How a whirlwind online romance with a fake doctor turned into a sinister game of psychological manipulation: Wife in Netflix hit ‘Dirty John’ tells how her daughter made chilling phonecall saying she had killed her sociopath step-father
- Debra Newell shared that she felt guilt when daughter Terra Newell called on August 20, 2016, screamed over the phone that John Meehan attacked her
- ‘I get this call from my daughter and she is screaming that she killed my husband and it was so surreal,’ she shared
- Debra added: ‘The guilt and just everything overwhelmed me and I don’t know how I got there but I got to the site and couldn’t get to her
- ‘But I could see that she was ok, she was sitting on the curb and I just wanted to be with her’
- Debra’s relationship with Meehan is the subject of the Netlix series ‘Dirty John’
- The pair met on an over-50s dating website in 2014, and five weeks after their first date, they were living together in Newport, California
The woman swept off her feet by John Meehan, who tried to drive a wedge between her family, recalls that ‘it was so surreal’ when her daughter called saying that she killed the sociopathic conman.
Debra Newell shared that she immediately felt guilt when daughter Terra Newell called on August 20, 2016, screamed over the phone that Meehan had attacked her.
‘I get this call from my daughter and she is screaming that she killed my husband and it was so surreal,’ she shared with Fox News.
‘The guilt and just everything overwhelmed me and I don’t know how I got there but I got to the site and couldn’t get to her. But I could see that she was ok, she was sitting on the curb and I just wanted to be with her.’
Debra Newell shared that she felt guilt when daughter Terra Newell called on August 20, 2016, screamed over the phone that John Meehan attacked her
Debra’s relationship with Meehan is the subject of the Netlix series ‘Dirty John’.
The pair met on an over-50s dating website in 2014, and five weeks after their first date, they were living together in Newport, California, before tragedy struck.
Soon Debra would learn that the man she thought she knew was actually a stranger and had been lying about being a doctor.
Debra’s children, who she had in previous marriages, weren’t fans of Meehan. The conman used that to his advantage when trying to isolate the woman from them.
Debra and John Meehan met on an over-50s dating website in 2014, and five weeks after their first date, they were living together in Newport, California
Soon Debra would learn that the man she thought she knew was actually a stranger and had been lying about being a doctor
She said: ‘I wasn’t happy with how he was treating my kids but I wasn’t seeing a lot of it because how he would treat them when I wasn’t around was very different than when I was around. So I was seeing that.’
And when Meehan attacked the at-the-time 25 year old at her Newport Beach apartment complex, Terra managed to secure his knife and stabbed the man thirteen times.
It would take four days for the father-of-two to die.
She said: ‘I wasn’t happy with how he was treating my kids but I wasn’t seeing a lot of it because how he would treat them when I wasn’t around was very different than when I was around. So I was seeing that’
When Meehan attacked the at-the-time 25 year old at her Newport Beach apartment complex, Terra managed to secure his knife and stabbed the man thirteen times
‘She didn’t blame me, which made me feel so good,’ the mother said.
‘But the one thing that she did, we sent her away to therapy for PTSD and it was a few times a week and also in a very peaceful surrounding. So she did that for about six months but her goal was to help others with PTSD.’
And while Debra hasn’t dated since Meehan, her main takeaway from the near-death experience is that it can happen to anyone.
‘I hope (people) understand that it can happen to anyone and that there are many many people out there who are going through what I went through,’ she said. ‘Maybe in a different way but they are not alone.’
It took the man four days to die