Episode 341:

If You Were Godzilla…

The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos

Georgia

The Strip Search Scam behind the film “Compliance”

Karen

Episode 341: If You Were Godzilla…

This week, Georgia covers the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos and Karen tells the story of the strip search scam behind the film “Compliance.”

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulo

The Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

Other Images:

Jennifer Dulos (New Canaan Police Department via The Cut)

Fotis Dulos mugshot (New Canan Police Department via Daily Mail)

 

"Three years after Connecticut mother Jennifer Dulos dropped her children off at school and vanished, her family members said they "feel immeasurable loss" as they await the prosecution of two people accused of conspiring with her estranged husband in her disappearance.

Dulos disappeared on May 24, 2019, and prosecutors suspect she was killed while in the middle of a custody battle over her five children with her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, who died by suicide after being charged with her murder.

"We feel the immeasurable loss of her person every day; we also delight in her presence and celebrate her spirit as they manifest in her five incredible children," a spokesperson for Jennifer Dulos' family said in a statement released Tuesday. "We are deeply grateful that Jennifer’s children are thriving and her mother, Gloria, is healthy."

PHOTO: Police in Connecticut are looking for Jennifer Dulos, 50, who was last seen on May 24, 2019.

Police in Connecticut are looking for Jennifer Dulos, 50, who was last seen on May 24, 2019.

New Canaan Police Department

The missing-person case garnered national attention when authorities focused on her estranged husband, a wealthy luxury home developer.

In 2017, Jennifer Dulos filed for an emergency order for full custody of their five children, which was denied, court documents show. Jennifer and Fotis Dulos were granted shared custody of the children until the end of the divorce proceedings.

On Jan. 7, 2020, roughly six months after his wife disappeared, Fotis Dulos, 51, was charged with capital murder. His girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and his friend, Kent Mawhinney, an attorney, were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder..."

— Source: ABC News article by Aaron Katersky and Bill Hutchinson

The Strip Search Scam behind the film “Compliance”

The Strip Search Scam behind the film “Compliance” Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Ramez E. Nassif on Unsplash

Other Images: Monochrome portrait Stanley Milgram (via Alamy)

 

"Louise Ogborn was always willing to take on extra shifts at McDonald's in Mount Washington, Ky. Ogborn's mother had health problems and had recently lost her job, so the 18-year-old did whatever she could to help make ends meet.

On April 9, 2004, Ogborn offered to work through the restaurant's evening rush, trying to be helpful and make a few extra dollars.

"I was just going to eat and then clock back in and help until somebody else came along that could help," she said.

But Ogborn couldn't have known that her noble gesture would turn into a terrifying ordeal that she says will haunt her for the rest of her life.

Ogborn was called into assistant manager Donna Summers' cramped office and told that Summers was on the telephone with a police officer.

"She said, 'Here she is. This is the girl you described,'" said Ogborn. "She told me to shut the door."

Summers told Ogborn that the officer on the phone had their store manager on the other line and that he had described her and accused her of stealing a purse from a customer.

"I was like, 'Donna, I've never done anything wrong,'" Ogborn said. "I could never steal -- I could never do anything like that. I don't have it in me."

But inside the back office, which had now become an "interrogation room," Ogborn's protests fell on deaf ears.

"She said, 'Well, they said it was a little girl that looked like you in a McDonald's uniform, so it had to be you.'"

It was Ogborn's word against the accusation of a man claiming to be a cop, and she was given a choice: submit to a search or be escorted to the police station.

Ogborn was told to empty her pockets and surrender her car keys and cell phone, which she did. Then the caller demanded that Summers have Ogborn remove her clothes -- even her underwear -- leaving her with just a small, dirty apron to cover her naked body.

Summers says she never second-guessed what she was being asked to do, as she firmly believed the person she was talking to was a police officer. Ogborn says she trusted her manager to do what was right.

Because it was a busy Friday night, Summers had to leave the office to check on the restaurant. The man on the phone demanded that another employee be left to watch Ogborn until the police arrived and Summers chose 27-year-old Jason Bradley.

"He [Bradley] takes the phone and they're telling him to have me do certain things and drop the apron," she said. "He wouldn't have any part of it."

Bradley walked out in disgust, leaving Summers with no one to watch Ogborn. Then the caller made an odd request, asking Summers to call her fiancé to have him watch the girl.

Summers says she did as she was told.

"I honestly thought he was a police officer and what I was doing was the right thing," said Summers. "I thought I was doing what I was supposed to be doing."

Surveillance video shows Ogborn broke down in tears.

Within fifteen minutes, Summers' fiancé, Walter Nix, entered the office where Ogborn tugged at the small apron that barely covered her top and exposed her legs up to her buttocks.

Again, Summers says she didn't question the caller and completely trusted her fiancé to be left alone with the girl.

Ogborn says she wanted to run, but that it would have been too humiliating to run through the restaurant naked.

Nix, a 43-year-old exterminator, began following the caller's commands, ordering Ogborn to drop her apron, bend over and stand on a chair.

Then -- as ridiculous as it sounds -- he told her to do jumping jacks to shake loose anything she might be hiding. Ogborn says that was just the beginning of two more hours of torment.

The demands became more and more bizarre. When Ogborn says that when she failed to address Nix as "sir," the caller tells him to hit her violently on the buttocks over and over. At one point on the video, Ogborn was "spanked" for almost 10 full minutes..."

— Source:  ABC News, “Restaurant Shift Turns into a Nightmare”

 

Georgia's Episode Sources

Stamford Advocate article by Nicholas Rondinone

CBS News article “How Police Tracked an Old Work Truck to Find Jennifer Dulos' Alleged Killer“

CBS News article by Erin Moriarty 

Heavy article by Tom Cleary

Hartford Courant article by Josh Kovner

Hartford Courant article “Chemistry and Calm, Then Loneliness And Turbulence In The Marriage Of Missing New Canaan Mother Jennifer Farber Dulos”

People article by KC Baker “How a Conn. Couple's 'Stereotypically Perfect' Marriage Went Sour Before Mom of 5 Disappeared”

ABC News article by Emily Shapiro

ABC News article by Aaron Katersky and Bill Hutchinson

New York Time article by Michael Gold

Vanity Fair article by Vanessa Grigoriadis

Town and Country Magazine article by Leena Kim

Patch article by Alfred Branch

Patch article by Rich Scinto

Wikipedia “Disappearance of Jennifer Dulos”

 

Karen's Episode Sources

The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson 

“Strip-Search Hoax Plagues Fast-Food Outlets”

 ABC News, “Restaurant Shift Turns into a Nightmare”

The Casefile Podcast, “The Strip Search Scam”

The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson “Witness: Hoaxer began small, escalated demands”

The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson “Trial to Start for $200 million lawsuit over strip-search hoax”

Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals “McDonald’s Corporation v. Louise Ogborn, Donna J. Summers and Kim Dockery”

Associated Press article by Brett Barrouquere 

The Courier Journal article by Jason Riley

 ABC News “Restaurant Workers Strip-Searched in Hoax”

 The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson

 ABC News “Strip-Search Case Victim Awarded $6.1 Million”

 Associated Press article by Brett Barrouquere “Strip-Search Hoax Victim Testifies On McDonald’s Assault”

 The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson “Hoax Victim Now Opposes Plea Deal”

The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson “Man Tells Hoax Victim He’s Sorry”

Associated Press article by Keith Williams “Acquittal in Hoax Call That Led to Sex Assault”

The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson  “Bullit Man Pleads Guilty in Strip-Search Case”

 The Courier Journal article by Andrew Wolfson “Bullit Strip-Search Trial Set” 

 Wikipedia “Milgram Experiment”