A promo for the first season of Dirty John more than hints at the fact that Debra Newell doesn’t know her boyfriend John Meehan as well as she might think. Though there were red flags from the start, one big sign that Meehan was hiding something was the discovery of an unknown woman in Newell’s house one afternoon. But who was the woman who broke into the house on Dirty John?
During their relationship, he allegedly tried to get money from her and when she didn’t give it to him, he apparently threatened her and sent “intimate photos” of her to her family
The Bravo series hasn’t delved into the mystery woman yet, but the reveal is a pivotal moment in the podcast and article by Christopher Goffard that inspired the series. After church, Newell and Meehan returned home to find a stranger sitting in their living room, described in the LA Times as “a thin, weathered woman in her late 30s or early 40s.” She had showered in the house and was dressed in Newell’s clothing; she had seemingly made herself at home.
Meehan apprehended the woman and they called the police, but Newell chose not to press charges. She thought the woman might be homeless or an addict and assumed that she had found a way in through a skylight. Though she was seemingly a stranger to both of them, Newell suspected that Meehan might have known the woman.
In Dirty John’s Season 1 trailer, there’s a scene with a disheveled woman who is likely the fictionalized version of the real life stranger. Read More
