Speaker 1: Topics featured in this episode may be disturbing to some listeners.
Speaker 1: Please take care while listening.
Speaker 2: My husband and I were opening a business. His first
Speaker 2: job was that very next day. One of the clients
Speaker 2: had asked if they could bendmo him, so he'd called
Speaker 2: me that morning September twenty ninth, twenty twenty one. He
Speaker 2: was like, I need you to set up my business venmo,
Speaker 2: and I was like, all right, use your name and
Speaker 2: password for whatever email is connected to your venmo. So
Speaker 2: he sent me the log in for his iCloud and
Speaker 2: as I'm signing in, he frantically calls me back. He
Speaker 2: was like, Oh, don't worry about it, we'll do it
Speaker 2: together when we get home. Like, I'm sorry, it's going
Speaker 2: to be too much, Like, don't do it. I knew
Speaker 2: by the tenor of his voice that he was trying
Speaker 2: to hide something. I thought maybe he bought something they
Speaker 2: didn't want me to know about. There was nothing in
Speaker 2: his photos, and then I scrolled down and that's when
Speaker 2: I saw a hidden folder and I opened it.
Speaker 3: You know, when you open your photos, it's going to
Speaker 3: show you like a whole bunch of them. At once.
Speaker 3: I slammed my computer shut. What the hell did I
Speaker 3: just see?
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, there's no way I saw that. My
Speaker 2: first reaction was like, that was disgusting.
Speaker 3: I need a shower.
Speaker 2: I need to get that off of me. Unfortunately, you
Speaker 2: can't scrub that out of your brain. When I was
Speaker 2: in the shower, I said the most heartfelt prayer I
Speaker 2: think I've ever said in my life. I was like, God,
Speaker 2: something's wrong. Whatever you're about to hand to me, I'm ready.
Speaker 2: I can do this. God, I'm ready for you.
Speaker 1: I'm Andrea Gunning. This is Betrayal, Season two, Episode one Hidden.
Speaker 1: When we set out to make season one, our goal
Speaker 1: was simple. If we could help make one person feel
Speaker 1: less alone, then we did our job. And the responses
Speaker 1: we got from you guys, it was overwhelming. Thank you
Speaker 1: all for sharing your thoughts and feelings. We value them
Speaker 1: so much. In addition to feedback, we also heard from
Speaker 1: people wanting to share their story. Some of them were heartbreaking,
Speaker 1: some were inspiring. We received hundreds of emails, and several
Speaker 1: of them revealed a betrayal that nobody wants to talk about.
Speaker 1: I was surprised to see this issue reappear in email
Speaker 1: after email. Would I be able to take this subject on.
Speaker 1: I was nervous, but it was something I could not ignore,
Speaker 1: especially since there was this one email I could not
Speaker 1: stop thinking about. It was from the woman you just
Speaker 1: heard that slammed her computer shut. She's based in Utah,
Speaker 1: and in the winter of twenty twenty two, I flew
Speaker 1: out to meet her. It was late when I landed
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake and the roads were empty. It was
Speaker 1: a twenty minute drive to the place we were staying.
Speaker 1: It was dark. Looking out into the sky, there was
Speaker 1: an outline that almost split the sky into two, two
Speaker 1: black shapes gently resting against one another. What was that?
Speaker 1: At first I didn't know what it was. They were
Speaker 1: the Wasatch Mountains. It was breathtaking. I had never been
Speaker 1: to Utah, and the mountains that surrounded me seeing the
Speaker 1: best of nature. It provided a sense of comfort, almost
Speaker 1: like a hug, almost as if the sky was saying, welcome,
Speaker 1: You're safe here. The mountains were keeping watch. Despite the
Speaker 1: sense of safety and the beauty, I was guarded, thinking
Speaker 1: of what lies beneath. I was there to cover a story,
Speaker 1: a story born in the darkness, the shadows, a story
Speaker 1: about betrayal, invasion, and really the worst parts of humanity.
Speaker 1: It's a story of Ashley Lytton, a mother of three
Speaker 1: who lives in a town called Riverton, twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: south of Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2: I grew up in West Valley City, Utah. It's a
Speaker 2: suburb of Salt Lake City, and it's known locally as
Speaker 2: being just a little bit rougher, rougher crowds, tougher kids,
Speaker 2: and growing up a lot of us kids kind of
Speaker 2: just around the streets because her parents worked a lot.
Speaker 2: When I was a child, my mom got sick. She
Speaker 2: has multiple sclerosis. My mom wasn't like super mobile. Instead
Speaker 2: of like being a kid and being ten and like
Speaker 2: playing at recess, that wasn't an option. The only option
Speaker 2: was to go home and check a mom, make sure
Speaker 2: she was okay.
Speaker 1: Eventually, her mom needed more support.
Speaker 2: My mom at this point was no longer in her home,
Speaker 2: and my dad worked tonights, and so I took care
Speaker 2: of my little brother and sister, got them breakfast, and
Speaker 2: I'd walk them to school every day, and then i'd
Speaker 2: co to junior High.
Speaker 1: Just meeting with Ashley, I got the sense that she
Speaker 1: was someone who had to grow up quickly. She put
Speaker 1: her family's needs ahead of her own, she helped raise
Speaker 1: her two younger siblings, managed a household. There was never
Speaker 1: a question. Ashley just did what needed to be done.
Speaker 1: Ashley's dad, John Trehillo, as.
Speaker 4: She's spinn the caregiver, and still more caregiver than all
Speaker 4: the kids, as she's been the caregiver from day one.
Speaker 1: She told me that her only escape from all of
Speaker 1: that responsibility was a boy she met at school.
Speaker 3: I met Matt in seventh grade.
Speaker 2: He was handsome and all the girls liked him, and
Speaker 2: he just happened to notice me too. I wrote in
Speaker 2: my journal the first day that I found out what
Speaker 2: his name was, met the man I'm going to marry today,
Speaker 2: And then I wrote his name on your book day
Speaker 2: that year. This is gonna totally age me, but in
Speaker 2: my yearbook he said, hey, give me a call some time,
Speaker 2: gave me his number, and then he put ps, you're
Speaker 2: pretty fly, and I was.
Speaker 1: Like, oh my god, he thinks I'm fly.
Speaker 2: I didn't even know what that meant, but I just
Speaker 2: knew that it meant something like super cool.
Speaker 1: We all know this kid wild, unpredictable.
Speaker 2: I'd see him, you know, getting in trouble all the time,
Speaker 2: and I don't know I just I think I really
Speaker 2: admired like how brave he was. It sounds brave, but
Speaker 2: really it was probably reckless and stupid.
Speaker 1: Matt wasn't exactly faithful to Ashley. Bad boys rarely are.
Speaker 2: It was not an awesome relationship, and so I kind
Speaker 2: of made traits with it more than anything else. It
Speaker 2: was transactional. I guess I'd get rid of my respect
Speaker 2: to have a safe place to go outside of my home.
Speaker 1: They were kids at first, but stay together for more
Speaker 1: than ten years, and during that time, drugs became the
Speaker 1: third partner in their relationship.
Speaker 2: He really started struggling with addiction when we were like
Speaker 2: fifteen or sixteen. That's when he started like painkillers, ecstasy,
Speaker 2: and I had never even really seen marijuana at that
Speaker 2: point in my life.
Speaker 1: The drug addiction continued into adulthood, and so did their relationship.
Speaker 1: They still felt like kids, but they had a girl fast.
Speaker 2: I got pregnant with a vea when I was twenty
Speaker 2: and she was not planned. So that was interesting because
Speaker 2: I didn't want kids and I was using contraceptives and
Speaker 2: it just still happened.
Speaker 1: Three years later, a son came along, Ashley stepped up
Speaker 1: to the plate determined to take care of her kids.
Speaker 1: Ashley's sister Anna.
Speaker 5: She tried to be a devoted partner and he just
Speaker 5: wasn't that person. He wasn't ready to be a father,
Speaker 5: and the resulted in a lot of dysfunction and instability
Speaker 5: that my sister did a really good job trying to
Speaker 5: shield the children from.
Speaker 2: He would settle down for months on end, but never
Speaker 2: like super consistent. But I was like, maybe this will
Speaker 2: be it, you know, because I saw so much potential
Speaker 2: in him, and I just thought he was meant for
Speaker 2: so much more than what he was doing.
Speaker 1: Then Matt disappeared on a three day bender.
Speaker 2: I just knew that I was done, So I took
Speaker 2: his shit and dumped it on his brother. His brother
Speaker 2: spront Lawn like a crazy lady, and I left him.
Speaker 2: I had to because of his addiction. I was like,
Speaker 2: I need to give these kids a chance.
Speaker 1: Ashley spent her whole life prioritizing others. Leaving Matt meant
Speaker 1: she needed to come first. Leaving a relationship where you're
Speaker 1: so emotionally invested in your partner so young can be scary,
Speaker 1: but she did it. She got herself out of an
Speaker 1: unhealthy relationship and went to work for herself and for
Speaker 1: her two kids. She took a waitressing job and hustled.
Speaker 1: She was finding independence. While in the job. One customer
Speaker 1: kept coming in over and over.
Speaker 2: So one day I'm at work and I saw him
Speaker 2: and he smiled at me.
Speaker 1: He was Jason Linton, and he looked familiar.
Speaker 2: I recognized him at that point because my sister went
Speaker 2: to high school with him, and I thought he was
Speaker 2: GTL I was like, oh, this idiot, Ashley.
Speaker 1: I remembered him being such a meadhead. But he was undeterred.
Speaker 1: He made a point of coming into Ashley's workplace often.
Speaker 3: He was flirty with me, and he'd come in like
Speaker 3: two or three times a week. He'd always get a shake,
Speaker 3: a chocolate shake, but.
Speaker 2: I'd give him like an extra large shake, but I'd
Speaker 2: only charge him for small.
Speaker 3: Everyone at work always were like, oh, hey, ash your
Speaker 3: shake boyfriends here.
Speaker 1: Ashley was surprised when Jason changed jobs and started working
Speaker 1: at the same restaurant and she was assigned to train him.
Speaker 2: We're sitting there and he kept trying to like talk
Speaker 2: to me while I was training him, and I was like,
Speaker 2: what do you want to know about me?
Speaker 3: I like to work and be a mom. What do
Speaker 3: you like to do?
Speaker 2: And I was kind of being an asshole because I
Speaker 2: wanted to get past this and train him and get
Speaker 2: it done out with.
Speaker 1: Jason was determined to impress.
Speaker 3: Her, and he's like, well, I can sing, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: you can sing?
Speaker 2: And I'm not a mean girl, but I was going
Speaker 2: to shut this down real quick, so I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, let's see what you can do. Took him
Speaker 2: in the back friends with all the cooks and all
Speaker 2: the waitresses, and I was.
Speaker 3: Like, hey, everyone can reckon this. New guy says he
Speaker 3: can sing. What did he say? Rascal Flat song, God
Speaker 3: Bless the Broken Road or something.
Speaker 1: It's a song about broken paths leading you to your future. Soulmate.
Speaker 1: Ashley certainly had a broken road. She could relate the
Speaker 1: lyrics look back on decisions made things not working out
Speaker 1: but inevitably for the better. And it struck a chord
Speaker 1: and Jason could really sing it.
Speaker 3: My jaw was on the floor and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: I'll have lunch with you here.
Speaker 1: After the shift, Ashley started to look at Jason differently.
Speaker 1: He wasn't the goofy guy his sister knew in high school. Anymore.
Speaker 3: He was serious.
Speaker 1: It was also fun, sweet and talented. He could sing
Speaker 1: and had a great sense of humor.
Speaker 4: It was pretty quick that we met him.
Speaker 3: I thought, Wow, she just found a good guy, real respectful,
Speaker 3: very mannerally.
Speaker 2: He was like night schiming armor. I was like, here's
Speaker 2: this normal dude that wants to be with me. Like
Speaker 2: what I even told.
Speaker 3: Jason when we first dating, I'm like, you're crazy, Like
Speaker 3: what are you doing?
Speaker 2: You are handsome, you are young, I have baggage, I
Speaker 2: have debt, I have a crazy ex, you know, like
Speaker 2: I had all this stuff.
Speaker 3: And he is like, no, I'm gonna stay. I'll take
Speaker 3: a chance on you. And I thought how lucky I was.
Speaker 3: And my family told me how lucky I was.
Speaker 4: My name is Kathy Trihio and I am Ashley's stepmom.
