Autumn Leaves and The Wells Fargo Employee Death Scandal

As a chill settles in the air and leaves start to turn, join me on a walk down memory lane to those crisp New Jersey Septembers. From the nervous excitement of the first day of school to the comforting presence of family, I share how the fall season always brings a wave of nostalgia and warmth. But it’s not just about reminiscing—celebrate the thrill of football season with me, from cheering on my son's first game to stumbling through the chaotic world of fantasy football for the very first time.

We tackle a more somber topic next: the unsettling story of a Wells Fargo employee who went unnoticed at her desk for days after passing away. This tale made me reflect deeply on work-life balance and personal safety, especially in our fast-paced lives. Wrapping things up, I offer a behind-the-scenes peek into the demanding yet rewarding process of producing true crime content. The fall season is here, so grab your hoodies, savor the small joys, and maybe think twice about joining that fantasy football league.

Chapters

• 0:00 September Memories and Football Excitement
• 5:05 Workplace Concerns and Personal Safety
• 18:25 True Crime Podcast Production Challenges

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It's crazy, the things that you remember. I can still feel my bedroom as a child growing up on Garfield Avenue. There was no carpet in my room so the floor would get cold and in September, waking up for school, it was that dew on the grass, the little slight chill in the air. I had these sheets and they had these pale yellow and green flowers on them. You know I forget a lot, but I will never forget the first day of school. I will never forget the air of September, the Lovey Mishy by podcast. Let's inspire each other.

Speaker 1: 0:47

It is my favorite time of year. Fall has always undoubtedly been my favorite season and I couldn't be more excited that it's here. It's the start of football and hoodie season. I'm actually wearing a red sweatshirt that says love on the front. Honestly, it's everything I love and it's putting me in like the best mood because outside in Texas it's probably 96 degrees and I'm wearing a sweatshirt, so I just turn my iron down just a little bit and I am right there in fall. Okay, I wanted to feel it because it is September. I wanted to feel it. It's my birthday. I'm going to be 51. Yeah, that's the only thing I'm not excited about. Everything else, bring it, bring it on.

Speaker 1: 1:32

I think I get so excited about September because it takes me right back to being a little kid in New Jersey. I don't know, it just represents so much warmth in my life. My mom being in the other room as I'm standing looking at my outfit, you know waiting for me to come out with my having breakfast because it's the first day of school, she had breakfast for me. It just represents so much love. Such a beautiful time in my life In Texas. It seems to be pushing out further and further as the years go by.

Speaker 1: 2:03

I would always be able to guarantee that on Halloween I would have to wear a jacket In the beginning of October, maybe warm as hell, but October 31st. I was always wearing a jacket. Last year and the year before that was not the case. We didn't really pull out the jackets and the sweatshirts till probably November. Really pull out the jackets and the sweatshirts till probably November, maybe December. The start of football is sweaty and the end of football is cold. I hope it is this year. I really do. I love the cool air. Happy September. I hope you get all the good, positive energy and feel the same way about fall as I do. I don't know. I've never been a summer girl. I mean, I like summer. I just don't love summer. I don't know, and that could be my own thoughts, because I was like I never really liked my body, and summer represents showing more skin and showing more body. I think I associate the two as a negative. So I would rather have more clothes on, I would rather cover up more and fall does that.

Speaker 1: 3:04

So my son had his first football game yesterday and it was a hell of a way to start the season and he's a center. Yesterday they added long snapping to his game and then yesterday morning on game day, the coaches told him it is time you are starting. It was basically a touchdown shootout between both teams. It was we score, they score With nine seconds to go. We are right there and we can go for a touchdown, which my son would be snapping for the quarterback, or we can kick a field goal. So we decide to kick a field goal, which means Trev is now going to be using his long snapping skills that he has not done in the game for the very first time. We kicked it, great snap, and we win the game. And it was just. I actually teared up. I know what are you doing. I know I don't usually tear up in games, but that one, right there, it was just. It was just emotional. The kids were just so excited and this is how they're going to start their season, and I was just so proud. God, I just love football.

Speaker 1: 4:11

With that being said, before the game I decide that I'm going to be a part of the fantasy football league at work. They asked me do you want to participate? I'm like yeah, it's football. Of course I do Never doing this before in my life. Okay, yes, I know football I'm a diehard Cowboy fan but do I know fantasy football? Not even a little bit. Nope, zero. The most I've done as far as games go is to buy a $20 square and hope that the score on that quarter comes out and I win $200. Okay, that's it. Not much skill involved. All luck when I tell you that I was fine with doing I was nervous, but I was fine doing this because my oldest son, austin, and my youngest son, trevor, were like oh, we got this, we got this.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Okay, well, it's like two hours before the game starts. So Trevor's texting me, austin's calling me, who's still at work? I don't know, if you know, but Google Sheets, you can do a shared doc. So basically, I'm at home watching the poll for my name. So my pick is number eight. So it's a Google sheet. Each person is typing in the football player in real time and I'm watching it slowly come to me and I'm like, and I'm watching all the people that my kids have sent me as my first round picks disappear. They're freaking disappearing. And I'm sitting there freaking out because I have to put a name on that sheet and I don't know what the hell I'm doing Like. I'm like, can I just put Cowboys defense? And they're like mom, you can't do that till the eighth round.

Speaker 1: 5:46

Ninth round, 10th round I'm like they picked everybody. You know CeeDee Lamb was who I was going to pick. Finally, we pick AJ Brown and we're good. Second round everybody's picking. You know running backs and my kids radio, silence, radio, freaking silence. And I'm like, wow, they left me alone to figure this out. I'm going to pick a freaking quarterback. I pick Patrick Mahomes. I'm like you can't go wrong with Patrick Mahomes, right, super Bowl quarterback. I'm going to pick Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 1: 6:19

So they come back, they decide to reappear after I pick Patrick Mahomes and they're like all right, mom, who'd you pick in the second round? I'm like Patrick Mahomes, mom, you don't pick a quarterback in the second round. You need points and it's all about points, and that means running backs and wide receivers. You need two of each and you picked a quarterback. And I'm like don't leave me alone. That's what happens when you leave me alone. Well, anyway, I have to do this cycle eight times and then I'm like you know what they can pick the rest for me, because this is too stressful for me.

Speaker 1: 6:49

All in all, we did good, but I'm going to tell you right now that is not how you do it. I do not recommend that anybody does it that way, where you're staring at a freaking Excel sheet, a Google Doc sheet, with nothing next to you to help you kind of cross through players that have been picked. Next year, I'm going to get a whole like list of the players and then cross them out and then I at least have like a pool of players to choose from. That was rough. So those are the good things that are popping up in my life. I hope that you have some really cool things happening this month and you learn to just live a little.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Sometimes we get caught up in all of the things happening around us but we don't take time to actually live life. We're too busy working our job and focusing on everyone around us because we're caretakers, we're nurturers. So just remember to take a step back from all the craziness and the chaos and remember you, because I just read a fucked up article about a Wells Fargo employee that died at her desk and was there for four days without being found, without anyone noticing. That is correct, four days. First of all, how did no security guard, co-worker, family member, surveillance camera not catch this? I don't know, but it was extremely disturbing. It tripped me out a little bit and it makes me think.

Speaker 1: 8:23

I sit there thinking I'm like if that happened to me, if I went to work knock on wood. If I went to work knock on wood, I went to work would anybody notice that I died at my desk? Would anyone notice? I would think that somebody would notice. Are you thinking that right now? Are you thinking, okay, who would be the first one to notice? Would it be a coworker? Would it be a surveillance camera? Would it be a security guard? Would it be your family or your friends? Who would notice first? Who would be like whoa, whoa, it's been two hours, I know where she is and she hasn't checked in or she's not on her way home from work yet I think somebody at work would notice. You know, maybe not right away, maybe not right away.

Speaker 1: 9:05

A lot of us work from home. On certain days, if I was at work and then I had my door shut because I'm doing like virtual meetings or something they may not notice, like I may get locked in the building with nobody noticing because you don't know if I'm there or not there, but the next day they would notice because I wouldn't be responding and I didn't take a PTO. So if not my boss noticing, my team would notice because we're constantly talking. So I would say I'm going to give my office 24 hours, okay, 24 hours. Somebody's going to say something. But my family, my home, like maybe not my dad, my dad may not know because we don't see each other every day, and my oldest son may not know right away, but you bet your bottom dollar which I don't even know where that saying comes from my youngest and my daughter, oh, they're going to know. They're going to know because we have each other on Life360. They know if I go to a Starbucks to get a Starbucks drink and I didn't get them something, they will text, they will call what are you doing? We see where you are. What are you doing? I am tracked and stalked by my kids, so if I'm at work past seven they're going to freak out.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Last night we were at Trevor's game and the game started at seven. It was about 45 minutes away so I drove by myself because Hannah had an after work meeting and she couldn't come. I met my oldest son there and we watched the game together. I didn't leave that game for something. There was something wrong with the clock so it was taken forever. But I didn't leave that game until about, I guess, 945 because I got a text from Hannah at 941. She sees that I'm at the game because she's got me on life 360. And she says are y'all good? It's almost 10pm, like that's my life. So would it be noticed if I died at work? Yeah, it would be noticed right away, and that's because I'm with my kids. But if I was living by myself, maybe not, and I don't know the circumstances behind the person that passed away at work. Let me look. The article that I'm reading from is on NBC News. It was written by Marlene Langton.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Officials probe death of Wells Fargo employee found in her cubicle four days after scanning into work. Denise Prudehomme, 60, okay, that tells you she didn't have kids at home, or I don't know if she had a husband yet, but she didn't have kids at home was found dead on August 20th in her Arizona office. Police say the preliminary investigation shows no signs of foul play. I just want to hear why, how, what? You know, a 60-year-old Arizona Wells Fargo employee scanned into her office on a Friday in what appeared to be an ordinary workday. Gosh man, things just come out of nowhere. You just never know, man. She had last scanned into the building at 7 am on August 16th, a Friday. Okay, well, that adds some time to it. Okay, so it was a Friday that she died, which would have kept over the weekend. They wouldn't have found her until Monday, but 7 am, okay, okay, let me keep reading. On a Friday and there was no further scan in or out of the office.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Tempe police responded to the Wells Fargo office in the 1100 block of West Washington Street after on-site security called about an employee they believed to be dead. She was pronounced dead at 4.55 pm. Police said the cause of death is pending determination by the medical examiner. It's not clear how Prudhomme had gone unnoticed for so long. She worked in a cubicle on the third floor away from the main aisle. An employee who spoke with KPNX on the condition of anonymity said that a colleague found her at her desk while walking around the building and that several people had smelled a foul odor but believed it to be faulty plumbing. Wells Fargo confirmed that she sat in a underpopulated part of the building.

Speaker 1: 13:31

All right, that's fair. We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones and we are in contact to ensure that they are all well supported during this difficult time. All right, so we don't really know about her family life. We don't know how nobody found her, like by four days, like the whole weekend. She had to be living alone.

Speaker 1: 14:00

But that makes me think like I'm going to be living alone one day. How do I protect myself against people not knowing I'm going missing? Now that I'm doing this true crime stuff, it makes me really think about things that I do and maybe informing people more of my whereabouts. I just think it makes sense Like time is crucial when you're dealing with missing persons and you're dealing with accidents that may happen. It's important to tell people what you're doing, and I know I'm a loner, like I don't. I'm terrible at communicating. My kids don't let me do that, because they want to communicate, but when they're older they're going to be involved in their own lives. They're not going to be so intertwined with what I'm doing. I know for myself. I'm going to make a very conscious effort to either text them when I'm going to do something, not every time. I don't know. I haven't figured it out yet, but I am never going to be the person that dies at my office and nobody knows about it for four days. So I'm going to do whatever I have to do to prevent that, because I want them to find me. Jesus, I don't know it. Just that just feels sad to me.

Speaker 1: 15:19

The people on YouTube, you might've noticed. Let me get a little closer. Let me get a little closer. My hair is brown. I did it. I did it. I took the plunge. It was an itch. I had to scratch because I had been thinking about it for probably six months, maybe even a year.

Speaker 1: 15:38

I just get bored. My mom used to always color her hair. She been a year. I just get bored. My mom used to always color her hair. She was red one day, she was blonde the next day, she was a brunette the next day. I think it's fun. I don't want to be boring. I've never wanted to be boring, but I had been redhead with blonde in my hair for seven years. I couldn't get it out of my head. Three to four different people had said you really should go brown again. I think you would look better as a brunette again. I try not to care what people think, but when four different people tell you that you should go brown, it's really hard to get it out of your mind. I'm getting it out of my mind by putting it on my head. I feel boring. I'm going to be honest. I feel really boring.

Speaker 1: 16:22

One of the things my hairdresser said she's like is your hair falling out? I'm like, oh my God, it is actually. It is starting to fall out. So I'm going to do an episode on that. I think it has to do with menopause. It's falling out a little bit. It's dry. It's drier than it was. So she put like a hair mask in it and it looks really healthy right now.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Anybody going through menopause? Do you know what I'm saying? I got to figure out what that's all about and I'm going to talk to my doctor about it. There may be, like some vitamin supplements that I need to take, I don't know. It happened right after COVID.

Speaker 1: 16:50

So my hair started falling out in 2022. It was really bad. I don't know if it had to do with the COVID shot or if it's because I had COVID. I'm not sure, but I know that it stemmed about. Well, hold on, I was also going through perimetopause. Could have been that, could have been that. Now I'm in full-blown menopause, so it's happening again.

Speaker 1: 17:15

So it's like it fell out in 2022. Then it started to get back healthy and thick, thick, and it was hardly falling out again in my hairdresser's. Like it's back, your hair is great, it's so healthy, it's so good, and today she's like is it falling out again? I don't know. I don't know if it's a cycle that goes up and down and up and down. I'm not really sure, but I need to figure it out. So if you're going through that, if you're in perimetopause or menopause, that is probably symptomatic to being in that phase of life. If you have any tips or tricks or if you've already gone through this and you remember it, put it in the comments. Send me a text. I want to know is there something I should be doing that I'm not doing to keep my hair thick?

Speaker 1: 18:01

I'm going to be recording and releasing another true crime episode. I haven't decided which one just yet, but it will be out. Depending on how fast I record and edit, it could be out this week also, or it may be released the following Monday. So look out for a surprise drop sometime during the week. If you do like the true crime, please let me know.

Speaker 1: 18:25

I enjoy making true crime. It is a lot of work. This is easy for me. I sit here and I talk to you and I just go and I edit and we're done. It's not so easy when I'm doing a story and there's sound effects and there's music that has to play into the. You know the suspense and the climax of the story. There's pictures, there's audio, there's video. All of that stuff has to be researched and put into the episode. So it can take days for one episode. So it would be really nice if you told me if you enjoy it, because if you do, I want to continue making you happy. It's worth it for me to do that work. If you like it and enjoy it, go pull out your hoodies. You probably don't want to join fantasy football because it's stressful. All right, happy September. Love you, miss you, bye you.