New documentary reveals how Jared Fogle led a 'double life' as a 'puppet master' who committed child sex acts while pitching sandwiches for Subway

This story contains spoilers for the 3-part series "Jared From Subway: Catching A Monster", which will air March 6th on true-crime channel ID.

After being selected as Subway's face in 2000, Jared Fogle was a pop culture icon.

The Indiana native was thrust into the spotlight after losing 245 pounds from mostly eating

Subway sandwiches

. He filmed around 300 commercials for the chain between 2000 and 2015 and spent hundreds of hours interacting with children through The Jared Foundation, an organization created to reduce childhood obesity.

But,

Fogle's popularity took a nose dive in 2015 after he was caught paying minors for sex and trading child pornography

.  The former "Subway diet" spokesman is now the subject of an

in-depth documentary

on true-crime channel ID that shows how federal authorities had pursued Fogle for years, but never made an arrest.

In 2015, a random tip exposed him as a child predator.

Four months after investigators raided his home, Fogle was sentenced to more than 15 years in

After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to prison

to paying minors for sex and distributing child pornography.

Insider screened the three-part series. It includes interviews with victims and law enforcement officials as well as a whistleblower. They were able to help investigators uncover Fogle’s sexual crimes. Many of them occurred while Fogle was out selling sandwiches at Subway.

Fogle declined to be interviewed for the series. Subway, which is up for sale, was not interviewed for the documentary.

Last month, the chain said it broke ties with Fogle after learning about his behavior nearly eight years ago.

"We made multiple attempts to demonstrate to the producers that this docuseries does not reflect who we are as a company," the chain said.

Here are the most revealing highlights:

According to a documentary about Jared Fogle's child sex crimes, he led a double life.

ID

He lived a double life: Subway rep at night, and child predator at day.

Each episode focuses on Fogle's meteoric rise to fame.

Images and videos show him posing with celebrities such as comedian Will Ferrell, making commercials with Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, and running in the New York City marathon wearing Subway gear. The documentary also revisits him being interviewed by countless TV anchors, including former CNN talk show host Larry King.

According to investigators and eyewitnesses, Subway was his day job, but he was working at night.

One of his accomplices was

Russell Taylor, who was sentenced in 2022 to 27 years in prison

for pleading guilty to 24 counts of producing child sexual abuse material.

Taylor ran Fogle's charitable organization, The Jared Foundation.

Assistant US Attorney Steven DeBrota described Taylor as "a personal train wreck waiting to happen," in the upcoming documentary.

Fogle and Taylor went on the road together to speak about reducing childhood obesity through healthy eating.

But they "fed into each other's addictions" at night, DeBrota said. "They became a toxic combination."

Fogle was leading a "double life," he said.

"He would travel around the United States for Subway," DeBrota said. "But, when he's not in public when he's by himself in a hotel room, Jared Fogle spent $12,000 a year on sex workers. Then, he would ask if they had access to any underage prostituted minors."

Rochelle Herman was an FBI informant. She secretly taped conversations with Jared Fogle, but the FBI never acted on the tapes, she said.

Discovery Plus

The FBI knew about Fogle for years, but didn't make an arrest

"I wanted to warn people so people could protect their children," FBI informant Rochelle Herman said in the documentary.

Herman,

a radio journalist from Florida who first met Fogle in 2006

, is a central figure in the upcoming film. She spent several years recording phone conversations with Fogle as an asset of the FBI.

She recounted times when she would vomit after talking to Fogle.

"Jared eventually started sharing with me in great detail what he would do with children," Herman said. "When Jared boasted about having sex with minors, it was beyond disturbing."

One conversation stood out – a trip Fogle said he took to Thailand.

After listening to the details, she said: "My soul was blackened."

He described how easy it was to have sex with children in Thailand and discussed one "hot" experience with a young boy, according to the taped audio revealed in the series.

Fogle's recorded voice is heard throughout the documentary. At one point, he tells Herman: "We should try and get some child porn videos to watch together."

Though Herman initially supplied the FBI with dozens of incriminating taped phone conversations over the years, the agency told her they couldn't make an arrest until they had solid evidence, including names of actual victims.

The FBI declined to be interviewed for the documentary.

Sisters Hannah Parrett and Christian Showalter are Jared Fogle victims featured in the documentary. Their stepfather confessed to making child pornography films for Fogle using hidden cameras in their bedrooms.

Discovery Plus

Authorities catch Fogle after Taylor is arrested

for possession of child pornography

Taylor's stepdaughters, Hannah Parrett and Christian Showalter, are featured throughout the film.

Taylor was constantly in communication with Fogle and traveled all over the US with him. Parrett and Showalter described Fogle as "reserved" with a "careful personality."

But their image of their stepfather and "uncle Jared" was shattered in 2015.

That's when Chuck Cohen of the Indiana State Police received a tip of someone unlawfully engaging in bestiality. The tip led them to Taylor's home.

Police discovered hidden cameras in Parrett and Showalter's bedrooms and bathrooms. The cameras were positioned to capture children unclothed, Cohen said. Investigators then found videos of children engaged in sex acts, Cohen said.

Parrett and Showalter said investigators told them about the cameras. They and their friends were being unwittingly filmed for years.

"Russell, he was watching us in the shower, watching us get dressed in our rooms, watching us masturbate," Showalter said. "We were being watched 24/7."

Jared Fogle was arrested in 2015.

AP

"He was the puppet master"

Fogle issued a statement stating that he had broken all ties with Taylor right away after being arrested. However, he could not distance himself from Taylor too long.

In the documentary, Cohen said while investigating Taylor authorities found an image of a naked child sent to Fogle. DeBrota, the assistant US Attorney, launched a probe of Fogle.

Taylor told investigators he was producing child pornography for Fogle, DeBrota said.

"He was the puppet master, and Russell was his puppet," Parrett said of Fogle and her stepfather's relationship.

Investigators got a search warrant for Fogle's home, leading to a raid that became a media spectacle on a memorable rainy day.

"It was the classic media circus," said reporter Tim Evans in the documentary, who was covering the story at the time for The Indianapolis Star.

Herman said she watched the raid on TV.

She felt it was time to speak up.

She reached out to a local television station for a sit-down interview. She claimed that Fogle had told her about his sexual relationships to children.

Winitz then asked her: "Jared Fogle, what is it?"

She responded, "It's a monster."