Tech
Podcast Corner: Uncovering a conwoman who picks and chooses different aliases
Like the brilliant nine-part series Runaway Joe earlier this year, RTÉ Documentary on One’s latest podcast series, The Real Carrie Jade features a protagonist known by different names to different people.
Also, since it’s made by the national broadcaster, the producers’ appeal for information comes not just at the end of each show but across the radio airwaves. Joe Duffy on is among the hosts acting as detectives in the past week for researchers on , as he heard from callers about her ‘continuing adventures’.
It hooks the listener from the start. Written, reported, and produced by Ronan Kelly and narrated by Justine Stafford, the team got an email from Carrie Jade in April 2021. She wanted to tell her story of being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Huntington’s disease, at the age of 32, and her claims about the Irish health system allegedly failing her.
The story the team thought they were going to be telling was of Carrie Jade undergoing experimental brain surgery in the US. Except Stafford tells us from the outset that we can’t believe anything Carrie Jade tells us. Almost everything is a lie. She says she was born in Bessborough mother and baby home in 1988 — a lie. She was adopted by a single wealthy woman in the UK — false. Her fiance Fionn is currently living in England — nope. It’s brilliant, effective storytelling.
Carrie Jade is a chronic liar and a conwoman who picks and chooses different aliases, hence the episode titles: ‘I’m Samantha Cookes!’ ‘I’m Lucy Fitzwilliams!’ I’m Rebecca Fitzgerald!’ However, her distinctive, posh English accent is a constant, from Wicklow to Cork to the west of Ireland. Her victims are very real, though. You’ll grimace at the family who believe that while she’s working as their au pair, she’s also helping them find a new home and car, and another family who think she’s booking a dream trip to Lapland. It’s too good to be true.
There is a shocking revelation about Carrie Jade’s first child in 2008 too – quite rightly, there is a content warning preceding the episodes.
RTÉ is not the first to explore the fraudster’s trail of lies. Last November, the British comedian and presenter Sue Perkins hosted the six-part series – two bonus episodes were released in March and May as new tips were sent in. One of those emails read: “I’ve just come across your podcast as this woman has been in our community… she has been exposed as a fake person yesterday.”
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