Speaker 4: I love Jason. You could just see how nice and
Speaker 4: kind he was to her. He's really funny. He has
Speaker 4: a really great personality, can cut up the room pretty
Speaker 4: quick with laughter and jokes.
Speaker 2: If we're comparing my old relationship to this relationship, Jason
Speaker 2: was normal. Jason came from a good family. He was charming,
Speaker 2: he was kind, he was a hard worker.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't meant a person that didn't like Jason.
Speaker 1: The sweetest part was how much he seemed to love
Speaker 1: Ashley's children.
Speaker 4: He was really super good with her kids.
Speaker 1: Her daughter, Avea was only two when Ashley met Jason.
Speaker 1: Her son was still a baby.
Speaker 2: It was so natural and they loved him and my son.
Speaker 2: He did all of his firsts in front of Jason,
Speaker 2: his first words, first time crawling, first time walking, first
Speaker 2: time giggling.
Speaker 4: I think Avea was probably like five when they got married.
Speaker 1: The wedding was August twelfth, twenty eleven, and they eventually
Speaker 1: had a child together, a daughter.
Speaker 4: And it just seemed to make their family complete.
Speaker 2: We moved to Riverton. I hate to use the word bougie,
Speaker 2: but it is more bougie than West Valley. And you know,
Speaker 2: ten fifteen years ago before we moved out here, that
Speaker 2: was a big deal.
Speaker 3: It was cleaner, it looked safer.
Speaker 1: The house, a good school, district, safety, a promising future.
Speaker 1: She had achieved her dream. I met Ashley at our
Speaker 1: house in Riverton. She was finishing work.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, this is our living room.
Speaker 1: Your house is adorable. It's so homey.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun. The kitties stay away from it. Now,
Speaker 2: we had no no kitty spread, just like, put the
Speaker 2: spray bottle right there and they're like.
Speaker 1: The first thing I noticed about Ashley is how full
Speaker 1: of life she is and how dedicated she is to
Speaker 1: her three children. Oh and she's also really short and
Speaker 1: always has heels.
Speaker 2: On a typical day in our household was insanely busy.
Speaker 2: Avea played competitive soccer and had practice for two hours.
Speaker 2: My son played little league football, and then my youngest
Speaker 2: danced and had to go to dance once or twice
Speaker 2: a week as well. So I spent the majority of
Speaker 2: my days being a taxi driver for two hours. I'm
Speaker 2: a free taxi. That's what I call it. I'm a
Speaker 2: free taxi.
Speaker 1: Ashley and Jason have been married for eleven years. The
Speaker 1: two little ones she had when she first met Jason
Speaker 1: they're teenagers now, and the baby they had together is nine. Aveya,
Speaker 1: her oldest, has a driver's license and a job. All
Speaker 1: marriages have ups and downs. They've struggled making ends meet.
Speaker 1: Mortgage payments were almost missed, but this new business they
Speaker 1: were launching was going to be a game changer.
Speaker 4: Park City is a very well established, very rich area
Speaker 4: of Utah.
Speaker 3: I mean your movie stars hang out up there.
Speaker 1: It's also a ski resort town, only about forty miles
Speaker 1: from Riverton. Jason would have a lot of business opportunity
Speaker 1: in Park City.
Speaker 4: He had a lot of work up there. He was
Speaker 4: working on three and four million dollar homes.
Speaker 1: Jason's former employer, Steve Ihausen, was selling Jason and another
Speaker 1: contractor his business.
Speaker 6: He's very personable. The contractors especially really liked him because
Speaker 6: he was very organized and was able to talk with
Speaker 6: the customers and kind of show them what needed to
Speaker 6: be done.
Speaker 1: It was all starting the next day. Jason just needed
Speaker 1: to set up a business Vemo account, and he asked
Speaker 1: Ashley for assistance.
Speaker 2: I knew by the tenor of his voice that he
Speaker 2: was trying to hide something.
Speaker 3: There was nothing in his photos.
Speaker 2: And then I scrolled down and that's when I saw
Speaker 2: a hidden folder and I opened. It plays like slow
Speaker 2: motion in my brain when I think about it. You know,
Speaker 2: when you first pull up your photos, it gives you
Speaker 2: I don't however, many like thirty photos or something, you know,
Speaker 2: and it gives you like little squares, so you can't
Speaker 2: really see unless you click on it. But those little
Speaker 2: squares I could tell weren't women. I think my brain
Speaker 2: went to what I could recognize, like what made sense,
Speaker 2: and so I went to what I thought.
