Betrayal - E3 - Ashley

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Ashley is robbed, deceived, and endangered – all by the person she trusts the most.  If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at [e-mail]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm John Walczak, host of the new podcast, Missing in Arizona. And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI. One, two, three. In 2001, Police say I killed my family and rigged my house to explode. before escaping into the wilderness. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere.

Join me. I'm going down in the cave. As I track down clues. I'm going to call the police and have you removed. Hunting. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Robert Fischer. Do you recognize my voice?

Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Back in 96, Atlanta was booming with excitement around hosting the Centennial Olympic Games. And then, a deranged zealot willing to kill for a cause lit a fuse that would change my life and so many others forever, rippling out for generations. Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This could be the craziest podcast pairing ever. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom and Superbowl champ, Marshawn beast mode Lynch are politicking. What does politicking even mean? There's bridging gaps with no politics joined by their friends and agent, Doug Hendrickson. It's going to be a wild ride. We can change the world by podcast. Hendrickson, it's going to be a wild ride. We can change the world podcast by podcast. You talk from the file.

Listen to Poli-Tikken with Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch, and Doug Hendrickson on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Poli-Tikken and start listening. They call from an 800 number. I didn't know who it was, but I answered the phone. And I heard you were getting a collect call from an 800 number. I didn't know who it was but I answered the phone and I heard you were getting a collect call from an inmate at county jail. That wave of dread

came over me. You have that decision to accept the call or not accept the call. My heart sank. My stomach went into my throat. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. A few months ago, we heard from a woman named Ashley. When our team first met Ashley, she was working as a correctional caseworker in a prison and was pursuing her master's degree in forensic psychology. I'm very in tune with people's emotions and how people are feeling. I love people.

I will go above and beyond to help somebody in need. Ashley's a sensitive person, and the betrayal she experienced was so intense, it nearly broke her. It's a twisted story of theft, deception, and even threats from a Mexican drug cartel. I was sitting there thinking, who did I marry? Am I sleeping next to somebody who would murder people for a cartel?

When we first spoke with her, I was surprised how flatly she describes what she went through. It was almost like she was divorced from emotion. So we asked her about that directly. If I let myself get emotional about it, I am in danger of getting back to that dark place that I don't want to find myself in. I know it's not a healthy coping mechanism, but like I disassociate from it. When Ashley was 26, she was working as a mental health case manager.

It's her passion. Her life was on track. She was proud to be living alone in her first apartment. She even worked a second job as a swim coach to make extra money. But there was one big thing she still wanted in her life, love. She'd had a string of bad boyfriends extra money, but there was one big thing she still wanted in her life. Love. She'd had a string of bad boyfriends and was looking for someone stable, someone she could

build a life with. I was using all the dating apps like Tinder, all that fun stuff. That's when a new guy started at Ashley's job. Jake. He was confident and smart. She was immediately drawn to him. Not necessarily romantically, but just as a person. Jake had really long black hair down to the middle of his back and kind of looked like somebody that was like in a band or something. Not the type of guy I would date. The two shared the same work schedule and soon became fast friends. Jake even teased her about being on dating apps. I'd come into

work and share my dating experiences on these apps. It started off by him kind of joking about the types of guys that I would go out on dates with, what they did as a profession or like their screen names or whatever on the dating apps. One day, Jake came into the office with bad news. He told Ashley that over the weekend, he found out that his wife Amber was cheating on him. He wasn't going to tolerate cheating, and so he kicked her out of the house, changed

all the locks, and they were going to get a divorce. Ashley was sympathetic, especially because the couple had a three-year-old daughter together. One day he left from work early because he had this lawyer appointment and he was going to go file for divorce. He thought it was best to separate and raise their child together, but separate. A few weeks later, Jake asked Ashley to hang out after work. She expected something casual, like beer and wings. But Jake had other plans. He showed up at my apartment and he bought me this huge bouquet of flowers and they were

just gorgeous. Pink and orange and just really pretty flowers. To Ashley's surprise, it was a date. When they went to dinner that night, Jake showed her a different side of him. He was a gentleman. He was such an upgrade to what I was used to. He just seemed very honest,

which was a breath of fresh air to me because I came from relationships where there was a lot of lying and hiding and secrets and he seemed to just be upfront and honest about everything and I was like this is a nice change of pace. Jake was also thoughtful. He would walk into work in the morning with her favorite coffee in his hand. That was just the beginning of Jake's generosity. He would randomly buy me designer purses or jewelry just because. He was just like, I saw this and I thought of you and I thought you'd like it,

so I bought it for you, which I've never had someone do that for me before. It was romantic. They started having date nights every Thursday and Saturday. They were the highlights of her week. Around that same time, Jake was settling his divorce and finalizing the sale of his house. He was like, I sold the house, but I have to be out in a week.

I don't have anywhere to go. And I'm like, well, you can move in with me. Even though Ashley and Jake had only been dating a few months, she didn't want someone she cared about to struggle. Plus, she saw a future with this guy. So Jake moved in. Ashley's only concern was how his three-year-old daughter would handle the change. She knew how much his only child meant to him.

I love kids. I'm good with kids, but I don't have any children. I didn't know how that was going to work or how he was going to explain to her, you know, that, oh, I'm living with her now. Ashley knew she wanted kids of her own one day and was willing to make room for Jake and his daughter. She offered to set up a bed for her in the living room, but his daughter never came to stay.

His ex-wife Amber wasn't happy about Jake's new relationship. Amber did not trust me. Amber did not want me around their daughter. And he said that she was keeping her and breaking the custody order that they had. Ashley didn't want to get involved in the custody battle. Despite the stress of the divorce, living together was surprisingly easy. The couple would go to work together, come home at night to make dinner,

and then snuggle on the couch to watch movies. It was simple. He made her happy. I could have the worst day ever, and he always found a way to make me laugh. After about a year together, Jake took her on a trip to visit Kentucky, where Ashley used to live. She was delighted by the gesture.

She took him around to all of her old haunts, and he was genuinely interested in getting to know the places she loved. That night, he gave her another gift. We were getting ready to go to sleep and he slid over a box and just tapped me on the shoulder and made that little like noise. I was like, what is this? And he was like, well, open it. And it was a ring.

And I was like, are you asking me to marry you? And he was like, well, duh. Ashley admits the proposal was underwhelming, but she didn't care. I loved him and I wanted to marry him. So the proposal and how it was done at that point didn't matter. I just wanted to move forward and start building a life with this person.

Jake found an elopement package, a weekend getaway at a bed and breakfast. Most of the day was a blur for Ashley, except for the vows the couple had written for each other. She remembers that moment clearly. Mine were all about how I promised to love him and be the best wife I could be, and his were joking about how we met at work and how this friendship ended up becoming what it is today. The very last line of his vows,

he used the song Africa by Toto about how it's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you. At the time I was like, oh, that's sweet. But looking back now I'm like, hmm, an interesting way to end your vows. on like, hmm, an interesting way to end your vows. Interesting, perhaps more like foreshadowing. I'm John Walczak, host of the new podcast, Missing in Arizona.

And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI. In 2001, police say I killed my family. First mom, then the kids. And rigged my house to explode. In a quiet suburb. This is the Beverly Hills of the valley. Before escaping into the wilderness.

There was sleet and hail and snow coming down. They found my wife's SUV. Right the reservation boundary and my dog flew. All I could think of is him a sniper me out of some tree, but not me. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. For two years, they won't tell you anything. I've traveled the nation. I'm going down in the cave tracking down clues. They were thinking that I picked him up and took him somewhere. If you keep asking me this, I'm gonna call the police and have you removed. Searching for Robert Fischer. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world.

Do you recognize my voice? Join an exploding house. The hunt. A family annihilation. Today. And a disappearing act. Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your favorite shows. It started with a backpack at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, a backpack that contained a bomb. While the authorities focused on the wrong suspect, a serial bomber planned his next attacks, two abortion clinics, and a lesbian bar. But this isn't his story. attacks, two abortion clinics, and a lesbian bar.

But this isn't his story. It's a human story, one that I've become entangled with. I saw as soon as I turned the corner, basically someone bleeding out. The victims of these brutal attacks were left to pick up the pieces, forced to explore the gray areas between right and wrong, life and death. Their once ordinary lives, and mine, change forever. It kind of gave me a feeling of pending doom.

And all the while, our country found itself facing down a long and ugly reckoning with a growing threat. Far right, homegrown, religious terrorism. Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. by their friend and agent Doug Hendrickson, it's gonna be a wild ride. We can change the world podcast by podcast. Listen to Poli-Tickin with Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch, and Doug Hendrickson on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Poli-Tickin and start listening. After a year of dating, Ashley and Jake had tied the knot in a simple elopement ceremony. As she said in her vows, she promised to be the best wife she could be.

