Love behind bars: Real estate agent marries inmate she met online
Laura Gehrke met her husband through correspondence. She sent him Christmas greetings as part of a prisoner writing program.
30 July 2024 18:24
Real estate agent Laura Gehrke met her future husband Joshua Stewart on the social networking site WriteAPrisoner.com. On this website, you can correspond with inmates in prisons across the United States. Gehrke discovered it when she felt lonely in December of last year.
She met her future husband through correspondence
The 27-year-old, who appeared on the Netflix reality show "Too Hot to Handle Germany," could not return home for Christmas due to visa issues. This left her spending the holiday season alone in Dubai. While browsing TikTok, Gehrke came across a video discussing writing to prisoners online and decided to wish another lonely person a Merry Christmas.
One specific profile caught the young woman’s attention. She began exchanging messages with 21-year-old Joshua Stewart, who stood out due to his interest in poetry. Soon, the couple was talking on the phone for 11 hours daily. Stewart proposed after just six weeks of knowing each other. Gehrke flew to Washington to marry him in June 2024 during a 90-minute ceremony in the prison.
She did not judge her future husband based on his sentence
Stewart is serving a sentence for murder involving controlled substances. In Washington State, this means providing another person with a substance that led to their death.
Despite being unable to spend their wedding night together, the couple hopes to gain approval for conjugal visits later this year. Stewart is expected to be released to house arrest in December 2025.
