The CIA agent was supposedly a high school friend of hers. He was using Janelle’s email to contact her mom about a “conspiracy” to kill/hurt Janelle.

She was sending emails to the mom pretending to be a cia agent and the mom was witnessing these “facebook fights.” The mom herself had an undiagnosed mental illness and was very controlling with her whole family.

Barbara Potter was mentally ill. She was very controlling. She would not let Janelle, at 30, go anywhere alone, etc. and kept a tight leash on her whole family.

CIA Chris was emailing the mother using Janelle’s e-mail account and even called her “mom.” And the mom supposedly believed it was a real person.

I read the book and listened to a podcast episode where the author talked about it

The mom’s the one who escalated it. She was the one who kept going to the dad saying stuff and kept telling him that they needed to die. But here’s how dumb the mom is:

It’s confusing. But basically: