Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, we have some exciting news to share. ABC
Speaker 1: News Studios has turned Caroline Barega's story from Betrayal season
Speaker 1: four into a docu series. You'll get to meet the
Speaker 1: people involved, You'll hear from people who have never spoken before,
Speaker 1: and you get to see where this story took place.
Speaker 1: We are so proud and excited to share it with
Speaker 1: you all. Stream Betrayal Dirty Secrets now on Hulu or
Speaker 1: Hulu for Disney Plus. Hi everyone, it's Andrea. Before we
Speaker 1: start this episode, I want to let you know that
Speaker 1: we will be talking explicitly about the realities of child
Speaker 1: sexual abuse, so please be mindful with this episode.
Speaker 2: I remember everything that man, for so long had so
Speaker 2: much control over me. I cannot just stand by and
Speaker 2: do nothing. You will not get away with this.
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 are sharing Stephanie's story. Stephanie grew
Speaker 1: up in upstate New York, near Albany with her parents
Speaker 1: and siblings.
Speaker 2: My parents had a very tumultuous relationship. I don't think
Speaker 2: I coped with the chaos well. I spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time in my room.
Speaker 1: In her room, it was quiet. Looking out her window
Speaker 1: at the woods of upstate New York, Stephanie dreamed of
Speaker 1: a sunny and bright, faraway place, Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I just had this obsession with the glitz and the
Speaker 2: glamor and how exciting it was then, especially for a
Speaker 2: little girl in upstate New York, where it snows and
Speaker 2: it's gray and it's gross. La always just had this
Speaker 2: sunshine to it and always looked like it would be
Speaker 2: a very happy place.
Speaker 1: She hoped she could live there one day. As Stephanie
Speaker 1: got older, her parents started arguing more and more. Home
Speaker 1: was an exhausting place to be. Her parents split up
Speaker 1: and got back together often.
Speaker 2: That coincided with really difficult middle school years. Friends would
Speaker 2: come and go, and it was really difficult dealing with
Speaker 2: that in tandem with things that were going on with
Speaker 2: my parents.
Speaker 1: When Stephanie was in seventh grade, her parents announced that
Speaker 1: their family would be moving across the country to Tucson, Arizona.
Speaker 2: I absolutely did not want to move to Arizona. I
Speaker 2: was quite literally kicking and screaming, you can't even stay
Speaker 2: together for a year, Why the hell are we moving
Speaker 2: across the country?
Speaker 1: But Tucson did have one major perk. It was closer
Speaker 1: to la.
Speaker 2: They're like, look, we can drive from Tucson Hollywood anytime
Speaker 2: time you want. If you stop, we'll take you to
Speaker 2: Hollywood on a trip. So that kind of softened the
Speaker 2: blow a little bit.
Speaker 1: But when she arrived at her new middle school, she
Speaker 1: struggled to make friends. The girls in her grade were
Speaker 1: not welcoming.
Speaker 2: Girls are just mean. If anyone has been a middle
Speaker 2: school girl, you know that they can be very unkind.
Speaker 1: She spent most of her time at school alone, and
Speaker 1: life at home was not much of a comfort. Her
Speaker 1: parents were still arguing all the time. It was lonely.
Speaker 2: When I was in eighth grade, I started drinking and
Speaker 2: smoking weed and started to hang out with girls that
Speaker 2: were a little bit older than I was. And that
Speaker 2: whole summer in between eighth grade and ninth grade was
Speaker 2: just a lot of drinking in the desert.
Speaker 1: The desert stretched fast and shapeless around her. She couldn't
Speaker 1: figure out where she belonged in this landscape.
Speaker 2: There were signs that I was unraveling. I had withdrawn
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: Stephanie's mom noticed a change in her and was concerned,
Speaker 1: so she took her to see a doctor.
Speaker 2: I remember being hunched over, looking down, and I remember thinking,
Speaker 2: this is how he's going to know that I'm depressed
Speaker 2: because I can't even sit up straight. That's when I
Speaker 2: was diagnosed with depression.
Speaker 1: Her doctor prescribed her antidepressants. Just a few weeks later,
Speaker 1: Stephanie started her freshman year of high school.
Speaker 2: I went into my freshman year very much alone, feeling
Speaker 2: very much isolated, very much broken. I felt like I
Speaker 2: didn't really have anybody.
Speaker 1: On the first day of school, Stephanie went from class
Speaker 1: to class, meeting her teachers and new classmates.
Speaker 2: I go into my Spanish class and the teacher, Mark
Speaker 2: Lyn Drew is standing there. It was very evident right
Speaker 2: away that he was trying to come off as that young, cool,
Speaker 2: hip teacher, like I want to relate to you guys.
Speaker 1: While his life sounded exotic, he.
Speaker 2: Would say I went to Spain and I ran with
Speaker 2: the bulls.
Speaker 1: He was still relatable.
Speaker 2: He was very into sports. He was one of the
Speaker 2: JV coaches on the football team and loved Star Wars.
Speaker 2: He used to teach in La so that perked my
Speaker 2: ears of oh cool, like this teacher used to live
Speaker 2: in La like, awesome, I love la.
Speaker 1: Some kids thought mister Lyndrud was kind of cheesy, but
Speaker 1: he always made class fun and he was only twenty
Speaker 1: six years.
Speaker 2: Old, and so I'm like, okay, he's not that much
Speaker 2: older with us. He is kind of the young hip teacher.
Speaker 1: Sephanies High School had a period in the mornings before
Speaker 1: classes started called zero Hour.
Speaker 2: If you needed to do homework or you needed extra help,
Speaker 2: you could go in. At that point, I didn't really
Speaker 2: want to be home at all, so I started going
Speaker 2: to the zero hour.
Speaker 1: One day, ring zero Hour, Stephanie was walking through the
Speaker 1: hallways trying to find a place to do her homework.
Speaker 2: I walked by mister Lyndrud's room and there was no
Speaker 2: one in there, or maybe one or two people, and
Speaker 2: I said, Okay, this looks like a safe place for
Speaker 2: me to go to.
