Speaker 1: I grabbed my phone, and I put my mom's phone
Speaker 1: number in my phone, and I put the phone to
Speaker 1: my chest, and I keep my finger on the call button,
Speaker 1: and I can't stop these thoughts. I don't know how
Speaker 1: else to explain it. It was just like somebody was
Speaker 1: whispering in my ear, telling me something bad was about
Speaker 1: to happen.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about
Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 2: change everything. Angelique Robletto was thrust into the headlines when
Speaker 2: she was only seventeen.
Speaker 1: Everybody was outside my door. I had every single news station.
Speaker 1: I had people calling me. I had Anderson Cooper calling me.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how they got my number.
Speaker 2: As a teenager, Angelique experience to horribly traumatic betrayal. And
Speaker 2: that's the story you're going to hear over the next
Speaker 2: two episodes. It's taken her ten years of hindsight processing
Speaker 2: and her own investigation to be able to tell the
Speaker 2: full story, not just for the headlines or the tabloids,
Speaker 2: but for herself. Today, Angelique is finally ready to tell
Speaker 2: her story her way.
Speaker 1: My motivation is not just to get my story out.
Speaker 1: It's also to be a voice for the mothers that
Speaker 1: are not here, that didn't get to survive this crime.
Speaker 2: Angeline grew up in a large Mexican American family.
Speaker 1: And so when we have get togethers, it's not just
Speaker 1: to get together. It was always a party. There was
Speaker 1: always like i've been out that our cousins, our aunts,
Speaker 1: our uncles, the whole shebang would come together.
Speaker 2: Their house was always a gathering place for friends and family.
Speaker 2: Angelique's mom was an interior designer and she loved being
Speaker 2: a hostess.
Speaker 1: Growing up when we lived in a mobile home, she
Speaker 1: didn't care like, come to our house, you know, come
Speaker 1: hang out with us. She would be an amazing host.
Speaker 1: I just remember her always constantly baking cookies, putting them
Speaker 1: out on the table, and you know, always having like lemonade,
Speaker 1: always having things.
Speaker 2: It was a loving home. Angelique was the only girl
Speaker 2: in a family full of brothers. She was the sensitive one.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm the odd ball out in my family.
Speaker 1: I do feel like I'm the one that worries more
Speaker 1: about people and what they think and also what they
Speaker 1: think of me.
Speaker 2: Compared to her brothers, she was more of a people pleaser.
Speaker 2: She wanted to fit in and be liked. When Angelique
Speaker 2: was in middle school, her family moved from California to Arizona.
Speaker 2: It felt like a big upgrade.
Speaker 1: We went from living in a mobile home park to
Speaker 1: what seemed like to me like a mansion, because you know,
Speaker 1: back then the prices were a lot different. We moved
Speaker 1: from California to Arizona and had a five bedroom home
Speaker 1: with a pool, and it was just amazing. It was
Speaker 1: like a new start, in a new beginning.
Speaker 2: But it was a difficult adjustment. She left all of
Speaker 2: her friends behind and started middle school in a new state.
Speaker 1: I was the new girl. I definitely got stared at.
Speaker 1: I definitely got judged my first week of school. I
Speaker 1: ended up eating lunch in the bathroom all by myself
Speaker 1: for like a whole week because people did not like me.
Speaker 2: So she developed a tough girl persona.
Speaker 1: So I at that point had changed from the sweet
Speaker 1: girl who never got into fights, who never even had
Speaker 1: an f ever, to this hardcore You know, I won't
Speaker 1: say a bad person, but when I look back at
Speaker 1: my childhood, I really do think of, like, wow, I
Speaker 1: did change into this person that I could not even
Speaker 1: recognize anymore.
Speaker 2: And part of that new persona meant experimenting with drugs.
Speaker 1: I did start using marijuana and drinking with my friends,
Speaker 1: and then I was going through a really, really hard
Speaker 1: time during my eleventh grade year. Something just within my
Speaker 1: family and it changed everything about me and made me
Speaker 1: feel numb.
Speaker 2: She asked us not to share details about what was happening.
Speaker 2: Let's suffice it to say it was a difficult time.
Speaker 1: So I was going through some stuff at home, but
Speaker 1: also dealing with being a high schooler and trying to
Speaker 1: be cool.
Speaker 2: The summer before her senior year, she was invited to
Speaker 2: a party.
Speaker 1: I woke up to a text message at like six
Speaker 1: am that said, rager party. My parents aren't home, bring
Speaker 1: your bathing suits, Let's go swimming, and let's have a party.
Speaker 1: We are very what I would call the redneck city.
Speaker 1: We were drinking keystone, that's all we could afford. It
Speaker 1: was so much fun. I had a blast.
Speaker 2: It was at that party that a friend suggested that
Speaker 2: they try a new drug.
Speaker 1: Trying meth. It took away the pain and the sorrow
Speaker 1: and everything that I felt inside of me, and I
Speaker 1: was immediately hooked. It only takes one time, and that's
Speaker 1: all it took for me.
Speaker 2: She was in a bad place and living a life
Speaker 2: of extremes.
Speaker 1: I was just a young seventeen year old girl who
Speaker 1: didn't really understand the consequences of using hard drugs that way.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to go down this path.
Speaker 2: Trying meth wasn't the only thing that happened at the party.
Speaker 2: There was a guy named Josh there. They'd known each
Speaker 2: other for years as acquaintances. She thought it was cute,
Speaker 2: and that night.
Speaker 1: One thing led to another, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I wake up at the morning and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: so just happened.
Speaker 2: She and Josh hooked up. It was casual, a one
Speaker 2: time thing. After that party, Angelique's life began revolving around
Speaker 2: her new addiction.
Speaker 1: I got sneakier. I started finding people to were like
Speaker 1: within work doing it. I started getting people to do
Speaker 1: it with me so that they would get it. Like
Speaker 1: when you're in that drug world, you'll figure it out.
Speaker 2: As the weeks went on, Angelique began feeling sick and
Speaker 2: started to suspect she could be pregnant. So one day,
Speaker 2: about six weeks after she hooked up with Josh, she
Speaker 2: bought a pregnancy test.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess I wasn't the only person that thought
Speaker 1: I was pregnant, because when I got home, there was
Speaker 1: a pregnancy test sitting on my bed for my mother.
Speaker 1: She had been tracking my period. She said, you have
Speaker 1: not had a period this month. Take this test.
Speaker 2: Turns out it was positive. She was only seventeen, and
Speaker 2: she panicked.
Speaker 1: I remember very clearly at that very moment. I locked
Speaker 1: myself in the bathroom. I brought my pipe in there,
Speaker 1: I brought my bag, my stuff, and I had smoked
Speaker 1: and smoked and smoked. I was in shock, and I
Speaker 1: thought maybe this would not my pain.
Speaker 2: But she couldn't stay in the bathroom forever.
Speaker 1: I came out and I threw the pregnancy test at
Speaker 1: my mom and I said I'm pregnant, and she was livid.
Speaker 1: She was so mad at me and disappointed. She was crying,
Speaker 1: and I was just sitting there. I just turned up
Speaker 1: all my emotions and I just looked at her like what,
Speaker 1: trying to pretend like it wasn't a big deal, but
Speaker 1: inside I was actually really like freaking out.
Speaker 2: Her stepbrother was watching the whole scene, and he knew
Speaker 2: Angelique had just used drugs in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: He was one of my best friends he was somebody
Speaker 1: that I would talk to all the time, and the
Speaker 1: first thing that he did was he found my stash
Speaker 1: and he flushed everything down the toilet.
Speaker 2: The rest of that day was a blur. Once everyone
Speaker 2: in the house had gone to bed, Angelique had one
Speaker 2: thing on her mind.
Speaker 1: I sat at the toilet, staring at it with a wrench,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how I could remove the toilet
Speaker 1: to get my stashed so that I could smoke again.
Speaker 1: That's what my main priority was, so was to sit
Speaker 1: there and figure that out.
Speaker 2: At this point, she'd been addicted to math for six
Speaker 2: weeks and it had taken over her life.
Speaker 1: It was the moment that I sat on the ground
Speaker 1: staring at that toilet with a wrench that really made
Speaker 1: me stomach how far gone this drug had made me.
Speaker 1: I had felt pathetic, like I have no idea what
Speaker 1: I'm doing with this wrench, What am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: Take this toilet apart and put my hand down and
Speaker 1: try to find a bag that might be soaked? Like
Speaker 1: is that how much I loved this? Is that how
Speaker 1: much I want to do this? I spend my whole
Speaker 1: paycheck on it. How am I supposed to do anything?
Speaker 1: In life.
Speaker 2: Sitting in front of the toilet with a wrench was
Speaker 2: her rock bottom. She never wanted to go back to
Speaker 2: that place.
Speaker 1: It was my turning point, and if you're an addict,
Speaker 1: you understand exactly what that means.
Speaker 2: This morning, she knew she had to talk to Josh.
Speaker 2: She told him she was pregnant, and he agreed to
Speaker 2: meet in person.
Speaker 1: And I came down the street in a hoodie with glasses.
Speaker 1: It's hot and Arizetta. I pulled my hoodie down, took
Speaker 1: off my glasses and stared at him and said, do
Speaker 1: you see me? And he said, yeah, you look really
Speaker 1: messed up. And I said, exactly, if I don't have
Speaker 1: this baby, this is going to be my life. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I had it in me to stop
Speaker 1: doing this because I like it too much. But this
Speaker 1: baby can change everything in my life. This baby can
Speaker 1: help me.
Speaker 2: She decided that this pregnancy was her second chance, her lifeline.
Speaker 2: She told Josh that she was going to have the baby,
Speaker 2: whether he wanted to be involved or not. After all,
Speaker 2: they had only hooked up once. They hardly knew each other.
Speaker 1: I didn't want somebody to be with me because I
Speaker 1: was having their baby. I wanted somebody to be with
Speaker 1: me because they loved me, not because they felt obligated.
Speaker 2: But Josh wanted to be there for her and for
Speaker 2: the baby. One of their first dates was a doctor's appointment.
Speaker 2: They're looking at the ultrasound monitor.
Speaker 1: When I saw the screen, I had immediately fell in
Speaker 1: love with this tiny little bulb inside of me. And honestly,
Speaker 1: that was like reassurance for me and more motivation to
Speaker 1: stay away from the people that were doing drugs or
Speaker 1: to stay clean.
Speaker 2: This whole experience led her to sobriety, and she's been
Speaker 2: clean ever since.
Speaker 1: I officially believe that being pregnant is what saved my life.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't easy. She had to take one day at.
Speaker 1: A time, trying to work, trying to stay sober, trying
Speaker 1: to do all these different things just was extremely complicated.
Speaker 1: So I had decided just to stop, and I stopped
Speaker 1: going to school at them, I ended up actually getting
Speaker 1: my ged.
Speaker 2: Her old friends started avoiding her.
Speaker 1: I had lost a lot of friends, like deep, really
Speaker 1: really close friends. Everybody else was still in high school,
Speaker 1: everybody else was still parting, everybody else was still doing
Speaker 1: these things that I couldn't do.
Speaker 2: Her friends had moved on without her. She says she
Speaker 2: felt forgotten.
Speaker 1: You think about high school and you think senior year
Speaker 1: is going to be the year. It's going to be
Speaker 1: the year that I graduate. All these different things that
Speaker 1: we think senior prank just prom everything. I was watching
Speaker 1: all of my friends go through that, and I wasn't.
Speaker 2: On top of that, she didn't have any friends who
Speaker 2: understood what it was like being pregnant, and.
Speaker 1: I felt so isolated and lonely because nobody understood why
Speaker 1: I had heartburn. Nobody understood why I couldn't walk two
Speaker 1: miles without catching my breath. Nobody could understand, you know,
Speaker 1: me complaining about how big my belly was. Like. They
Speaker 1: didn't understand any of that because none of them were
Speaker 1: going through what I was going through.
Speaker 2: Her biggest supporter was Josh, but to prepare for the baby,
Speaker 2: Josh started working overtime trying to save money.
Speaker 1: He was working like ninety hour weeks, like it was insane.
Speaker 1: It was literally from morning tonight. I never saw him,
Speaker 1: but he would come to my house with no sleep
Speaker 1: just to give me a kiss or just to give
Speaker 1: me a hug.
Speaker 2: Seeing Josh was often the highlight of her day. That
Speaker 2: was until she was introduced to a new friend.
Speaker 1: I had a friend. Her name was Hannah, and Hannah
Speaker 1: called me and was like, I met this girl. Her
Speaker 1: name is Cassandra. She is pregnant, just like you are.
Speaker 1: She's our age. It's crazy. Her birthday's in October, just
Speaker 1: like yours. I feel like you guys would have a
Speaker 1: lot in common. Plus she's new to town, so she doesn't
Speaker 1: have too many friends. You know what it's like to
Speaker 1: be pregnant and kind of feel like that isolation. I
Speaker 1: kind of just painted this whole picture of like a
Speaker 1: perfect friend.
Speaker 2: But that new friend would change Angelique's life forever. Angelique
Speaker 2: was seventeen when she found out she was going to
Speaker 2: have a baby. She had lost a lot of friends,
Speaker 2: and by the time she was entering her third trimester,
Speaker 2: she was feeling isolated and alone. But then a friend
Speaker 2: offered to connect her to someone new, another teenager named Cassandra,
Speaker 2: who was four months pregnant.
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, yeah, like that sounds awesome,
Speaker 1: Like I need a new friend. I need somebody that
Speaker 1: is going to be able to relate to what I
Speaker 1: am going through right now.
Speaker 2: So she made plans to get lunch with her.
Speaker 1: It was like an instant clique. So if you're a girl,
Speaker 1: you know exactly what I mean. You either click with
Speaker 1: a girl or you don't. And I had felt this
Speaker 1: like full connection with her right away.
Speaker 2: They just got each other.
Speaker 1: She was very smiley and just seems so down to earth.
Speaker 1: I would say something like, oh my gosh, this happened,
Speaker 1: and she'd be like, I know what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my gosh, do you understand me.
Speaker 2: Finally, Angeline had her pregnancy buddy, someone who wouldn't judge her.
Speaker 2: It was the connection she'd been craving. They both needed
Speaker 2: to set up their baby registry, so they decided to
Speaker 2: do it together at a baby store.
Speaker 1: We were excited and we absolutely like, oh you should
Speaker 1: get this, Oh you should get that. I already have this.
Speaker 1: It was actually like a really cool moment to have
Speaker 1: with a friend because I didn't have a friend that
Speaker 1: was going to go do that with me.
Speaker 2: They started talking every day, commiserating.
Speaker 1: We stay in contact through Facebook and text message constantly,
Speaker 1: the same exact thing that we always talked about. You know,
Speaker 1: how are you feeling, what are you craving, what's been
Speaker 1: going on?
Speaker 2: They became fast friends, and they had mutual friends, so
Speaker 2: they would sometimes hang out as one big group. When
Speaker 2: they all got together. Cassandra was always on her phone.
Speaker 1: She always would be like, oh, my husband's calling me.
Speaker 1: She was constantly on the phone.
Speaker 2: That was one thing they didn't have in common. Angelique
Speaker 2: was still taking it slow with the father of her baby,
Speaker 2: but Cassandra was already married to the father of.
Speaker 1: Hers We're all kind of thrown off at the fact
Speaker 1: that she was like seventeen, eighteen years old and she
Speaker 1: had a husband. His name was Edwin.
Speaker 2: Cassandra only talked to Edwin in Spanish, even though Angelique
Speaker 2: grew up around it every day, she never learned the language,
Speaker 2: so when Cassandra was on these calls, no one knew
Speaker 2: what she was talking about.
Speaker 1: So that was something that like, we all did go huh.
Speaker 2: It was weird, but people just chalked it up to
Speaker 2: Cassandra being young, pregnant, and being attached to her husband.
Speaker 2: A few weeks before Angelique's due date, her family and
Speaker 2: friends threw her baby shower.
Speaker 1: We had it at my parents' house and it was
Speaker 1: really really big. I remember feeling extremely overwhelmed with the
Speaker 1: amount of gifts that I got. It was insane. I
Speaker 1: I had gotten every single thing that I wanted for
Speaker 1: my registry plus four. I just remember that whole day
Speaker 1: feeling so blessed.
Speaker 2: The only person who couldn't be there was Cassandra. She'd
Speaker 2: been feeling sick that day but promised to check in
Speaker 2: when she felt better.
Speaker 1: She was just like, hey, like, how are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry that I missed your baby shower. And
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, no, don't worry. I know what
Speaker 1: it's like to be pregnant, Like, don't worry or feel
Speaker 1: bad at all. And she was like, I still have
Speaker 1: gifts for you, and I really really want to come
Speaker 1: over and just see you and hang out.
Speaker 2: So they made plans for Cassandra to come over a
Speaker 2: few days later.
Speaker 1: My little brother answered the door and she had walked in,
Speaker 1: and she was very bubbly, very enthusiastic, you know, very kind,
Speaker 1: and she had this really big bag with her. It
Speaker 1: was like a diaper bag.
Speaker 2: The bag was full of gifts for Angelique, but instead
Speaker 2: of opening them, they got distracted just catching up.
Speaker 1: We just spent our whole day just hanging out talking,
Speaker 1: you know, sat on my couch watching TV. At that time,
Speaker 1: it was sixteen and pregnant and team mom like MTV.
Speaker 1: Those were like all the things that we used to watch,
Speaker 1: and so me and her spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: doing that.
Speaker 2: Angelique's mom fixed them lunch.
Speaker 1: You know, we're eating, and I started to notice she
Speaker 1: was mimicking things that I would say. For an example,
Speaker 1: my mom would be like, oh, well, Angelique ran away
Speaker 1: when she was this age and she jumped the wall.
Speaker 1: But all of a sudden she had the exact same story,
Speaker 1: and then I was like, oh, you know that could happen,
Speaker 1: But then more stories would happen, and she would just
Speaker 1: be like, oh, that happened to me too, almost exactly
Speaker 1: the same. And I don't know. For some reason, I
Speaker 1: was getting bothered by it, and I don't know why.
Speaker 1: It's really not that big of a deal. I pulled
Speaker 1: my mom aside and I asked her, like, Hey, do
Speaker 1: you think Cassandra's weird? And she was like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean. I was like, I don't know, just I
Speaker 1: keep getting this weird feeling about her, Like I have
Speaker 1: this weird feeling and my mom was like, no, like
Speaker 1: I don't feel that way. She's like, I can tell
Speaker 1: you that it does seem like she needs a lot
Speaker 1: of attention, and it seems like she wants like your
Speaker 1: approval to be your friend. Cut her some slack, you know,
Speaker 1: as a mom would tell a teenager, like, you're kind
Speaker 1: of being judgmental.
Speaker 2: So Angeline tried to give Cassandra some grace, even when
Speaker 2: it came to the endless calls she made to her husband, Edwin.
Speaker 1: Once she realized my mom understood Spanish, she kind of
Speaker 1: changed her demeanor and she started taking her calls in private.
Speaker 1: I was just like, Okay, these are just things that
Speaker 1: are kind of just going on. They have explanations.
Speaker 2: As the afternoon went on, Angelique got tired.
Speaker 1: It was exhausting hosting, so I started like yawning and
Speaker 1: kind of just being like a little like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: so tired. She had told me that she didn't have
Speaker 1: her keys to her house and she had to wait
Speaker 1: for her sister to get back home, and so at
Speaker 1: that point I was like, Okay, Angelique, suck it up,
Speaker 1: like she's stuck here for a little bit, and that's okay,
Speaker 1: You're just going to have to stop and suck it up,
Speaker 1: like hang out and just continue the rest of your
Speaker 1: day with her.
Speaker 2: By this point, it was getting close to dinner time.
Speaker 2: Angelique's mom had to take her little brothers to football practice.
Speaker 2: She offered to bring Angelice and Cassandra along.
Speaker 1: And Cassandra was very adamant, like, no, I don't feel good.
Speaker 1: Is it okay if we stay here?
Speaker 2: So they stayed back.
Speaker 1: One time mom had left, my brothers had left that
Speaker 1: it was just us. It was just starting to get
Speaker 1: darker outside, and it was like a light switched. It
Speaker 1: was like Cassandra started being different suddenly.
Speaker 2: Cassandra seemed on edge, almost paranoid. But then she remembered
Speaker 2: something and.
Speaker 1: She was like, oh, your gifts. And at this point
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yeah, that's why you came over. You
Speaker 1: came over because you wanted to bring me baby shower
Speaker 1: gifts like and that just completely slipped my mind.
Speaker 2: Cassandra wanted to surprise Angelique with the gifts.
Speaker 1: She wanted to give me these gifts in a very
Speaker 1: unique way. She took a chair from my kitchen and
Speaker 1: she put it in the middle of my kitchen and
Speaker 1: told me to sit in it and turn around and
Speaker 1: close my eyes. And I thought that was so odd,
Speaker 1: but I did it. She said, I'm going to come
Speaker 1: up behind you. I'm going to drop the presence in
Speaker 1: your lap.
Speaker 2: She started dropping presents in her lap one by one.
Speaker 1: The first present was a receiving blanket. The second present
Speaker 1: was a onesie, little booties, a bib, a bigger blanket,
Speaker 1: some random newborn diapers.
Speaker 2: But Angelique noticed something off about the gifts.
Speaker 1: They had the smell. It was smelt like a man
Speaker 1: had rubbed like like Colonne all over it, or like
Speaker 1: they like he just like rubbed himself on it or
Speaker 1: something like it just not like a man. But I
Speaker 1: am not a rude person. My mother did not teach
Speaker 1: me to be a rude person. And I will be
Speaker 1: thankful for whatever I get, whether I like it or
Speaker 1: whether I don't. So I nodded and I said thank
Speaker 1: you so much.
Speaker 2: The whole situation started to give her that weird feeling again.
Speaker 1: My instincts were telling me something that I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to explain or what it even was. But there
Speaker 1: was gifts in my lap.
Speaker 2: Then Cassandra brought out an even bigger present, an expensive
Speaker 2: baby carrier.
Speaker 1: I felt like really awkward about it, like I know
Speaker 1: the gift was expensive, and I remember setting there her
Speaker 1: like I don't think I can accept this, like you've
Speaker 1: already given me so much.
Speaker 2: Cassandra explained that she'd gotten two of them at her
Speaker 2: own baby shower and wanted to give one to Angelique. Plus,
Speaker 2: she said Angelique was special.
Speaker 1: She had felt some type of special bond between us.
Speaker 1: She was like, I just feel like you're a true friend,
Speaker 1: and I just feel like I want to thank you
Speaker 1: for accepting me. And I know I can be overbearing
Speaker 1: sometimes and it was like reassurance that I wanted because
Speaker 1: of all the feelings I was having and that conversation
Speaker 1: with my mom. So it made me feel like all
Speaker 1: she really is somebody that just wants a friend. She
Speaker 1: just wants to be accepted.
Speaker 2: Cassandra was on the verge of tears. Angelique almost felt
Speaker 2: sorry for her.
Speaker 1: So I accepted the gift and she was like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, I forgot I have one last present for you.
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, what is it. She was like, well,
Speaker 1: I have to show you in the dark, like this
Speaker 1: has to be done in the dark. So we go
Speaker 1: to your room and I was like yeah. Sure.
Speaker 2: Cassandra had been spoiling Angelique with gift after gift for
Speaker 2: the baby, but she had one last present for her.
Speaker 2: It was a gift that involved a light or a projection.
Speaker 2: You'd have to see it in the dark for the
Speaker 2: full effect. So they went to Angelique's room, where Cassandra
Speaker 2: told her to sit on the bed and close her
Speaker 2: eyes one more time.
Speaker 1: At this point, the sun is fully set because it's
Speaker 1: pitch shark in my room. I couldn't see too well,
Speaker 1: but I could see her shadow like I could see her,
Speaker 1: and I start to get really scared. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it was like these weird thoughts started coming into my head,
Speaker 1: and they were very like vivid thoughts. It was just
Speaker 1: like somebody was whispering in my ear, telling me I
Speaker 1: was about to be murdered, that like something bad was
Speaker 1: about to happen to me, that I was going to
Speaker 1: be stabbed. So I grabbed my phone and I put
Speaker 1: my mom's phone number in my phone, and I put
Speaker 1: the phone to my chest and I keep my finger
Speaker 1: on the call button, and I can't stop these thoughts.
Speaker 2: She couldn't tell if this was just anxiety or if
Speaker 2: it was something more serious.
Speaker 1: So as I'm battling with myself, all she's doing is
Speaker 1: digging through this bag to give me the gift. Then
Speaker 1: at that moment, I said something. I said, Cassandra, like,
Speaker 1: what's taking so long? And she was like, I found it.
Speaker 1: I found it, okay, And she got up on my bed,
Speaker 1: got behind me on my bed, which made me extremely nervous,
Speaker 1: and she said, okay, are you ready? And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: show me. She was like okay, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what are you doing. She's like, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: put the light over your head and then you'll be
Speaker 1: able to see. It's going to shine on your closet
Speaker 1: like I had a big closet door. And I was
Speaker 1: like okay, okay, And I'm sitting right there and she
Speaker 1: puts her hand on my shoulder. She leans me forward
Speaker 1: and she starts to count and she says one, two,
Speaker 1: and right when she says three, something inside of my
Speaker 1: head said stand up. So I jumped up as fast
Speaker 1: as I could and I ran and turned the light on.
Speaker 2: But when she flipped the light switch, whatever she.
Speaker 1: Had in her hand she was putting back into the
Speaker 1: bag and she's just like staring at me, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what is going on? And exactly when I say that,
Speaker 1: her phone rings and she answers it and it's it's Edwin.
Speaker 1: And she takes the bag and she leaves the room
Speaker 1: and she just starts speaking to this person in Spanish.
Speaker 1: She starts yelling at this person.
Speaker 2: Angela's heart was pounding.
Speaker 1: They kept on wanting to make it make sense because
Speaker 1: none of it made any sense.
Speaker 2: So she tried to calm herself down by lighting a candle,
Speaker 2: a nervous habit of hers. When Cassandra came back into
Speaker 2: her room.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, is everything okay? And she was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was Edwin. He wants to take me out to dinner,
Speaker 1: but like, I have nothing to wear. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: just go look at my closet, like, go see for
Speaker 1: something in it that fits you.
Speaker 2: The whole situation was so bizarre. Angelique needed a moment
Speaker 2: to herself, so she left Cassandra in her room while
Speaker 2: she went to the kitchen.
Speaker 1: In my head, I'm thinking something's happening inside in my
Speaker 1: room right now, and I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2: Then Cassandra came out wearing one of Angelique's.
Speaker 1: Dresses and I'm like, oh, that's cute. And I get
Speaker 1: up and I start to walk closer to the room
Speaker 1: and I start to smell this like weird smell, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's that smell? And she's like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? And I was like, it almost smells
Speaker 1: like something's burning. And she was like, Oh, I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. And she's like looking at
Speaker 1: herself in the mirror, just like checking herself out, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, no, I can absolutely smell like something
Speaker 1: is burning.
Speaker 2: The smell was so intense that Angelique ran from room
Speaker 2: to room checking to see if anything was on fire.
Speaker 1: The last place I look at my closet. When I
Speaker 1: opened my closet, everything is in flames. All my clothes
Speaker 1: that are in my closet, it's all on fire. And
Speaker 1: I went into a straight panic mode. I grabbed my
Speaker 1: phone and I didn't call nine one one. I called
Speaker 1: the last person that called me, which happened to be
Speaker 1: one of my best friends. So I'm screaming, there's a
Speaker 1: fire in my house. Call nine one one, help please.
Speaker 2: She didn't have time to deal with Cassandra or think
Speaker 2: at all. She just needed to put the fire out immediately.
Speaker 1: And I'm running to the kitchen. I'm grabbing pots and pans.
Speaker 1: I threw one at Cassandra, and I'm telling her, fill
Speaker 1: these up and let's put this fire out.
Speaker 2: Angelie poured on as much water as she could before
Speaker 2: they had to evacuate.
Speaker 1: I was just coughing so much, to the point like
Speaker 1: where I was on my knees and I had finally
Speaker 1: gotten the strength till I get up and I grabbed
Speaker 1: her by her collar and I dragged her out of
Speaker 1: the house with me, and I opened my garage door,
Speaker 1: and when I opened it, like smoke was rolling out
Speaker 1: of my house. We had finally made it outside, and
Speaker 1: we were just both like on the ground, coughing so much.
Speaker 2: Right as they got out, Angelique's best friend, who she
Speaker 2: called in panic, was pulling up to the house.
Speaker 1: He lived not even a minute away from me, so
Speaker 1: him and his mom got in the car. They drove over,
Speaker 1: and they were the first people that were on the scene.
Speaker 2: He and his mom had called nine to one one
Speaker 2: and the fire department was on their way.
Speaker 1: I was so scared, and I was also trying to
Speaker 1: breathe because I was having bad contractions from inhaling so
Speaker 1: much smoke.
Speaker 2: Cassandra was also having contractions. Angelique was a week away
Speaker 2: from her due date, but Cassandra was only six months pregnant.
Speaker 1: So me and her are both sitting in different chairs
Speaker 1: and different areas of my garage. I started get feeling worse,
Speaker 1: like my contractions were getting so bad.
Speaker 2: Angelique's parents arrived home at the same time as emergency.
Speaker 1: Services, and this is like when the cops start to
Speaker 1: show up. Everyone's kind of rolling up to my house
Speaker 1: at this point, and there's just smoke everywhere.
Speaker 2: Firefighters rushed inside while paramedics started attending to Angelique and Cassandra.
Speaker 1: They came home to everybody outside of her house, so
Speaker 1: they were in shock also, and I think my dad
Speaker 1: was inside like with the firefighters, trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what happened. My mom was more emotional support. When they
Speaker 1: give me my IV like everything's fine, oxygen, I start
Speaker 1: feeling so much better.
Speaker 2: But Cassandra wasn't feeling better. She thought she was in labor,
Speaker 2: so the paramedics decided to take her to the hospital. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Angelique went inside with her parents to assess the damage.
Speaker 2: The firefighters had put the fire out, but not.
Speaker 1: Before everything inside my closet was gone. Every single piece
Speaker 1: of clothing that I had, my mother's wedding dress that
Speaker 1: I had hoped to wear on my wedding day. One
Speaker 1: day was destroyed.
Speaker 2: Everyone wanted to know how the fire started. Angelique thought
Speaker 2: Cassandra had something to do with it, but she didn't
Speaker 2: think anyone would believe her.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, if I tell you what I
Speaker 1: think happened, please like, just listen and just listen to me.
Speaker 1: Don't think I'm lying.
Speaker 2: She explained that she had lit a candle in her
Speaker 2: bedroom and then went to the kitchen, leaving Cassandra alone
Speaker 2: in her bedroom.
Speaker 1: I said, I guarantee you if you find that dandle,
Speaker 1: you'll find her fingerprints on it, which they should not
Speaker 1: be on it because I'm the only person that touched it.
Speaker 2: The authorities retrieved the candle and collected it for evidence. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Angelique tried to explain to her parents that something else
Speaker 2: had happened that night. She told them about the whole
Speaker 2: scene before the fire, how Cassandra sat her down in
Speaker 2: the dark, that she'd been scared for her life, and.
Speaker 1: I'm like, mom, it felt like I was going to die.
Speaker 1: It felt like somebody was going to stab me. It
Speaker 1: felt like I had something to my back.
Speaker 2: Then ems began collecting Cassandra's things, including that big bag
Speaker 2: she'd brought with her.
Speaker 1: They start grabbing the diaper bag and I say, hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on, and I'm like, excuse me, please wait, and
Speaker 1: I say, can I please see that? And I'm doing
Speaker 1: this in front of everybody, in front of the cops.
Speaker 1: I take the diver bag and I keep explaining to
Speaker 1: them she said she had this present for me, like
Speaker 1: the explanation is in this bag. And as I'm doing that,
Speaker 1: I put the bag on the counter. I breach my
Speaker 1: hand in the bag and I feel these two metal
Speaker 1: objects and when I lift them and pull them out,
Speaker 1: they're two large butcher knives. I dropped them on the
Speaker 1: counter and I just start screaming.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal.
Speaker 1: There's some stuff in here that I don't think. You know.
Speaker 1: He has done this before. They sold babies in Mexico.
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
Speaker 2: team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email
Speaker 2: us at Betrayal pod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal
Speaker 2: pod at gmail dot com. We're grateful for you support.
Speaker 2: One way to show support is by subscribing to our
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Speaker 2: big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is
Speaker 2: a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment
Speaker 2: Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive
Speaker 2: produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced
Speaker 2: by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard,
Speaker 2: also produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Mercury
Speaker 2: and Caitlin Golden. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and
Speaker 2: Jessica Krinchech. Audio editing and mixing by Matt del Vecchio,
Speaker 2: Additional editing support from Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by
Speaker 2: Oliver Bains. Music library provided by Mob Music and For
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