Speaker 1: One of my children saw his dad dressed all in black,
Speaker 1: and he said that it seemed like his dad was
Speaker 1: mad at him because he yelled at him to go
Speaker 1: back to bed. And the night before that, he had
Speaker 1: actually told my oldest child to rap a sledgehammer that
Speaker 1: we had that had a really bright yellow handle in
Speaker 1: black electric tape and find a black raincoat for him
Speaker 1: to wear.
Speaker 2: And she was like, okay, Dad, I'm Anderrea gunning. And
Speaker 2: this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust
Speaker 2: the most and the deceptions that change everything. One night
Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen, Danielle Oliver Chauve was awoken by the
Speaker 2: FBI in state police. They were pointing guns at her,
Speaker 2: demanding to know where her husband was. That night, she
Speaker 2: learned the man she had spent twenty years with was
Speaker 2: hiding some very big secrets. This is don Yelle's first
Speaker 2: time telling her story. She's been reluctant to share what
Speaker 2: she went through because, as you'll hear in part two,
Speaker 2: her husband has other victims. She wants to be respectful
Speaker 2: of their experience and suffering. But this episode isn't about
Speaker 2: her husband's crimes. It's about the twenty year marriage Donyelle
Speaker 2: built with him, the ways he deceived and violated her,
Speaker 2: and the shocking betrayal that ended it all. It's also
Speaker 2: the story of being totally in the dark about your
Speaker 2: partner's double life.
Speaker 1: I used to watch Lifetime shows and I used to
Speaker 1: be that person saying, oh, she had to know something.
Speaker 1: So I totally understand why people say things like that.
Speaker 1: But until you were actually walking in those shoes and
Speaker 1: living with a person who can be completely double faced,
Speaker 1: living a completely separate life, all I know is the
Speaker 1: life that he had with me and our kids. That's
Speaker 1: all I saw. He was able to do everything else
Speaker 1: completely separate.
Speaker 2: Danielle grew up in a happy, tight knit family in California.
Speaker 1: Family is very important to me. We were just over
Speaker 1: in my parents, all of my siblings, and we all
Speaker 1: just get along really well. There's hardly ever any arguments
Speaker 1: within our family, and when there is, it's results within
Speaker 1: the day.
Speaker 2: Growing up, Danielle's parents were her role models. They had
Speaker 2: a respectful and happy marriage. It was an environment that
Speaker 2: nurtured her easygoing and trusting nature.
Speaker 1: I had a really good childhood and so I didn't
Speaker 1: grow up with a lot of strife or bad things
Speaker 1: happening in my childhood where that trust was broken down.
Speaker 2: She was raised with a strong sense of faith. That's
Speaker 2: still one of her core values.
Speaker 1: I know some religions can be like really strict, you
Speaker 1: can do this, you can't do this. I wouldn't even
Speaker 1: say that mine is a religion. It's a relationship with christ.
Speaker 2: Donielle is one of those rare people who loved high school.
Speaker 2: She was popular and she had a long time high
Speaker 2: school boyfriend named Billy.
Speaker 1: When we were teenagers. Everybody thought for sure that we
Speaker 1: were just going to be together forever, you know, we
Speaker 1: were the thing.
Speaker 2: Right before their senior year of high school, Billy proposed
Speaker 2: to her and she said yes.
Speaker 1: But then I actually had to move to Hawaii because
Speaker 1: my dad was working for a military and we moved there.
Speaker 2: She ended up spending her senior year in Hawaii. Then
Speaker 2: she got accepted to college in Illinois. She was ready
Speaker 2: to start a new life there without her high school boyfriend.
Speaker 2: Giving up her first love was hard, but she wanted
Speaker 2: to prioritize her independence. Danielle thrived in college. She loved
Speaker 2: her major, which was art, and she also loved going
Speaker 2: to Bible study on campus. That's where she met Chad.
Speaker 1: He was raising his hand and answering the questions like
Speaker 1: right away, and he was answering the way I would
Speaker 1: have answered those questions, right in line with the way
Speaker 1: I believed.
Speaker 2: So I was attracted to that immediately. She knew Chad
Speaker 2: was special the.
