Betrayal - S2: Bonus Ep 2 – A Stranger in the Share House

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

A Canadian ex-pat living in Australia is stunned to discover that her lovely new boyfriend has very dark and illegal interests.   If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at [e-mail].   To report a case of child sexual exploitation, call The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline at 1-800-THE-LOST  If you or someone you know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children reach out to stopitnow.org  In the UK reach out to stopitnow.org.uk  In Australia reach out to stopitnow.org.au See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

911 what's your emergency? It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. In a killer, we were still on the loose. In the 1980s, we were in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members. We weren't safe anywhere. Would we be next? It was getting harder and harder to live in Mompine.

Listen to the Murder Years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The True Crime Podcast Sacred Scandal returns for a second season to investigate a led sexual abuse at Mexico's La Luz del Mundo Mega Church. Journalist Robert Garza explores survivor stories of pure evil experiences at the hands of a self-proclaimed apostle who is now behind bars. I remember as a little girl being groomed

to be his concubine, that's how I was raised. It is not wrong if you take your clothes off for the apostle. Listen to Sacred Scandal on the IHR radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Get your tickets now at AXS.com. For our 2023 IHR Radio Music Festival. your podcasts. music festival by your tickets for our 2023 I are ready your music festival now. Starting at just $55 plus taxes and fees at AXS.com.

Topics featured in this episode may be disturbing to some listeners. Please take care while listening. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is our second bonus episode of season 2 of Betrayal. Betrayal is a universal feeling. The shock and hurt that deception creates from someone so close crosses all cultures. And we found that the secrets and lies we've heard in season two happen everywhere. We received emails from a mom in Northern Ireland,

from a young woman in India, and the woman will introduce to you today, lives in Australia. We are far apart, of course, but our interest in protecting those who cannot protect themselves cuts through those miles and time zones. Melanie is a Canadian expat living in Australia. Reaching her was a little tricky. Our today is her tomorrow, but we figured it out.

It's quite surreal to actually talk to you, because you've just been in my years while I've been running. What happened with me in October 2017? I just met this guy on an app. He lived in a different town, like eight hours away, so he had just been chatting. And then about two months into our chatting, he made a trip to my city,

and he met up for the first time and we hung out and we had like a really lovely weekend together. I don't know tree did me well. I like it was very early stages of dating but like there weren't any red flags at that juncture. So he went back to his little town and then we just kind of started long distance meeting. About four months later, Melanie's new guy ended up leaving his job and moving closer to her. She lived in a cosmopolitan town in South Australia

called Adelaide. Housing in that part of the country is expensive and hard to find. So even though the relationship was still new, he ended up staying with her. Melanie was living in what's called a share house, down under that refers to a rental house where people who may not know each other rent a house together. It's a common living arrangement in Australia.

He was looking for a place to live and the share house was really cramped and we were like spending all our time together anyway. We just decided, oh, we'll just move into like another share house together. Things were going well, I guess. Like, he treated me really well. Almost suspiciously well. Like, he just behaved like I was the greatest person he'd ever met in his life.

He was always going out of his way to do nice things for me. He would like, think of me and find me little things. He would like do my laundry when I was at work. Like, I don't know. It was just, it was very attentive and very sweet. There were some subtle things that bothered her, but they weren't exactly red flags.

I didn't talk too much about this past. He come out of like a seven year marriage, prior to this and had a four year old daughter from his previous marriage. He didn't have custody of his daughter, but he still saw her fairly regularly and was having FaceTime calls with her and stuff like that could be often. And their physical relationship shifted pretty quickly. After the first few months of the relationship, he just kind of stopped being interested in

intimacy and he had like really bad like performance issues. I definitely was confused by it. It made me feel like there's something wrong with me like he doesn't find me attractive. But that didn't really line with how he was behaving the rest of the time. So it was just very confusing. Melanie worked during the day and her partner worked in the evening, so he spent much of his day home alone. And then I guess it finally came out at some point in conversation that he had been watching

a lot of porn during the daytime. Melanie started to wonder if this was impacting their intimate relationship. I think I started to get concerned about what his interests might be and what he might be watching. That kind of spurred me to do some digging. So she started by looking at his recently viewed files. There was a video called dog and I was like, what is this video? I'm going to spare you any more details about that, but it's exactly what you're thinking. Fucked up? Yes.

Relationship ending? Hell yes. A legal? God, I hope so. Melanie was down the rabbit hole now, and stealed herself for whatever other information she was going to discover. I clicked on a folder and it opened. I could just see the thumbnails, it was just all of these images.

These are small children. Sacred Skando, one of the best new podcasts of 2022, is back with a closer look at the darkness surrounding Megaturge, La Luz del Mundo, and its leader, Nasson Joaquin Garcia. They believe that he was Jesus Christ on Earth. It wasn't even so much that he liked sex. He wanted something to pray. It's the largest cult in the world that no one has ever heard of. For three generations, La Luz del Mundo had an incredible control on his community that began in Mexico and then grew across the United States until one day.

A day of reckoning for the man whose millions of followers called him, the Apostle. Their leader was arrested and survivors began to speak out about the sexual abuse, the murder and corruption. This is just a business and their product are people. They want to know that they will kill you. Listen to all episodes now on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcasts. 911, what's your emergency? You shot her!

Oh my God! It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. And a killer who is still on the loose. My small town rocked by murder. Oh my God! It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. And a killer who is still on the loose. My small town rocked by murder. There are certain murders I'm scared to discuss. In the 1980s, we're in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members. One after another, after another for a decade.

We weren't safe anywhere. We're teenagers terrified to leave our own homes. Would we be next? Who is killing all the kids? And why? In that moment, I saw rage. And why do some want the town secrets to stay dead and buried forever? I'm not sure why you're digging up all this old stuff again, but I'd be careful. Don't say I didn't warn you, Nancy. Listen to the murder years on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

Facing evil is back and we're bringing you conversations that truly matter. I can't tell you how many times she had said he's going to kill me. I will never escape him, he will find me and he will kill me. We're talking with experts and change makers devoted to making a difference in these tragic true crime stories. Our system failed us and we need to make sure that that does not happen again for anyone in this country. We are all trying to bring the light to the darkness.

The main aim of spreading a story in the teach everyone that everyone deserves equal rights. Everyone deserves to understand that history is taught and shared so that it can never be repeated again. New episodes of Facing Evil are available now. history is taught and shared so that it can never be repeated again. New episodes of Facing Evil are available now. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. In horrifying positions, there's no mistake in what that was. I slam the laptop shut. You're aware that this material exists, but actually seeing it is very different. You had spoke to

someone earlier on the podcast who described it as beyond imagination and like the seventh circle of hell or something like that. Yeah, that's what it is. It's like looking at a little thumbnail straight into the hell, basically. I don't think I've entirely been the same person since then. The realization that the man she shared a bed with was getting sexual pleasure from that material was revolting.

Melanie was upset and infuriated. At this point, it was like 11 p.m. and he was gonna be coming home from work and he was just so late at night. I didn't know what to do. I was still trying to process everything that happened. So I had gotten into bed and I just pretended to be asleep and then he got into bed next to me and I just lay there in the dark just like praying that he wouldn't try to touch me or anything. And thankfully he didn't.

But I just remember the feeling of like laying there in the dark and he was right there. And I felt so sick. She slipped out of bed and went downstairs to call her family back home in Canada. They were scared for her. Who was this guy? Obviously, she didn't know him at all.

They urged her to get away from him as soon as possible. He found her, sleep downstairs on the sofa in the morning, and unable to contain herself, she confronted him. He just didn't really have an answer for it. He was just like, I'm sorry, I forgot I had that, I downloaded it a long time ago. I'm not interested in those things, you know, I'll get rid of it or I'll leave if you want me to. And I was like, do you understand what this is?

Like this is a very serious crime. He didn't seem to really be grasping the gravity of what he had done. Melanie reached out to his family. They didn't seem to grasp it either. His mother was concerned about whether or not I was going to report it because she was like, oh what if we lose access to her granddaughter and his brother was like, oh well would you consider trying couples counseling? She made it clear he needed to leave. Then she erased every trace of him from the house. It just felt like he had died.

One day, there's this person that you think you know and you're in a loving relationship with. And the next day, that person is just gone. Stay that person is just gone. Sacred Skando, one of the best new podcasts of 2022, is back with a closer look at the darkness surrounding Megaturge, La Luz del Mundo, and its leader, Nasson Joaquin Garcia. They believe that he was Jesus Christ on Earth.

It wasn't even so much that he liked sex. He wanted something to pray. It's the largest cult in the world that no one has ever heard of. For three generations, the Luz del Mundo had an incredible control on his community that began in Mexico and then grew across the United States, until one day. A day of reckoning for the man whose millions of followers call him the Apostle. Their leader was arrested and survivors began to speak out about the sexual abuse, the murder, and corruption.

This is just a business and their product are people. They want to know that they will kill you. Listen to all episodes now on the I Heart Rainy Up app, Apple podcasts, or whatever you get your podcasts. 911, what's your emergency? You shot her! Oh my God! It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. And a killer missed it on the loose.

My small town rocked by murder. There are certain murders I'm scared to discuss. In the 1980s, we're in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members. One after another, after another for a decade. We weren't safe anywhere. We're teenagers terrified to leave our own homes. Would we be next?

Who is killing all the kids? And why? In that moment, I saw rage. And why do some want the town secrets to stay dead and buried forever? I'm not sure why you're digging up all this old stuff again, but I'd be careful. Don't say I didn't warn you, Nancy. Listen to the Murder Years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts

or wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Facing Evil is back and we're bringing you conversations that truly matter. I can't tell you how many times she had said he's going to kill me. I will never escape him. He will find me and he will kill me. We're talking with experts and change makers devoted to making a difference in these tragic true crime stories. Our system failed us and we need to make sure that that does not happen again for anyone in this country.

We are all trying to bring the light to the darkness. The main aim of spreading a story in the teach everyone that everyone deserves equal rights. Everyone deserves to understand that history is taught and shared so that it can never be repeated again. New episodes of Facing Evil are available now. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Melanie grieved the loss of the relationship she thought she had. She also felt compelled to turn him into law enforcement.

After all, he did have a daughter. A lawyer friend of a friend accompanied her to the police station. It's just, it's this little police station and you just, it's like a little reporting counter. And there's like constantly people reporting things there. Like the person ahead of us in line was like reporting like a stolen bicycle. They took us back into a separate little room. And then I gave this incredibly detailed statement. It took about an hour and a half. I was still completely in a state of shock, but I think I felt a sense of relief in the sense that like, I have done what I can do with this. I've done the right thing.

I can go to sleep at night knowing that I have reported this, and it's out of my hands. She heard Ashley's case on the podcast. The Riverton Police had gathered evidence and made the arrest quickly. That didn't happen here. This is where it gets really surprising. I imagine like they're going to want to swoop in on him and get the hard drives and get all of those things. And that's just not really what happened.

They did arrest him, but it took two weeks. Melanie feared that was plenty of time to dispose of the evidence. But he didn't delete the material. Maybe he deleted some of it and not all. I have absolutely no idea. They, I guess, took him in and busched him and took all of his devices. I don't think he spent a night in jail. He was just kind of instantly out on bail.

He was just like out in the world and he went straight back on Tinder and just started dating world. And he went straight back on Tinder and just started dating other people. At one point, he did send me a bunch of messages on Facebook just apologizing and being like, I just want to explain myself to you. And the explanations were just very unsatisfying, you know, it was kind of like, oh, I had a difficult childhood and I'm not really interested in this material. I just found it and you know, I was just messed up in the head for a while. I don't know, just nonsense. She forwarded those messages and miting his behavior to law enforcement. Then she wanted to be done with the whole awful experience. But soon after, she saw online that he had a new girlfriend. Adelaide is the sort of city where everybody knows everybody,

but you're never more than two degrees away from anybody. I didn't know this woman, but we had mutual friends, and she had a job working with children. So I ended up reaching out to this woman. We spoke on the phone. I was like, hey, I don't know how involved you are with this guy, but this is the reason we broke up. And you never know how anyone's gonna take that information.

Like they might just think you're a jealous ex-girlfriend or something like that. But fortunately, she believed me instantly and was horrified. And I guess I had somewhat of a similar experience to me that night because he came home from work and she just said to him, I've spoken to Melody. And he was like, oh okay, I'll get my stuff and go. Like, he just knew. He ended up meeting up and we became incredibly good friends. And if there was like anything good to come out of this situation, it was me meeting this one.

Like we're still very close friends. Just one of my favorite people. We joke about it in a weird way. It's kind of like dating the same pedophile as a weirdly bonding experience. But there was something she learned from her new friend that she couldn't let go. She told me that nobody contacted his ex-wife

and told her his family didn't. The police didn't. And so he was still seeing his child in this period of time. It's not up to me whether he sees this child or not. I have nothing to do with that, but I was just so stunned that nobody gave her this information so that she could make an informed decision. At this point, I was like, is it my job to tell her

do I get involved in this? It's maddening. Doesn't it feel like something law enforcement or child protective services should do? But they hadn't. And this is where we want to say bravo and thank you to Melanie because she stepped up. She took it on for no other reason,

but concerned for someone else's child. I phoned her and I was like, I know this is weird. I just see five minutes of your time. I told her what had happened. And she was understandably horrified crying on the phone We horrified crying on the phone because she was married to this man for seven years and had a child with him and had no idea that any of this had happened. And that was kind of like the last that I had to do with it because I was like, I now need to step away from this. You may remember from the podcast, an errand situation it took three years for the state of Texas to bring her husband to justice.

It seemed to be similar in Adelaide. At the time that they had arrested him and taken all his devices and stuff like that, the police said they had such a backlog of these cases that it could be like a year, year and a half before they even got around to searching his drives because that's how common these crimes were. This wasn't even priority. It was like more than a year later that I finally followed up with them because nobody contacted me. I was like, you know, what happened? Did he go to court? And so the investigator told me that yeah he did go to court, he pled guilty, and he was given a Seven-month jail sentence, but it was just a suspended sentence, so he didn't actually serve any of the jail time. I guess like the most

Baffling part of this is that he started seeing a psychologist, which is that he started seeing a psychologist, which, good, that's what he should be doing. But the psychologist provided a statement as part of the court proceedings. In her statement, she said that she felt that he did not meet the diagnostic criteria for pedophilia because he was attracted to all forms of depraved and extreme acts of sexual sadism and the children were not necessarily the focus of that interest. So I don't know what to

make of that. I'm not a psychologist so I don't know how these things work. I don't even want to I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know how these things work. I don't even want to try to understand what was going on in his mind, but it surprised me because just the fact that they're like, well, children aren't his only interest, therefore that's somehow less bad. Melanie's story resonated for a few reasons. She listened to her gut and did into smith her feelings of something being off of her partner. She refused to accept excuses that made no sense, and she went to great lengths to protect women and children she does not even know. People like Melanie do not get parades, but I would give her a cape.

If you would like to reach out to the betrayal team, email us at patrialpod.com. That's patrialpod.com. To report a case of child sexual exploitation, call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Cyber Tip Line. At 1-800, the lost. If you or someone you know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children. Reach out to stopitnow.org. And the United Kingdom, go to stopitnow.org.uk. In Australia, stopitnow.org.au. These organizations can help.

We're grateful for your support. And 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 and partnership with IHART Podcasts. The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning, Rinn and produced by Kerry Hartman, also produced by Ben Fetterman, Associate Producer, Kristen Melcuri, our I Heart team's Allie Perry and

Jessica Crincheck, special thanks to Melanie for sharing her story. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Albeckio, a trails theme composed by Oliver Baines, Music Library provided by Mike Music, and for more podcasts from I Heart visit the I Heart Radio app Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. The True Crime Podcast, Sacred Scandal, returns for a second season to investigate a led sexual abuse at Mexico's La Luz del Mundo Mega Church. Journalist Robert Garza explores survivor stories of pure evil experiences at the hands of a self-proclaimed apostle who is now behind bars. I remember as a little girl being groomed to be his concubine, that's how I was raised. It is not wrong if you take your clothes off for the apostle.

Listen to Sacred Scandal on the IHR Radio App Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. 911, what's your emergency? It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. And a killer who is still on the loose. In the 1980s we're in high school losing friends, teachers and community members. We weren't safe anywhere. Would we be next? It was getting harder and harder to live in Mompine.

Listen to the murder years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast Would we be next? It was getting harder and harder to live in Mompine. Listen to the Murder Years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. music festival coming back to Las Vegas. Two nights. September 22nd and 23rd. One stage. At T-Mobile Arena. Streaming live. Only on Hulu. This is the I Heart Radio Music Festival. Buy your tickets for our 2023 I Heart Radio Music Festival now. Starting at just $55 plus taxes and fees.

At AXS.com. Plus taxes and fees at AXS.com.