Something Was Wrong - S15 E11: [What Came Next Presents] SWW S9 Updates // Part 2

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

*Content Warning: fraud, coercive sexual abuse, assault, defamation, legal abuse, emotional, sexual and physical violence. For free and confidential resources, please visit: somethingwaswrong.com/resources S15 Artwork by the amazing Sara Stewart @GreaterThanOkay: Instagram.com/greaterthanokaySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to something was wrong early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast, Killer Psychy Daily, I share a quick 10 minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the cold-butter killers you read about in the news. Listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psychy Daily in the Amazon Music exclusive podcast killer psyche daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Something was wrong is intended for mature audiences as it discusses topics that can be upsetting such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence.

Content warnings for each episode and confidential and free resources for survivors can be found in the episode notes. Some survivor names have been changed for anonymity purposes. pseudonyms are given to minors in these stories for their privacy and protection. Testimony shared by guests on this show is their own and does not necessarily reflect the views of myself, broken cycle media, or wondering. The podcast or any linked materials should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information

a substitute for professional expertise or treatment. All persons are considered innocent and less proven guilty in a court of law. Thank you so much for listening. Welcome to what came next presents, something was wrong updates. My name is Amy B. Chessler. Welcome to what came next presents on the something was wrong feet. I have the honor of having both Tiffany Reese, the host of something was wrong,

as well as Danielle from season nine on this episode. February of 2022, I get a call from a private investigator who says he was hired by a woman trying to investigate her boyfriend. Because of confidentiality, he couldn't give me her name. He tells me that during his investigation, he's stumbled upon the podcast and a bunch of those court records that were open records. He was contacting everybody. I gave him all the information that I had, filled in a lot of blanks for him. I basically said, I know you can't give me your client's name, but you are more than welcome to pass along my name and information if she wants

to call me. And she did. I'm gonna call her Samantha just for the sake of this podcast. She calls me shortly after and she's just freaking out. She had actually put a tracker on the car. The car was under her name. I was trying to get a feel for her situation. Like how long have you guys been together? She's like only about four months. I was very up front. It's like that's not very long time. Can you share with me how you put a car for him under your name? And she said he said he was in the middle of buying a house. He said if he got a car, it would affect his credit. He would have a hard time because it was already in the middle of purchasing a house. Of course, I was just trying to help him out. And I was like, nope, that totally makes sense.

I kind of pieced together for her. What I could in a very short amount of time, we actually didn't talk on the phone for too long. I said, does he live with you? Are you worried about your safety? She's like, no, luckily, I'm still living at home with my parents. We have not moved in together or anything like that.

I was like, that's good. She was just like, look, I feel so ashamed and embarrassed. I said to her, I get it. If anybody understands that, it's me, but girl, you got the ship figured out at four months. You knew to hire a private investigator. What had happened is that she had a GPS on the car. He said he had gone for a work trip to New York and it was still pinging in LA when it should have been at the airport. And so that's when she hired the private investigator. Ironically, the PI had told me that all of those women on the restraining orders, he had reached out to and told them about the podcast too. So I wound up getting a message from a woman. We talked in the season about all the restraining

orders I had found out about. So one of those restraining orders was a woman named Karesa. I'm using a pseudonym here so we don't give away their real identities. So when you reached out to me on Instagram with friends with Kriya, she said, hey, Kriya said, told me about the podcast. I had already known that this private investigator had told Kriya, and she said, I actually dated already at the exact same time as Kriya. That's how we met.

We were both dating him. I think I was only dating him around five months. He wasn't physically abusive towards her. But again, he was telling her all these lies as well about him. Fakeprashak's in, all the stuff that we talk about on the podcast. She's like, oh yeah, that's everything that he told me as well. So you're getting the podcast out there via private investigators, Tiffany. Then we shift into custody again. Around April or May, we go to court because he's refused to do anything he's supposed to regarding paperwork.

And so my lawyer has to take him to court. They get there. And of course, the judge says you've got to fill out this basic paperwork. And the judge winds up awarding me $2500 to cover the layers fee for having to take him to court to tell him to do what he's supposed to do. So this is the first time this judge has done anything against him. He immediately emails my lawyer and it's just like, if you want to negotiate fine, we can negotiate about this. If that's what Danielle wants, I will focus on my other daughter.

Mind you, this is May 2022. I see this email, and I text Kenji, and I say, I think Darcy has contact with him. The only reason I said that is because she had insisted for quite some time that she had no contact with him. The only reason I said that is because she had insisted for quite some time that she had no contact with him whatsoever. We weren't really kind of keeping tabs on her per se, but we're asking about how the kids are doing. The kids don't talk about seeing Arty do that. And he's like, nope, she says there's no contact. But I get this email to my lawyer is like, I'm gonna focus on my other daughter. So again, I message can I think Darcy's

hanging out or talking to Arty. And he's like, I don't think so. She's pretty adamant about keeping him away. And I'm like, okay, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's just saying shit as usual. Two weeks later, he's like, you were right. She did admit that she would talk to him sometimes because she didn't wanna keep his daughter away from him.

So we start negotiations. During this next couple months, we're going back and forth in the custody agreement. We've sort of narrowed it down, but essentially I was asking for full physical and legal custody with zero visitation. In exchange, he would have to pay zero's child support and he would not have to pay back that lawyer's fees.

And he could not contest an adoption if I chose to have an adoption in the future. The reason why I did that is because Stacey, that's the woman who had the child with him 12 or 13 years ago. I am in contact with and in regular communication with. She's been going through the process of having her husband adopt her daughter, even though he's not ever seen this child a day in her life. She cannot get this through the courts about adoption, because I think at one point should

try to file for child support they can never find him. Even though his name is not on the birth certificate, that somehow registered him as the father. So she has to get him to sign off on these adoption paperwork for her child that's 13. He's never seen in his life. I knew the kind of struggle she had, so my lawyer and I decided that we were going to add in a clause that said, you can't contest a future adoption. We moved forward with that, but he insisted there was a clause that he could sue me. He claims I have valuable stuff, which is not at all the truth. I had like clothing and books, a bunch of garbage,

that I kept in storage for a year, and my employer was like, you can get rid of it now, and I donated it. But he wanted the ability to sue me. This is what we're going back and forth on, even at the beginning of June. This gets put on hold, because I'm headed on my first vacation and forever. My boyfriend's brother was getting married in Maui. He flew all of us out there. Me and my daughter, him, his mom, we all went out there. It was a lot of fun. I had taken my daughter on like a quote unquote vacation

to see where else the summer before that for three days would never been on the airplane full vacation before. So this was such a treat for her. I think we told her about this in February and we didn't leave until June and she almost every other week could bring up how excited she was about going to Hawaii. About a week in, we left my daughter behind at the Airbnb with his mom for a bit and we went to go to downtown LaHina to like see a bunch of shops and stuff. We were going to be gone long. We were really hungry and so we decided to get to this burger place on the water. There's a line. We have no desire to stand in line for a table, so we asked him, I can't get me just set

at the bar. And the bar is really tiny. If you can imagine, there's just like five seats. If you're facing the bartender, the far left, there's two empty seats, so we sit down in those. My boyfriend sits to the far left, to the very end seat. I sit next to him to his right. To my right is this other guy who is eating and talking to the bartender.

There's an empty seat next to him, and then the last fifth seat is this girl who's over there. We ordering drinks and looking at the food. And I have an glance over, I guess that empty seat wasn't exactly empty. The person I think gone to the bathroom and that person had come back and sit down. I happened to look over and I look back and I'm just like, you know, that time where like you think you see somebody you know, and you're just like, okay, no, it's probably just like somebody who looks like, because I've thought I've seen him around the city that I live before, it's very possible.

I'm just like, okay, nope, nope, it's like a weird coincidence. But I just couldn't shake this feeling that it was him. So I get up, and I'm like, I'm gonna go to the bathroom. And I walk to the back, behind us, to the bathroom, thinking that on my way back to my seat, I'm gonna go to the bathroom. And I walk to the back behind us to the bathroom, thinking that on my way back to my seat, I can get a better look. After I'm in the bathroom, I walk back to my seat, but I can still only see the back of his head.

He has a scar on the back of his head. And I see this person has a scar on the back of their head. So I'm sitting down and I'm like, okay, if I can just hear his voice and see, maybe it's all crazy coincidence. Meanwhile, my boyfriend is texting me, what is going on with like, your demeanor has changed, like what is happening?

I was trying to listen and I'm hearing this guy talk to the bartender and he's got a British accent and the stuff he was saying, the stuff like, oh I'm from England, we're always drunk. It's always time for a beer or some polisher like that. I don't remember the exact freezing, I do remember. That's exactly the type of thing that Arty would say. My brain is shorting out right now. I'm trying to figure out if it's just playing this incredibly cruel trick on me. Or if this is really fucking happening on my first vacation with my boyfriend,

my boyfriend's like, are you okay? And I'm texting him like, I think this guy on the other side of me is my ex. And of course, he does the same thing that I did in the beginning. I'm saying, no, I'm sure it's just a coincidence. It just sounds like him or whatever. He's like, you would know. I'm fucking shaking.

I was like, it's him. So he's like, well, if that's true, we're not gonna do anything right here in the bar. I don't know if that was him reassuring me or like a question. You knew everything about Arty, right? All of the deceit, faking the British accent,

the lying about his job, about military service, ironically, my way from actually served in the military. And it's funny because one day he came to me with all these certificates he had gotten while in the military. And also his discharge paperwork, he was like, hey, I was just going through some stuff. I know you've been lied to about this,

so I'm gonna show you my actual discharge paperwork. And obviously there's a ton of photos. Let's say other thing, ask for photo evidence, but he obviously knew about all the lies. He knew about the restraining orders of other women, the verbal abuse that I went through, the threats of objection of my daughter, the threats of violence against my family that I was fearful of. I pretty much told him all of the things that we covered in the podcast.

He hadn't listened to the podcast, but he didn't really need to because I told him everything. I actually think a few of my best friends still haven't listened to the podcast because they were like, oh, we already know the story. So I think in his mind, it was like, what do you want us to do? It was probably part reassurance of me, helping me gain control of the situation. Because in that moment, the moment he said, look, we're not going to do anything. Honestly, my mind was trying to think 10 steps ahead. And in 10 steps ahead, I realized I don't have a signed custody agreement yet.

So I have to play this smartly. Also, I am in a bit of fighter flight mode at this point. They took a deep breath and I was like, you know what? You're right. This motherfucker does not get to ruin my vacation. This is the first time I am face to face with him since everything went down and it's not even like face to face, right? He doesn't get to place me back in the victim mode. I'm like, you're right. He doesn't matter. Did you post about the trip before you went or did anybody who was going on the trip post about it impossibly tagged you? Or did he have access to your email at all? No, not at all. But there were so many of my friends and I immediately texted this didn't feel like a coincidence for them either.

My text to some of my other friends are like, um, so you know how I'm just like hanging out on vacation and Maui doing my thing? Well, you never believe who I fucking ran into, da, da, da, already. They didn't believe me. We actually took a video of it. There was a little window there next to like the very end.

My boyfriend's at me to quote unquote take a picture. He's like, get over there by that me to quote unquote take a picture. He's like, get over there by that window. Let me take a picture of you. And so he not only took the picture of me, but he got a video. There's already been there. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile

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I think you texted me or maybe you sent me a voice memo or a voice mail or something. I remember it being very casual. Like, hey girl, so I know we haven't talked in a little bit. I've been busy. We went on vacation and already was there. So call me back when you can. I know you're busy, but we should talk. I'm like, holy fuck! I'm sure by the time we communicated,

you had a lot of days to process, but I was instantly like, it just fucking never ends. It was so crazy. My mind was just like, what the fuck? I think when he figured out it was me, he looked legitimately surprised as well. But who knows, there's no way he would have known through my social media.

I actually didn't even talk about it on my social media. Regardless whether it was intentional or not, it's fucking terrifying. I can't imagine how you would feel if I fucking ran into that guy. Was there ever a time where you and new boyfriend after that experience and why considered alerting authorities? I think we felt like it was coincidental. One of those weird universe things that

happens. We didn't think about alerting authorities because we've got a lot of security around our place and also my boyfriend is former military. What ends up happening shortly after that. I almost immediately, I was like, you need to make him sign the damn custody paperwork. I don't care how you get it done, but you need to get it done. I was getting really forceful with my lawyer. I was like, enough with his games. Get this signed. So he did after a few weeks. He did finally notarize and submit shortly after that. To kind of tie up this piece of it.

It wound up getting to the court and they kicked it back because they were like this line about him suing you. Doesn't belong in a custody agreement. They said, you need to take this out and resign it. So of course he refused to resign it. So we were waiting to go to court in October, probably a week or two before that court date. I got a message on Instagram, which he said, hi, my name's Mary. I'm looking for someone by your

name that was on the something was wrong podcast. If you are please call or email me. If not, I apologize for the inconvenience and she leaves her phone number in email. I'm like, hi Mary. Yes, that would be me. And she says, my sister has been dating quote unquote, Kyle as he calls himself now for over a year. She is on the verge of quitting her job and moving in with him in Manhattan Beach. I just found the website last night because none of my family or friends have ever felt good about him and I wanted to try to figure out his deal. I basically would like guidance, slash help, with how to tell my sister all this information, without overwhelming her and or angering Artie. This is them.

And she sends me like three photos. And so I'm like, hey, I'm so sorry. I just got up getting my data ready for school, but I can give you a call at 8.30, but that work, I guess. So we get on a call and proceed to discuss everything. She's like, my sister's been dating him. She has this job.

She's talking about leaving to move in with him, but she's never ever been to his place. And he's always got some excuse about it. He was still claiming to be British, still claiming to be a doctor, still traveling a lot, all this stuff. And I broke it down. I was like, look, he's not a doctor. He's never served in the military. He is not British. The accent is fake. I kind of filled in holes for her because she listened to, she benched the podcast. The important thing was how she tells her sister. We're gonna call her sister, Bizarre. She's like, I'm worried. How do I tell her all this stuff? I basically was like, look, I have all the documentation.

There's more stuff than we cover on the podcast. I was like, I will share you access to the folder with all the information. I was like, how long have they been dating? And she's like a year and a half. I was like, how long have they been dating? And she's like a year and a half. I was like, well, back in February 2022, I got a call from a private investigator from one of his girlfriends. That's not your sister. So you're saying, they've been dating since last year. He was obviously cheating on her, but this is just evidence for her. We did have a long talk. And I told her, it sounds like maybe the best way. We did have a long talk and I told her it sounds

like maybe the best way to do this might be for me to do it with you. I can't make that guarantee right now. I have to go talk to my partner about this because I want to make sure that he's okay with that. I went home and I talked to my boyfriend and was like, what are you thinking about this? I'm thinking the easiest way for this girl to process what she's hearing and know that it's the truth is to hear it from me. But I wanna be conscious of your feelings if this makes you uncomfortable. Let's talk about that.

He was just immediately like, isn't that the whole reason you did the podcast was to like help other women in this position. And that was like, yes, he's like then like, I guess the answer is pretty clear. I had called Stacy about this because I often talk to her about a lot of the stuff. Stacy lives about two hours for me where I would be meeting up with this woman would have been about an hour for me. So it be meeting up with this woman would have been about an hour for me. So it was in between us and hour for both of us and she volunteered to come up and do this intervention with me. It was really weird though because we were trying

to figure out how to get her there without alerting him. We didn't want it to be something that he would know something was going down. Mary, she had driven up to her parents' house because Mary also lived two hours away. She'd called me on speakerphone with her mom there. So some of the advice that had given them was to have a cellphone ready. I said, she leaves, she's gonna need to shut down all her worst stuff. He's likely hacked into it and is tracking it. So she's gonna not only change all her passwords, but you just wanna get her like a new phone altogether,

possibly a new laptop. But you can start with the phone, at least have that ready for her immediately. You wanna make her feel safe, not judged, right? If she's worried about, you don't know if he's been making threats towards you want to make her feel safe, not judged, right? If she's worried about you don't know if he's been making threats towards you guys or towards her, making her understand that there's safety there, that she can rely on. And I said, but you also need to be prepared that she might not leave. And that has to be okay. She needs to not feel judged because if she decides to stay,

at some point when she needs to leave, if she feels judged, she might wait a lot longer to actually leave. She doesn't want to prove you guys right, ensure she has your support no matter what. They were super nice, they were on board with all of that. So we met at this restaurant, Mary was there first with Zara. I waited about like 15 minutes after they went in to come in and I sat down and was just like, Hey, Mary reached out to me online, she found my story really interesting. Thought you might also find it interesting, and she invited me to come and meet with you. Stacey was late because she was coming up after work, and so she hadn't gotten there yet. I just had to start on my own. I was really scared. I had never done this in person. It was weird and unusual for me. I really wanted her to hear how bad it was and not just completely shut down. So I was just like, I met this guy online and I knew him as Arty. I think

you know him as Kyle in 2020. Here's all the things I found out about him. I gave a quick laundry list of all of the things we covered on the podcast. I was like, I have paperwork for you, so you don't have to believe me. You should actually read through everything and see for yourself. But I will say that I want to really emphasize that your sister came to me. I did not seek you out. really emphasize that your sister came to me. I did not seek you out. I'm simply here trying to help your family because they've asked for my help because they are very concerned

about what they know about him now. She wasn't upset. She just had this real blank look on her face which she could have possibly been just in shock. She didn't talk to us. She would answer questions. Her sister was like, we're considering you're gonna quit your job and she's like,

well, you know, I've been considering this for a while actually, so that's still fine. Okay, that makes sense. And then we're like, well, what about like moving out of your place? She's like, I have these roommates and they're brave, but they have a cat. I think it's time for me to be on my own.

The place is kind of messy and it smells like cat pee. So sounds like you need some changes. And she's like, yeah, I think I said something to the effect of, you know, he's probably got multiple girlfriends. They told her about the private investigator, the conversation in February, and she said, well, you know, when we first started dating,

we weren't really exclusive. I was like, well, we're, when we first started dating, we weren't really exclusive. I was like, well, we're exclusive in February of 2022, like earlier this year. And she's like, yeah, I was like, okay, well, he had another girlfriend. She was a little in denial. She denied him being abusive. She always really even reluctant to say that he verbally abused her. Even if that's true, he's still lying to you about his identity. He's faking the accent. He's lying about his profession. I know he's got girlfriends.

I said, do you own the car that he drives? And she said, I would never buy him a car. And I'm like, I understand what you're saying. But I guarantee you, whoever's name is on that car is another girlfriend of his because he does not have cars in his name. We ended things like what to do next. At some point, Sacy did show up and she added in her perspective what had happened to her and everything.

It was just the second validation of this is all facts. Let's say we just passed along the information. Like he could easily just have brainwashed her to the point of being like, oh, it's just my ex, she's making shit up. That was the thing that I didn't want to happen. I thought by having two of us who had better validate that this isn't some angry ex trying to get vengeance and making stuff up. At the end of it, I asked, can I give you a hug? And she said yes.

So we hugged goodbye, but she was like, I'm going to sit on this for a little bit until I figure out what to do. I'm like, okay, great. A couple days later, Mary messages me the address of where he supposedly lives. So this is the address that he has given to Zara, the one she's never seen in person. If you do like the Google Maps view of it, this place is like literally probably a $10 million home. My immediate reaction and response to Mary was,

so let me get this straight. Zara thinks that he lives in a place like this, but he chooses to spend 90% of his time at her apartment where another couple lives. That's messy and smells like pee all the time. Am I getting this correct? And I'm like, no judgment. She's like, yep, I have made the same point. I would be mad at my partner if they lived in this house that

looked like this. And we were spending all of our time in my apartment. We had met on the weekend. And so these tacks are exchanged that week after that following weekend is the weekend before my court date, which is on a Monday. I text Mary, hey, have you talked to your sister? Just want to see if she did this whole confrontation over the weekend? Because I'm headed into court the next morning. She's like, nope, I haven't heard from her. I don't think she's done it. The next morning is the court thing, and he's a no-show to this. But on the call, the court agrees to basically let us resummit without his signature, which is a win for us. And so we're able to move forward with the custody.

My lawyer calls me right after she's like, oh, he sent me like the nastiest email this morning. I just started chuckled and I said, oh, I think she did it over the weekend. And I told her about the intervention. And she's like, dang out. Keep fighting the good fight. He didn't show up to court because he was at the courthouse filing a restraining order against me. I later saw a copy of what he filed

and he basically tells the judge about the podcast. He's claiming I'm ruining his life and harassing him. I immediately text Mary and I say, hey, have you still not heard from Zara? She says, no, I said she definitely confronted him over the weekend and you need to get in contact with her because at this point, it was a safety concern. Nobody's heard from her.

So she literally drops what she's doing, drives the two hours up. She's like, I am on my way. Zara was not answering the phone. Mary had kept texting her. So she calls Zara's roommates and asks them if they know what's going on. She had not even told them

that the person that was living there with them, practically was, you know, what was going on. She had not even told them that the person that was living there with them practically was, you know, what was going on. So they were not happy. Meanwhile, while she's driving up there, somehow she manages to get the bin on his vehicle. She texted me at the bench, like, do you know how to like run this? And I was like, well, let me see. I looked online a couple of places, they charge you and they don't even give you the owner. So I text the private investigator. I'm like, hey, I don't know if you remember me. Do you know if there's somewhere where I can run this? He's like, I will do it for you. It's like, great. Let me know how much. He's like, no, I'll take care of this.

Within the next hour, he texts me back the name and address of the registered owner of his vehicle. And I about fell over. It shouldn't have surprised me, but it was Darcy. Kenji knew all about the stuff going on and from there, Kenji's like, we should find out who owns the vehicle. So I texted him like we ran the vid and the owner is Darcy. He was so upset. He called her, she denied it.

And to be clear, because we haven't touched on this, Kenji wasn't able to participate in the episodes. However, he has given Danielle consent to share what she is sharing, right? Correct. He was not happy to which I said to Kendri. The facts are the facts. This car belongs to her. How could you not know anything? You have to give your social security and your driver's license at the dealership in order to get a car. It clicked. He's like, you're right. She's lying. I was checking in with Mary. Long story short, what ended up happening is that somehow he found out that they had given me the ven.

So he broke up with her supposedly over this. I will say So I was like, hey, I wanted to make sure that Zara was good. Has he tried to like, weasel his way back into her life? Where is she good? She said she's great. Honestly, he's gone gone. She's got a new boyfriend and she's doing great. I was really really happy to actually hear that. That was a happy ending. really happy to actually hear that. That was a happy ending. Darcy, she didn't reach out to Kenji. She wound up telling him, yes, I put the car on my name, but she did ask for his help in getting the car back. They went to get the car back, and at first she wound up giving it back to him after they retrieved it. That's most likely because he made a bunch of threats against her. The second time she decided to do it again, from what I understand, he went to the police station. He tried to follow a police report against her for trying to get the car back, but it was in her name.

And so he wound up having to actually hand over the vehicle. They tracked him down to get the car from an address and was yet another girlfriend there. That's really the last we've heard of his whereabouts. In February, so last month, I finally, after two years, got the sign quarter of my custody agreement in place. The only thing that my lawyer got in response from Arty is tell your bitch-cont client that I will never, ever agree to an adoption of my daughter. The one thing I will add is that in the court order, the court sort of summarizes the custody agreement and then puts in their orders. Everything was pretty

much all the same except for the custody piece. They added in a little extra there. They said that he must sign any paperwork related to an adoption and that if he does not give me an email address to notify him that he waives his right for notification and if I have to hire a private investigator to locate him in order to do whatever is necessary for this, that he must reimburse me for those expenses. I actually didn't even request that in my documentation. That was something that the court added in there. I would like to believe that after two years of all this nonsense, perhaps the judge or maybe their clerk is trying to redeem herself just a little bit here.

Or they heard the podcast that would be even better, wouldn't it? For society's sake, I absolutely do hope they had enlightenment and they're like, wow, we should be advocates because that's what this whole system is for. But maybe they heard the podcast. Where does that leave you emotionally, mentally, update us on your status at the moment? How do you feel receiving that? It was like a real release. I couldn't do things like get her a passport. And there was always the risk that if he managed to show up to her school and get her,

I would not get her back because I didn't have a legal document in place stating that I was the legal parent. It was always risky, so it makes me feel great about that. Great that I could get her a passport if I want to. I don't have these hurdles, I don't have to deal with this stuff anymore. Do you know how much money I have spent on my lawyer? It is insane the amount of money that I have had to spend doing this. Now that money can go to a better cause and maybe another vacation. I've had to work really, really hard to cover those financial costs.

It also makes me realize you just get screwed if you can't pay for a lawyer. In the end, on the one who was able to get what was needed. He did not get what he wanted. I think that this part was just part for the course. When I was with him and I wanted to leave, I have never imagined I would wind up where I'm at today and that makes me incredibly grateful. I told my therapist at the time that let's say I decided to just walk away and leave. Let's even pretend he isn't this violent person like he claims to be like he won't show up with my parents with a rifle. Let's just assume that doesn't happen just for pure ponderance. I still have to co-parent with a man who controls me through my daughter and

how do I do that? How do I ever have a life? How do I ever date again, dealing with somebody who continues to control me? At least if I'm here, I can make the situation a little bit better. I could control a little bit more. I would try to keep the piece, right? It would be almost impossible for me to keep the piece if I decided to leave. He would never ever let that stand. He would do everything in his power to take control and I would have to co-parent with this man for the rest of my life. And who the hell wants to do with that? I really thought I'd be risking the safety of any future relationships.

So in a way justice did prevail. I think justice could have played out better in the courts. I think if there were real justice, he would be behind bars. But at least I get justice for me. And that is that I have custody of my daughter. He gets zero visitation, he has no rights, and I have an incredible relationship at the end of the day. It's about keeping yourself safe and leaning on the support that you have.

This feels like a new chapter. The rest of this chapter is going to have zero to do with Arty. I don't ever have to talk about him other than in the context of this podcast. Unless of course, I get another poor sister or girlfriend looking for answers, and at that point, I will share the same information. Now also too, enough time has passed that we can actually give people real updates about things because it takes time. We didn't have the way to wrap it up in a nice little beautiful bow for everybody when the season concluded.

People had a lot of feelings about that. I hope they'll get some semblance of closure. Organizations like I can. They're specifically working to codify consent. And the thing is about his victims is none of you were able to properly consent to anything that sexually took place in your relationship because he used fraud to acquire it. It is so illegal and until our laws change, we can't lock him up. Danielle, you hooked me up with the detective who handled the car jacking and then suspected that he was full of shit and he had contact with you. And I spoke with him and he's like, I wish I could get this guy.

Unfortunately, he's one of those people that uses the things in the system that are created to actually protect domestic violence victims. He's used them to exploit the system. I'm just so proud of you. I'm so happy for you and your new boyfriend and your daughter and that you are just thriving and having a million jobs per usual

and just like doing your thing, you're always like doing something fun. You're like, oh yeah, I'm gonna be in a music video next weekend or oh yeah, I'm going to this like raky retreat or some shit in the woods. Like you're always doing some fabulous L.A. shit. You and Amy, I live through you. I feel like the mom and mean girls.

You guys keep me so young. I'm actually working on a business plan with my boyfriend right now. I'm working on potentially opening a bakery. Of course you are. You're just such a badass. Amy and Daniel, I'm so thankful for you both, and that the universe has put you both in my life. I look forward to all that's to come. Well, I'm equally as grateful for both the V.A.L. Tiffany for wanting to grab onto my story, the insaneness of it and share it for everybody. And I'd like to believe that

even just listening this past week, your latest victim that was sharing their story, Amelia. Amelia says that she listened to the podcast and she felt inspired to tell her stories so that it could hopefully help others. To me, that's a win right? Because I'm part of these stories that she listened to that gave her the courage to tell her story. I do feel like this is a tight little knit group of powerful women who lift each other up, but I'm so honored to be a part of it. After the live event that we had for season 14, just to like share the listeners, we had this amazing dinner and it was all of us from season 14.

And Michael, Kaelin's husband and Dan yells there and Lily from our internal team. There and Amy's there. I was so full of love and vibrations. I don't know how else to explain it. I'm sitting there looking around this table. Like we fucking did that y'all. Now we get to all be a part of this community and now Amy gets the help tell other people's stories and Danielle. You continue to advocate and you continue to do all the bad assery that you continue to do and you're now a victim advocate for these victims trying to help the next person. It's women looking out for women and I fucking love it and I just love you guys. I love you both too. I can't even describe how much you've done by sharing your story, especially

at such a pivotal time in the show to watch the show grow with your season. Along with the advocacy efforts, I'm so honored to be a part of it. And Tiffany, thank you for doing this for all of us. And for all of your listeners, it's just incredible. Thank you, Amy, too, for doing this and helping me to create this content and helping us continue to keep our community updated. It really speaks to how much we all love each other

