Speaker 1: Novel. Last time on the Girlfriends Trust Me, Babe. The
Speaker 1: group chat has grown by one member. He got cut,
Speaker 1: and Derek Aldred is finally in custody.
Speaker 2: He's gonna get what he deserves.
Speaker 1: It's early summer twenty seventeen and Laurie, Wendy's big sister
Speaker 1: detective from episode one, is at home in Texas.
Speaker 3: I am in my kitchen making dinner.
Speaker 1: Laurie's barefoot, hair up in a ponytail, wooden spoon in hand.
Speaker 3: Five o'clock news comes on on my little kitchen TV,
Speaker 3: kind of in the background.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm doing my thing.
Speaker 1: She's just stirring the orange chicken sauce into the walk
Speaker 1: when her ears perk up.
Speaker 3: I whip around and I'm thinking, surely I heard that wrong. Well,
Speaker 3: that looks like him, and that's his name, Derek Aldred.
Speaker 1: Wooden spoon still in one hand. Laurie turns the gas
Speaker 1: stove off and pivots towards the TV.
Speaker 3: I go over and I'm watching and it shows pictures
Speaker 3: of him, pictures of him in like some navy uniform.
Speaker 1: She moves closer, leans her elbows on the kitchen counter
Speaker 1: to get a better look. It really is that loser,
Speaker 1: her sister Wendy dated back in twenty thirteen on the news.
Speaker 1: But you know the weirdest part, this whole takedown of Derek,
Speaker 1: It's all happened just down the road from where Wendy's
Speaker 1: sister Laurie lives.
Speaker 4: Literally about three miles from my house.
Speaker 1: Laurie is immediately on the blower to Wendy.
Speaker 3: I'm like, are you sitting You're not going to believe.
Speaker 2: This, and She's like, he was arrested.
Speaker 1: And that's how Wendy, here's the news.
Speaker 2: We are just going nuts.
Speaker 5: No way, I cannot believe all this is happening.
Speaker 1: Sure, just a handful of miles from Laurie, we'll get more.
Speaker 6: Couple, will take your caught off.
Speaker 1: Derrek Audred has been marched to the County jail house
Speaker 1: in Fort Worth. Well. He's now face to face with
Speaker 1: Special Agent Mike, whose planned to catch Derek at the
Speaker 1: hospital with Tracy's help. Has all fallen into place a Mike.
Speaker 7: Anyway, we knew that we were never going to get
Speaker 7: him to admit that he was doing anything. The strategy
Speaker 7: was to confront him.
Speaker 6: And let me ask you, have you ever served in
Speaker 6: the military, Have you ever been in law enforcement before. No, okay,
Speaker 6: do you wear uniforms of military personnel? Don't? I don't.
Speaker 6: Never I happened to pass, but I mean yeah, I
Speaker 6: mean last week, last week, not last month, not last year.
Speaker 7: He had no idea that I had pictures of him
Speaker 7: on Dorry's balcony wearing uniform, which was like literally a
Speaker 7: week prior. And I remember putting that picture down and
Speaker 7: his response was.
Speaker 6: I can tell you this much. I never wore this
Speaker 6: in public anywhere. And that's a I don't even know
Speaker 6: how that was taken. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 7: He's loosening his tie up. He's kind of sitting back.
Speaker 7: You can see his demeanor change.
Speaker 6: Military ideas now even bake counterfeit anything like that.
Speaker 7: And think so now, every chance we confronted him on anything,
Speaker 7: it was a denial or a lie or some sort
Speaker 7: of story.
Speaker 6: You have these credentials here and you had this navy No, yeah, okay,
Speaker 6: and what were you going to do with these here?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 6: I haven't done anything with.
Speaker 7: Him Nowhere was he remorseful for anything. No where did
Speaker 7: he take responsibility for anything.
Speaker 8: In particular as the Rangers ticket, we were able to
Speaker 8: pull some footage clearly you are showing idea and insisting
Speaker 8: now you're military and gaining something, which is the equivalent
Speaker 8: of stolen valor.
Speaker 6: I didn't like.
Speaker 7: This is a guy who's a professional liar. He's a
Speaker 7: professional con man.
Speaker 8: I think in the last twenty minutes you have lied
Speaker 8: to our face about fifty times.
Speaker 6: Guys, I just told you, I told you the truth.
Speaker 1: Special Agent Mike is looking for the truth, the whole truth,
Speaker 1: but he's not going to find it in this interview room.
Speaker 9: Why would all of these people say this, Then there
Speaker 9: is evidence of it happening. Then there's videos and pictures
Speaker 9: of you doing it.
Speaker 6: Guys, look look at.