Speaker 1: First time I met him. I said to my parents
Speaker 1: when I got back that I was going to marry him.
Speaker 1: So it was pretty much love at first sight.
Speaker 2: She felt comfortable around Chad. It was easy, like they'd
Speaker 2: known each other for years.
Speaker 1: We actually met at my parents' house and watched a
Speaker 1: couple movies and I made amazagna and he changed my
Speaker 1: oil in my car. That was her first date.
Speaker 2: From the start, Donielle was serious about Chad.
Speaker 1: When i'm dating someone that I'm deciding whether or not
Speaker 1: this person is the person I want to marry. So
Speaker 1: I was looking for specific things that I wanted in
Speaker 1: a husband when I was dating him.
Speaker 2: And Chad checked all the boxes.
Speaker 1: There was lots of things. He grew up in a
Speaker 1: Christian home, He had a good relationship with his parents.
Speaker 1: He was business minded, like he was able to support me.
Speaker 2: Everything about him felt right. He was pursuing a degree
Speaker 2: in finance, he had dreams of starting his own business,
Speaker 2: and like her, he also wanted a big family. But
Speaker 2: most of all, she just loved being around him.
Speaker 1: I had fun with him, you know, we would laugh
Speaker 1: about lots of things. I was just attracted to the
Speaker 1: way I felt around him.
Speaker 2: While they were dating, he went above and beyond to
Speaker 2: woo her.
Speaker 1: Something about Chad, you have to know he likes to
Speaker 1: do everything big. It always has to be the best
Speaker 1: and the grandest and the most showy.
Speaker 2: It's not who she is, but Chad said she deserved
Speaker 2: the best, and it was flattering. After about two years
Speaker 2: of dating, he made a particularly grand gesture. He bought
Speaker 2: her an expensive dress, rented a limousine, and took them
Speaker 2: to a dinner theater.
Speaker 1: And during that intermission he excused himself. I thought he
Speaker 1: was going to use the restroom, but he actually turns
Speaker 1: out had set up beforehand with the theater that he
Speaker 1: would go on stage and asked me to marry him
Speaker 1: from the stage. And then he got down on his knee.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it was quite the show.
Speaker 2: She said. Yes, he brought her out of her comfort
Speaker 2: zone and it felt like a fairy tale.
Speaker 1: I was one hundred percent this is the one I
Speaker 1: had to spend the rest of my life with.
Speaker 2: Chad was involved in every step of the wedding planning,
Speaker 2: which Donielle loved, and he also wanted to go to
Speaker 2: pre marriage counseling to discuss their expectations.
Speaker 1: We discussed who would be the breadwinner in the home,
Speaker 1: you know, what would be the different roles of both
Speaker 1: husband and wife, as far as who did what in
Speaker 1: the household. It was thoroughly discussed how our marriage would
Speaker 1: go before we got married, I mean, as far as
Speaker 1: you can. We did know that I wanted to be
Speaker 1: a stay at home mom, so that was talked about.
Speaker 2: Danielle had been managing her own money in her early twenties,
Speaker 2: and although she was good at it, it was a
Speaker 2: relief to be marrying someone who had expertise in finance.
Speaker 2: It made her feel safe, and so they agreed that
Speaker 2: while she would manage the household, Chad would manage the money.
Speaker 1: And I had full trust in Chad to be able
Speaker 1: to do that too, because of his business degree. He
Speaker 1: was really good at money, and so he went to
Speaker 1: school for it. I didn't have any you know, worries
Speaker 1: about him taking over the finances for the family.
Speaker 2: She was happy with this arrangement. She's a do it
Speaker 2: yourself kind of person. It's an attitude that's well suited
Speaker 2: to raising kids and the household.
Speaker 1: My dishwasher broke down several years ago, and I wasn't
Speaker 1: about to pay somebody because I'm going to figure out
Speaker 1: how to fix it. I laid all the flooring in
Speaker 1: the house that I'm in right now. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to do that, but I looked it up, just
Speaker 1: went on YouTube and figured it out. So I'm that
Speaker 1: type of person.
Speaker 2: After they got married, the couple decided to move to
Speaker 2: Chad's hometown in Illinois. To call it a small town
Speaker 2: is an understatement. The entire population could fit in one
Speaker 2: high school football stadium.
Speaker 1: Well, the town we live in, Erie is only nineteen hundred.
Speaker 2: It's small, small, but perfectly suited to the life that
Speaker 2: they were building, a life that centered around family and community. Plus,
Speaker 2: Chad had grown up there, so he knew nearly everyone
Speaker 2: in town, and everyone seemed to adore him. In fact,
Speaker 2: he'd been the high school valedictorian. Once they moved back
Speaker 2: to Erie, the couple also joined Chad's church, the church
Speaker 2: he grew up in.
Speaker 1: We were really involved with that church, and his parents
Speaker 1: went to that church too, and we led a Sunday
Speaker 1: school together. As a couple, their.
Speaker 2: Life was falling into place. A happy marriage, a strong
Speaker 2: foundation based on shared values, a community that supported them,
Speaker 2: and a church they felt welcomed by. And Chad was
Speaker 2: making progress in his career. He began the certification process
Speaker 2: to become a financial advisor. He wanted to start his
Speaker 2: own firm.
Speaker 1: He did it all online. I went through classes online
Speaker 1: and got his certificate online and all that.
Speaker 2: She was proud of him, and for the time being,
Speaker 2: she kept working too.
Speaker 1: I also worked for the post office for a little bit,
Speaker 1: but that was not part of our marriage plan. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to be a working mom. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a stay at home mom. Pretty much as soon
Speaker 1: as we got married, we started trying.
Speaker 2: But conceiving their first baby didn't happen as quickly as
Speaker 2: Danielle hoped. The months turned into a year, and during
Speaker 2: that year, Chad made a shocking confession.
Speaker 1: He came home from work and sat me down and said,
Speaker 1: I need to tell you something really important and just said,
Speaker 1: I had an accounter with a guy in the bathroom,
Speaker 1: and I think we need to go see somebody and
Speaker 1: talk to like a counselor about it. And so I
Speaker 1: was just like, what is going on? It just blindsided me,
Speaker 1: Like what just happened.
Speaker 2: She asked him point blank if he was gay. He
Speaker 2: said no, he wasn't. She wanted more details about what
Speaker 2: actually happened, who it was with, and what they did.
Speaker 1: But he never really gave a straight answer. It was
Speaker 1: just we need to go talk to somebody, like a
Speaker 1: counselor about it.
Speaker 2: Donielle was shaken and confused about her husband's confession to
Speaker 2: a one time playing but at the same time, Chad
Speaker 2: was doing everything he could to make it right. He
Speaker 2: confessed to it immediately, he wanted to get help, and
Speaker 2: most importantly, he was coming to her with sincere remorse.
Speaker 1: He was crying, I was crying. He was saying sorry.
Speaker 2: Chad wanted to get help quickly, and so the next
Speaker 2: day they did.
Speaker 1: We actually went to the pastor and asked for advice
Speaker 1: about who we should see as a marriage counselor for us.
Speaker 1: We were given a name of a Christian counselor.
Speaker 2: They had multiple sessions with the counselor, some sessions together
Speaker 2: as a couple and some separately. During a one on
Speaker 2: one meeting, the counselor gave Danielle some advice.
Speaker 1: He advised me, you should really think carefully about this marriage.
Speaker 1: You know, you actually have a right to end this
Speaker 1: marriage if he is being unfaithful to you.
Speaker 2: The counselor said he'd seen a situation like this before,
Speaker 2: and he wanted Danielle to know that divorce was an option.
Speaker 1: I understood that. I knew that that's something that it's
Speaker 1: perfectly fine for me to file for a divorce, but
Speaker 1: I didn't want to. I wanted to make this marriage work.
Speaker 1: I didn't even want the word divorce to come up
Speaker 1: in our marriage. Like when I made a commitment in
Speaker 1: our marriage at the wedding ceremony, My promise was a promise.
Speaker 1: I didn't take my vows lightly in sickness and in health,
Speaker 1: or Richard for poorer. I was going to walk through
Speaker 1: it with him. I wanted to help him resolve whatever
Speaker 1: it was that he was going through because I loved
Speaker 1: him and I wanted our marriage to work.
Speaker 2: This one infidelity it felt small and manageable, especially compared
Speaker 2: to the years they'd spend together getting to know each other,
Speaker 2: studying the Bible together and building a life. She really
Speaker 2: trusted Chad.
Speaker 1: I felt like I could trust him even though he
Speaker 1: had done whatever he had done. I believed him one
Speaker 1: hundred percent.
Speaker 2: They got a workbook on overcoming infidelity and even did
Speaker 2: the homework together, and they decided to lean on their
Speaker 2: faith to help them rebuild their relationship. Church became an
Speaker 2: even bigger part of their lives.
Speaker 1: He was an elder in the church. We jointly were
Speaker 1: leaders for kids Christian camps. We were very involved in
Speaker 1: our faith.
Speaker 2: Their marriage began looking up, especially when a year later
Speaker 2: they welcomed their first baby, a baby girl.
Speaker 1: She was an amazing first child, super easy baby, smiling
Speaker 1: all the time, happy, alert. It was a great, great
Speaker 1: first mom experience.
Speaker 2: Donielle was on top of the world, so filled with
Speaker 2: love for her first daughter and her young family. It
Speaker 2: confirmed to her that she really did want to be
Speaker 2: a stay at home mom. She just felt whole.
Speaker 1: People that we would meet walking through a mall always
Speaker 1: stop and say, oh, you have the cutest baby. She's
Speaker 1: the cutest thing I've ever seen, and your family is
Speaker 1: so cute.
Speaker 2: The difficulties she and Chad faced in the first year
Speaker 2: of marriage started to feel like they were in the
Speaker 2: rear view mirror.
Speaker 1: At that point, I felt totally in love with him
Speaker 1: and close to him. I felt like I had the
Speaker 1: perfect life.
Speaker 2: That baby would be the first of six.
Speaker 1: I knew that you could get pregnant even when you
Speaker 1: were still nursing, and before you had your first cycle
Speaker 1: after pregnancy. I didn't think it was going to happen
Speaker 1: to me, but it did.
Speaker 2: Soon. Donielle's life became consumed by full time childcare. As
Speaker 2: their kids got older, she started homeschooling them, and she
Speaker 2: loved every minute of it.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have it any other way. And a lot
Speaker 1: of people are like, wow, sixth kids, that's a lot,
Speaker 1: but you know, each one of them is unique and
Speaker 1: has their own personality. Each of them is just amazing.
Speaker 1: I love it. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2: With a growing family came more financial demands, but luckily
Speaker 2: Chad's business was taking off. They even had the ability
Speaker 2: to upgrade their house.
Speaker 1: He had been starting to look at this property that
Speaker 1: he really wanted. It was a huge house, way bigger
Speaker 1: than we needed. Enormous, huge living room, huge family, a
Speaker 1: huge dining room, huge huge master bedroom. You know basement
Speaker 1: that looked like a bowling alley, and so he started
Speaker 1: looking at it and dreaming about it and eventually decided
Speaker 1: that he was going to try to purchase it.
Speaker 2: Danielle didn't think it was the most practical choice, but
Speaker 2: the house made him happy. After they moved in, he
Speaker 2: tried to tell her how to run the house, but
Speaker 2: she stood her ground. She trusted him to handle the finances,
Speaker 2: so when it came to the housework, he needed to
Speaker 2: trust her.
Speaker 1: He wanted me to do things a certain way, like
Speaker 1: do laundry on a certain day, do the dishes on
Speaker 1: a certain day, or you know, do dusting on a
Speaker 1: certain day. And I was like, no, I will do
Speaker 1: it when it needs to be done. When I see
Speaker 1: that it needs doing, I'll do it, you know.
Speaker 2: And there were a lot of things that needed dusting.
Speaker 2: Chad was a collector. It was a quirk that Danielle accepted.
Speaker 1: Precious moments, figurines, and he was very much in a
Speaker 1: Hallmark fan, so he had millions of Hallmark ornaments, tons
Speaker 1: of DVDs. I mean we had two huge walls full
Speaker 1: of DVDs.
Speaker 2: They loved watching movies as a family, and after the
Speaker 2: kids went to bed, the couple would watch their favorite TV.
Speaker 1: Shows, Dexter and Breaking Bad.
Speaker 2: Every summer, Danielle, Chad and their six kids would take
Speaker 2: family road trips.
Speaker 1: Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, we had all the
Speaker 1: tourist places in the United States. We had a lot
Speaker 1: of really fun times as family.
Speaker 2: On these trips, they'd stay in huge rental homes. Chad
Speaker 2: always wanted the best of the best for the family, and.
Speaker 1: They were very nice, very nice rented houses. Some of them.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, guys, don't touch anything, you know,
Speaker 1: like expensive paintings on the walls and glass decorations.
Speaker 2: One summer, about fifteen years into their marriage, the family
Speaker 2: was on one of their regular road trips, and on
Speaker 2: this trip, their rental home was in a remote area.
Speaker 1: I woke up around between the morning, I know, it
Speaker 1: was the middle of the night. All the kids were asleep,
Speaker 1: and I got up to go to the bathroom or
Speaker 1: something and turned over and he was not in bed
Speaker 1: with me. I looked around the house to see if
Speaker 1: he was just up somewhere. He was not there. I
Speaker 1: went out into the garage area. The car was gone,
Speaker 1: so I started being like, where did he go? There
Speaker 1: was no note as far as he left somewhere. He
Speaker 1: didn't leave a message on my phone. He was just gone.
Speaker 2: It was the early two thousands, so she didn't have
Speaker 2: a smartphone to look at his location. She started to
Speaker 2: worry that something terrible happened.
Speaker 1: So I started calling around to the hospital around the
Speaker 1: area and is there any child skipper admitted into this hospital? No, ma'am,
Speaker 1: thank you, call the next hospital.
Speaker 2: Around three am, the phone rang. It was Chad.
Speaker 1: And he said he was at law and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: why are you at Walmart? I just thought I would
Speaker 1: pick up some stuff. But you know, you can kind
Speaker 1: of tell when somebody's calling from the middle of a store.
Speaker 1: You can hear the hum of everything. There was no
Speaker 1: shopping cart sounds, no like cashier beeping and stuff. There
Speaker 1: was none of that. It did not sound like he
Speaker 1: was in a shopping area. I hung up the phone
Speaker 1: and just was like, how what is happening? I don't understand.
Speaker 1: Says he's are in Walmart, but it's hours away. That
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. And I just sat in confusion,
Speaker 1: shaking until he got home.
Speaker 2: When Chad got back, he tried to explain it away and.
Speaker 1: He apologized and said I'm sorry I didn't tell you
Speaker 1: where I was going. You know, everything's fine, You're good,
Speaker 1: the kids are good, I'm back, We're safe. He blew
Speaker 1: it over.
Speaker 2: Whenever they got in a disagreement. This is what he'd
Speaker 2: tell her.
Speaker 1: His favorite phrase was, don't make a mountain out of
Speaker 1: a mole hill. You know, you just get really emotional
Speaker 1: about things. It's okay, you know, calm down. Always made
Speaker 1: me feel like.
Speaker 2: I was crazy abandoning the family in a rental house
Speaker 2: in the middle of the night with no good explanation.
Speaker 2: It just didn't sit right with her, so Donielle called
Speaker 2: her mom.
Speaker 1: She was like, oh, wow, yeah, that is really weird.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're okay. You know, I'm glad it all
Speaker 1: worked out, but that is really weird.
Speaker 2: Donielle was the full time caretaker for six children under fifteen.
Speaker 2: She didn't have the energy to fight with her husband.
Speaker 1: I didn't confront him. That's one of my personality quirks
Speaker 1: is I don't like confrontation. I would rather just not
Speaker 1: talk about it than have a huge argument about something,
Speaker 1: which is not healthy. I think it's much healthier to
Speaker 1: communicate and work it out. But at that point, I
Speaker 1: just didn't want to deal with it.
Speaker 2: Plus, whenever she did question him, it always ended up
Speaker 2: coming back on her.
Speaker 1: On the rare occasions when I would ask questions, I
Speaker 1: would be shut down and told I was crazy or
Speaker 1: that is totally not how it went. You have blown
Speaker 1: this out of proportion and you don't remember the actual
Speaker 1: fact that actually happened. This is how it actually happened.
Speaker 2: When Donielle woke up on a family vacation to find
Speaker 2: her husband missing, he said he was picking up something
Speaker 2: for work at a Walmart in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2: She didn't quite buy the story, but she knew Chad
Speaker 2: was busier than ever growing his financial advising firm. Around
Speaker 2: the same time, he decided to start making passive income
Speaker 2: by buying rental properties in town. It started with one
Speaker 2: small house, then two, then an apartment building in their hometown.
Speaker 2: He was so busy that he often worked from home
Speaker 2: at nights. He renovated their basement to become his home office.
Speaker 2: He even put in a king sized bed.
Speaker 1: I didn't understand why you would need a bed in
Speaker 1: your office, but he insisted on having it, and his
Speaker 1: reasons were that if he needed a nap, he could
Speaker 1: just hop in the bed and take a quick nap
Speaker 1: and then get back to work.
Speaker 2: It bothered her him staying up late like this and
Speaker 2: sleeping in his office. It also bothered her that he
Speaker 2: locked the door. He said it was a security measure
Speaker 2: because he had important financial documents in there.
Speaker 1: And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 1: how do you work at night? If you are a
Speaker 1: financial advisor, you can't meet with clients at night. So
Speaker 1: it was just it was very confusing to me, and
Speaker 1: I do remember one time just crying my eyes out
Speaker 1: to him, saying, I really want you to sleep with me.
Speaker 1: You know, at night, I just feel closer to when
Speaker 1: we're sleeping together. I feel like we're more like roommates.
Speaker 2: He started coming to bed with her until she fell asleep,
Speaker 2: then he would slip out and go back to work.
Speaker 2: She would only realize it when she woke up and
Speaker 2: found him gone.
Speaker 1: One night, I actually got up out of bed and
Speaker 1: was knocking on his basement door, and I heard no answer,
Speaker 1: And so I actually got in the car and was
Speaker 1: driving around and thinking maybe I would see his car somewhere.
Speaker 1: I never did, but I got to that point where
Speaker 1: I was like starting to look to see if I
Speaker 1: could find anything.
Speaker 2: She never found any proof that her husband was cheating
Speaker 2: or having an affair. She didn't have the energy to
Speaker 2: start a fight with him. He insisted on sleeping in
Speaker 2: the basement. Eventually she became resigned to the fact she
Speaker 2: couldn't change his mind.
Speaker 1: At that point in our marriage, I felt very distant
Speaker 1: from him. I felt like there was a wall up
Speaker 1: and we never would discuss anything. If I ever wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about anything, it was always I'm too tired,
Speaker 1: or can we talk about this tomorrow, or let's talk
Speaker 1: about this this weekend. But nothing ever got talked about.
Speaker 2: In this period where Chad was sleeping in the basement
Speaker 2: office and they were bickering, Danielle knew that their marriage
Speaker 2: needed to improve, so she saw it help for herself.
Speaker 1: I actually went and saw a counselor a couple times
Speaker 1: on my own because I felt like me having these
Speaker 1: issues with our marriage was kind of my fault. I
Speaker 1: felt like there was something wrong with me not feeling
Speaker 1: close to him. But I wanted our marriage to be
Speaker 1: a really good marriage, and I didn't feel that it
Speaker 1: was a good marriage.
Speaker 2: She even suggested they try counseling again as a couple
Speaker 2: but this time Chad resisted.
Speaker 1: He refused to go to more than one or two
Speaker 1: sessions with me. He felt like it was useless or
Speaker 1: he didn't want to tell somebody else our problems.
Speaker 2: With each passing month, Chad spent more and more time
Speaker 2: out of the house renovating the rental properties, and some
Speaker 2: nights tenants would call with emergencies.
Speaker 1: There would be nights where he would say, Oh, I
Speaker 1: got to go there's a sewage leak. I have to
Speaker 1: go really quick and fix the sewage leak.
Speaker 2: Despite their rocky few years, she still trusted him. She
Speaker 2: had to.
Speaker 1: You can't have a marriage without trust. It doesn't work.
Speaker 1: You know, if one of the partners say I'm going
Speaker 1: to go do this outside the home, you have to
Speaker 1: trust that they're actually doing what they're saying they're doing.
Speaker 1: Like if I say I'm going to go shopping, he
Speaker 1: has to trust that I'm actually shopping. If he says
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to, you know, fix the sewage
Speaker 1: system in his apartments, I have to trust that he's
Speaker 1: actually doing that. Otherwise there's no relationships.
Speaker 2: Plus, the rental properties added financial security to their lives.
Speaker 2: She believed that at the end of the day. He
Speaker 2: was working so hard in order to provide for the family.
Speaker 2: She often overheard him practicing conversations he needed to have
Speaker 2: for work.
Speaker 1: He had this weird quirk where if he was going
Speaker 1: to have a conversation with somebody, he would write down
Speaker 1: the conversation that he was going to have and then
Speaker 1: memorize it. And then I would often see him like
Speaker 1: pacing and doing weird things with his hands and with
Speaker 1: his mouth. I think he was like rehearsing in his
Speaker 1: mind how the conversation would go and what he would
Speaker 1: say in response to their responses.
Speaker 2: There was one big meeting in particular Chad was preparing for.
Speaker 2: It was with an older couple that went to their church,
Speaker 2: a couple that taught Sunday school. They had known Chad
Speaker 2: for nearly his whole life, and they were wealthy. Chad
Speaker 2: set up a meeting with them to pitch his financial
Speaker 2: advising services.
Speaker 1: He was trying really hard to get them to be
Speaker 1: one of his clients.
Speaker 2: In the end, they decided not to use him. He
Speaker 2: was dejected. He'd been counting on their business. After that
Speaker 2: meeting didn't go as planned, he started talking about selling
Speaker 2: his financial advising business and instead getting into the storage industry.
Speaker 1: There's a little plot of land that would be perfect
Speaker 1: for storage units. So he had said that, you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to buy this land over here and I'm
Speaker 1: going to start building storage units, and so we need
Speaker 1: to set up this LLC.
Speaker 2: He wanted Danielle to sign paperwork to help set up
Speaker 2: the business.
Speaker 1: If we have he as a president, then it's better
Speaker 1: for taxes because you're a woman.
Speaker 2: He asked her to go to the bank with him
Speaker 2: that day to get it set up, and there out
Speaker 2: in public, she noticed that her husband looked disheveled.
Speaker 1: He was not bathed. I was surprised that he went
Speaker 1: to the bank in the state that he was in.
Speaker 1: I just thought, well, he must be so tired. He's
Speaker 1: trying to sell his financial business, and he's trying to
Speaker 1: get these storage units ready, and he's not getting much sleep,
Speaker 1: so he just must be really stressed out.
Speaker 2: Later that day, one of Donille's kids came to her.
Speaker 2: He said that last night he'd seen something strange in
Speaker 2: the driveway of their house.
Speaker 1: One of my children said that he got up and
Speaker 1: saw his dad dressed all in black, and he said
Speaker 1: that it seemed like Chad was mad at him because
Speaker 1: he yelled at him to go back to bed.
Speaker 2: This was alarming because another one of her kids had
Speaker 2: confessed something bizarre.
Speaker 1: The night before that he had actually told my oldest
Speaker 1: child to wrap a sledgehammer that we had that had
Speaker 1: a really bright yellow handle in black electric tape and
Speaker 1: find a black raincoat for him, and she was like, okay, Dad.
Speaker 2: Immediately, she tried to get in touch with Chad, but
Speaker 2: he wasn't answering his phone. After they went to the bank,
Speaker 2: he'd left the house to work on a rental property.
Speaker 1: There were several rental places that he owned that he
Speaker 1: was either renovating or was currently renting. I texted him
Speaker 1: asking if he could call me as soon as possible.
Speaker 1: I was starting to feel like, Okay, what's going on.
