Jared From Subway: Catching A Monster

[DanaK]

Quote

For almost a decade beginning in the early 2000s, there was no one more recognizable than Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, whose story of overcoming obesity through a diet of Subway sandwiches was an inspiration. But in 2015, Americans were stunned when authorities brought multiple charges of child endangerment against "Jared from Subway'' and his business partner, Russell Taylor. ID's new three-part series, JARED FROM SUBWAY: CATCHING A MONSTER, reveals the shocking, previously untold story of the investigation that exposed the monster insidiously lurking behind Fogle's charming persona and how his true nature as a child sex predator was finally revealed. All three parts of JARED FROM SUBWAY: CATCHING A MONSTER premiere back to back starting Monday, March 6 at 9/8c on ID and will be available to stream the same day on discovery+.

Note: ID is cable network Investigation Discovery

[AZChristian]

I've got this set to record.  

[Annber03]

I need to scrub my brain, my ears, my entire damn body now. Holy shit, those tapes. HIs comments. Holy. Shit. I feel sick. 

Like, I knew the general story of this guy and his downfall, of course, but my god...

[Salacious Kitty]

Just finishing up Part 3. Wow, what a sick fuck. Fifteen years wasn't nearly enough time, even with lifetime parole. 

[Annber03]

This Russell guy they mentioned, who'd worked with Jared, is a horrific piece of work, too. Those poor girls, telling their story about how he and their mom both groomed them as they did. What the hell is wrong with some people? 

[Salacious Kitty]

I felt sick for those girls. Their mother should also be in jail. 

[ShowsILoveToHate]

I recorded this but haven’t watched it yet. 
 

THANK YOU to the previous posters.
 

Now I’m going to immediately delete it. 😪

[patty1h]

I had read articles about this creature so I knew what I was getting myself into, but actually HEARING this monsters voice on audio describing his desires, his crimes, his despicable thoughts, was a very hard slog.  It's just sad to know that the reporter Rochelle had evidence on him for years, but because most of his acts took place overseas, the FBI had to wait until they could get to him on US soil and he racked up numerous victims. 

I give that woman respect for dealing with this pedo for so long.

[One Tough Cookie]

You know, people say you CAN'T tell a pedophile just by looking at him, but yes, I thought ALL ALONG--from back in the 90s he was a perv.

[Schnickelfritz]

20 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I felt sick for those girls. Their mother should also be in jail. 

She got 33 years in prison. It just took a few years longer to get her for no good reason...

[Andyourlittledog2]

Almost everything about the woman telling this story I find repulsive so it is very hard to watch this thing. I almost didn't watch it from just her on the commercials but I marched forward and gave it a try. I'm just on episode one but it's a hard slog. There's just something histrionic about this woman that I find so incredibly irritating. And calling herself an 'undercover asset of the FBI' was such an overstatement of her own importance to the whole thing. I don't know, she's just so self-important. Me me me I I I.... Ugh. She also has fried long bleach blond hair on a woman way too old to pull it off so that is very offputting to me also. I know this sounds shallow but it all works together to make this a very hard thing to watch outside of the subject matter. I wish someone else were narrating this thing. Anyone else.

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, One Tough Cookie said:

You know, people say you CAN'T tell a pedophile just by looking at him, but yes, I thought ALL ALONG--from back in the 90s he was a perv.

Watching this documentary, it really did hit me just how incredibly weird that this guy made an entire career out of losing weight eating...Subway. People really decided to make a huge deal out of that and turn him into an overnight celebrity because of it. Just. What? 

I wonder how any of the celebrities who appeared in any ads or photos with him reacted to the news when it all broke. I also wonder what it must've been like for your average person working at a Subway restaurant - one day your workplace is participating in all these Jared promotions, the next, nope, everything comes to a screeching halt. I would like to hope that people higher up in the Subway corporation genuinely didn't know, that they weren't just looking the other way this entire time, but let's just say if they did know, and if they did look the other way, I sadly wouldn't be one bit surprised. 

21 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I felt sick for those girls. Their mother should also be in jail. 

That was devastating. Absolutely devastating. No way would I be able to maintain any kind of familial relationship after something like that. No way. I really hope those girls found a really good support system after all of that. 

I also felt for the investigators who had to wade through all those scuzzy texts and videos. I know that's their job and that's what they signed up to do, mind, but still... It'd be so hard to not want to be like "Yeah, I quit, I'm done." after seeing/reading stuff like that. 

[patty1h]

1 hour ago, Andyourlittledog2 said:

There's just something histrionic about this woman that I find so incredibly irritating.

So it wasn't just me!  I felt bad for thinking this woman is a loving this! as I was watching because she had gone through some shit so I should be more empathetic, but at the same time, she was very dramatic.  In the first episode, she repeated twice "Jared told me that I was so beautiful..." gave me the first feeling that she was going to milk her part for every second of attention.   Then she turned herself into a martyr, describing how she was up at all hours driving those tapes to FBI.  I would have told them to come pick them up from my house!

During part 3, they talked about Jared being at a ritzy NYC hotel and ordering underaged prostitutes and I wondered whether a Subway rep traveled with him during all of these promotional trips.  It's highly suspect that no one in the company noticed anything or just keep their mouths shut so as not to lose their jobs.    So sad and despicable.

[DanaK]

Sorry all, I had no idea how difficult this doc series was going to be when I posted the topic

[Welshman in Ca]

5 minutes ago, DanaK said:

Sorry all, I had no idea how difficult this doc series was going to be when I posted the topic

Don't be sorry. It's obviously being watched by people who maybe wouldn't have otherwise known about it & not acknowledging it is a bigger issue than a few people not liking it.

[libgirl2]

3 hours ago, DanaK said:

Sorry all, I had no idea how difficult this doc series was going to be when I posted the topic

No one is forced to watch it or forced to read this thread. We all know the story and have a good idea what he is about. 

[DanaK]

2 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

No one is forced to watch it or forced to read this thread. We all know the story and have a good idea what he is about. 

At least now that some have watched the series and reported here, others are better informed at how difficult the material is.

[libgirl2]

2 minutes ago, DanaK said:

At least now that some have watched the series and reported here, others are better informed at how difficult the material is.

That is very true. I was thinking about watching it, but I had seen another special on him and figured enough was enough. Looking through a couple of the posts, I'm glad I took a pass. 

[DanaK]

23 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

That is very true. I was thinking about watching it, but I had seen another special on him and figured enough was enough. Looking through a couple of the posts, I'm glad I took a pass. 

I don't think I've seen a single special about his crimes. I think I only know very general stuff from news reports

[libgirl2]

5 minutes ago, DanaK said:

I don't think I've seen a single special about his crimes. I think I only know very general stuff from news reports

It was  a couple of years back. It might have been like a Dateline or something similar. 

Edited March 9, 2023 by libgirl2

[DXD526]

Finished this up last night. While I can agree with the criticisms of Rochelle Herman, I was left with a mostly sympathetic view of her. In the end, I think she made a sacrifice, and her efforts had a positive result.

Does the FBI ever come off looking good in these stories? As if dragging their feet for YEARS in the Larry Nassar case wasn't bad enough.

So many photos of Jared posing with famous people, who must hate having those pics dredged up now. The irony is, all those people probably thought being seen with him was the safest thing in the world. After all, he stands for eating healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, what could be less controversial? 

[hiisa]

I'm watching this now and I'm confused. At Jared and Rochelle's first meeting he leaned over and told her that middle schoolers are hot? No lead in? He's getting physical with her, trying to hold her hand and all and he just leans over and whispers I think middle schoolers are hot. To a journalist. Who's interviewing him. In the middle of a middle school. 

[Annber03]

Jared was both incredibly bold and incredibly stupid. Which, thankfully, aided in his downfall. 

[One Tough Cookie]

Just now, Annber03 said:

 

[Cobb Salad]

While I get Rochelle’s frustration over the FBIs slow movement through this case did she really think going to the Sarasota police was going to accomplish anything?  Especially when you’re dealing with a Federal agency?

[Yeah No]

I haven't even watched the third part of this yet but I had to come here to see what had been said already.  I had heard about this years ago but yeah, wow, how hard it is to be dragged through all of this on this documentary.  And yes to Herman being creepy and seemingly loving this attention.  I think that's what got her into this in the first place - attention and the lure of a big scoop as a writer.  Dollar signs in her eyes too.  Plus she was getting something out of it - excitement and flirting with danger, probably.  I was hating on her at first but then I had a thought that she might have gotten to a point when she knew Jared was interested in her kids of wanting to bail on the whole thing but the FBI had a hold on her and forced her into sticking with it or else they'd press charges against her for having recorded him without permission.  And who knows what else they dug up on her to use as blackmail?

I also was shocked at the change in her appearance.  I've known of people threatened into continuing to inform the FBI against their will who've committed suicide.  And lawyers who have handled child abuse cases that have had nervous breakdowns.  Who knows what hell she went through?  She was naive getting involved in this in the first place and probably lived to regret it.  3 years having to listen to that sick bastard and pretending to humor him was beyond the pale.  The FBI should have cut bait on this or at least let her off the hook but they were determined because this was a high profile person, I'm sure.

[sadie]

Well that was disturbing. I only knew of what he did peripherally, what a sick f@ck. How in the world did he only get 15 years and that Mom got 33!?  There are a lot of freaks out in the world apparently. Does anyone know if any of these poor children he victimized sued his estate? His poor wife. I never liked him and never got why everyone fawned all over him. I can only hope he’s getting beat up a lot in prison.

[marny]

While I know Rochelle had good intentions, if she'd really wanted to stop him and wasn't getting results from the police, she could have gone directly to Subway corporate with the recordings. Their lawyers absolutely would have made Subway stop using Jared as a spokesman for fear of liability issues. That would have stopped the money train and non-stop travel, thus stopping access to so many kids. 

Crazy that it wound up being some text message about bestiality that cracked the whole thing open. And honestly, what in the world happened to those girls' mother that turned her into such a deranged person? It sounds like she was fairly normal during their earlier childhood and it didn't change until she got involved with Russell. Did Russell somehow turn her into a pedophile? And get her to have sex with animals? I just don't get it. 

[Scarlett45]

I am finally sitting down to watch this. I remember Jared as I was 15 in 2000, and given I was an obese child/teen the “Subway Guy” was a big part of my cultural lexicon. I do remember people saying “you have to remember that he walked to the subway”(I remember in the 90s/early 20s pushing kids to exercise, exercise, exercise rather than limit calories). 

On 3/7/2023 at 8:50 PM, Annber03 said:

Watching this documentary, it really did hit me just how incredibly weird that this guy made an entire career out of losing weight eating...Subway. People really decided to make a huge deal out of that and turn him into an overnight celebrity because of it. Just. What? 

At the turn of the millennium obesity rates were climbing (especially among young people), bariatric surgery existed but wasn’t “mainstream”. Jared was a perfect spokesperson- this clean cut looking white guy who had been obese since childhood and conquered it. 
 

Subway had a gold mine with this because “fast food” was starting to take the hit for the extra pounds many people were battling, with this promotion with Jared, Subway had an in to be the “healthy fast food”, something the market was primed for. 
 

I will report back when I’m finished. 

 

On 3/6/2023 at 11:09 PM, Annber03 said:

This Russell guy they mentioned, who'd worked with Jared, is a horrific piece of work, too. Those poor girls, telling their story about how he and their mom both groomed them as they did. What the hell is wrong with some people? 

I’m only on episode 2 but I feel awfully for those girls. At least they have each other to lean on. 

[Scarlett45]

So my theory- Rochelle’s heart was in the right place although yes she wanted the infamy that came from breaking the case, you can see the stress and her health problems on her face. Of all the individuals she was on the side of right, even if she misstepped. 
 

I feel horribly for all of the victims. I do think Subway should’ve known or had reason to know, and didn’t take any action because Jared was economically valuable to them. The individuals working for the Subway corporation were not mandated reporters, and as we saw his wife’s lawsuit was dismissed. Morally of course those people should’ve come forward, but they probably didn’t because it was easier not to do so. 
 

I didn’t quite get why Rochelle was estranged from her children, was it that the pursuit of the case caused her to emotionally neglect them?
 

Russell Taylor was such a POS, his poor step daughters(and other victims). 

On 6/14/2023 at 3:23 PM, marny said:

It sounds like she was fairly normal during their earlier childhood and it didn't change until she got involved with Russell. Did Russell somehow turn her into a pedophile? And get her to have sex with animals? I just don't get it. 

I don’t know if she was ever normal. This is a story we hear far too often- a predator gets close to a caregiver of vulnerable people (often kids) offers the caregiver status, financial comforts etc to get access to the “prey”. A caregiver trusting the wrong person happens, and no one is perfect, but selling your own children to the highest bidder is evil. It’s one thing to trust someone thinking they are good, it’s another to actively participate in the abuse of your own children and violate their trust. Just thank god those girls have each other since they have been so betrayed (I didn’t hear that their bio dad was in the picture). 

[Yeah No]

On 6/14/2023 at 4:23 PM, marny said:

While I know Rochelle had good intentions, if she'd really wanted to stop him and wasn't getting results from the police, she could have gone directly to Subway corporate with the recordings. Their lawyers absolutely would have made Subway stop using Jared as a spokesman for fear of liability issues. That would have stopped the money train and non-stop travel, thus stopping access to so many kids. 

In the same vein as I posted above, I think the FBI probably forced her to keep quiet with Subway and if she didn't the consequences would have been bad for her.  That's one of the reasons the whole situation took such a toll on her - because they had her between a rock and a hard place and she couldn't say or do anything they didn't want her to without potentially causing herself even more trouble.  The FBI wanted to be in control of if and when Subway was told about his behavior.  It's also why she didn't go to the press sooner I am sure.