Speaker 7: When I there's nothing that we're going to do inside
Speaker 7: the interview room that's going to get him to have
Speaker 7: an AHA moment. Go, you're right, I did do it.
Speaker 1: But Mike's not going to give up that easily. He's
Speaker 1: about to discover there's a whole army of women who've
Speaker 1: been working on this case since long before he began.
Speaker 7: Every single one of them kept their records, kept documents,
Speaker 7: kept pictures.
Speaker 1: Oh and one more thing, Derek did, what are you
Speaker 1: thinking they don't play in Texas? I'm Anna Sinfield and
Speaker 1: from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts. You're listening
Speaker 1: to the final episode of The Girlfriends Trust Me.
Speaker 10: Babe, Episode six, The Gold Bracelet.
Speaker 1: Derek is arrested on June first, twenty seventeen, and over
Speaker 1: the months that follow, Special Agent Mike and his team
Speaker 1: continue their investigation. It takes them all over the country,
Speaker 1: spans years of Derek's life, and as their evidence grows,
Speaker 1: so does their charge list. Within a few months, the
Speaker 1: indictment is ten charges long felon in possession of a firearm,
Speaker 1: access to vice, fraud, aggravated identity theft, male fraud, and
Speaker 1: the evidence looks pretty damning, so damning in fact, that
Speaker 1: Derek takes a plea deal. He pleads guilty to just
Speaker 1: three charges, and all three of them pertain to Dorry,
Speaker 1: two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of
Speaker 1: mail fraud for using Dorry's address and claiming it was his.
Speaker 1: The question on everybody's mind now will the punishment fit
Speaker 1: the crimes.
Speaker 7: Every reaction I got from almost everybody was he's going
Speaker 7: to get out and he's going to do it again.
Speaker 7: If you look over the years, he got a slap
Speaker 7: on the wrist for every single thing he did, and
Speaker 7: he never spent any significant amount of time in jail.
Speaker 7: I can't blame them from being skeptical.
Speaker 1: But this time the prosecuting team have got a plan.
Speaker 1: Those three charges are only about Derek's crimes against Dorry
Speaker 1: in the colony, but when you look at all the evidence,
Speaker 1: you can see plainly there's a pattern. It's the same
Speaker 1: thing he did to so many women for years. The
Speaker 1: prosecution thinks they can make the case that when it
Speaker 1: comes time to decide on Derek's sentence, the judge should
Speaker 1: take all of that history and loss into consideration. It's
Speaker 1: a legal concept known as relevant conducts. If the judge agrees,
Speaker 1: instead of the typical three years in prison for mail fraud,
Speaker 1: Derek could get a sentence of up to twenty years.
Speaker 1: But they won't know whether their plan has worked until
Speaker 1: Derek Hall dreads sentencing hearing the moment his sentence is
Speaker 1: handed down. So it's crucial that as many women as
Speaker 1: possible are able to make it to Texas in person.
Speaker 7: For the victim to get up there and talk about
Speaker 7: some things that were excrucially painful for them. That really
Speaker 7: does sway what the judge.
Speaker 1: Thinks It's Midsummer, a year after Derek's arrest in Fort Worth.
Speaker 1: The prosecution's plan is in full swing.
Speaker 4: It was wild because all of us girls were together.
Speaker 1: It's the evening before the sentencing hearing. Nearly a dozen
Speaker 1: women who'd been scammed by Derek had gathered together in person,
Speaker 1: women who otherwise would have never met but for the
Speaker 1: deadbeat ex boyfriend. They all have in common. They're now
Speaker 1: in a makeshift sorority house preparing for the big reckoning.
Speaker 1: It was a huge, beautiful home. Tracy is there, the
Speaker 1: country girl who is whined and dined by Derek on
Speaker 1: Dorry's dime.
Speaker 4: Everybody could pick where they wanted to sleep. I think
Speaker 4: I slept down in the basement or something in a
Speaker 4: god that was a bizarre time.
Speaker 1: That's Wendy our DIY detective from Hawaii who sussed out
Speaker 1: Derek scuba diving lie.
Speaker 5: Immediately there was an instant bonding. I felt like I
Speaker 5: would do anything for these women.
Speaker 1: And there's other women you haven't met yet. A doctor
Speaker 1: from Hawaii, a neat clear scientist from Minnesota, a flight attendant.
Speaker 5: They were all delightful. Every woman I met I just
Speaker 5: really liked.
Speaker 1: And though they bond for some of the women. It's
Speaker 1: a shock.
Speaker 5: That was the first time I started hearing about the PTSD.
Speaker 5: So many of them had.
Speaker 1: They all had a different story. Some had lost everything
Speaker 1: to Derek, some hadn't, but they all had one thing
Speaker 1: in common. Every last one of them had been lied to.
Speaker 1: Before long, they're cracking jokes, swapping war stories.
Speaker 5: Didn't he wear those atrocious bike shorts? It leaves nothing
Speaker 5: to the imagination.
Speaker 1: And tearing their shared ex boyfriend a new one.
Speaker 5: The worst thing in his mind would be for a
Speaker 5: bunch of women talking about how bad he was in bed.
Speaker 4: There you go, there's some justice right.
Speaker 1: There, and among them is Vanessa A'm Miley Californian. On
Speaker 1: her first visit to Texas.
Speaker 2: I felt that it was really important for me to
Speaker 2: be involved.
Speaker 1: All the women gathered in that house will have wondered
Speaker 1: at one time or another whether anything Derek told them
Speaker 1: about himself was true and how did he become the
Speaker 1: guy who ruined their lives.
Speaker 2: He was more naive back then and maybe not so crafty.
Speaker 1: It's Vanessa who can give them some of those answers
Speaker 1: because she's Derek's college sweetheart.
Speaker 2: I'm going to date myself, but we're going all the
Speaker 2: way back to the nineties. I couldn't believe I got Intocla.
Speaker 1: It's nineteen eighty nine and Vanessa is heading to college.
Speaker 2: I was ecstatic when I found out.
Speaker 1: Vanessa's dad owns a Mexican restaurant in La and he's
Speaker 1: protective of her. Her mom passed away from cancer when
Speaker 1: Vanessa was still just a kid, and she'll be the
Speaker 1: first in her family to get a degree. So for
Speaker 1: that first year she lives at home.
Speaker 2: I was miserable. I had maybe made one or two friends.
Speaker 2: It's hard to meet people on campus. People don't just
Speaker 2: stop and talk to.
Speaker 1: You, except for people like Derek Aldred.
Speaker 2: And I think he said something, Have I seen you before? No? No, oh,
Speaker 2: you go to school here.
Speaker 1: Derek has walked past Vanessa while she's waiting for a
Speaker 1: medical appointment on campus one day. He's young, handsome, presents
Speaker 1: himself as a medical student at the same college.
Speaker 2: He's wearing a white lab coat, his name embroidered. He
Speaker 2: said he was studying cystic fibrosis. I didn't even know
Speaker 2: what that was, and I still kind of don't.
Speaker 1: It's so strange to imagine Derek in his college years.
Speaker 1: I can hear the same guy who've come to know
Speaker 1: in these anecdotes.
Speaker 2: He really gave off a good impression. I really like
Speaker 2: this guy.
Speaker 1: Why they date for a year, and as far as
Speaker 1: she's concerned, he's it nothing weird or of note to
Speaker 1: report until this one thing happened. About six months before
Speaker 1: she's due to graduate. Vanessa is walking up to Derek's
Speaker 1: apartment near campus when she catches sight of him in
Speaker 1: the third floor window.
Speaker 2: He was in his white lab coat with the French
Speaker 2: doors open, and he was throwing everything that was in
Speaker 2: his apartment out of the window.
Speaker 1: Vanessa watches from the street below, obscured from view behind
Speaker 1: a tree.
Speaker 2: I see him throwing this Carrera marble top table out
Speaker 2: the window.
Speaker 1: Stuff her dad had lent him.
Speaker 2: This table that my dad loved. He must have spent like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, thousand bucks on it, a lamp. I
Speaker 2: gave him this antique typewriter because I felt like he
Speaker 2: could use that for his studies.
Speaker 1: Outflies the vintage typewriter.
Speaker 2: My mouth hits the floor. I'm frozen. I'm like, what
Speaker 2: is going on? I left because I didn't know what
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: Vanessa sits in her car, trying to make sense of
Speaker 1: what she's just saying, and I was like, what do
Speaker 1: I do?
Speaker 6: What do I do?
Speaker 1: Eventually, curiosity gets the better of her.
Speaker 2: I come back to the front of his apartment and
Speaker 2: I see him now, not in his apartment anymore, but
Speaker 2: he's out in the front on the street talking to
Speaker 2: these police officers. He said that someone broke in and
Speaker 2: did that he was not taking responsibility for it. I
Speaker 2: was even more perplexed, like what is going on.
Speaker 1: When Vanessa brings the subject up with Derek later, she
Speaker 1: remembers that he doesn't admit to being the guy standing
Speaker 1: on the ledge, and he still denies it was him
Speaker 1: throwing the furniture out the window. He claims he even
Speaker 1: went to court to testify against the man who broke
Speaker 1: into his apartment, but so far we've been unable to
Speaker 1: locate court records of this standing on the street that day,
Speaker 1: Vanessa felt sure it was him.
Speaker 2: I was so fond of him and so in love
Speaker 2: with him, and I was so attached to the idea
Speaker 2: of building a family with him that I let it go,
Speaker 2: which was a mistake.
Speaker 1: Vanessa finishes college six months later, graduates, and afterward it's
Speaker 1: Derek that she wants to celebrate with.
Speaker 2: I blew off all my friends, all the sorority girl,
Speaker 2: even my dad, to be with him, just him.
Speaker 1: It's after the graduation festivities are over that the other
Speaker 1: shoe drops. They're sitting in his car. Derek is about
Speaker 1: to leave Los Angeles to visit his parents.
Speaker 2: I kiss from goodbye and he's like, I'll see you soon,
Speaker 2: you know, when I get back. I never heard from
Speaker 2: him again. Literally, he fell off the face of the earth.
Speaker 1: They've been dating for a year and a half, Vanessa's
Speaker 1: first serious relationship, the guy she was in love with.
Speaker 1: But one of the worst parts of all of this,
Speaker 1: Vanessa soon realized, wasn't just the loss of her boyfriend
Speaker 1: or the life she had been imagining with him. It
Speaker 1: was something else Entirely.
Speaker 2: On the night of my graduation, Derek said, Oh, maybe
Speaker 2: I'll borrow that, you know, to go with my suit.
Speaker 1: A gold bracelet. When Vanessa's mum died she was just
Speaker 1: nine years old, her father gathered together all her mum's
Speaker 1: gold jewelry, had it melted down and reformed into a bracelet,
Speaker 1: a thick Cuban style chain.
Speaker 2: It was kind of masculine, bracelet. A man or a
Speaker 2: woman could wear it.
Speaker 1: At first, Vanessa's dad intended to wear it, but in
Speaker 1: the end he had gifted it to Vanessa. And now
Speaker 1: Derek wondered if he could borrow it, and I.
Speaker 2: Was happily just like, yes, borrow it, but don't forget
Speaker 2: to give it back. Of course, he forgot to give
Speaker 2: it back.
Speaker 1: When he left, the bracelet disappeared with him. For years,
Speaker 1: she wondered what had happened, and then one day, about
Speaker 1: twenty years later, bored at work.
Speaker 2: I decided to google his name, you know, just out
Speaker 2: of sheer curiosity. What's he doing? Where is he? Is
Speaker 2: he married? You know, I'm expecting maybe a LinkedIn profile
Speaker 2: or Facebook link, But instead I see a news article.
Speaker 2: I was like, no, wonder he just disappeared.
Speaker 1: Before she knows it, Like every woman in that group chat,
Speaker 1: She's on the phone to Cindy.
Speaker 2: Do I want to get on board with her and
Speaker 2: the rest of the girls to try to fight together?
Speaker 2: And at first I was like, no.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of reasons to leave this in
Speaker 1: the past. But as she learns more and more about
Speaker 1: Derek's trail of destruction.
Speaker 2: I said, you know what, Yes, maybe I'll get my
Speaker 2: bracelet back.
Speaker 1: And now here she is in a house in Texas,
Speaker 1: surrounded by the women who came after her.
Speaker 2: We bonded and we told stories. One girl was like, oh,
Speaker 2: he told me he was an attorney, and then another
Speaker 2: girl was like, no, no, no, he was a firefighter.
Speaker 2: He was wearing a white lab coat with me, and
Speaker 2: he was wearing a naval officer uniform with someone else.
Speaker 2: There were like eight different names that he used for
Speaker 2: each different girl.
Speaker 1: Derek cool Right, Derek Cooldread, Richard Aldridge, Steel Aldridge, Richie Peterson,
Speaker 1: Richie Taylor.
Speaker 2: And even though maybe he was a different persona, it
Speaker 2: was so relatable and being this persona that we thought
Speaker 2: we were in love with, we had a lot of
Speaker 2: spirit in us. We had a lot to fight for.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow they'll learn whether it all pays off, and Vanessa
Speaker 1: will get the chance to look Derek in the face.
Speaker 2: That was my moment of truth. This person has been
Speaker 2: deceiving people since he was a young man, and it
Speaker 2: needs to stop.
Speaker 1: It's the morning of August twenty second, twenty eighteen, in Sherman, Texas.
Speaker 1: The women arrive at the old, very pretty courthouse.
Speaker 4: We took a little bus together. I don't think anybody
Speaker 4: ate any breakfast or anything because we were all on
Speaker 4: pins and needles.
Speaker 1: They step out onto the stairs that lead up to
Speaker 1: the entrance, and inside.
Speaker 4: You've got all the old woodwork, the old flooring, church pews.
Speaker 1: That's all I saw. It was church pews. The women
Speaker 1: are sitting together in solidarity across two rows, waiting, and
Speaker 1: then the judge has arrived. When you hear those three
Speaker 1: loud bangs, it's like suddenly everything goes completely silent. William Tatum,
Speaker 1: the Assistant United States Attorney in Texas, is the legal
Speaker 1: brain behind the big plan.
Speaker 2: You could hear a pin drop at that moment.
Speaker 1: He's sitting up front with his team as the proceedings
Speaker 1: get underway. Then out comes Derek.
Speaker 4: Just the sight of him, ugh, oh, it just made
Speaker 4: me sick.
Speaker 5: He did not look our direction at all.
Speaker 1: He's not in a pilot's uniform, not dressed as a
Speaker 1: fireman or a doctor. This time he's in a uniform
Speaker 1: he's qualified to wear.
Speaker 2: Derek was shackled, his feet were shackled, his arms were shackled.
Speaker 1: An orange jumpsuit. Derek has already signed a plea agreement
Speaker 1: admitting to the three charges, but it's a judge, he'll
Speaker 1: hand down a sentence, and so the lawyers duke it
Speaker 1: out over what should factor in and what shouldn't. They
Speaker 1: argue over whether Derek has really accepted responsibility for his actions.
Speaker 1: Despite his guilty plea, Derek is still claiming that he
Speaker 1: did in fact have authorization to use some of the
Speaker 1: credit cards. Not him personally, of course, but his alter ego, Richie.
Speaker 1: His defense lawyer, even disputes the idea that Derek used
Speaker 1: sophisticated means to conduct his scams. He argues, there was
Speaker 1: nothing particularly complex about any of it.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 5: He had to have spent hours and hours to have
Speaker 5: created those documents and details and on trucks. I just
Speaker 5: wanted the judge to know this guy was incredibly calculated.
Speaker 1: Before long, Wendy and the others will be offered just
Speaker 1: that opportunity.
Speaker 4: They started calling us to read our victim impact statements.
Speaker 1: First off is Cindy, who's been leading the way for years.
Speaker 1: Then Dorry steps up.
Speaker 4: I was the second one to read my impact statement.
Speaker 4: May seventeenth, twenty seventeen, was the last day I would
Speaker 4: be the trusting, loving, giving person that I had been
Speaker 4: for fifty plus years.
Speaker 1: Derek is forced to listen.
Speaker 4: It was a day that I uncovered that my boyfriend
Speaker 4: Ritchie Taylor, who I now know is Derek Aldred, had
Speaker 4: conned and manipulated me.
Speaker 1: Statement after statement.
Speaker 2: I want my voice to represent those women victims whose
Speaker 2: lives have been turned upside down due to Derek the socio.
Speaker 2: I believe that swindling for Derek is like a drug.
Speaker 2: Every time he gets away with it, he has a
Speaker 2: deeper desire to do it again.
Speaker 5: He's a master manipulator. He will go to unimaginable links
Speaker 5: to steal money from women.
Speaker 2: I don't think that Derek understands the fundamental difference between
Speaker 2: lies and the truth.
Speaker 4: I've seen in the history that over and over again
Speaker 4: the justice system has let us down.
Speaker 5: As soon as he's free, he will just do this again.
Speaker 2: He must be stopped from ruining other lives.
Speaker 4: No matter what sentence he's given, it's not going to
Speaker 4: compare to the one he's given me. I remember, I
Speaker 4: felt real powerful when I said it, like, listen to me,
Speaker 4: you know you're not in charge anymore. I wanted him
Speaker 4: to look me in the face so I could just
Speaker 4: give him that you discussed me. Look, he never even looked.
Speaker 1: When the women finish, the judge turns to Derek and
Speaker 1: ask if there's anything he'd like to say. There is.
Speaker 1: After a bit of waffle to his honor, Derek says
Speaker 1: to say, I'm mortified, and I'm embarrassed, and I'm shamed,
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry. Doesn't begin to capture really how I feel.
Speaker 1: You know, the harm that I've caused some of the
Speaker 1: people behind me. I know the money is really inconsequential
Speaker 1: to a degree. I never wanted to hurt someone's trust
Speaker 1: like that to where they would leave me and move
Speaker 1: on about life and have that type of deficit. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the cross that I'm going to carry, and to
Speaker 1: those people, I'm very very sorry.
Speaker 6: Sorry.
Speaker 1: I hope at this point that the victims behind me
Speaker 1: can have some peace now, go back home and move
Speaker 1: on about their lives with a little more a little
Speaker 1: more peace than they've had the past three four five years.
Speaker 2: Then he brings up my name or.
Speaker 1: Even in someone like Vanessa's case, where it's been twenty
Speaker 1: five years, hopefully this brings some closure to that. So
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, and that's all I have to say. There's
Speaker 1: something about that tone of surprise that's jarring to Vanessa.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to laugh at him and like, you know,
Speaker 2: be like you know what really?
