Before the main interview begins, Mariana van Zeller addresses the audience directly with a brief housekeeping note. She asks listeners to consider supporting The Hidden Third on Patreon at patreon.com/thehiddenthird, where patrons get access to bonus content and behind-the-scenes material. She also requests that listeners follow or subscribe to the show and leave a rating or review, emphasizing that these small actions have a real impact on the show's visibility and sustainability.

The episode opens with Michelle Gomez's own voice, describing in meticulous detail how she knows everything about a target before she shows up — their favorite color, their pet's name, their nickname, their daily habits ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Michelle Gomez doesn't improvise — she arrives knowing her target's favorite color, dog's name, and daily routine. Total pre-operation inte…" 00:32 Play} . Mariana then formally introduces Michelle as a skip tracer and private investigator whom Wired magazine has called 'the world's best bounty hunter,' with over two decades of taking on cases that law enforcement, collection agencies, and other investigators have given up on. The two quickly reveal the case that connected them: a Belgian man referred to as 'Mr. Belgium' who contacted Mariana after losing close to $1 million to a fraudster posing as the 'Prince of Dubai,' who had relocated to San Antonio, Texas, and was swindling people across Miami and beyond. Michelle was already at the center of that investigation, which is how the two women found each other.

Mariana asks Michelle to define skip tracing for listeners who may not know the term. Michelle explains that 'skip' refers to people or things that have skipped out on an obligation — either a financial one or the simple desire not to be found. She began building her professional network in the year 2000 in the repossession industry ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Skip tracing career started in 2000: Michelle began building her professional network in the repossession industry in the year 2000, over a…" 03:03 Play} , learning the ins and outs of industries from plumbing to cosmetology, all of which feed into her ability to navigate information quickly. She contrasts her speed with that of standard law enforcement, saying that when clients want a fugitive, she simply asks when they need him — and delivers. Her secret, she says, is an ability to move around the internet, the phone, and personal contacts in ways that standard investigators and police cannot match.

Michelle paints a picture of her Texas childhood: her parents were both engineers who retired from IBM, and though they were often absent due to travel and work, they brought the engineering world home with them. Instead of conventional toys, Michelle and her brother played with model cars that quickly bored them — so their father brought home motherboards, capacitors, resistors, and small power sources ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Michelle's parents were IBM engineers who had their kids solder motherboards before they were teenagers. That instinct to figure out how sy…" 05:04 Play} . Michelle learned to solder at a very young age and, crucially, learned to work without schematics — just looking at a circuit board and figuring out how to make it light up. Her father was a motherboard tester at IBM, and Michelle absorbed his analytical approach by osmosis. She explicitly connects that early pattern of 'seeing the picture of where things need to be' to how she approaches investigation today: instinctive, fast, and comfortable not following the manual.

Michelle's entry into skip tracing is rooted in a painful personal chapter. In her 30s, a controlling fiancé hit her once — and she spent an entire year ensuring he was prosecuted to the fullest extent. During that year, she was working at a large Texas personal injury law firm, where she discovered a natural gift for gathering and organizing information. Her boss gave her two weeks off to handle the situation. During that time she met Russell, a man in the repossession business, who introduced her to the world of skip tracing — which she initially thought sounded illegal ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Michelle's first skip-tracing job involved locating a van from a family in bereavement using a ruse phone call. She refused to take it unti…" 13:53 Play} . Her first test case: a van belonging to a family whose grandfather had just died, which had been missing for eight months. Michelle located it in a single phone call using a ruse about being a florist, gathered the funeral details, and refused to seize the van until after the burial. She later helped the family use their life insurance payout to buy it back — and became friends with them. That first case crystallized both her professional method and her ethical core.

The episode pauses for two sponsor segments. Mariana endorses Webroot Total Protection, a cloud-based antivirus described as 33 times lighter and 6 times faster than competitors, framing it as the right tool for the AI-driven threat landscape she covers as a journalist. She offers listeners 60% off at webroot.com/mariana. She then transitions to OneSkin skincare, describing the brand's OS-01 peptide as the first ingredient proven to target the cellular causes of wrinkles and fine lines, and notes the brand was founded by an all-woman team of PhDs. Listeners get 15% off with code MARIANA at oneskin.co/mariana.

Mariana prompts Michelle to describe herself for audio-only listeners, knowing that her appearance will subvert every expectation. Michelle stands 4'11" and weighs around 100 pounds, typically wearing Converse sneakers and casual clothing ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "At 4'11" and 100 pounds, Michelle Gomez is the last person anyone expects to show up with a warrant. That invisibility is her greatest tact…" 21:20 Play} . But what makes her dangerous isn't what she looks like — it's how she processes people. She says her first moves are always to listen and immediately analyze behavior. Mariana connects this to her own experience as a woman in male-dominated investigative environments: being underestimated creates access. Michelle agrees, adding that she also looks at the circumstances of people's lives before judging them, always searching for a way to help rather than simply exploit. The conversation surfaces a quietly radical philosophy: the most effective investigators are those who are genuinely compassionate, not those who are most intimidating.

Once Michelle has completed her deep dive into a target's profile, the physical operation begins — and it almost never looks like what people imagine. She describes a portfolio of personas she deploys in the field: Girl Scout cookie seller, lost pet owner, coupon distributor, and on two notable occasions, a sex worker in a red dress ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Michelle got a case at 10pm, created a fake persona named 'Mariela,' lured a fugitive to a CVS parking lot over the phone, and had him in c…" 28:08 Play} . Each disguise is chosen to fit the target's specific environment. The episode's standout anecdote: a North Carolina skip case where Michelle received the file at 10pm, created a fake persona named 'Mariela,' worked the target over the phone while in her pajamas, directed bounty hunters to a CVS parking lot, and had the fugitive in custody by 6am — all without leaving home. She describes watching the operation unfold via WhatsApp video, choreographing the moment to perfection: 'When he looks confused, that's when you go get him.' The bounty hunters simply followed her directions. She was never even there.

With the court case against her assailant resolved and her year at Texas State Specialties behind her, Michelle returned home to Lockhart, Texas, and tried to put skip tracing in the past. It found her anyway. A contractor named Joe Burleson called on behalf of Ford Motor Company, which needed three or four missing F-350 and F-450 trucks with car carriers located ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "After locating three or four missing Ford heavy trucks on her first day, Michelle's mentor Brian suggested she start her own company called…" 34:24 Play} . Her former mentor Brian was on the call, sponsoring her return. Michelle hesitated — she didn't think she was ready to run her own operation. But she took the case and located all the trucks before the end of the day. Brian recognized what he was seeing and suggested she open a company called Unlimited Recoveries. Michelle had no business experience, but an undeniable natural talent. The conversation traces her journey from individual contractor to business owner, spanning a growing range of clients from financial institutions like Rush, Kubota, Freightliner, and Mack to high-stakes individual cases.

The Ryan Mullen case is what put Michelle on the map. A collection agency hired her to repossess a yacht from a man who had defrauded banks using fake checks and fabricated financial statements — and had left investigators at every level completely confused. When Michelle was already working the case, a U.S. Marshal named Chesby called to inform her that Mullen was also wanted by the federal government for stealing $2 million ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Ryan Mullen had eluded law enforcement for years with fake identities, forged financial statements, and political protection. Michelle crac…" 40:00 Play} . She immediately knew the Marshal's tip about Mullen being in the Florida Keys was wrong — she'd already called Harbor Police and confirmed he wasn't there. Following her intelligence on his three-person support triangle — a central figure, a finance man, and movers — she tracked down his finance accomplice, saw a rosary on his rearview mirror, and used his Catholic faith and his dying daughter's illness to pressure him into cooperating. The accomplice stalled her for an hour and a half to give Mullen time to escape, but Michelle and journalist Randall Sullivan raced to a Louisiana plantation, found Mullen on the deck actively untying his yacht's ropes, and arrested him. She was in shorts and flip-flops. When he demanded to know who she was, she replied: 'I'm Michelle Gomez.' His parrot was carried off repeating 'Kill 'em all' and 'Where's Mullen?' to the growing crowd.

After the Mullen arrest, journalist Randall Sullivan published his account in Wired, and the article named Michelle Gomez 'the world's best bounty hunter.' The effect was immediate ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "After journalist Randall Sullivan followed Michelle on the Ryan Mullen case and published a piece in Wired, her phone never stopped ringing…" 42:14 Play} . Calls flooded in from wealthy individuals, news organizations, and clients across the globe. Michelle describes the experience as overwhelming — a sudden and permanent shift in the scale and nature of her work. The Wired story didn't just change her career; it positioned her as the go-to investigator for cases that no one else could solve. This visibility is what eventually led scam victim 'Mr. Belgium' to find her — and led Mariana van Zeller to find them both.

Mark, a Belgian citizen, emailed Michelle explaining he had been defrauded by a man who presented himself as a Dubai prince — Alex Georges Janous. Michelle immediately ran a background check on Mark to verify the legitimacy of the outreach, then dove into the case. Alex had photos with sheiks, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris, presenting himself as a diplomat with vast Dubai wealth ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Alex Georges Janous posed as a wealthy Dubai diplomat with Lamborghinis, sheiks, and private planes to lure investors. Behind the facade we…" 53:50 Play} . But behind the façade were empty shell companies and fabricated financial statements. Each of his victims was swindled through a different scheme: import-export, design, an energy drink called the 'Superman drink' backed by a respected local doctor who drew in his own patients and friends. Alex also had a network of romantic relationships across the country — including a woman with Trump connections in Palm Beach — each of whom believed they were central to his life. His wife, a successful Honduran woman living in San Antonio, had no idea he was a fraud until the cracks began to show. Each victim's story was unique in its logistics but identical in its structure: a charismatic man who knew exactly what language to use, backed by forged paperwork that looked flawless to even sophisticated businesspeople.

Among the many schemes Alex Janous ran, one stands out for its particular cruelty. He told people in his San Antonio neighborhood that his wife was gravely ill with cancer, using that story to borrow money from friends and neighbors for her 'treatment' ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "Alex Janous told neighbors his wife was dying of cancer and collected money for her 'treatment.' His wife had no idea until friends stopped…" 58:24 Play} . His wife — a successful, healthy Honduran woman — had no idea any of this was happening. She only began to suspect something was wrong when her social circle inexplicably shrank. Friends stopped coming around, stopped calling. When she finally confronted one of them, she discovered why: they all believed she was dying and were giving her space to rest. The revelation was a complete shock. The man she had married and trusted had turned her imaginary illness into a financial instrument — one more shell in a vast, interlocking architecture of lies.

The most unexpected figure in the Alex Janous saga is Teletta Copeland, an ex-FBI agent who reached out to Michelle claiming to need help locating scam victims connected to Janous. Michelle was puzzled by the request — Copeland had FBI training and OSINT expertise, so why did she need Michelle's help? Her instincts told her to be careful ^{[1] — Michelle Gomez "An ex-FBI agent named Teletta Copeland fell in love with Alex Janous and then worked to sabotage Michelle's investigation, including creati…" 1:01:20 Play} . Eventually, she understood: Copeland was romantically involved with Janous and was trying to monitor how close Michelle was getting to him. One night at 10:45pm, a drunk Copeland called Michelle and gave herself away — expressing admiration for Michelle's work while revealing the depth of her emotional entanglement with the scammer. Michelle tried to use the moment to persuade Copeland to cooperate and help bring Janous down. Copeland refused. She later created a website called 'michellefraud.com' to damage Michelle's reputation, which temporarily disrupted a high-profile opportunity in New York. Copeland then scrubbed the internet of negative references to Janous. She died on April 25th of alcohol poisoning.

The episode winds down with a sobering update: Alex Janous is serving 25 years at the Three Rivers federal facility, but the case is far from closed ^{[1] — Mariana van Zeller "Alex Janous sentenced to 25 years in prison: Alex Georges Janous, the fake 'Prince of Dubai' who scammed multiple victims out of hundreds o…" 1:06:19 Play} . His family — mother, father, brothers — are believed to be involved, and Michelle has not yet met several key witnesses who live just 45 minutes away from her. She also reveals that Ryan Mullen went back to prison for additional crimes after his Louisiana arrest, and that she believes Louisiana's political corruption runs deep around his case — with politicians protecting him in exchange for money, sex, and access to trafficking victims. Michelle says she still has text messages from Mullen's phone that she believes point to child sex trafficking. She is currently working a cartel case involving a figure she calls 'La Tía,' and knows exactly where the target is. Mariana and Michelle close the episode by joking that the investigative journalist now has a skip tracer on staff — and the skip tracer has a journalist. The dirty world out there, they agree, is their oyster.