She Faked Twins for a Bachelor Star. The Ultrasound Belonged to a Grieving Mother
She said they were his twins. There were never any babies
In 2023, a former star of the TV dating show The Bachelor got news that would change his life. A woman he had met once told him she was pregnant with his child.
Then she told him it was twins.
She had pregnancy tests. She had medical records. She had an ultrasound image showing two babies. Later, in court hearings on video, she even appeared visibly pregnant.
He insisted he could not be the father. The two of them, he said, had never had sex.
He turned out to be right about more than that.
There was no pregnancy. There were never any babies. A judge would later find no evidence that she had ever been pregnant at all.
The woman was Laura Owens. In August 2026, she pleaded guilty to four felonies.
But the strangest part of the story was not the fake pregnancy. It was where the picture of the twins came from. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
The ultrasound belonged to a grieving mother
Prosecutors said the twin ultrasound she showed him belonged to another woman.
Her name was Stormy Mitchell. She had been pregnant with twins. She lost one of them to something called vanishing twin syndrome.
Vanishing twin syndrome happens when a pregnancy starts with two babies, but one of them stops developing early on. Often, the only proof that there were ever two is an early ultrasound.
For Stormy Mitchell, that ultrasound was everything. She would later say it was “the only photo I will ever have of my twins together.”
Prosecutors said Laura Owens took that picture and used it as proof of her own fake twin pregnancy.
How Owens got the image has never been explained in the coverage we read.
Stormy Mitchell had never met the man at the center of this case. And yet, of everyone involved, she may have lost the most personal thing of all. (AZFamily)
Fourteen felony counts. Thirty days in jail
On October 23, 2026, an Arizona judge sentenced Laura Owens to 30 days in jail.
She also got seven years of probation. She has to undergo mental health treatment and must have no contact with her victims. If she violates probation, she could face up to 12 years behind bars. One report puts it at 12.5.
At one point, she had faced 14 felony counts in two separate indictments. She ended up pleading guilty to four.
The people she had harmed thought 30 days was far too little. The man she had targeted was furious. “She’s just sorry she got caught,” he said.
The judge had his reasons, and he explained them in court. We will get to those.
But first, you need to know how a single meeting in 2023 turned into a three-year legal fight across two courts.
It started with a reality-TV star trying to start over. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
A reality-TV star trying to start over
Clayton Echard became famous on reality TV. He was a contestant on season 18 of The Bachelorette and was later chosen as the lead of The Bachelor, season 26.
On The Bachelor, one single man dates a large group of women on camera, hoping to find a partner. It is one of America’s best-known dating shows, and its stars become recognizable faces.
After the show, Echard described adjusting to private life as a kind of “withdrawal.”
In April 2023, he announced a new career. He was moving into real estate in the Phoenix area of Arizona. He became a realtor in Scottsdale, a wealthy city right next to Phoenix.
He was trying to build a normal life out of the spotlight.
In May 2023, a woman reached out to him about a real estate deal.
Her name was Laura Owens. (A&E)
They met once in May 2023
On May 17, 2023, Laura Owens contacted Clayton Echard about a real estate deal.
She told him she was an entrepreneur who invested in short-term rentals. She was also known for a 2021 TEDx talk about the power of kindness to strangers.
On May 20, 2023, the two of them met.
What happened that night became the center of everything that followed. Court documents describe an “intimate encounter.” Prosecutors later said the two did not have intercourse.
That detail would matter enormously. If there was no intercourse, then Echard could not be the father of anyone’s baby.
It was one meeting, three days after her first message about a property deal. Nothing in the reports describes a relationship between them after that.
About two weeks later, she contacted him with news. (A&E)
Two weeks later: positive tests
About two weeks later, she told him she was pregnant.
Prosecutors date the claim to June 1, 2023.
She showed him proof. According to court records, she had medical records and multiple positive pregnancy tests.
Home pregnancy tests work by detecting a hormone called hCG, which the body makes during pregnancy. If the hormone is there, the test shows positive.
Prosecutors later said Owens had found a way to make that happen without being pregnant at all. But at that moment, Echard had no way of knowing.
All he knew was that a woman he had met once was showing him positive tests and saying the baby was his.
He said it was impossible. If there had been no intercourse, there could be no pregnancy, no matter what the tests said.
Then the story got bigger. (A&E)
Then she said it was twins
Then she said it was twins.
In August 2023, Laura Owens filed a paternity case against Clayton Echard in an Arizona family court. A paternity case is a lawsuit that asks a court to legally decide who a child’s father is. Once paternity is established, the father can be ordered to pay child support.
Her petition said she was pregnant with twins, and that he was the father.
Because Echard was a recognizable TV personality, the case drew attention.
It also turned ugly. Owens filed a complaint against him with the Arizona Department of Real Estate and asked for an order of protection against him. Echard got his own injunction against harassment.
In it, he wrote that he was the “third person” Owens had allegedly fabricated a pregnancy with.
He was not going to settle quietly. (A&E)
He said they never had sex
Clayton Echard’s answer to the paternity case was simple. He said they had never had sex. He said he could not be the father of anyone’s twins.
That put him in an unusual position. Most men in paternity disputes argue about whether a baby is theirs. Echard was saying there was no way a baby could be his. And soon he would argue there was no baby at all.
On paper, she had positive pregnancy tests, an ultrasound and medical records. He had only his word. In court, that is a hard position to be in.
It was the start of a long fight. At sentencing years later, he said: “I’ve been fighting for the last three and a half years.”
Each side claimed the other was refusing a paternity test.
So Echard decided to take one. (A&E)
The test found little to no fetal DNA
On September 26, 2023, Echard took a prenatal paternity test.
These tests are simple for the mother. During pregnancy, small fragments of the baby’s DNA float in the mother’s blood. A lab can draw her blood, find that fetal DNA and compare it with the possible father’s DNA.
But that only works if there is a baby.
Echard says the result showed “little to no fetal DNA.” He posted about it on Instagram days later.
Little to no fetal DNA, in a woman who said she was carrying twins.
Owens said she would send the lab another sample. According to A&E, the result that came back in December was the same.
To Echard, the answer was obvious. There was no pregnancy.
But on camera, in court, Laura Owens looked very pregnant. (A&E)
On video, she looked visibly pregnant
On October 24 and November 2, 2023, the family court held hearings remotely, over video.
Laura Owens appeared on screen looking visibly pregnant.
She told the court she was 24 weeks along, about six months, and that her due date was February 14, 2024. Valentine’s Day.
Prosecutors later said she had faked a pregnancy video and edited photos to make herself look pregnant. The reports we read don’t explain how she looked pregnant in those live hearings.
For anyone watching, it was confusing. A lab test said one thing. A woman with a visible bump on a screen said another.
The judge would later find that she had never been pregnant at all. So whatever the screen showed in those hearings, it was not a real pregnancy.
Valentine’s Day 2024 never came with any twins.
In late December 2023, the story changed again. (A&E)
She said she lost the pregnancy and asked to quit
On December 28, 2023, Owens told the court she had suffered a pregnancy loss. Her claimed due date was still about seven weeks away.
She asked the court to dismiss the paternity case. With no pregnancy, she argued, there was nothing left to decide.
For most people, that would have been the end. A sad end to a strange story.
Echard refused.
He opposed dismissal. He asked the court to formally declare that he was not the father. And he accused Owens of fabricating the pregnancy from the start.
By pressing on, he could get a judge to rule, on the record, on whether the pregnancy had ever been real.
The judge denied the dismissal and ordered both sides to share their evidence. The case would continue in June 2024.
Echard’s lawyers went looking for more. (A&E)
Two exes had heard the same story
Echard’s lawyers found two men Laura Owens had been involved with before: Greg Gillespie and Michael Marraccini.
There was a twist. It was Owens who had obtained restraining orders against both men.
A restraining order is a court order that tells someone to stay away from another person. Getting one usually means telling a court you feel threatened.
So on paper, these two men looked like the kind of people Owens had needed protection from.
But when Echard’s lawyers talked to them, they told a very different story.
Both men said Owens had told them something familiar. She had said she was pregnant.
By them.
Suddenly, Echard was not just one man with a strange story. His lawyers believed they had found a pattern.
And if the pattern held up in court, it would change how a judge looked at everything Owens had claimed. (A&E)
Both men were ready to testify
Both were ready to testify that she had told them the same thing. She was pregnant. By them.
Echard had already written that he was the “third person” with a fabricated pregnancy claim. He later said he was the fourth man to be accused.
Exactly how many men received pregnancy claims is still unclear. Reports range from “multiple men” to Echard’s count of four.
Greg Gillespie’s story would later become its own criminal case. Prosecutors said that in 2021, Owens dated Gillespie for three dates, and that after he ended it, she falsely claimed to be pregnant.
Gillespie later said Owens caused him to spend years defending his reputation, his livelihood and his name.
Now these men were ready to sit in a witness chair and say so.
And Owens herself was about to be questioned under oath. (A&E)
Under oath, she admitted changing the sonogram
Under oath, she admitted she had altered the sonogram she showed him.
A sonogram is the image produced by an ultrasound scan. It is the black-and-white picture parents often take home from the doctor.
Her admission was narrow. She admitted changing the name of the medical facility on the image. She also admitted altering the hCG hormone levels on an October pregnancy test.
But she insisted the image itself was still hers. She said it came from an anonymous visit to Planned Parenthood.
Then a doctor from Planned Parenthood testified. The organization requires a government-issued ID for admission. That undercut her story of an anonymous visit.
The court also found that Owens had provided other doctored medical records, so her hormone levels would look like a healthy pregnancy.
Piece by piece, the paper trail of the pregnancy was falling apart. (A&E)
A judge: no evidence she was ever pregnant
On June 17, 2024, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Julie Mata ruled.
She found that there was no evidence Laura Owens had ever been pregnant.
The judge also found that the paternity petition was “not filed in good faith.” It had been made, she wrote, “to incite communication, a relationship or both” with Echard.
In other words, the court found that the lawsuit had not been about a baby at all. It had been a way to keep Echard connected to her.
Then Judge Mata did something more serious. She referred the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, the prosecutors for the Phoenix area.
Up until then, this had been a civil fight in family court. It was about paternity, not crimes.
Now it was on its way to becoming a criminal case. (A&E)
A grand jury indicted her. Then came seven more counts
In 2025, a grand jury indicted her.
A grand jury is a group of citizens who review evidence in secret and decide whether there is enough to formally charge someone with a crime.
The first indictment came in May 2025. Reports give different dates, May 1 or May 20. It listed seven counts, including fraudulent schemes, forgery, four counts of perjury and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors said that between May 2023 and June 2024, Owens altered an ultrasound image, fabricated a pregnancy video and lied under oath several times.
Then, in November 2025, more charges followed. They were over a similar pregnancy claim to another man, Greg Gillespie, in 2021, plus lying to prosecutors about it.
That brought the total to 14 felony counts.
Prosecutors also explained how they believed she had produced those positive pregnancy tests. (Newsweek)
The hormone that made the tests say yes
Prosecutors said she got hCG injections at a spa.
Here’s why that matters. hCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, is the hormone pregnancy tests look for. Normally, the body only makes large amounts of it during pregnancy.
But hCG can also be injected. Some clinics offer it for other purposes. According to prosecutors’ account, Owens had said the injections helped her skin and could increase her chances of getting pregnant.
If hCG is in your body, a pregnancy test can come back positive even if there is no baby.
“The method that she chose was [human chorionic gonadotropin],” a prosecutor said.
So the positive tests were real tests, showing a real hormone. They just did not mean what Echard had been told they meant.
The tests were fake proof. But the picture of the twins was something worse. It belonged to a real family. (AZFamily)
“The only photo I will ever have of my twins together”
The twin ultrasound belonged to a mother named Stormy Mitchell.
She had lost one of her twins to vanishing twin syndrome. That early scan was the only time both babies were captured together.
She told the court it was “the only photo I will ever have of my twins together.”
At sentencing, prosecutor Ed Leiter read her statement aloud.
“She then claimed that the photograph of my pregnancy represented her own pregnancy,” Mitchell wrote.
“She used my babies as part of a lie to manipulate and hurt someone else. Honestly that is despicable.”
Mitchell was never part of the paternity case. She never met Echard. Her private grief was taken and turned into a prop in someone else’s lie.
Of all the people harmed in this case, she was the one who had lost a real child. (AZFamily)
She pleaded guilty to four felonies
On August 28, 2026, Laura Owens pleaded guilty to four felonies.
She did not plead to the original charges. Under a plea agreement, she pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent schemes, one count of perjury, and one count of taking another person’s identity.
A plea agreement is a deal. The defendant admits to some crimes, usually fewer or lesser ones, and in return prosecutors drop the rest. It avoids a trial.
Perjury means lying under oath. Taking another person’s identity is a crime that covers using someone else’s identifying information as your own.
At sentencing, Owens spoke. “I pleaded guilty to four felonies, and I am profoundly, profoundly sorry for the pain, distress and expense that I’ve caused them,” she said.
“I’ve never in my entire life set out to hurt another person.”
Then it was the judge’s turn. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
“A very sad individual making some poor choices”
The judge said he had weighed one question: “whether or not she’s this sophisticated con person or a very sad individual making some poor choices.”
“So obviously, I think it’s the latter,” he said.
He pointed to her guilty plea, her remorse, her family support, and “physical and behavioral health issues.” He said she had no prior criminal record and had committed a nonviolent offense.
Thirty days in jail. Seven years of probation. Mental health treatment.
Echard was not satisfied. “Her tears aren’t from empathy, they’re not. She doesn’t feel sorry. She’s just sorry she got caught,” he said.
Michael Marraccini said he was “really disappointed in the justice system today.” Echard’s attorney, Gregg Woodnick, said the jail sentence was less than the state and the victims had asked for.
Greg Gillespie is seeking nearly $300,000 in restitution. Whether he will get it is still not known. (AZFamily)
There were never any twins
There were never any twins.
There was no pregnancy. A judge found no evidence she had ever been pregnant. There was no due date on Valentine’s Day 2024, no babies to support, no father to name.
What there was, was a paper trail. Positive tests produced by a hormone. A sonogram with its labels changed. A pregnancy video prosecutors said was fake. Sworn statements, including one she pleaded guilty to as perjury.
And there was a photograph.
It showed two tiny babies together, at the very start of their lives. It was real. It just was not hers.
For more than a year, it was used as proof of children who never existed.
For Stormy Mitchell, it is still the only picture of her twins together. It belonged to her all along.
Case notes: a borrowed ultrasound, a family court ruling, and a 30-day sentence
This case did not start in criminal court. It started as a paternity petition Laura Owens filed against Clayton Echard in August 2023 (A&E). It became a criminal case only after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Julie Mata ruled for Echard and referred Owens to prosecutors (SF Chronicle).
The prosecutors’ case rested on documents, not on whether the two had been intimate. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said that between May 2023 and June 2024, Owens altered an ultrasound image, fabricated a pregnancy video, and lied under oath several times (MCAO).
One person harmed in this case never met Echard. Prosecutors said the twin ultrasound Owens used belonged to Stormy Mitchell, who lost one of her twins to vanishing twin syndrome (AZFamily). Her statement, read in court by prosecutor Ed Leiter, said: “She used my babies as part of a lie to manipulate and hurt someone else” (FOX 10).
Timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Owens dates a man for three dates; prosecutors later say she falsely claimed a pregnancy after he ended it (Newsweek) |
| May 17-20, 2023 | Owens contacts Echard about a real estate deal; prosecutors say they met on May 20 and did not have intercourse (AZFamily) |
| June 1, 2023 | Owens says she is pregnant, after hCG injections from a spa, per prosecutors (AZFamily) |
| August 2023 | Paternity petition filed, alleging twins (A&E) |
| Sept. 26, 2023 | Echard takes a paternity test; he says it shows “little to no fetal DNA” (A&E) |
| Oct. 24 and Nov. 2, 2023 | At remote hearings, Owens says she is 24 weeks pregnant, due Feb. 14, 2024 (A&E) |
| Dec. 28, 2023 | Owens reports a pregnancy loss and asks to dismiss; Echard opposes and the case goes on (A&E) |
| June 17, 2024 | Judge Mata rules for Echard and refers Owens for prosecution (SF Chronicle) |
| May 1, 2025 | Grand jury indicts Owens on seven counts (FOX 10) |
| November 2025 | Seven more counts over the 2021 claim, 14 in all (Newsweek) |
| Aug. 28, 2026 | Owens pleads guilty to four felonies (FOX 10) |
| Oct. 23, 2026 | Sentenced to 30 days in jail and seven years of probation (FOX 10) |
What the sources agree on, and where they don’t
| Detail | Source A says | Source B says |
|---|---|---|
| Date of first indictment | May 1, 2025 (FOX 10); announced May 6 (MCAO) | May 20, 2025 (A&E) |
| The sentence | 30 days in jail, seven years of probation, mental health treatment, no contact with victims (FOX 10) | 30 days of flat time plus 12 months of deferred jail starting Oct. 22, 2027 (AZFamily) |
| Exposure if probation is violated | Up to 12 years (FOX 10) | Up to 12.5 years (AZFamily) |
| When the claim was dropped | Pregnancy loss reported Dec. 28, 2023 (A&E) | Child support claim withdrawn in May 2024 (KTAR) |
| How many men | “At least one other victim,” per Echard’s attorney (FOX 10) | Echard says he was the fourth man accused (SF Chronicle) |
Details most coverage missed
The restraining orders ran the other way. Echard’s lawyers found two of Owens’ former partners, Greg Gillespie and Michael Marraccini. It was Owens who had obtained restraining orders against both men. Both were prepared to testify she had told them she was pregnant by them (A&E). Gillespie is now seeking nearly $300,000 in restitution (AZFamily).
The admissions were narrow. Owens admitted changing the facility name on a sonogram and altering hCG levels on an October pregnancy test (SF Chronicle). She said the image came from an anonymous Planned Parenthood visit. A Planned Parenthood doctor testified that the organization requires government ID (A&E).
The plea was not to the original charges. The first indictment listed fraudulent schemes, forgery, four perjury counts and evidence tampering (MCAO). She pleaded to two counts of fraudulent schemes, one of perjury and one of taking another person’s identity (FOX 10).
The judge explained the leniency. He said he weighed whether she was “this sophisticated con person or a very sad individual making some poor choices,” and concluded it was the latter (AZFamily). He cited her guilty plea, remorse, family support and “physical and behavioral health issues” as mitigation (FOX 10). Echard responded: “She’s just sorry she got caught” (KTVU).
What we still don’t know
- Whether Gillespie will receive the nearly $300,000 he is seeking (AZFamily).
- How many men received a pregnancy claim. Reports range from “multiple men” to Echard’s count of four (SF Chronicle).
- Whether every earlier claim involved twins. Echard’s attorney said she “faked twin pregnancies multiple times,” but the reports we read document twins only in Echard’s case (FOX 10).
- How Owens obtained Stormy Mitchell’s ultrasound. The coverage we read does not say (FOX 10).
- Which judge imposed the sentence. None of the sentencing reports we read names him (AZFamily).
Case file summary
- Defendant: Laura Owens, Scottsdale, Arizona
- Family court: Paternity petition filed August 2023; Judge Julie Mata found no evidence of pregnancy, June 17, 2024
- Criminal charges: 14 felony counts across two indictments, May and November 2025
- Plea: Aug. 28, 2026, guilty to two counts of fraudulent schemes, one of perjury, one of taking another’s identity
- Sentence: Oct. 23, 2026, 30 days in jail, seven years of probation, mental health treatment, no contact with victims
- People harmed: Clayton Echard; Greg Gillespie; Stormy Mitchell, whose ultrasound was used
- Status: Sentenced; restitution request pending
Illustrations are artistic interpretations, not court photos or evidence images. No real person has a recognizable face.
Sources
- AZFamily: Laura Owens sentenced after fake pregnancy case involving Clayton Echard
- FOX 10 Phoenix: Laura Owens sentenced for fake pregnancy scheme targeting former ‘Bachelor’ star
- FOX 10 Phoenix: Arizona woman pleads guilty in fake pregnancy scheme targeting former ‘Bachelor’ star
- FOX 10 Phoenix: Former Bachelor Clayton Echard reacts to Laura Owens’ fraud indictment
- A&E: Bachelor Clayton Echard and Laura Owens’ false pregnancy
- Maricopa County Attorney’s Office: Laura Owens indicted on fraud charges
- Newsweek: Woman accused of faking pregnancy with Bachelor star faces new charges
- San Francisco Chronicle: Clayton Echard wins paternity case
- KTAR: Laura Owens indicted in Bachelor paternity case
- KTVU: Laura Owens sentenced in ‘Bachelor’ pregnancy scheme
- Fox News: ‘Bachelor’ star Clayton Echard earns legal victory in paternity lawsuit
