The Third Man | EP 8

Hey, everyone. Before we start this episode, I want to let you know that this one includes some graphic descriptions of pregnancy loss, including both abortion and miscarriage. This episode also mentioned suicide and includes allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence. When Clayton Eckered walked into the courtroom for his June tenth trial against Laura Owens, he wasn't alone. The room was packed with supportive family, friends, and dedicated content creators like Dave Neil.

There were fifty people in the courtroom in ten thousand online.

Clayton says having that support actually calmed his nerves.

I wasn't nervous because it's bigger than me.

It was bigger than him. There were two people in the courtroom that day who'd been in Clayton's shoes. They'd been subpoena to test because they'd been through something similar with Laura Owens. The first Greg Gillespie.

Is he in the courtroom today?

Yes, you already know Greg's story, but there was a third man in court supporting Clayton. When Clayton got on the stand, his attorney took a moment to point out the two witnesses.

You're aware that she's filed orders of protection against two other individuals seated in the back of the courtland correct, what's correct?

Yes, they are on the left, Greg Gillespie and Michael Marantini.

Time ran out before Clayton's lawyers could call either witness. But that wasn't the point.

All you need to do is just acknowledge that they exist, because then the judge sees it and goes these guys showed up.

There's three of them. This corrob rates the.

Story that clearly this woman is at fault and she's not going to stop.

As you know, the judge sided with Clayton. She went so far as to recommend that the County Attorney's office review Laura's actions to determine if they warranted criminal charges. It was a win for Clayton and for both of the men who'd come prepared to testify that day. One of them has been working to clear his name for almost a decade, and his story may be the most disturbing of them all.

My name is Mike Marriccini. I dated Laura for a year and a half.

I'm Stephanie Young, and this is love trapped.

There's no way you'd better believe.

I'll be raising Holy Helmas if you ever, ever, ever, ever.

Trastic.

Six years before Laura Owens met Clay and Eckered and four years before she met Greg Gillespie, she was living in San Francisco and was swiping on dating apps, which is how she met Mike Marraccini.

When I think back on what originally made me swipe right, there was a photo of her in like a plaid shirt, jean shorts. She looks like almost like a little country girl, and she looked really cute. You didn't see a lot of that in the Bay Area. Her bio mentioned that she was a big animal lover, which I've always grown up around animals, and that was attractive to me.

So they started messaging and made plans to meet up for a drink.

Our first few dates were actually really fun. We had a lot in common. I actually thought, you know, maybe this individual is a little on the nervous side or timid side, But I gave everybody an opportunity.

Within a few dates, they discovered they had mutual friends. Says he's not a bridge burner. He generally avoids conflict. Every woman he dated he tried to leave on friendly terms.

With That's how I always viewed our relationship as, hey, if it doesn't work out as a loving relationship, maybe we can be friendly with one another, because we did have a lot of similar friend.

Groups back then. Mike and Laura were both in their late twenties. He was dating around, hoping to find the right person to settle down with. During the early days of their relationship, Mike saw a side of Laura we haven't heard much about.

She was really thoughtful. She was always picking up baked goods and bringing him over. She was always just thinking about, you know, fun things to do and what we could possibly do, and then really asking a lot about my family.

But within a few months, that side of Laura was replaced by something else, intense control, guilt trips, broken promises, and constant medical crises.

I know what.

This woman is capable of, and though she might be small and stature, she's got a pattern of behavior that is just diabolical.

In this episode, we're telling Mike Marriccini's story. It's a standout in this case, mostly because he dated her for a year and a half. He knows Laura much better than Clayton or Greg ever did. Mike says their relationship left him with lifelong psychological scars. It also tells us a lot about who Laura Owens is. It answers some of the big questions I've grappled with since I started reporting,

This man says he's been living a nightmare after the woman he dated falsely accused him of fathering twins.

Inside Edition was only able to tell a fraction of the story that we'll be telling, but their coverage was a turning point for Mike. He wasn't hiding anymore. He wanted to tell the truth about what he'd been through with Laura Owens.

According to Michael, after he broke up with Laura Owens, he says, she came up with a news story that he had abused her. That claim totally up ended Michael's life.

When Mike looks back on his relationship with Laura, he can now see some of the early red flags.

On the third day, she said that her father was terminally ill and she wanted him to meet me just in case something was never happened to him.

When Mike was thirteen, his father passed away from lung cancer.

Which she brought up to me that her father was. I said, I would give everything for just one more day with my dad, And I said that.

Really early on, but the idea of meeting Laura's parents intimidated Mike. They were local celebrities, both well known San Francisco radio personalities. Her dad's show, The Ron Owens Report, had been on the air for over thirty years.

