Who Is Marileide Andersen? The Ex-Girlfriend ‘Dirty John’ Meehan Nearly Swindled For $37 Million

John Meehan became a household name in recent years as the subject of "Dirty John," the podcast produced by "The Los Angeles Times." In the podcast, Meehan is the subject of the story where he terrorizes and attempts to destroy the lives of his then-wife Debra Newell and her family. But before he met Debra there were several other romantic interests in his life who he also terrorized.

In the documentary "Dirty John, The Dirty Truth," airing on Oxygen, ex-girlfriend Merileide Andersen talks extensively about the time she routed tens of millions of dollars to John Meehan before realizing she had made a huge mistake. Andersen, an accomplished Brazilian author and multi-millionaire, became romantically connected with Meehan in 2013, just two years before meeting Debra Newell.

Andersen, who was getting brain surgery in the United States, woke up from her surgery to find Meehan identifying himself as her anesthesiologist. She remembers Meehan’s charming wit with her at her bedside in the Oxygen documentary. "He's very charming. I felt very comfortable with him," Andersen says.

Following her brain surgery, Andersen and Meehan began a romantic relationship that set the wheels in motion for Meehan's attempt to take her money.

Andersen was looking to move her millions of dollars from her bank account in Brazil to a bank account where she was currently living in the United States but was unable to do so. Meehan suggested that she could use a bank account that he possessed to transfer her money. The transfer was initiated by Andersen, but after talking with a friend who suggested she not go through with the transaction, she immediately began the steps of canceling the funds from being deposited to Meehan’s account. It was at this time that Andersen remembers the tides changing in her relationship with Meehan. "The money never came to his account, then he started to be very mad and rude to me," she tells Oxygen.

Eventually the relationship ended, but the communication and harassment from Meehan did not.

Meehan eventually told Andersen that she owed him $37,000 and that the only way he would leave her alone was if she paid him that money. Andersen spoke about Meehan's stalking and harassment of her after their relationship had ended. "Wherever I drive, he follows me. Then I have to sleep with a knife to protect myself," Andersen says.

The atrocities climaxed when Meehan eventually broke into Andersen's home, which prompted her to seek the police. But, Meehan was nowhere to be found by investigators.

Eventually, police were able to track Meehan down at a chiropractor’s office where a chase ensued before he was arrested for burglary, extortion and stalking of Merileide Andersen. Meehan pled guilty to felony possession of a firearm, burglary and stalking and was sentenced to serve 2 years in jail, according to "The Los Angeles Times."

After Meehan was released from his 2-year prison sentence, he met Debra Newell and terrorized her and her daughters before eventually being killed by Terra Newell in self-defense.