Speaker 1: She stepped into his classroom.
Speaker 2: His room felt safe because it was quiet. There wasn't arguing,
Speaker 2: there weren't people yelling.
Speaker 1: She sat down and did her homework. The next day
Speaker 1: she came back to his classroom in the morning. Mister
Speaker 1: Lyndrud was always welcoming.
Speaker 2: It was just sometimes me and him, sometimes other people.
Speaker 1: Soon she was going to mister Lyndrud's room during zero
Speaker 1: hour most days. There she didn't have to worry about
Speaker 1: the mean girls in her grade or her parents' arguments.
Speaker 2: I'd had so many friends at different schools hurt me,
Speaker 2: and I really didn't trust other students.
Speaker 1: Mister Lyndrud was easy to talk to. He asked her
Speaker 1: lots of questions and seemed genuinely interested in her life.
Speaker 2: Where are you from? How long have you lived here?
Speaker 2: And then he started opening up a little bit about
Speaker 2: I came from Texas, I have an ex fiancee. He
Speaker 2: trusted me with personal information, and it filled this void
Speaker 2: that I wasn't feeling with friends or with my family.
Speaker 2: He was really the only person who would sit down
Speaker 2: and listen to me and hear me, and I just
Speaker 2: didn't have anyone else like that in my life at
Speaker 2: that time.
Speaker 1: One day, Stephanie asked to use his computer for a
Speaker 1: homework assignment.
Speaker 2: And I'm on his computer and he had his Aol
Speaker 2: instant Messenger up, and that, in a way almost added
Speaker 2: to him being that cool, relatable teacher, because it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're on instant Messenger as students, Oh you're on instant messenger,
Speaker 2: that's cool.
Speaker 1: A message popped up, I'm a woman named Amanda.
Speaker 2: He's like, Oh, that's my friend Amanda from LA. Just
Speaker 2: tell her you know you're student using my computer. And
Speaker 2: then another one popped up and he's like, Oh, that's
Speaker 2: my ex girlfriend. Just tell her I'm busy, or that
Speaker 2: you're a student or whatever. I'm thinking. Oh, he trusts
Speaker 2: me to respond to all these people in his life.
Speaker 1: And Stephanie was starting to trust him too.
Speaker 2: It became sort of a friendship and it started to
Speaker 2: feel like a very safe place for me to be
Speaker 2: in his room.
Speaker 1: Eventually, mister Lyndrud told her that she could ditch the
Speaker 1: formal way of addressing him, so he stopped being mister Lyndrude,
Speaker 1: her Spanish teacher, and became Mark, her friend.
Speaker 2: There was one day that I had left school and
Speaker 2: I had a question about my Spanish homework, and because
Speaker 2: I had been responding through his aim to people, obviously
Speaker 2: I knew what his screen name was.
Speaker 1: So she sent him a message on AIM asking how
Speaker 1: to conjugate a verb in Spanish.
Speaker 2: Mark responded, he was very professional and he explained it
Speaker 2: to me and I apologize sorry reaching out to you
Speaker 2: here I just wanted to make sure I got the
Speaker 2: homework done and he said it's okay.
Speaker 1: Soon, Stephanie started messaging Mark with homework questions more often.
Speaker 1: He would help her, and then their messages move to
Speaker 1: other topics.
Speaker 2: He would say, what are you doing or what are
Speaker 2: you up to? Or what are your plans this weekend.
Speaker 2: He made me feel like I could just talk to
Speaker 2: him about anything that was going on in my life
Speaker 2: and that I could trust him. There was part of
Speaker 2: me that kept thinking like, is this weird? Is this appropriate?
Speaker 2: Like should we be having this conversation? But also he
Speaker 2: is just being nice and friendly, and maybe he does
Speaker 2: recognize that I just need a friend.
Speaker 1: If he was offering friendship, she would take it, even
Speaker 1: if it was a little unusual. Then one day, a
Speaker 1: few weeks later, Mark suggested that they hang out outside
Speaker 1: of school.
Speaker 2: He asked me, is there a park by your house?
Speaker 2: Is there anywhere we could meet? And I happened to
Speaker 2: live across the street from this giant park.
Speaker 1: He told her to meet him there on Friday night.
Speaker 1: When Friday night came, Stephanie told her parents she was
Speaker 1: meeting a friend and started walking to the park.
Speaker 2: This is when I started to feel nervous, what are
Speaker 2: we meeting at the park? For fifty percent of me
Speaker 2: thought it was weird, but fifty percent of me also said, well,
Speaker 2: this feels safe because he's meeting me in a very
Speaker 2: public place. All my neighbors are there, a lot of
Speaker 2: people from our school are going to be there, so
Speaker 2: this must be okay because it's a very, very public park.
Speaker 2: He made me feel like we were friends at that point,
Speaker 2: and I really didn't have anyone else to hang out with,
Speaker 2: especially on a Friday night.
Speaker 1: When she got to the park, a green suv pulled
Speaker 1: into the parking lot and Mark stepped out. He looked
Speaker 1: different than he did at school.
Speaker 2: He had a hat on, he has this very distinct
Speaker 2: bald head, so I remember thinking, okay, that's kind of
Speaker 2: a disguise, so maybe this isn't okay that we're meeting up,
Speaker 2: and I started to feel really uneasy. He starts walking
Speaker 2: toward me very aggressively, and he just picks me up
Speaker 2: and kisses me, and I just froze. It never occurred
Speaker 2: to me that that's what was going to happen.
Speaker 1: As a fourteen year old, Stephanie was overwhelmed and confused.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what to do. My brain couldn't process
Speaker 2: what was happening.
Speaker 1: Stephanie walked home from the park that night, desperately trying
Speaker 1: to make sense of this. Mark was her teacher and
Speaker 1: she thought he was her friend.
Speaker 2: What just happened to risk being in this park, to
Speaker 2: risk his teaching, And I'm like, he must really like
Speaker 2: me to be willing to do that.
Speaker 1: After that night, Mark began messaging Stephanie more and more,
Speaker 1: and then he started driving over to her house and
Speaker 1: parking his car outside on the street.
