Meehan reportedly stole money directly from Newell's wallet. One of the major red flags that made Newell's daughters suspicious of Meehan was that money kept "disappearing" from Newell's wallet. Newell would often call her daughter Jacquelyn to ask if she had borrowed anything from her purse. "I would be like, 'No, I didn't go out of my way to your office or anything like that to take or borrow money from you. How many places did you bring your purse today? Not only could it be that loser that you are dating, but it could be anybody,'" Jacquelyn said in the Dirty John podcast.
Meehan put a hit out on a detective. In the Oxygen documentary, Detective Julia Bowman revealed that Meehan tried to have her killed in exchange for $10,000 after she put him behind bars in 2013. "He put [a] hit out on me," the Orange County detective told People. "Once he knew my name and recognised me as one of his targets, I never felt safe. We lived in a cul de sac, and cars would drive down the street that didn't belong there. It became kind of a scary situation. Just knowing him the way I had, I didn't know what he was capable of or what it might lead to."