Speaker 1: I hope he's okay. I hope he's not in an accident.
Speaker 1: He called shortly after and explained that he had accidentally
Speaker 1: fallen asleep at the rental and that he was still
Speaker 1: feeling a little disoriented, but reassured me that he was fine.
Speaker 2: If it sounds like Danielle is reading off of a
Speaker 2: piece of paper, it's because she is. She's reading from
Speaker 2: a written statement documenting this day.
Speaker 1: Nothing is as it seems, absolutely nothing. This is my
Speaker 1: living nightmare and what I can remember that has happened
Speaker 1: in the last few days. At four to twenty two pm,
Speaker 1: I texted him asking if he was okay. No response.
Speaker 1: I texted again at five six pm and his response
Speaker 1: was yep you. I told him I was just wondering
Speaker 1: what happened, and he texted what do you mean? And
Speaker 1: then around five point thirty he called and said he
Speaker 1: was sorry he didn't see my text and that he
Speaker 1: must have been in the basement and hadn't gotten it
Speaker 1: right away.
Speaker 2: That night, Chad didn't come home for dinner. At the time,
Speaker 2: she assumed he'd fallen asleep at the rental property again,
Speaker 2: but she couldn't leave her six small children to go
Speaker 2: check on him, so around eleven pm, after putting the
Speaker 2: kids to bed, she went to sleep herself.
Speaker 1: Next thing I heard was banging and branking glass and
Speaker 1: then yelling state police, state police, hands in the air.
Speaker 1: I came out in my bedroom with no glasses on,
Speaker 1: hands in the air, wondering if they were actually police
Speaker 1: because I can't see very vaconly see about a foot
Speaker 1: in front of me without it being blurry In my mind,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, well, either I'm being robbed and they're
Speaker 1: posing as state police, or something's happening and I have
Speaker 1: no idea why there's state police in my house with
Speaker 1: a gun pointed at me.
Speaker 2: It was becoming very clear, very quickly, this was actually
Speaker 2: the state police and the FBI. There wasn't a mistake.
Speaker 2: They were looking for Chad, and they were incredibly serious.
Speaker 1: They asked if anyone else was in the house, and
Speaker 1: I said, yes, just me and the kids, assuming Chad
Speaker 1: was at the rental. My whole mouth got super dry.
Speaker 1: I could not hardly even talk. I asked them if
Speaker 1: I could go back into the bedroom to get some water.
Speaker 1: I kept water by my bed, and they're like, no,
Speaker 1: you can't go anywhere. You have to stay right here.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even allowed to wake up my kids. They
Speaker 1: actually went boke up all of my kids. They were
Speaker 1: asking if there was hiding places in the house, and
Speaker 1: it threw me for a loop because I'm like, I mean,
Speaker 1: my kids hide in little places when they play hide
Speaker 1: and seek.
Speaker 2: Then the police asked her about the elderly couple that
Speaker 2: went to their church, the ones Chad wanted as clients.
Speaker 1: Why are you asking me questions about them and where
Speaker 1: is my husband.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal.
Speaker 1: He walled it off with cement blocks and soundproofing. The
Speaker 1: only entry and exit to that room was through a
Speaker 1: steel trap door with a walk on the outside in
Speaker 1: a closet hidden under I think it was a dresser
Speaker 1: or something. You would only know it was there if
Speaker 1: you knew it was there.
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
Speaker 2: team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email
Speaker 2: us at Betrayal pod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal
Speaker 2: pod at gmail dot com. We're grateful for your support.
Speaker 2: One way to show support is by subscribing to our
Speaker 2: show on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and
Speaker 2: review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A
Speaker 2: big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is
Speaker 2: a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment
Speaker 2: Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive
Speaker 2: produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced
Speaker 2: by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard,
Speaker 2: also produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Mercury
Speaker 2: and Caitlin Golden. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and
Speaker 2: Jessica Krinchech. Audio editing and mixing by Matt del Vecchio,
Speaker 2: additional editing support from Nico Aruka. Betrayal's theme composed by
Speaker 2: Oliver Bains. Music library provided by Mob Music and For
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