WEBVTT - EP 23 - Angelique Pt. 2

0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.960
<v Speaker 1>He took the police report and he gave it to me,

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.440
<v Speaker 1>and he said, one day, when you're ready, you should

0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.399
<v Speaker 1>read this. There's some stuff in here that I don't

0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.759
<v Speaker 1>think you know. It's actually diabolical.

0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.720
<v Speaker 2>I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about

0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.960
<v Speaker 2>the people we trust the most and the deceptions that

0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:43.919
<v Speaker 2>change everything. When Angeliqe Robletto was seventeen, she found out

0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.199
<v Speaker 2>she was pregnant. She decided that this baby would be

0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.280
<v Speaker 2>her second chance. She got clean from drugs and made

0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:56.880
<v Speaker 2>a new friend, another pregnant teenager named Cassandra. But one day,

0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:02.160
<v Speaker 2>a casual hangout with Cassandra took a sinister. Angelique had

0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.279
<v Speaker 2>a gut feeling that something was wrong, but she didn't

0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.120
<v Speaker 2>know what it was. After a fire started, Cassandra was

0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.720
<v Speaker 2>taken away by paramedics, and Angelique was left to explain

0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:17.360
<v Speaker 2>the situation to her parents and law enforcement. She suspected

0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.040
<v Speaker 2>that Cassandra started the fire and that the proof was

0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:22.240
<v Speaker 2>in her friend's bag.

0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.800
<v Speaker 1>I take the diver bag and I keep explaining to them.

0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.920
<v Speaker 1>She said she had this present for me, like the

0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.200
<v Speaker 1>explanation is in this bag, and as I'm doing that,

0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:33.200
<v Speaker 1>I put the bag on the counter. I breached my

0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.040
<v Speaker 1>hand in the bag and I feel these two metal objects,

0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.520
<v Speaker 1>and when I lift them and pull them out, they're

0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.000
<v Speaker 1>two large butcher knines, and I dropped them on the

0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.880
<v Speaker 1>counter and I just start screaming.

0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.520
<v Speaker 2>She backed away from the bag, trembling. The cops stepped

0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:53.800
<v Speaker 2>in and they come and pull out.

0:01:53.680 --> 0:02:00.080
<v Speaker 1>More They found, like scissors, disinfectant, alcohol.

0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.880
<v Speaker 2>The items painted a dark picture of what Cassandra might

0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.800
<v Speaker 2>have been planning that night, and Angelique realized the gifts

0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.239
<v Speaker 2>you'd been given weren't for her at all.

0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.000
<v Speaker 1>Everything that she gave me was one of everything. To

0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.280
<v Speaker 1>take my son, to make sure my son had a

0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.280
<v Speaker 1>newborn diaper, to make sure my son had a baby onesie,

0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.280
<v Speaker 1>a receiving blanket, to wrap him in a blanket so

0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:25.320
<v Speaker 1>he didn't get cold, a carrier to carry my baby

0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.720
<v Speaker 1>out with. She had one of everything to take my

0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.880
<v Speaker 1>child and to leave that house.

0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.880
<v Speaker 2>It all finally clicked for Angelique. Cassandra had been planning

0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.400
<v Speaker 2>to stab her and run away with her baby.

0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.800
<v Speaker 1>I just remember sitting on the couch staring at a wall,

0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:47.960
<v Speaker 1>and I just kept repeating the same thing over and

0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.480
<v Speaker 1>over and over again. It was like a trance. I

0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.200
<v Speaker 1>told you she was going to kill me. I told

0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:53.560
<v Speaker 1>you she was going to kill me. I told you

0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:55.480
<v Speaker 1>she was going to kill me. My mom said that

0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:56.799
<v Speaker 1>I sat there for hours.

0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.960
<v Speaker 2>The rest of that night was a blur. She was

0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.720
<v Speaker 2>in shock. She remembers the cops taping off the scene.

0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:07.680
<v Speaker 1>They had blocked both of my streets off so that

0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.040
<v Speaker 1>nobody can get in, nobody can get out.

0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.840
<v Speaker 2>What had been a potential arson was now in the

0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:19.120
<v Speaker 2>attempt of murder investigation. Later that night, a police investigator

0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:20.600
<v Speaker 2>came to speak with Angelique.

0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.079
<v Speaker 1>When the detective comes in, me and her very much

0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.240
<v Speaker 1>know each other because of my past. I've got arrested

0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.280
<v Speaker 1>by her at least once. It's a small town that

0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:32.000
<v Speaker 1>she knew me by name, Hi Angelique.

0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.840
<v Speaker 2>You know, she was surprised by how the cops spoke

0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:36.200
<v Speaker 2>to her.

0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:41.200
<v Speaker 1>They were laughing, they were joking, Oh, are you sure

0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.960
<v Speaker 1>this didn't happen, And she says, you guys are smoking

0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.040
<v Speaker 1>marijuana in your room. You know it's no shocker because

0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.920
<v Speaker 1>Angelique has done things in the past, but it wasn't

0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:54.880
<v Speaker 1>a joking situation.

0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:01.160
<v Speaker 2>They hadn't been smoking weed. Angelique knew what happened. She

0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:02.840
<v Speaker 2>just couldn't prove it to the cops.

0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.480
<v Speaker 1>They had me write it down and then that was

0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.360
<v Speaker 1>it for the night. They just did their investigation and

0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.200
<v Speaker 1>they left. So the next morning comes I call them

0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:14.960
<v Speaker 1>and they don't have any news. They know that she

0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.359
<v Speaker 1>left the hospital and she's not there anymore. They know

0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.479
<v Speaker 1>that for sure, and I'm like, okay, well, what are

0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.320
<v Speaker 1>you guys going to do? Well, we're trying to find her.

0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.559
<v Speaker 2>She was afraid Cassandra might come back and follow through

0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:28.320
<v Speaker 2>with the plan.

0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.440
<v Speaker 1>This lady literally came to my house with butcher knife

0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:32.080
<v Speaker 1>and tried to kill me.

0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.240
<v Speaker 2>But the cops weren't necessarily convinced.

0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.600
<v Speaker 1>Well, we can't prove that. We can't say that that's

0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.920
<v Speaker 1>what happened. We don't know if that's what happened.

0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.440
<v Speaker 2>She didn't feel like they were taking her seriously. And

0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:51.080
<v Speaker 2>now Cassandra was out of the hospital roaming free, Angelique

0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.640
<v Speaker 2>decided to take matters into her own hands.

0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:56.960
<v Speaker 1>I think when people think of survivors and they think

0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.560
<v Speaker 1>of people that are victims, they think that we go

0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:04.080
<v Speaker 1>into this weird moment of poor me, or like I'm scared.

0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.560
<v Speaker 1>It's not like that. It's quite the opposite. We go

0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.760
<v Speaker 1>into this moment that we need to figure out what happened.

0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.680
<v Speaker 1>I was ready to investigate. I was very much I

0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:17.640
<v Speaker 1>watched way too much SVU. I know what to do.

0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:18.560
<v Speaker 1>That's how I felt.

0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:23.120
<v Speaker 2>She got to work online, so I.

0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.600
<v Speaker 1>Started googling my little heart out and found things about her.

0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.320
<v Speaker 1>I found this news article on her, and I found

0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.200
<v Speaker 1>out that they stated that she was a danger to

0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:34.600
<v Speaker 1>herself and society. So that was like a little clue.

0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.400
<v Speaker 2>And then she found a surprising connection.

0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.080
<v Speaker 1>Her cousin is somebody that I knew from middle school,

0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:44.000
<v Speaker 1>and I called the cousin.

0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.440
<v Speaker 2>Cassandra's cousin had a lot to say.

0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.960
<v Speaker 1>Found out from the cousin. She said, my cousin's crazy.

0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.240
<v Speaker 1>My cousin is very dangerous. That's when everything started to click.

0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.000
<v Speaker 2>After the fire, Cassandra was brought to the hospital because

0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.680
<v Speaker 2>she was having contractions. Angelique had a friend who worked

0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.719
<v Speaker 2>at that hospital at the time, a friend who was

0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.160
<v Speaker 2>willing to break the rules to help Angelique get some answers,

0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.719
<v Speaker 2>and what her friend saw in Cassandra's medical record was

0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:15.480
<v Speaker 2>a bombshell.

0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.279
<v Speaker 1>She actually saw the test that she took at the

0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.200
<v Speaker 1>hospital and they were able to confirm that she was

0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:23.239
<v Speaker 1>not pregnant.

0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.159
<v Speaker 2>Up until that moment, Angelique fully believed her friend was pregnant.

0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.320
<v Speaker 2>In fact, that had been the basis of their entire relationship.

0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.599
<v Speaker 2>But now she had confirmation that it was all a lie.

0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.440
<v Speaker 2>She felt like this information was important to her case.

0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.920
<v Speaker 1>I gave it to the cops and they were like, oh,

0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:44.800
<v Speaker 1>how did you find those? And I'm like, are you serious?

0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.760
<v Speaker 1>Right now? It felt like they were not taking my

0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.000
<v Speaker 1>case seriously, and it was extremely frustrating.

0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.520
<v Speaker 2>For the cops to move forward, Angelique would need to

0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:59.800
<v Speaker 2>get Cassandra on the record contradicting her original statement to police, because.

0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.760
<v Speaker 1>Her story was that we were in the room, we

0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.039
<v Speaker 1>were smoking marijuana, we asked out my pipe and it

0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:06.400
<v Speaker 1>set my closet on fire.

0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.960
<v Speaker 2>So they asked Angelique to do a recorded phone call.

0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:12.480
<v Speaker 1>My goal was to get her to admit that she

0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.560
<v Speaker 1>was in the room alone before the fire started. So

0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:17.880
<v Speaker 1>I had to call her and ask her, how are

0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.640
<v Speaker 1>you doing? How did everything go at the hospital? I

0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.520
<v Speaker 1>had to pretend like I had no idea what was happening,

0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:25.640
<v Speaker 1>because she didn't know what was happening. She has no

0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:30.040
<v Speaker 1>idea that I found the butcher knives. So she admits it. Yes, yeah,

0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:31.640
<v Speaker 1>I remember when I was in the room. Yeah, you

0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.240
<v Speaker 1>were in there by yourself. Yeah, I was there by myself.

0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.800
<v Speaker 1>And that was the goal to get her to say

0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:38.200
<v Speaker 1>all of those words.

0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.000
<v Speaker 2>Then Cassandra started to catch on.

0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.920
<v Speaker 1>I could tell that she wasn't alone. There was somebody

0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.360
<v Speaker 1>in that house with her, because we all heard a

0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.240
<v Speaker 1>man say, hang up the phone and then click.

0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.560
<v Speaker 2>Angelie got what she needed, but it was anti climactic.

0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.600
<v Speaker 2>The police basically thanked her and sent her on her way,

0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.360
<v Speaker 2>but almost immediately from.

0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:00.800
<v Speaker 1>That moment, I had went into labor.

0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:06.080
<v Speaker 2>She went straight to the hospital. Because Cassandra still hadn't

0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.240
<v Speaker 2>been arrested. The hospital took precautions to keep Angelique safe.

0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.440
<v Speaker 1>They have police outside my room. They had me down

0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:15.520
<v Speaker 1>as Jane Doe. You have to have a code to

0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:16.360
<v Speaker 1>get inside my room.

0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.440
<v Speaker 2>She spent four days in labor.

0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:22.800
<v Speaker 1>I probably should have had a sea section, but I

0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:24.800
<v Speaker 1>think they were trying to be mindful of the whole

0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:26.400
<v Speaker 1>situation that I had just gone through.

0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.520
<v Speaker 2>After all, someone had wanted to steal her baby and

0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:32.920
<v Speaker 2>brought a butcher knife to do it. So she was

0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.439
<v Speaker 2>adamant about not having a sea section.

0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.280
<v Speaker 1>As much as I wanted my son to be born.

0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.280
<v Speaker 1>I felt like the only safe place was inside of me.

0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.679
<v Speaker 1>But at the same time I was feeling like, okay,

0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:45.640
<v Speaker 1>well inside of me isn't safe because someone just tried

0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:47.640
<v Speaker 1>to kill me. So I was going through all of

0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:48.480
<v Speaker 1>these emotions.

0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.960
<v Speaker 2>The stress had led to high blood pressure, and now

0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.280
<v Speaker 2>Angelique had pre eclampsia. It was a high risk birth.

0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:02.480
<v Speaker 1>Finally, my water broke and it was just an intense birth,

0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.520
<v Speaker 1>as heart rate had dropped at some point. It was honestly,

0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:08.680
<v Speaker 1>it was scary.

0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.719
<v Speaker 2>Finally her son was born. He was healthy and in

0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:14.679
<v Speaker 2>her arms.

0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:19.559
<v Speaker 1>I went through such a traumatic event that seeing him

0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.360
<v Speaker 1>alive was just a blessing. I could not imagine him

0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:24.439
<v Speaker 1>being with anybody else.

0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.840
<v Speaker 2>She hoped that after he was born she'd find some relief.

0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.760
<v Speaker 1>And finally, once everything is okay, I still can't sleep

0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:37.160
<v Speaker 1>because a I'm freaking out on nurses, making them show

0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.760
<v Speaker 1>me their badges too. I think I'm destined to die,

0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:42.800
<v Speaker 1>and I just want to spend whatever moments I can

0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.719
<v Speaker 1>with my son. And that's all I remember. Actually being

0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:47.960
<v Speaker 1>in the hospital is I was worried about someone coming

0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:49.920
<v Speaker 1>to steal him or me dying.

0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.200
<v Speaker 2>While she was in the hospital, her family worked to

0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.480
<v Speaker 2>renovate her bedroom to repaint it and make it livable again,

0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.320
<v Speaker 2>but after she was discharged, she struggled to relax at home.

0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.920
<v Speaker 1>Coming home is such a blur. I didn't go back

0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:07.880
<v Speaker 1>in my room. I refused to go in my room,

0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:09.240
<v Speaker 1>so I slept on the couch.

0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.360
<v Speaker 2>Josh, her son's father, stepped up to help. He wanted

0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.680
<v Speaker 2>to be a safe place for Angelique, so every night

0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.719
<v Speaker 2>he stayed with her on the couch next to their

0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:20.320
<v Speaker 2>new baby.

0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.599
<v Speaker 1>He helped me feel safe when nobody else made me

0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:24.760
<v Speaker 1>feel that way.

0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.959
<v Speaker 2>But even with him by her side, she couldn't let

0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:28.640
<v Speaker 2>her guard down.

0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.679
<v Speaker 1>I just wasn't myself. There was nothing that was right

0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:32.600
<v Speaker 1>or okay about me.

0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:35.840
<v Speaker 2>When Josh or her family tried to talk to her

0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.839
<v Speaker 2>about how she was doing, Angelique shut down.

0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.120
<v Speaker 1>I pushed everybody away. Josh would say something and I

0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.080
<v Speaker 1>would be like, I'm fine, but really up dying inside.

0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.160
<v Speaker 2>She wanted Cassandra arrested, but the cops weren't sharing any

0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:53.560
<v Speaker 2>information about the case.

0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.400
<v Speaker 1>I felt like I was completely in the dark when

0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.240
<v Speaker 1>it came to my investigation. Anytime I try to talk

0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.040
<v Speaker 1>to somebody, nobody give me answers and It was just

0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.480
<v Speaker 1>super discouraging because I had gotten out of the hospital

0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.120
<v Speaker 1>and I expected to feel safe, and I didn't feel safe.

0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.600
<v Speaker 1>I expected for her to be caught. She wasn't caught.

0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.240
<v Speaker 2>She didn't even feel safe taking a walk around her neighborhood.

0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.360
<v Speaker 1>I just never left my house. I stayed inside of

0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:19.439
<v Speaker 1>my house and never left.

0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.280
<v Speaker 2>One night, about a month after her son was born.

0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:25.960
<v Speaker 1>I fell asleep one night and I remember my mom

0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.040
<v Speaker 1>coming into the room. It had to have been like midnight,

0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:33.600
<v Speaker 1>and she woken me up and she said here, and

0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.240
<v Speaker 1>she like hands me the phone, and I'm like, who

0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:37.000
<v Speaker 1>is it.

0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.080
<v Speaker 2>It was the lead detective on her case, and she

0:11:40.240 --> 0:12:01.880
<v Speaker 2>was like, we got her. Cassandra had been arrested. After

0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:05.319
<v Speaker 2>weeks of waiting. Angelique was losing faith that Cassandra would

0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:09.080
<v Speaker 2>ever be held responsible, but then she got the call.

0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.920
<v Speaker 2>Law enforcement was finally able to make an arrest. Cassandra

0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.120
<v Speaker 2>was facing multiple charges.

0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.679
<v Speaker 1>She is being charged with attempted first degree murder, which

0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.360
<v Speaker 1>means that it was plotted. It was planned out, so

0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.880
<v Speaker 1>tempted first grea murder, arson burglary. She said She's going

0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.440
<v Speaker 1>to go away for a very very long time.

0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.439
<v Speaker 2>Cassandra had made a full confession.

0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.880
<v Speaker 1>And I started crying and I said she admitted it,

0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:38.679
<v Speaker 1>and they said, yeah, she admitted it.

0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.720
<v Speaker 2>She admitted that she'd planned to murder Angelique in order

0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.480
<v Speaker 2>to steal her baby. Cassandra was now behind bars and

0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.360
<v Speaker 2>she would stay there until there was a trial, and I.

0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:54.360
<v Speaker 1>Just remember crying and being so happy. That was the

0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.040
<v Speaker 1>first night that I actually slept.

0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.760
<v Speaker 2>The news brought a lot of relief. Angelie could breathe

0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.360
<v Speaker 2>a little easier, but the arrest didn't take away the trauma.

0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.360
<v Speaker 1>As a mom, you imagine they're going to be this

0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.959
<v Speaker 1>happy family. You're going to teach him how to say mama.

0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:12.560
<v Speaker 1>You're going to teach them how to walk. You're going

0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.800
<v Speaker 1>to teach him, you know, figure out if his first

0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.360
<v Speaker 1>food is going to be peaches or carrots. All of

0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.720
<v Speaker 1>these things are things that I thought about. I don't

0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.559
<v Speaker 1>remember any of them. It's like it was all stolen

0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:23.920
<v Speaker 1>from me.

0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.320
<v Speaker 2>She recently saw a video that was taken when her

0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.000
<v Speaker 2>son was one. He was learning how to walk for

0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:31.120
<v Speaker 2>the first time.

0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.079
<v Speaker 1>And I say it, Oh my gosh, it's his first steps.

0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.800
<v Speaker 1>I can't I don't remember that video. I don't remember

0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:42.320
<v Speaker 1>where that video was taken. What time, like I and

0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.800
<v Speaker 1>I was standing right there talking in the video.

0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.480
<v Speaker 2>In the wake of everything, she wasn't living.

0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:53.400
<v Speaker 1>She was surviving my family, my friends. They distracted me.

0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.360
<v Speaker 1>I can't tell you how because I don't remember, but

0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:58.120
<v Speaker 1>I know that I survived.

0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.960
<v Speaker 2>When everything went down and League had to fight for

0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.920
<v Speaker 2>her case to be taken seriously by the cops. And

0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:07.120
<v Speaker 2>after Cassandra was arrested, she didn't hear anything from law

0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.120
<v Speaker 2>enforcement or prosecutors for twelve months.

0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.280
<v Speaker 1>I just remember thinking, like, when is this going to happen?

0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.440
<v Speaker 1>Like what's going to happen? Maybe I should just be

0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.880
<v Speaker 1>thankful that she's in jail, But nobody has communicated anything

0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:19.240
<v Speaker 1>with me.

0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.560
<v Speaker 2>That was until she got a call from the District

0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:23.480
<v Speaker 2>Attorney's office.

0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.600
<v Speaker 1>They tell me, we're going to be completely honest with you.

0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.560
<v Speaker 1>We don't think this should go to trial. And I

0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.040
<v Speaker 1>was completely thrown back, like what do you mean this

0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:36.360
<v Speaker 1>shouldn't go to trial? They said, well, through our investigation

0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:38.600
<v Speaker 1>and through everything that we've done, the cops did not

0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:40.760
<v Speaker 1>reader her Miranda rights at the time of the confession,

0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:47.720
<v Speaker 1>and I was like, wait, what, Like, what do you

0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:49.800
<v Speaker 1>mean that they didn't reader her Miranda rights?

0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.480
<v Speaker 2>The full confession police got out of Cassandra wouldn't be

0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.440
<v Speaker 2>admissible in court.

0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.640
<v Speaker 1>If we go to trial, her whole confession is thrown

0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:05.080
<v Speaker 1>out and can lose this case because it's not illegal

0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.560
<v Speaker 1>to carry butcher knives around the city. Technically, it's not

0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:13.240
<v Speaker 1>against the law, and we cannot pinpoint everything in here

0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:14.200
<v Speaker 1>without her confession.

0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.760
<v Speaker 2>But Angelique knew there was physical evidence from the fire.

0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:20.880
<v Speaker 1>And I was like, well, what about her fingertips on

0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.440
<v Speaker 1>the kiunt the candle, and they said yes, they said,

0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:25.080
<v Speaker 1>we want to try to do a plea bargain.

0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:30.280
<v Speaker 2>The DA's office informed Angelique of Cassandra's defense strategy. She

0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.000
<v Speaker 2>was going to plead insanity.

0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:36.080
<v Speaker 1>The picture that they painted for me was that she

0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.280
<v Speaker 1>was there to take my child because she was mentally

0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.600
<v Speaker 1>ill and believed that my baby was her baby, that

0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.040
<v Speaker 1>she was pregnant and this was her child.

0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:50.040
<v Speaker 2>And in that moment, Angelique almost felt bad for her.

0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.640
<v Speaker 2>The prosecutor said that Angelique could.

0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.320
<v Speaker 1>Decide do you think she should go to prison or

0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.360
<v Speaker 1>do you think she should go to like a mental hospital,

0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.440
<v Speaker 1>And I asked if they can give me some time

0:15:59.480 --> 0:15:59.800
<v Speaker 1>to think.

0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:04.080
<v Speaker 2>About it up, she slept on it and realized that

0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.720
<v Speaker 2>without the confession. The prosecution's hands were tied.

0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.520
<v Speaker 1>I didn't feel good about this whole thing, but I

0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.480
<v Speaker 1>really trusted, like they're the professionals. This is their job,

0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.040
<v Speaker 1>Like who am I to tell them what's right and

0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:18.680
<v Speaker 1>what's wrong.

0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.560
<v Speaker 2>The state offered eight years in a psychiatric hospital.

0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:24.920
<v Speaker 1>And so that was our plea bargain.

0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.800
<v Speaker 2>At the sentencing hearing, Angelique was able to read a

0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:31.080
<v Speaker 2>victim impact statement.

0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.720
<v Speaker 1>I wrote this long letter to her. I said, I

0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.240
<v Speaker 1>don't want to live my life hating you. I don't

0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.280
<v Speaker 1>want to have hate in my heart. I don't think

0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.440
<v Speaker 1>I can live my life that way, and so I'm

0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.360
<v Speaker 1>going to tell you that I forgive you because they're

0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:50.360
<v Speaker 1>mentally ill. I ended it that way just from my

0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:55.920
<v Speaker 1>conscience for me. A judge told her, Cassandra, is there

0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:57.560
<v Speaker 1>anything that you would like to say to this woman?

0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:02.160
<v Speaker 1>She stood up, put her hands together. She looked at

0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:05.520
<v Speaker 1>me and said, no, your honor, and sat back down.

0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.560
<v Speaker 1>No remorse. That felt like a slap in the face.

0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.320
<v Speaker 1>That felt like I want take back everything that I

0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.880
<v Speaker 1>said to you. That was the last interaction I had

0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:18.200
<v Speaker 1>with her.

0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.960
<v Speaker 2>Almost immediately it became a media circus.

0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.280
<v Speaker 1>Everybody was outside my door, I had every single news station.

0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.520
<v Speaker 1>I had people calling me. I had Andrewson Cooper calling me.

0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:32.399
<v Speaker 1>I don't even know how they got my number.

0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.040
<v Speaker 2>Everyone wanted to run with the story. Angelique became reduced

0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.119
<v Speaker 2>to a headline. It felt like something was being taken

0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.320
<v Speaker 2>from her and not on her terms.

0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:44.639
<v Speaker 1>If I could take back some of the shows that

0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.600
<v Speaker 1>I did, like doing the Doctor Phil show, I would

0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.879
<v Speaker 1>have not done that. Absolutely. He used me for my

0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.280
<v Speaker 1>trauma to get views.

0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.760
<v Speaker 2>A few years after sentencing, a local journalist came over

0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.320
<v Speaker 2>to interview Angelique the story and he was the first

0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:03.360
<v Speaker 2>one to ask her.

0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.800
<v Speaker 1>Have you ever read the police report? And I was

0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.960
<v Speaker 1>like no. At the end of our interview, he took

0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.159
<v Speaker 1>the police report and he gave it to me and

0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.359
<v Speaker 1>he said, there's some stuff in here that I don't think.

0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.880
<v Speaker 1>You know, you should read this.

0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.399
<v Speaker 2>But at the time Angelique wasn't ready to hear it.

0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.080
<v Speaker 1>So I know I did. I shredded it. I shredded

0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.240
<v Speaker 1>it all. I shredded everything. That is what trauma does.

0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.800
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't until eight years later, when Cassandra was released

0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:36.080
<v Speaker 2>from the psychiatric hospital, that Angelique finally revisited the case.

0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:42.680
<v Speaker 1>And that intrigued me to open everything back up because

0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:44.680
<v Speaker 1>I felt like I was in a better state of mind.

0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.119
<v Speaker 1>I was older. I feel like I'm ready to start digging.

0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:49.680
<v Speaker 1>So I went deep. I went deep down this rabbit hole.

0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:51.639
<v Speaker 1>I went to the police station. I pulled all the

0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.520
<v Speaker 1>police reports, I pulled the tapes, I pulled anything that

0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.960
<v Speaker 1>they would give me, and I sat in my car

0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.520
<v Speaker 1>for hours listening to these CDs, listening to me like

0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.040
<v Speaker 1>Me Talk, listening to all, listening to everything. It took

0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:05.320
<v Speaker 1>like four to five hours.

0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.840
<v Speaker 2>She started with Cassandra's taped confession and on it she

0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:16.160
<v Speaker 2>learned Cassandra's story what Cassandra was really doing the night

0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:17.080
<v Speaker 2>the fire started.

0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.400
<v Speaker 1>The fire was never meant to happen. It was an accident.

0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.080
<v Speaker 2>Her plan was to kill Angelique with a butcher knife

0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.560
<v Speaker 2>and steal her baby. That's what she was preparing to

0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.040
<v Speaker 2>do when she sat Angelique on her bed in the

0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:32.480
<v Speaker 2>dark and counted to three.

0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.000
<v Speaker 1>She said that she felt a moment of weakness when

0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:37.919
<v Speaker 1>she was going to stab me. When she had me

0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.520
<v Speaker 1>bent over, she had her hand on my shoulder, she

0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.080
<v Speaker 1>had the knife physically to my back, and she was

0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:44.720
<v Speaker 1>ready to push the knife inside of me.

0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.040
<v Speaker 2>But then Cassandra got cold feet.

0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:52.199
<v Speaker 1>When she started counting. She started to feel guilt, and

0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:54.800
<v Speaker 1>she says, I started to second guess it if I

0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:56.040
<v Speaker 1>could actually do it.

0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.359
<v Speaker 2>When Angelique stood up, the initial plan fell apart, so

0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.159
<v Speaker 2>Cassandra moved on to Plan B.

0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.480
<v Speaker 1>She said the fire was supposed to be a distraction,

0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:08.520
<v Speaker 1>and she was hoping that I would be overcome with

0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.240
<v Speaker 1>smoke and I would pass out, and then she'd be

0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.240
<v Speaker 1>able to perform the C section with me being passed

0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:13.919
<v Speaker 1>out on the ground.

0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.360
<v Speaker 2>Cassandra thought it would be easier to kill Angelique if

0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.119
<v Speaker 2>she were unconscious. The whole thing was like a horror movie.

0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:28.280
<v Speaker 1>It's actually diabolical. It's almost unbelievable though, that an eighteen

0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:29.320
<v Speaker 1>year old can come up with this.

0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:35.040
<v Speaker 2>It turns out the plan wasn't entirely hers, or at

0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.800
<v Speaker 2>least that's what Cassandra stated in her confession.

0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.439
<v Speaker 1>At the very end before they cut the tape, she

0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:43.120
<v Speaker 1>talks about how she was a part of a.

0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:47.600
<v Speaker 2>Gang, and in this gang, Cassandra confessed that she worked

0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:49.000
<v Speaker 2>for one man in particular.

0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.280
<v Speaker 1>She was his like his possession basically, and she had

0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:54.960
<v Speaker 1>to do what he told her to do, and it

0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.359
<v Speaker 1>was all his plan. And she was just doing what

0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:58.080
<v Speaker 1>he asked.

0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.480
<v Speaker 2>Cassandra claimed that she was part of a gang operation

0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:07.200
<v Speaker 2>and her boss had a plan to sell Angelique's baby.

0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.720
<v Speaker 1>She says he has done this before, that they sold

0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:12.879
<v Speaker 1>babies in Mexico, and that they were going to get

0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.960
<v Speaker 1>a certain cut. She talked about how much they would

0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:19.000
<v Speaker 1>get for the baby, and that they were going to

0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:20.480
<v Speaker 1>stay and live in Mexico.

0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.600
<v Speaker 2>This was all news to Angelique. These tapes suggested an

0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:28.159
<v Speaker 2>alternate motivation for why Cassandra did what she did, and

0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.160
<v Speaker 2>it didn't match up with what Angelique heard from prosecutors

0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.280
<v Speaker 2>back when they offered a plea deal. At the time,

0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.280
<v Speaker 2>her understanding was that Cassandra was mentally ill and thought

0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:39.320
<v Speaker 2>the baby was hers.

0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.920
<v Speaker 1>But in the confession, not once did I ever hear

0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.240
<v Speaker 1>her say that she wanted the baby for herself.

0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:50.080
<v Speaker 2>And there was something else in Cassandra's confession another thing

0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:53.680
<v Speaker 2>Angelique heard that didn't square with what the prosecutors told her.

0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:56.800
<v Speaker 1>I heard them reader her miranda writes.

0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:17.600
<v Speaker 2>Prosecutors had told Angelique that Cassandra's confession wasn't admissible in

0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.960
<v Speaker 2>court because no one had read Cassandra her miranda rights.

0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:27.159
<v Speaker 2>While reviewing the case file. Years later, Angelique discovered that

0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:31.200
<v Speaker 2>wasn't true. They had read her her Miranda rights.

0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.360
<v Speaker 1>I even had it circled where it says they read

0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:36.600
<v Speaker 1>her rights and then it goes on to her telling

0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:37.359
<v Speaker 1>her confession.

0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.520
<v Speaker 2>This supposed procedural error was the reason why Angelique was

0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.080
<v Speaker 2>okay with the plea deal. So why did the prosecutors

0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.679
<v Speaker 2>tell her this story? Well, Angelique has a theory.

0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:52.800
<v Speaker 1>I think that we were used as a plea bargain

0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.880
<v Speaker 1>to help catch bigger fish. I don't think anybody will

0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.920
<v Speaker 1>ever be able to confirm that for me, But if

0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.399
<v Speaker 1>she had more information to help them catch bigger people,

0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:05.280
<v Speaker 1>they don't have to necessarily tell me all the information

0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:06.400
<v Speaker 1>on what they're working on.

0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.280
<v Speaker 2>If Cassandra was telling the truth, maybe she could help

0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:14.240
<v Speaker 2>law enforcement catch higher ups in her gang. Angelique got

0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:17.359
<v Speaker 2>back to all the phone calls. Cassandra had taken the

0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.719
<v Speaker 2>ones in Spanish, and she'd taken a call in the

0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:24.600
<v Speaker 2>middle of the attempted murder. Angelique had believed she was

0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:28.440
<v Speaker 2>talking with Edwin, her husband. So was Edwin the mastermind,

0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:33.000
<v Speaker 2>the gang leader? The cops met with Edwin and they

0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:35.120
<v Speaker 2>were very surprised to hear he.

0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:38.160
<v Speaker 1>States, Yeah, she's someone I dated. No, we haven't talked

0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:42.040
<v Speaker 1>in years, and we're not together. So this guy Edwin,

0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:44.359
<v Speaker 1>who she told all of us was her husband, was

0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:45.920
<v Speaker 1>not actually her husband.

0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:50.040
<v Speaker 2>Edwin was a real guy that Cassandra had dated, that

0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:53.840
<v Speaker 2>he hadn't talked to her in years. So who was

0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:59.080
<v Speaker 2>actually on the other end of the phone? In her confession,

0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:03.359
<v Speaker 2>Cassandra does name someone besides Edwin, but the cops couldn't

0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:06.120
<v Speaker 2>find a record of this other guy, and that's where

0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:10.680
<v Speaker 2>the police file ends. For Angelique, it felt like they

0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:13.480
<v Speaker 2>gave up. She's had to make peace with the fact

0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:16.720
<v Speaker 2>that she might never know who Cassandra was working with,

0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:19.480
<v Speaker 2>she might never get the full story.

0:24:20.560 --> 0:24:23.000
<v Speaker 1>I think about it a lot. I contemplate all the

0:24:23.040 --> 0:24:26.359
<v Speaker 1>time if I want to know the truth, and I

0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:29.159
<v Speaker 1>always go back and forth with yes, no, yes, no.

0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:32.280
<v Speaker 1>The thing is, it's not going to do anything except

0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:36.000
<v Speaker 1>for maybe piss me off. So I just stopped looking

0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:36.680
<v Speaker 1>for answers.

0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:40.560
<v Speaker 2>She's come to accept that the police report may just

0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:44.119
<v Speaker 2>be another version of the story, and can she even

0:24:44.160 --> 0:24:49.440
<v Speaker 2>trust Cassandra's taped confession. After all, Cassandra was clearly unwell

0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:53.560
<v Speaker 2>by the time Angelique heard the tapes. Cassandra had served

0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:57.600
<v Speaker 2>her entire sentence. Angelique felt like reopening the case against

0:24:57.600 --> 0:24:59.680
<v Speaker 2>Cassandra would be a dead end.

0:25:00.640 --> 0:25:02.840
<v Speaker 1>I found out way too late. We're talking about nine

0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:05.959
<v Speaker 1>years now. I can't go back and bring them all this.

0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:10.160
<v Speaker 1>I just thought every person there was doing their job

0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:13.000
<v Speaker 1>for me. I thought this was a big case. I

0:25:13.040 --> 0:25:15.520
<v Speaker 1>thought this was abnormal. I've never heard of fetal abduction.

0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:18.680
<v Speaker 1>Like I just figured that everyone was in my best

0:25:18.680 --> 0:25:20.760
<v Speaker 1>interest for her.

0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:24.800
<v Speaker 2>Reopening the case would only bring back bad memories. The

0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:26.280
<v Speaker 2>damage was already done.

0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:29.800
<v Speaker 1>She stole my first few years between me and my son,

0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:32.639
<v Speaker 1>and I'm never going to get those back. There's no

0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:36.080
<v Speaker 1>money in the world that could pay for that. She

0:25:36.280 --> 0:25:37.280
<v Speaker 1>stole that away from me.

0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:40.399
<v Speaker 2>Her healing process wasn't linear.

0:25:41.480 --> 0:25:45.639
<v Speaker 1>There were moments in my life where I remember being like,

0:25:45.760 --> 0:25:49.000
<v Speaker 1>I'm healed, I feel so much better. I'm going to

0:25:49.040 --> 0:25:52.480
<v Speaker 1>be just fine, and then like five weeks to go

0:25:52.560 --> 0:25:55.040
<v Speaker 1>by and I would be like, I'm so triggered right now.

0:25:56.040 --> 0:25:58.760
<v Speaker 1>And it's just been a cycle. It's been a vicious cycle,

0:25:58.880 --> 0:26:03.119
<v Speaker 1>and that's what healing is. It's been almost fourteen years

0:26:03.119 --> 0:26:05.760
<v Speaker 1>since my trauma, and I feel like I just had

0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:07.679
<v Speaker 1>an epiphany just a couple of weeks ago.

0:26:08.200 --> 0:26:11.120
<v Speaker 2>She recently drove past the house where the crime happened

0:26:11.400 --> 0:26:14.800
<v Speaker 2>for the first time in years, and instead of feeling

0:26:14.840 --> 0:26:18.600
<v Speaker 2>overwhelmed and triggered, she felt a powerful calm.

0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:22.280
<v Speaker 1>I realized, it's just a house. That's all it is.

0:26:22.800 --> 0:26:25.000
<v Speaker 1>It's just a house that something bad happened to me in.

0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:27.439
<v Speaker 1>But I'm here, I'm alive, I'm okay, and I have

0:26:27.520 --> 0:26:31.000
<v Speaker 1>my son. You can't push or rush healing.

0:26:32.080 --> 0:26:34.640
<v Speaker 2>Josh, her son's father, has been a constant in her

0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:36.000
<v Speaker 2>life and in her healing.

0:26:36.840 --> 0:26:38.560
<v Speaker 1>If you were to ask me where my safe place is,

0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:41.879
<v Speaker 1>it's with him. I am scared of everything. It can

0:26:41.920 --> 0:26:43.920
<v Speaker 1>be as simple as I don't want to get into

0:26:43.920 --> 0:26:47.679
<v Speaker 1>a lake because I'm scared of their drown I'm scared

0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:51.040
<v Speaker 1>of life because something traumatic happened to me when I

0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:53.240
<v Speaker 1>had no idea that it could happen. So because of that,

0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:57.720
<v Speaker 1>my husband has been there to push me into different

0:26:57.720 --> 0:27:00.320
<v Speaker 1>directions that I don't think I could have done without him.

0:27:00.720 --> 0:27:05.640
<v Speaker 2>They dated throughout their first few years as parents.

0:27:04.400 --> 0:27:08.000
<v Speaker 1>And come twenty twenty, we decided why not. So we

0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:11.200
<v Speaker 1>actually got engaged in twenty twenty and we got married.

0:27:12.119 --> 0:27:14.560
<v Speaker 2>She and Josh had two more children together.

0:27:15.240 --> 0:27:17.479
<v Speaker 1>We live a happy life altogether. We're a very big

0:27:17.560 --> 0:27:22.240
<v Speaker 1>sport family. We do football, softball, soccer, rine quads, go hiking,

0:27:22.400 --> 0:27:23.119
<v Speaker 1>go to the lake.

0:27:24.400 --> 0:27:27.119
<v Speaker 2>The sun she nearly lost is now thirteen.

0:27:27.880 --> 0:27:30.560
<v Speaker 1>When I look at my son, I just think about

0:27:30.560 --> 0:27:33.640
<v Speaker 1>how lucky we are and how blessed we are, because

0:27:33.680 --> 0:27:38.040
<v Speaker 1>not everybody gets this happy ending. I always tell him,

0:27:38.080 --> 0:27:41.119
<v Speaker 1>you were absolutely meant to be here. I don't know

0:27:41.200 --> 0:27:43.280
<v Speaker 1>what life has to offer you, but I just know

0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:45.320
<v Speaker 1>you were meant for greatness.

0:27:46.160 --> 0:27:49.960
<v Speaker 2>Angelique's also become an advocate for preventing fetal abduction.

0:27:50.760 --> 0:27:52.679
<v Speaker 1>When I was seventeen years old, I didn't know that

0:27:52.720 --> 0:27:54.560
<v Speaker 1>this was even a crime that could happen. I didn't

0:27:54.600 --> 0:27:56.080
<v Speaker 1>know that because it was never talked about.

0:27:56.720 --> 0:27:59.959
<v Speaker 2>Feudal abduction is incredibly rare. There have been less than

0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:03.160
<v Speaker 2>twenty documented cases in the US in the last decade,

0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:07.800
<v Speaker 2>and of those cases, very few of the victims survived.

0:28:08.280 --> 0:28:11.160
<v Speaker 1>My motivation is not just to get my story out

0:28:11.280 --> 0:28:13.440
<v Speaker 1>so that other mothers can understand that this is something

0:28:13.440 --> 0:28:17.159
<v Speaker 1>that happens. I feel like it's an opportunity for me

0:28:17.480 --> 0:28:20.200
<v Speaker 1>to be a voice for not myself and my son,

0:28:20.359 --> 0:28:22.879
<v Speaker 1>but also for the mothers that are not here that

0:28:23.000 --> 0:28:24.520
<v Speaker 1>didn't get to survive this crime.

0:28:25.119 --> 0:28:28.959
<v Speaker 2>She's also done something astounding. She wanted to help others

0:28:29.000 --> 0:28:33.040
<v Speaker 2>grow their own families, so she became a surrogate.

0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:36.000
<v Speaker 1>Carrying a baby who wasn't mine and allowing that baby

0:28:36.040 --> 0:28:39.360
<v Speaker 1>to leave my body and go to somebody else was

0:28:39.680 --> 0:28:43.120
<v Speaker 1>a huge step for me and absolutely healed me in

0:28:43.160 --> 0:28:45.880
<v Speaker 1>ways that I didn't know that I needed to be

0:28:45.960 --> 0:28:46.360
<v Speaker 1>healed in.

0:28:48.240 --> 0:28:51.040
<v Speaker 2>We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question,

0:28:52.040 --> 0:28:53.440
<v Speaker 2>why are you telling your story?

0:28:54.240 --> 0:28:57.280
<v Speaker 1>You think about how that one second that it took

0:28:58.160 --> 0:29:01.120
<v Speaker 1>for me to turn around is literally what saved my life.

0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:03.200
<v Speaker 1>I would not be here if I did not listen

0:29:03.240 --> 0:29:07.200
<v Speaker 1>to that gut feeling. It's okay to be naive. It's natural,

0:29:07.200 --> 0:29:10.520
<v Speaker 1>it's who we are. We're only human. Just listen to yourself,

0:29:10.520 --> 0:29:13.240
<v Speaker 1>trust yourself a little bit more, sit there and start

0:29:13.280 --> 0:29:16.280
<v Speaker 1>to learn what that intuition feeling is and listen to it.

0:29:17.200 --> 0:29:19.000
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it'll help save somebody's life.

0:29:22.360 --> 0:29:24.680
<v Speaker 2>On the next episode of Betrayal.

0:29:25.320 --> 0:29:28.240
<v Speaker 3>I get a phone call and it was is this

0:29:28.560 --> 0:29:31.760
<v Speaker 3>Dawn Harris and Astidy as it is? And they said,

0:29:31.760 --> 0:29:34.400
<v Speaker 3>this is so and so with the Dallas FBI office.

0:29:34.960 --> 0:29:36.160
<v Speaker 1>We'd like for you to come in.

0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:41.680
<v Speaker 2>If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal

0:29:41.720 --> 0:29:44.600
<v Speaker 2>team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email

0:29:44.680 --> 0:29:48.960
<v Speaker 2>us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod

0:29:49.320 --> 0:29:53.480
<v Speaker 2>at gmail dot com. We're grateful for your support. One

0:29:53.480 --> 0:29:55.800
<v Speaker 2>way to show support is by subscribing to our show

0:29:55.840 --> 0:29:58.960
<v Speaker 2>on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.

0:29:59.360 --> 0:30:02.360
<v Speaker 2>Five star views go a long way. A big thank

0:30:02.400 --> 0:30:05.800
<v Speaker 2>you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production

0:30:05.880 --> 0:30:08.640
<v Speaker 2>of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in

0:30:08.720 --> 0:30:12.480
<v Speaker 2>partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by

0:30:12.520 --> 0:30:16.000
<v Speaker 2>Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me

0:30:16.240 --> 0:30:20.880
<v Speaker 2>Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced

0:30:20.880 --> 0:30:25.480
<v Speaker 2>by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Mercury and Caitlin Golden.

0:30:26.080 --> 0:30:29.640
<v Speaker 2>Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kriinchech. Audio

0:30:29.720 --> 0:30:33.360
<v Speaker 2>editing and mixing by Matt del Vecchio, additional editing support

0:30:33.400 --> 0:30:38.440
<v Speaker 2>from Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music

0:30:38.520 --> 0:30:42.960
<v Speaker 2>library provided by Mob Music and for more podcasts from iHeart,

0:30:43.120 --> 0:30:46.640
<v Speaker 2>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

0:30:46.680 --> 0:30:48.280
<v Speaker 2>your podcasts.