That meant making the marriage work, even in the hard times, just like her parents had. My parents were never divorced. I grew up with my parents together, and I wanted to have one and only one marriage just like my parents. But early on the couple had a few fights. Fights where she saw a new side of Jake. There's one specific night that Ashley says she'll never forget. She'd been working her second job as a swim coach. That night she stayed a half hour late to hang out with the other coaches. When she got back to the apartment and unlocked the door, Jake was sitting there glaring at her.

And he was like, where were you? And I was like, I was talking to the coaches, we were having a good time. And he was like, that is not okay for you to be coming home a half an hour late and not be notifying me of this. And I'm like, I'm sorry, it's only a half an hour. Ashley didn't like the behavior and knew he was overreacting. But at the same time, she thought,

Well, maybe that's just a way that he is trying to be protective of me and showing me that he cares where I'm at and he's worried about me. Jake was always a bit worried about Ashley. She struggled with depression and anxiety. And Jake fixated on that. I've had bouts of depression and anxiety. And Jake fixated on that. I've had bouts of depression and anxiety throughout my whole life. He kept telling me over and over and over I need to not work, that I need to focus on getting better with my mental health. He told me that he thought I should pursue social security disability and how can you expect to go to work and handle all the stress when you can't handle stressors

in our marriage and in our life. You take naps and you rest and you go to therapy and work on your mental health and I'll do everything else in life for you. It just made me become more and more dependent on him. Ashley eventually stopped working and started collecting disability. With less income, the couple moved into Ashley's mom's house to save money. But during the move, Ashley realized she couldn't find one of her most treasured possessions. My dad gave me his military Colt.45 gun before he died.

That was one of my dad's favorite things he had. You know, I was crying and I was like, I don't know where it is. She started to worry that one of her ex-boyfriends could have stolen the gun. Jake was trying to calm her down. He said if any of her exes had stolen the gun, he could get it back for her. He took a deep breath and confessed that he had connections. And I'm like, what do you mean you have connections? And then he told me that for several years, he has been involved with a local gang that worked for one of the Mexican cartels,

the Sinaloa cartel. Cartel? Her husband involved in a Mexican drug cartel? This was news to Ashley. Shocking and terrifying information. Even though Ashley is now detached from what happened to her, she was certainly not so calm about it in that

moment. This was a huge deal. She couldn't believe this revelation was just coming out now after they were married. She asked how exactly he was connected to the cartel. He said that his job was to be, quote, a problem solver. And of course I had to ask what that meant. And then he told me how he would murder people for whoever told him to. I asked him how many people he had quote taken care of. And he told me he was like at 19. And it's not personal, it's business.

I was sitting there thinking, who did I marry? Am I sleeping next to somebody who would murder people for a cartel? Ashley stayed awake that night trying to understand what this meant for her and Jake's future. Could he really be a hitman for the cartel? Every question that I had, he had reasons for it, or he connected the dots for me that weren't making sense. He backed up a lot of stuff.

He would show me emails. He'd show me text messages with conversations with people. What was even more disturbing was that he was simply unfazed by the gravity of this. Jake acted as if it were just a simple little secret. You should feel privileged that I even let you in on this part of my life. I've never told anybody else that I was involved in this stuff and you know more about this than anybody else.

Ashley was scared and felt completely trapped. Jake expressed that he was too. He explained to me how he was trying to get out and they weren't going to let him out. These guys were serious and they weren't afraid to hurt families. Some of the stories about how people ended up missing were scary because he would explain that they will make it look like an accident or you will just disappear and never be heard from again. By him telling me about the cartels, was that putting me in danger by knowing that information? In fact, Jake said they were both in danger.

Shortly after that night, he told Ashley he broke ties with the cartel, making the two of them a target. Now, they needed to go on the run and hide out. The higher-ups in the cartel told him, if you come back to the area, you're going to be dead. We're going to get you. The impact of the stress and terror began taking a toll on Ashley.

I wasn't eating. I wasn't eating. I wasn't sleeping. I lost quite a bit of weight. I was not able to sleep unless I was medicated. They hid out in hotels for a few weeks. Eventually, Jake deemed it safe enough to return. Ashley felt safer with him than without him, So they moved back in with Ashley's family. It wasn't long until another issue surfaced.

Ashley's mother and grandfather apparently had their identity stolen. Their bank accounts were being hacked. My mother would literally get a paycheck deposited on Friday and then on Saturday go to buy something, and her bank account was overdrawn because someone hacked her bank account. Every few weeks, her mother and grandfather would notice a security breach. Just when it was solved, another one would arise. Both Ashley and Jake threw themselves into helping her family triage the problem.

Jake was really attentive to my mom and my grandpa, always sitting down with them at the kitchen table, calling the banks. That became his sole focus, was helping my mom and my grandpa fix their bank accounts. It went on like this for six overwhelming months. In the back of her mind, Ashley feared that the missing money could have something to do with the cartel. But she didn't want to burden her mom with the truth about Jake. So she kept it all inside. One day, her grandpa got his bank statement and noticed something particularly concerning.

$20,000 was missing from his savings account. He called the banks. They said for them to have it insured and covered and put back into his account, that he has to do a police report. So my grandpa went and did a police report. And our local police said, it looks like the money was being taken out of an ATM. So we'll pull the footage from that and see what's going on.

The family didn't hear anything from the police for a few weeks until one night. Our bedroom door gets bust down. Police are pointing guns at both me and him telling us, put our hands up. They asked if his name was Jacob Levin and he said yes. They told him like stand up and face the wall and put your hands behind your head. I'm trying to talk to the cop and I go, what's going on? What happened? And he said, well, ma'am, I'm gonna let you know. We have evidence that Jake was the one

dealing the money from your grandfather's bank account. It didn't add up. Jake had been the one going out of his way to help her grandfather sort through this whole financial mess. The only explanation she could think of is that this was all happening because Jake had left the cartel. In order to steal from her grandfather, he had to be desperate to come up with cash quickly. And that meant she and her family could be in danger.

So she pawned her valuables and paid his bail. She took him straight to a hotel where they could talk in private. And he confessed. He explained to me that he had received a message from one of these people in the cartel and they were threatening me and my mom and my grandfather and if he didn't come up with some form of payment they were going to harm us. They knew where we were living and they were driving past our house. So he said that he was concerned for our safety and my family's safety. He also explained why he'd kept the whole scheme a secret.

He told me that he didn't want to add more stress and worry to me because I was always kind of worried and stressed out about things going on in our marriage, our finances, people in the cartel after us. And he told me he didn't want to add more to my plate. Right then, she wanted to walk out. The fear for her safety and her family's safety was overwhelming. But more powerful than fear was a deep insecurity.

I was brought up with the like, never give up on something, try your hardest to make anything work attitude. I just didn't want to fail. And I thought that if I washed my hands of him in the whole marriage, I was failing. Their relationship was hanging on by a thread. Things were so tumultuous that Ashley picked up and left the hotel to spend the night at her mom's house.

When she went back to the hotel the next morning, she found Jake missing, along with a few other important things. He had cleared out all of his things in the hotel, including a lot of my things that he took. Three of those things were three of my guns that I had in the hotel, and they were registered to me. The guns were gone and so was Jake. He wasn't answering her phone calls. The hours turned into days. That's when she and her family started looking for their valuables and they found even more things missing. The weapons missing kind of prompted everybody in the house to start looking at our

valuables. That is when my mother noticed that her wedding band and engagement ring set were missing as well as my grandmother's wedding ring and engagement band. as my grandmother's wedding ring and engagement band. I was upset about the weapons, but the wedding ring sets from both my mom and my grandmother's was the ultimate betrayal to me. Those did mean so much to me and my family, especially because my father meant the world to me. And my dad has since passed and those things are things that can't be replaced. So it hurt real bad. The wedding rings were the final straw for Ashley.

She knew immediately that her husband had stolen them. At that point, I knew I meant nothing to him. I could not fathom how somebody could take something that meant so much to somebody and take it to a pawn shop and pawn it for however much money he got for it. To him, it was just things, but to me and my family, those things are priceless.

And at that point, I knew that I was just a thing to him. She and her family made a list of the missing items and took it to the police. At that breaking point, Ashley decided to start researching her husband's legal record. She saw the recent theft charges, some small claims court records, and then she clicked on a document about his divorce from his first wife. And one thing I noticed was the timeframe of it.

Jake had told me that he filed for divorce in 2017. This wasn't filed until 2021. Jake had told me that he was the one that filed for divorce. This was showing that Amber was the petitioner and Jake was the respondent. So I read more and then I read that the case was dismissed. Ashley needed answers, so she decided to go to the one person who would have them, Jake's ex-wife Amber. A few years ago, Amber had messaged Ashley on Facebook. Instead of reading the message, Ashley had just deleted it

and blocked his ex. I went back on Facebook. I unblocked her and I asked her if she would be willing to talk to me because I have some questions about her and Jake's marriage. Amber replied a few days later and what she said changed everything. As far as I knew, Jake and her only had one child together, and one of the first things she said to me was, You do realize that Jake has five kids.

Heh. ["The Last Supper"] I'm Jon Walczak, host of the new podcast, Missing in Arizona. And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI. In 2001, police say I killed my family. First mom, then the kids.

And rigged my house to explode. In a quiet suburb. This is the Beverly Hills of the valley. Before escaping into the wilderness. There was sleet and hail and snow coming down. They found my wife's SUV. Right on the reservation boundary. And my dog flew. All I could think of is, you're gonna snipe me out of some tree. But not me. and snow coming down. They found my wife's SUV. Right on the reservation boundary.

And my dog flew. All I could think of is you're gonna snipe me out of some tree. But not me. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. For two years. They won't tell you anything.

I've traveled the nation. I'm going down in the cave. Tracking down clues. They were thinking that I picked him up and took him somewhere. If you keep asking me this, I'm gonna call the police and have you removed. Searching for Robert Fisher. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. If you keep asking me this, I'm going to call the police and have you removed. Searching for Robert Fischer.

One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Do you recognize my voice? Join an exploding house. The Hunt. Family annihilation. Today. And a disappearing act. Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your favorite shows. It started with a backpack at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, a backpack that contained a bomb. While the authorities focused on the wrong suspect, a serial bomber planned his next attacks, two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar.

But this isn't his story. It's a human story, one that I've become entangled with. I saw as soon as I turned the corner, basically someone bleeding out. The victims of these brutal attacks were left to pick up the pieces, forced to explore the gray areas between right and wrong, life and death. Their once ordinary lives, and mine, changed forever. It kind of gave me a feeling of pending doom. And all the while, our country found itself facing down

a long and ugly reckoning with a growing threat. Far right, homegrown, religious terrorism. Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This could be the craziest podcast pairing ever. The governor of California, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We can change the world podcast by podcast. Listen to Poli-Tikken with Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch, and Doug Hendrickson on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Poli-Tikken and start listening.

Ashley learned that her husband didn't just have one daughter, like he said. He had four other small children. Four children he pretended didn't exist. And Amber had a lot more to say. The story Jake had told about his ex-wife cheating on him? Amber says that never happened. She had divorced him after he disappeared suddenly. Their divorce wasn't finalized until 2021. But Ashley had married Jake in 2018. Was their marriage even valid? She went to a divorce

attorney to find out. The lawyer had explained to me that, well, no, according to the date on my marriage certificate and the date of Amber's dissolution of marriage, my marriage, in fact, was never legal to begin with. Her term was, it was null and void from its inception. Everything was crashing down around Ashley when she got a phone call from the detective working on Jake's case. And he said, I have some news for you. You might want to sit down. I'm like, I just found out my marriage was never real. The man I married had a wife and five children that I didn't even know about some of the children. Stole from my family.

You know, what else could there be? The police explained they had just arrested Jake again. And this time, he was living with his new fiance. I'm like, excuse me, fiance? And he said, yeah, Jake was living with a woman. She had children. And this woman and him had plans about a week prior to him getting arrested to fly to Las Vegas and get married in Las Vegas.

The police searched Jake's phone, where they found even more troubling details. He told this woman that he did have five children, but his five children all died in I think it was like an automobile accident, like a car crash. And I do believe that Amber was a part of that crash as well. He told his new fiance that he wanted to be a stepdad

to her kids because his own had all died. Jake had been in jail for a few days when Ashley got a call. They called from like an 800 number and I didn't know who it was but I answered the phone and as soon as I heard you were getting a collect call from an inmate at county jail, that wave of dread came over me. My heart sank, my stomach went into my throat. You have that decision to accept the call or not accept the call. She knew she needed to confront him about his lies. As much as I did not want to talk to him, I had to ask him questions.

And I know if I didn't accept that call that I wouldn't have another chance to ask him questions. And I know if I didn't accept that call, that I wouldn't have another chance to ask him directly those questions. So she summoned all of her courage and accepted the call. And I said, you have five children, you never told me you had five children,

you told me you had one children. You told me you had one." And his response was, quote, it is what it is. I said, you were never divorced from Amber. And he goes, that's news to me. And I was like, you know, our marriage was not like a marriage. We were never legally married. And he again said, that's news to me. Before Ashley hung up, he asked if they had a future together. I'm pretty happy with myself that I was very firm and bold and said, absolutely not. No, we do not have a future together.

So that was probably the moment where the healing began. That was like the final cut of the cord. After that final phone call, Ashley began accepting the extent of his lies. I don't know who this person is. I don't know who he ever was. And quite honestly, there's nothing I can believe that he ever told me outside of the fact that here's his name and his birthday because I have his birth certificate. Was he actually a problem solver for the cartel, or was that a lie too?

Now that I'm out of the situation and completely removed and I can see the whole picture for what it is, I do not believe any of the cartel stuff was real. I believe that was like a scare tactic to just keep me worried, keep me on edge, like a diversion. Pay attention to the cartel stuff, but don't look at what I'm doing. Scare tactic is an understatement.

Lying about being a hitman for the cartel. It's a lie that created a baseline of terror in her everyday life. A lie that allowed him to justify years of deception, anger, and theft. A lie that made dozens of smaller lies seem more plausible. Jake spent in county jail for nearly two years, awaiting trial on charges of theft, fraud, theft of a firearm, and defamation with intent to defraud. Ashley submitted a victim impact statement to the court, where she recounted the emotional and financial damage he caused her and her family. The police weren't able to recover the stolen items from Ashley's family. The priceless family heirlooms.

Ashley doesn't know if she'll ever see them again. She's learning to make peace with that. This situation led me to realize out of all the stuff he has taken from me and my family, I'm not going to let him take something else from me. him take something else from me. That includes my outlook on the world, my outlook on men, like I don't hate men. I think all men are liars and cheaters because of what happened to me. She's putting her life back together.

She just finished her master's degree in forensic psychology, and today she's a correctional caseworker in a prison. It's work that brings purpose and meaning to her life. I go to work every day and I deal being a victim myself, don't let that affect how I treat any of my clients. I believe that they can find redemption. I do think that people can change and a part of my job is to help them And a part of my job is to help them find that way so that they can redeem themselves and get out and find a way to live a happy, successful life that won't have them end up back in prison. Incredibly, she even believes that Jake has potential to find redemption if he just takes accountability for his crimes and

the harm he caused. And there's one silver lining in this terrible situation. I never had to get a divorce because I never had a legal marriage. Ashley is focusing on moving forward, going to therapy and putting the pieces of her life back together. We end all of our episodes with the same question. Why did you want to tell your story? I want people to know that something like this can happen to other people and hopefully

somebody hears my story and either makes them take a second look in a situation that they're in or if somebody else is in a similar situation they don't feel alone. Because one thing that really helped me when I was going through this was hearing similar stories. It made me feel like stories, it made me feel like it's not me. This happens to other people and there is a light at the end of the tunnel because if other people have gone through the same things I went through, then it's possible that I can also find that happiness and clarity.

On the next episode of Betrayal... I remember her entering the Nicky waiting room, first off with no baby, and she just had this look on her face. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us at BetrayalPod at gmail.com. That's BetrayalPOD at gmail.com. Also, please be sure to follow us at Glass Podcasts on Instagram for all Betrayal content news and updates.

We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.

The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison. Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. Written and produced by Monique Laborde. Also produced by Ben Federman. Associate producers are Kristen Malkuri and Grace Bollinger. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Dalvecchio. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by My Music.

And for more podcasts from I Heart, visit the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jon Walczak, host of the new podcast Missing in Arizona. And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI. In 2001, Police say I killed my family and rigged my house to explode. Before escaping into the wilderness. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere.

Join me. I'm going down in the cave. As I track down clues. I'm gonna call the police and have you removed. Hunting. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Robert Fischer. Do you recognize my voice?

Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Back in 96, Atlanta was booming with excitement around hosting the Centennial Olympic Games. And then, a deranged zealot willing to kill for a cause lit a fuse that would change my life and so many others forever. Rippling out for generations. Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What does politikin even mean? It's bridging gaps with no politics. Joined by their friend and agent Doug Hendrickson, it's gonna be a wild ride.

We can change the world podcast by podcast. What are you talking about? Listen to politikin with Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch, and Doug Hendrickson on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search politikin and start listening.