Speaker 1: Hey, Betrayal fans, I have exciting news to share. Season
Speaker 1: three of Betrayal is now a docu series on Hulu.
Speaker 1: It's the gripping story of Stacy Tyler and the doctor
Speaker 1: who betrayed them. See the voices you've come to know
Speaker 1: in Betrayal Under His Eye, streaming now on Hulu. Before
Speaker 1: we start this episode, I want to let you know
Speaker 1: that this episode discusses suicide and its effects. Please take
Speaker 1: care while listening.
Speaker 2: He was just constantly chasing, chasing the next thing. No
Speaker 2: car he bought was fast enough, no house we bought.
Speaker 3: Was big enough.
Speaker 2: The more money and more success that he had that
Speaker 2: almost turned him into this monster.
Speaker 1: I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about
Speaker 1: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 1: change everything. Today we're telling Kimberly's story. She grew up
Speaker 1: in rural Pennsylvania where her parents owned their own hair salon.
Speaker 1: They didn't have a lot of money, but they were
Speaker 1: determined to show Kimberly the world.
Speaker 2: My parents would save up money and take us to
Speaker 2: New York and go see Phanom of the Opera and
Speaker 2: Glamo's rob So we'd backpack through Europe and we went
Speaker 2: to like every single national park in the United States.
Speaker 1: Kimberly's parents taught her that no dream was too big.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be
Speaker 2: a journalist, I wanted to write a book. I wanted
Speaker 2: to be a veterinarian. And I remember my father used
Speaker 2: to say, I don't ever worry about you.
Speaker 3: I just know that.
Speaker 2: You're going to always succeed and always land on your feet,
Speaker 2: because you just have that determination.
Speaker 1: Nobody in her family had gone to college, but Kimberly
Speaker 1: decided she wanted to be the first in a small
Speaker 1: liberal arts school for women.
Speaker 2: I was prepared academically, but I was not prepared to
Speaker 2: be moved into this group of very.
Speaker 3: Affluent young women.
Speaker 2: Many of them come from boarding schools, and they brought
Speaker 2: their own horses to campus. I would go to classes
Speaker 2: and some of my classmates would be wearing pearls.
Speaker 1: That was our first exposure to the world of wealth
Speaker 1: and connections. Kimberly realized that if she wanted to make
Speaker 1: it as far as her classmates, she'd have to make
Speaker 1: her own way. She graduated with an English degree, and
Speaker 1: she got hired at a publishing house in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: I loved my job in publishing. I was always getting
Speaker 2: to read and read all these manuscripts and see everybody's articles.
Speaker 1: It was the nineties. DC was an exciting place for
Speaker 1: Kimberly to explore. A few months after she moved to
Speaker 1: the city.
Speaker 2: My friend was throwing a Halloween party and I was
Speaker 2: actually dressed up as Carme and Miranda. I had a
Speaker 2: fruit basket on my head and a parrot.
Speaker 1: There was a guy across the room who kept making
Speaker 1: eye contact with her.
Speaker 2: He was cute, and he came over and he was like,
Speaker 2: I like your fruit basket, and it was just endearing.
Speaker 1: It was quite the icebreaker. His name was Tim.
Speaker 3: He was blondes, blue eyes. Just something about him.
Speaker 2: I just was like, Oh, he's really, really cute.
Speaker 1: They started chatting. He'd also just graduated college and moved
Speaker 1: to DC.
Speaker 2: He was an only child from a small rural town
Speaker 2: in Georgia.
Speaker 1: They had mutual friends. Kimberly's roommate knew Tim.
Speaker 2: My roommate was like, he's a great guy. Everyone knows him.
Speaker 2: He's really wonderful. He asked for my number and I
Speaker 2: gave it to him. He called me shortly after that
Speaker 2: and said, I'd would like to see you again. Would
Speaker 2: you have any interest in going on a date?
Speaker 1: She said yes. He had two tickets to a black
Speaker 1: tie event for the opening of the Russian Embassy.
Speaker 2: The Russian Embassy was just fantastic. I was like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, this is amazing. You know, free drinks and
Speaker 2: free food, and everyone's beautiful and dressed up in gowns
Speaker 2: and textedos. I remember everything being like kind of dark
Speaker 2: that lit up in like Lauder Crystal, and they had
Speaker 2: shots of vodka, like tables and tables of vodka. I
Speaker 2: had this handsome young man in front of me, and
Speaker 2: I was really impressed. It was such a far cry
Speaker 2: from where I had come from.
Speaker 1: It was a whirlwind night. She and Tim tried new
Speaker 1: things like caviare and expensive alcohol.
Speaker 3: You could tell he was like me.
Speaker 2: He also felt a little out of his comfort zone.
Speaker 2: We fit in, but we didn't, and I think that
Speaker 2: was something that really drew.
Speaker 3: Us to each other.
Speaker 1: Tim was in DC to make a name for him,
Speaker 1: and like Kimberly, he'd gotten there on his own merits.
Speaker 2: Tim worked for a senator and he specialized in technology
Speaker 2: and agriculture. He also had to drive the Senator regularly,
Speaker 2: so he was his personal chauffeur and had breakfast with
Speaker 2: him things like that.
Speaker 1: They began exploring DC together and the black tie events continued.
Speaker 1: For their next date, Tim took Kimberly to a party
Speaker 1: at the National Post Office.
Speaker 3: This's this amazing building.
Speaker 2: It's huge, and that has this marble entry and you
Speaker 2: just walk in and they had live bands and all
Speaker 2: this wonderful food, and you'd be hobnobbing with congressman. I
Speaker 2: remember meeting Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She had just been confirmed
Speaker 2: and they were holding a private meet and greet with her.
Speaker 1: Tim loved how ambitious Kimberly was. He was her biggest cheerleader.
Speaker 2: I never felt that he was intimidated by that or
Speaker 2: my drive for success. He was just so proud of me,
Speaker 2: and he would always say, I'm really proud of you.
Speaker 3: You're doing so great.
Speaker 1: That admiration was mutual. Kimberly and Tim always wanted to
Speaker 1: be around each other. They're black Tie dates turned to
Speaker 1: dinners and long conversations. They met each other's friends and families.
Speaker 2: Our relationship got serious pretty quickly, and we dated for
Speaker 2: two and a half years.
Speaker 1: After a year together, Tim made his intentions really clear.
Speaker 2: He told me that I was the woman for him,
Speaker 2: and he knew right off the bat that we were
Speaker 2: just made for each other and that I was the
Speaker 2: love of his life and he wanted to spend the
Speaker 2: rest of his life with me. He said, I really
Speaker 2: want to take you to this great restaurant. It's the
Speaker 2: Inn of Little Washington. It's right outside of d C.
Speaker 2: And at that point I was like, I think he's
Speaker 2: going to propose. It was just such a beautiful dinner.
Speaker 2: The whole dinner went by and he didn't propose. I
Speaker 2: was like, well, maybe I just got it wrong. Maybe
Speaker 2: he just really wanted to go to this place. And
Speaker 2: then he put his hand on his heart and he said,
Speaker 2: I don't feel good.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, are you okay?
Speaker 2: Because we ate so much rich food and like we're drinking,
Speaker 2: and he's like, yeah, there's something that's like poking me
Speaker 2: in my chest.
Speaker 3: And I was like, do you mean call a doctor?
Speaker 3: Like what's going?
Speaker 2: Like, were you okay?
Speaker 3: And he's like he pulled out.
Speaker 2: A box and he opened it up and he said,
Speaker 2: I want you to be my wife.
Speaker 3: Will you marry me?
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, because I already thought he was
Speaker 2: like dying, you know, and then as that he proposed,
Speaker 2: and I just I said, yes, yes, I'm glad, you're
Speaker 2: You're okay.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: I remember going to sleep that night just so happy
Speaker 2: and so excited. I remember just feeling so over the
Speaker 2: moon and just excited to start my life with this man.
Speaker 1: She and Tim saved up and paid for their own wedding.
Speaker 3: We got married in nineteen ninety eight. His dad officiated
Speaker 3: the wedding.
Speaker 2: I know, we had a really fun Louisiana, New Orleans
Speaker 2: band and everybody was just having the best time, and
Speaker 2: everyone was dressed up and dancing.
Speaker 1: As they settled into married life, they tried to save
Speaker 1: money wherever they could.
Speaker 2: Dacy is so expensive. We were trying to put every
Speaker 2: single cent we could into our future, and because we
Speaker 2: worked so close together downtown, we would meet for lunch
Speaker 2: and I would pack us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Speaker 2: We would split a diet coke and eat an orange,
Speaker 2: and that's all we could really afford.
Speaker 1: Eventually, Kimberly got a new job in the tech industry
Speaker 1: and she supported them financially while Tim started an MBA program.
Speaker 2: He went to graduate school full time. So I worked
Speaker 2: full time and paid the bills.
Speaker 3: Also put money aside to pay off this tuition.
Speaker 2: So I was supporting the two of us and working
Speaker 2: like a dog. And I'm never just like sleeping with
Speaker 2: my BlackBerry next to my pillow, and I'd hear it beep,
Speaker 2: and I'd be like, oh, what's it saying?
Speaker 3: You know, I just I never slept. My nickname was
Speaker 3: the Ballbuster.
Speaker 2: Because I wasn't afraid of anybody. And here I am
Speaker 2: five foot two sitting across the room in a board
Speaker 2: meeting with CEO of these big companies. It taught me
Speaker 2: not to be afraid of anything.
Speaker 1: Tim's first job out of grad school was at a
Speaker 1: fortune five hundred company in the healthcare industry. Now that
Speaker 1: they had two incomes again, they could finally begin to
Speaker 1: save money for their future. That's when Tim got really
Speaker 1: strategic about their savings.
Speaker 2: He studied the stock market like it was the most
Speaker 2: fascinating thing he had ever seen. He just was reading
Speaker 2: up on how to invest all the time. And he
Speaker 2: began day trading, and he was making a lot of
Speaker 2: money from us, and he didn't spend a lot of money.
Speaker 2: And then the company that he was working for kept
Speaker 2: promoting him, so we were basically putting his entire salary
Speaker 2: in the bank and we were living off of my income.
Speaker 1: By the time they were twenty nine, their financial situation
Speaker 1: had completely changed. The days of splitting peanut butter and
Speaker 1: jelly sandwiches were far behind them.
Speaker 2: I remember seeing half a million dollars in our bank account,
Speaker 2: and that's a lot of money. I think that for him,
Speaker 2: that was the turning point. He saw how quickly he
Speaker 2: made so much money, and how that was investing and
Speaker 2: how it compounded. It was just like the dream come true.
Speaker 2: And that's when I decided I'm ready to have children.
Speaker 1: Tim was ready to grow their family too.
Speaker 3: He was so excited. He was really sweet. He took
Speaker 3: care of me.
Speaker 1: Kimberly gave birth to their first child, a baby girl.
Speaker 2: First time mom. I was so happy and just that
Speaker 2: motherly glow. He tag teamed with me. We worked out
Speaker 2: a system where I would breastfeed her at eight o'clock
Speaker 2: and then go straight to sleep, and I would sleep
Speaker 2: until about two or three. He would wake me up
Speaker 2: for her next feeding, and then I would go back
Speaker 2: to sleep again and he would go to sleep.
Speaker 1: Tim made it clear they were in this together. Soon
Speaker 1: they found their groove as parents. They had a second
Speaker 1: daughter and then a third. Tim was climbing the ladder
Speaker 1: as a healthcare executive. Fifteen years into their marriage, he
Speaker 1: was making enough for Kimberly to quit her job and
Speaker 1: focus on parenting.
Speaker 2: He was making a ton of money at that point.
Speaker 2: He was a senior vice president.
Speaker 1: Tim often traveled for work, and while it put a
Speaker 1: strain on their relationship, Kimberly still felt connected to him.
Speaker 3: The romance was still there.
Speaker 2: We still were going on date nights, and we had
Speaker 2: this amazing babysitter, and so we would go out every
Speaker 2: other Saturday, sometimes even every Saturday and.
Speaker 3: Do date night. So we were still very much getting along.
Speaker 1: Now that they had extra income, Tim wanted to spend it.
Speaker 2: He's like, we're buying a house in the mountains for vacation.
Speaker 1: It was a cabin in the mountains of western North Carolina.
Speaker 2: It was a magical place, and the kids we bunked
Speaker 2: them all up in one bunk room and we would
Speaker 2: boat and paddle board and canoe. We hiked every single
Speaker 2: trail and saw every single waterfall, and went up there
Speaker 2: for Thanksgiving and had campfires making s'mores and going fishing.
Speaker 2: It was so peaceful and so sweet.
Speaker 1: The mountain house became a place where Kimberly and her
Speaker 1: kids really bonded, But as time went on, Kimberly felt
Speaker 1: a distance growing between her and her husband.
Speaker 2: We stopped talking to each other at night time, like bye,
Speaker 2: have a good night. You know, how are the kids today.
Speaker 2: We stopped doing that, and that's where I knew. I'm like,
Speaker 2: we are growing so far apart. That's when the pandemic hit.
Speaker 2: We decided to go up to the mountains and spend
Speaker 2: it there because it was scary. We're like, well, we
Speaker 2: might as well go where there's nobody and we can
Speaker 2: continue doing our quiet, isolated routine up there.
Speaker 1: It was a frightening time. Like many people, Kimberly was
Speaker 1: worried about how the pandemic would affect her daughters.
Speaker 2: I was definitely stressed, but I didn't want my kids
Speaker 2: to see that. I was like, we're going to be fine.
Speaker 1: But Tim, on the other hand, wasn't fine.
Speaker 3: Tim was manic.
Speaker 2: It was almost this is though he was jailed. He
Speaker 2: was one of those individuals that did not handle the
Speaker 2: pandemic well. He had been flying and traveling and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, everything stops and he didn't know what
Speaker 2: to do with himself, and he became very angry.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, little things started to set him off.
Speaker 2: And it just became this daily fight. This is the
Speaker 2: first time I'd ever seen him behave like this. I
Speaker 2: had never seen him so restless and so angry. He
Speaker 2: was never an angry person like we rarely thought. You know,
Speaker 2: we were always very calm the way we communicated, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden we saw this behavior and we're like,
Speaker 2: who is this person? I felt like he was just
Speaker 2: losing his mind.
Speaker 1: As the pandemic went on, Tim continued having angry outbursts,
Speaker 1: acting strange, and drinking excessively.
Speaker 2: He was pouring what I would call buckets of bourbon
Speaker 2: and buckets of vodka, and then would open up a
Speaker 2: bottle of wine.
Speaker 1: One night, while they were watching a movie, Kimberly noticed
Speaker 1: that Tim was engrossed in his phone.
Speaker 2: He wasn't watching the movie, and I saw him scrolling
Speaker 2: through a website and I saw lots of pictures of women,
Speaker 2: and I said, it looks like you're really interested in
Speaker 2: what you're looking at. What are you looking at? Exactly,
Speaker 2: and he said, oh, I had this headhunter that keeps
Speaker 2: bugging me to take this other position. And I was
Speaker 2: like okay. I said, well, it looks like there's a
Speaker 2: lot of women on your phone. I said, would you
Speaker 2: rather watch that and look at your phone than watch
Speaker 2: the movie we're watching? And he's like, no, I don't
Speaker 2: know what you're talking about. You don't understand.
Speaker 3: I'm working so hard.
Speaker 2: And he got really angry with me, but he put
Speaker 2: his phone down. And that's when I started really paying
Speaker 2: attention to what was going on in my house.
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, start looking.
Speaker 1: Well. Kimberly and her family quarantined in their mountain house,
Speaker 1: she started noticing changes in her husband. He was being secretive,
Speaker 1: even aggressive. One night, she thought she saw photos of
Speaker 1: women on her husband's phone and it kind of looked
Speaker 1: like a dating site. He said it was something for work,
Speaker 1: but she wasn't convinced.
Speaker 2: So I went into his suitcases and I started digging
Speaker 2: through his personal effects, his toilet, try bag. I started
Speaker 2: going through his desk and going through his clothes, didn't
Speaker 2: find anything, went through his golf.
Speaker 3: Bag, nothing.
Speaker 1: She kept coming up empty. I really started to think
Speaker 1: maybe everything was fine, after all, maybe she was just
Speaker 1: getting in her own head. But then her eyes landed
Speaker 1: on one final bag she had missed in her search,
Speaker 1: Tim's gym bag.
Speaker 2: And I put my hands in it and I was
Speaker 2: feeling around and I didn't feel anything. And then I
Speaker 2: noticed there was a zippered compartment on the side, and
Speaker 2: I opened it up and there was a treasure trove
Speaker 2: of viagra, condoms, lubes, sex toys and they were not mine.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, what did I just see?
Speaker 2: What did I just find?
Speaker 3: Everything? I had always feared.
Speaker 2: He was cheating on me.
Speaker 1: She couldn't confront Tim right away because she had to
Speaker 1: drive her daughters to their dad disappointments, So she drove
Speaker 1: across town in a daze.
Speaker 2: And I'm sitting there in the dentist's office and then
Speaker 2: I started to cry, and the dental hygienis comes out
Speaker 2: and she was like, I need to ask you questions
Speaker 2: about your children's teeth. And I remember, just like teeth,
Speaker 2: what are you talking about? I couldn't make sense of
Speaker 2: anything in my world at that point, and she kept
Speaker 2: like asking me questions, like do your kids you know
Speaker 2: they need to have their X rays done? I'm like, fine,
Speaker 2: take their x rays and she was like, well, and
Speaker 2: they probably need a fluorid treatment. I'm like, get to them.
Speaker 3: What are you asking China? She's like, are you okay?
Speaker 2: And I'm crying and I couldn't get the words out
Speaker 2: of my mouth. My husband's cheating on me. It just
Speaker 2: felt so impossible.
Speaker 1: Later that evening, when they were back home, Kimberly went
Speaker 1: into Tim's office where he was sitting at his desk, and.
Speaker 2: I said, I need to talk to you. I placed
Speaker 2: the box in front of him and I said, I
Speaker 2: need you to explain this to me. And then I
Speaker 2: just went quiet. The blood just rushed out of his
Speaker 2: face and he just whispered, let's take this into the bedrooms.
Speaker 2: We have some privacy. We went in there and I
Speaker 2: sat in the bed and he started pacing.
Speaker 3: I said, I need you to explain this, and he
Speaker 3: said it's a mistake.
Speaker 2: I said, who is she? His wheels were turning. He
Speaker 2: didn't know what to say to me.
Speaker 3: At the time.
Speaker 2: What I didn't know was he was trying to find
Speaker 2: the right lies. He finally said her name was Anna.
Speaker 2: I said where did you meet? And he said the
Speaker 2: whole foods down the street. I said, oh, I said,
Speaker 2: how old is she? And I was very calm and
Speaker 2: so was he. But when he said she was twenty
Speaker 2: one twenty two, I felt sick.
Speaker 3: This daughter was eighteen.
Speaker 2: That's not too far off in age. I said he
Speaker 2: was sex with her and he was like yes. I
Speaker 2: was so angry because I'm like, Harry, are during the pandemic,
Speaker 2: holding up, wearing masks in our face, like not communicating
Speaker 2: with anybody, not seeing our friends, and you're having sex
Speaker 2: with a cashier from Whole Foods, somebody you don't even know.
Speaker 2: And he was like yes. And I said, you just
Speaker 2: betrayed me in every single sense, and I need you
Speaker 2: to leave.
Speaker 1: He checked into a hotel. Kimberly was in shock.
Speaker 2: I don't remember the rest of the day. I just
Speaker 2: stared at my ceiling most.
Speaker 3: Of that night.
Speaker 1: After weeks in a hotel, Tim started trying to win
Speaker 1: her back, buying her expensive gifts, apologizing profusely and promising
Speaker 1: that he'd change.
Speaker 2: And he's just like, I love you so much. I
Speaker 2: just love you. I want to help you with the kids,
Speaker 2: and what can I do?
Speaker 3: I want to make up.
Speaker 1: Kimberly agreed to let him move back in and they
Speaker 1: tried to make it work, but she suspected that there
Speaker 1: was more he wasn't telling her. She wanted him to
Speaker 1: fully come clean. Whenever she would bring it up, he
Speaker 1: kept changing his story, so she decided to find the
Speaker 1: truth herself. There was one place she had it looked
Speaker 1: his computer.
Speaker 2: And that's when I started investigating him. I started logging
Speaker 2: into his computers, and I learned.
Speaker 3: That my.
Speaker 2: Tim, who I thought was the stand up, amazing executive
Speaker 2: father of my children, was a sugar daddy. He had
Speaker 2: been paying young women to have sex with him. It
Speaker 2: first started with him paying their bills, I'll give you
Speaker 2: money for rent, and then it went to him just
Speaker 2: paying them.
Speaker 1: The realization was sinking in. This was something she'd only
Speaker 1: seen on TV or in the movies, not something that
Speaker 1: happened in real life. But here she was finding out
Speaker 1: her husband was a sugar daddy. A sugar daddy that
Speaker 1: paid younger women for sex, paid for their lifestyle, financially
Speaker 1: supported their ventures, and gave them romantic gifts in return
Speaker 1: for sexual favors. He was doing it all online. There
Speaker 1: are websites for this where men can find their sugar baby.
Speaker 1: Tim was using them and he was using their money,
Speaker 1: money that could have gone to their kids, their education,
Speaker 1: their home, and instead he was spending it on other women.
Speaker 1: Kimberly began looking at their bank statements.
Speaker 2: I saw all these sums of money going out. I
Speaker 2: estimated he spent about forty thousand dollars on sex workers
Speaker 2: in the course of a year and a half. He
Speaker 2: would take it out in five hundred dollars increments, sometimes
Speaker 2: a thousand, it depends on if he was having a threesome.
Speaker 2: He would meet up with them in a hotel close
Speaker 2: to where our daughters went to school, and he would
Speaker 2: spend a few hours with them, smoke some weed, and
Speaker 2: then pick our children up in carpool and bring them home.
Speaker 1: Tim had another life online, one where he was constantly
Speaker 1: looking for his next sexual experience or his next sugar baby.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they were one off rendezvous five hundred and cash
Speaker 1: for a meetup, but other times he continued the relationship
Speaker 1: and sent thousands of dollars to women, money for them
Speaker 1: to start businesses or pay their bills. As Kimberly looked
Speaker 1: through the digital trail, she realized this was almost an obsession.
Speaker 1: It had consumed his life and so much of the
Speaker 1: family's money.
Speaker 2: I confronted him with all of this, and this time
Speaker 2: I had more than a box. He just started telling me.
Speaker 2: He's like, I have a hole that I can't fill.
Speaker 2: And he said, no matter what I do to try
Speaker 2: to fill that hole, I cannot seem to fill it.
Speaker 2: And he said, I've tried with work, I've tried with golf,
Speaker 2: I've tried with buying the house in the mountains and
Speaker 2: hiking and doing all these things. Nothing fills that hole.
Speaker 2: And he takes his fist and starts beating himself as
Speaker 2: hard as he can in the face, repeatedly, like punching
Speaker 2: himself in the eye and in the forehead. He kept saying,
Speaker 2: I'm so fucked up. I'm so fucked up.
Speaker 3: I don't even know who.
Speaker 2: I am so fucked up. And I remember just screaming.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, like I had never
Speaker 2: seen him violent, I had never seen him behave like this.
Speaker 2: And I grabbed his arm and I was like stop.
Speaker 3: I was like screaming.
Speaker 2: I was like stop, stop, and he was bleeding, and
Speaker 2: I was like, what are you doing. He's like, I
Speaker 2: don't know who. Something's wrong with me.
Speaker 1: In that conversation, Tim told Kimberly that he wanted to
Speaker 1: end his life. She was worried about his safety and
Speaker 1: encouraged him to get professional support.
Speaker 2: So I kept saying, I really feel like you need
Speaker 2: to get treatment, and Tim refused. He said I can't
Speaker 2: take off a month because of work.
Speaker 3: Refused.
Speaker 2: At that point, I was like, I need to get
Speaker 2: out of this marriage.
Speaker 1: Any hope Kimberly had for repairing their relationship was gone.
Speaker 2: And I said I want a divorce. He kind of
Speaker 2: went from this like super caring, love bombing husband to
Speaker 2: business executive. This was going to be a transaction, just
Speaker 2: like the transactions he had with the young girls. It
Speaker 2: was just transactional. So I was as well, and he said,
Speaker 2: I'll give you, and he gave me a number. You
Speaker 2: can have the kids, you can have the house. I
Speaker 2: will take care of you. I will take care of them.
Speaker 2: I will take care of.
Speaker 3: All of their school bills.
Speaker 2: I need you to walk away. And I just looked
Speaker 2: at him and I said, that number's really low. North
Speaker 2: Carolina is a fifty to fifty equitable state. I knew
Speaker 2: what we were worth. I had already pulled all the financials.
Speaker 1: Kimberly wanted half of everything. They owned together. That was fair.
Speaker 1: But the minute she said it, his whole demeanor changed.
Speaker 2: He was like, well, but it's my money. You haven't
Speaker 2: even worked. And I remember just being so dumbfounded. I
Speaker 2: was like, what do you mean.
Speaker 3: I put you through business school.
Speaker 2: I worked until our second child was born. I was
Speaker 2: making more than you. The large part of why we
Speaker 2: have what we have is because we were able to
Speaker 2: invest in properties and invest in stocks. And he's like,
Speaker 2: I was the one who did that. And I said, well,
Speaker 2: that's not the way the courts.
Speaker 3: Are going to see it. And he's like, fine.
Speaker 2: I just want you to know if you continue down
Speaker 2: this path, I will take every single cent I have
Speaker 2: and every single cent you have, and I will spend it,
Speaker 2: burning you to the ground.
Speaker 1: Kimberly found out that her husband had spent a lot
Speaker 1: of their family savings being a sugar daddy to younger women.
Speaker 1: He was paying for things like their rent and their bills.
Speaker 1: He was also paying for sex with sex workers. When
Speaker 1: Kimberly urged him to get help, he refused, so she
Speaker 1: was left with no other option but divorce.
Speaker 2: I didn't want alimony from him because I knew it'd
Speaker 2: be a way for him to control me, and I
Speaker 2: kept saying to the attorneys, I'm like, I don't want alimony.
Speaker 2: I want a clean break. I need the cash settlement.
Speaker 2: I can dig in my heels until I hit the
Speaker 2: core of this planet, and I did.
Speaker 3: Three weeks later, I.
Speaker 2: Think I finally warmed down and he agreed to a
Speaker 2: cash settlement. It was a thirty seventy split. I knew
Speaker 2: at that minute, I'm going to be free of this man.
Speaker 1: She got the money, but she wouldn't be free from Tim.
Speaker 1: His breakdown was just beginning. In fact, Kimberly noticed an
Speaker 1: uneasy feeling creeping in one she couldn't shake.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I felt like I was being watched, and I
Speaker 2: felt like I was being followed.
Speaker 1: Tim moved into an apartment nearby. Kimberly wanted space from
Speaker 1: the whole situation, so she decided to splurge on a
Speaker 1: trip to the Caribbean for her fiftieth birthday. It would
Speaker 1: be her her closest friends, and her three teenage daughters. Finally,
Speaker 1: she could be far away from Tim and could let
Speaker 1: her guard down. But the first morning of the trip,
Speaker 1: something strange happened.
Speaker 3: I'm on the beach, I'm having my coffee.
Speaker 1: It's just me.
Speaker 2: I'm enjoying the morning, enjoying the view, and there's no
Speaker 2: one around except for this man.
Speaker 3: I watched him turn. He pulls out a.
Speaker 2: Camera and start taking pictures of me. It's one of
Speaker 2: those moments you're like, am I imagining this? I turn around,
Speaker 2: so I'm thinking, maybe he's taking pictures of the villa.
Speaker 2: You can't see the villa from the beach. And I
Speaker 2: pretend to look down again, and here he is doing
Speaker 2: it a second time, taking more pictures.
Speaker 1: A man was on the beach taking pictures of her.
Speaker 1: She was sure of it. She just didn't know why.
Speaker 1: It was disturbing. But that wasn't the only upsetting thing
Speaker 1: that happened on their trip.
Speaker 2: Two days later, we get a basket delivered and it's
Speaker 2: a gift basket and I thought, oh, well, maybe it's
Speaker 2: a friend sending me something because it is my birthday
Speaker 2: weekend and whatever.
Speaker 3: And there was a note in it.
Speaker 2: I think it said enjoy your trip that I paid
Speaker 2: for my hard work. I spent my fiftieth birthday in
Speaker 2: a bar.
Speaker 1: It was from Tim.
Speaker 2: It was a bag of cookies, I think, some chocolate
Speaker 2: covered fruit and a bag of mixed nuts, and at
Speaker 2: this point the kids are like, oh my god, he
Speaker 2: knows we're here, He's found us. I mean, they go
Speaker 2: into full panic mode.
Speaker 1: Something about this basket immediately raised alarm bells. One of
Speaker 1: their daughters had a severe nut allergy. Tim spent eighteen
Speaker 1: years making sure everything his daughter ate was nut free,
Speaker 1: making sure he packed the EpiPen. Kimberly and her daughters
Speaker 1: looked at each other, eyes widened.
Speaker 2: My daughter looked at the nuts and she's like, is
Speaker 2: he trying to kill me?
Speaker 1: The vacation was meant to be relaxing, but it left
Speaker 1: the family more on edge than before. At this point,
Speaker 1: Kimberly was dating other people. When she got back from vacation,
Speaker 1: she had a date planned.
Speaker 2: We went out to this upscale restaurant. It was like
Speaker 2: seven o'clock and a busy Saturday night, and I'm in
Speaker 2: a pretty dress and he's in a suit, and we
Speaker 2: order our cocktail and order an appetizer, and before it
Speaker 2: even comes out, Tim comes charging towards our table from
Speaker 2: the bar.
Speaker 3: He's got a drink in his hand and he was drunk.
Speaker 2: And I remember just being so panicked because I hadn't
Speaker 2: seen him since we had separated, and he got in
Speaker 2: our face and he's said, you're doing drugs and dealing drugs,
Speaker 2: and I know who you are, but he's like saying
Speaker 2: it loudly, and people like stopping with their eating and
Speaker 2: like looking at our table.
Speaker 3: And then the maid of d came over.
Speaker 2: And he left and he's like, you go okay, And
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, no, But I was so shaken, and
Speaker 2: I remember going home.
Speaker 3: I'm like, how did he know we were there?
Speaker 1: Kimberly's head was spinning. Somehow Tim knew exactly where she
Speaker 1: was at all times. A few weeks later, Kimberly was
Speaker 1: at the doctor's office. Over the last year, her PABs
Speaker 1: mirrors kept coming back abnormal. The doctors told her it
Speaker 1: was due to a past HPV infection, likely from the
Speaker 1: unprotected sex Tim was having with other women.
Speaker 2: I was sitting in the gynecologist's office with a robe on.
Speaker 2: I heard my phone and I looked at it and
Speaker 2: it was a text from Tim, and it said, just
Speaker 2: remember while you're there getting tested for your STDs with
Speaker 2: all your boyfriends, you can't use our health insurance money
Speaker 2: to pay for it. Just like shaking, like I could
Speaker 2: not even control my hands. I dropped my phone and
Speaker 2: I was like, he knows I'm here. He physically knows
Speaker 2: I'm here.
Speaker 1: She thought maybe Tim had been following her. That was
Speaker 1: until she brought her car in to be serviced.
Speaker 2: It was just a routine service and everything went fine.
Speaker 2: I was pulling away and I noticed there was this
Speaker 2: device sitting in my console. I picked it up and
Speaker 2: I'm like, what is this. I called the technician. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 2: I think they left something in my car. He was like, oh, no,
Speaker 2: that's your tracking device.
Speaker 3: I was like what. He's like, yeah, that was.
Speaker 2: Your tracking device. Sorry, we forgot to put it back in.
Speaker 2: He put a tracking device inside my car.
Speaker 1: Tim was tracking Kimberly everywhere she went, but he knew
Speaker 1: much more than just her location. Whenever they had to
Speaker 1: talk to each other about their daughters or divorce proceedings.
Speaker 2: He had been referencing conversations that I was having inside
Speaker 2: my house.
Speaker 3: One time, He's like, yeah, I saw.
Speaker 2: You playing volleyball with our daughter in the house when
Speaker 2: I was there. You would never let that fly. And
Speaker 2: I was like, could you look through my windows? And
Speaker 2: I went actually outside and looking at my house. I'm like,
Speaker 2: you can't see into my house unless you're in my
Speaker 2: backyard looking into my windows.
Speaker 3: He knew about a.
Speaker 2: Trip that I was planning.
Speaker 3: I was taking a cruise, and he knew about it.
Speaker 2: He said, I hope you have fun on your trip,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, how does he know all of these things?
Speaker 1: It felt like Tim had eyes and ears everywhere. There
Speaker 1: was no escaping, and Kimberly was struggling.
Speaker 2: I was definitely in trauma mode, wondering when he was
Speaker 2: going to pop up again. And I turned into this
Speaker 2: paranoid mess. I was so jumpy all the time he was.
Speaker 2: I'm so angry. I had this feeling he was going
Speaker 2: to come for me. I was always locking and unlocking
Speaker 2: the doors. I unlocked and locked my door so many
Speaker 2: times I actually broke the doorknob.
Speaker 1: She lived in this paranoid state for a whole year.
Speaker 1: Then one weekend, when Kimberly was out of town, she
Speaker 1: got a strange notification on her home security app.
Speaker 2: Somebody had gone in and changed my password to my
Speaker 2: home security system.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: And I logged in and I saw that he had
Speaker 2: accessed my home security system, logged me out, logged him in,
Speaker 2: self in, and made himself the master user, so he
Speaker 2: could see into my home and he could hear the conversations.
Speaker 1: Suddenly puzzle pieces started clicking into place. It wasn't just
Speaker 1: paranoia that like Kimberly to believe Tim could hear what
Speaker 1: she was saying inside her house. He had hacked into
Speaker 1: her home security system. From there, he would watch her
Speaker 1: in her home and listen to her private conversations.
Speaker 2: The reason he was able to do that is when
Speaker 2: they changed over the account to my name, they failed
Speaker 2: to log out all the devices, and even though I
Speaker 2: had changed the password, he was able to access it
Speaker 2: through face idea.
Speaker 1: During the court hearings for Kimberly's protective order against him,
Speaker 1: he admitted to putting the tracking device.
Speaker 2: On her car.
Speaker 1: Apparently that was legal. Then the line of questioning shifted
Speaker 1: to the home security system.
Speaker 2: My attorney's asking him how many times did you look
Speaker 2: into Kimberly's house and watch her? And he was like countless.
Speaker 2: And the judge popped her head up and she said, sir,
Speaker 2: I need you to explain that when you say countless,
Speaker 2: that means you can't count that high. Can you quantify that?
Speaker 2: It's like dozens?
Speaker 1: On the stand Tim also admitted to hiring a private
Speaker 1: investigator to follow Kimberly twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like one hundred dollars an hour to
Speaker 2: do what to watch to me go to the grocery
Speaker 2: store and turn my lights on and off. It was
Speaker 2: just insanity.
Speaker 1: The judge did the right thing.
Speaker 2: She ruled in favor that I got the restraining order.
Speaker 1: Tim fought this on appeal, but ultimately Kimberly prevailed. It
Speaker 1: was a landmark case because before this, North Carolina courts
Speaker 1: required proof of physical abuse or explicit violent threats to
Speaker 1: grant a protective order. Kimberly's case created a precedent in
Speaker 1: their home state. It was a big win, but Tim
Speaker 1: was still spiraling out of control.
Speaker 2: He threatened to have my two older children arrested. He
Speaker 2: was claiming that they were part of a bitcoin scheme
Speaker 2: to blackmail him, and that he had proof, and he
Speaker 2: sent this to my attorney, like this wasn't on the
Speaker 2: bingo card.
Speaker 1: Tim was spending obscene amounts of money. It seemed like
Speaker 1: any semblance of control and order in his life was
Speaker 1: slipping away. Kimberly's oldest daughter had gone off to college,
Speaker 1: but she still had two of her daughters at home,
Speaker 1: and she was trying to hold everything together for them.
Speaker 2: A few weeks later, on November twenty third, I was
Speaker 2: out to dinner and I get a text from one
Speaker 2: of his old girlfriends, something he dated and I'd always
Speaker 2: liked her, and says I need to talk to you.
Speaker 2: I was like, that's really weird. And I call her
Speaker 2: and I'm like, hey, you know, is everything okay? And
Speaker 2: she said, Kimberly, Tim's dead and I was like, what.
Speaker 1: Tim had gone into the woods and taken his own life.
Speaker 2: She's like, I'm so sorry, and I just was calm.
Speaker 2: I was like, you know, I didn't even have to
Speaker 2: say and I threw up.
Speaker 3: I didn't cry.
Speaker 2: I felt sick, I felt shocked, and then I felt relief.
Speaker 2: And I hate that I felt that, but it's human nature.
Speaker 2: He had abused and tortured me and made my life
Speaker 2: living hell.
Speaker 1: Kimberly had to find a way to tell her daughters.
Speaker 3: I took the girls into my bedroom.
Speaker 2: I said, let's sit down and talk about this. It's
Speaker 2: okay to be upset, it's okay to be shocked, it's
Speaker 2: okay to be angry. The girls end up being named
Speaker 2: administrators to the estate. Obviously they're young girls. They decided
Speaker 2: they couldn't do it. They named me and appointed me.
Speaker 2: So now here I am with my ex husband managing
Speaker 2: his estate.
Speaker 1: In the weeks that followed, Kimberly went to old apartment
Speaker 1: to clean it out. When she stepped inside, she was
Speaker 1: shocked at the state he had been living in. She
Speaker 1: saw for his hand what he had been draining his
Speaker 1: accounts on. It wasn't just private investigators and legal fees.
Speaker 1: He'd been buying all kinds of things.
Speaker 2: He was a hoarder. To see like the state of
Speaker 2: his stuff, and it was expensive stuff. He had like
Speaker 2: a chicken coop for chickens he didn't have, and pool
Speaker 2: equipment for a pool he didn't have, and watches, and
Speaker 2: flipflops that were like from Target thrown in with a
Speaker 2: box of like a thousand dollar pair of Italian leather shoes.
Speaker 1: There was even a box of fifty vintage pencil sharpeners
Speaker 1: that cost two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: And a nineteen forties chipbox. He had an RV that
Speaker 2: he wrecked. He had motorcycles, a jet ski, two trailers.
Speaker 2: I mean hundreds of thousands dollars.
Speaker 3: Worth of stuff.
Speaker 1: One of the strangest and most alarming things he'd spend
Speaker 1: his money on was a trained German shepherd.
Speaker 2: He had it imported overseas, and it was a trained
Speaker 2: killer guard dog. He spent close to eighty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: on the dog.
Speaker 1: He eventually bought a second guard dog. At first, Kimberly
Speaker 1: wanted to adopt the dogs herself. Then she had a
Speaker 1: conversation with the trainer, who strongly advised her against interacting
Speaker 1: with the dogs.
Speaker 2: If I were to ever come around, I think that
Speaker 2: they were trained to attack me.
Speaker 1: The trainer ended up taking the dogs for Kimberly. The
Speaker 1: dogs became another what if, another decision Tim made that
Speaker 1: left her speechless. For twenty years, she'd known Tim to
Speaker 1: be a dependable man. She adored him and respected him.
Speaker 1: She built a family with him, and then, seemingly out
Speaker 1: of the blue, he blew up their marriage, blew their savings,
Speaker 1: and turned against his own daughters. Worst of all, he
Speaker 1: spent his final years stalking and tearing the family. Kimberly
Speaker 1: was trying to make sense of this as she sorted
Speaker 1: through Tim's belongings. That's how she learned that a few
Speaker 1: days before he took his own life, Tim had checked
Speaker 1: himself into a rehab facility.
Speaker 5: Tim had a lot of demons that he did not
Speaker 5: share with me, and one of the things that I
Speaker 5: learned after he passed away he had admitted himself into rehab.
Speaker 2: He went to a place in Kentucky and willingly checked
Speaker 2: himself in and checked himself out.
Speaker 3: A few days later.
Speaker 1: Kimberly called the rehab, hoping to learn more about his
Speaker 1: state of mind while he was there, and any more
Speaker 1: information about those final days leading up to his death.
Speaker 2: I felt like I had this puzzle, but I didn't
Speaker 2: know what the picture was and pieces were missing. So
Speaker 2: I called him and I said, I'm assuming he was
Speaker 2: in here for substance abuse. And they're like, no, that's
Speaker 2: not what we do. And I was like, well, why
Speaker 2: was he in here? And They're like, he wasn't here
Speaker 2: for childhood sexual abuse. I was just shocked.
Speaker 1: Kimberly knew that Tim had been a victim of childhood
Speaker 1: sexual abuse, but she had no idea how significant the
Speaker 1: trauma continued to be for him in adulthood. As she
Speaker 1: worked to put together a painful puzzle of loss, she
Speaker 1: also did everything she could to help her daughters through
Speaker 1: their grief.
Speaker 2: I still have his ashes here in my home, and
Speaker 2: I talked to my daughters about what they wanted to do,
Speaker 2: and we're going to take him up to the mountains
Speaker 2: where we had so many happy times and had a
Speaker 2: ceremony and service there and just remember the good times.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's going to be a final thing
Speaker 2: for us to like.
Speaker 1: End this chapter, Kimberly is still in the process of
Speaker 1: finding her way back to herself.
Speaker 2: I have trouble finding joy like I used to. This
Speaker 2: did such a number on me for so long. Now
Speaker 2: I'm trying to find out who I am and what
Speaker 2: do I really like to do.
Speaker 1: Through everything, her relationship with her daughters remained strong.
Speaker 2: I think they see the strength that I've shown and
Speaker 2: the strength that's taken for them to overcome it. As
Speaker 2: much as I hate that they went through it, I
Speaker 2: tell them all the time, You're going to use these
Speaker 2: skills that you've learned for the rest of your life,
Speaker 2: and you will help other women, and you will be
Speaker 2: a source of support for other people going through the
Speaker 2: same thing.
Speaker 1: We end every weekly episode with the same question, why
Speaker 1: do you want to share your story?
Speaker 3: I think it's.
Speaker 2: Important for people to know when they do hit that
Speaker 2: rock bottom moment and again I've hit it, I hit
Speaker 2: it hard.
Speaker 3: You can get through these horrible, horrible times.
Speaker 2: Somebody can betray you, and you might just want to
Speaker 2: be like, I can't do this anymore, I can't think
Speaker 2: of this anymore.
Speaker 3: How am How am I going to get.
Speaker 2: Myself out of this? Just keep putting one foot in
Speaker 2: front of the other, and you're going to get to
Speaker 2: the other side of the dark forest and see the
Speaker 2: light if you just keep moving. Don't be embarrassed, don't
Speaker 2: be ashamed, don't be afraid to tell your story, because
Speaker 2: the more times you talk about it, the more you
Speaker 2: can make sense of it and process it.
Speaker 3: And that's been very helpful for me.
Speaker 1: On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly, this was my
Speaker 1: best friend.
Speaker 6: This was somebody who was in my house every single day.
Speaker 6: This is somebody who I told all my secrets too.
Speaker 6: She did this because she wanted to She did this
Speaker 6: because she likes to manipulate. She did this because she
Speaker 6: likes the control.
Speaker 1: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
Speaker 1: Team or want to tell us your betrayal story, email
Speaker 1: us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com, or follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Betrayal Pod. You can also connect with me on Instagram
Speaker 1: at It's Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter, view additional content,
Speaker 1: and connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack at
Speaker 1: Betrayal dot substack dot com. We're grateful for your support.
Speaker 1: One way to show support is by subscribing to our
Speaker 1: show on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and
Speaker 1: review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A
Speaker 1: big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is
Speaker 1: a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
Speaker 1: by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fasin, hosted and produced by
Speaker 1: me Andrea Gunning. This episode was written and produced by
Speaker 1: Olivia Hewitt and Monique Leboard, with additional production from Ben Fetterman,
Speaker 1: casting support from Curry Richmond. Our iHeart team is Ali
Speaker 1: Perry and Jessica Krincheck. Audio editing and mixing by Matt
Speaker 1: del Vecchio. Additional audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme
Speaker 1: composed by Oliver Bain's music library provided by mybe Music.
Speaker 1: And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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