Speaker 1: And then it's over. The women have said their peace,
Speaker 1: even Derek's spoken of apologized satisfyingly or not. It's finally
Speaker 1: time for this decade long saga to come to an end.
Speaker 1: The women are lined up in rows knots in their stomachs.
Speaker 4: The judge was getting ready to give his sense, and
Speaker 4: you can hear a pin drop.
Speaker 1: Derek sits in the courtroom in his orange jumpsuit and
Speaker 1: a judge cloaked up is ready to deliver the moment
Speaker 1: they've all been waiting for.
Speaker 4: The judge said it, I sentenced you to to eighty
Speaker 4: eight months. We're all like, how many years is that?
Speaker 4: How many years is that? You can't have your phone
Speaker 4: in there? So we're all like, how many years is that.
Speaker 4: One of the ladies in front of us had a
Speaker 4: calculator and she held it up and it's a twenty four.
Speaker 4: You got the maximum twenty four years, no parole.
Speaker 5: There was a collective sigh of relief.
Speaker 4: All of us were just like silently high fiving and
Speaker 4: clapping and just like smiles so big.
Speaker 5: You could just feel everybody's shoulders just lower a little bit,
Speaker 5: like we've been fighting to get somebody to pay attention.
Speaker 5: And this judge got the.
Speaker 1: Memo alongside the sentence. Derek is ordered to pay two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty four thousand, eight hundred and ninety two
Speaker 1: dollars and sense. The judge tells Derek, if he could
Speaker 1: have given him a higher sentence, he would have. I
Speaker 1: can't get them their money back. I can't give them
Speaker 1: any other solace. But all I can do is protect
Speaker 1: society for as long as I can do so, so
Speaker 1: that's what I'm doing. The bottom line for the court
Speaker 1: is I have full belief that if you get out
Speaker 1: of jail, you're going to commit these same crimes again.
Speaker 1: That's what your history and your pattern has been. All
Speaker 1: the court can do is try to protect society from
Speaker 1: your criminal acts, provide adequate punishment for the entirety of
Speaker 1: your conduct. You have assumed identities and personalities to defraud
Speaker 1: the individuals out of some of them large amounts of money.
Speaker 1: In all likelihood, the totality of your criminal conduct has
Speaker 1: yet to even be discovered. You have a pattern, or
Speaker 1: it looks like the inability to ever tell tell the
Speaker 1: full truth the courtroom empties, the news begins to spread
Speaker 1: to those who weren't there in person, like Lisa, our
Speaker 1: hockey loving nurse who decided not to go to Texas.
Speaker 1: I was so excited that those don't like jumping for joy.
Speaker 1: Lisa can hear the girls celebrating in the background of
Speaker 1: her phone call.
Speaker 4: Like we did a girls, we did it, Like he's
Speaker 4: going to Gail now.
Speaker 1: All the women we interviewed for the series were among
Speaker 1: those who gave statements to NCIS investigators, and most gave
Speaker 1: victim impact statements at Derek Aldred's sentencing hearing too. In total,
Speaker 1: NCIS investigators were able to link Derek or dread to
Speaker 1: at least twenty five victims, women from Hawaii, Minnesota, Texas, Nevada,
Speaker 1: calif Women who consider themselves hopeless romantics, don't right ballbusters
Speaker 1: that done it. Dorry was elated.
Speaker 4: By seeing all these girls and how good they were doing,
Speaker 4: and he had gotten through it and we're talking about
Speaker 4: it without, you know, getting real upset. Really helped me
Speaker 4: see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
Speaker 4: and I'm not a fool. It can happen anybody seeing
Speaker 4: this group of women who are very diverse, but you know,
Speaker 4: all had one thing in common and we just wanted
Speaker 4: to be loved.
Speaker 1: In the years since, there are various relationships with Derek.
Speaker 1: Some of the women have found romantic love again and
Speaker 1: some haven't.
Speaker 2: Like Vanessa, I'd say that Derek really kind of kind
Speaker 2: of screwed it up for me and made me not
Speaker 2: really want to trust people. I feel like being a
Speaker 2: part of his big lie really took away the potential
Speaker 2: opportunity for me to be with the right person. My
Speaker 2: sorority sisters, most of them are married, and they're married
Speaker 2: to people that they dated during the time that I
Speaker 2: dated Derek, and had I met someone else who was
Speaker 2: a real, genuine person, not faking to be someone else,
Speaker 2: you know, I could have actually fallen in love with
Speaker 2: someone and maybe had a family, and I feel like
Speaker 2: Derek kept me from that.
Speaker 1: But Vanessa and I also share a fundamental belief the
Speaker 1: love and joy is not something that you can only
Speaker 1: get from romantic relationships. Vanessa lives a beautiful life that's
Speaker 1: filled with love. She has so many friends, close family,
Speaker 1: a big garden which is often absolutely filled to the
Speaker 1: brim with dogs, her own and others.
Speaker 2: I'm a pet sitter on the side. I've been doing
Speaker 2: that for about ten years, and I love it.
Speaker 1: She's happy with the trajectory her life has taken since Teric.
Speaker 1: She's put the experience behind her, and I am in
Speaker 1: complete support of that, which is why I'm going to
Speaker 1: let her go back to her sweet poaches and sweet tea.
Speaker 1: Just after one question, what do you think he did
Speaker 1: with your bracelet?
Speaker 2: By the way, I'm guessing he ponned it for money.
Speaker 2: I doubt he kept it.
Speaker 1: I'll ask him about the bracelet if I do manage
Speaker 1: to get through.
Speaker 2: Oh MG, please, I would love that. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I agree with Vanessa. Derek is best put behind all
Speaker 1: of us. What are ways of energy? However, as a journalist,
Speaker 1: of course, I will give him a writer of reply
Speaker 1: to some of the allegations that have been made against him,
Speaker 1: which means getting in touch with him in prison. And
Speaker 1: if I'm going to email this guy, I might as
Speaker 1: well ask about that bracelet. Hey, who knows he might
Speaker 1: have a sudden rush of conscience. Anna, I just got
Speaker 1: an email from a prison from Derek. Oh fuck, each
Speaker 1: of the women we have spoken to for this series
Speaker 1: have told us about their individual experiences, so we ask
Speaker 1: Derek to respond to some of their allegations. Derek denies
Speaker 1: that he spiked any drink in Hawaii in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: He denies that he filed a false police report over
Speaker 1: furniture thrown out of his window in the mid nineties.
Speaker 1: Despite the plea agreement the twenty four year sentence the
Speaker 1: unequivocal words of the Derek also denies the idea that
Speaker 1: he stole money from all of these women. One thing
Speaker 1: Derek does admit is that he lied and cheated while
Speaker 1: dating some of these women. Deplorable behavior is how he
Speaker 1: describes it. Remember how Dorri's bank refused to refund the
Speaker 1: money Derek had stolen once his sentencing hearing was over.
Speaker 1: She sent them a long and feisty letter, and she
Speaker 1: tells us they promptly reverse their decision on that. Most
Speaker 1: of the women have made some kind of peace with
Speaker 1: the idea that they're unlikely to get their money back.
Speaker 1: But the bracelet, the one made from gold jewelry belonging
Speaker 1: to Vanessa's mother, who died of cancer when she was
Speaker 1: just a child, the one that went missing right around
Speaker 1: the time Derek disappeared from her life in the nineties
Speaker 1: without explanation. That's a bit harder to make peace with.
Speaker 1: Here's what Derek has to say about that highly owner.
Speaker 1: Vanessa seems to have a very different view of how
Speaker 1: we broke up and the relationship ended. Let me give
Speaker 1: you some very clear details of our breakup. And this bracelet,
Speaker 1: which is in quotation marks the only bracelet I am
Speaker 1: familiar with, is basically Derek says he can't remember that bracelet.
Speaker 1: I sense that the foundation that's being established is that
Speaker 1: I took off with this bracelet, never to be seen again.
Speaker 1: This is just categorically not true. I mean, really, what
Speaker 1: man wears a woman's bracelet for starters? Maybe Derek really
Speaker 1: doesn't remember Vanessa's bracelet. I can tell you though I've
Speaker 1: read his case file. It's obviously not the first time
Speaker 1: he's been accused of stealing or lying. It's not even
Speaker 1: the first time he's been accused of taking a beloved
Speaker 1: piece of family jewelry from a woman he was dating.
Speaker 1: And for what it's worth, the only time I've ever
Speaker 1: been able to find an example of Derek copping to
Speaker 1: his behavior is when he's had absolutely no other choice,
Speaker 1: and sometimes not even then. Derek has said countless times
Speaker 1: that he's sorry for the pain he's caused, and maybe
Speaker 1: he really is if that were true. One way he
Speaker 1: could have made amends practically, tangibly would be to finally
Speaker 1: give a woman who's been waiting thirty years a few answers.
Speaker 1: But hey, because you never know your luck, and because
Speaker 1: I'm an unrelenting optimist, and because stranger things have happened,
Speaker 1: particularly on this show, I have a quick request. If
Speaker 1: you happen to hang out around UCLA in nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 1: if you worked at a gold trader or a pawn
Speaker 1: shop in Los Angeles at that time, and you have
Speaker 1: a particularly sharp memory, or if you knew Derek aordread
Speaker 1: back then, or you knew someone who did, do you
Speaker 1: have any idea what could have happened to Vanessa's bracelet?
Speaker 1: It was gold, It had a chain link in a
Speaker 1: Cuban style, kind of masculine looking, not to be a
Speaker 1: total true crime, tragic, but someone must know something, so
Speaker 1: if you do get in touch, it belonged to someone
Speaker 1: who really treasured it and it's missing. It's important we
Speaker 1: are honest about the damage These con artists cause, because
Speaker 1: only then will the victims be taken seriously by the
Speaker 1: law and by the rest of us. These kinds of
Speaker 1: experiences do leave scars.
Speaker 4: I think after going through all this, I'm no longer
Speaker 4: the hopeless romantic.
Speaker 1: As for Dorry, she used to read Danielle Steele books,
Speaker 1: She watched the occasional Hallmark movie. Then she met Derek
Speaker 1: and brought his scamming spree to a screech halt. She's
Speaker 1: changed a lot since then.
Speaker 4: It's not my life goal to meet mister perfect and
Speaker 4: have the happily ever after. I'm really at peace with myself.
Speaker 4: I love myself, I love who I am. I'm perfectly
Speaker 4: fine me and my dogs. I really value my friendships.
Speaker 4: I have some really, really really solid good friends of
Speaker 4: my life that really really helped me through this, and
Speaker 4: so I'm trying, Oh.
Speaker 11: I'm trying now to make up to my friends that
Speaker 11: were there for me, Be there for them and whatever
Speaker 11: they may need. Be the best friend that I can
Speaker 11: to people that stop their lives to help me, help
Speaker 11: you through it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's tough for her, still, Eventually those scars harden.
Speaker 4: I'm definitely stronger now. It's like I'm steel. It's like
Speaker 4: you could say whatever you want. I know who I am.
Speaker 4: I'm happy with me.
Speaker 1: They remind you daily who was there all along. Sure
Speaker 1: you got duped, hurt terribly, but you also mocked up
Speaker 1: the pieces survived it.
Speaker 2: I just hope people learn, particularly girls that might be
Speaker 2: in a sticky situation. We women have to look out
Speaker 2: for each other.
Speaker 5: The number one lesson I learned from all of this
Speaker 5: is to trust my gut.
Speaker 4: Really trusting yourself, not second guessing yourself like I did.
Speaker 2: Always go with your gut feeling.
Speaker 1: It will never steer you wrong.
Speaker 5: I think women are still good at having these instincts
Speaker 5: and being able to recognize them. We're not always good
Speaker 5: at listening to them.
Speaker 1: Girlfriends. If I you're lesbian, agony arms can leave you
Speaker 1: with one message from this series. It's this, know you're
Speaker 1: worth You're better off without any loser making you second
Speaker 1: guess yourself. Trust me, babe, So listen to your gut.
Speaker 1: But for some reason you can't hear it. Here's some
Speaker 1: other advice for you.
Speaker 4: We always say that trust your girlfriends.
Speaker 1: There we go coming up in the next Bone episode
Speaker 1: of the Girlfriends Trust me, babe.
Speaker 4: I can't describe the bashing that the public gave us.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm smarter than this. I wouldn't file for it.
Speaker 4: People are very powerful behind their computers.
Speaker 1: Truly, these techniques they really work.
Speaker 4: They can work on any of us.
Speaker 1: The Girlfriends Trust Me Babe is produced by Novel for
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. For more from novel, visit novel dot Audio.
Speaker 1: The series is hosted by me Anna Sinfield, is produced
Speaker 1: by Leona Hamid. Our assistant producer is Valeria Rocker. Our
Speaker 1: editor is Joe Wheeler. Production management from Sharie Houston, Joe Savage,
Speaker 1: and Charlotte Wolfe. Fact checking by Dania Suleman, Sound design,
Speaker 1: mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. The
Speaker 1: Girlfriend's theme was composed by Daniel Kempson and Luisa Gerstein
Speaker 1: and performed by Daniel Kempson with vocals by Luisa Gerstein.
Speaker 1: Music supervision from Daniel Kempson and Anna Sinfield. The series
Speaker 1: artwork was designed by Christina Lemcol. Story development by Susie
Speaker 1: Baker and Olivia Smart. Novel's director of development is Selena Metta.
Speaker 1: Max O'Brien is the executive producer for Novel. Katrina Norvell
Speaker 1: and Nikki Etoor are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts,
Speaker 1: and the marketing lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Carrie Leeberman and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, Julie Sansulo,
Speaker 1: Ann Langston, Carolyn sher Levin, Katie Gillis, Kelly Hunt, Rachel Munroe,
Speaker 1: Tom Oldag and Tad Wesner