Jared from Subway: Catching A Monster Part 1 Recap
Part 1:
WARNING: THIS SHOW DISCUSSES CHILD ABUSE AND FEATURES GRAPHIC DISCUSSIONS AND ACTUAL RECORDINGS OF A CHILD PREDATOR THAT MAY BE DISTURBING IN NATURE. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
-People recall seeing Jared Fogle, aka the Subway Guy’s rise to fame and the people who knew him during this time. He had been seen as a hero and inspiration to many, but little did anyone know was that he was actually a monster who preyed on children.
-According to Rochelle Herman, a journalist who got to know Jared on a personal level. She claims she suspected he was a pedophile and used her position to go undercover for the FBI in order to expose him.
-Two of his victims say that they kept quiet out of fear. Several disturbing recordings that exposed his monstrous ways are played.
-A former classmate named Katie Heath recalls Jared being very shy, quiet and a loner. She says he began gaining weight in middle school and was morbidly obese by the time he was in high school. This put a target on his back.
-Another classmate named Scott Wilson also remembers him being a loner and that nobody ever wanted to sit with him at lunch or be his friend. He thinks that he went home crying a lot and that he was very lonely.
-Katie also remembers the day she saw him in college after he lost the weight and how it led to him becoming a local celebrity on campus.
-Another journalist named Mike Leonard remembers seeing a story about Jared’s journey by eating Subway every day and how it led to his own interview with him. He initially saw him as a decent guy who came from the typical American family. He also loved how he was able to turn his life around and have the life and love he always wanted.
-Before long, Jared had a deal with Subway and was sharing his story with the world.
-Matt Winitz, another journalist who knew Jared, recalls him visiting Florida’s Suncoast and meeting Rochelle. She remembers the moment she found out the truth about him and how it led to her feeling extreme hatred toward him.
*NOTE: Out of respect for the victims, we will not add the recordings to the recap*
-Rochelle talks a bit about her family, including her marriage, the birth of her children and her eventual divorce. She struggled as a single mom and focused on being a mom and her career as a journalist. The latter led to her becoming a local celebrity.
-She remembers talking to Jared for the first time and thinking he was a very nice guy, despite having an ego. Their first interview went very well and she initially liked the fact that he wanted to help the children. After the interview, he got very flirtatious, but she wasn’t sure that it was in a romantic sense.
-At one point that day, she recalled telling him that his daughter wanting to meet him, so they made it happen.
-Jared continue to hit on her and even said something to her that would forever change her life. It had been before they were filming a segment at a local middle school. He made a comment on how hot the middle school girls were and it completely changed her opinion of him. She wanted the event to end, but the comment never left her mind, causing her to wonder if there was a more sinister person behind the persona.
-Pam Blakeman, a former co-star of Jared’s, saw him on Oprah and remembers how he inspired him to do her own Subway diet. She became a star in her own right and eventually got the chance to work with Jared. At first, he thought he was easygoing and down to earth and claims she never saw a dark side to him.
-Rochelle knew she had to expose Jared for who he really was because she felt it was her duty to protect the children. She had no evidence or proof of what he said, so she decided to do her own investigation and try and get him on tape incriminating himself.
-Rochelle was able to get another interview with Jared, this time getting his cell phone number in order to contact him. She planned on using this to her advantage to get him on tape, calling on her journalist skills to get him talking.
-During the conversations, he would often bring up children. Despite the fact that nothing he said was sexual in nature, it still set off her radar. She decided to go see him in person, hoping to gather some evidence to give to the authorities.
-Rochelle arrived to his hotel room with a recorder hidden in her purse. She claims he got very handsy with her and that she pushed him away. He then told her she would be so hot in pigtails and asked her to do her hair in that style. This made her skin crawl and made it clear in her mind that he was a pedophile. As soon as he went into the restroom, she escaped the room, crying and shaking. When he called her to see what happened, she lied and said that there was an emergency with her kids.
-At that moment, Rochelle knew she would stop at nothing to expose Jared.
-By this point, Jared was at the height of his fame. He was in TV shows, movies, traveling the world and an overall household name. Rochelle knew he was lonely despite the fame and used this to her advantage and agreed to be aconfidant to him, allowing him to tell her his deepest, darkest secrets.
-Rochelle recorded each conversation they had, which included him admitting he saw her romantically. She once again used this to her advantage, allowing him to open up and admit he liked young ones with ‘young, pure bodies.’
-In 2007, Rochelle got a call from Jared, who wanted to go to a fetish club. She began to question him and he admitted that it would be hot to be with a young middle schooler….or even younger. At this moment, Rochelle knew that this was beyond anything she could or should do on her own.
