WEBVTT - Paradise Prison: Chapter 3 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.680 You've heard how American hunters ended up arrested in Turks 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:09.120 and Caicos for forgotten ammunition in their luggage. You've heard 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:12.240 about the prison conditions, the baffling legal system, and the 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.000 US State Department's lack of involvement. What you haven't heard 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.159 is what happened when they decided to fight back, and 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.520 how that decision put not just them but their wives 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:24.360 and children in the crosshairs. 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:36.840 That's next on Blood Trails. 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.080 The Americans who'd been arrested in Turks and Caicos knew 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.400 their situation was dire, but Michael Grimm's account of Grand 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.199 Turk prison put a steely edge on that anxiety to 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.879 make matters worse. The sentiment on the islands was not 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.120 in their favor. The judge had sentenced Michael to prison 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.360 to send a message Americans weren't immune from the law, 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:02.200 and future offenders could expeck to even worse treatment. With 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.200 all that pressure bearing down on them. Ryan Watson found 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:06.960 ways to cope, however he could. 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.040 Every morning, I wake up and I'm thinking somebody plucked 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.360 me from my life and dropped me into some Netflix 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.240 true crime docuseries like this Isn't this is like the 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.839 most extravagant joke of all time. I had to check 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.080 in every day at the jail, so I had to 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:27.119 run to the jail and check in. And that run 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.680 to the jail had kind of been like my form 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.200 of like therapy or self torture or whatever the case 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:34.800 may be. I want, like I want, I needed to 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:38.000 feel something like burn or let you know, like just something. 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.399 On May tenth, twenty twenty four, about a month after 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.720 Ryan was arrested, he set off on one of these runs. 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:50.080 I had my AirPods in, hadn't dawn on me that 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.400 I had taken the same route every time. At one point, 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:58.640 I'm running on a sidewalk and I don't even know 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.960 how I can explain it. It's just if he like 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.120 since like a flash or something like in your periphery 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.640 that just causes you to jump. I I was jumping 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.320 to the side before I even realized my brain process 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.600 that I was jumping to the side. When something grabs 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:18.800 my heel, it spins me around, I do a one eighty. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.120 I land, you know, on my face, and you know, 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.360 skin my elbows up and I stand up and I realized, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:25.280 I'm like, I just got hit. 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:25.600 By a car. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.840 Ryan wouldn't have been the first inattentive jogger to be 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.000 struck by a vehicle, but he quickly realized that this 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.120 may not have been an innocent mistake. For one thing, 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.240 he hadn't been crossing a street. He'd been jogging along 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:39.480 a sidewalk. 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.639 Which luckily was a very tall curve, because if that 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.880 curve was any shorter that car would have made it 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:46.560 would have hit me. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.840 As Ryan picked himself up off the pavement, he saw 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.120 that the driver wasn't getting out to make sure he 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.520 was okay. In fact, that person seemed to be gearing 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:57.320 up to do the opposite. 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.040 I'm looking around and there's this four door seday and 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.919 sitting idling in the middle of the street, and it's 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.840 just sitting there, and I'm like, oh my god. I 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.680 jumped to my feet. I see them throw it reverse. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:11.480 I thought, oh shit, I gotta get out of here, 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:13.560 and so I jumped to my left. There was a 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.920 fence that had a bunch of vegetation over there that 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.360 had grown through it. I jumped to grab a hold 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.200 of that, and whenever it did, the fence beneath the 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.200 vegetation had just collapsed. Underneathing, and I thought, oh crap, 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:28.280 this isn't an option, and so I turned around and 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.160 I stepped off the curb. It's starting its way back 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.520 to me, and about that time, I see it stop 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.080 and throw it in gear and take off, and I'm like, 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.720 what just happened? And I turned look over my shoulder 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.840 and another car had just pulled out onto the street, 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.200 and I was like, Oh my God, Like, did that 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:46.840 just happen. 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.080 Brian believed that whoever was driving that car tried to 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.480 hit him intentionally, and when they failed, drove back to 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.840 finish the job. Under normal circumstances. That might sound like paranoia, 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:00.840 but these were not normal circumstances. 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:07.480 He got the most dangerous in early May when the 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:11.520 bomb threats started. And that's when things really came to 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:15.400 a crescendo in terms of the threats against us. Someone 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.240 we don't know who it was started calling in bomb 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.800 threats to their airport and got their airport shut down. 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.080 A total of seventeen bomb threats were issued in May 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.960 of twenty twenty four, and almost all of them referenced 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.599 the Americans who'd been arrested for ammunition possession. One of 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.039 them said, quote, we don't like doing this, but this 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.720 is nothing compared to what Tyler Wenrick, Ryan Watson, and 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.000 Brian Hagrich are going through at the moment. Along with 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.200 the bomb threats, the email I reviewed threatened to assassinate 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.599 Turks and Caicos government officials and to send more threats 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:52.159 to schools, factories, ports and hotels. Ryan and the others 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.280 were blamed for this disruption to the Turks and Caicos economy. 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.280 One op ed published in a local paper claimed that 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.040 making these threats was an act of quote cowardice, fear 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.240 and bullying. It exhorted the Americans to quote be bold 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.160 and brave and face the judicial process. 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:14.039 So their local media started crafting the story that I 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:18.159 was orchestrating all the bomb threats, so that in turn, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.280 all the locals started putting out hits on me on 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.560 WhatsApp and people were sharing our location of people came 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.039 to find out where we were staying. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.159 The situation was getting out of control. Ryan's experience with 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.359 a mysterious sedan underlined the fact that they weren't just 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.040 facing twelve years behind bars. They first had to survive 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.640 long enough to attend their sentencing. Ryan stopped wearing his 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.640 customary cowboy hat, and Brian told me they were forced 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.160 to move from the airbnb they were staying in. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.039 And I felt unsafety even just go go for a walk, 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.320 or go anywhere and do anything. Do you have a 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:57.200 bullsig on your back? 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.000 These death threats added another layer of danger to an 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:06.320 already perilous situation, But the truth was they weren't entirely unforeseen. 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.120 That's because Ryan, Brian, and Tyler had decided to take 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.479 drastic measures to get themselves off the islands and back 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.720 to their families. These measures were designed to put pressure 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.440 on Turks and Caicos officials, force the hand of the 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.479 US government, and tell the world about the injustice of 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.839 their situation. They accomplished all three objectives, but as you'll 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.640 see in this episode, they got more than they bargained for. 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.040 Their strategy confirmed that Turks and Caicos was targeting Americans. 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:38.080 It spurred a congressional delegation, a dramatic confrontation with the 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:41.839 State Department, and the support of millions of people. But 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:46.520 it also increased the metaphorical temperature on the already sweltering islands, 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.760 and they didn't know whether it would secure their freedom 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.000 or at decades to their time in prison. I'm Jordan 0:06:54.000 --> 0:07:04.240 Sillers and this is Blood Trails Paradise Prison, Chapter three, 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:10.880 Part one. A bold Strategy. Ryan first spoke to Michael 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.640 Grimm just a few days after his arrest, while Valerie 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:15.800 was still on the islands. He knew that he and 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.200 his wife were facing a long prison sentence, so he 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.800 was willing to take almost any risk to increase their 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:22.000 odds of being released. 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:27.000 A guy I grew up with in Shawne, Oklahoma, had 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.720 married a girl who ended up being the head anchor 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.560 of NBC Boston. And she sends my wife a message 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.000 and said, hey, if you thinks getting your story out 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.720 there will help you, like, let us know, I'll do it. 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.720 And so we look down, we see these messages. We're 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:44.240 on the phone with Michael, and I said, Michael, what 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:45.520 if we went to the media. 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.640 Up to this point, these stories had garnered little media attention. 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.360 Brian Hagrich's case had been largely ignored, and Michael's had 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.400 only been covered by local outlets. Michael explained that he 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.040 opted to keep things quiet partly because he works for 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.760 a member of Congress, but also because he'd been warned 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.480 against it. By his attorney, Oliver Smith. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.800 And his advice to me was, do not do that, 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.720 because you will rock the boat and then you will 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:15.080 get even harsher punishment, right Like, all you're gonna do 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.680 is piss them off, and we don't want to do that. 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.880 Michael conveyed this same advice to Ryan that day on 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:22.360 the phone. 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.840 I just told him. I was like, be careful. Instead 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.640 of getting six months, they may be like, well, CNN 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:30.600 is pissed, so we're going to give you ten years. 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.559 So there are there could be unintended consequences. 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.440 In Ryan's recollection of this conversation, Michael was clear about 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:39.880 what those consequences might be. 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:42.600 He said, don't do it. He said, it's a death sentence. 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.319 So Amian is a death sentence. He said, Ryan, ninety 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.440 percent of their GDP is American tourism. He said, this 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:52.640 is you're talking about economic warfare. And he said they 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.280 will kill you. He said, mark my words, they will 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:55.679 kill you. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.280 Ryan knew that escalating the story in the media carried 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.720 real risk, but being separated from his family was not 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:03.199 an option. 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.480 Cutting off ties with my family, man, I just couldn't 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.440 accept it. I was like, Nope, this is not going 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:11.640 to happen. I don't have any options, and if they're 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.240 talking about me never seeing my kids again, give me 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:15.880 your best shot. 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.199 The problem was Ryan's actions could impact not just his situation, 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.680 but Brian's as well. When Ryan asked his fellow American 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.480 about going to the media, Brian's initial answer was the 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:27.480 same as Michael's. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.440 The next day, I reached out to him, arranged a 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.840 meet with him, and I was like, hey, buddy, like, 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.160 we're both in a world to hurt here. I said, 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:39.760 this is we have a plan to go to the media, 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.400 and he was like, Nope, already been warned. It's a 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.840 death sentence. We can't do that. And I said, man, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.760 I just I don't see any other way. 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.280 Brian was still hesitant, but Ryan argued that going to 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.040 the media, shining a light on the injustice of their 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.480 situation might be their only hope of avoiding Grand Turk 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.920 prison entirely. Valerie, who hadn't yet been released, also pointed 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.720 out that they had something Michael Grimm didn't. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.280 As much as I like to pride myself on my 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.240 career in sales, my wife was the one that ended 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.200 up talking him into it, and she said, do you 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.000 think that if if you guys went to the media, 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:21.200 it would have more of an impact. If I were 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:25.280 there with you. I'm a woman, I'm a mother, we 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.280 might have a chance to get more sympathy. Like I 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:29.920 feel like I can help you guys out. 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.080 Valerie says her decision to put herself in the public 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.800 eye wasn't made lightly, but it was grounded in her faith. 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.600 And I told Ryan, I was like, Babe, the only 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:44.200 thing that I feel peace about is the media. Like 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.600 I feel like God keeps dropping things in our lap 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.720 and it has just been so easy, Like taking this 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:55.280 media route to do anything else did not feel right. 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.480 I was like, I truly believe this is what God 0:10:58.520 --> 0:10:59.160 wants us to do. 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.400 Valerie's conviction convinced Brian that calling attention to their plight 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.000 was the right thing to do, even if it came 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:08.600 with a serious level of risk. 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.960 Our fate is probably the same at this point, so 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.360 we're either all in or all out together, and we said, hey, 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.439 we're all in, like we've got nothing. 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.440 To lose, And it was late at night, and he 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.400 finally agreed. We all put our hands in the middle, 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:26.680 and we're like, all right, we're going to do this. 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.280 And we shook and said let's. 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:29.439 Go to war. 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:34.000 Of course, there's an inconvenient truth about war. You only 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.320 control the first shot. After that, the other side gets 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.480 a say. Once Valerie got off the islands, she lifted 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.120 the media embargoes they'd arranged with some of the world's 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:48.040 biggest news outlets, and the story went absolutely viral. Much 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.240 of the attention was positive and sympathetic, but some was 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:55.240 less than welcoming, including Ryan, was horrified to learn threats 0:11:55.440 --> 0:12:04.120 against his wife and kids back home. Part two, The 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:09.040 Home Front. When Valerie walked into the waiting area at 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.679 the airport in Oklahoma City, she knew there would be 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.400 news cameras and journalists waiting to ask her questions, but 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.280 the flashbulbs and noise weren't enough to take away the 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.520 joy she felt at seeing her kids. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.000 I walked out those doors and saw my kids' faces, 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.200 and they came running up to me, and I was 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:34.080 able to just hold their little bodies. Was definitely a 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.120 moment that I wasn't sure I was going to have 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.840 again with them at that size and at that age. 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.120 Every time I see the pictures of the video replays 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:48.480 of me hugging those babies, it was a super surreal 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:53.960 and super sweet, unforgettable moment, but it was also heartbreaking 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.120 at the same time because I felt like Ryan should 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:02.760 have been there too, and now I'm faced with hard conversations. 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:06.640 Valerie and Ryan had told their kids that they'd been 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.120 delayed by a storm. That was only true in a 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.840 metaphorical sense, but they weren't sure what else to tell 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.800 their seven and nine year old. When Valerie came home, 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.040 she explained the situation in full, how Ryan had been 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.240 caught with four rounds of hunting AMMO and he was 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:22.280 still on the islands, fighting to come home. 