They were pretty notorious in the Bay Area.

After their third date, Mike agreed to go to dinner with Laura's parents. This was his introduction to the unique Owen's family dynamic.

When I first met her father, people were coming up to this individual NonStop. Everybody would recognize them right when you would walk in, and they would get like VIP treatment.

Mike noticed that Ron Owens seemed to like the attention.

You had, like major A list celebrities approaching him, and he talked about how close he was with like Bob Sagett's and George Lopez all these big names were coming up to him, wanting to get a photo with him and wanting to hang out with him for the night. I come to our table.

After that night, Laura seemed to be much more attached.

Every evening she would prefer to spend with me rather than do her own thing with friends.

Laura started saying she was in love with him.

I noticed that was like the first initial red flag, considering I'd only known her for a month, and she's just way too into this. She's already throwing out like the love's word, and she's just way too emotionally involved, and I'm just not there.

He started distancing himself, taking longer to reply to her texts, pushing back their next date. You know, the stuff you do when you're getting ready to break up with someone. Then came Mike's twenty ninth birthday. He planned to spend the weekend away with friends. That's where he was when he got the message that changed everything.

I get the text and just positive pregnancy tests. The immediate thoughts are, oh my gosh, how is this possible? Because we had really only had like protected sex.

It's the same thing that happened with Greg and Clayton. Just as Mike began to pull away, Laura sent a photo of a positive pregnancy test.

I immediately thought to myself, Oh my god, my life is over. Not about having a child, but who I'm having a child with. She knew I was falling away. I knew that this person wasn't right for me anymore, and I knew that I didn't want to have a long term relationship with her. So immediately it was a pit in my stomach. I felt sick.

But then he thought about how scared Laura must be and decided to put his own feelings aside. The breakup could wait.

I wanted to support her at the time. I thought she was going to be going through an abortion. It's gonna be really difficult.

Mike made plans to meet with Laura the next day.

She then has us do a meeting with her parents because they want to talk to me.

The four of them sat down together at a restaurant. Mike was on pins and needles.

We're at it's like a little Italian dinner, and I told her family, like, hey, this is just not the right time. Like we don't know each other well enough. We've known each other for two and a half months, like it's it's just not enough time, and they said like, hey, thank you, we respect that you came forward to us.

Whole conversation with her parents felt like a minefield, especially because her dad was sick. Mike offered to go with Laura when she got the abortion. She said she would schedule it as soon as she could. It was settled.

I felt relieved that we were on the same page, and so my expectations were that she would have an abortion based off of the conversation we had with her family.

Soon after, he got a text from Laura's dad. We've had that text read by a voice actor.

Hi, Mike. I was thinking last night that it's been unexpected and wonderful to feel as if I've gained someone like a son. At this point in my life, I feel very blessed. Please always treat Laura, will I know she really does like you.

Mike thought it was a strange message, but Ron was sick with cancer. It made the impending breakup feel even more difficult.

I was like, oh my god, I was just about to split up with her, Like, how do I do that?

That's when Mike made a simple, careless mistake.

So I screenshoted her dad's text because I wanted to send it to my mom and myr and I wrote under the screenshot something along the lines of how am I supposed to break up with her now? But I guess I was in a rush and I was rattled, and I accidentally sent that text in screenshot to Laura directly. Right when I went through. I had like a pit in my stomach.

It's nightmare fuel. He watched Laura's three dots appear, disappear, and appear again, and.

I'll never forget. She responded and said, is that for me? I told her that was not meant for her and it was a wrong text.

In the moment, Laura didn't have a big reaction. She seemed to accept his explanation that it was a simple mistake.

I don't know how I talked to myself out of that.

Mike thought he pulled it off. Crisis averted feeling spared, but he was very wrong.

Me sending the screenshot was the instance that triggered her to try and lock me in.

On July seventh, twenty sixteen, Laura claimed the soonest her doctor could provide an abortion was the following week. The next day, she had a new plan an appointment for July twelfth, but the day before the procedure, Laura texted Mike saying she didn't feel right. Then she sent another text, which we've had read by a voice actor.

I'm not feeling comfortable about tomorrow. I'm feeling very insecure and embarrassed.

Now, she said she still wanted to go through with it, but just needed a few more days to prepare herself. To Mike, this sounded perfectly reasonable. Laura made an appointment at Planned Parenthood for the next week. She wanted to go with her mom, but after her appointment, Laura told Mike the doctor couldn't perform the procedure. She'd need to

I remember her saying that she couldn't get the abortion that day, and I just kind of went with it because one being a man and not wanting to push her to where I was forcing her to do something that she didn't want to do.

Two days after this appointment, Laura sent Mike a text. We've had a voice actor read it. I think it speaks to Laura's motivations.

I went to delete my league in bumble apps. Call me sentimental, but I wanted to screenshot our conversation since it had led to something special between us. So imagine how I felt when I saw you had updated the info section of your profile when I clicked on your name.

Laura must have been checking the dating app where they met to see if Mike was active. The truth was, Mike already had one foot out the door, especially after the text he'd accidentally sent Laura. He assumed she knew what was coming. In his mind, he was just staying for a few weeks while she went through the abortion process. And yes, in the meantime, he dusted off his dating profile.

I added a photo, a new updated photo that I had just recently took and she was very upset.

Mike says he wasn't meeting up with anyone, but just seeing that he was preparing to use the apps again made Laura spiral. Her text continued, I don't really.

Even know what to think or feel. I spent my morning trying to work on seeing if I could expedite the abortion process somehow, because you told me how stressed out you were feeling yesterday and I wanted to help you out. I booked a consultation with a new relationship therapist to work on my trust issues because I didn't feel like you deserved anything but my absolute best, and because your integrity is so important to you. My parents individually called me today to tell me how well you

Mike owned up to it. He admitted he'd updated his profile, explaining that it was a direct result of the issues they'd been through lately. He tried to reassure her, promising he wasn't actually talking to anyone else and apologized for hurting her feelings. The next day, he was slow to respond to her. That was until the evening when she texted saying she might be having a miscarriage. He replied to that right away and helped her triage the situation.

Are you still my partner? Do you want to be with me? I genuinely love you. I hope you feel better. My mom's here trying to determine if it's an emergency or if we should wait and see. I know what signs to look for if it's getting worse, but hopefully no miscarriage. We're on the way to the hospital not doing well. Can you give me a quick call so I can update you. It's actually super important.

When they connected the next morning, Laura told him the pregnancy was okay after all. In fact, she'd found out that she could be pregnant with twins. Through July and into August, Laura claimed she kept trying and failing to get an abortion.

It was always for a different reason of why we had to wait.

But then on August second, she told Mike she just received a surgical abortion at Planned Parenthood. She sent him a document on Planned Parenthood letterhead, stating that she was no longer pregnant. You might think that's the end of it, but it wasn't, because a few days later, Laura claimed the surgical abortion hadn't worked. It's impossible to tell this part of the story in a linear or logical way, because over the next few months, Laura sent Mike a

I left my appointment yesterday being super upset because my doctor won't confirm that the abortion was successful. I'm guessing she can't from a legal standpoint until I get more tests done. It's extremely stressful on me and I just need some support. I'm completely stressed. I took another at home test that was positive today. You are with me tonight, correct. I may have to take a pill. I have a tilted, retroverted uterus, which makes it complete abortion harder apparently, which

Mike was overwhelmed with updates. He didn't understand how any of this could be possible, but at the same time, it never crossed his mind that a person would lie about something this serious.

It was very confusing for me at the time. I remember, in total, she had told me she had two pregnancies and six abortion attempts were made.

In mid August, Laura told him her doctors had a new diagnosis.

She says she had cancer.

Oh vary in cancer. Laura said the doctors wanted to operate immediately.

She was going through this process of saying that she was having are over removed, so I said, like, please send me the doctor's notes. She sent me like some test results with some members saying that she had cancer, and I originally googled it and I said, like, that doesn't make sense.

This began a strange three way communication between Mike, Laura, and Laura's doctor. Laura sent Mike's questions to her doctor through a platform called my Chart, and then Laura sent back the screenshots of the doctor's replies. I've seen these messages. Some of them are mind boggling.

Then she had this doctor since she respond to me and say, no, you're wrong. Laura's right, she definitely has cancer. You need to be a better boyfriend. She's told me that you haven't been supportive and she's going to be needing your support.

This reply, allegedly from Laura's doctor, would become an exhibit in a later domestic violence restraining order case involving Mike and Laura. We'll talk about that case later, but for now, we've had a voice actor read some of the note Laura sent him, which again she claimed was written by her doctor.

Thank you for your email. I am sorry you're going through such a rough time right now and will do my best to help you through it. I read the messages you sent me from your boyfriend and will answer his questions Stage one A is without a doubt, considered to be true cancer and something that we take very seriously. You were correct, Laura, that this cancer is found only in one ovary. He is incorrect in his saying that

This wasn't the physical proof Mike had been expecting.

Why is this so worthy coming from a doctor? They're always so short with me, Like I spend no more than forty five seconds in a doctor's office, and they're kicking me out now.

I need to say something here. You won't be surprised to learn that Mike was later dragged into a legal battle with Laura Owens. When Mike was deposed in twenty eighteen, he didn't include any information about Laura claiming to have cancer. I asked him why he didn't tell the courts about this back then, and Mike told me there were so many claims Laura made during their relationship that he honestly

Be so as you.

Also failed to tell me that in twenty sixteen, doctors Chan and Yee diagnosed you with cancer.

They did not Okay, so as you say here today, you're denying.

That that happened.

I will absolutely deny that that happened.

Interestingly, in her deposition with Greg Woodnick during Clayton's case, Laura mentioned the same doctor named on this note, doctor Chan. And this time she tells the court doctor Chan treated her for potential pre cancer in your.

Medical records, which we're going to talk about as we get to exhibits you mentioned having.

I'm going to butcher this.

I'm sorry, polycystic ovary syndrome.

Correct. Who's your doctor that treats you for that?

That would be nobg y N. But I haven't established regular enough care with an obgyn. But I was treated for the PCOS in San Francisco by.

A provider who is the provider in San Francisco.

I was treated by doctor uh Chan. He is uh uh a kind of called kind of called just for uh He's like a specialized one for fertility. No he's not. He's for cancer. Okay, yeah, for cancer. They thought that I might have pre cancer for for ovarian cancering else but that's I just can't She recalled. The last time you saw a doctor Chan uh maybe twenty sixteen.

At the end of August twenty sixteen, Laura allegedly told Mike Marriccini she had a surgery to remove her right ovary. She texted Michael letter from Sutter Health dated August thirty first, twenty sixteen. It appears to confirm that she had her right ovary surgically removed. This letter would become an exhibit in that same restraining order case we mentioned earlier. Once Laura was back home recovering from the surgery, she reached out to Mike.

Laura had been texting me to please come by, like she just went through a big operation. She was really sad. She needed somebody there to be with her.

As we said earlier, Mike's dad died of cancer when he was a kid. Laura's request for him to come be by her side as she recovered pulled on Mike's heart strings. Despite everything that happened between them, Mike decided to show up for Laura.

So I go over. There's like an ice pack on her head.

But Laura wasn't alone. Her mom, jan Black was with.

Her mom's icing her Laura abdomen.

Immediately the scene felt off to Mike. There was no hospital bracelet, no medication bottles, and as he looked closer, no abdominal swelling, no bruising, no wound at all. He blurted it out.

Where are your lacerations? Like, there's nothing here, there's no bandages, there's nothing. Her mom started to speak, and she's like, Oh, they don't have to do that.

Laura and her mom, Jan explained that the surgery is done through the vagina with no visible external incision.

I said, WHOA, There's no way she's lying about this. No way. Her mom is gaslighting me right now about her daughter having cancer.

During Mike's relationship with Laura, her parents, Ron Owens and Jan Black were major players.

Her mom and dad would always pressure me to try and stand by Laura, like, our daughter is such a good person, Why can't you just make this work. She's going through so much, whether it's physical ailments, abortions, She's doing all these things to try to make your relationship last.

The summer and fall of twenty sixteen had been incredibly chaotic. Laura told him she'd had repeated abortion attempts and complications, and now she was recovering from cancer surgery.

She told me they removed her right ovary and her mom was right there essentially operating at I remember saying to her, I don't get what is happening. I don't know how this is possible.

Mike knew all of this couldn't be accurate. He figured there must be some exaggeration on Laura's part or a game of telephone gone wrong between Laura and her doctors, especially when it came to her cancer diagnosis.

She knows that my dad had passed away from cancer. She knew that my stepfather currently had it. She said that her father had it, and then I just I couldn't even like wrap my head around it that somebody wouldly about having cancer.

Since their third date, Laura had been telling Mike about her father's cancer diagnosis, and to be transparent, we don't have Ron's medical records. We can't say if he did or did not have cancer during this time. What we do know is that almost every time Mike started to pull away from Laura, she told him about a new crisis with her father's health. Here are some of the texts from Laura to Mike read by a voice actor.

Doesn't seem great, but my dad got pulled from the air because they think he may be having a stroke. So dealing with that, I'm in a really bad mood. My dad went to the cardiologist and he said, my dad has to have open heart surgery to replace his valve asap. He got the worst possible news. I think we could have gotten this afternoon.

At the time, Mike believed that Ron's health was declining. He could see it with his own eyes, but Ron was still working full time in radio, hosting his daily talk show. Then in December twenty sixteen, Ron presented Mike with a career opportunity.

Laura's father thought that I had a good radio voice, which I did not.

What Mike didn't have was a background in radio were broadcasting, but he was in the middle of a career transition.

Ad would say to me, are radio stations looking for people to like meet the next generation of individuals. They want somebody who's young, who connects with like the millennials.

Ron took Mike and Laura out to dinner to discuss the possibility with them.

So we're having dinner. Ron's bringing this up to me and Laura then starts really pushing this radio gig. She's like, Okay, I've talked with the station and the station really wants us to talk about like a dating show.

Co Hosting a dating talk show with Laura was the last thing Mike wanted to do. Then Ron mentioned the money.

The contract we're talking about with Laura is like quarter of a million dollars a year, and you don't have to work that much. It's maybe like a couple hours a day.

Having eighteen years of radio experience myself, let me just say these numbers are unheard of. In twenty sixteen, I worked part time as on air radio talent in Chicago. I worked my ass off, picking up every extra shift I could, and I made about twenty grand that year. I had another full time job to supplement my income. All that to say, no one new to the industry is paid a quarter million to get on the mic.

Hey guys, my name is Laura Owens and I am joined by my co host, Mike Marraccini.

Like Feticini, it's kind of a ton.

Twista Marcini, like Fetacini.

That's how you guys need to remember his name. Mike worked in real estate. He knew that radio was not his forte.

I want to be very clear. It was terrible.

Apparently, Ron Owens and his agent thought the pilot was solid gold. Mike wasn't exactly passionate about the radio show idea, but the money on the table was too good to pass up, so.

On the weekend start doing these radio things with Laura. I looked at it as just another revenue string to put myself ahead in life.

This was back before everybody had a podcast. The segments they did never aired on the radio, but they were posted online on the KGO website. That December, Ron and Laura claimed the radio station wanted the duo to fly to Iceland for New Year's Eve to do a boots on the Ground travel episode, all on the station's dime.

I was like, hey, free trip. I don't have to stay with you. I'll have separate rooms. Let's go do this.

In the months since the abortions and cancer surgery, the relationship had drifted apart. I've read Mike's texts with Laura. During this time, he's distancing himself and asking for more verification about her medical claims. Laura didn't handle this well. She started texting Mike grand romantic overtures. We've had a voice actor read one of those texts.

I love you so deeply there aren't words for it. I will go to the end of the earth to make your dreams become reality if you need me to. I will be that reliable of a partner, not being the one you have to worry about all the time. I'm going to be the great Netflix and chill girl hooking up in laningerie glacier, walking, spontaneous New Year's Eve, kissing, supportive, understanding, co dog owner, and eventually wife that you deserve and that is my life's mission that I will paint tomorrow.

Mike responded to that text by saying that all sounds nice. I know what makes you feel better to look ahead, but you need to live in the present while you get help. A few weeks before their trip to Iceland, Mike asked Laura to stop telling people they were dating. Apparently this upset Laura in a huge way. Mike says, she started talking about taking her own life. He encouraged her to get professional help. Then Laura's dad texted Mike

We are desperate to get a hold of her and nothing yet. She said, you are talking. Can you please respond to her? We need her back.

Mike was done being in the middle of this triangle.

He told Laura, we need to have a meeting right now.

He decided to bring a witness so he wasn't alone with Laura. He picked up his sister's boyfriend now his brother in law, and when they arrived at Laura's house, they saw that she'd brought a witness to her.

Dad, Ron does the majority of the talking. He says, why are we here? So I clearly lay out why we're all there.

Over the last nine months, Mike had been on a an emotional rollercoaster pregnancies, abortion's gone wrong, and an alleged cancer diagnosis. Mike didn't know what to believe anymore, so he told Laura and Ron the truth.

I feel like I've been lied to this entire time, and I would like an explanation of why I've been lied to.

Mike's brother in law would sign a witness declaration testifying to what he saw that day. We're not naming him at his request, but that declaration would later become an exhibit in a restraining order case. Here's Mike's brother in law reading from his foreign statement.

During the meeting which your father, Ron Owens dared, mister Owens told Michael and his daughter had a tendency to exaggerate or even flat out make things up.

He remembers being struck by Ron's nonchalance.

He did indicate knowledge of her just being this way and doing this. This was a first rodeo, he'd been down this road before.

At this point, Mike needed to state the obvious. Anything romantic between him and Laura was over.

Laura then is crying because I'm breaking up with her.

Laura became inconsolable. That's when Ron pulled them aside.

He had this kind of smile, a weakened nod moment with Mike to get him to to no doub Laura.

Here's Mike's now brother in law reading another excerpt from his witness declaration.

Laura was complaining of depression and suicidal thoughts at the fear of her relationship with Michael ending, and was very distraught.

Mike's brother in law signaled to him to just focus on getting or calmed down. So Mike said what Laura and Ron wanted him to. He agreed to stay with her for the time being, even though everyone knew it was just delaying the inevitable.

He was doing what and playing nice for a couple of weeks or a month so he can get his daughter in the right state of mind. It wasn't like You're gonna fall in love with my daughter and Mary or Ron was just asking him to give them some time to get her help and get her in a better place before making that step. It was unlike anything I've ever been a part of by a long shot. Laura had this kind of guilty look on her face. I guess is the only way I can describe it.

After they left, Mike says he got a text from Ron Owens a screenshot of that text was later submitted as an exhibit in a restraining order case. Here's the text Ron sent Mike, read by a voice actor.

Please call Laura and promise her anything she wants to keep her alive, and I promised to help you get out of it as soon as she's safe. Please.

Now, this wasn't the only promise Ron had been making Mike over the last nine months. There was the quarter million dollar radio contract and the trip to Iceland, which was already booked and paid for. In the wake of the confrontation, Laura told Mike the Iceland trip was off and she was no longer going.

And I thought I was just going to be going by myself.

But on December thirtieth, when he boarded the Red Eye from San Francisco to Iceland, he realized he'd made a serious miscalculation.

She's sitting right next to me, which is going to be worse.

This flight will later become part of the Laura Owens mythology.

The flight takes off and she immediately starts crying on this Red Eye flight, and it's progressively good. It's much worse and much more hysterical. She's asking me, like, do you forgive me, do you love me? Do you see a future with us? And it would be like the same repeated questions, and I just said, please leave me alone, like we can talk about this at another time. I didn't even expect you to be on this flight and you're here. You just gonna give me some space. That's

The flight was emotionally draining for Mike. He wasn't even prepared for her to show up on the trip let alone sit next to her for six grueling hours. It felt like it would never end, and in a way, it hasn't. We'll come back to this later. By the time they landed in Rekievic on December thirty, twenty sixteen, Mike regretted getting on the flight.

We then arrived and I said, I'm flying back, like there's no point for this trip anymore, like I don't want to be around you, and she says, no, I will fly back, and I was like great.

He went to his room, but the next morning Laura was still there.

She then decides not to leave.

It was New Year's Eve. Laura began begging Mike to spend the evening with her, but Mike had no desire to do that.

Later that night, her father then calls me and says, like, Michael, you guys haven't seen each other at all. Would you please just spend time with her.

Mike had a hard time saying no to Ron. Remember, they were technically there for work, or at least that's what Mike believed. He hadn't made any money from the job yet, but it's true his whole trip had been paid for, so he gave in and eventually agreed to participate in a couple of activities with Laura. Before they left.

I said, okay, we'll do like the last two events together, which was the Blue Lagoon and the Dog's Flooding. I didn't hang out with her much. She wanted to take a photo of the two of us there together for the podcast purposes. She posted the one photo of us to her Instagram, like we were dating. I saw her at Lake Breakfast and I was like, what are you doing? Like we are not together? I'm getting messages from people asking for together, and I was like, we're not together.

After Iceland, Mike didn't see Laura except for when they recorded a radio show. Laura was asking him for a full time commitment to the show, but Mike was skeptical. He hadn't spoken to anyone at the station directly. Instead, Mike's only contacts were Laura, Ron, and somebody who Mike believed to be Ron's agent. Despite Mike's doubts, the supposed success of their first travel episode somehow led to another offer, a trip to Dubai.

They said they had listened to it and was really successful, and they wanted to promote another destination. Spose so that's why they purchased Dubai trip.

Ron really wanted them to take this opportunity, but he felt like it would be unsafe for Laura to go alone.

He was like, but she's going to a country in the Middle East. She definitely needs somebody. Because I don't women very well there. I was like, okay, being a typical wet wipe that I am, I just went with it.

Looking back, Mike can't explain why he went to Dubai. He didn't know how to get out. He'd never been in a situation like this before with anyone, much less with an entire family.

You can't say no to Ron. You definitely don't want to be on his bad side.

Mike said that trip to Dubai was pretty uneventful, and they stayed in different rooms in the same hotel. One thing he said really stood out to me though.

She did try to like solicit me to a sex and I would not have sex with her.

At the tail end of the trip, Mike got bad news from back home. His stepdad, who was like a father to him, had suffered a massive stroke. He'd been placed on a ventilator. As soon as they landed back home, he rushed to be by his stepfather's side.

We go to the hospital and within a couple of hours, they essentially unplunked the ventilator in front of me.

Laura didn't go with Mike, but he told her what was going on.

She saw me like breaking down the airport, but she seemed like very kind in the moment, and she's like, I'm just so sorry. And her family was very kind at the time, like I was very upset with them, and they sent my family flowers and all these other things to try to butter us up. After everything that had transpired.

After the du Bai trip, Mike continued to distance himself from Laura, at least romantically. He also told her he was out of the radio deal.

I was still very friendly with her. I did not want to make enemies of them, and I wanted to be as friendly as possible as I was exiting the relationship. I made it to the point where we would have a coffee every few months, where it would just be like a friendly conversation because I just wanted to keep the peace.

But Laura wouldn't let it go. She continued to push for a relationship. Mike clearly wasn't interested in It got to the point that Mike could only see one way out.

I told her that I was moving out of San Francisco just because she kept trying to press a relationship. And I said like, hey, I'm moving away, like there's going to be no more of this anymore.

To be clear, Mike wasn't planning to move. He just needed a way to get her to stop communicating with him, and for a few months it seemed to work. He thought the whole Laura Owen saga was finally behind him.

That all changed though, the night she met my next girlfriend, and then the tides turned back to chaos with her.

He started dating someone new who happened to live four blocks away from Laura's apartment.

A new restaurant opened up right next to Laura's house that my girlfriend at the time wanted to go and try it.

As they walked into the restaurant, Mike saw something through the front window.

Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see Laura and her friend in this restaurant. We walk in and I look over like lock eyes with Laura and her friend, and I was like, oh shit, she now sees me with this blonde and she knows that this is probably a girl that I'm on a date with. So I turned to my girlfriend and I say, hey, there's somebody in here that I do not want to see. Would you mind if we leave? We can come back

Mike hadn't told his new girlfriend about Laura. Honestly, he didn't know how to explain it or where to start. So they left the restaurant and made plans to come back the following night. There was no way Laura would be there two nights in a but when they showed up the following evening, we go into the.

Restaurant the next night. They walk us to the back of the restaurant and they sit us down at a table, and directly next to us is Laura and her mother.

This time there was no way out.

They stand up and she walks up to us, and her mom walks up and I say, hey, how are you doing? And they introduced themselves to my girlfriend, which then got a response out of my girlfriend to tell them her first name.

The conversation ended there, and Laura and her mom left, but Mike still owed his girlfriend an explanation.

It opens up a whole can of worms of who is that? Why do they approach us like that? Why were they kind of weird?

Mike gave her a simple answer.

That is who I was trying to avoid last night. This is a person that I used to date, and they caused me a lot of pain.

The next day, Mike went over to his girlfriend's place, but when he got there, something was very wrong.

She is like visibly shaking. I was like, what's wrong? It looks like you just saw a ghost. Laura had found her on social media because she gave Laura her first name, and she pulls up these messages from Laura.

Mike stared at the messages in.

Disbelief, and it says, all these really vile things about me, that I took her within inches of her life. I would strangle her, I would beat her, that I ranked her.

After Mike Marriccini ended his relationship with Laura Owens, he ran into her. Mike was with his new girlfriend, found her online and contacted her. Laura told her that Mike had assaulted and raped her during their relationship. I had to ask Mike about these allegations.

I never abused Laura Owens. I can say that with one hundred percent certainty.

But Laura was telling people he had and those messages to his new girlfriend were just the beginning.

The next night is what really took it to the next level. You gotta understand, two nights in a row, I see her, I then deal with my girlfriend at her place on that third night, and on the fourth night, I'm like, I'm gonna give my girlfriend of a little bit of space for me. I'm gonna go out to dinner with my sister.

Mike grabbed dinner with his sister Stephanie that night. He spent the whole time catching her up on the chaos of the last three days.

Michael was terrified. He had always wanted to give her the benefit of doubt, but I think he felt a tremendous ament of shame. He had no peace, He was constantly worried.

He was very depressed.

He wasn't his jovial fun self.

Stephanie couldn't help but worry about her brother. They finished dinner and made their way out of the restaurant. Then Stephanie saw Mike jump.

Laura is standing at the exit of the restaurant.

His sister walked right up to Laura.

My sister essentially says, leave my brother alone. Why are you following us? And in the middle of the street, she goes, you don't know who your brother is.

He was terrified. He went white. He like went to the side and put his head down. I'm the one that got in her face and said, how dare you put my brother through all this trauma? And I am the one that responded to her. Mike did not he knew what he was dealing with. I didn't at the time, which is why I was just as loud as she was. And I will always have a regret responding to her because I think that antagonized her.

The confrontation ended with Laura saying that if she ever saw Mike again, she was going to call the police. Mike couldn't get away from her fast enough. He was spooped in a way he'd never been before.

I've now seen her three out of four nights after not seeing her for a while. I need to be on the offensive here. I just want to make a repolice report because I actually got scared of so I called the police that night. They come and they file a report, and the next day is when it all starts erupting, and that's when she starts utilizing the justice system to take advantage of me.

Once the police notified Laura that Mike had filed the report against her, she responded with the filing of her own.

She filed a restraint uarder against me and said that I had been harassing and stalking her and taking her with the niches of her life. And that's when the next seven years of lawsuits begins.

Mike was thrown into a legal battle similar to what Clayton Eckered and Greg Gillespie would soon go through, except Mike spent nearly a decade fighting it. The whole time he thought he was the only one. That was until twenty twenty two, when a family law attorney in Scottsdale took on an unusual case.

I remember thinking during Greg's case that this would eventually be a lifetime television movie because it was so bizarre.

Attorney Greg Woodnick hadn't seen anything like this before. An allegation of abortion coercion brought by a woman named Laura Owens. While Woodnick was working on Greg's case, Laura sent him a link to a video. It appeared to be Laura herself giving a TED.

Talk TED Talk Who is this person?

In twenty twenty two, Laura gave a TEDx talk titled the Life Saving Power of Kindness from Strangers. Just to be clear, TEDx is the localized version of the program, not the national TED stage. Wouldn't it Click the link to Laura's TEDx talk and watched dumbfounded as she began to tell a story of a plane ride to Iceland gone horribly wrong.

December thirtieth, twenty sixteen, After months of planning a once in a lifetime trip to Iceland, it's finally here. It's finally time to go on flight one sixty two San Francisco to Reraikiyevik. This plane ride should be a time to drift off to sleep and dream about seeing the northern lights, to wonder what it's gonna feel like, to soak in the blue lagoon, to go dog sledding for the first time. Only you can't because of the noise in the background. And no, it's not the roaring of

I'm going to skip ahead a few minutes. Laura continues, speaking from the perspective of a passenger witnessing the incident, a woman who will later become known in the online community as Napkin Lady.

There's a napkin under your cocktail and a pen in your purse. You quickly scribble a nope, you're write, dear girlfriend. I know the Lord had me overhear your conversation to let you know that you are a very beautiful young woman that should have a man that makes you cry with wonderful laughter, not bullying.

The woman who allegedly passed Laura this note is named Karen Ilmberger. Karen later signed a witness declaration corroborating Laura's account of what happened on the flight. I've reached out to Karen several times, but have never received a reply. Here's how her note to Laura concluded.

You are being abused and he will never love you like you deserve. I'm very concerned about you, and I'm praying for you. Run from him. My name is Laura Owens. I was the crying woman in seat twenty two eight.

The tedex Talk continues with Laura describing how she survived domestic violence at the hands of an unnamed ex boyfriend.

We'd had a fairy tale start, and then it came down fast. It seemed like overnight. His charm and compliments turned to criticism. His comments became more and more menacing, until finally the verbal abuse became physical.

Laura's tedex talk went live in January twenty twenty two, nearly five years after her relationship with Mike Maruccini ended. The video is still up on YouTube. It has one hundred and twenty thousand views at least at the time I'm recording this, but the comments have been turned off. The video has been reported numerous times on a platform with over forty four million subscribers. Laura recounted not only being verbally abused, but physically abused.

The first thing he did once we landed in Iceland and got to the hotel. Was asked me to pick a number, not knowing why I picked forty. He said that was how many times he was going to slot me. He did, and then he choked me. The less oxygen I breathed in, the more he smiled.

Attorney Greg Woodnick treated this video like evidence back then, he was working on Greg Gillespie's case, and Laura's TEDx talk raised a question who was the unnamed ex boyfriend.

We obviously immediately scrambled to figure out what the hell she was talking about. That's actually how we found Mike Marraccini.

Would N'tick made some calls and finally got in touch with Mike Marraccini.

I remember getting off the phone with him after I first spoke with him, and I found him to be very guard I think I misread the situation. In hindsight, I think Mike was traumatized.

Before we end this episode, there's one more thing I need to say. Michael Marriccini denies that he ever physically or sexually abused Laura Owens, but that is at odds with Laura's account and her mom's account in a sworn witness declaration from twenty eighteen. Her mom, Jan Black, told the courts quote one morning in or around late May or early June twenty sixteen, Laura came over to our

Wait there's another guy, I was like, who's Clayton?

And that is when we found the Reddit thread.

Point. I saw mm and I was like, are they talking about me?

That laptop included a trove of medical records from years before.

When I think of Mike's laptop, I just think of it like sitting alone in a giant room in a museum with just a spotlight sitting on it.

We hope that justice has served and that this individual is referred to the DA for prosecution so that a future victim doesn't have to go through what we've went through the last few years.

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, email us at Love Trapped Pod at gmail dot com. That's Love Trapped

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