Speaker 2: It would be later at night, and so I would
Speaker 2: just go outside and sit in his car with him.
Speaker 2: He would have me get in the backseat and make out,
Speaker 2: and then I would have to go to school the
Speaker 2: next week like nothing had ever happened.
Speaker 1: It was disorienting.
Speaker 2: He's coming over to make out with me. He's also
Speaker 2: my teacher when I'm sitting his class, and nobody knows.
Speaker 2: And it was a very very confusing spot to be in,
Speaker 2: feeling uncomfortable, but just feeling like someone cared, that someone
Speaker 2: cared about me enough to listen to me and want
Speaker 2: to be around me.
Speaker 1: Mark was grooming her. Grooming is a term used to
Speaker 1: describe the process perpetrators use to control their victims. They
Speaker 1: start by gaining their victims trust, then isolating them from
Speaker 1: their community, labeling their own abuse as a shared secret,
Speaker 1: and finally controlling and coercing their victim into staying silent.
Speaker 2: He started telling me, you can never say word to anybody.
Speaker 2: You can never say anything because it's my dream to
Speaker 2: be a big football coach. And if you tell anyone,
Speaker 2: my dream is ruined. My life is ruined. I will
Speaker 2: be blacklisted in everything that I want to do if
Speaker 2: you tell anyone. And what are people going to say
Speaker 2: about you if they know this is happening.
Speaker 1: Stephanie did what he asked. She didn't tell anyone.
Speaker 2: I couldn't process what was actually happening, so.
Speaker 1: Mark processed it for her.
Speaker 2: He told her, now we've taken this relationship a little
Speaker 2: bit of a step further, and we trust each other more.
Speaker 2: To do this. In a weird way, I think this
Speaker 2: secrecy made me feel like we had this special, trusting relationship.
Speaker 1: But keeping the secret meant Mark quickly became the only
Speaker 1: person she could talk to. She couldn't talk to anyone
Speaker 1: else about what was really happening, so Mark became stephanie
Speaker 1: closest connection and her only one.
Speaker 2: I went into the school year isolated, and now I'm
Speaker 2: even more isolated because I can't tell anyone what's going on.
Speaker 2: I can't tell everyone who I'm hanging out with at night.
Speaker 2: I was rewarded for my silence with attention, with the
Speaker 2: attention that I wasn't getting anywhere else.
Speaker 1: In early January, Stephanie went to Mark's house to watch
Speaker 1: a football game. That was the first night he raped her.
Speaker 2: I was just very confused. I think I froze. I
Speaker 2: couldn't make sense of it happening. And then as soon
Speaker 2: as he was done and was like getting dressed, he said,
Speaker 2: I guess this makes you my girlfriend now.
Speaker 1: Every time Stephanie was uncomfortable or confused or frozen, Mark
Speaker 1: jumped in to explain her own feelings to her. He
Speaker 1: told her, this is what trust felt like.
Speaker 2: Maybe he does really care about me and love me
Speaker 2: because he was risking everything and he was risking that
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 1: Mark told Stephanie he was in love with her.
Speaker 2: He made it seem like it was an actual relationship.
Speaker 2: For Valentine's Day, he took me to the drive in
Speaker 2: and we saw how to lose a guy in ten days,
Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: Stephanie saved the ticket stub. She put it in a
Speaker 1: box with other mementos from her time with Mark. Mark
Speaker 1: started inviting Stephanie over to his house. She told her
Speaker 1: parents she was at a friend's and when she was
Speaker 1: over at Mark's house, he told her it was only
Speaker 1: fair for her to pitch in with household chores.
Speaker 2: It wasn't uncommon for me to clean his house. In fact,
Speaker 2: it was an expectation. He would have me fold his
Speaker 2: shirts a very specific way.
Speaker 1: Explained to Stephanie that this is what being in a
Speaker 1: relationship was like. She believed him.
Speaker 2: As he was getting closer to me and making me
Speaker 2: feel special, he started somewhat flirting with this other girl
Speaker 2: that I was friends with, and I started to feel
Speaker 2: jealous because I'm like, oh, I'm losing his attention.
Speaker 1: One day, that girl mentioned something about Coach, which is
Speaker 1: what a lot of students called Mark. Hearing her talk
Speaker 1: about Mark, Stephanie couldn't keep their secret in any longer.
Speaker 2: I just snapped and I was like, Coach is the
Speaker 2: one who's been texting me. We're like hanging out, and
Speaker 2: she just went silent.
Speaker 1: A few days later, Stephanie was at school when she
Speaker 1: was asked to see the guidance counselor.
Speaker 2: He looked at me and he said, are you having
Speaker 2: a relationship with mister Lyndrud? And I said no. I
Speaker 2: denied it because he had put the fear of God
Speaker 2: in me that if I told anyone my life was over,
Speaker 2: let alone my life his life. So of course I
Speaker 2: was going to be silent because I didn't want to
Speaker 2: be the person who crushed his dreams and ruined his life.
Speaker 1: After Stephanie told a classmate that she was hanging out
Speaker 1: with their Spanish teacher, the guidance counselor called Stephanie into
Speaker 1: his office. He asked her if anything inappropriate was going
Speaker 1: on with mister Lyndrud. Stephanie denied it.
Speaker 2: Of course I was going to be silent because I
Speaker 2: didn't want to be the person who crushed his dreams
Speaker 2: and ruined his life.
Speaker 1: School administrators questioned Lyndrud as well.
Speaker 2: He said nothing happened. The school was like, well, they say,
Speaker 2: nothing's going on and they didn't do any investigation. There's
Speaker 2: nothing further.
Speaker 1: But rumors had already started spreading through the school. As
Speaker 1: a heads up. These comments are cruel and hard to hear.
Speaker 2: People were calling me teacher fucker, and people were like, oh,
Speaker 2: I saw her under his desk, and that just further
Speaker 2: isolated me more and more. I already didn't have friends,
Speaker 2: and now I'm being labeled a slut a whore.
Speaker 1: She was shamed. The few people she was friendly with
Speaker 1: at school started avoiding eye contact when she walked down
Speaker 1: the hallway. She could hear the girls in her grade
Speaker 1: whispering about her as she passed. One day, someone said
Speaker 1: something really horrible straight to her face, and.
Speaker 2: The principal was in the hallway, and I went up
Speaker 2: to him, sobbing, and I said, I'm the student that
Speaker 2: these rumors are about. Make it stop, Please make it stop.
Speaker 2: And he said, well, I can't just get on the
Speaker 2: loud speaker and tell everyone that it's not true.
Speaker 1: I want to pause here for a moment. When I
Speaker 1: heard this part of Stephanie's story, I was shocked by
Speaker 1: how many adults knew what was going on and didn't
Speaker 1: do anything about it. I think about how alone she
Speaker 1: must have felt. Stephanie was trying to protect Mark, but
Speaker 1: nobody was protecting her. Now, the idea of telling the
Speaker 1: truth felt even more impossible.
Speaker 2: I was just in so much pain and withdrawal from
Speaker 2: everything because the worst possible thing was happening to me.
Speaker 1: And through it all, the only person she could talk
Speaker 1: about this with was Mark.
Speaker 2: That brought me closer to him because I didn't have anybody,
Speaker 2: so the rus, the hurt made me turn to him.
Speaker 1: For her entire freshman year, Mark was the only person
Speaker 1: Stephanie really felt was in her corner. Then at the
Speaker 1: end of the school year, Mark took a job teaching elsewhere.
Speaker 2: I think he got spooked and he left, But.
Speaker 1: Leaving wasn't an option for Stephanie. That summer, Mark introduced
Speaker 1: her to his parents.
Speaker 2: He lied to them and said I was nineteen. I
Speaker 2: was fifteen. But it made me feel so mature and
Speaker 2: so much older, and that's what everyone when you're a
Speaker 2: teenager wants to feel.
Speaker 1: Mark's parents welcome Stephanie in.
Speaker 2: They would have me over for dinner, and his mom
Speaker 2: was giving me books to read. His mom was giving
Speaker 2: us restaurant recommendations. They're like, oh, next time before you guys,
Speaker 2: go to the drive and you should go to this
Speaker 2: pizza place and get the calzone.
Speaker 1: Mark and Stephanie spent nearly every day together.
Speaker 2: We went to the beach, and I have those of
Speaker 2: us at the beach together. Having him act that way,
Speaker 2: it was like, Okay, this is real, this is a relationship.
Speaker 2: I had nothing to compare it to, but it felt real.
Speaker 1: Mark told everyone they met that Stephanie was nineteen, and
Speaker 1: he asked her to lie about her age. If people asked,
Speaker 1: he said age was just a number.
Speaker 2: At some point, I really started to believe that I
Speaker 2: was older. That's how much he had me lying to
Speaker 2: people that I truly, in some weird way, was like,
Speaker 2: oh no, I'm nineteen.
Speaker 1: Stephanie got a fake ID for Mark's birthday that year.
Speaker 1: They went out to a bar to celebrate.
Speaker 2: We went to those New Orleans themed bar and if
Speaker 2: you flash your breasts you get beads. And the whole
Speaker 2: time we were there, he just kept encouraging me to flash,
Speaker 2: the bartenders, to get more drinks, just sexualizing me. This
Speaker 2: whole entire bar saw me topless.
Speaker 1: For those two years, Mark had been her gateway to
Speaker 1: the rest of the world.
Speaker 2: I couldn't drive, I couldn't go anywhere. If I wanted
Speaker 2: to do anything, he would pick me up. He would
Speaker 2: drive me I had to be completely completely dependent on him.
Speaker 1: Relying on Mark was beginning to feel suffocating. A few
Speaker 1: weeks after his birthday, Stephanie's sister came to town.
Speaker 2: So I went out with my big sister and her friends,
Speaker 2: and I was feeling so much freer because I did
Speaker 2: not have to depend on him for attention or something
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: That year, Stephanie turned sixteen and got her driver's license, and.
Speaker 2: That is definitely where things started to change for me. Gradually,
Speaker 2: I started being able to go outside his bubble a
Speaker 2: lot more. I'm seeing healthy relationships. My world opened up
Speaker 2: to so much because I had been so sheltered by him.
Speaker 1: She was still going over to Mark's house a lot,
Speaker 1: and he was still asking her to clean up and
Speaker 1: do laundry for him. One day, she was at his
Speaker 1: house by herself.
Speaker 2: I just remember there being a lot of papers everywhere,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I need to organize this. I can't
Speaker 2: stare at these papers anymore.
Speaker 1: She went to put them in a filing cabinet. That's
Speaker 1: when a document caught her eye.
Speaker 2: And that's when I found his birth certificate. I pulled
Speaker 2: it out and I looked at it, and I'm not
Speaker 2: good at math, but I'm doing the math in my head.
Speaker 2: When I'm sitting there as a sixteen year old, I'm like,
Speaker 2: holy shit, he's thirty two.
Speaker 1: Mark had told her he was twenty eight, four years
Speaker 1: younger than he actually was. As she stood there staring
Speaker 1: at his birth certificate, she had a moment of clarity.
Speaker 2: Clearly, you know you're doing something wrong if you're lying
Speaker 2: to tell me that you're younger. And that's when everything
Speaker 2: started clicking for me. Of he's twice my age. This
Speaker 2: isn't right.
Speaker 1: When Mark came home, Stephanie confronted him.
Speaker 2: I said, I found your birth certificate, so I know
Speaker 2: you're thirty two, and his response was well, I was
Speaker 2: already feeling like Chester the molester. I didn't want to
Speaker 2: make it worse.
Speaker 1: Stephanique laired at him, disgusted.
Speaker 2: What the hell's wrong with you? You were thirty when
Speaker 2: you met a fourteen year old. You want me to
Speaker 2: trust you with everything, and I don't even know how
Speaker 2: old you really are. I want to be on a break.
Speaker 1: Mark's face dropped.
Speaker 2: What I said, yeah, we're on a break.
Speaker 1: Something between them had shifted. Mark could sense it too.
Speaker 1: He looked scared.
Speaker 2: I think that he realized he was losing control of me,
Speaker 2: and he spiraled. He said, I'm going to marry you.
Speaker 2: I'm looking for rings.
Speaker 1: Stephanie almost laughed at him.
Speaker 2: I am sixteen years old and a thirty two year
Speaker 2: old man is asking me to marry him.
Speaker 1: She left his house. Mark called and texted her NonStop,
Speaker 1: begging her not to walk away.
Speaker 2: He wanted to talk, he wanted to try to work
Speaker 2: things out. And I went to his house and I said,
Speaker 2: we're done. This is gross. I can't believe what you've
Speaker 2: done to me. He just starts crying and then he's like,
Speaker 2: please don't leave, stay with me. And I looked at
Speaker 2: him and I said, you are pathetic. This has been
Speaker 2: going on for two years. Do you even realize what
Speaker 2: you've done to me. I took my power back as
Speaker 2: a sixteen year old in that moment, even though at
Speaker 2: that point to me it was just me breaking up
Speaker 2: with a boyfriend.
Speaker 1: It would take over a decade for her to see
Speaker 1: the situation for what it really was. No matter how
Speaker 1: hard Mark tried to regain control.
Speaker 2: He I just started distancing myself more and more from
Speaker 2: him because I knew that I was going to be okay.
Speaker 1: She graduated early and finally left her high school behind.
Speaker 1: In the fall. She started college at the University of Arizona,
Speaker 1: but her time at college was challenging.
Speaker 2: I was way into the party scene and I would
Speaker 2: not go to class. I would just drink, and my
Speaker 2: life really really spiraled from there. I was just drinking
Speaker 2: so much and I ended up dropping out of you
Speaker 2: of a.
Speaker 1: Stephanie never told her parents about Mark's abuse. She didn't
Speaker 1: have the words for it. There was so much pain
Speaker 1: just under the surface, but she didn't want to feel it.
Speaker 2: I was just stuck in this depressive, drunk cycle.
Speaker 1: What happened with Mark followed her wherever she went.
Speaker 2: I was just hiding that pain constantly, never making sense
Speaker 2: of what I had been through, just masking it and
Speaker 2: masking it and masking it.
Speaker 1: Until one night I went out.
Speaker 2: And got extremely intoxicated and got behind the wheel of
Speaker 2: my car and thank god, I was pulled over and
Speaker 2: I blew a point two four and I got a DUI.
Speaker 2: I was relieved. This is what needed to happen. This
Speaker 2: cycle is going to break.
Speaker 1: She knew that she couldn't keep masking her pain.
Speaker 2: I had to start facing it, and I hadn't faced
Speaker 2: it until then.
Speaker 1: She tried to tell a few friends about Mark. She
Speaker 1: still didn't have the words to label the experience. She
Speaker 1: told people she had dated one of her teachers. People
Speaker 1: didn't know what to make of it.
Speaker 2: So many people were so dismissive of it and minimized it.
Speaker 2: There were never any follow up questions. Not a single
Speaker 2: person ever told me that was wrong or made it
Speaker 2: seem like it was something I should have reported. I
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, maybe I'm crazy, Maybe maybe I did
Speaker 2: something wrong.
Speaker 1: It had been over ten years since she had seen Mark,
Speaker 1: and she learned that he wasn't teaching anymore. He'd joined
Speaker 1: the military. So she kept the truth about what happened
Speaker 1: to herself and she focused on moving forward. She enrolled
Speaker 1: in school again. In her late twenties, she became pregnant
Speaker 1: after a brief relationship. She decided to keep the baby
Speaker 1: and be a single mom. When her son was born,
Speaker 1: he became the center of Stephanie's world. She created a
Speaker 1: loving home for him and filled their days with joy
Speaker 1: and fun. She cherished their daily routines together. Being a
Speaker 1: mom gave her the confidence to make a decision she'd
Speaker 1: always wanted to make.
Speaker 2: We're moving to La. I'm going as a single mom
Speaker 2: with a two year old in tow I don't know
Speaker 2: anybody there, but I just saw an opportunity to just
Speaker 2: completely start over and go to La.
Speaker 1: La was just as exciting as she always thought.
Speaker 2: It would be my first job there was one of
Speaker 2: my dream jobs. I was working for a celebrity, and
Speaker 2: I thought that was amazing for the first.
Speaker 1: Time in a long time, and he felt connected to
Speaker 1: the younger version of herself, the little girl who dreamt
Speaker 1: of building a new life in California. She got a
Speaker 1: master's degree in communications and began a career in marketing
Speaker 1: and pr.
Speaker 2: That really built my confidence a lot. And everything that
Speaker 2: I kept doing just kept bringing me more and more
Speaker 2: comfortable myself, giving me more and more perspective.
Speaker 1: On occasion, she would hike after work. She loved climbing
Speaker 1: the hills dotted with chaparral and sage scrub. Her favorite
Speaker 1: trail led to the Hollywood sign You.
Speaker 2: Look out and you see all of La. I was
Speaker 2: starting to feel a shift in myself of feeling stronger
Speaker 2: and feeling like I can do things that I didn't
Speaker 2: think that I could, and it started to really click
Speaker 2: for me. That I can handle things and that I
Speaker 2: can make things happen.
Speaker 1: She had found the strength to face the hardest parts
Speaker 1: of her life, raising her son, moving across the country,
Speaker 1: and going back to school. She had reclaimed the different
Speaker 1: pieces of her her identity one by one, and she
Speaker 1: recognized herself again. Then Stephanie turned thirty, the same age
Speaker 1: as Mark had been when she first stepped into his
Speaker 1: classroom at age fourteen. That birthday brought a sense of
Speaker 1: clarity and conviction. What Mark had done was deeply wrong
Speaker 1: and it wasn't her fault.
Speaker 2: I'm feeling ready to do something about this. One night,
Speaker 2: I went online and I looked up Mark and said
Speaker 2: he was teaching at a school in Colorado.
Speaker 1: The last she heard Mark was in the military, but
Speaker 1: now she was staring at his LinkedIn profile. He was
Speaker 1: back teaching high school students.
Speaker 2: My hand started shaking, and I'm like, holy shit, he's
Speaker 2: around kids again. He's teaching again. What do I do.
Speaker 1: That's when she was overcome by a new feeling rage.
Speaker 2: So many people didn't show up for me. I can't
Speaker 2: be that person if he is doing this to anybody else,
Speaker 2: I cannot let this happen and just stand by and
Speaker 2: do nothing.
Speaker 1: So that same night, she sent an email to the
Speaker 1: principal of the school where Mark was now teaching.
Speaker 2: I just said, you don't know me. I saw online
Speaker 2: that Mark Lyndrew may be a teacher at your school.
Speaker 2: I was a student. I had an inappropriate sexual relationship
Speaker 2: with him as a fourteen year old student. I just
Speaker 2: wanted to let you know.
Speaker 1: The principal responded to her email.
Speaker 2: And he said, thank you for letting me know. Did
Speaker 2: you ever report this? And I said no, but I
Speaker 2: think I'm ready to.
Speaker 1: The principal called the local police department and reported what
Speaker 1: Mark had done to Stephanie.
Speaker 2: That was the first time someone took my claim seriously.
Speaker 1: A detective reached out to Stephanie. They got on the
Speaker 1: phone and Detective Durban asked her to start from the beginning.
Speaker 2: It was like, okay, he performed oral sex on me,
Speaker 2: and she would say, okay, what does that mean. It's
Speaker 2: going to be uncomfortable, but I need you to tell
Speaker 2: me these things. I had to go into very explicit
Speaker 2: detail about things that he would do to me. I
Speaker 2: had to tell them every time that I could remember
Speaker 2: any sort of a detail, because that was going to
Speaker 2: be a charge.
Speaker 1: Detective Durban began making note of the charges against Mark.
Speaker 2: She started saying, sexual abuse of a minor. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: an offense, that's sexual assault. When I started talking to
Speaker 2: Detective Durban and she started using those words, I was like,
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's exactly what this was. This was
Speaker 2: never a relationship. He saw me vulnerable, he saw me isolated,
Speaker 2: and that made me perfect prey for a pedophile.
Speaker 1: For years, Stephanie knew that what she endured in high
Speaker 1: school was wrong, but she never knew how to talk
Speaker 1: about it. When she turned thirty, she was ready to
Speaker 1: report what happened to her and was connected with the
Speaker 1: detective named Detective Durbin. Stephanie told her what happened, and
Speaker 1: the detective started making note of the charges against Mark.
Speaker 2: She started saying, sexual abuse of a minor. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: an offense, that's sexual assault. When Detective Durbin started using
Speaker 2: those words, I was like, Oh my god, that's exactly
Speaker 2: what this was. This was never a relationship. This was
Speaker 2: a pedophile growing me and manipulating me, and it was abuse.
Speaker 1: Stephanie was angrier than she had ever been, and she
Speaker 1: was ready to do whatever was necessary to keep Mark
Speaker 1: from abusing another child. Detective Durban asked Stephanie if she
Speaker 1: had any other evidence that could corroborate her claims against Mark.
Speaker 1: She didn't expect Stephanie to have much. It had been
Speaker 1: over a decade.
Speaker 2: Clearly, we know that I was being sexually abused the
Speaker 2: entire time, but in my fourteen and fifteen year old mind,
Speaker 2: it was a relationship. And what do you do as
Speaker 2: a fourteen fifteen year old girl and you're in a relationship.
Speaker 2: You keep little mementos. So I saved like movie tickets,
Speaker 2: drive in tickets, receipts from lingerie he'd make me buy,
Speaker 2: and photos. And that was perfect for the criminal investigation
Speaker 2: and the trial.
Speaker 1: Stephanie dug up that old box. All the things that
Speaker 1: Mark had used to gain power over her were now
Speaker 1: going to help her take it back. She brought the
Speaker 1: evidence to the police and they put together a timeline
Speaker 1: of Mark's abuse, corroborated by ticket stubs, receipts, and photos.
Speaker 2: We went to the drive in and saw huddles a
Speaker 2: guy in ten days that was on Valentine's Day, And
Speaker 2: here's a ticket stub, and here's the date that he
Speaker 2: asked me to get this lingerie. I had these photos
Speaker 2: with the dates on them, and it would be like
Speaker 2: him shirtless in his house or me laying on the
Speaker 2: floor with his dog us on the beach in California,
Speaker 2: with like his arms wrapped around me.
Speaker 1: Detective Durbin told Stephanie about one last thing they could
Speaker 1: do to build a case against Mark. They referred to
Speaker 1: it as a confrontation call. She explained how it would work.
Speaker 2: I call him and it's basically to try to get
Speaker 2: him to admit to what he did. The detectives are
Speaker 2: in the room unbeknownst to him, and so there's a
Speaker 2: record of that, so that then they can go in
Speaker 2: and without a doubt arrest him. She said, you don't
Speaker 2: have to do this. Sometimes it is healing for people.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's the opposite. And I said, yeah, let's call
Speaker 2: that motherfucker. He is teaching and I want to make
Speaker 2: sure he's never teaching again.
Speaker 1: Stephanie flew from LA to Phoenix to meet Detective Durbin
Speaker 1: and another detective who would be present for the call. Together,
Speaker 1: they made a game plan.
Speaker 2: It was super nerve racking because I don't want to
Speaker 2: hear his voice, but if I can get him to
Speaker 2: admit this, there's no going back.
Speaker 1: Then, with the two detectives by her side, she dialed
Speaker 1: Mark's number.
Speaker 2: I called him and he answered, and I just started saying,
Speaker 2: I need closure. I was fourteen and I was your student.
Speaker 2: Why did you do that? And He's like, I was immature,
Speaker 2: and he admitted to knowing I was fourteen, admitted to
Speaker 2: knowing I was a student. I hope you have a
Speaker 2: really great day, is how he ended it.
Speaker 1: Stephanie felt quiet.
Speaker 2: And Detective Durbin was like, how are you doing it okay?
Speaker 2: And I said that was so weird because that man
Speaker 2: controlled so much of my life for the last twenty years.
Speaker 2: And she looked at me and she said, just so
Speaker 2: you know, you had full control of that conversation. He
Speaker 2: was fumbling over himself because you had full control.
Speaker 1: Two days later, Mark was arrested. The story was picked
Speaker 1: up by the local news.
Speaker 3: And a Royal public school teacher has been arrested accused
Speaker 3: of sexual abuse of a miner in Arizona. Police say
Speaker 3: Mark Lindard is a teacher at Vista Peeke Preparatory School.
Speaker 3: He's been placed on administrative leave.
Speaker 1: Stephanie and her team prepared for trial Stephanie started having
Speaker 1: calls with the DA in Tucson. She was also assigned
Speaker 1: to victim advocate. A few weeks after Mark's arrest, she
Speaker 1: was sent his indictment and.
Speaker 2: It says my name on it, and it says his name,
Speaker 2: and it says the Corps, and it says the charges,
Speaker 2: and each charge is explained in explicit detail.
Speaker 1: All in all, Mark Lyndrude was facing twenty one charges,
Speaker 1: twenty counts of sexual conduct with a miner and one
Speaker 1: count of sexual abuse of a minor.
Speaker 2: To read those words and then put it together with
Speaker 2: that was me, I'm sl that's named in all of
Speaker 2: these things.
Speaker 1: That was me.
Speaker 2: This is real and what was done to me was
Speaker 2: really bad.
Speaker 1: The one thing she'd spent so long trying to hide
Speaker 1: was now headline news.
Speaker 2: I kind of just sat with myself in it, and
Speaker 2: I said, I can do one of two things. I
Speaker 2: can become smaller and I can feel ashamed, or I
Speaker 2: can say no, I'm taking back my power.
Speaker 1: After years of keeping Mark's secret, Stephanie was done staying quiet.
Speaker 1: A trial was set for January of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: but Mark and his legal team delayed it and then
Speaker 1: delayed it again and again. Mark was always having some
Speaker 1: kind of emergency or new evidence was being entered into
Speaker 1: discovery that caused the trial to be postponed. It was exhausting.
Speaker 1: After a while, the prosecution started to talk about giving
Speaker 1: Mark a plea deal.
Speaker 2: If we give the plea deal, al least I know
Speaker 2: he goes to jail, offer him the plea deal. So
Speaker 2: they did, and he declined the plea deal.
Speaker 1: This meant there would be a trial after all, and
Speaker 1: Stephanie would have to face Mark in court.
Speaker 2: The reality was setting in of I have to talk
Speaker 2: about these charges and their explicit details in a room
Speaker 2: full of strangers.
Speaker 1: Stephanie had spent years keeping this secret and many more
Speaker 1: years pushing this trauma down, but now she had to
Speaker 1: face it head on. Not only would Stephanie have to
Speaker 1: say what Mark had done to her out loud, but
Speaker 1: she would have to testify to her trauma an intimate detail,
Speaker 1: to a full room of strangers, and then those strangers
Speaker 1: would have to decide if she was credible, if they
Speaker 1: believed her. She remembered her high school principal who wrote
Speaker 1: her off, and the girls who started rumors about her.
Speaker 1: She felt like she had been on trial her whole life,
Speaker 1: and every jury had found her guilty or dismissed the case.
Speaker 1: What if this jury came to the same conclusions. She
Speaker 1: shared her concerns with the DA.
Speaker 2: The DA said, I just want you to know that,
Speaker 2: no matter what happened, I believe you the validation in
Speaker 2: that of maybe he won't be found guilty of anything,
Speaker 2: but I am this team of people who support me.
Speaker 1: In that way, she knew whatever came next, she wouldn't
Speaker 1: be alone. Stephanie flew from la back to Arizona for court.
Speaker 1: The night before the trial, she had a panic attack.
Speaker 2: I thought I was dying, and it was just the
Speaker 2: biggest panic attack that I've had ever in my life.
Speaker 1: The walls felt like they were caving in on her.
Speaker 1: She went to bed feeling shaky.
Speaker 2: I don't know what happened in my sleep that night,
Speaker 2: but I woke up in the morning and I was like,
Speaker 2: let's fuckk Ago, Let's do this. The only way I
Speaker 2: can describe it is like an athlete going into a game.
Speaker 2: You just put your head in the game and there's
Speaker 2: nothing else you're thinking of. Laser focused.
Speaker 1: The trial began with jury selection.
Speaker 2: The saddest part about jury's selection. One of the questions
Speaker 2: they asked was have you or anyone you know been
Speaker 2: raped or sexual assaulted? And the amount of a jurors
Speaker 2: who had to be excused because they had, in one
Speaker 2: way or another been affected by sexual assault further fueled
Speaker 2: me of being like, let's go. This idiot is not
Speaker 2: getting away with this.
Speaker 1: Stephanie took the stand. The prosecutor asked her questions about
Speaker 1: what she had endured, and she answered them. Her voice
Speaker 1: was strong and she was in control. Then it was
Speaker 1: time for Stephanie to be cross examined by Mark's attorney.
Speaker 2: She clearly did not have a because he already admitted.
Speaker 1: Gil so if the facts couldn't be debated, Mark's attorney
Speaker 1: had one last plan of attack.
Speaker 2: She opened up her entire thing saying, Stephanie Langletz is
Speaker 2: a liar. I was like, that is your defense, let's go,
Speaker 2: let's go.
Speaker 1: The cross examination began.
Speaker 2: She would ask me questions like you're saying he met
Speaker 2: you at a public park. That's crazy, and I'm like, yes,
Speaker 2: it is crazy. There was nothing she could have said
Speaker 2: that rattled me.
Speaker 1: When the prosecutor was wrapping up, he asked if there
Speaker 1: was anything else Stephanie wanted to share.
Speaker 2: And I said, yeah, I do. As many times as
Speaker 2: I saw that number pop up on my phone, I
Speaker 2: could tell you what his phone ever was right now.
Speaker 2: And so the diegoes what was it? And I said
Speaker 2: five to two nine oh four. And I looked directly
Speaker 2: in the eyes of Mark when I said it, and
Speaker 2: I said five to nine oh four, I remember everything.
Speaker 2: You will not get away with this, and his face dropped.
Speaker 2: You could just see the defeat.
Speaker 1: The next day, it was timed with the jury to
Speaker 1: decide whether Mark was innocent or guilty of the twenty
Speaker 1: one charges against him. Stephanie was hopeful that he would
Speaker 1: be found guilty on at least a few counts, but
Speaker 1: she didn't want to set her hopes too high.
Speaker 2: Because each one they have to find me credible.
Speaker 1: For Finally, the jury reached a verdict. Everyone filed back
Speaker 1: into the courtroom and found their seats.
Speaker 2: He was found guilty on every single count, every single count.
Speaker 2: They found him guilty on all twenty one counts. I
Speaker 2: did not expect that, and that was so powerful. These
Speaker 2: people who are total strangers, they believe me.
Speaker 1: A month later, Stephanie traveled back to Tucson, from mark
Speaker 1: sentencing hearing, she shared a victim impact statement.
Speaker 2: You stole my teenage years for me. I didn't get
Speaker 2: to go to prom, I didn't get to do anything
Speaker 2: like a teenager does, and instead I found myself at
Speaker 2: the bottom of a bottle for many years. And you
Speaker 2: have affected every relationship of my life. And I said,
Speaker 2: your attorney had no defense, so her defense was to
Speaker 2: paint me as a liar. This is why so many
Speaker 2: victims don't come forward, is because they're afraid people aren't
Speaker 2: gonna believe them.
Speaker 1: Later that day, the judge read mark sentence allowed. They
Speaker 1: went through all twenty one counts and for each count
Speaker 1: he was found guilty of, there was time added to
Speaker 1: a sentence. Mark Lyndrude was sentenced to sixty six years
Speaker 1: in prison.
Speaker 2: This man, at this point is in his fifties, so
Speaker 2: he is going to die in jail.
Speaker 1: After the trial, a few students who attended the high
Speaker 1: school where Mark had bin tie reached out to Stephanie.
Speaker 2: They thanked me for what I did, and they're like,
Speaker 2: he creeped us out. He was my sister's teacher, and
Speaker 2: he was saying he was excited for me to be
Speaker 2: in his class. And we just want to tell you
Speaker 2: thank you for protecting us. That's why I did it.
Speaker 2: I know that they're safe and he will never do
Speaker 2: this to someone ever again.
Speaker 1: It didn't have to take this song to stop Mark's abuse.
Speaker 1: Stephanie's high school heard about it while it was happening
Speaker 1: and failed to properly investigate.
Speaker 2: The school did nothing to protect me. I do think
Speaker 2: that they are culpable. Signs were there and they missed
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: After ten years in Los Angeles, Stephanie moved back to
Speaker 1: Arizona with her son. They live in Phoenix now, where
Speaker 1: she runs her own creative marketing studio, and in the
Speaker 1: last few years, Stephanie has formed some close friendships.
Speaker 2: I all of a sudden had this amazing group of
Speaker 2: women around me, and it was the first time in
Speaker 2: my entire life that I had girlfriends like a good
Speaker 2: supportive group of girlfriends. We all support each other, we
Speaker 2: all want the best, and that is so genuine.
Speaker 1: When Stephanie walked into Mark Lyndrid's classroom all those years ago,
Speaker 1: she was alone. She struggled to make friends and it
Speaker 1: felt like nobody understood her. But she's not alone anymore.
Speaker 1: At Stephanie's birthday party. This year, one of her friends
Speaker 1: made a toast. There's a recording of it. Her friend
Speaker 1: raises the glass and talks about all the things she
Speaker 1: loves and cherishes about Stephanie, and then the rest of
Speaker 1: her friends jump in to sing Happy Birthday. Stephanie is
Speaker 1: beaming while tears well in her eyes.
Speaker 2: They don't see me as a victim or survivor of
Speaker 2: sexual abuse. They see me as who I am today.
Speaker 2: I'm truly happy the first time.
Speaker 1: We end every weekly episode with the same question, why
Speaker 1: do you want to share your story?
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, twenty something years after this happened to me, it
Speaker 2: still happens. No kids should have to go through this.
Speaker 2: It wasn't you. You didn't invite this, you didn't open
Speaker 2: yourself up to this. You were manipulated, you were groomed.
Speaker 2: You did nothing wrong. There's no shame, there's no guilt,
Speaker 2: and there really is a lot of power and validation
Speaker 2: on the other side.
Speaker 1: On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 4: I saw this figure standing in the doorway. He was
Speaker 4: an all black and a batman mask and covered head
Speaker 4: to toe in black clothing. I have closing and opening
Speaker 4: my eyes, like am I really seeing this.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please
Speaker 1: email Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com. That is Betrayal
Speaker 1: Pod at gmail dot com. Please note that we are
Speaker 1: not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis
Speaker 1: or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek
Speaker 1: local help or dial nine to one one. Please contact
Speaker 1: organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes, we've
Speaker 1: included a list of US based resources. You can follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at betrayal Pod or find me at
Speaker 1: It's Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter and additional content,
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Speaker 1: thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a
Speaker 1: 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 Fason, hosted and produced by
Speaker 1: me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Olivia Hewitt. Our
Speaker 1: story editor is Monique Lebord, also produced by Ben Fetterman.
Speaker 1: Our associate producer is Leah Jablow. Production management by Kristin Melcurie.
Speaker 1: Booking support by Curry Richmond. Our iHeart team is Ali
Speaker 1: Perry and Treessica Crincheck. Audio editing by Tanner Robbins, with
Speaker 1: additional editing and mixing by Matt Delbecchio. Betrayal's theme composed
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