and support one another. People get so invested that they want updates and they just want to know you're good. They just want to know you're doing well and I love that. We're actually giving that to them. I'm thankful that we're finally able to do it. We get to start bringing these kinds of episodes

to the listeners. And if you guys are into these types of episodes, please go subscribe to What Came Next because going forward, they may not be on this feed. They may be exclusively on the what came next feed. So if you are into update episodes and I know 99 percent of you voted yes on update episodes on my Instagram stories poll, go subscribe to what came next. You'll not only get to hear update episodes like this, but you'll also get to hear Amy's other incredible episodes with people in docuseries shows who are sharing through their own lens, what came next for them, after

sharing their stories with the world. And if you're in need of any free confidential resources, I'm gonna continue to plug it till the end of time because you guys, there's just so so many good resources that are free and available to the public confidential. Something was wrong.com slash resources. If you want to chat, text, call with somebody who works for the National Domestic Violence Hotline or there's various other interpersonal violent, free counseling, free chat services online if anybody is in need and wants to make a safety plan to be able to effectively leave their relationship. They may not have family, they may not have

support and sadly a lot of times, predators and abusers love to separate people from their loved ones. No matter what support you have in your life, please know you're not alone, and there are resources to help. Thank you for amplifying those resources with your platform Tiffany and doing so much to change the way we have to navigate these systems. You're amazing. We're all doing it together. It's just amazing that every episode and every season that community continues to grow and we all hear each other's stories and reach out and support. I love when I see people share their story on the podcast and then continue to listen and support the people who come next. Daniel and Amy are absolute examples

of that and it's just very very beautiful. Well it's the thoughtfulness and what you're curating. It's hard not to be invested in it. You really are creating something special. What happens after the experiences of true crime survivors have been shared with the world? Does the media truly capture all the entails to survive such tragedy in the public eye? What comes after the convictions are in, the cameras stop rolling, and the court of public opinion has spoken? Can sharing our stories lead to justice?

And is there ever really justice? These questions and many more are answered on the new True Crime Docus series podcast What Came Next? Co-created and produced by something with wrongs Tiffany Reese, with host award-winning writer victim advocate and True Crime survivor Amy Beach Esler. This season on What Came Next, you'll hear first-hand accounts and behind-the-scenes insights about what came next for survivors of some of the world's most infamous crimes, such as Elisa Wall of Keep Sweet, Grey and Obey.

So much has been told about Warren Jess and the horrors inside of the cult a lot hasn't been shown of life after and what it really takes to adapt. Jacoba Ballard from our father, I shouldn't have to buy it apart of myself because I'm not ashamed of how I came here on the surd. Ron Schnackenberg of Dirty Money. This conversation was only the second conversation I've had on it and it's only the second conversation where someone didn't offer me money. I didn't feel like it was a moral thing for me to benefit off of the backs of people that were defrauded.

The vows Sarah Edminson, we woke up, we figured out what was going on, enough to get The New York Times to read an article about it. Call your Landry from a murder in Mansfield. I'm trying to answer a question that has haunted me my entire life. Why did you murder my mother? Dirty John's Teranuel. There's all these people that don't believe me. Basically screw you, it happened. I'm gonna tell my story and I'm not gonna be shamed for it. PJ Mastin from the Secrets of Playboy. It was very triggering, really hard to watch

and every week we had a tune in to see what we send. Charlotte Laws of the most hated man on the internet. Whether it was media, politicians, law enforcement or ordinary people, everybody was blaming the victims. So I ended up calling the FBI. Koeha Johnson from the Housewife and the Shaw Shocker. I will continue that healing process even up to now where she's like guilty. That's another step to healing and coming to a point of peace with myself. You'll hear how incredible survivors find purpose in adversity and how they're leveraging

the spotlight to a list of societal change. Subscribe now to What Came Next, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, stay safe friends. Something was wrong is a broken cycle media production, created and hosted by me, Tiffany Rees. If you'd like to support the show further, you can share episodes with your loved ones,

leave a positive review, or follow something was wrong on Instagram. At something was wrong podcast. Our theme song was composed by Glad Rags. Check out their album, Wonder Under. Thank you so much. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to something was wrong early and ad-free on Amazon music. Download the app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.