uglyreal

Justin Mitchell and/or Justin McClain is Hannah Bagwell

Please save yourself! Don’t become a victim like

Kristen

• All names are changed to protect the innocent, broken-hearted (when it happened), mad-as-hell-and-rightly-so (to this day) victims.
• All of the information I am posting has been taken from contemporaneous text messages, Facebook messages, and emails, as well as from recent conversations (some taped) I’ve had with the victims to jog my memory, as they lived it so they remember it better than they would like. All that to say: everything I’m writing can be supported by a document or a person.

Welcome back, my enthusiastic fishermen and women! I deeply appreciate all of you who have jumped on this boat with me, vowing not to get off until the ride is over.

The ride isn’t nearly over, so put on your life vests and strap in.

You have heard some of this story before, as Victim 10, Kristen, is the subject of my second blog post, but there is so much more to her story than I told you the first time.

It’s time to plug the holes.

If not for Kristen, Victim 11 wouldn’t have found me.

So, let’s dive right in.

Victim 10 did not contact me. Her best friend, her bulldog, her ride-or-die whom I will call Miller contacted Scottie’s fiancé at 9:32 p.m. on Monday, July 24, 2023.

Let’s pause on that for a minute. I want to acknowledge how extraordinary this woman is, and just how many people are affected when someone steals another person’s identity.

Thankfully, Scottie and his fiancé started dating shortly after I wrote my first blog post, shortly after Natalie. Scottie told her this crazy story about someone catfishing his sister and another girl using his photos, and he let her read my post. Since then, Scottie has gotten messages every few months from people he knows telling him that his photo was still being used on dating websites and Snapchat. When that happens, he will sometimes message me to let me know, but he always tells her first.

She never doubted her man, rightfully so. Scottie Spain is a stand-up guy. But she sure could have. Imagine if she didn’t know him, trust him…or if they had started dating at a different time. Hannah’s interference in Scottie’s life can’t be understated. All his relationships could be on the line because of her.

The ripple effect. It never ends.

I learned about Victim 10, Kristen, when I got a message from Scottie on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, at 6:11 a.m. that said: Hey! Just thought I” ‘d let you know it’s happening again. This girl sent my fiancé a message on Instagram. How can we stop this? This has been going on for too long.

He sent me a screenshot of the message that said, “Hi there! So craziest thing happened to my friend. I promise it isn’t a scam. My friend just got catfished by a guy named Justin McClain who says he’s from Mississippi but lives in Tuscaloosa (where we got to school) and is using all of your fiance’s photos and job information, potentially more. We are not really sure what the extent is. We’re wondering if you have any information on who this could be or if it’s happened before. He blocked her and we’re planning on going to the police. If you want any more info or want to make sure this is real you can text me or call me. My number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Immediately, I recognized the change in moniker. She was no longer operating as Justin Mitchell. She had now become Justin McClain, and I couldn’t wait to dig into that.

I asked Scottie if either he or Liz knew the girl who sent the message, and he said no but that they were planning to talk to her in a few minutes. Then he said, “This is so aggravating. It’s been 6 plus years now…The amount of time, energy, effort. INSANE.” He said it; not me.

At 6:33 p.m., I got another message from Scottie. It said, “Would you like to talk to her? She’s on the phone right now. These girls are pretty scared.”

Enter Kristen and Miller into my world.

The gist was this:

• Kristen was contacted via Snapchat by Justin Mitch McClain. He told her that they matched on Tinder after swiping up on one of her snap stories, but she could not find his Tinder account. Later, he claimed he deleted it. New M.O.
• He claimed to have an iPhone, but he turned his iMessage off because he didn’t want his family to add him to group chats.
• He said his birthday was January 9, 2002, which made him 21 years old.
• He said his odd middle name (not Mitchell; just Mitch) was his dad’s and grandfather’s name.
• He was from Mississippi, but he had been put in foster care because of his dad.
• He had lived in 11 foster homes in Mississippi and Tennessee.
• His grandparents (father’s side) eventually got custody of him in Mississippi.
• He had a twin sister named Jenna, as well as 3 other sisters named Julie, Jess, and Jennifer.
• His dad died when he was 17, and he had a strained relationship with his mother, but they had become close again.
• He was bilingual and spoke Spanish, as that was his mother’s first language. He said he was half Italian/Irish and half Hispanic.
• He had a black cat named Matilda and a black and white Great Dane named Mo.
• He had two children, Cyrus (4) and Maci (2), both he had between deployments.
• He had deployed twice and was still up for deployment for the next 4 years.
• Cyrus had dark hair and easily could be related to Scottie because of his looks, and if memory served, Maci was blonde.
• He sent a lot of pictures and videos of Scottie with an 8-10-year-old little girl who Justin claimed was his niece. That was Scottie’s real half-sister, and you would know her as the old “Kayleigh.”
• His Fake Baby Mama’s name was now Taylor, which, coincidentally or not, is the name of one of Scottie’s ex-girlfriends.
• He moved from Oxford to Tuscaloosa to work in medical sales. He claimed to work at Tuscaloosa or Northport ER mainly, but sometimes he worked in Hoover and Birmingham.
• Kristen said and Miller confirmed that they “talked” constantly. All day. However, she told me that he told her he worked from 3 a.m. until 3 p.m. in medical sales. All you medical salesmen and women out there, are these your typical working hours? What kind of doctor do you call on at 3 a.m.?
• Anytime Kristen asked when they could meet, he was always too busy. His excuses were work, tired, kid issues, Fake Maci was sick, and he told her that she “slept in too late for his availability time frame.” In addition, sometimes he had to scoot on over to his military base in Georgia.
• He sent flowers to her job on June 9, 2023, bought through 1-800 flowers, and sent through Stephanie’s Flowers in Tuscaloosa. The card said, “So thankful for you, Kristen. Song of Solomon 4:7—Justin. I doubt King Solomon appreciates being invoked as part of this malevolence. Doubt Jesus does either.
• He said to her, “JUST got out of therapy; you should come with me sometime.” You read that right.
• His email address is justinmitchellmcclain@gmail.com
• He was condescending in a gaslighty way.
• He sent her tons of pictures of Mo-former-Sandy, and the last one she received was one of Mo wearing sunglasses

After getting all fired up, and after realizing that my first post wasn’t enough because she changed the name to Justin McClain, I knew I had to write another one to get the new name out to other potential victims. So, I sat at my computer and wrote this: https://uglyreal.com/2023/07/27/catfish-catch-and-release-edition-justin-mitchell-is-justin-mcclain-is-hannah-b/

Remember that Kristen told me that the way Justin said they met online didn’t seem to match up with what Kristen knew or could confirm? Here’s why I think that is.

I believe that Hannah saw Kristen in the coffee shop where she and Miller worked. They looked her up in the Point-of-Sale system after we talked, and they saw that a Hannah Bagwell had been there. After they saw her photograph, they instantly remembered an incident when Hannah and another woman, not her wife, made them remake their drink several times. They also asked for a military discount, which is INSANE to me (ok, I said it this time), unless the person accompanying Hannah was, indeed, former military. Kristen and Miller were super busy at the time, and they never asked for a military ID. I would have given anything to know if either of the two could have produced one.

I asked Kristen and Miller to tell me all of the things that Justin said that made her question his validity, all of the stories that did not add up.

• They told me that he committed to meeting Kristen several times and he would always bail out at the last minute.
• He only really liked to snap text, but the majority of the conversations being over snap text rather than Snapchat was bizarre to them.
• When they exchanged phone numbers and the texts from him came back green rather than blue (Android vs. Iphone), he maintained that he had an iPhone but that he turned messenger off because of the family group chats.
• Kristen called the number one night, and she got a sketchy voicemail, which led her to accuse him of having a TextFree (which is an app) number. He got mad when he told her that he didn’t.
• Anytime she brought up her concerns or her friends’ concerns, he would get cold. He would say things like, “I thought you knew me better than that,” or “You know how much effort I put into our relationship but believe what you want.” Sound familiar?
• He claimed that his kids’ Fake Baby Mama would never Facetime the children, and she came back with, “Kinda like you won’t Facetime me?” He got mad and said, “What does that have to do with anything??”

But one of the most bizarre encounters between Kristen and Justin happened on July 4^th. Miller and Kristen were hanging out with their friends all day, and Kristen and Justin were texting all day. Prior, Justin had mentioned that he might want to hang out with her on the 4^th, but because he had never followed through with a plan before, she did not bank on that and did her own thing. Later in the evening, he asked her if she still planned to come over to see him that night. She thought about that and said no. When she turned him down, he flipped flat out. He told her that she didn’t care about him, that she was insensitive, and…wait for it…she should have known he had PTSD from deployment, and that the fireworks were going to trigger it, and he was, at present, hiding in his closet, on a mattress, wearing noise-canceling headphones.

I sincerely wish all of you could have seen Scottie’s face when he heard that.

ANYWAY, moving on…..because I can’t stay on that preposterousness for more than the time it took to type it……

At this point, knowing she was married and had been for several years, the question we all had was, “Does her wife know?”

After my blog post came out, it seems multiple people recognized Hannah B to be Hannah Bagwell, and they sent her wife my post. And then, she emailed both me and Kristen, because she thought Kristen was me. Long story, but both of us responded to her.

