In 2014, Debra Newell was a 59-year-old single mother of adult children from three earlier marriages. She was thriving professionally as an interior designer and wanted to give one more chance.
That was when she met a charming anesthesiologist John Meehan on a dating website, and soon fell in love with him. However, her world was soon flipped on its head and a nightmare began unfolding right in front of her eyes.
Meehan, dubbed Dirty John, wasn't who he claimed to be and had a dubious past including restraining orders from multiple women, arrests, drug addiction, and lies.
The truth slowly unraveled in front of the Newells family soon after Debra and John's marriage in December 2014. The truth was what led to their separation.
Debra and her family's nightmare ended in August 2016 when John was killed by the former's daughter Terra in self-defense. John reportedly attacked Terra, who stabbed him 13 times which led to his death four days later.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered's episode titled The Women & Dirty John will look at how John Meehan and Debra Newell met, and everything that happened after it. The episode will air on Oxygen on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, at 7 pm ET.
John Meehan first met Debra Newell two days after he was released from prison
"Dirty" John Meehan and Debra Newell first met on an over-50s dating website two days after the former had just been released from prison on October 8, 2014. He had reportedly served months in prison for violating a restraining order.
Meehan pretended to be an anesthesiologist who recently arrived in Southern California after spending a year working with Doctors Without Borders in war-torn Iraq.
After four unsuccessful marriages, Debra, a wealthy and accomplished interior designer, was ready to give love another chance. She was fascinated by what she saw in John, especially after their first date at a restaurant in Irvine, California.
According to Harper Baazar, Debra Newell told Fox5:
"He tended to have everything on my checklist that I was looking for. I liked that he was a doctor, that he had been successful helping people, and then when he said he had been to Iraq, Doctors Without Borders, that impressed me also."
As their relationship progressed, Debra was "swept off her feet," but her daughters knew that something was amiss about John when he and Debra moved into a house on Balboa Island in Newport Beach. The couple married while in Las Vegas in December 2014 against Debra's children's wishes.
How did Debra Newell learn about the past life of "Dirty" John Meehan?
In March 2015, Debra Newell's nephew contacted her to inform her about John Meehan's past. Her nephew told her that John was a convicted felon and had lied about his job as an anesthesiologist.
Although she was initially indifferent to these concerns, she began to secretly dig through her husband's files. She found proof of his extensive history of harassing, seducing, and conning women.
The mother-of-four left the Balboa Island home after discovering unsettling and incriminating evidence from multiple women which backed up all the allegations. However, the couple reconciled in June, after several months of text messages and phone calls where John pleaded with Debra to take him back. The two then moved into a new apartment in Irvine.
Debra still had her doubts and grew uneasy with John's actions, and her estrangement from her own family. The tension between her eldest daughter Jacquelyn and John only worsened. He even tried to distance her from her daughters, who had suspicions about him from the start.
Debra filed for divorce in April 2016, after reaching her tipping point. John, who was then residing in Nevada, started sending her worrisome letters, demanding money, and threatening to ruin her. Later, in June, he reportedly stole her car from her office parking lot and set it on fire.
Things took a deadly turn on August 20, when he attacked Debra's youngest daughter Terra Newell in the lot outside her Newport Beach apartment building. He attacked the 25-year-old with a knife but was disarmed when she fought back. Terra then used the same knife to stab him 13 times, while suffering wounds in the process.
Four days later, 57-year-old John Meehan died.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered will revisit Debra Newell's story on January 24 at 7 pm ET on Oxygen.