Nobody Should Believe Me returns with a new season that tells the disturbing true story of the McDaniel family.
It’s described as a real-life Southern Gothic tale of Munchausen by Proxy stretching over decades.
The hit podcast, hosted by Andrea Dunlop, is back for its sixth season and promises to break a story years in the making, made possible by the bravery of Lisa McDaniel’s daughter, Mishelle Roberts, who finally decided to speak out about her mother’s hidden crimes.
Lisa McDaniel worked for twelve years as director of patient advocacy at The Guthy Jackson Foundation, a respected charity supporting research into a rare disease called NMO, which she claimed her son suffered from.
But behind her reputation as a loving mother and charity worker was a disturbing history of abuse that included a felony conviction for poisoning and suffocating her baby daughter — a fact hidden from the foundation and the wider public for years.
The series investigates how Lisa managed to hide this conviction while remaining in a trusted role, how her children slipped through the cracks in both healthcare and the law, and what really happened to her son Collin.
Dunlop says the podcast will also reveal how perpetrators can infiltrate rare disease communities, putting families and vulnerable children at risk.
“Nobody Should Believe Me ties together the failures of the system, the silence in hospitals and the damage to families which can last for generations,” says Dunlop, who hopes the new episodes will help more people recognise the signs of this rare but devastating form of abuse.
The podcast hears directly from Mishelle and other family members as they share how they found the courage to break free from years of secrecy and fear.
Season Six launches today, Thursday 19 June, with weekly episodes available wherever you get your podcasts.