Speaker 3: Was explicit adult photos.
Speaker 2: So I saw the adult and then I saw that
Speaker 2: this adult woman's face was superimposed on a female child's
Speaker 2: nude body.
Speaker 1: Did you ever see something and think this isn't real?
Speaker 1: It can't be real. It was too disturbing for words,
Speaker 1: Why would her husband have this?
Speaker 2: I clicked on one or two and screenshot at it
Speaker 2: real quick, and then instantly slam it shut.
Speaker 1: What was all of this? She thought about Jason, her husband. Yes,
Speaker 1: there were problems. This was not a fairy tale marriage.
Speaker 1: He was far from perfect, but he wasn't this kind
Speaker 1: of person. He wouldn't look at material like this. This
Speaker 1: was criminal. Ashley knew she needed support quickly. Even with
Speaker 1: what she had just seen, she didn't completely trust herself,
Speaker 1: so she facetimed her younger sister Anna.
Speaker 2: For some reason, in my brain, even though my subconscious
Speaker 2: knew it, my brain could not comprehend it, and I
Speaker 2: was like, no, you need to call Anne.
Speaker 1: Anna had a similar reaction.
Speaker 5: I remember just feeling like, what the fuck am I
Speaker 5: looking at?
Speaker 1: Anna tried to see the photos through the phone. At
Speaker 1: the same time she was looking at Ashley.
Speaker 5: I just remember her gasping and putting her hands to
Speaker 5: her face. She just kind of lost her shit. She
Speaker 5: started hyperventilating.
Speaker 1: Ashley works at home a few days a week. Jason
Speaker 1: knew she'd be there, and his intuition started kicking it.
Speaker 2: He just started calling out the hook and texting me
Speaker 2: and I wouldn't respond. So I was scared because I
Speaker 2: knew he was coming home.
Speaker 1: Jason sounded anxious when they spoke, and now he was
Speaker 1: calling and texting with a frenzied energy.
Speaker 5: She started going into this really weird dark place where
Speaker 5: she was like, oh my god, I got to get
Speaker 5: out of the house. He's going to come back here.
Speaker 5: He's going to find out that I've seen this. He's
Speaker 5: going to come kill me.
Speaker 1: Her mind immediately went to another well known case in
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City where a husband kept secrets from his wife.
Speaker 3: My first thought was Mark Hacking and Laurie Hacking.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and four, the Hacking case made international
Speaker 1: news and dominated the front page of Utah newspapers. Young
Speaker 1: pregnant woman Laurie Hacking discovered that her husband had lied
Speaker 1: about his education. As they were preparing to move across
Speaker 1: the country from Mark to attend medical school, Laurie also
Speaker 1: learned he had never been admitted.
Speaker 2: And instead of being exposed, he killed her and they
Speaker 2: had to look for her body in the landfill. I
Speaker 2: instantly was terrified, and I was like, he's going to
Speaker 2: kill me.
Speaker 1: Neither Anna nor Ashley knew exactly what to do next.
Speaker 2: And it's like, oh my gosh, I can't see it
Speaker 2: really well, but from what I think I can see,
Speaker 2: you need to go show Kathy. Kathy, she works at
Speaker 2: the Department of Corrections for the State of Utah and
Speaker 2: specifically has to deal with a lot of correspondents from
Speaker 2: inmates in and out of the prison.
Speaker 1: Her stepmom, Kathy would certainly recognize the content in the
Speaker 1: hidden file.
Speaker 5: She was at the state prison. It's probably like a
Speaker 5: twenty minute drive from Ashley. I wanted her to go
Speaker 5: see her, to see if the images were as bad
Speaker 5: as we thought they were. She's been around some bad people,
Speaker 5: you know, and we trust her.
Speaker 4: And I got a phone call from Ashley's sister Anna
Speaker 4: and she said, Hey, there's something really bad going on.
Speaker 4: Ashley is headed your way. She needs help, okay. So
Speaker 4: I went out in front of my building to look
Speaker 4: out the window, and I seen her car pull in.
Speaker 4: She said she'd seen images on Jason's phone, so I
Speaker 4: wasn't sure what we were talking about. I just assumed
Speaker 4: maybe it was having an affair or something. I knew
Speaker 4: it was something, probably not great. But I went out
Speaker 4: and she got out of the car and she was
Speaker 4: walking towards me and Ashley's little She wasn't able to
Speaker 4: hold herself up really well, and so I just grabbed
Speaker 4: a hold of her and was hugging her and holding her.
Speaker 4: We got back in her car and she showed me
Speaker 4: a screenshot of it. I said, oh my god, he's
Speaker 4: in so much freaking trouble. And we're back and forth crying,
Speaker 4: both crying so hard because those girls were too young.
Speaker 4: I'm not a age expert, but I do work at
Speaker 4: the prison and sometimes people send inmates pictures that they're
Speaker 4: not allowed to have, and I knew those girls were
Speaker 4: too young.
Speaker 1: What happened next might be hard to understand unless you've
Speaker 1: been in this situation. You know you're sitting on a
Speaker 1: ticking time bomb. You have information that will blow up
Speaker 1: your life. As you know, it, and you want some
Speaker 1: control over how and when it will explode. Ashley had
Speaker 1: someone in mind to help.
Speaker 2: Send's older brothers, a police officer or one of the
Speaker 2: bigger police departments here in Salt Lake, and I trust him.
Speaker 1: Anna was concerned that Ashley's brother in law would be
Speaker 1: a brother before a police officer.
Speaker 5: I thought it was a terrible idea. It's a huge
Speaker 5: conflict of interest. They were both convinced that he would
Speaker 5: do the right thing. I don't want to like bash
Speaker 5: his character or anything, but that's his brother, you know.
Speaker 4: She was reluctant. She was like, I don't know, I
Speaker 4: don't know if I should call him. And I said, no,
Speaker 4: he's going to help us. He's going to help you.
Speaker 4: He's he's a good man, he knows the right thing,
Speaker 4: he knows what to do.
Speaker 1: He'll help you. She thought of their kids, their home,
Speaker 1: and their family. This was going to fundamentally change everything.
Speaker 2: I knew something was going to come of whatever just
Speaker 2: happened over the last hour and a half of my life.
Speaker 1: Like I knew that Ashley called her brother in law.
Speaker 1: Everyone in the family trusted him. He was a police officer,
Speaker 1: so it didn't feel as scary to talk to him,
Speaker 1: he would know what to do.
Speaker 2: I said, I need to show you something. It's an emergency.
Speaker 2: I just found something and I need to show you.
Speaker 2: I don't want to tell you over the phone.
Speaker 1: They agreed to meet up right away at a local
Speaker 1: grocery store.
Speaker 2: I see his car, I pull on next to him,
Speaker 2: and you know, we exchange pleasantries and I was physically shaking.
Speaker 2: I remember feeling my body shaking. I pulled my phone
Speaker 2: out and he glances at it and it was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: I don't want anything to do with that, get it
Speaker 2: away from me, don't show me again.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what do I do with this?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: What do I do?
Speaker 2: And he's like, first of all, you need to calm down,
Speaker 2: because we don't know what that is. Those girls are
Speaker 2: probably eighteen, like barely eighteen, but they're probably eighteen.
Speaker 3: Before you do anything.
Speaker 2: Let's talk to Jay and we're going to figure this out,
Speaker 2: because this is definitely not what it looks like.
Speaker 3: Let's wait.
Speaker 1: The reality was it was exactly what it looked like,
Speaker 1: pre pubescent naked girls who had been posed in a
Speaker 1: sexually provocative manner.
Speaker 2: I was like, he totally just gaslped me. I wanted
Speaker 2: to get away from him, and so I got in
Speaker 2: my car.
Speaker 1: The text from Jason kept coming in. We need to talk.
Speaker 1: At least allow me to talk to you. Please don't
Speaker 1: go talking with people until you have at least spoken
Speaker 1: with me. Ash. Please come home and let's talk. Please
Speaker 1: don't give up on me, Ash. I know I'm a
Speaker 1: better person than this. I will get the help I
Speaker 1: need and quit ignoring my issues. I want to do
Speaker 1: right by my family and give you guys a life
Speaker 1: that you deserve. What was there to say? How could
Speaker 1: he possibly explain?
Speaker 2: I called my sister right when I left, and I
Speaker 2: started crying and I can't breathe. I couldn't breathe. I
Speaker 2: couldn't breathe. And then all of a sudden, like I
Speaker 2: could feel I could feel my left side of my
Speaker 2: face and like my shoulder in my arms, it just
Speaker 2: went numb. Everything went numb. And I was like, Ann,
Speaker 2: I can't move my arm. I can't move my arm.
Speaker 2: My heart hurts because my heart physically hurt, like I
Speaker 2: had a pain in my chest and it went to
Speaker 2: the back of my shoulder. I was like, I think
Speaker 2: I'm having a heart attack, and then it snapped in
Speaker 2: my brain I was like, the kids. They can't lose
Speaker 2: both of us on the same day. And so I
Speaker 2: was like, Ann, I'm going to go to the hospital.
Speaker 2: And she was freaking out. She's like, don't want me
Speaker 2: to call nine one to one, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm right down the street from the hospital.
Speaker 1: Anna had been in this with Ashley almost from the
Speaker 1: first moments. She was really scared.
Speaker 5: I told her I'm going to come to you just
Speaker 5: go and get checked out. And my husband was home
Speaker 5: and I went upstairs and I told him she's going
Speaker 5: to the ARC. And I remember saying something like I
Speaker 5: can't believe this is happening. How is this happening? And
Speaker 5: he just gave me a hug and he said, you
Speaker 5: gotta go.
Speaker 1: Ashley is strong, resilient. She's a person who helps, not
Speaker 1: a person who needs help. So I wasn't surprised when
Speaker 1: I heard that she tried denying her own distress.
Speaker 2: I parked my car like a normal person going to
Speaker 2: a doctor's appointment. Walking in, I thought to myself, what
Speaker 2: am I doing. There's really sick people here that really
Speaker 2: need to be seen. And I went up to the
Speaker 2: desk and this lady was super sweet and just happy,
Speaker 2: and she's.
Speaker 3: Like, what are you being seen for? And I just
Speaker 3: lost it.
Speaker 2: I sobbed so hard that there was no sound coming
Speaker 2: out of me, and I just collapsed.
Speaker 3: I remember hearing her being like.
Speaker 2: We need a wheelchair, we need assistance of somebody came
Speaker 2: over and kind of like grabbed me from underneath my
Speaker 2: arms to pick me up and put me in a wheelchair.
Speaker 2: I had my hands cupped over my eyes because I
Speaker 2: was so embarrassed. I was like losing my bananas in
Speaker 2: front of like all these people.
Speaker 3: One of the nurses was wheeling me back and she's.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, honey, it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be
Speaker 2: just fine. We're gonna take care of you. You're gonna
Speaker 2: be just fine. Anna, at that point had got there.
Speaker 2: Her heart rate was at one eighty eight when she
Speaker 2: got there. My heart rate doesn't even get up to
Speaker 2: one eighty eight when I'm like doing hardcore exercise, so
Speaker 2: it was like incredibly high. I think they gave her
Speaker 2: some medicine to calm down, and we just sat there
Speaker 2: and cried together. I don't even remember what I told her.
Speaker 2: I think I said I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I
Speaker 2: was not having a heart attack. Apparently that's what a
Speaker 2: panic attack is. I had no idea that's what a
Speaker 2: panic attack was.
Speaker 1: Once the physical stress subsided, Ashley couldn't help but think
Speaker 1: about the cost.
Speaker 2: It dawned on me how expensive this was going to be,
Speaker 2: and that now I knew I was going to lose
Speaker 2: Jason's income. Like there was no if sounds about like
Speaker 2: whatever it was. I knew that he was no longer
Speaker 2: going to be a part of it, and so I
Speaker 2: was like, no, we're not doing any more tests.
Speaker 3: I'm fine.
Speaker 1: Ashley's brother in law, the police officer, was working behind
Speaker 1: the scenes and sent Ashley a text.
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm meeting Jason right now and he's going
Speaker 2: to come to my house so he can give you
Speaker 2: some space. I told my brother in law, I do
Speaker 2: not want to speak to him. I don't want to
Speaker 2: talk to him yet. Then he said, well, let's sleep
Speaker 2: on it and figure out what to do.
