WEBVTT - Brandi | Betrayal Weekly 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:09.400 Never ever did I see that coming. Ever, I truly 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.760 thought I was going in to help someone else. And 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:18.880 then I'm the in question, what do you mean? I'm 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.080 his wife, This isn't a crime. We weren't a crime. 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.480 I'm Andrea Gunning. And this is Betrayal, a show about 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.559 the people we trust the most and the deceptions that 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:47.720 change everything. 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.400 Hindsight's a powerful thing, and we share the stories so 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.160 that hopefully somebody will see it. The light bulb might 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:01.720 go off. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.360 That's Brandy Dredge. Her story is unlike anything we've ever 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:10.600 heard before, and she's never found anyone with the same experience. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.320 It's about a betrayal that only came into focus with hindsight, 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.760 and it's the story of a surprising legal intervention that 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:24.920 forced Brandy to reconsider her entire life. As you're listening, 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.480 you may think you know where the story is going, 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.600 but everything here is a little more complicated than it seems. 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.040 So let's start at the beginning. When she was growing 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.679 up in the eighties in Missouri, you know, a lot of. 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.320 Home cooked mails, a lot of plan in the neighborhood 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.920 until the street lights came on and then you had 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:45.080 to come home. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.760 Growing up, her parents struggled to make ends meet. 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.600 My dad was a hunter. I mean, you grew up 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.000 rural country, so you went out and got the deer 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.280 and the rabbits and the squirrel and that's what filled 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:58.840 our freezer as far as meat. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.320 As a treat, her parents would take her and her 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.120 brother to Dairy Queen, but to afford it. 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.520 We had to go out and collect night crawlers, the 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:10.800 worms from the ground. So we'd go out and we'd 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.080 collect night crawlers and then you'd fill him up in 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.679 the folder's can. Mom would drive us to the bait 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.160 shop and then you'd watch them get weigh out, and 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.519 then that determined how much money you were gonna get. 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.240 So it was always good if you could get like 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.680 twenty dollars, because then that meant we would be able 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:25.840 to get blizzards. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.079 She grew up in a culture where wives served their husbands, 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.680 and that was the dynamic she observed in her own household. 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.200 My dad, by the time he got home, he you know, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.359 expected his mills to be there. When his tea glass 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:43.560 would be empty, you know, you just tap the tea 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.519 glass on the counter, and then that meant I need 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.680 more tea and then she would go fill up the tea. 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.800 She absorbed important lessons from her parents' relationship. The biggest 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.640 one was that her purpose in life was to make 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:58.400 a man happy. 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:06.600 Just all the performance based love. That isn't really love, 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:08.680 but it is what I felt that you were supposed 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:08.920 to do. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.440 Most of Brandy's childhood was spent playing outside with the 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.880 neighborhood kids, playing house or recreating TV shows like The 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:19.760 Dating Game. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.480 And we'd have the boys get on the one side 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:27.720 of the house is beyond the other corner and kind 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.079 of ask them questions. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.639 In high school, she joined the cheerleading squad. It made 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.880 her feel like somebody and like she was part of something. 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.200 Brandy had a lot of time to herself because her 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.520 dad worked double shifts and her mom was busy managing 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:45.160 the household. 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.280 Some of us were more rebellious than others and did 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.440 the sneaking around behind her parents' backs. 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.080 Brandy would sneak out with her high school boyfriends. 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.000 I seemed to kind of gravitate towards that bad boy image. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.760 In her sophomore year, she met a boy who wasn't 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:02.520 like the rest. 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.920 He was not a bad boy at all. Man just 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:13.240 really treated me like I was gold and special. I 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:18.400 never felt like he wanted just a body. I felt like, Wow, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.560 he really cared about me as a person. 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.479 When he left and went off to college, Brandy still 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.360 had another two years of high school. 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:33.039 And then one day I was getting ready to go 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:34.880 to a cheerleading game and he had called and said 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.960 that he wanted to break up with me and Ma 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:42.120 and I was devastated, so devastated because I, yeah, I 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.680 kind of thought that he's the one. But my friends 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:47.039 were there to pick me up for the game, and 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.919 they were like trying to cheer me up. You know, 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.640 it's okay, We're going to go to this party afterwards 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:55.000 at this apartment. 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.800 She agreed to go with her friends, even though on 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:04.000 the inside she was crushed about the breakup. She felt abandoned. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.040 The party was at an apartment where two high schoolers 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:10.440 were living with an older guy. 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.680 I would hear about this apartment because some boys at 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:18.280 our school had lived with this man, and these boys 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.320 had kind of rebelled from their parents and so they 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.560 were living with him. So I would hear these rumors 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.440 about this apartment, but up until this point I had 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:27.120 never been there. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.880 The rumors were about a good looking older guy who 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.359 lived there, and she was curious, but. 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:36.120 It was kind of almost like the celebrity. 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.320 When she got there, she met Gary Richard, a man 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:42.960 so infamous he had two first names. 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:49.920 When he walked in, I mean he was stunning. Yeah, 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.920 black hair and it's like hung to his dolline, and 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.960 he was muscular and had these blue eyes that ah 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:03.240 very physically fit everything. When I saw him, like that 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.520 was it. I just wanted to keep knowing more about him, 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.039 and I wanted to interact with him. 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.760 The sting of her breakup was still so fresh, but 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.880 all of a sudden, the prospect of this older guy 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.719 made her forget the pain for a minute. She was 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.240 instantly intrigued. Her eyes followed him. 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.320 And I could see from where I was setting in 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.960 the living room he was in the bathroom and he 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.640 was starting to shave his face, and so I went 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.960 down there and was like, I want to shave your face. 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:41.400 It was forward, flirtatious even, but Brandy was reeling from 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.240 the rejection of the first guy who treated her well, 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.039 the one she thought she would spend the rest of 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.159 her life with. Now Gary Richard was making her feel 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.400 seen and wanted. 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:58.960 That attraction was just something I couldn't fight against. I 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:00.840 guess I didn't want to fight against it. I mean 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:08.279 I just wanted him no matter what. Age didn't even 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:13.760 come into the equation. I knew he was older, but 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.360 I didn't know what that age was. 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.040 She was sixteen, and she found out later Gary Richard 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:25.360 was twenty four. At the time, the age difference didn't 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:26.559 even cross her mind. 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.800 I mean, he just looked like he hung the moon 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:31.960 he was hmm. 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.360 But whether she thought about it in the moment or not, 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.560 his age was a part of Gary Richard's appeal. 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.360 When you come across somebody that seems like they've had 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:46.320 all these life experiences, you feel like, Wow, I haven't 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.400 did anything. I haven't even made it out of my hometown. 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.800 He worked as a model for local businesses and bridle shows. 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.400 He had multiple jobs and a car for sixteen year 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.840 old brand He was the epitome of cool. After the 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.480 night they met, she and Gary Richard became an item. 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.120 It wasn't like a conversation of Hey, would you like 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:12.400 to go out? Would you like to be my girlfriend? 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.280 We were just together. I would lie to my parents 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.000 a lot about where I was going and I would 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:20.240 end up saying the night with him. 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.440 When she was with him, she felt like a grown up. 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.560 He DJ'ed at a club in town. He would get 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.520 me in and so I'd set up in the little 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.360 DJ booth and then he'd bring me these butterscotch drinks 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:39.120 from the bar and we would dance, and huh, we 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:40.520 had so much fun dancing. 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.560 He always seemed in control, like he knew what to 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.760 do next and how to make it happen. 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.040 I mean, he had this way about him, the way 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.560 he would talk to people. He had this charm, like 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.800 he could make people do whatever he wanted them to do. 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.840 The other thing about him was he always seemed like 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.199 he had wealth, Like he just carried hisself in a 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.720 way where money never seemed to be an object for 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:15.280 him and for me, as sixteen, coming from my home 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.840 where we're eating the deer and the squirrel out of 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:22.840 the freezer, I felt like I had struck gold. 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.600 One night, Brandy's parents found out she'd been sneaking out 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.000 and lying about where she was, so she came clean 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:32.000 about Gary Richard. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.400 I'm declaring, you know that I love him, and at 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.440 this point, you know, we had only been together just 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.800 a few months, but you know, professing my love for him, 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:42.319 you know, and you're not going to be able to 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.520 keep me from him, and all these things. 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.920 Her parents disapproved, but they didn't try to stop the relationship. 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.200 What Brandy didn't tell them were the rumors she'd heard 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:54.280 about her new boyfriend. 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.360 He had gotten locked up, He didn't graduate from high school, 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.720 got his ged in prison, had ended up being in 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.960 prison a couple different times for just different things. 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.040 He told Brandy that he had spent a few months 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.640 in prison, but it was on a trumped up theft charge, 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.920 and in the same breath, he explained he had a 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:19.440 hard life. 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:23.120 His mom had abandoned him as a child, and his 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.040 siblings and their grandmother raised him. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.320 She felt for him most of all. She felt like 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.200 she could fix him. 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:42.400 And then four months after meeting him, I got pregnantje. 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.120 And Gary bought a pregnancy test to confirm it, and 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.400 it was positive. The whole time, he stayed calm and collected. 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.959 He just so confidently, like he always does, just knew 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:53.920 what to do. He just always had a plan. 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.280 His plan was to start a life together and build 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.600 a family. That's what Brandy Wan wanted to. 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:03.760 I knew as long as I had him, I would 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:08.480 be okay. Like I have you, I love you. This 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.959 will be our family, and we're gonna be okay. As 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.840 long as I have him, my life's gonna be good, 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:15.600 no matter what. 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.920 Next. Brandy had to tell her parents. She wrote them 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.079 a note and left it on her nightstand. 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.600 I was scared because I thought they would disown me. 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:31.719 You know, my dad was scary. Of course, they were upset, 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:36.080 but it wasn't the reaction that I had expected. 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.120 Her dad offered to get her on his insurance plan 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.560 and help her through the pregnancy in exchange for staying 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.800 at home, but Brandy wanted to be with Gary Richard. 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:49.960 I wanted to move in with Gary Richard. I just 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.880 wanted this perfect little family. We'll all be together, and 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:55.880 that was all I wanted anyways, was just to be 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.760 with him. So I did. But I still promised my 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.480 dad I would finish high school and then I would graduate. 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.440 Brandy started her senior year while she was pregnant with 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:05.880 her son. 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.600 The summer before my senior year, I turned in my 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:14.360 cheerleading uniforms and then I turned seventeen. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.520 After that, she moved in with him at his apartment. 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.840 And then a few months later, when I was eight 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:30.120 months pregnant, I heard a knock at the door, and 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:34.520 so I went to the door and there were two 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:41.360 detectives standing there. They asked me if Gary Richard was home. 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.800 They were investigating Gary Richard for theft. Not knowing what 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.480 to do, Randy let them in where they collected evidence 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.400 and thanked her for her cooperation. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.520 You see that stuff on the movies, but to have 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:59.679 that happening right before your eyes, it's just shocking. And 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:06.680 Gary Richard comes home and he's not scared like I am. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.439 He's just calm and confident. 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.520 He denied he'd stolen anything, and Brandy didn't hear from 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.600 the police again about the theft, so she assumed they 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.760 closed the case and life moved on in a big way. 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.360 A few weeks later, their son was born. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:34.120 Holding him, it just incredible. It's that kind of love 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.520 that you can't I can't. It's hard to describe. It's 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.440 like my heart's setting on outside of my body and 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:41.040 I'm holding it. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.440 Yeah, she made her son a promise. 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.360 What I did know then, you know, even at that 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.040 young age, was that I was going to be the 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.000 best mom I could be for him, that I was 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:54.840 always going to be there for him, and that I 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:56.679 just wanted him to be safe. 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.199 Sitting in that hospital room holding her new baby, Brandy 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:06.440 was blissfully unaware of the chaos that would follow them. 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:08.880 A few days after they got home from the hospital, 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.960 Gary Richard was charged with theft. He told Brandy he 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.680 was innocent, but he was already on probation, so his 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.400 lawyer wanted to show the judge that Gary Richard was 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.440 now a family man. They all went to the courthouse together, 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:25.800 where he entered a not guilty plea. 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.840 The attorney then proceeds to say, if we had got 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:34.600 married before the court date, it would really help kind 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:36.880 of show the judge, you know that he's this change man, 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:42.400 new baby, new wife, can hopefully help lessen any sentence 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.240 or anything. That was the plan. The plan was we 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.440 were going to get married before he would go in 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:51.000 front of the judge. So the wedding planning began. 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:54.920 She started calling around to churches in their area. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.920 And when I had called one of the churches, the preacher' 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.480 anybody that's under the age of eighteen. 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.720 Randy was baffled. Before this moment, she hadn't given any 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:10.240 thought to their age difference. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.680 That didn't make any sense to me because I'm thinking, Okay, 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.080 you know, you're just being kind of closed minded. And 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.080 she didn't want to get married at your church anyway. 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.600 I didn't realize in our state, to get married under 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.040 the age of eighteen, you had to have parental consent. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:27.720 So she went to her parents. 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.240 I begged my parents to sign. I used all stops 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.280 when I'm banging a complete and you know that this 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.160 is the right thing to do for my family. So 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:41.120 then finally my mom gave in. She went up there 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.480 and signed the marriage license, and we got married. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:16:16.640 Randy was seventeen. After Brandy had her son, she and 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.680 Gary Richard got married. They hadn't planned on it, but 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.480 on his attorney's advice, they decided it would be the 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.920 best thing for the family. Brandy also worked hard to 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.840 graduate high school. She wanted to make sure she had 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.640 a degree and could make money to provide for her family. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.360 She didn't want to become another statistic about teenage pregnancy. 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:38.160 She wanted to defy the odds. 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.720 It just kind of felt like this challenge of yeah, 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:43.640 I'm going to show you that that's not going to be. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.640 Me but despite her efforts to start a new life together, 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:54.280 Gary Richards's old habits followed them. He ended up taking 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.440 a plea deal on the theft charge. When it came 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.400 to sentencing, their plan to get married and show that 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.040 Gary Richard was a family man one favor with the judge. 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.080 The ploy worked and it did give him a supervised probation, 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:09.959 which is what we had wanted. We didn't want him 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.919 to go to prison, so that was a win. And 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.359 the attorney did his job, you know, he kept him 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.880 from going back to prison. It's like, okay, this time, 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.719 we're done. Now my family's done with all this and 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.200 we can move forward. 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.439 But as time went on, Brandy noticed that Gary Richard 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:33.480 was still hanging out with teenagers. 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.520 And it's like, I'm at home and what are you doing, 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.439 you know, hanging out with them. Oh well, you know 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.520 so and so, and they wanted to hang out after work. 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.400 When some of those kids were younger than myself at 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.119 the time. It was never people his own age, I 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.200 guess I'll say it like that, very few people were 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.119 his own age. I think you kind of believe what 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.640 you you want to believe, you know, when you're looking 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:01.240 at somebody through the rose colored glasses. Red flags are invisible. 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.320 For Brandy, their relationship had become bigger than the two 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:09.000 of them. Now it was about their son and what 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:13.440 was best for him. Four years into their marriage, they 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:16.040 had saved enough money to move out of the apartment 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.240 where they met and buy a house together. 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.840 I was just shy of twenty two and started working 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:27.080 at the local hospital. That I was excited about because 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:28.880 that kind of felt like a big girl job. 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.000 Gary Richards seemed to be growing up too. Their new 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:36.240 home became a place for them to host family celebrations 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:38.240 and start traditions of their own. 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.919 We used to host Halloween parties, We hosted New Year's party. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.160 He DJ'ed our parties. You know that they made the 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:51.760 best funnest garage house parties. Everybody loved our parties and 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.520 loved decorating. You know. My mom and sister would come 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.040 over and help that. I mean, it was just the 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:56.880 whole production. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.760 Gary Richard even organized Halloween hay rides for all the 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:01.840 kids in the neighborhood. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.520 He would hook up the little trailer thing and we 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:07.320 would do the bell the hey and have the hot 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:13.439 chocolate and drive the kids around the neighborhood that was 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:14.880 cool and everybody loved it. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.359 And he really showed up as a father to their son, 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.920 like volunteering as a little league coach and teaching him 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:22.760 how to ride a bike. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.760 I remember watching him run up the road, you know, 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:27.320 like when they do that where they hold the back 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.719 of the seat, or one time he built him a 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.199 bunk bed. My son had always wanted that, and so 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:38.520 that was yeah when I saw that, like him being 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:43.280 this dad that almost seemed picturesque, the dad liked that 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.919 would be on the TV. All I ever wanted was 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:47.040 my family to look like that. 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.040 In those first few years their marriage felt strong. 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:54.399 He would say like, you're the only one for me, 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.280 and he would tell me how much he loved my family. 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:00.639 You know that it felt like the family he never had. 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.680 You know, That's why I stayed. That's why I loved him. 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.080 That's why because it was my family. No matter how 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:11.200 it looked or what else happened, you stay because that's 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:16.000 your person and you just do life with them. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.679 The main struggle in their marriage was around money. The 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:23.960 couple was constantly under financial stress. When they had first 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.800 started dating, he'd made it seem like he had money 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:31.280 but she quickly discovered that wasn't really the case. 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:34.760 Okay, he doesn't have the kind of money he's making 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:36.000 it out to seem. 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:40.200 Their bills and loans were piling up. 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:45.040 Everything's robed Peter to pay Paul, and then he would 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:49.280 jump jobs, and there wasn't that consistent income always. So 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:51.760 then it was like me trying to kind of figure out, Okay, 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.119 how are we going to pay this one this disconnect notice, 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.879 and so then I'm trying to research and find the ways, 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:00.960 you know, always kind of to survive. 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:08.320 As their marriage progressed, Gary Richards started putting Brandy down, insulting. 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.800 Her the snide little comments. You know, you make fun 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.760 of my voice, you make fun of my stretch marks, 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.399 you know, the different little jabs here and there that 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.000 I accepted it as that's just who he is. You 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.400 either love him or you hate him. That's just who 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.399 he is. You know, like he's he's gonna make jokes 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:28.800 about me. This is the sacrifice that we make for 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:31.720 the family. This is the sacrifice that you make as 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:32.520 his person. 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:35.720 This wasn't the same guy she met when she was 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.080 sixteen who made her feel like the center of his world. 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:42.960 Brandy was always trying to get that version of him back. 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:47.639 One day, nine years into their marriage, they were taking 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.639 their son and his friend, I'll to celebrate The kids 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.919 had gotten straight a's in the fourth grade. As the 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:58.080 family van was backing out of the driveway, they were interrupted. 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:03.480 There was two sheriff cars blocking hard drive. And you know, 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.760 so I look at him obviously, you know, like what 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:07.840 are they? You know, but you got kids in the 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:09.720 car looking at you, so you know, it's like some 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.480 of our communication was more like just looking at each other, 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:16.439 you know, saying stuff without saying stuff because you're trying 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:18.399 to now not want to scare these kids. 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:21.679 Gary Richard got out of the car to speak with 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.720 the police while Brandy stayed with the kids. 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.840 And then he walked back towards the car, and then 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:30.880 I got out and he told me that they were 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:34.199 serving him a restraining order and that there was some 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:36.600 allegations made against him and they wanted him to go 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:39.280 to the station because they needed to ask him some questions. 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:42.800 Gary Richard told Brandy he had no idea what this 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:46.400 was about, but he was willing to cooperate. He loved 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:49.240 Brandy and the kids, and headed to the police station. 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:52.639 He called from the gel later and told me the 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:56.840 teenager had accused him of touching her inappropriately and had 0:22:56.840 --> 0:23:00.680 told her mom. Her mom went to file the restraining 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:03.680 order against him, and then that's what started this investigation. 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:11.040 The allegations came from a fifteen year old girl. Gary 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:14.800 Richard denied it. He told Brandy it was a misunderstanding. 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.199 He told me that he didn't know why she said it. 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.760 He said that maybe she thinks I'm cute, Maybe she 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:25.760 made up a story about me to look cool in 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:26.720 front of her friends. 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.560 She believed him, even though she had a gut feeling 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:33.080 that something was wrong. 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:35.800