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.160 And I didn't want to emphasize the twelve years. I 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:27.800 knew they were going to hear it on the news, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.719 and so when that time came, you know, and he 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.360 did hear that, he was like, Mom, is he not 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.200 going to be home for twelve years? And I was like, well, 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.360 I said, there's a lot of things that can happen 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.440 that can make it less time. I said, so we 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:43.679 are just going to pray. 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.280 Valerie did her best to encourage her son, but she 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.880 said he was still understandably upset. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:55.360 It broke my heart that very first night. He was angry, 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.840 he was you know yelling. He was like trying to process, 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.360 like these people took my dad from me, and he's 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:03.320 just feeling angered. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.400 Brian knew his family was struggling, and he was doing 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.840 everything in his power to get back to them. He 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.560 and Brian had moved into the same airbnb where they 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:13.360 spent their days doing one thing. 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.360 From that point on, it's as many interviews as we 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.760 can do. It was our form of economical warfare. We 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:25.000 had to tell the world, and we had to keep 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.800 our story in the headlines. Part of the reason that 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:36.800 helped our story go viral is it didn't pass the 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.040 sniff test. Everybody heard twelve years for that, like what, 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:41.960 like something's going on here. 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.640 In one sense, their strategy was working. Their story was 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.840 resonating with people around the world, but they wouldn't know 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.880 if they'd made the right decision until they were actually sentenced. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.160 In the meantime, they learned that attention can be a 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:56.240 double edged sword. 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.240 But it tipped me off that something was up. Whenever 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.160 I got a request to download a ring app on 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:06.400 my phone and I was like, I don't have a 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:11.320 ring camera at my house. And my wife sends me 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.960 a message and says, hey, your friends have come and 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.760 installed a ring camera, like so I started texting them, 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.200 I'm like, why are you installing a ring camera run 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.160 in my house? And they were like, not for you 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.600 to worry about. We got this, like we're taking turns. Ryan, 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.360 He's like, we got this. And they were installing gates 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:28.440 on our property. 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:28.680 You know. 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.840 I was like, something's up, Something was up. Valerie isn't 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.280 sure how people found her phone number and home address, 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.920 but they did, and they weren't shy about sharing that information. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.640 People were getting my number, and you know, these were 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.880 things that I wasn't sharing with Ryan at the time 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:48.320 because he's still going through what he's going through, and 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.880 it's stressful enough, you know, being down on the island 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.600 trying to figure out what is going to happen there. 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.800 But yeah, I would get these weird text messages and 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.160 they would have my address, you know, and it was 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:04.760 like I'm so and so, and I know you live 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:05.600 at this place. 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.040 And there were people that were making threats against my wife, 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.600 saying that well, we know he's not ever, he's not 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.560 going to be there, so she's free game. There was 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.560 millions of people in the United States that hated us 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.960 and wish that we were you know, killed by firing 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.000 squad instead of you know, going to prison. 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.040 Why anyone would feel such animosity towards the Watsons is 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:33.440 an open question. Reviewing comments still posted online, many zero 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.040 in on the fact that Ryan is a hunter and 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.280 gun owner. When the Turks and Kikos police posted on 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.160 Facebook the announcement of Ryan's arrest, one person said, quote, 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:45.640 so what you're telling me is that this fool was 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.600 irresponsible with handling ammunition given that he has two children 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.720 in his home. Lock him up and throw away the key. 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.080 Another claim that Ryan brought the ammunition into the country 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.600 on purpose, while yet another read simply give him the 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.360 death pen. Others attacked the fact that Ryan's sister had 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.200 set up a go Fundme to help pay their legal fees. 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.480 That fund ended up raising about two hundred and fifty 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.080 thousand dollars, which Ryan said was used exclusively for their 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.840 own expenses, as well as the expenses of the other 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.880 Americans on the island. But commenters didn't know that or 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.760 didn't care, and so they painted the Watsons as profiting 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.840 off of a stupid mistake. Those comments were difficult to read, 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.320 but they weren't the only troubling communications being sent back 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.359 to the home front. Michael had warned Ryan about the 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.120 extortion attempts he had dealt with in prison and said 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.680 the Watsons, the Hagriches, and the Wenricks should expect the same. 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.439 And he said, they capitalize on your desperation and the 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.160 moment you call your family, they've got their phone number, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.399 and those people they know that those people are willing 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:50.840 to pay anything to keep you alive. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.720 These attempts came even before any of the Americans were sentenced. 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.359 Here's Michael Wenrick, Tyler's father, telling me about a call 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:02.120 that Tyler's wife Jerry received while her husband was still 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:02.639 in prison. 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:09.120 I'm working one day and I get a text from 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:13.320 her tower's coming home. She says, I'm on the phone 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:18.080 right now with the local police on the island and 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.520 that if I pay this fine, they'll let them go home. 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:24.800 And so she's working on getting that paid, and I'm 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.240 sitting back, thinking, some don't sound right. 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.119 Mister Wendrick called Tyler's lawyer, who confirmed that this was 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.080 a scam. But you can understand why Jerry Ann was 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.960 so tempted to believe it, and she wasn't alone all 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:41.760 the families received similar calls at one point or another 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.879 from individuals trying to capitalize on their desperation. Ryan believes 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:47.679 they were made by the guards in the prison and 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.520 the jails who got their phone numbers after the Americans 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.680 called home, but these extortion schemes could have just as 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.080 easily been perpetrated by scammers in other countries who heard 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:01.359 about the situation thanks to the increased media attention. Whatever 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.720 the source of the death threats, hate mail, and extortion schemes, 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.199 they forced all three men to consider more drastic means 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.160 of getting home to protect their families. 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.679 There were plenty of random people that reached out to 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:18.199 us on signal who offered for large, large sums of 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.280 money to land a floatplane. 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:23.600 You may have already wondered why the Americans didn't try 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.240 to run away. They all eventually made bail, and there 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.320 were plenty of boats and jet skis that could have 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.320 gotten them to international waters. 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.000 And I don't want to go into too much detail here. 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:39.720 Those plans were discussed. Those plans involved at a much 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.280 higher level than what Ryan and I could even begin 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:49.800 to think to coordinate. But yes, there were contingency plans 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:54.680 in place. There were GPS coordinates. There was a day 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.320 where all of our bags were packed, families were ready 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:02.760 to board a flight back to the US. Yes, and 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:04.280 we were ready to hop on a helicopter. 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.879 The problem was Turks and Caicos is a British territory 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:11.000 and they signed an extradition treaty with the US. So 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.040 even if the Americans managed to make the perilous journey 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.639 back home, there was a good chance they'd be turned 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.000 around and sent back to Turks and Caicos. If that happened, 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.639 they'd be looking at a lot more than twelve years 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.400 in prison. They could have tried fleeing to a non 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.639 extradition country, but Ryan said that would have been almost 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:30.439 as tough on their families as prison. 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.840 Now we're living in shadows, looking over our shoulders, you know, 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:36.359 for the rest of our lives, and we both had 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:38.920 young kids. It started to feel like a selfish act, 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.200 you know, to be honest with you, and I didn't 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.640 want to bring that hurt to my family. 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:46.560 With that option off the table, the Americans had to 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.880 trust themselves to the legal system. But while the media 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:53.520 attention had many negative side effects, it also spurred action 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.560 not from the state Department, at least not exactly, but 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.800 from the US Congress. All three Americas had reached out 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.360 to their representatives soon after being arrested. Some had been 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.280 more helpful than others, but as the story gained steam, 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.080 these representatives and senators began to consider using one of 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:15.240 the only instruments Congress has to impact foreign policy. They 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:17.800 didn't know whether this tool would be effective, but they 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.439 knew it would send a powerful message the United States 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.560 was watching and Turks and Keiko's officials should proceed with caution. 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.280 That's next after. 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:29.760 The break. 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:43.480 Part three. Codell As you heard in the last episode, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.640 the United States Department of State had been far less 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:50.199 helpful than the Americans would have hoped. Ryan knew this 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.399