Speaker 1: She thought of her brother in law as her brother too,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't. He was Jason's. It was clear in
Speaker 1: that moment blood relations were going to matter starting now,
Speaker 1: and Anna had enough.
Speaker 5: I remember Lisa Michael, I'm like, there's nothing to fucking
Speaker 5: talk through and I remember telling her he's not going
Speaker 5: to report to ash He would have reported it by now.
Speaker 1: Jason sent one more message. This one was a video.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, Ash, I've been really really working hard on myself,
Speaker 7: but this is a cloud that sung over me. I
Speaker 7: don't want to be about my family. I just love
Speaker 7: you so much and I'm sorry. I'm just sorry.
Speaker 1: His earlier tech said I will get the help I
Speaker 1: need and quit ignoring my issues. Now. He said he
Speaker 1: was working really really hard on himself, but it didn't matter.
Speaker 1: Ashley never watched the video message. She didn't want to
Speaker 1: hear it.
Speaker 2: The anger started setting in for you know, all those
Speaker 2: little girls I saw too.
Speaker 1: Anna intervened when one of the nurses came in.
Speaker 5: He was like, is there something we can do? Do
Speaker 5: you need to speak to like a resource officer? And
Speaker 5: I just remember cutting him off and I said, we
Speaker 5: need to see a police officer. We need to report
Speaker 5: a crime.
Speaker 1: On this season of Betrayal, Ashley learns her husband is
Speaker 1: participating in a crime being perpetrated in every community in
Speaker 1: our country. Finds out there's so much more.
Speaker 4: Not only was there child pornography that had been downloaded
Speaker 4: but there was also homemade videos.
Speaker 1: And we'll meet other families who had no idea they
Speaker 1: were living with a perpetrator.
Speaker 4: I just started screaming, I just dropped hi my knees
Speaker 4: and started screaming.
Speaker 1: Betrayal of everything you value in your own home and community.
Speaker 1: They broke down the front door at our house and
Speaker 1: came in on him going through all his hard drives,
Speaker 1: trying to delete stuff and learning that justice for a
Speaker 1: felony isn't what you see on TV.
Speaker 4: His crime of conviction carries a penalty of one to
Speaker 4: fifteen years in the Utah State Prison. Did he get
Speaker 4: that No.
Speaker 1: On the next episode of Betrayal, Ashley and the police
Speaker 1: concoct a plan to bring Jason into custody.
Speaker 4: You have the retromentil anything to me.
Speaker 1: Anything you say, cana, We'll be used to four. As
Speaker 1: a disclaimer, Ashley told her story about her conversation with
Speaker 1: Jason's older brother to police, and it was included as
Speaker 1: part of the affidavit of probable cause that led to
Speaker 1: Jason's arrest. His older brother's conduct as a police officer
Speaker 1: was instigated by the authorities, and ultimately it was determined
Speaker 1: that there was insufficient evidence of any violations of law
Speaker 1: by him. If you would like to reach out to
Speaker 1: the Betrayal team, email us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: That's Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com. To report a
Speaker 1: case of child sexual exploitation, called the National Center for
Speaker 1: Missing and Exploited Children's cyber Tipline at one eight hundred
Speaker 1: the Lost. If you or someone you know is worried
Speaker 1: about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children, reach out
Speaker 1: to Stop it Now dot org. In the United Kingdom
Speaker 1: go to stop it Now dot org dot UK. These
Speaker 1: organizations can help. We're grateful for your support, and one
Speaker 1: way to show support is by subscribing to our show
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Speaker 1: Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
Speaker 1: you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
Speaker 1: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and
Speaker 1: partnership with iHeartPodcasts. The show was executive produced by Nancy
Speaker 1: Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me Andrea Gunning,
Speaker 1: written and produced by Kerry Hartman, also produced by Ben Fetterman,
Speaker 1: Associate producer Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart teams, Ali Perry and
Speaker 1: Jessica Krincheck. Special thanks to our talent Ashley Litten and
Speaker 1: production assistant Tessa Shields. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Alvecchio.
Speaker 1: Trails theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by
Speaker 1: my Music and For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts