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.
Speaker 2: The person that sent these letters out was saying, I
Speaker 2: have proof. Unless you confess your sins and repent, then
Speaker 2: I'm going to release some tapes.
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. A few months ago, we got an email
Speaker 1: from a listener we're going to call Tracy. She grew
Speaker 1: up in the South in the eighties. Her mom was
Speaker 1: a free spirit.
Speaker 2: She is a wonderful hippie like woman. We would just
Speaker 2: have goats running around. They would jump on the porch.
Speaker 1: But Tracy wasn't like her mom. She was always more
Speaker 1: buttoned up.
Speaker 2: When I was growing up, my mom would lay on
Speaker 2: top of the roof to get some sun and she
Speaker 2: would not have her clothes on. And when I was young,
Speaker 2: I would be just so horrified by that. And my
Speaker 2: mom would always say, Tracy, just loosen up, It's okay,
Speaker 2: but I'm always like no.
Speaker 1: When Tracy was fourteen, her mom met a new guy
Speaker 1: and decided to move with him to Africa. She hadn't
Speaker 1: fully worked out where Tracy would stay, but she had
Speaker 1: some ideas.
Speaker 2: She said, you can move to New York with your grandma,
Speaker 2: or you can move to California with your aunt. Or
Speaker 2: you can move to Africa with me, or you can
Speaker 2: move in with your dad. Whatever you decide now. I
Speaker 2: wasantine at the time, and my dad I applaud this.
Speaker 2: He stepped in and said, no, these are children. They
Speaker 2: are not deciding which state and whom they live with.
Speaker 2: They are coming to live with me.
Speaker 1: So she moved in with her dad and his new wife.
Speaker 2: So very happy, wholesome childhood, except that my dad did
Speaker 2: drink too much and occasionally that would cause a little problem.
Speaker 1: Things at home could feel out of control, and at
Speaker 1: times that made her feel really lonely. That was until
Speaker 1: her stepmom invited her into a new community, her church.
Speaker 1: The first time Tracy went for a Sunday service.
Speaker 2: It was just so warm and welcoming and something I'd
Speaker 2: never experienced before.
Speaker 1: It was a big Southern Baptist church, one that loomed
Speaker 1: large in their small town, and after a few Sundays there,
Speaker 1: everyone knew her name.
Speaker 2: That was something that I had been searching for because
Speaker 2: my family is a very small unit and I didn't
Speaker 2: grow up with cousins, So that just felt like the
Speaker 2: place I wanted to be. I wasn't even related to
Speaker 2: these people, but they felt like family just automatically.
Speaker 1: The church quickly became Tracy's second home. She started volunteering
Speaker 1: and joined the youth group choir. Her dad didn't understand
Speaker 1: the appeal, but Racy did. She saw it as a
Speaker 1: way to break a cycle.
Speaker 2: Seeing my dad struggle with alcoholism. I definitely felt like,
Speaker 2: if I stay in church, I'm going to end up
Speaker 2: serving the Lord with someone who doesn't struggle with alcoholism.
Speaker 2: It felt very safe.
Speaker 1: By the time she was seventeen, Terracy was taking notes
Speaker 1: during Sunday sermons.
Speaker 2: I just was one of those teenagers that didn't get
Speaker 2: into trouble because everything that was preached.
Speaker 1: Baptist, and the person doing the preaching he.
Speaker 2: Was funny, he was charismatic, he seemed to care about people.
Speaker 1: His name was Keith, or at least that's what we're
Speaker 1: going to call him in this episode, and when she
Speaker 1: was sitting in the pew on Sunday, Tracy looked up
Speaker 1: to him.
Speaker 2: I just remember feeling the energy that came from his
Speaker 2: preaching and his dedication to serving the Lord. I really
Speaker 2: admired that a.
Speaker 1: Lot of other people admired Keith too. He'd built his
Speaker 1: church into a huge community.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like thirty people in our church. It wasn't
Speaker 2: this little church where everybody has behive hair. We had
Speaker 2: a thousand people in our church. It was principles, it
Speaker 2: was the mayor, it was the police chief, very well
Speaker 2: viewed citizens of our town.
Speaker 1: The church was popular, but it also had rules, strict ones,
Speaker 1: and Terracy was a rule follower.
Speaker 2: I am wearing skirts all the time. I don't even
Speaker 2: wear pants. I don't listen to rock music. I don't
Speaker 2: listen to any secular music. That's how deeply entrenched I was.
Speaker 1: And the strictest rules were around dating.
Speaker 2: It was very much praised. If you made it to
Speaker 2: the altar and had never kissed, you don't live together,
Speaker 2: you don't have premarital sex, you don't go to the
Speaker 2: movie theaters.
Speaker 1: Tercy's favorite part of the church was the youth group choir.
Speaker 1: It was a group of nearly one hundred teenagers who
Speaker 1: would travel all around the South to perform.
Speaker 2: Our youth group would sing and then Keith would preach.
Speaker 2: We would go to churches all around far and wide.
Speaker 2: I mean we actually made tapes and like sold them.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a typical teenage experience. Instead of sneaking alcohol
Speaker 1: with her friends, she joined the church's campaign against it.
Speaker 2: Our county was a dry county and when there was
Speaker 2: a vote to bring alcohol in, our church was one
Speaker 2: of the biggest adversaries to that and made it very loud,
Speaker 2: took out billboards, had preaching on the corners about the
Speaker 2: evils of alcohol.
Speaker 1: The message resonated with Tracy. It was personal, but it
Speaker 1: also felt like she was part of something bigger.
Speaker 2: For me, being from a small town, it felt like
Speaker 2: a movement of positivity.
Speaker 1: After high school, Tracy enrolled in a college about an
Speaker 1: hour away. She went for a teaching degree, but she
Speaker 1: was still active in Keith's church. She went on weekend
Speaker 1: trips to perform with her youth choir. After one of
Speaker 1: those weekend.
Speaker 2: Trips, when I returned back to my college dorm, it
Speaker 2: was about two o'clock in the morning, and my answer
Speaker 2: machine is flashing, so I put and it's Keith's voice,
Speaker 2: and all he's doing is asking did I get home safely?
Speaker 2: And could I please call him at his home to
Speaker 2: let him know I got home safely.
Speaker 1: Keith, the head passed her was like a celebrity. Even
Speaker 1: though she dedicated so much time to his church, she'd
Speaker 1: never talked to him directly. To talk to Keith one
Speaker 1: on one, he needed an appointment, and now he was
Speaker 1: calling her in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2: I really felt like that was super odd. That had
Speaker 2: never happened before. Actually, I didn't even know if he
Speaker 2: really even knew me. Of course he saw me, but
Speaker 2: we never spoke.
Speaker 1: But this was the leader of her church. So she
Speaker 1: called him right back.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is now two thirty in the morning,
Speaker 2: and gave him a call and he said, I just
Speaker 2: really wanted to check on you to make sure you
Speaker 2: got there safely, And then the conversation switched to, hey,
Speaker 2: I was just wondering if you would ever consider going
Speaker 2: out on a date with me.
Speaker 1: Tracy felt a rush of emotion.
Speaker 2: When he asked me out. I just started crying. I
Speaker 2: felt like it was all that I could ever wish for.
Speaker 1: In Keith's church, asking someone on a date signaled a
Speaker 1: very serious intention, a holy intention, with marriage as the
Speaker 1: end goal.
Speaker 2: I felt immediately very complimented that someone who's serving the
Speaker 2: Lord in such a way would even consider asking me out.
Speaker 1: This was someone who not only shared her values, but
Speaker 1: preached them.
Speaker 2: He's always going to be serving people and caring for others.
Speaker 2: He's never going to hurt people. I could have a
Speaker 2: man that's never going to drink too much. He's never
Speaker 2: going to cheat on me.
Speaker 1: It made her feel safe, but it was still so surprising.
Speaker 1: Tracy had never thought of Keith romantically. He was thirty
Speaker 1: five and she had just turned twenty. She didn't really
Speaker 1: know much about him.
Speaker 2: I didn't pay any attention to him other than being
Speaker 2: the pastor that was energetic, charismatic. It never even crossed
Speaker 2: my mind to think of him in that way.
Speaker 1: One thing she did know about him was that his
Speaker 1: wife had recently walked out of their marriage. He was
Speaker 1: open about this journey with his congregation.
Speaker 2: She left suddenly and moved in with a younger man
Speaker 2: and left the kids.
Speaker 1: Keith had three daughters that he was now parenting on
Speaker 1: his own. The youngest was only a year old. It
Speaker 1: was hard on him emotionally.
Speaker 2: He really preached a lot about his wife leading him
Speaker 2: and how he stays up at night with the baby crying,
Speaker 2: and you know, the girls cry for someone to be
Speaker 2: in their lives.
Speaker 1: A lot of women in the church felt sorry for him.
Speaker 1: He wanted a partner, so when he asked Tracy out
Speaker 1: on a date, she knew what it meant. Keith had
Speaker 1: chosen her.
Speaker 2: I thought, what better opportunity would I have for a
Speaker 2: man that could be good in my life? Like this
Speaker 2: has got to be it. It's like being offered the best.
Speaker 2: What else could there be? That's what it felt like
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: They decided to meet for a picnic. On the date.
Speaker 1: She expected Keith to be strict and chased no handholding,
Speaker 1: absolutely no kissing. She'd been following those rules for the
Speaker 1: last five years. But on the day of their date.
Speaker 2: We met and went to a scenic area that was alone,
Speaker 2: and he actually pushed me down and kissed me.
Speaker 1: Keith could see that Tracy was taken aback. He tried
Speaker 1: to explain, Oh.
Speaker 2: My goodness, I'm so sorry I did this. I was
Speaker 2: just overcome because I just really care about you. It
Speaker 2: felt like an impulse that couldn't be controlled. I felt elated.
Speaker 2: I must be the person who really cares about in
Speaker 2: order for him to cross that line, a line that
Speaker 2: I so carefully for the past four years never crossed.
Speaker 1: After that, they spent hours sitting in Keith's car just chatting.
Speaker 2: Because he had been my pastor for four years, him
Speaker 2: talking and me listening was just a natural part of
Speaker 2: our relationship, and he just told me how much he
Speaker 2: cared for me. It just felt very safe and I
Speaker 2: felt very special.
Speaker 1: It was the beginning of a relationship.
Speaker 2: From there, we continued to date in a secretive way
Speaker 2: for about a year and a half.
Speaker 1: Tracy knew that if her parents found out about the relationship.
Speaker 2: They would have burned the college down to keep me
Speaker 2: from being with Keith. My mom and my dad, who
Speaker 2: did not go to church with his wife, was very
Speaker 2: much against it. In my mind, that would be the
Speaker 2: most horrible thing that I could tell them would be
Speaker 2: that I was dating a very conservative pastor. And for Keith,
Speaker 2: part of the secrecy was because he wasn't ready to
Speaker 2: talk to his girls about it yet, even though he
Speaker 2: wanted to remain somewhat stable to them looking so that
Speaker 2: really played a huge part in me feeling sorry for
Speaker 2: him and trying to be what he needed to be.
Speaker 1: They were both willing to do whatever it took to
Speaker 1: be together, even if it meant being discreet.
Speaker 2: We'd often drive an hour or two hours to meet,
Speaker 2: like at a rest stop, or pick up some food
Speaker 2: and eat at a scenic spot. Did that for a
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 1: They fell hard for one another.
Speaker 2: We definitely expressed great love for each other very early on,
Speaker 2: and I was deeply, deeply, deeply committed.
Speaker 1: To him, even though it was against church rules. Their
Speaker 1: relationship progressed physically.
Speaker 2: We did not cross all the boundaries, but we certainly
Speaker 2: did cross a lot of them. He just told me
Speaker 2: that the reason that he couldn't control his impulses with
Speaker 2: me was because he already felt like I was his wife.
Speaker 1: She felt like she was breaking the rules, but Keith
Speaker 1: was the one who made the rules.
Speaker 2: He knows God, and if God is telling him that,
Speaker 2: I'm the person who am I to try to figure
Speaker 2: that out when I don't know, Like I don't know
Speaker 2: what God says, like he runs a church and I
Speaker 2: can see God answering prayers for him every week at church.
Speaker 2: How could I no better?
Speaker 1: Keith had direct communication with God, and that came with
Speaker 1: a lot of power.
Speaker 2: He wasn't God, but he was the closest thing in
Speaker 2: our church to God. Meaning if he said it, it went,
Speaker 2: If he thought it, it happened. If he wanted it,
Speaker 2: it was going to be worked through by all the
Speaker 2: people in the church to make it happen. There was
Speaker 2: no questioning his authority. There was no checks and balances
Speaker 2: in our church. We had deacons, but the deacons were
Speaker 2: to do good to the widows and they just followed Keith.
Speaker 2: If you did question him, you were quickly moved down
Speaker 2: the church by others.
Speaker 1: Two years into their relationship, Keith said he was ready
Speaker 1: to make their commitment public.
Speaker 2: That's when he sat down and talked to the deacons
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: Of course, the deacons approved that they started going out
Speaker 1: together in public. She would join him and his children
Speaker 1: for lunch after church on Sundays.
Speaker 2: When we went public, I was proud because it felt
Speaker 2: like I was no longer a secret, and it felt
Speaker 2: like he was taking a stand on our future together.
Speaker 1: One Saturday, Keith was determined to take Tracy to the
Speaker 1: beach for a date.
Speaker 2: Shortly after we got to the beach, you know, I
Speaker 2: heard the plane and I could see that it was
Speaker 2: dragging one of those signs behind it, saying Tracy, will
Speaker 2: you marry me? Love Keith, And then he just pulled
Speaker 2: out a ring and he said, will you marry me.
Speaker 1: It didn't actually feel like a question. It felt like
Speaker 1: the decision had already been made.
Speaker 2: I felt immediately honored that I could be his wife
Speaker 2: and we could do this movement together. And at the
Speaker 2: same time I felt like, oh, no, is this exactly
Speaker 2: what I think it is? But it had gone too far,
Speaker 2: and he had already spoken to the deacons and it
Speaker 2: was already public in the church. I just felt like,
Speaker 2: who am I to question this? If he feels like
Speaker 2: this is what has to happen and I love him
Speaker 2: very much, then this is what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: Before the proposal, Keith hadn't talked to Tracy's dad, so
Speaker 1: when word got back to her father.
Speaker 2: My dad was very frustrated and he felt that there
Speaker 2: was an imbalance of power and that Keith was taking
Speaker 2: advantage of his daughter. So my dad had tried to
Speaker 2: talk to him, but he would not.
Speaker 1: Since Keith wouldn't meet with him. Tracy's dad decided to
Speaker 1: go to Keith, and there was one place he knew
Speaker 1: he'd be.
Speaker 2: My dad actually showed up at our church during one
Speaker 2: of the services and he walked inside and he said, Keith,
Speaker 2: we need to and I mean there's hundreds of people there,
Speaker 2: and Keith said, what are you doing. You're interrupting the service.
Speaker 1: Tercy's dad confronted Keith in the middle of his sermon
Speaker 1: while hundreds of parishioners watched in confusion. It was a spectacle.
Speaker 2: Immediately, the deacons surrounded my dad and rushed him out
Speaker 2: of the church. Later, my dad told me, he said, Tracy,
Speaker 2: I want you to know that that was difficult for me,
Speaker 2: but it was the only way that I knew to
Speaker 2: try to get his attention and try to let people
Speaker 2: know how bad I think this is. He said, I
Speaker 2: actually had a gun in my car and I locked
Speaker 2: it in my car so I could not run back
Speaker 2: and get it, because if I had my way, I
Speaker 2: would have used it that day.
Speaker 1: Tracy was determined to marry Keith. They set a date
Speaker 1: for right after she graduated college, and despite her dad's
Speaker 1: public outburst, he showed up for the wedding.
Speaker 2: My dad walked me down the aisle, and that was
Speaker 2: one of the hardest things he's ever done, he said,
Speaker 2: But in support of his daughter, regardless of who she
Speaker 2: was marrying, he wanted to be there for me.
Speaker 1: The wedding was on a Sunday night, with hundreds of
Speaker 1: people in attendance, from parishioners to family and friends.
Speaker 2: Everything was always done over the top, and of course
Speaker 2: our wedding would also be over the top. I mean
Speaker 2: this was a big wedding, big, big wedding. I had
Speaker 2: like eight bridesmaids, He had like eight groomsmen, and my
Speaker 2: little brother was dressed just like Keith, little white tucks
Speaker 2: and everything.
Speaker 1: While they were standing at the altar, Keith surprised her
Speaker 1: with a personal rendition of a Johnny Mathis song.
Speaker 2: Keith got the guitar from behind and surprised me singing
Speaker 2: the twelfth of Never. I'll love you till the twelfth
Speaker 2: of Never. And they actually cut a hole in the
Speaker 2: ceiling of the church and dropped all these balloons down
Speaker 2: on top of us when they announced that we were
Speaker 2: husband and wife.
Speaker 1: After the honeymoon, Tracy moved into the house, Keith and
Speaker 1: his daughters already lived in She got a job teaching
Speaker 1: at a Christian school run by Keith's church.
Speaker 2: And by just dove right in. So our life seven
Speaker 2: days a week revolved around church, whether it was visitation
Speaker 2: or bus ministry or running to this church on a
Speaker 2: Friday night so that the youth choir could sing. Everything
Speaker 2: revolved around church, and that was our entire life.
Speaker 1: After the wedding, Keith's life didn't change that much. Tracy's
Speaker 1: did because now she was the stepmother to Keith's three
Speaker 1: young daughters.
Speaker 2: I instantly loved the kids because I felt like they
Speaker 2: were just being tossed about given the situation with their
Speaker 2: mom not living with them. So I was happy to
Speaker 2: take that on and I actually thought, I am okay
Speaker 2: with not having children of my own. I'm just going
Speaker 2: to raise.
Speaker 1: His Tracy also became the first lady of the church,
Speaker 1: which had some upsides.
Speaker 2: You are his wife, You drive the best cars, you
Speaker 2: live in the big house on the hill, You have
Speaker 2: inner workings of what his life is, and you are
Speaker 2: privy to all of it, and you should be very
Speaker 2: very grateful that you're in it. And for the first
Speaker 2: couple of years, that's exactly how it went. I had
Speaker 2: a lovely time with his family.
Speaker 1: She even loved the little moments, the everyday tasks of parenting.
Speaker 2: I would get the kids up for school and they
Speaker 2: would travel with me. I taught at the same school
Speaker 2: that they went to. Then after school, I would bring
Speaker 2: them home. They would play and do and I would
Speaker 2: cook dinner or make something for dinner, and then we'd
Speaker 2: get ready for church. So it's just a very busy time.
Speaker 2: But I felt like I was exactly where I needed to.
Speaker 1: Be plause she was able to continue serving the community.
Speaker 1: It felt like she had a larger purpose.
Speaker 2: I really thrived in the position as a preacher's wife.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed teaching in a Christian school. I enjoyed working
Speaker 2: with people where I could go visit them and bring
Speaker 2: them groceries and help them figure out how to do
Speaker 2: their child care or whatever they needed. I was able
Speaker 2: to help people and live for other people. That was
Speaker 2: something that I really wanted.
Speaker 1: Keith treated her like a prize. He gushed about their
Speaker 1: happy marriage in his Sunday sermons.
Speaker 2: I felt very much like he was as devoted to
Speaker 2: me as I was him, and he would make that
Speaker 2: very apparent. He would talk about me in his messages.
Speaker 2: He would use humor about our relationship. He would always
Speaker 2: brag on me being his wife.
Speaker 1: As time went on, Tercy started noticing some odd behavior
Speaker 1: from Keith.
Speaker 2: We would pull up and get gas and somebody would
Speaker 2: pump our gas and they would say, hey, what' chulp
Speaker 2: and doing all day? And Keith would make up something
Speaker 2: that we weren't even doing. Like it just I started
Speaker 2: seeing that not telling the truth was something that came
Speaker 2: very easily to him, and that surprised me over and over.
Speaker 1: And behind the scenes, she was seeing how he ran
Speaker 1: the church, and at times it was off putting. At first,
Speaker 1: it was little things, the.
Speaker 2: Very movies that he would talk against from the pulpit.
Speaker 2: We would watch it home and he would say he
Speaker 2: was studying it.
Speaker 1: She saw that Keith could be materialistic, so for.
Speaker 2: Pastor appreciation Day he would be like, whatever you want,
Speaker 2: But behind the scenes he was like, I want this
Speaker 2: color car made of this model with this kind of seat,
Speaker 2: and I want this kind of trim and it needs
Speaker 2: to have XYZ on it. So I was constantly questioning
Speaker 2: in my heart, how does this work? Because, as you know,
Speaker 2: I wasn't raised in a church environment. He's the only
Speaker 2: pastor I've ever had. It just was contradictory to what
Speaker 2: I expected life to be with him.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, there were other times where his actions really give
Speaker 1: her pause.
Speaker 2: When a church member would call and say their child
Speaker 2: was in a car wreck. Could he go to the
Speaker 2: hospital to visit them and pray with them? He would
Speaker 2: say he was busy, and he would hang up the
Speaker 2: phone and he would save, Tracy, let's go jump in
Speaker 2: the pool. And I would say, Keith, that church member
Speaker 2: just asked if you could go see their son who
Speaker 2: just was in a terrible car wreck. And he would say, Tracy,
Speaker 2: I can't do everything everybody wants. I can't be on
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven and here I am fifteen years
Speaker 2: younger than him, going that doesn't make sense. But what
Speaker 2: do I know?
Speaker 1: Every time she had questions about Keith's behavior, this is
Speaker 1: what she came back to. He knows more about how
Speaker 1: to run the.
Speaker 2: Church, and all was good. Until about nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: Six, four years into their marriage, Tracy and Keith's life
Speaker 1: was well established. They ran a few businesses through the church,
Speaker 1: like a summer camp in a bookstore. It was at
Speaker 1: that bookstore where Tracy began to notice another strange pattern
Speaker 1: in Keith's behavior.
Speaker 2: It was a young lady that worked there who was
Speaker 2: in high school. She was very friendly, very sweet, and
Speaker 2: I enjoyed her company. However, if I walked in and
Speaker 2: Keith was there, they would instantly move apart, like they
Speaker 2: would be close together, like a foot apart from each other,
Speaker 2: and then they would step away. And I remember that
Speaker 2: catching my attention because that's exactly how he and I
Speaker 2: did it when we were secretly meeting. So I just
Speaker 2: started paying attention.
Speaker 1: She watched for a few weeks, and she saw Keith
Speaker 1: behaving strangely every time he was in the same space
Speaker 1: as the girl. Eventually, Racy decided to address it with him.
Speaker 2: I talked to Keith about it, and I said, Keith,
Speaker 2: if you feel an attraction to this girl, I want
Speaker 2: you to remember that she is a young girl and
Speaker 2: just move on, pray about it, and be done with it.
Speaker 2: I was conditioned to believe that men cannot help their impulses,
Speaker 2: and I just felt like I need to remind him
Speaker 2: to check himself.
Speaker 1: Tracy thought that conversation would be the end of it,
Speaker 1: but Keith didn't react well.
Speaker 2: He would instantly put me in my place and say
Speaker 2: I don't know what you're talking about. You're crazy. It
Speaker 2: was a very direct, accusatory flip the script to how
Speaker 2: dare you to where you're apologizing to him at the
Speaker 2: end of it, like, oh, I'm so sorry, how could
Speaker 2: I ever think that?
Speaker 1: And Keith made it clear he didn't take orders from Tracy.
Speaker 2: I'm God's man. It's none of your business. God will
Speaker 2: keep me in check, that was his answer.
Speaker 1: Talking directly with the girl at the bookstore wasn't an
Speaker 1: option because Tracy didn't have any proof. She only had
Speaker 1: a gut feeling.
Speaker 2: I ever said anything to her, of course, you know
Speaker 2: it was I would never. I would never say anything
Speaker 2: because I wasn't sure right, I was just seeing it.
Speaker 2: Maybe I wasn't seeing it. So that's how the next
Speaker 2: two years went.
Speaker 1: During that time, Tracy's got feeling grew into a certainty
Speaker 1: something was going on.
Speaker 2: I knew he had intraction for that young lady. I
Speaker 2: could feel it. I could even feel when he dressed
Speaker 2: differently because he was going to be around her. So
Speaker 2: I would bring those fears or those thoughts to him
Speaker 2: as rationally as I could and say, Keith, I know
Speaker 2: you're going to see this young lady today, and he'd say,
Speaker 2: how you know that? And I'd say, because you're doing
Speaker 2: this this, You're wearing this cologne, or you put on
Speaker 2: these clothes. I could tell the difference because I knew
Speaker 2: him and I just watched him so for four years
Speaker 2: before I even dated him. I observed him every week,
Speaker 2: many times a week, and I knew his patterns. And then,
Speaker 2: most disturbing of all, when we would have intimacy, there
Speaker 2: was oftentimes that he would call me her name, and
Speaker 2: she's sixteen seventeen and he's forty four.
Speaker 1: The first time that happened, Tracy was horrified and embarrassed.
Speaker 1: She felt sick to her stomach.
Speaker 2: When I realized that he actually had a true attraction
Speaker 2: for someone that was so young, it was devastating to me.
Speaker 2: It was such a contradiction between what was being preached
Speaker 2: and what I saw happening. I actually considered just walking away,
Speaker 2: walking into the woods, and just disappearing because I had
Speaker 2: no power, I had no credit card. I thought everyone
Speaker 2: would hate me and blame me. Yet I was just
Speaker 2: completely powerless, and so the only way to get away
Speaker 2: would be to just walk away and just disappear.
Speaker 1: Leaving would mean abandoning everything she built, the kids, she'd
Speaker 1: helped raise, the congregation she loved. The only way she'd
Speaker 1: be able to walk away is if she had concrete
Speaker 1: proof of Keith's actions.
Speaker 2: It had been very clear that things had gotten out
Speaker 2: of control, but up until that point, no proof had
Speaker 2: been put in front of me.
Speaker 1: She knew it would take a lot more than her
Speaker 1: word to bring down God's right hand man. Tracy felt
Speaker 1: so trapped that she considered taking her own life.
Speaker 2: I felt so alone, so ostracized, and I was so
Speaker 2: doubting my own understanding of exactly what I was seeing,
Speaker 2: and unable to find help.
Speaker 1: To give herself a purpose, she became laser focused on
Speaker 1: things she could control, like raising the kids and supporting
Speaker 1: the congregation.
Speaker 2: I just started throwing myself into what the good was
Speaker 2: and trying to just ignore the other stuff. And I
Speaker 2: felt literally crazy. And yet I needed to hold the
Speaker 2: church together. I needed to not fall apart. I needed
Speaker 2: to be acting like I was completely behind Keith and
Speaker 2: saw nothing wrong. And that worked until Nathan came into
Speaker 2: the picture. One of the deacons came up to me
Speaker 2: and told me that he had been receiving letters from
Speaker 2: someone who called himself Nathan.
Speaker 1: It was a pseudonym, one that anyone in the church
Speaker 1: would recognize, and came from a Bible story about a
Speaker 1: prophet named Nathan who was sent by God to confron
Speaker 1: King David. King David had committed adultery and he was
Speaker 1: using his power to hide it, so God sent Nathan
Speaker 1: to confront the king. Whoever wrote this letter was sending
Speaker 1: a clear message that even the most powerful leaders are
Speaker 1: not above God's law.
Speaker 2: The person that sent these letters out was saying to Keith,
Speaker 2: what would you do if someone's committing adultery in your church?
Speaker 2: And then it said you are that person, and I
Speaker 2: know you are.
Speaker 1: I have proof in the Bible story. King David immediately
Speaker 1: acknowledged his own actions and repented for his sins.
Speaker 2: I feel like Nathan used that parable specifically to give
Speaker 2: Keith the chance to correct and not make it public.
Speaker 1: This letter writer also had some leverage.
Speaker 2: Then it said, unless you confess your sins and repent,
Speaker 2: I'm going to release some tapes.
Speaker 1: Letters had been sent to the church deacons and to
Speaker 1: Keith himself, but after Keith read the letter, he threw
Speaker 1: it away.
Speaker 2: Well, Keith did not take that seriously. She didn't believe
Speaker 2: that this person that called themselves Nathan really had anything.
Speaker 1: Tracey saw her whole life on the brink of collapse.
Speaker 2: No, I'm thinking it's coming down. This is the hammer's falling,
Speaker 2: is what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1: And she believed Nathan, whoever he was, Nathan meant what
Speaker 1: he said when he said, I will make it public
Speaker 1: if you don't correct yourself. And so when Keith blew
Speaker 1: off Nathan's demands.
Speaker 2: Our phone had been tapped and the tapes were released.
Speaker 1: Tracy and Keith's life was hanging in the balance when
Speaker 1: someone in their church mailed out anonymous letters. The letter
Speaker 1: writer called himself Nathan. He said he had evidence of
Speaker 1: Keith committing adultery.
Speaker 2: The letter first came to Keith, and then the letters
Speaker 2: were sent to the deacons to try to put their
Speaker 2: King David in line, and nothing seemed to have been done,
Speaker 2: And so then the tapes were released.
Speaker 1: Whoever Nathan was, he had tapped Keith and Tracy's home phone.
Speaker 1: He'd been recording the line and making tapes of Keith's
Speaker 1: private conversations. The David tapes were sent out, Keith was
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2: It happened all so quickly. At this point, Keith is
Speaker 2: now somewhere in the woods praying, like he's gone to
Speaker 2: a quiet place to go pray.
Speaker 1: But Racy was in the eye of the storm. She
Speaker 1: found out about the tapes when a member of their congregation,
Speaker 1: a friend of hers, came speeding into the church parking lot.
Speaker 2: And he's like, Tracy, I need to talk to you.
Speaker 1: His wife, Michelle, was also a friend of theirs and
Speaker 1: a member of the congregation.
Speaker 2: Michelle was actually around my age. She would hang around.
Speaker 2: We all hung around each other. We'd play volleyball after
Speaker 2: church all Wednesday nights, and you know, it was just
Speaker 2: all fun and games.
Speaker 1: Tercy had noticed something funny about her husband, Keith and Michelle.
Speaker 2: He and this woman would back away from each other,
Speaker 2: and then I started noticing that they would wear the
Speaker 2: same colors, like on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 1: Now, Michelle's husband was in front of her with a
Speaker 1: cassette tape in his hand. He had received a tape
Speaker 1: at his office. It was from Nathan.
Speaker 2: He opened it up, you know, he was like, what
Speaker 2: is this. Let me you know. There was no markings
Speaker 2: on it whatsoever. Nothing, It said nothing, and he just
Speaker 2: popped it into the recorder. He's horrified because he's literally
Speaker 2: hearing his wife on these tapes and Keith in very
Speaker 2: intimate situations, and so he turned it off real quick,
Speaker 2: and that is when he came to find me and
Speaker 2: he told me what was on the tape.
Speaker 1: The tapes exposed that Keith and Michelle had a secret routine,
Speaker 1: one that they kept from their spouses for months.
Speaker 2: It would happen as soon as I would leave to
Speaker 2: go to work in the morning. I would take the
Speaker 2: girls to school and I would go to my class
Speaker 2: to teach, and Keith and Michelle would get on the
Speaker 2: phone and that's when they would do. This is when
Speaker 2: the kids were in school and the spouses where at work.
Speaker 1: The tapes were recordings of Keith and Michelle having phone sex.
Speaker 2: On this tape was many many weeks of spliced discussions
Speaker 2: between Keith and Michelle.
Speaker 1: Michelle's husband was horrified at what he'd heard.
Speaker 2: He's crying, he's embarrassed. It's very clear that he's as
Speaker 2: shocked about it as I am.
Speaker 1: He wanted to listen to the tapes together with Tracy.
Speaker 2: I just refused. I said, I'm not interested in listening
Speaker 2: to it. I don't need to hear it, but I
Speaker 2: do want to talk to you about what was going
Speaker 2: to happen from there.
Speaker 1: Before they confronted their spouses, Michelle's husband wanted to investigate
Speaker 1: for himself. He needed to know how far this affair went,
Speaker 1: and it didn't take long for him to find an answer.
Speaker 2: He personally had seen the ledgers of teeth signature signing
Speaker 2: in to hotels.
Speaker 1: This proved Keith's affair went far beyond phone conversations. It
Speaker 1: was life altering for Tracy and also from Michelle's husband,
Speaker 1: but it had huge implications for the church.
Speaker 2: I just could not bear it. I mean, we had
Speaker 2: the most beloved congregation of people that I knew this
Speaker 2: was gonna absolutely devastate.
Speaker 1: It was time to feace the music. But as word
Speaker 1: began spreading through the community Keith was missing.
Speaker 2: It became a very real fact to everyone that Keith
Speaker 2: was cheating on me and it was someone that was
Speaker 2: within the church. It was just full like a firestorm
Speaker 2: across our town.
Speaker 1: Everyone was shocked to find out that Keith was living
Speaker 1: a double life, everyone except Tracy's dad. He still lived
Speaker 1: in town for years. He'd been waiting for the other
Speaker 1: shoe to drop.
Speaker 2: My dad owns the pool hall across the street from
Speaker 2: the church, so he literally has a front row seat
Speaker 2: to the chaos that is instill.
Speaker 1: Tracy's dad decided to make the most of Keith's public humiliation.
Speaker 2: My dad bought five hundred bumper stickers that he had
Speaker 2: printed up that said in bright bold letters, I am
Speaker 2: Nathan and proud of it, and he handed him out
Speaker 2: to the patrons of his business and his friends.
Speaker 1: Tracy's dad wasn't Nathan. He was just thrilled someone was
Speaker 1: exposing Keith. But for Tracy, the public humiliation was more
Speaker 1: complicated because the night she found out about the tapes, I.
Speaker 2: Get a call from the young lady.
Speaker 1: It was the girl who used to work in the bookstore.
Speaker 1: She was now in her early twenties, but she was
Speaker 1: calling Tracy because she just heard the news about Keith
Speaker 1: and Michelle's affair.
Speaker 2: She is as hurt as I am because she thought
Speaker 2: she was the only one and now she realizes that
Speaker 2: he has done this with another woman.
Speaker 1: This phone call validated Tracy's suspicions from years before. Even
Speaker 1: though Keith had vehemently denied it, the truth was coming out.
Speaker 1: He had been romantically involved with this girl back when
Speaker 1: she was a teenager.
Speaker 2: She read to me the poetry that Keith had written
Speaker 2: to her, and she validated everything. She said, Yes, we
Speaker 2: did this, we did that. He wrote me this, and
Speaker 2: she was telling me because she was so hurt that
Speaker 2: he had done this with Michelle, which is so ironic
Speaker 2: that I am the wife. They all did it too.
Speaker 1: Terracy could finally put together a timeline. After this girl
Speaker 1: graduated high school and went off to college, Keith picked
Speaker 1: up with Michelle. He spun a complicated web of betrayals,
Speaker 1: one that damaged and devastated many people, and he left
Speaker 1: Tracy to pick up the pieces.
Speaker 2: She was coming to me from a place of deep hurt,
Speaker 2: saying that she should have told me, you know, two
Speaker 2: years prior. I really couldn't console her at that point.
Speaker 2: I was so shocked that I don't remember what I
Speaker 2: said to her, but I did end up throwing the
Speaker 2: phone across the room. Since then, I have reached out
Speaker 2: to her to tell her that she was a young
Speaker 2: lady that was also manipulated, and I've tried to help
Speaker 2: her realize that I have no hurt toward her at all.
Speaker 1: After the tapes were set out, the girl told her
Speaker 1: parents about how Keith pursued her, and they went to
Speaker 1: the police.
Speaker 2: The young ladies parents learned of the affair between her
Speaker 2: and Keith, and they brought a lawsuit against him, but
Speaker 2: turned out that the age of consent in that state
Speaker 2: she had just reached that age, so the lawsuit could
Speaker 2: not go any further.
Speaker 1: When Keith came back from his time praying in the woods,
Speaker 1: he resumed his position as head of the church.
Speaker 2: The church still let Keith preach every Sunday. And the
Speaker 2: reason they did that was because a manipulator, when they're caught,
Speaker 2: they don't just come clean. They blame everyone else and
Speaker 2: they say that it's been twisted and turned and they
Speaker 2: continue to manipulate. And that's exactly what happened. These people
Speaker 2: did not want to believe that Keith was doing this,
Speaker 2: even though they were faced with it.
Speaker 1: Many people in town had the motivation to do what
Speaker 1: Nathan did, especially the teenage girl and her parents, but
Speaker 1: they weren't behind the Nathan letters. So it left a
Speaker 1: question hanging over the whole congregation. Who was Nathan.
Speaker 2: At the time, I had no idea. There was a
Speaker 2: lot of speculation of who it could be, and a
Speaker 2: lot of blaming, like this person's probably doing it. In fact,
Speaker 2: Keith was trying to bring a lawsuit against whoever Nathan
Speaker 2: was for tapping his phone lines because it would be
Speaker 2: illegal to do that.
Speaker 1: Instead of sitting through Keith's first sermon back at the pulpit,
Speaker 1: Tracy got a one way ticket to California.
Speaker 2: I felt so much shock and hurt that I didn't
Speaker 2: stick around for the fallout of it.
Speaker 1: I flew to.
Speaker 2: San Diego and I was on the other side of
Speaker 2: the country with my head in the sand, just trying
Speaker 2: to breathe.
Speaker 1: Back at church, Keith had started preaching a lesson in
Speaker 1: forgiveness about how Tracy needed to forgive him.
Speaker 2: During that time, Keith actually announced my phone number from
Speaker 2: the pulpit and told everyone to give me a call
Speaker 2: and just begged me to come back. It was the
Speaker 2: most bizarre and ridiculous thing ever. Hundreds of phone calls,
Speaker 2: just over and over, just people saying we love you, Tracy,
Speaker 2: We're praying for you. Other people would say, how dare
Speaker 2: you do this to God's man? How can you betray him?
Speaker 2: You need to get back over there and fight the
Speaker 2: good fight. Just on and on and finally the pressure
Speaker 2: was so much that I decided, for his kid's sake
Speaker 2: and for those people that were hurting, that I could
Speaker 2: give him another chance. So after about four months, I
Speaker 2: ended up going back to Keith. Not because I felt
Speaker 2: like it was necessarily the best thing for me, but
Speaker 2: I felt like it was the best thing for the
Speaker 2: church and the people, and I was their preacher's wife,
Speaker 2: and I felt like I needed to heal all the
Speaker 2: hurt that had happened through this.
Speaker 1: Keith also promised Tracy's something she really wanted if she
Speaker 1: came back.
Speaker 2: If you remember, I had agreed that I would raise
Speaker 2: his children and not have any of my own. But
Speaker 2: as I grew through the decade, I started wanting children.
Speaker 2: But I just kept pushing it back, saying, you know
Speaker 2: it's okay, I'll just rap you know. I'll raise his
Speaker 2: I love them well. When I left him, that was
Speaker 2: one of his buying points is we can have a
Speaker 2: child of our own if you come back.
Speaker 1: So she went back, but this time Tracy drew a
Speaker 1: firm boundary.
Speaker 2: I told Keith, I am back. However, if you ever
Speaker 2: do this to me again, you will have zero access
Speaker 2: to me and I will not look back.
Speaker 1: And so She went on optimistic that Keith would change,
Speaker 1: but six months later.
Speaker 2: Some people came up to me and said, Keith is
Speaker 2: having another affair. I said, put proof in my hands
Speaker 2: and I will leave him and that will be it.
Speaker 2: And I ended up getting proof put in my hands
Speaker 2: that he was doing marriage counseling with a woman and
Speaker 2: her husband. He ended up having an affair with her,
Speaker 2: and that night I drove out of town and on
Speaker 2: Valentine's Day two thousand, I joined the military. I walked
Speaker 2: into her recruitment office and I said, can I take
Speaker 2: the ASPAB right now?
Speaker 1: That's the entrance exam for the military.
Speaker 2: They were like, who are you? And yes, yes, come
Speaker 2: sit down, and I took it. And because I'd been
Speaker 2: a school teacher for middle school math at that point,
Speaker 2: I aced it.
Speaker 1: She was sent to basic training.
Speaker 2: Straight from being a school teacher and a preacher's wife
Speaker 2: to putting my head in the defel bag and low
Speaker 2: crawling to go get my food. I joined the military
Speaker 2: because that was the only way to break away. It
Speaker 2: was the only way that I knew how to get
Speaker 2: away from Keith, and to do it in a way
Speaker 2: where I was financially independent. Because being a good preacher's wife.
Speaker 2: I didn't save a rainy day fund because that means
Speaker 2: you're halfway out.
Speaker 1: After basic training, Tracy was offered a position as an officer,
Speaker 1: but she wanted something more short term.
Speaker 2: Because I was thirty one. I said, you know what,
Speaker 2: I don't want to do any of that. I just
Speaker 2: want a short term enlistment period because I know that
Speaker 2: I want to have a family one day. So I
Speaker 2: just joined for three years and I spent my whole
Speaker 2: time in Kaiserslater in Germany at Lonstore Regional Medical Center.
Speaker 2: It's actually an air ambulance to thirty six Air Ambulance,
Speaker 2: and I had a ball and totally restarted my life.
Speaker 2: Met a wonderful man there and we have a son together.
Speaker 1: Today, Tracy works as a bogue captain in a small
Speaker 1: southern town where she lives with her son. It's been
Speaker 1: twenty five years since the Nathan tapes were sent out
Speaker 1: and Keith's betrayals were exposed. But what remains a mystery
Speaker 1: is Nathan's true true identity.
Speaker 2: No one has ever stepped up and said that they
Speaker 2: are Nathan. Now, I feel like I have a very
Speaker 2: good idea and other people we've talked about it, and
Speaker 2: we feel like it could be this person. So I
Speaker 2: feel ninety nine percent sure that I know who it was.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, Tracy's never needed to know.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter to her who Nathan really was. She's
Speaker 2: just grateful to him for breaking the silence. It wasn't
Speaker 2: just me, it's all of these people that went through
Speaker 2: this and have never been told the truth. And I
Speaker 2: did not stand up and tell the truth for several
Speaker 2: reasons because I didn't want to hurt them. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to expose things. And I've been I would say, brainwash,
Speaker 2: manipulated into thinking that I am partaking in part of
Speaker 2: the guilt and the shame if I do speak now,
Speaker 2: it's been twenty four years and I can speak.
Speaker 1: After Teresa left for the final time, Keith kept right
Speaker 1: on preaching. She got worried about how he addressed it
Speaker 1: with the congregation.
Speaker 2: He did not address anything. He did not say what
Speaker 2: had happened, He did not explain anything. He didn't say
Speaker 2: why I left. All he said was, don't believe everything
Speaker 2: you're going to hear. I've heard from other people that
Speaker 2: he said directly that, oh, Tracy left because she wanted
Speaker 2: a baby, and we couldn't have one.
Speaker 1: Keith is still preaching to this day.
Speaker 2: He's built a new building, he has a new congregation,
Speaker 2: He's remarried. They know nothing about me or all that
Speaker 2: has happened. The lawsuit, the three women finding his name
Speaker 2: on a hotel roster, the tapes that were sent out
Speaker 2: of him having phone sex. They know nothing about that stuff.
Speaker 1: And Tracy hasn't been back to church since.
Speaker 2: For me, going into a church and sitting I can
Speaker 2: see what could be happening in the background, and that's
Speaker 2: really distracting to me. I wish I had that innocence
Speaker 2: again of just walking in, but I don't have that anymore.
Speaker 1: We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question,
Speaker 1: why do you want to share your story?
Speaker 2: I've actually thought about it for a very long time.
Speaker 2: How to ever tell the truth and the story that
Speaker 2: I have because I felt like it needed to be told.
Speaker 2: I always felt manipulated and guilty to stay quiet. Even
Speaker 2: now there's a lot of pressure to do that. But
Speaker 2: I understand that the pathway to peace and understanding is
Speaker 2: by claiming your experiences and dealing with them. It turned
Speaker 2: my life upside down, but you move forward and I've
Speaker 2: definitely learned that I'm stronger than I thought I could be,
Speaker 2: and I believe the truth sets us free. I decided
Speaker 2: to tell.
Speaker 1: Us on the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 3: If this could be true about my brother, and I
Speaker 3: could have no idea how on earth would I ever
Speaker 3: know who the monsters.
Speaker 4: Were before we end the episode. I have some exciting
Speaker 4: news Betrayal. We'll be doing our first ever live show
Speaker 4: as part of the Virgin Voyages True Crime Cruise. We'll
Speaker 4: be answering listener questions and discussing them live on stage
Speaker 4: with Stacy and Tyler from Betrayal season three, as well
Speaker 4: as Caroline from season four. So if you have a
Speaker 4: question for us, please email us at Betrayalpod at gmail
Speaker 4: dot com with the subject line listener question and if
Speaker 4: you want to join us on the Caribbean cruise, there
Speaker 4: are still spots available search Virgin Voyages.
Speaker 1: Dot com slash true crime. If you would like to
Speaker 1: reach out to the Betrayal team or want to tell
Speaker 1: us your Betrayal story, email us at Betrayalpod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com, or
Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram at Betrayal Pod You can also
Speaker 1: connect with me on Instagram at It's Andrea Gunning. To
Speaker 1: access our newsletter, view additional content, and connect with the
Speaker 1: Betrayal community, join our substack at Betrayal dot substack dot com.
Speaker 1: We're grateful for your support. One way to show support
Speaker 1: is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts and
Speaker 1: don't forget to rate and review Betrayal five star reviews
Speaker 1: go a long way. A big thank you to all
Speaker 1: of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts,
Speaker 1: a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fasin,
Speaker 1: hosted and produced by Me Andrea Gunning, written and produced
Speaker 1: by Monique Leboard, also produced by Ben Fetterman.
Speaker 5: Associate producers are Caitlin Golden, Olivia Hewitt, and Kristin Melcury.
Speaker 1: Casting support from Curry Richmond. Our iHeart team is Ali
Speaker 1: Perry and Jessica Krincheck.
Speaker 5: Audio editing and mixing by Matt del Vecchio. Additional audio
Speaker 5: editing by Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Bains.
Speaker 5: Music library provided by mybe Music.
Speaker 1: And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.