Speaker 1: She was embarrassed. It's her home. She's the wife, the mother.
Speaker 1: She had no knowledge of that device being there. But realistically,
Speaker 1: the first time we were in the home, we didn't
Speaker 1: know who placed it there. I mean, Justin was acting
Speaker 1: like a suspect by not talking to us in the
Speaker 1: way he was acting.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning and this is betrayal. Season three, Episode two,
Speaker 2: Good Moms. A listener note. Some names have been changed
Speaker 2: to protect privacy. Stacy Rutherford had met her soulmate, doctor
Speaker 2: Justin Rutherford, in twenty fifteen. They had been together for
Speaker 2: five years. Mikaela, Stacy's eldest, was off to college, and
Speaker 2: Tyler started high school.
Speaker 3: They were all.
Speaker 2: Enjoying the two youngest additions to the family. Stacy's two
Speaker 2: older kids loved having young siblings.
Speaker 3: They called them the littles.
Speaker 2: Here's Tyler.
Speaker 4: My little siblings would always call me Bubby. It's fun.
Speaker 5: It's good.
Speaker 4: Like on days when you're feeling sad. They don't know
Speaker 4: what's going on, but just a hug from them makes
Speaker 4: you feel so much better.
Speaker 2: Justin was providing for his family and involved with all
Speaker 2: four kids. He took Tyler to hockey practice. He helped
Speaker 2: michaeleb pay for school at penn State, and he was
Speaker 2: the dad who got on the floor.
Speaker 3: With the kids.
Speaker 2: Stacy showed me some videos of Justin and the littles. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's hard not to smile when you hear the kids
Speaker 2: squealing with delight. Tyler's friends enjoyed having Justin around, especially
Speaker 2: when it came to gaming. He was always down for
Speaker 2: a game of Call of Duty.
Speaker 4: FID friends over and we needed another person to fill
Speaker 4: up the game, they'd have him come in. I mean
Speaker 4: that was like his outside of work passion.
Speaker 2: Stacy felt fulfilled as a doctor's wife and mother of
Speaker 2: four in Pennsylvania. But like any couple, Stacy and Justin
Speaker 2: had their issues. Physical intimacy was one of the areas
Speaker 2: where they were not on the same page. Even while dating,
Speaker 2: Stacy found Justin's lack of libido concerning.
Speaker 6: We never had a normal sex life. The only time
Speaker 6: he ever seemed to really want to have sex was
Speaker 6: when we were trying to get pregnant. He always had
Speaker 6: problems performing. He just always explained it that, oh Med
Speaker 6: school is very hard, you know, I'm stressed a lot,
Speaker 6: and then it would turn into well, you know, I've
Speaker 6: never been a very sexual person, and I remember, you know,
Speaker 6: having conversations with like my girlfriends like is it me?
Speaker 6: Is it my weight? And I ended up talking to
Speaker 6: one of the doctors I worked with and I was like,
Speaker 6: I need to ask you a question like is it
Speaker 6: common from residents to have to use viagra or just
Speaker 6: not have a sex drive? And they were like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 6: that's very common. So then I felt like a horrible person, like,
Speaker 6: you know, he's just really stressed out, and here I
Speaker 6: am making a big deal of it. And so I
Speaker 6: was willing to sacrifice that part of our relationship to
Speaker 6: have all of the good that we had.
Speaker 2: And some of the good Justin offered was his intrinsic
Speaker 2: approach with children.
Speaker 3: He was a natural. He spoke their language.
Speaker 6: All of the kids that we ever have been around, niece's, nephew's, residents, kids,
Speaker 6: everybody gravitated towards him because he was like a big kid.
Speaker 6: For me, it warmed my heart because I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: I want a man that's good with kids.
Speaker 2: But sometimes Justin took it too far and Stacy had
Speaker 2: to remind him that he was the father in the family.
Speaker 6: Like one time, you know, all the boys over at
Speaker 6: our house day the night, swam in the pool, and
Speaker 6: they all went and got plato, including my husband, and
Speaker 6: made plato penises. Of course, for teenage boys, you know
Speaker 6: you're gonna be like, ah, that's you know, they were laughing,
Speaker 6: I'm sure, But for an adult ticket on that, I
Speaker 6: was like, justin, you're thirty some years old. It was
Speaker 6: like there was never this understanding that he was the parent.
Speaker 6: They were the kids.
Speaker 2: But Stacy was never seeking perfection.
Speaker 6: I always looked at it as that's justin. He was
Speaker 6: an only child. He's immature, you know. My sister always
Speaker 6: used to call on Peter pant he just wanted to
Speaker 6: be a boy forever.
Speaker 2: The Rutherford House was a hub for guests, full parties
Speaker 2: and friends. There were sleepovers too, and with kids going
Speaker 2: over to swim, a lot of them changed and showered
Speaker 2: at the house. It was a completely normal happening. But
Speaker 2: one afternoon Tyler had a couple of friends over who
Speaker 2: left in a hurry.
Speaker 4: I had my friends over and we were kind of
Speaker 4: just having a pool day. Everything was going fine. We
Speaker 4: even planned to later on go to like a trampoline
Speaker 4: park of so sort. They had gone upstairs to change
Speaker 4: out of their swim trunks into their normal clothes, and
Speaker 4: then out of nowhere. They had said their aunt texted
Speaker 4: them or uncle someone around those lines, and they needed
Speaker 4: to leave. Didn't really give much information as to why,
Speaker 4: but they made it seem as if it was something
Speaker 4: very urgent, and within twenty minutes they were out the
Speaker 4: door and they were gone. I found it odd, but
Speaker 4: I just kind of assumed it was some family emergency,
Speaker 4: someone had gotten hurt something like that.
Speaker 2: Tyler didn't really know what happened, but didn't dwell on
Speaker 2: it either. Later on that night, another strange incident occurred.
Speaker 2: They had an unexpected visit from Social Services.
Speaker 6: There was a tip to DCFS that he had asked
Speaker 6: two of Tyler's friends to do inappropriate things in the
Speaker 6: shower together.
Speaker 2: DCFS is the Division of Children and Family Services. It's
Speaker 2: a government agency that investigates the mistreatment and abuse of children.
Speaker 6: And I'm like, that's not true. I was here all day, like,
Speaker 6: he never was alone with anybody, And they said, okay,
Speaker 6: well we're investigating this, and because Tyler is not Justin's
Speaker 6: biological child, he has to leave the house.
Speaker 2: Stacey had no idea what they were talking about but
Speaker 2: it didn't matter. It was upsetting. Imagine Social Services knocking
Speaker 2: on your door telling you that your husband is suspected
Speaker 2: of inappropriate, possibly criminal behavior. The Division of Children and
Speaker 2: Family Services was investigating. Tyler would stay just down the
Speaker 2: street with a close friend until it was over.
Speaker 6: That social worker came back to the house and said,
Speaker 6: we've interviewed Tyler. He loves his stepdad, he's happy here,
Speaker 6: he seems safe. We think he's fine to come home.
Speaker 6: You know, she said, sometimes in situations like this, where
Speaker 6: there is a doctor and there's money involved, it could
Speaker 6: have been somebody who thought, you know, oh, let's you know,
Speaker 6: make up something and see if they'll pay us off.
Speaker 2: Justin agreed, telling Stacy it had to be a money grab.
Speaker 2: So Stacy was relieved when Social Services told them they
Speaker 2: were dropping the case.
Speaker 6: We were just like ecstatic, like, oh my gosh, our
Speaker 6: lives can go back to normal.
Speaker 2: And for a little while they resumed their everyday routine.
Speaker 2: But then Stacy saw something that made her realize they
Speaker 2: couldn't go back to normal.
Speaker 6: I'm downstairs with the little ones and Justin had been
Speaker 6: gone for a little while, and I'm like, where is
Speaker 6: he at? I go upstairs to our bedroom. And when
Speaker 6: I tell you that it was like a movie, I
Speaker 6: mean it was like a movie. He was encrypting his computer,
Speaker 6: like the stuff coming down the screen.
Speaker 2: I imagine it looked like this from the Matrix when
Speaker 2: it starts raining down code.
Speaker 6: And I stood there and he turned around and he said, oh, great, great,
Speaker 6: And I said what are you doing? And he said, listen,
Speaker 6: you know, if we've got somebody coming after us and
Speaker 6: this and that, I'm encrypting my computer. Stacy and I
Speaker 6: know what you think.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: We kept saying I know what you think, and I'm like,
Speaker 6: you're damn right, I know what I think. From that
Speaker 6: moment on, I knew something was wrong.
Speaker 2: Stacy felt something in her gut, and it changed the
Speaker 2: way she viewed her husband from.
Speaker 3: That day on.
Speaker 4: We had family time every night before bet you know
Speaker 4: we still had those after all that. But it wasn't
Speaker 4: the normal happy family night. It was mom sits on
Speaker 4: the couch on her phone, ignores everyone and everything, and
Speaker 4: Justin tries to play it cool and act normal. But
Speaker 4: you can still tell something's not right. She wouldn't sit
Speaker 4: next to him, she wouldn't touch him. Kisses reforced nothing
Speaker 4: was like the usual.
Speaker 2: Stacy performed the role of wife and mother, acting out
Speaker 2: the parts well enough to keep her household from collapsing,
Speaker 2: but in her head, she was preparing for the worst
Speaker 2: case scenarios.
Speaker 6: With my first divorce, I felt helpless because I wasn't working.
Speaker 6: I had just quit my job and he was letting
Speaker 6: me open up a home daycare, and within weeks of that,
Speaker 6: everything imploded.
Speaker 2: So she made sure she could always work and make
Speaker 2: a living. It's the reason she kept her certified Nursing
Speaker 2: assistant credentials up to date.
Speaker 6: So I think with Justin, I just was like, m
Speaker 6: I'm good, Like, I'll stay working.
Speaker 2: As much as she loved Justin and her life in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: she was not naive she wouldn't make the same mistake again.
Speaker 6: I want to say it was like a divine thing,
Speaker 6: but I always just had this feeling at any moment,
Speaker 6: the bottom could fall out, Stacy, and you need to
Speaker 6: be prepared.
Speaker 2: And sure enough, a few weeks later, the other shoe
Speaker 2: finally dropped when she was met by a detective at
Speaker 2: her front door.
Speaker 6: I get home and I pull in and there's all
Speaker 6: these vans and SUVs just flood my driveway and I
Speaker 6: walk up to the house and an armed officer of
Speaker 6: like you know, Mam, calm down, come downstairs with me
Speaker 6: and laid out on our couch was a device torn apart,
Speaker 6: and then photos of my kids all naked in the shower.
Speaker 2: Stacy had suspicions about her husband, but was not expecting
Speaker 2: a police raid. Now she was standing in her home
Speaker 2: watching a scene right out of the crime shows she.
Speaker 3: Watched on television.
Speaker 2: Sergeant Mike Fick, a detective with the Burkes County District
Speaker 2: Attorney's Office.
Speaker 1: Amity Township Police Department received information that juveniles in a
Speaker 1: home of Justin Rutherford saw something in a bathroom that
Speaker 1: they didn't know what it was.
Speaker 6: One of the.
Speaker 1: Juveniles took a picture of it and sent it to
Speaker 1: his mother. The mother researched it and found that it
Speaker 1: was a camera. Juveniles removed it with the SIM card and.
Speaker 2: Took it home. The Rutherford family lived in Amity Township.
Speaker 2: Sergeant Vic explained how it got to the county.
Speaker 1: Amity asked us if we would take the case because
Speaker 1: we have more knowledge and experience in this field. The
Speaker 1: good news is the evidence was secured. We wanted to
Speaker 1: have our forensic Services unit withdraw the information on the
Speaker 1: SIM card and see exactly what was recorded on that device.
Speaker 2: The police had investigating the secret camera since Social Services
Speaker 2: first came into their home three weeks prior. Investigators found
Speaker 2: images of several children and a handful of adults using
Speaker 2: the bathroom and showering.
Speaker 1: A lot of the boys will go in and of
Speaker 1: course when they stand to yearinate, he would capture that
Speaker 1: his step daughter. I believe our boyfriend those people were captured,
Speaker 1: but realistically we didn't know who placed it there.
Speaker 2: It was concerning enough to warrant further investigation.
Speaker 1: We executed a search warrant at the house and at
Speaker 1: that time we were in there to take every electronic device.
Speaker 1: Rutherford was there. When we went to take his cell phone,
Speaker 1: he actually tried to delete something from it quick. We
Speaker 1: had to secure him and take the phone from him.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to talk to us. He said he's
Speaker 1: got have a lawyer, so of course we couldn't question
Speaker 1: him any further. I mean, Justin was acting like a suspect.
Speaker 2: OK, So there was a camera in the bathroom. Justin
Speaker 2: was being uncooperative.
Speaker 6: One picture was Justin's hand and they asked me if
Speaker 6: I could identify his wedding ring, and I said, yes,
Speaker 6: that's his wedding ring. And they told me, well, we're
Speaker 6: here because we have reason to believe that he placed
Speaker 6: a camera in this bathroom to record your son and
Speaker 6: his friend's undressed.
Speaker 2: And just then Tyler came home from work.
Speaker 4: I was working landscaping at the time and walking down
Speaker 4: to the house and I noticed there's all sorts of
Speaker 4: cars and I'm thinking, I'm about to walk into one
Speaker 4: of our family parties. It's about to be a fun night.
Speaker 4: I opened the door and there's like six police standing
Speaker 4: there in front of me. I was all covered in
Speaker 4: grass clippings and MUDs. I was stinky, I was dirty.
Speaker 4: I was ready to go take a shower, and I
Speaker 4: asked him, I kind of see what's going on. Can
Speaker 4: I just go take a shower? And then he was
Speaker 4: like no. So they had sent me downstairs, and they'd
Speaker 4: broke the news that there was cameras in the house
Speaker 4: and that most of the allegations are most likely true.
Speaker 2: While Stacey felt something was off, she wasn't expecting the
Speaker 2: police to show up with the search warrant, and she
Speaker 2: certainly wasn't expecting what they were showing her.
Speaker 6: I remember crying and just I kept saying, oh my God, Like,
Speaker 6: what kind of mother doesn't know this? One of the
Speaker 6: police officers grabbed a holding and just held me while
Speaker 6: I cried. He kept saying, good moms, good moms, Stacy.
Speaker 6: He said, the whole time we investigated you, we were
Speaker 6: in every area of your life, your emails, your facebooks,
Speaker 6: your everything. The whole time, he said. The one thing
Speaker 6: we kept saying over and over was this woman has
Speaker 6: no idea what's about to happen in her life.
Speaker 2: Tyler was trying to process the whole scene, his mother
Speaker 2: crying downstairs, his stepfather's stonewall upstairs.
Speaker 4: I finally got to go take my shower as they
Speaker 4: were getting ready to leave. I'm usually a five minute,
Speaker 4: ten minute shower kind of guy. I get my job done,
Speaker 4: i leave, but that shower was different. I just stood
Speaker 4: in there and pretty much cried the whole time. Head
Speaker 4: against the wall, eyes closed, water falling down my head.
Speaker 2: Tyler knew what was at stake, and he knew they
Speaker 2: would not be staying in this house or in this life.
Speaker 4: We had everything we ever dreamed of growing up. We
Speaker 4: had an in ground pool and to me, that was
Speaker 4: the craziest thing. Like I thought billionaires had in ground pools.
Speaker 4: It had a slide, like I thought. We had a
Speaker 4: water park in the backyard. And he took us on
Speaker 4: our first cruise, and I mean I had a nice
Speaker 4: like fifteen hundred dollars gaming PC, pretty much anything a
Speaker 4: kid could want.
Speaker 6: After the raid happened, they told me Social Service, we'll
Speaker 6: be contacting you.
Speaker 2: Detectives took the family's electronic devices and left. This was
Speaker 2: a mission to find and collect evidence, not to arrest Justin.
Speaker 6: At that point, he was standing in the kitchen and
Speaker 6: he started to talk to me and I said, just
Speaker 6: shut the fuck up. I don't want to hear another
Speaker 6: word out of your mouth. I need you to get
Speaker 6: your shit and I need you to get out of
Speaker 6: my house. And he was like, you're going to ruin
Speaker 6: our marriage over this. Are you serious, Stacy? I said, no,
Speaker 6: you ruined our marriage. I said, they showed me everything
Speaker 6: down there. Justin He was like, I didn't do this,
Speaker 6: you know, that's all lies.
Speaker 2: Justin was maintaining his innocence. He started naming all of
Speaker 2: the kids who might have been the culprit, but the
Speaker 2: detective had wisely shown Stacey the photo of Justin's hand,
Speaker 2: presumably testing the camera, and.
Speaker 6: I was like, m you gotta go. I said, it's
Speaker 6: either you or me and these kids, so you need
Speaker 6: to make it. And he's like, well, I'm not going
Speaker 6: to make you and the kids leave the house tonight.
Speaker 6: So that he ended up going and staying with one
Speaker 6: of his co residents and just told her that we
Speaker 6: were going through a divorce and that he just needed
Speaker 6: a place to crash.
Speaker 2: Stacy and the kids needed family and friends who were
Speaker 2: like family, but those folks were back home in Virginia.
Speaker 2: Once this story about Justin got back to his employer,
Speaker 2: this house, they loved, this job he had worked so
Speaker 2: hard for.
Speaker 3: It would all be over.
Speaker 6: The day after the raid, we were putting the house
Speaker 6: of her sale. His mentality was, I'll finish out my
Speaker 6: contract here, you know, and then we'll slowly work on,
Speaker 6: like rebuilding our relationship. I mean, at the time, I
Speaker 6: was trying to play the part like oh yeah, maybe,
Speaker 6: but I was just like, oh yeah, Bunny, that's not happening.
Speaker 2: Justin was adamant that he was innocent, but Stacy no
Speaker 2: longer cared. She just wanted to keep her kids safe.
Speaker 6: I called my sister and I said, this is what's
Speaker 6: going down. I think it's going to be bad. She
Speaker 6: was like, oh my god, you got to get the
Speaker 6: babies out of that house. And I said, I told
Speaker 6: him he had to leave, but I'm moving home, and
Speaker 6: she was like, shit, Stacy. School starts next week.
Speaker 2: Heathern was concerned about Tyler. He was in high school
Speaker 2: and this move would mean a new school for him.
Speaker 2: That was hard enough.
Speaker 6: She was like, we got to get him here to
Speaker 6: get him enrolled in school. He can't get behind me.
Speaker 6: I tell my husband what's going on, and my husband
Speaker 6: says to me, we're going to get silent her.
Speaker 7: And my husband is one of those people that not
Speaker 7: a lot of people will argue with.
Speaker 2: He's not taking over an answer. Tyler loved his ant
Speaker 2: Heather and knew on the day of the raid that
Speaker 2: his life was going to change, but he never could
Speaker 2: have predicted it would happen so fast.
Speaker 4: I'd gotten a text from my mom, Hey, when you
Speaker 4: get home tonight, we're gonna pack up all your stuff.
Speaker 4: You're going to live with your aunt. Heather like, Bam,
Speaker 4: it's really getting real. Woke up that next morning, my
Speaker 4: friend had come over because I'd told him I was leaving.
Speaker 4: This was the same friend I'd stayed at after Social
Speaker 4: Services came, so he kind of knew what was going on.
Speaker 4: We hugged, which was not like us. You know, teenage
Speaker 4: boys don't really do that, and like he actually shed
Speaker 4: some tears. I did too. It was kind of like
Speaker 4: heartfelt but sad at the same time. He was my
Speaker 4: best friend. I didn't have much to leave him, but
Speaker 4: I was like, take this xbox, It'll be like a
Speaker 4: good remember me bye. And then I was off to
Speaker 4: my aunts to live for the next year and a
Speaker 4: half or so.
Speaker 2: We've all seen those stories when a person with men
Speaker 2: suddenly falls and is about to lose everything. Many times
Speaker 2: they don't just bow out, They take people with them.
Speaker 2: Usually it's those closest. Justin had lost his family, had
Speaker 2: not seen his biological children, and it was just a
Speaker 2: matter of time before he lose his ability to practice medicine.
Speaker 2: What then, Stacy's mind went to worst case scenarios.
Speaker 6: I slept with a loaded gun next to me for
Speaker 6: a long time. I Mean, my thought was his life
Speaker 6: is falling apart. He's going to take us all down
Speaker 6: with him.
Speaker 2: As heartbreaking as it was, Stacy moved quickly and put
Speaker 2: the house on the market. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: remember the housing market in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: I do. It didn't take long.
Speaker 2: For prospective buyers to start looking at Stacy's home.
Speaker 6: We were there at the house and they said the
Speaker 6: new tenants were going to come for a walkthrough. I
Speaker 6: think they got there early, so they came in and
Speaker 6: I was just they just kind of opened the door,
Speaker 6: walked in and I was like, oh, I'm sorry, and
Speaker 6: I just remember looking at him and I said, you know,
Speaker 6: you're getting a really good house. It's a really good neighbor.
Speaker 6: I said, You're just you're really gonna love it here.
Speaker 6: I saw, I love my time here.
Speaker 2: Her loss was there again, even in that moment, she
Speaker 2: showed grace. She loved that house, she loved the life
Speaker 2: she thought she was living. Mikayla had been living away
Speaker 2: at college. Stacey knew that it would only be a
Speaker 2: matter of time before she'd hear what happened. Stacey wanted
Speaker 2: to be the one to tell her, but she didn't
Speaker 2: want to break this type of news over the phone,
Speaker 2: so she invited Mikaela and her boyfriend Tommy for the weekend.
Speaker 2: When Michaela arrived at the house, she noticed something was
Speaker 2: off right away.
Speaker 5: Get there, and it's just oddly quiet in this house.
Speaker 2: That's when her much younger sister spilled the beans.
Speaker 5: She looks me dead in the face and says, Daddy
Speaker 5: doesn't live here anymore and Bubby's living with Aunt Heather.
Speaker 5: And I was like what, And Mom, who hasn't said anything,
Speaker 5: explained everything. You know that they raided the house. They
Speaker 5: took all electronics.
Speaker 2: Mikhayla thought there had to be some kind of mistake.
Speaker 2: She just couldn't wrap her head around it, not.
Speaker 5: Justin immediately, I was kind of like, are we sure?
Speaker 5: You know people put nanny cams all the time? Was
Speaker 5: it an accident? Was it supposed to be like downstairs
Speaker 5: to maybe make sure Dee, who lived with us, was
Speaker 5: taking care of the kids, and somebody moved it.
Speaker 2: The stress of everything that was going on seemed to
Speaker 2: be getting to justin. One of his patients noticed a
Speaker 2: total transformation in his bedside manner.
Speaker 8: My name is Christina CALVAESSI I have to go to
Speaker 8: the doc or for regular checkups. So I went and
Speaker 8: I visited him. I liked him a lot. He was
Speaker 8: very talkative, very interested to me. It was a great doctor.
Speaker 2: Until he became preoccupied with his own problems.
Speaker 8: I never had an issue with him until the medication
Speaker 8: that he put me on. It crippled me. I could
Speaker 8: not walk. It was actually destroying my muscles, and the
Speaker 8: side effects of that medication were exactly the side effects
Speaker 8: that I was having. When I called his office and
Speaker 8: asked that he called me back and talked to me directly,
Speaker 8: he was very abrupt. It was not the same doctor
Speaker 8: Rutherford that I knew.
Speaker 2: Justin kept working. He still hadn't been charged with a crime.
Speaker 3: Still, word of the.
Speaker 2: Raid was spreading through their circle of friends and community.
Speaker 5: About a week or so later, I get a snapchat
Speaker 5: message from one of Tyler's friends.
Speaker 3: It was a boy she knew well.
Speaker 5: He was at the house all the time when I
Speaker 5: lived there. It was like another little brother to me.
Speaker 5: We've had difficult conversations in the past about anxiety and depression.
Speaker 5: He disclosed to me that Justin had sexually abused him.
Speaker 2: Mikayla was devastated.
Speaker 5: I pulled over on the side of the road. I'm
Speaker 5: like bawling my eyes out. I did tell him like
Speaker 5: I'm so sorry that happened to you, but as somebody
Speaker 5: who works in healthcare, I have to mandate report or
Speaker 5: I could lose my job.
Speaker 2: Michaela was working in an outpatient psychiatry department, and she
Speaker 2: took her mandate seriously. She explained that the police was
Speaker 2: probably contact his parents and that she would be there
Speaker 2: for him. But inside, Michaela was heartbroken, justin was her dad.
Speaker 5: It was hard, you know, when you love somebody so much.
Speaker 5: There's that little part that's like, what the heck is
Speaker 5: going on? There's no way that he could have done this,
Speaker 5: And then the bigger part of me is like it
Speaker 5: doesn't matter, Like this kid just told you that he
Speaker 5: was abused. You take that seriously.
Speaker 6: It's real.
Speaker 2: Mikayla didn't go to work that day. Instead, she turned
Speaker 2: around and drove herself straight to the police precinct to
Speaker 2: report the text.
Speaker 5: On my way there, I had called my mom. I
Speaker 5: asked her who the detectives were, and I think she
Speaker 5: knew something was wrong. So I'm like, okay, I wasn't
Speaker 5: gonna tell you.
Speaker 6: You're at work.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to drive, I'm trying to still process it.
Speaker 3: But this is what happened.
Speaker 2: Mikayla met with the detective at the police station to
Speaker 2: share the text.
Speaker 3: It was evidence.
Speaker 5: I gave them my phone and they made copies or screenshots.
Speaker 2: These were serious allegations and now it was in the
Speaker 2: detective's hands. She was a wreck and concern for the
Speaker 2: victim that there wasn't much more for Mikayla to do,
Speaker 2: or at least she thought. Detectives eventually pivoted and asked
Speaker 2: her for help with the hitting camera case they were
Speaker 2: building against Justin, and then they.
Speaker 5: Were like, we're gonna show you a bunch of pictures.
Speaker 5: We need you to identify the individuals, and the pictures.
Speaker 2: They were screen grabs the forensic team had pulled from
Speaker 2: the hitting camera.
Speaker 5: And then they whip out this huge finder and they
Speaker 5: just start flipping through it and it's like my brother's friends,
Speaker 5: family members, all these people sitting on the toilet, brushing
Speaker 5: their tea, using the shower. It was literally anything you
Speaker 5: can think of.
Speaker 2: No one ever noticed the camera because it was disguised
Speaker 2: as an everyday household item.
Speaker 5: It was like a cube and it charged your phone,
Speaker 5: so it worked just like a phone block, but it
Speaker 5: had a camera inside of it.
Speaker 2: Mikhaela was still processing the abuse allegations and this new responsibility.
Speaker 2: While it was awkward and just plain awful sitting there
Speaker 2: identifying people hundreds of photos laid out in binders, Detectives
Speaker 2: did their best to make her comfortable. Seeing your friends
Speaker 2: and family getting in and out of the shower, they're naked.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine it couldn't cover them up at least?
Speaker 2: And when she thought it couldn't get any worse.
Speaker 5: It whipped out another binder and it was me. So
Speaker 5: I dye my hair a lot, and I had to
Speaker 5: identify myself in every different hairstyle, every different hair color.
Speaker 5: And then they let me know that some of these
Speaker 5: pictures were actually like they had clipped it from a video,
Speaker 5: and the one picture was actually Tommy and I in
Speaker 5: the bathroom together doing like sexual acts. I said, how
Speaker 5: many people have seen this video? And he told me
Speaker 5: all of the forensic team, all of the detectives on
Speaker 5: the case, and I was like as white as a ghost.
Speaker 5: I wanted to throw up.
Speaker 2: And who could blame her? Detectives went to interview the
Speaker 2: boy who said he was abused by Justin. Here's Sergeant
Speaker 2: Fick again.
Speaker 1: I personally did a forensic interview and interviewed him and
Speaker 1: he disclosed being sexually abused by Justin.
Speaker 2: Still, there were no charges, but Stacy wanted to get
Speaker 2: away from the house.
Speaker 3: She reached a breaking point.
Speaker 6: I took the kids immediately and left the house with
Speaker 6: nothing and went to Michaela's because her building was secure.
Speaker 6: If you had to have a key to get in
Speaker 6: the front, you had to have a key to get
Speaker 6: on the elevator, and that key had to match the
Speaker 6: floor that you lived on too.
Speaker 2: Stacy shared the terrible development with her sister, Heather, and
Speaker 2: Heather told Tyler at least her son was safe with
Speaker 2: Heather and Virginia. For Stacy, Heather, and Mikayla, there was
Speaker 2: a question that permeated all of their thoughts. If Justin
Speaker 2: sexually assaulted Tyler's friend, was it possible that he prayed
Speaker 2: on Tyler as well. Mikayla couldn't stop thinking about that
Speaker 2: text and her younger brother.
Speaker 5: Honestly, as soon as I opened the message from him,
Speaker 5: I could feel it in my gut that he wasn't
Speaker 5: the only one.
Speaker 2: Stacy checked in with Tyler often. She asked him multiple
Speaker 2: times if he was okay. She asked him after social
Speaker 2: services came. She asked him again after the raid and
Speaker 2: thought it was agonizing to raise it with him again.
Speaker 2: She even asked her son after the sexual assault victim
Speaker 2: came forward. He always reassured her, But there was so
Speaker 2: much she didn't know, so much that happened right in
Speaker 2: front of her. But she remembered what social services told her.
Speaker 6: We've interviewed Tyler. He loves his stepdad. If he's happy here,
Speaker 6: he seems safe.
Speaker 2: Everything was different now nobody had been safe. Heather thought
Speaker 2: she had the best chance of approaching Tyler. He was
Speaker 2: staying in her house.
Speaker 6: Heather was very proactive about something happened to Tyler. If
Speaker 6: he did it to another boy, I just know it.
Speaker 6: So she started immediately asking questions.
Speaker 2: Her sister sought advice from a friend who was a
Speaker 2: social worker. Here's Heather. She's like, you can't push him,
Speaker 2: you can't pull it out of him. You just need
Speaker 2: to continue to let him know that you're there.
Speaker 6: If he wants to check, you know you're there. They
Speaker 6: would talk about it and then she'd let it go.
Speaker 2: While Stacey was agonizing over what may have happened to Tyler,
Speaker 2: she noticed that Justin was making some unusual financial transactions.
Speaker 2: She reached out a detective Weaver, who she had met
Speaker 2: the knight of the raid.
Speaker 6: I remember texting Weaver in them saying he's gonna run.
Speaker 6: I feel it. He's drawn out money. Oh, we got
Speaker 6: eyes on him. We're good work.
Speaker 2: Good. Detectives were not in a hurry to arrest Justin.
Speaker 2: They were more interested in building a strong case than
Speaker 2: a fast one. Remember, Stacy had caught him encrypting his computer,
Speaker 2: so the only evidence they had in their case against
Speaker 2: Justin at this point was the simcard from the camera
Speaker 2: in the bathroom. But the victim coming forward, you may
Speaker 2: be thinking there had to be an arrest warrant soon. Well,
Speaker 2: not necessarily. Detectives were trying to corroborate the victim's story.
Speaker 2: Law enforcement wouldn't just make an arrest without sufficient evidence.
Speaker 2: They would need more.
Speaker 6: When it was just the camera charges, Detective Weaver had
Speaker 6: said to me, this was a misdemeanor act, and that
Speaker 6: with him having a clear history and no arrests or
Speaker 6: any violence or anything like that, that they would look
Speaker 6: at that, and they would look at kind of who
Speaker 6: he was in society, and that more than likely he
Speaker 6: would just get probation out of it, and it was
Speaker 6: gross to me to think that you could walk away
Speaker 6: with a misdemeanor and just have probation for looking at
Speaker 6: naked children.
Speaker 2: Maybe that was Justin's purpose for hiding the camera in
Speaker 2: the bathroom, but the simcard contained images of children and adults.
Speaker 2: A defense attorney could argue that it wasn't meant for
Speaker 2: just kids. It was no slam dunk for a prosecutor.
Speaker 6: It was scary because I thought he's going to get
Speaker 6: a misdemeanor. I mean, people get misdemeanors for stupid stuff
Speaker 6: and still are able to see their kids. Thought was,
Speaker 6: he's still gonna have access to our children. I knew
Speaker 6: I was leaving. I knew I was divorcing him, like
Speaker 6: there was no question, but to think that I would
Speaker 6: have had to possibly drive my children to his home
Speaker 6: and drop them off was just nauseating to me.
Speaker 2: Heather was on the receiving end of Stacy's anguish.
Speaker 7: My sister had just called me and she's crying and
Speaker 7: she's like this is crazy, Like how are they gonna
Speaker 7: let him go?
Speaker 6: And I'm like I know, oh, you know, God's got this.
Speaker 6: We're going to figure this out.
Speaker 2: I do not believe in my heart of hearts, this
Speaker 2: man is going to walk free.
Speaker 6: And Tyler's listening to this.
Speaker 7: And I got off the phone and he was helping
Speaker 7: me full laundry, and I said, man, buddy, I said.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 6: We gotta do some serious pray. And he's like, why,
Speaker 6: what's up.
Speaker 7: I said, they're talking about only charging Justin with the
Speaker 7: cameras and he goes, well, what does that mean? And
Speaker 7: I said, well, that probably means your little brother will
Speaker 7: have visitation with his father.
Speaker 2: In due time.
Speaker 6: And he just looked at me.
Speaker 7: With look I will never forget, and his eyes welled
Speaker 7: up with tears. And Tyler says, he'll never see the
Speaker 7: outside of a prison when I tell them what I do.
Speaker 2: He had heard enough, the thought of Justin being alone
Speaker 2: with his little brother, the idea that he could have visitation.
Speaker 2: That was the tipping point. Tyler was ready to talk.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal.
Speaker 4: You know, they were at work making the money, doing
Speaker 4: their jobs, and I was doing my job, keeping my
Speaker 4: mouth shut to keep the family.
Speaker 2: Together, and Justin makes a run for it.
Speaker 6: I go to the house and his side of the
Speaker 6: closet is gone. All of his stuff was gone. I
Speaker 6: was like, oh shit, he's on the run.
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team,
Speaker 2: email us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal
Speaker 2: Pod at gmail dot com. Also, please be sure to
Speaker 2: follow us at Glass Podcasts on Instagram for all Betrayal content,
Speaker 2: news and updates. We're grateful for your support. One way
Speaker 2: to show support is by subscribing to our show on
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Speaker 2: Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
Speaker 2: you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
Speaker 2: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
Speaker 2: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Speaker 2: Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
Speaker 2: Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Kerry Hartman, also produced
Speaker 2: by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Melcurie and Grace Bollinger.
Speaker 2: Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Special
Speaker 2: thanks to Stacy Rutherford Tyler and the rest of Stacy
Speaker 2: and Tyler's friends and family. Audio editing and mixing by
Speaker 2: Matt tal Vecchio, editing support from Nico Aruka. Betrayals theme
Speaker 2: composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by Mob Music
Speaker 2: and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts