“Would you, would you, would you let me… Will you let me see your kids naked?” – Jared Fogle in a recorded phone call to journalist and informant Rochelle Herman-Walrond, whose children were 10 and 11 at the time.
There have always been two Jared Fogles.
It’s impossible to determine when Subway’s slimmed-down spokesman first began using his money and fame to indulge his twisted desires. What is certain, however, is that by the time of his 2015 arrest, Jared Fogle had lived a Jekyll-and-Hyde existence for most of his life. The ability to present a facade wholly opposite his true self had been an integral part of his personality since childhood. When classmates bullied and ostracized him at school because of his weight, he pretended it didn’t bother him while anesthetizing his pain with food. Later, he carried that duality with him into adulthood. When in character as “Jared from Subway ” he was careful to appear humble, kind, non-threatening, and above all, concerned for children. Only after the crowds had gone and the cameras stopped rolling did the predator reveal himself.
In retrospect, there were clues to his depravity all along. They were small at first, easily overlooked details and patterns of behavior that would become clear only with the benefit of hindsight, then too big to ignore.
Jared married his first wife, Elizabeth Christie, in 2001. At that point, he had been thin for only a few years, and the Subway money was just starting to roll in. Consequently, his sexual history was almost certainly quite limited, and it would have been perfectly reasonable for his then-wife to assume any problems with intimacy were due to a combination of self-consciousness and inexperience. Regardless, their relationship was troubled, and Elizabeth fled their Indianapolis home after only five years. In her divorce petition, she stated the marriage was “irretrievably broken.” She also sought a restraining order against her estranged husband, which the court granted. Although Elizabeth has never publicly discussed her ex-husband, an unnamed source later told media outlets he “became controlling and had a mean streak in him.” The divorce was finalized in 2007.
Meanwhile, Jared kept himself busy promoting the Subway subsistence diet. Even after medical experts determined the plan resulted in 1,000 calories or less per day, meeting the clinical definition of starvation, the fast food giant continued pushing it – and him – to the public. What Subway executives didn’t know, or perhaps what they pretended not to know, was that by doing so, they were complicit in far worse things than attempting to convince millions of people to adopt an unhealthy and unsustainable lifestyle.
Studies have shown that pedophiles often seek out people and opportunities that allow them access to kids. In that respect, Jared Fogle was no different. Around the time Elizabeth, who happened to be a pediatric nurse, left him, Fogle began spending more time and energy on the Jared Foundation, a supposedly-charitable organization he created in 2004. Its stated goal was to fight childhood obesity, and in cooperation with Subway, it brought Fogle into hundreds of elementary schools a year. Under the guise of discussing physical fitness, he gained access to thousands of children, sometimes one-on-one.
And it was through these same appearances that Jared would meet the two people who would change his life in dramatically different ways. Forever.
(Please return in a few days for the next infamous installment
of the Jared Fogle story. Sadly, I cannot state precisely which day
because I suck at time management.
Thanks again for stopping by.)
By 2015, Jared Fogle was riding high. Not only was he worth a reported $15 million, but he’d also managed to accomplish quite a lot for a man without any obvious talent. After starving himself thin, he’d also appeared in hundreds of commercials, toured the country as a motivational speaker, helped carry the Olympic torch through his home state of Indiana, written both an autobiography and a children’s book, appeared in some truly terrible movies, and even created a non-profit to fight childhood obesity – all of which helped him achieve what he really wanted: access to minors. And he owed it all to Subway.
The fast food franchise was founded in 1965 by 17-year-old Fred DeLuca and his family friend Dr. Peter Buck, a nuclear engineer. Starting with an investment of $1000 from Buck and the modest goal of funding DeLuca’s college tuition, they opened their first store in Bridgeport, Connecticut, under the name Pete’s Super Submarines. Customers were not impressed.
The duo’s sales were as flat as their sandwiches when, according to DeLuca, they hit upon the idea of opening a second store in Wallingford to “create the illusion of success.” That store also underperformed, but surprisingly, the deception behind it worked. Within nine years, the partners were selling franchise licenses all over the state under a new name: Subway. Their startup costs were relatively low compared to competitors like McDonald’s or Burger King, which fueled the chain’s explosive growth. By 1987 over 1000 Subway shops were spread across the globe, making DeLuca and Buck multimillionaires. In 1997, they opened an additional 1100 outlets in the US alone. Still, it wasn’t enough.
Enter Jared Fogle.
Around this time, the morbidly obese IU student decided to lose weight. His apartment was literally ten steps from a Subway store, and one day it belatedly occurred to him that low-cal subs without cheese or mayo would be an easy way to change his 10,000-calorie-a-day diet. After somehow summoning the willpower to endure an entire year of shitty subs, food understandably lost its allure for Fogle, and he eventually lost an incredible 245 pounds.
A Chicago-area Subway owner read about Fogle’s success in a 1999 Men’s Health article called “Stupid Diets… That Work!” He brought the story to the attention of the company’s regional advertising agency, and they quickly decided to shoot a test commercial with the Hoosier hebephile.
Jared Fogle’s first Subway commercial aired on January 1, 2001. His life – and the fate of his future victims – was about to change forever.
(Please return Friday Monday for Part 3 in this sickening saga.
In the meantime, feel free to check out any of our other,
equally-disturbing articles.
A Greenfield man who police say beat his own uncle to death with a hammer has been formally charged with murder.
On February 16th, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of a dead person at the residence 39-year-old Daniel James Smith shared with his mother and uncle. When investigators arrived at the home, they were directed by Smith’s mother to an unresponsive male in the living room. The man had severe facial trauma and was not breathing, but Smith’s mother was able to identify him as her half-brother, Freddie Patterson, 69. She then told officers her son, Daniel Smith, was also in the house.
Upon further questioning, the female resident stated she went to bed around 9 pm but was later awakened by banging. When she got up to find the source of the noise, her son brushed past her on his way to the bathroom, and she thought he had something in his hand like “Jell-O or blood with fruit in it.” She called out to her brother, but there was no answer. She then found him in a chair in the living room, mutilated. The woman also stated her brother and son “did not have a good relationship.”
Smith was arrested without incident. Once in custody, he made various statements to authorities concerning a cult, illegal products, and the Chinese Mafia. He then claimed his uncle was molesting a minor, which made Smith feel “angry and discussed.” Smith admitted to drinking a six pack of beer and moonshine shots in the hours before the murder but claimed he had been programmed by a brain implant to attack Patterson. Informed of the victim’s death, Smith first offered to donate a portion of his own brain to help him, but then told investigators “he was not really sure” if the man he allegedly killed was Patterson.
Smith has pled not guilty to an initial charge of murder. He is currently being held in the Hancock County jail without bond.
An Indiana man was arrested over the weekend after inquiring at a local business about his lost meth.
Christian Horton, proud citizen of Madison and an early frontrunner for 2023’s Criminal Mastermind of the Year Award, allegedly misplaced his bag of methamphetamine last Saturday. Later that same day, an employee of a local business whose bathroom Horton had patronized found the drugs and called police.
That’s where the matter probably would have ended, if Horton weren’t a complete and total idiot.
The twenty-seven year old apparently decided to retrace his steps in search of his stash and soon returned to the unnamed business – where he was caught on security cameras asking if anyone had, perhaps, turned in his crank to the Lost and Found.
Police caught up with Horton via a traffic stop the next day. He was in possession of more meth at the time of his arrest.
Horton’s initial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Authorities are asking for the public’s help to identify the people who maliciously shot the caretaker of a Union County property.
According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the incident occurred in the early morning hours of Friday, January 6th, when the caretaker found four hunters illegally hunting on private property. An argument ensued, which led to the caretaker receiving a single non-life threatening gunshot wound.
Other details are scarce due to DNR officers withholding key information – such as the exact location of the property, its owner, and the caretaker’s identity – in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
Anyone with information concerning this case or the possible identities of the hunters should call Conservation Officer Central Dispatch @ 812-837-9536, or leave an anonymous tip at 800-TIP-IDNR (800-847-4367).
A woman was arrested yesterday after police say she abducted a child from an Indiana elementary school.
According to a statement from Scott County District 1 Superintendent Trevor Jones, the woman who was later identified as Austin resident Brittany Hurtt, 34, gained access to the second-grader by jumping a fence. After snatching the girl from the playground, Hurtt reportedly fled with the child.
The little girl was returned safely, something Jones credits to the quick thinking of both staff and local law enforcement.
“Our staff notified the office, who notified our school resource officer who notified the local police,” Jones said. “And fortunately, we had the student back within minutes. The adult was arrested within minutes. We are very fortunate that the student is physically fine.”
Hurtt – who apparently is not related to the child she abducted – was charged with kidnapping, resisting law enforcement, battery resulting in bodily injury to a public safety official, criminal tresspass, and public nudity.
Superintendent Jones said Hurtt was fully-clothed when she was at the school.
The motive for abducting the child is currently unknown.
A Lawrence County man has been arrested and charged with nine felonies in connection with his father’s murder.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on the evening of December 20th, Lawrence County Central Dispatch received a call requesting a welfare check on 73-year-old Mitchell man Rodney Hays. The caller told police Rodney’s son Shawn, 53, had made some troubling Facebook posts over the past week, including at least one in which he claimed someone had abducted his father and replaced him with an identical robot. The caller then went on to explain that, in a private phone conversation, Shawn said he had shot and mutilated the impersonating automoton.
Deputies went to the home the father and son shared, arriving just as a Chevy pickup pulled away from the house. Due to the nature of their visit, deputies intercepted the truck, preventing it from leaving the scene.
Behind the wheel sat Shawn Hays. A shotgun rested beside him in the passenger seat.
Confronted by police, Shawn became combative and refused to exit the vehicle. When questioned about his father’s whereabouts, he said Rodney was “over there” and made a vague motion toward their residence. “It’s a robot that looks like a human… laying over there,” he said at one point during the exchange. “I had to shoot at it to destroy it.”
While one of the deputies talked to the obviously-disturbed man, distracting him, the other deputy was able to grab the gun out of the truck. A brief struggled ensued before the two officers removed Hays from the pickup then placed him in handcuffs.
A search of the property quickly led to the discovery of Rodney Hays’s lifeless body laid out in his own front yard. He had been shot in the head and chest, his corpse mutilated.
Shawn allegedly admitted to the murder and dismemberment in a later interview. However, he continued to insist he had not harmed his father but, rather, a robotic replica. Police charged him with nine felonies, including murder, aggravated battery, reckless homicide, domestic battery, battery, abuse of a corpse, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, pointing a loaded firearm and obstruction of justice, as well as a misdemeanor of resisting law enforcement.
He is currently in custody at the Lawrence County Jail in Bedford.
Varun Manish Chheda, a senior at Purdue University, was killed in his dorm just after midnight yesterday morning. His roommate has been accused of his murder.
Gji Min “Jimmy” Sha, 22, called police at 12:44 a.m. Wednesday morning to report Chheda’s death. Minutes later, members of the Purdue University Police Department arrived at the first-floor dorm room the students shared in McCutcheon Hall, where they found Chheda’s bloody body. A subsequent autopsy by Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello determined the 20-year-old died of “multiple sharp-force traumatic injuries.”
Sha, an international student from Korea, was taken into custody on a preliminary charge of murder. No motive for the homicide has been released.
Chheda was just ten days away from his 21st birthday when he died.
Video of the 2019 brawl involving three Indiana judges was released this week, once again reminding everyone once that nothing positive can come from being at a White Castle after 3 AM.
According to court testimony, Clark County Circuit Court judges Andrew Adams and Brad Jacobs, as well as Crawford County Circuit Court Judge Sabrina Bell, were visiting Indianapolis in May of that year for a judicial conference. The night before the conference, they decided to have some drinks and to see the sites – namely, the Red Garter strip club. Unfortunately, the booty bar was already closed when they arrived…which is how they wound up at an adjacent White Castle instead.
While a fourth member of their group, Clark County Magistrate William Dawkins, went inside for a sack of sliders, the others waited out on the sidewalk. Security cameras caught the intoxicated trio’s antics as Adams and Jacobs then proceeded to mimic an exotic dance for Bell. Judge Adams even went so far as to flash his Honor’s manboobs. Twice.
Things only went downhill from there.
Alfredo Vazquez (23) and his uncle Brandon Kaiser (41) drove into the White Castle parking lot a moment later. As they passed the judges, one of the men yelled something out the window, which motivated Bell to give them the finger.
Vazquez parked the SUV, and both he and Kaiser exited the vehicle. Words were exchanged. The confrontation abruptly turned physical when, the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications later determined, Judge Adams and Judge Jacobs rushed Kaiser and Vazquez, setting off a 2v2 brawl. The very public fight ended with Kaiser shooting Jacobs two times in the chest and Adams once in the abdomen.
Fortunately, both judges recovered from their extensive injuries. Multiple criminal charges were filed in connection with the melee.
Andrew Adams, the only judge charged and whose blood alcohol content was 0.157 upon his admission to the hospital, pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor battery. He was sentenced to 365 days, with two days credited for jail time served and 363 days suspended. In addition, the Indiana Supreme Court decided he should be suspended without pay for judicial misconduct. He later lost his bid for reelection.
As part of a plea agreement, Alfredo Vazquez pleaded guilty to a single charge of battery. He received 180 days of home detention plus another year on probation for violating his already-existing probation.
Sabrina Bell did not face any criminal repercussions, although she was also suspended without pay. Then, earlier this year in a completely separate event, she was arrested and charged with domestic battery in the presence of a child, a Level 6 felony. The high court suspended her again. Rather than face another ethics probe, Bell agreed to resign, forfeit her law license for 150 days, and to not “seek or accept judicial office in Indiana state courts in the future.”
A grand jury refused to indict Jacobs. He served a suspension for behaving in a way that “discredited the entire Indiana judiciary” then returned to the bench.
Gunman Brandon Kaiser was recently found guilty of four counts of aggravated battery, two counts of battery, battery, and carrying a handgun without a license. He is expected to be sentenced in October.
Indiana Infamy 