expecting this day to finally be the end of Laura's domestic violence restraining order.

It was re-traumatizing, quite frankly, and I thought, we're going to be let down again and she's going to win again. And we will have to deal with the consequences of a permanent restraining order for the rest of our lives.

After Mike and Danielle left the courthouse that day, I sat down with Clayton to process what just happened.

I'm pissed because, you know, I first saw Mike walk out. Of the courtroom and tears in his eyes. And you know where those tears are coming from. It's 6-plus years that this man has had to endure. And I feel for him because I've went through 2 years of my own. And so it is really frustrating because you just want it to be done.

Clayton knows better than anyone else what it feels like to try to prove his innocence against Laura Owens.

Laura thinks she's won today. I don't see that at all as a win. This was another unification of all of us to be together and to further be driven to see this through. I'm like, all she did was light a fire. And if you think that we're all just gonna go, oh, and we lost, and we're gonna all like— no, I, I have a renewed sense of fire. I know everyone that's here has a renewed sense of fire, and we are winning.

Clayton was determined to see this thing through. He'd recently gotten a phone call from one of the state investigators in Arizona. The criminal case against Laura Owens wasn't finished yet.

He had called me and said, look, what Laura doesn't realize is what we found out about her and the things that we have uncovered, the paternity scandal is the least of her worries.

Do you remember when Diana Ross double tapped Lil' Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like Black people? I know what you're thinking, what the hell does George Bush got to do with Lil' Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at It podcast.

I'm Sam Jett and I'm Alex English.

Each episode we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it, including a recent episode with Marc Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the '80s.

To be clear, '84 is big to me not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack all day, but yeah, yeah, but just so y'all know, I mean, at this point, Marc, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

We also have AIDS on the table right now, so thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for Black people.

Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for Black people in American history.

Listen to Look Back at It on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2023, former Bachelor star Clayton Eckard found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct?

I doctored the test once.

It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.

I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

Sunlight's the greatest disinfectant.

They would uncover a disturbing pattern: two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg Gillespie and Michael Marancini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news out of Maricopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona.

Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule 1: never mess with a country girl.

You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And Rule 2: never mess with her friends either.

We always say that, trust your girlfriends.

I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends— oh my God, this is the A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me?

The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands.

I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target.

He's gonna get what he deserves.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:21:10

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a pool of blood.

Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In October 2025, Mike Maraccini and his legal team prepared for an evidentiary hearing on Laura's domestic violence restraining order renewal. This had nothing to do with her criminal case in Arizona. She'd been charged with multiple felonies 5 months prior, but the DVRO renewal was an entirely separate legal matter in another state. After a dramatic back and forth in their first scheduled hearing, Laura filed a disability accommodation request with the San Francisco Superior Court, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's the kind of filing the courts are obligated to take seriously. Here's Mike's attorney, Omar Serrato.

Nobody was expecting an ADA request to supersede everything, but it does. In California, you don't fuck with ADA law. Mike needs to win this on the merits. He cannot have this lost on an ADA violation.

And it pushed the DVRO hearing date back by 2 weeks. You might be wondering what disability Laura claimed to have. We weren't privy to what she said in the closed-door meeting with the judge, but Laura submitted a filing to the court explaining her medical situation. I've had a voice actor read from it.

Attached as Exhibit A is a letter dated October 17th, 2025 from Dr. Colleen Green, a medical provider I have been seeing since September 2024. Dr. Green states that participating in a hearing next week quote, would be life-threatening for her, end quote, because of the combined psychiatric and physical decline. This new evidence, unavailable when the court previously ruled, directly rebuts any assumption that I am capable of safely participating in a contested proceeding at this time. In addition to Dr. Green's findings, my other treating medical providers have diagnosed extreme anorexia following a 50-pound weight loss accompanied by gastrointestinal bleeding. Following multiple episodes of vomiting blood, my treating physicians advised that urgent gastrointestinal testing and specialist evaluation were medically necessary. I was referred for a specialist consultation scheduled for October 22nd, which was the earliest available date for the required procedures. The overlap with the hearing date is entirely unavoidable, as the appointment was made immediately upon referral for a very serious condition. Postponing this appointment could delay essential diagnostics for several weeks and significantly increase the risk of further bleeding, worsening anemia, and medical destabilization.

Translation: The earliest day the doctor could perform a procedure for a life-threatening medical emergency was the very day of trial, October 22nd. The judge issued a continuance, meaning come back in 2 weeks and we'll do this again. So I left San Francisco and flew home. A week later, my phone started blowing up. It was news about Laura. Journalist Megan Fox was doing a YouTube Live when she saw a comment pop up. I'm reading my comments And I see just one little sentence that says she was at a horse show. Megan decided to investigate. It turns out there was an equestrian competition happening in Arizona that very week, the Scottsdale Fall Classic.

I go to the website, the Scottsdale Fall Classic, the website, and I go and immediately I'm looking for the awards. I type in her name. Sure as shit, There she is winning awards after she was supposed to be in court and she said she was bleeding internally and needed a blood transfusion. Excuse me?

Megan and the online community even uncovered footage of Laura Owens competing.

Low children's, low adult hunter.

570 is Barako 91 with Laura Owens, the owner and rider, Scottsdale, Arizona. Laura earned 3 first place finishes and won $150. There's a photo of her on her horse. She has a huge smile on her face and she's draped in a championship ribbon. When the online community saw this, they flew off the handle. Dave Neal made this video about it.

She was actually caught by some of our audience members competing in a horse race this weekend. Why is this interesting? Well, it's interesting because because Laura claims she suffers from PTSD and extreme anorexia and all these other issues, which may or may not be true, I don't know. But if you're really sick, shouldn't you not be on a horse competing?

It was so brazen. When I interviewed Dave, I asked him what he made of Laura competing in the horse show.

I think she just lives on the day-to-day. She's like, let's just get through this court thing and then tomorrow we'll jump horses. And she doesn't even try to hide it.

You can imagine how offensive this was to Mike Maraccini and his wife Danielle. They'd spent thousands of dollars to go to San Francisco for the hearing, booking hotels and arranging overnight childcare for their two daughters, only to have Laura file the ADA request and push the date back another two weeks. Danielle Maraccini was livid.

I can't even put into words the level of anger. I try to steer clear of those emotions because they will rot you from the inside out. But seeing her in those videos, I felt like she was just laughing in my face, like, "Haha, fuck you." Like she was making a mockery of my pain and my husband's pain.

She thinks that she can keep getting away with it and there's no repercussions, and she also thinks we're all too stupid to find out, like, the actual truth.

A week later, Mike was due back at the San Francisco Superior Courthouse. I boarded a flight to meet him there. It felt like déjà vu. Once again, Laura was ordered to be there in person. If she didn't show, it might finally be the end of her restraining order against Mike. When I arrived in San Francisco, the chaos had already begun. Here's Rachel Juárez, one of Mike's attorneys.

I was literally in an Uber on the way to the airport. The emails between Laura and the court started going rapid fire, and Laura started sending emails saying, "I am not coming." I called Omar from the Uber and said, "Should I just turn around and not come?" There was this chaos. That's what she does. She creates chaos.

Earlier that day, the court emailed both parties. They said there was a high likelihood that a court reporter would not be available for their hearing.

Unfortunately, we've been dealing with a court reporter shortage in a lot of the state courts in California for many years. It's really a resource issue.

Laura tried to make this into a bigger deal than it was. Mike's team retained and paid for a court reporter, and the court approved it.

The court just said, "I just want to make it clear that the judge has not continued this.

We're going forward as planned." It looked like the next morning, there would be a hearing, no matter what. That night, they prepared for every possible scenario. Here's Mike's attorney, Rachel.

We kind of tried to keep it a low-key night, not do too much trial prep, But again, we went back to what if the judge says, okay, I'll let her appear by Zoom? What if she Zooms in from the hospital with a doctor there saying she's going into emergency surgery? Do we start getting into the horse show? Do we just let it go? What do we do?

When Omar and Rachel woke up the next morning, Their inbox was full of emails from Laura Owens.

We wake up to an email the next morning from Laura saying, "I actually was coming," even though she had said the prior day she wasn't. "My parents bought me a plane ticket at 7 o'clock last night to come, and I'm in the hospital. I really was coming. I promise, I promise. But now I'm in the hospital and I might have to have a procedure and this and that.

And so now I really obviously cannot come anymore." According to Laura, in a declaration in support of motion to correct and augment the record, in the early morning hours of November 5th, she experienced multiple episodes of vomiting blood. She alleged this was a life-threatening recurrence of prior gastrointestinal bleeding and that she was seeking medical care at a hospital in Arizona.

We get another email at 6:53 AM Laura emailing the court, just letting them know, hey, so unfortunately I've had these two life-threatening medical occurrences. I'm going to be forced to go into the ER and they've scheduled me for a procedure which I will be under anesthesia. So obviously I'm not going to be present for court this morning. I hope the court will take this into consideration and find good cause to continue our proceedings. I didn't respond to that. The court just said, thank you, Laura. We've received what you've sent us.

In that same declaration, Laura said her physicians didn't expect her to be released until the following day, so she wasn't showing up. She'd pulled something like this once already. The question was, would they give her another continuance like they had 2 weeks prior?

And so judge has had now experience with Laura Owens and her ability to lie and conjure up these emergencies and try to delay things, so they're no longer taking her seriously. So me and Rachel were like, there's no fucking way they're going to continue this, right? There can't be.

So again, it kind of turns what is already a stressful trial morning into a total circus.

On the morning of November 5th, the hearing was still on the court docket. Even if Laura didn't show up, the result of the hearing needed to be on the record, and If she didn't show up, there was a good chance the renewal request would be dismissed. The restraining order would be over. But she'd been clinging on to this for almost 10 years. It was her last connection to Mike. Would she really miss this hearing? We all headed to the courthouse that morning as planned. I'd been there 2 weeks ago, and I knew seating would be tight, so I got there on the early side. 7:00 AM. By the time I arrived, there was already a group of supporters gathered outside the courthouse, and the crowd kept growing by the minute. I ended up standing in line with content creator Lauren Knighty.

We're outside the courthouse in San Francisco because Laura's supposed to show up for her DVRO renewal with Mike today, but seems unlikely. It's raining a little bit, so we're just standing out here waiting because it does doesn't open till 8:15, and there was a line last time she, uh, didn't show up, so we weren't sure how early we'd have to get here.

Do you think she's gonna show up today?

No.

Why?

I think that she knows what she's doing, and she's now in a position where there are consequences for these actions for the first time in her life if she were to show up and take the stand and tell her lies. You know, she's very calculated. She knows that she can't show up here today and do what she normally does, or else she might end up in unfamiliar territory like she already is with the criminal trial pending. So I don't think that she's going to do that.

Do you think that it will get dismissed today if she doesn't show up?

Yeah, I do. The judge was pretty clear last time.

The courthouse doors opened, and what happened next felt like an exact repeat of 2 weeks prior. Here's Mike's attorney, Omar.

We get there, it's 9 o'clock, and then it's 9:05, and then it's 9:15, and then it's like 9:20.

Omar started prepping Mike for what might happen once they got in the courtroom.

I was telling Mike, listen to me, you need to prepare yourself for anything, okay? Because for all I know, they're in there with the judge right now going over whatever medical documents that she has that she wants to show the judge. Just ready yourself in the event this is a continuance, not a dismissal. I'm trying to just prep him for that because last time we weren't ready for that.

When the courtroom doors finally opened, Mike looked like he was in good spirits. But he later admitted to me that he had a bad feeling.

We were pretty pessimistic just based off the fact that she was having emergency surgery. My wife and I were convinced that it was going to be continued again. And that Laura was going to get out of it and we were going to have to push the court date another couple of weeks.

We were finally allowed into the courtroom, and within minutes, the hearing got underway. Due to the nature of the case, audio recording is not allowed in the courtroom, but I wish it was because I want you to hear what happened next.

Judge calls us in. I think it was about 9:30-ish or so. She makes a comment right away, like, well, it's 9:30. Laura Owens is not here. And right when she said this, like, holy shit, we got this, we got this. And then I relaxed. Rachel relaxed.

I immediately tried to look over past Omar to Mike to see if he caught it, because to me, that was the moment when she said, this is going to be quick.

That was the moment where the flip switched for me. I knew that she was going to dismiss it right there.

I was sitting next to Mike's wife, Danielle. When it became clear what was happening, she grabbed my hand.

I kind of blacked out. I remember grabbing your hand and, like, ecstatically shaking it with a clownish smile on my face. And I only got emotional when I saw him. I don't even think Judge Gould had even gotten out, like, this is dismissed. And I could see the tears, like, rolling down his face. And that was the moment that then I, like, burst into tears.

After 2,857 days, Laura's domestic violence restraining order against Mike Maraccini was finally dismissed. As the dismissal was announced, a round of applause broke out in the courtroom. I've seen a lot of hearings and trials. I'd never witnessed anything like that before.

And then we were quickly moved into the hallway, right after clapping and Judge Gould looking at us like we were a bunch of weirdos. Like, what is going on here? But yeah. It's just so much relief and inexplicable joy that we did it.

We did it.

As we exited the courtroom, we all noticed that the weather outside had abruptly shifted. Here's Omar.

It was a cloudy, rainy, cold, windy day in downtown San Francisco. The clouds were hovering. It was gloomy. There was no sunshine. Whatsoever. And we walk out, the sun is beaming through the windows, the clouds have cleared, and like all of the sunshine rays, and everybody's happy in the jubilation. And this time it's tears of joy.

Outside the courthouse, I was able to catch up with Mike and Danielle. I just want you to tell me immediately off the bat what happened in there today.

Laura did not show up. She tried to throw out medical emergencies saying she was having a surgery, and the judge dismissed it. And it is such a relief because coming into today, I truthfully thought the judge was going to continue it, and I thought we were going to be back at square one. And so I just feel really, really— I feel really, really good because This has been such a long time coming. I've been fighting for almost 10 years, and I've had the support of everybody. That's the only reason why I've got— been able to get through this. From my wife to my attorneys to the entire group of supporters, like, I would have never been able to do this without everybody, and I'm so fortunate.

Do you think that she's going to try to appeal this?

100%. She loves this.

Danielle, I want to I want to talk to you for a second. Tell me about how you were feeling last time when we left as compared to this time and what you were feeling in the courtroom.

Last time, a lot of defeat, anger, frustration, hatred. I mean, the whole gamut of the emotional wheel. This time, I feel relief, but I know that we're still gonna be fighting her with appeals, that this isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. I'm confident in this community to continue to push for the truth and what is right. And I know that this group of individuals won't let her get away with this again.

[Speaker:MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG] Relieved to have the day behind them, Mike and Danielle headed home to be with their daughters. I took some time to debrief with Mike's legal team and the content creators who'd made the trip to San Francisco. But before I made it back to my hotel, my phone started buzzing with a FaceTime request. It was from my sister. She never FaceTimes me. We live in the same city. So anxiously, I picked up the call. That's when she told me she was 8 weeks pregnant with her first child. The timing of the news while I was covering this case wasn't lost on me. My sister and I both started crying happy tears. It's a moment I'll never forget, and without me even asking, she showed me her very real sonogram. It's really that easy. The next day, I had an afternoon flight to Phoenix to catch up with Clayton. It was a beautiful morning, and before my flight, I was planning to go take a walk near the Golden Gate Bridge. But those plans got interrupted by a text message from Mike Maraccini. He'd just heard some big news. It wasn't about his case, though. It was an update from the prosecutors in Arizona.

They brought more criminal charges against Laura Owens.

I thought you probably knew before I did, and so I was expecting you to just be like, I already know, but I'm glad that I finally gave you some breaking news.

Do you remember when Diana Ross double tapped Lil' Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like Black people? I know what you're thinking, what the hell does George Bush got to do with Lil' Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at It podcast. I'm Sam I'm Jam J.

And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Marc Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the '80s.

To be clear, '84 was big to me not just 'cause of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but—

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Literally. But just so y'all know.

I mean, at this point, Marc, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

We also have AIDS.

On the table right now.

So— Thank you for finishing that sentence. And yes, I don't think there's a more important year for Black people.

Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for Black people in American history.

Listen to Look Back at It on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2023, former Bachelor star Clayton Eckard found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies inaccuracies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct?

I doctored the test once.

It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.

I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

Sunlight's the greatest disinfectant.

They would uncover a disturbing pattern: two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg Gillespie and Michael Marancini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped.

Laura, Scottsdale Police.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news out of Maricopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona.

Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule 1: never mess with a country girl.

You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And Rule 2: never mess with her friends either.

We always say that, trust your girlfriends.

I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends— oh my God, this is the A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me?

The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands.

I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target.

He's gonna get what he deserves.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[SPEAKING CHINESE] [Speaker:JASON] Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

00:44:42

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a pool of blood.

Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Before I left San Francisco, I got a text from Mike Maraccini. He just heard some breaking news about Laura Owens.

I received a text that she had been indicted with 7 more charges.

The day after the domestic violence restraining order was dismissed, November 6th, 2025, the state of Arizona indicted Laura Michelle Owens on another 7 felony charges, bringing the total to 14.

Yeah, I was riding a high for a solid 48 hours.

Almost immediately, It was being reported on by news outlets and YouTubers like Dave Neal.

I thought it was Groundhog Day. I said, why is everybody sending me old news? I already know she's been indicted. And they said, no, she's indicted on more.

The Scottsdale woman is facing 7 new felony charges in addition to the 7 she was indicted on back in May. She is facing 14 felony charges in total for 2 cases. Maricopa County Attorney's Office says Owens falsely claimed she was pregnant by someone who she went on 3 dates with back in 2021.

This thing just gets stranger and stranger.

The first batch of charges were all related to Clayton, but as the Maricopa County Attorney's Office investigated his case, they uncovered evidence of more potential criminal behavior. The new 7 felony counts are all tied to Laura's brief relationship with Greg Gillespie. Remember, Greg is the man she met in 2021 in Scottsdale. You heard about him in episode 5. After a few dates and hookups, Laura claimed to be pregnant with twins. Shortly after, she brought an abortion coercion case against Greg. Some of these new indictments are similar to Clayton's—perjury, forgery, fraudulent schemes and artifices—but a few reveal new information. And even identify another victim of Laura's. There are two class 4 felony charges related to a sonogram image Laura sent to Greg. Laura said it was her own sonogram, but according to the state, Laura stole it from a woman named Stormy B. Remember that sonogram we talked about with the Fiverr logo?

It says Fiverr.

Oh no!

Oh, hold on. Hold on, hold on. This is why you do it live.

According to the state investigation, a woman named Stormy originally posted that sonogram on her personal blog in 2014. The Maricopa County investigators interviewed Stormy. She told them she started her blog in 2011 to help her cope with grief after a stillbirth. She didn't know anyone outside of her family and friends were viewing the blog until internet detectives reached out to her and told her a woman named Laura Owens was passing the sonogram image off as her own.

The investigator summarized their interview with Stormy, writing, "Stormy said that it's caused anxiety and fear. She fears that people are going to be able to find her. Stormy continued by telling us that by the little things that she's found out about Laura, She's afraid that she's going to be able to find her and hurt her family.

There are another 2 charges related to identity fraud and forgery. It appears Laura forged a medical document assuming the identity of a real physician's assistant at One Medical named Lisa Daniels. In August 2021, Laura sent Greg Gillespie a screenshot allegedly from her One Medical patient portal. It appeared to have a doctor's note on it, signed by Lisa Daniels. We've had this note read by a voice actor.

Hi, Laura. Thank you for coming in today. Based on your physical examination and reviewing your test results, urine and ultrasounds, both from in our office and with outside providers, we can confirm that your pregnancy is viable and consistent with the date you provided of intercourse on June 30th or July 1st. A fetal heartbeat was detected. Since you took medical abortion pills, injury to the fetus is likely, but the extent of the damage is unknown at this point. Please seek care from an obstetrician going forward. I have followed up with Julie Ulrich, NP, regarding the call she had with you and the father of the child on July 16th. She noted that he came off as a potential domestic abuser. And remarked on his seemingly controlling and dominating behavior. She said that she was concerned for your well-being and is happy to testify on your behalf. Please let us know if you require any additional information for your legal case. Best of luck, Lisa.

Maricopa County investigators interviewed the real Lisa Daniels, who told them she did not author this note. The investigators asked if Daniels would be willing to help the prosecution. And she said yes. She also noted that she worried about retaliation from Laura Owens. There's another charge that's a bit cryptic: theft by extortion.

According to the state of Arizona, Laura Michelle Owens knowingly obtained or sought to obtain property or services from Gregory Gillespie by means of a threat to accuse Gregory Gillespie of a crime or bring criminal charges against him.

There are no additional details about this charge, so we don't know exactly what evidence the state gathered. The investigation report we've been quoting included information mostly about the first 7 charges. That means more information could still come out, like evidence from Laura's devices. I asked Clayton what it felt like when he saw Laura charged in not only his case but also Greg's.

Another big old heaping scoop of justice being served, and watching him get all the support online, I love it. This has become larger than me.

At the time I'm recording this, no criminal charges have been brought in regard to Laura's relationship with Mike Maraccini. If she was ever to be charged in his case, it would likely be in California. On December 2nd, 2025, Laura attended a scheduled pretrial hearing on her first 7 charges. The state decided to tack a second arraignment onto that hearing, which we got the audio from. Good morning, Your Honor. Jeffrey Swirsky appearing with Ms. Owens as to both matters. She is present in the courtroom.

Ms. Owens, can I get your name and date of birth, please?

Laura Owens. In this hearing, Laura has a new criminal defense attorney. 2 months earlier, Laura applied for indigency status, which means she was claiming she lacked the financial resources and needed court-appointed assistance. And the state granted it. With the additional 7 indictments, her previous criminal attorney withdrew. That's how Laura Owens ended up being represented by a public defender, Jeffrey Swirsky.

There has been a supervening indictment filed. I provided a copy to Mr. Mr. Swirsky, did you have the opportunity to review that with your client? Yes, I did, Your Honor. Did you want me to conduct a not guilty arraignment today on her behalf? Good, Your Honor. All right. Um, do you waive a reading of the charges and her rights?

Yes, we will waive formal reading and enter a plea of not guilty as to all charges.

All right. Um, we'll enter a plea of not guilty on her behalf.

Laura entered a plea of not guilty for the 7 additional felony charges. Felony charges. Mr.

Swirsky, since I have you here, have you received disclosure?

Uh, yes, in the last week I have received approximately 6,000 pages of disclosure and 16 body cam recordings.

All right, thank you.

We're in recess in this matter.

All 14 charges have been rolled into one case against Laura Owens. At this time, Laura's pled not guilty to all of the charges. So like we said in the last episode, Laura's faced with two options: either go to trial or change her plea to guilty. The whole time, Laura still owed Clayton nearly $200,000 for attorney's fees. That was by order of the Family Trial Court, the Arizona Court of Appeals, and the Arizona Supreme Court. As time passes, That number is collecting interest. I asked Greg Woodnick what usually happens in situations like these.

Most people have jobs, and so it's a little bit easier to collect when you have a judgment because what you do is you get a wage assignment order, a writ of garnishment. Essentially, that's an order that gets sent to someone's employer, Taco Bell, whoever they're working for. And that employer, before they issue a paycheck to Laura, would take part of that paycheck and it would essentially get routed to the judgment creditor, in this case Clayton. But Laura didn't have a job, so he didn't have any place to issue a wage assignment order.

This is where we need to get technical. Because of the money Laura owed Clayton, Greg Woodnick scheduled something called a judgment debtor's exam. It's basically a deposition, but all related to Laura's finances. I asked Woodnick to explain how judgment debtor's exams usually work.

It's kind of a fishing expedition. You're looking for assets or things that you can collect via the judgment. Maybe someone has a boat or a car or something that is not excluded from collection that you could, in theory, use to pay the debt of the debtor.

In this case, Laura owed Clayton money. Woodnick planned to ask Laura about her assets like property, cars, horses, even LLCs.

Obviously, my team had prepared for the judgment debtor's exam. Gathered questions, things that I wanted to know about her financial situation to determine if there was an avenue to collect for Clayton's judgments. On the eve of the judgment debtor's exam in Maricopa County Superior Court, we received notice that she had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Chapter 7 is basically a fast-track bankruptcy. Think of it like a request for a fresh start. If it's granted, you might lose some non-essential assets, but your debt is wiped out and you have a badly bruised credit score. As soon as Laura filed for bankruptcy, all debt collection proceedings halted. Before they could resume, Laura would have to appear in federal court for bankruptcy.

My team was pretty disappointed when she filed the Chapter 7 bankruptcy. We'd prepared to ask her questions about her assets and try to figure out if there was a way for Clayton to get paid because he deserved to get paid. He had 3 judgments. But our disappointment changed because as soon as the federal government got involved, it was a whole new show. They were running the show and they were doing their own inquiry regarding Laura's assets and her transparency.

She opened a Pandora's box. Instead of doing a judgment debtor's exam with Greg Woodnick, Laura had now opened up her finances to a federal court, and a notoriously unforgiving one at that. All right, this is a call on the Laura Owens case, case 25-11801. Debtor is present. In January 2026, Laura was ordered to appear at a meeting of creditors. It's kind of like a mini deposition. Anyone who she owes money can join this call to ask Laura about her finances. And she owed a lot of people money. We have a lot of interested parties in the meeting, but as far as I know, we're only going to have one ask any questions. So I'm going to go ahead and swear you in, Ms. Owens. Obviously, her biggest creditor was Clayton Eckard.

Marcus Reisinger appearing on behalf of Clayton Eckard, a creditor in this matter, and I'd like to ask a few questions.

Marcus is an associate at Woodnick Law. He started by asking Laura about her income.

And page 2 of that statement asked, did you have any income during this year or the 2 previous calendar years? Why did you answer no?

Um, because I personally do I do not have any income and have not for the last 2 years.

Uh, did you testify in June of 2024 that you had approximately $200,000 a year— per year of income with your business partner?

With my mother, and that's all gone directly to the LLC. Nothing's been paid to me personally.

One of those LLCs is the Owens family's horse flipping business. Marcus asked her if they had any valuable assets. Like horses, for example. I have no assets.

I know what you guys are getting at. I have literally zero assets.

I'm just asking some questions so I can understand your state. Do you—

I don't, I don't have one. As you know, this case is definitely my ability to make any income. I have none. And I truly believe you guys are trying to embarrass me by trying to make that point.

Again, I'm not trying to embarrass you. All I'm doing is asking questions to to understand your bankruptcy estate.

Despite her emotionality, Marcus continues questioning her about her bankruptcy filing. She claimed she didn't have any assets or any current income, but this contradicted a sworn testimony Laura gave the year prior.

Last question, your testimony is that you have not had any income in the past 2 years? No, I have not. And you understand that you're under oath?

Tell me where the money is then. I haven't made any money.

The only reason I'm asking is because you did testify numerous occasions in 2024 that you had income at that time.

Is that correct? That I had businesses with my mom. Okay.

And that was less than 2 years ago, correct?

That I had businesses with my mom. My expenses have been paid for for living by my parents. That's what I've gotten in exchange.

I want to play you a clip from Wudnick's 2024 deposition with Laura. It's the same deposition you heard in episode 6. What is your current employment?

Um, I do a lot of things. Um, I have a podcast, I buy and sell horses, and I have, um, real estate investing.

Company. Do you earn income as a W-2 employee anywhere? I do not. Um, let's talk about the podcast first. What's the name of the podcast and what is the theme of that podcast?

Self-help, self-improvement.

Are you the owner of the podcast? And that may not be a good question, so if you don't answer it, I'll take another shot at it.

I'm, I guess, co-owner of it. I know where you're— yeah, I know what you mean.

Who's the other co-owner, if there's another person? My mom. Are you making money with the podcast? Yes. Uh, how much money are you earning annually from the podcast?

Um, the podcast last year made $83,000, and so I had half of that because the other half went to your mom.

Yeah. And when you say $83,000, that was after business costs?

No, that was before business costs, but we don't really have many business costs. So you've got the podcast.

You also mentioned you've got something with horses. What is that?

It's a business buying and selling horses, um, show horses.

Yeah. How much money did you make in 2023 with the horse business?

$144,000. And that's also split into— I have that business with my mom.

So the podcast is half-owned with your mom and the horse business?

Yeah. If she She told the truth in the deposition, that's an annual income of $227,000. Even split with her mom, that's still $113,000 a year. Now that Laura was in bankruptcy court, all of her previous sworn statements came under scrutiny. There appeared to be some inconsistencies. After the first meeting of creditors, Laura's bankruptcy case was referred to the United States Department of Justice. Here's Woodnick.

My understanding is that the Department of Justice has a function that I think most people don't realize. Amongst all the other important things they do in the government, I think they serve as a watchdog function over the bankruptcy process. So I think someone must have notified them. Certainly wasn't my office, but someone notified them that Laura's bankruptcy had some red flags, and then they conducted their own investigation.

I got a copy of Laura's bankruptcy filing. Her debts tell a story of their own. Aside from what she owes on her car and to Clayton, she claims to owe nearly $50,000 to over 20 creditors. That amount includes medical and veterinary debt, credit card accounts, and buy now pay later accounts. Laura also has a car payment for a car that she obtained in December of 2024 and discloses ownership of 4 LLCs. In bankruptcy filings, you also need to disclose your monthly expenses. Laura claims to spend $1,800 a month in food and housekeeping supplies. That's more than most people's rent, and that's just part of her total expenses of $3,300 a month. But as you heard in her bankruptcy filing, Laura listed her income as $0. When the DOJ got involved, Laura was forced to answer some tough questions. This is a call in the Owens case, Laura Owens, case 25-11801. Laura Owens was back under oath on February 9th, 2026. So, Ms.

Owens, I'm an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Trustee's Office, and we oversee these bankruptcy cases sort of as a watchdog. Um, and I had gone through your bankruptcy documents, and I just want to ask you some questions.

The DOJ attorney, Ms. Jennifer Giamo, launches straight into some questions that the DOJ wanted answers to.

So on Schedule I, it indicates that you have zero income, so no income from wages or operating a business, correct? Correct. And so for what time period were you stating that you had no income for?

Um, I mean, I haven't ever in my life had like a 1099 or W-2 job, um, but I've, you know, really been supported by my, my family.

So never in your life have you received a 1099 or a W-2 from any business, including your own businesses? Correct. Never. Have you ever received any kind of, um, tax form like like a Schedule K-1 that indicates that you have a certain share of earnings from a partnership or an interest in an entity?

No, I know that the LLC, my family's LLC business taxes are filed on a Schedule C. Yeah, that's all I know.

In this recording, you can hear the repeated notifications as new creditors join the Zoom call. But just like in Mike's DVRO renewal hearing, her former attorney David Jingras is on this call as a, quote, "witness." Laura tries to turn to him for guidance.

Maybe David could offer some clarification because he helped me, um, answer that question. David? Well, let me just pipe in here.

Either Mr. Gringas represents you or he does not. So I'm not comfortable with having Mr. Gringas step in as your counsel. Correct. So, you know, if he's not your counsel here, unfortunately, no, he cannot be advising you on how to answer that.

One of the debts Ms. Giamo asks about is something called CherryTech. It's a buy now, pay later lender for medical services. If you remember in the investigation report, the state alleges that Laura purchased HCG from a shit med spa, and shit med spa accepts CherryTech as a financing option.

And I see that in your schedules you've listed debt to CherryTech, and that's a lender for shit med spa, correct?

CherryTech is a lender that I use. Used for Botox and for, um, like a skin firming treatment that I got. I don't, I don't know if they're with— but that's, that's not what I used it for. It was, um, CoolSculpting was the one I used it for. I would provide the place, the, the name of the place that did that as well.

Okay, so you never obtained any loans from CherryTech, um, based on services or that you purchased from Med Spa? Not that I'm aware of.

I mean, I've gone to a lot of places for Botox and procedures, but that— that's not where I think I did anything for Cherry.

Okay. Ms. Giamo asked Laura the obvious question. If she doesn't have a job, how does she afford to live?

You added a line item, um, on 8H for family support for food and living expenses, and you put zero. So was that a mistake? Do you receive any kind of family support to pay your expenses, your monthly expenses?

Um, they just paid them out of their money. I don't, um, like, out of my, my parents' pension and Social Security, they don't give me money to pay that. They pay it directly.

So what are they paying directly when you said they pay it?

Um, well, I live on their property, so I mean, you could technically say they're paying, you know, housing and for my food. Okay. What about your car payments? Um, we share a car. They pay— they pay for my car.

Okay, so they directly— because, well, you, you are the sole owner of the—

I'm the sole owner, but they're paying for it right now because I can't afford to make the payment.

Okay, and I'm assuming your parents also pay your car insurance? Uh, yes. Okay, so you don't pay any bills for yourself? No. And you say that you've never— are you saying that you've never earned any income on your own ever? Correct.

Okay, how old are you? I'm 35.

So 35 years you have not never had made any income on your own to pay your own bills?

I mean, like I said, I've been the face of my parents' businesses, so they've, you know, paid my living expenses in exchange for me, um, helping them.

Okay, so that's kind of a compensation for your services then.

Um, I mean, they— yeah, I mean, I, I don't take advantage of it, but But, um—

Well, you're providing them with services and they're compensating you by paying your bills is what you just said, right?

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Well, then you better figure out how you're gonna wanna disclose that in these schedules because that is a form of compensation.

Laura claimed that her parents paid for her life. But here's what's interesting. 4 months earlier, Ron Owens and Jan Black also filed for bankruptcy. There's one particular online detective who's been looking into this part of the story, Tiffany Robertson, who goes by Big Tiff Dog on social media. She recently retired from a career in the financial services industry and joined the online community investigating Laura Owens.

Everybody kept saying, trust fund baby, she was a trust fund baby. And I started thinking, AM radio host, okay. Well, he's not Howard Stern, right? I'm not sure that she's a trust fund baby. And just on a whim, decided to start looking into using my skill set to look into the family a little deeper. And I think I even shocked myself with what I found.

Ron Owens and Jan Black filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on August 14th, 2025. Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows people to keep their home while catching up on missed payments. Through a court-appointed repayment plan. Ron and Jan were severely behind on their mortgage payments, and one of their credit card companies had filed a lawsuit over delinquent accounts. Laura's parents agreed to the court-ordered payment plan and made the first payment. But after that, it appears they failed to continue.

The mortgage problem they have is that they have two mortgages on their home that they cannot afford. I think it's $14,000 $1,232 total. But that's a lot of money going out each month, even when you make $21,000 a month.

$21,000 a month. That's what Ron and Jan declared as their monthly income on their bankruptcy filing. They alleged that this income is a combination of their pensions and Social Security, with $0 coming in from 3 LLCs. But because they didn't didn't file their income tax returns and they didn't keep up with their payment plan, their bankruptcy claim was dismissed in January 2026. That means the filing was dismissed, not the debts, which is not good news for Ron and Jan. They will have to start paying all of their previously paused debts, including their mortgage. Tiffany explains.

Approximately one month after Ron and Jan's bankruptcy was dismissed for lack of compliance, Their first mortgage company filed a notice of trustee sale, and that's, that's essentially a notice of foreclosure action. They are going to put the property up for auction.

At the time I'm recording this, the Owens family home is in foreclosure. It's scheduled to be sold in a public auction on May 26th, 2026, on the steps of the Maricopa County Courthouse.

What we see with Ron and Jan repetitively over time, and I'm going back decades because that's how far I've gone back into their mortgage history. At least we see what appears to be spending habits that make no sense whatsoever.

Before Ron and Jan filed for bankruptcy, they added their oldest daughter, Sarah, and her husband Christian to the deed and mortgages on the Scottsdale house. Now that the home is in foreclosure, Sarah and Christian are on the hook for any outstanding debt on the home. As for Laura's bankruptcy case, in April 2026, all parties agreed to dismiss her filing. It's not clear why. A dismissal agreement does not automatically discontinue any investigations by the DOJ. It just ends the bankruptcy case and forbids her from filing again within a year. Like with her parents, That means she currently owes all of her debts. But the two meetings of creditors where she testified under oath, those can be used in her upcoming criminal proceedings. Because her bankruptcy filing was dismissed, Laura still owes Clayton around $200,000. I went back to Greg Woodnick to ask him what happens next in a situation like this. Most people have jobs.

That's the easiest and most common way to collect on an obligation. But to my knowledge, Laura does not seem to have regular employment. Pursuing any of the other assets is difficult and maybe impossible depending on how things are structured and buried in different LLCs and whatnot. Clayton's not interested in elderly horses, and I don't know what other assets she has. Clayton is interested in having the 3 judgments paid, and it may be very difficult, if not impossible, for that to happen.

Yeah.

In April 2026, after Laura's bankruptcy was dismissed, her former attorney David Gingras posted a video on his blog. It's just Gingras this time, no Laura.

A lot of people don't realize this, but when you file bankruptcy, or whether you do or don't file bankruptcy, courts cannot make people pay money they don't have. In America, we used to have, I think, I don't even know the history of it, but I think in England, other countries, they had something called debtor's prisons. So if you incurred a debt and you refused to pay it, even if you just didn't have the money because you're broke, they would throw you in jail and basically make you work off your debt. We don't have debtor's prisons in America. If you are ordered to pay $1 billion to somebody in damages and if you don't have the money, you're never going to have to pay it. They don't put you in jail. There's no consequence for being broke. So Laura is not going to be paying Clayton anything as a result of her bankruptcy being dismissed. She doesn't have the money to pay him. He's welcome to go chasing after that. He tried to already, so, uh, what can you do? Nothing.

Clayton hasn't let it go. He's still holding out hope that he'll get the court-ordered repayment from Laura Owens. But this isn't the end of the story. There's one more twist. All new tonight, Laura Owens could take a plea deal instead of going to trial. 35-year-old Laura Owens back in court, this time discussing a possible plea deal on the table. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office won't discuss the terms of that plea deal with us, but during a pretrial conference this morning, Owens' attorney confirmed a plea deal has been extended. In February 2026, the state of Arizona offered Laura Owens a plea deal for the 14 felonies. Accepting the plea would likely mean a more lenient sentence. Sentence if she admits to guilt on at least some of the charges. The exact terms of the plea aren't public, but I called Clayton to see what he's able to share.

As a victim, I have been told what the plea is. And without saying too much, I'll just tell you that I'm not happy with it. For me, what I want to see is Laura face prison time.

It leaves one huge question huge question hanging in the air. Will Laura take responsibility or head to trial and fight to prove her innocence? We've caught you up to the biggest cliffhanger in this entire story, and it's happening in real time because that plea deal, it's currently set to expire the same day this episode comes out, Thursday, April 30th.

So with that, I wait, we wait, and judgment time is coming. But as far as what happens to Laura, only time will tell.

It seems like a black and white decision, but I've been following this story long enough to know somehow Laura always tries to find a way out. We'll let you know what happens on the next and final episode of Love Trapped. I— 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 5-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@gmail.com. That's lovetrappedpod@gmail.com. Love Trapped is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeartPodcasts. This show was executive produced by Nancy Glass, Andrea Gunning, and Ben Federman. 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 Ganz. Our production manager is Kristin Malkieri. For iHeartPodcasts, Ally Perry was our executive producer. Audio editing and mastering by Anna McClain. Additional editing support by Tanner Robbins. And Matt Del Vecchio.

Thank you to our voice actors, Leslie Tolley, Todd Ganz, and Olivia Hewitt. This podcast was developed in collaboration with Danny Passman and Lev Abramov at Crybaby Media. The Love Trapped theme is composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by MIB Music. A special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, Jessica Krainczek, Ally Kanter, and the entire iHeart Podcast team. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the Look Back at It podcast.

1979, that was a big moment for me.

'84 was big to me.

I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick a year unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors like Marc Lamont Hill on the '80s. '84 was a wild—

I mean, it was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for Black people.

Listen to Look Back at It on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckard was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms.

Owens, correct? I doctored the test once.

It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini.

My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens' fight finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.

I vowed I will be his last target.

He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that Trust your girlfriends. Listen to The Girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I got you.

I got you.

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. Then there was a pool of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeartRadio podcast.

Guaranteed human.