The woman who brought down Jared Fogle, Russell Taylor

She was mad — livid, actually. And disgusted. It was too much for her to take.

That's how a friend described the Indianapolis woman who provided information that led police to discover the child pornography that will send Jared Fogle and Russell Taylor — the former head of Fogle's charitable foundation — to prison for years.

A federal prosecutor used a different description for the informant: hero.

"If she doesn't make the phone call, we don't find out about Taylor," Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve DeBrota told The Indianapolis Star. "If we don't find out about Taylor, we don't find out about Fogle. And 14 (young victims) wouldn't have been rescued."

Less than two weeks after Fogle, the former Subway sandwich pitchman, agreed to plead guilty to child pornography charges, Taylor on Tuesday also took a plea deal.

Taylor, 44, admitted to secretly producing pornographic videos of 12 children, all of whom he knew, and sharing some of those videos with Fogle, his good friend and former boss.

Prosecutors agreed not to seek a sentence of more than 35 years in prison for Taylor, who agreed not to ask for less than 15 years in prison.

The judge, however, isn't bound by either request.

Fogle, in a similar deal, faces a sentence of five to 12 1/2 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 19. No sentencing date has been set for Taylor. In federal cases, defendants are required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for release.

Under terms of the two plea agreements, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, neither Fogle nor Taylor is protected from future prosecution if additional criminal activity is uncovered without their assistance.

"Mr. Taylor is agreeing to a plea that contemplates the possibility of him doing a very lengthy amount of time in prison," said a statement from his attorneys. "Mr. Taylor accepts whatever punishment that is handed down by the court and hopes that his admission of responsibility will help the victims and his family start to heal and move on in a positive direction.

"Mr. Taylor has also assisted the government by providing information that played a substantial role in the charges and pending convictions that are facing Mr. Fogle."

Taylor's plea is the latest development in the shocking child pornography investigation that shattered Fogle's wholesome and lucrative image and exposed the criminal activities of the man Fogle hired to run his charitable organization focused on fighting childhood obesity.

And it all started with a call last September.

The Indianapolis woman, known in court documents only as "Jane Doe," knew Taylor and his wife, Angela, through Jane Doe's husband, who died in 2013.

That friendship took a disturbing turn in 2014, according to court documents. Communications from Taylor and his wife, often via text messaging, went from friendly and flirtatious to something over the line when Russell Taylor offered to send Jane Doe images of child pornography.

Jane Doe's friend, whom The Star is not identifying to protect the informant's anonymity, recalled her response: "I'm not dealing with this anymore. This is going to stop."

The friend said he suggested that Jane Doe contact a State Police officer he knew. She made the call, something DeBrota, the prosecutor, said Fogle, 37, should have done three years earlier. DeBrota said that would have ended the ordeal of the victims.

The report was passed on to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Cybercrime Unit detective, and an investigation was launched.

Investigators from several law enforcement agencies participated in the probe, which ramped up after an interview with Jane Doe in early October 2014. The woman told police she had not deleted Taylor's messages that "concerned her" and provided them access to her cellphone.

The series of text messages included an offer by Taylor to provide her with images of various illegal pornographic acts, including of young girls. She declined. In one of those text messages, according to the affidavit, "Russell Taylor asked her if he and another adult female she identified could come to Jane Doe's residence and engage in" an act of bestiality. The woman did not agree to that request, but told investigators "you could tell (Taylor) was serious." She also told investigators that "she received an image file via text from Russell Taylor that depicted (another act of bestiality)."

During a search of Taylor's home in Wayne Township, investigators found videos Taylor secretly recorded of nude girls ages 11 to 16 in a bathroom. Another video depicted a young boy in the bathroom, also nude. There were other videos of some of the same children nude in a bedroom.

As part of the plea deal, Taylor admitted using cameras hidden in clock radios.

Taylor's wife, Angela, has not been charged in the case.

In a lawsuit filed last week, Fogle alleges that Taylor and his wife failed to repay the $191,000 loan he gave Taylor in March 2014 to buy the home in the 1300 block of Salem Creek Boulevard.

The loan default coincides with Taylor's incarceration, most recently at a federal facility in Kentucky. He signed the home over to his wife on June 2. The home is currently listed for sale for $187,000.

Taylor graduated from Good Shepherd Baptist Academy in Mooresville. His stepfather was a Baptist preacher. On her Facebook page this week, Angela Taylor posted a Bible verse.

It said, "What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later."

Call Star reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.

Call Star reporter Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311. Follow him on Twitter: @markalesia.