And I think we responded kindly.

Kristen asked her point blank, “Did you really not know?”

She said, “I Had no idea. Honestly. I confronted her but she said that it was a patient of hers and her friend (Kayla…enter eyeroll) does this kind of stuff.”

And because she lied to her wife, making up the ridiculous story that a patient was doing this (did you have the same patient for 11 years before you ever went to school to be a counselor???) and she has a friend who does this kind of stuff (please be more vague, if possible) her wife wanted proof.

Kristen and I both relayed the most relevant proof we had at the time which was, among other things, a photo of their cat sitting on their bedspread that she sent to Kristen, which she maintained could be anyone’s cat, but it did look like their bedspread (yeah, it could be anyone’s cat sitting on anyone’s bedspread that looks EXACTLY like yours, but it’s probably not….) and then, well, grab a drink if you haven’t already.

We are going to be here a minute, and you are going to need it.

A handful of Kristen’s friends, with Miller leading the charge, had a bit of an intervention with Kristen. The weirdness of the last couple of months had become so obvious to them, and they knew that Justin was in no way whom he said he was. They needed to convince Kristen of that.

So, one of them reverse-searched the photos, and they found Scottie.

That could have been enough because it was. It was proof that they were right, and it was proof that Kristen did not need to waste one more second talking to someone who was not who he said he was.

However, Kristen, like all the victims before her, had become attached to the idea of him, and she was in shock. So, before she could walk away, she had to confront him and offer him the chance to explain.

This is the exact exchange (minus all cuss words) that began at 7:56 p.m. on Monday, July 24, 2023.

First, a male friend of Kristen’s tried to call the number from his own phone. Clearly, Hannah should not have had the name of that friend stored in her phone, but immediately she texted Kristen and asked:

Justin: Why is A.B. trying to call my phone, Kristen?

Kristen: I just wish I could see you, bubs.

Justin: Answer me. How did he get my number first of all and why is he calling me?

Kristen: Answer what? Why are you coming at me sideways? I don’t know who that is.

Justin: Cut the ____. Yes you do.

Kristen: Why the ____ are you coming at me all hot?? I’m really confused.

Justin: Why are you lying about not knowing someone you clearly know? It’s not like I’m accusing you of doing something with this guy. I’m simply asking why and how he has my number and truly want to know why one of your friends is calling me 3 times in a row while you’re perfectly fine when I’m trying to put my children to bed. But now that you’ve lied to me it’s an issue when you could have just told me why

Kristen: Wdym someone I clearly know??

Justin: Ok. I’m done.

Kristen: I’m just asking how you know that?

Justin: You’ve literally mentioned his name (Except that, she most likely had not because he went by a nickname that was no variation of his real name, but even more, there is no rhyme or reason why she should be able to know it was A.B. under any name unless somehow she had his phone number stored in her phone, or one of her fake accounts was friends with this guy, unbeknownst to him, and his number was attached to that social, so it came up on her phone as “May be, A.B.” Or, some variation of that. You get the drift. But on the surface, it should have been ringing as a number with no name attached. Anything else is outright scary.)

Kristen: I’m not mad at you but I really need answers right now, I’m not okay

Justin: I’ve given you answers

Kristen: Well I have more questions

Justin: What

Kristen: I don’t want to lose you, but there’s something we need to resolve

Justin: What

Kristen: I found whose photos you’ve been using, and I’m not mad at all I just need to know who’s Scottie Spain and who are you??? I can’t lose you after everything we’ve built, you said you’d never leave so please don’t do it now, I need answers

Immediately, Justin switched to Snapchat and said, “Text me back. Now.”

Kristen: Text me back now

Justin: I can’t tell you everything. But I’m sorry. Deeply. I’ll let it go if you let it go.

Let’s pause here for a moment. I want all of my readers to get this.

THIS is Hannah in panic mode.

Before Kristen, “Justin” had either blocked the person who called her Hannah from any Justin socials and/or Hannah socials, never to talk to them again, or acted like he did with Natalie and acted like it wasn’t a big deal. She most definitely NEVER apologized, and she NEVER EVER asked someone to “let it go.”

This was before she lived in the same town as the victims who called her out (most lived miles and miles away), and it was before everyone in the public could know that her name was Hannah and the guy in the picture’s name was Scottie Spain. It was before she became a counselor, and her livelihood centered on her reputation, as well as maintaining and growing her client list.

In my first blog post, the only one like it of its kind about this story that I am aware of, I referred to Hannah as “Lee,” and Scottie as SS. That information was not searchable until after I wrote my second blog post, which happened AFTER this conversation happened.

Until this moment, Hannah had NEVER been called out publicly. She had never been blasted on the internet. All break-ups had been private, and she moved on to the next with the same personal safety she always had.

She had read my first blog post after Natalie. She knew what I did back then. She knew I was in touch with Scottie. And when Kristen invoked Scottie’s name, Hannah quickly realized that there was tremendous potential that all hell was fixing to break loose.

She was quite right.

Kristen: I need to know everything. Who are you? I can’t let this go. I promise I’m not going to be mad. We made promises to each other but you’re scaring me

Justin: I can’t tell you everything. That’s what I’m saying. I’m sorry.

Kristen: Why not? I trusted you.

Justin: I just can’t. I’m really sorry. Just let it go and move on. I’m sorry.

Kristen: Do I know you? What do you look like? You have to tell me who you are. Why did you switch to snap text? I’ll tell you why. She didn’t want you to screenshot the Snaps. That’s weird, remember. She would have known if Kristen screenshot the conversation on Snap, but she would not have known if she had done so on regular text. Little did Hannah know that one of Kristen’s magnificent, protective friends was taking pictures of her phone with her own over her shoulder.

Justin: No, you don’t know me. I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. Please just let it go.

Kristen: I obviously can’t talk to you if you have been lying to me for 2 months. I have no idea what is real and what’s not. I’m not going to tell anyone I just need to know for myself. Please I’m begging you. I care about you so deeply and need to know the truth.

Justin: Just drop it. Please. So we can move on. I’ll delete everything and it won’t happen again.

Kristen: Delete everything? What does that mean?

I’ll tell you, sweet Kristen, what that means. That means, I’m not talking to you.

I’m talking to Scottie and Marsha, and I’m begging you to pass that message on to them.

I’ll delete all of Scottie’s photos, the snaps I stole and faked, the photos of his family, the photos of the little girl whose sister she catfished, the fake apps, Sharepoint and Excel. I’ll get rid of everything so that I can’t do it again because all of you could ruin my life—my REAL life. I’m caught, and my job is in jeopardy. My marriage is in jeopardy. My relationships with every single person I call a friend are in jeopardy because when everyone learns the truth, I’m toast.

She knew all it would take was for Kristen to hit up Scottie, and he would tell her the truth. She probably knew that, then, Scottie would tell her to talk to me, and who the heck knew what I would do? After talking to Kristen for two months, learning that she’s a spitfire with spitfire friends who live in the very same town she does, she had to know that all bets were off as to the lengths that Kristen and her posse would go to spread this news far and wide.

That is what she meant, but this is what she said:

Justin: Snap. I’m sorry that I can’t give you answers.

Kristen: I could’ve dropped it if you provided anything about yourself because right now you are scaring the ____ out of me. You have to tell me something, anything. Don’t you understand how scary this is for me? You know me. I’ve been so honest and open with you since May and you  can’t even tell me your name and expect me not to be shaking? Is everything a lie?

Justin: No, it wasn’t all a lie. I’m sorry. Please just drop it. You’re safe. I promise. I have to go. I’m deleting snap. Blocking you from my phone. Please do the same and move on.

Kristen: Okay I’m calling the cops.

Back to the original question: did the wife know? No idea.

Did the wife believe me after I gave her, not in 5 blog posts, but in a few emails, proof?

Nope.

Even after this:

In our exchange, the wife told me a few things that I could build on that were, in my opinion, more significant in every way than the cat-on-their-bedspread picture.

This was the biggest.

She told me that Hannah told her that a patient tried to friend her on Facebook, and Hannah made her delete her social media. Ever heard of deleting a friend request? Say what?

I asked her what day or night Hannah asked her to do so.

She said: Monday night. July 24^th. She woke me up to do it. She. Woke. Her. Up. To. Do. It. Panic-mode, indeed.

Timeline, to refresh: Kristen breaks up with Justin on Monday, July 24^th, and their conversation ends at approximately 8:20 p.m. Kristen invokes Scottie’s name but does not tell her she has talked to him because she hasn’t yet. Miller sends Scottie’s fiancé a message at 9:32 p.m. on the same night. Scottie messages me the next morning. I talked to Kristen and Miller that night. I wrote my blog post the next day.

On Monday, July 24^th, after 8:20 p.m., the ONLY person on planet Earth who would be afraid that someone was going to start poking around in the wife’s social media was the person behind the Justin McClain profile.

And that person is Hannah Bagwell.

Keep that drink full, peeps. If your collective minds are blown now, just wait.

Victim 11 is on her way, and I couldn’t make up her story if I tried.

I wish I didn’t even have to tell it.

But I’m going to.

Stay tuned.

If you or someone you know has been catfished by Justin Mitchell or Justin McClain, feel free to email me at mwstaceylaw@gmail.com