Something Was Wrong - S3 E9: Absolute Evil

Episode Date: December 20, 2019

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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. This podcast is intended for mature audiences and discusses topics that could be triggering to some. Opinions expressed by guests on the show are their own

and do not necessarily represent the views of this podcast. I am not a therapist or a doctor. All resources, books and sources mentioned on the podcast can be found linked in the episode notes. Please note, names have been changed in this story for anonymity purposes. If you or someone you love is being abused, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. If you or someone you love is struggling with a suicidal crisis or emotional distress, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24-7 at 1-800-273-8255. Please note, some of today's episode involves suicidal ideation or thoughts of suicide. Please take care when listening. Thank you.

This past Sunday, December 15, I interviewed Aunt Diane, aka Victoria's sister-in-law, Brad's Aunt, and Ted's close friend, aka the one that spotted the affair between Ted and Patty, and the aunt that told CJ, Patty was a lying, cheating bitch. Not only did I learn so much about this story through this interview, but the family did as well. I'd like to thank Diane for taking the time and energy to share her story with all of us. I'm Tiffany Reese, and this is... something was wrong. Okay, so my name is Diane and I am related to Ted Victoria and Brad. Victoria is my husband's sister and Ted is his brother-in-law and Brad is his nephew.

I have known Ted and Victoria probably for 36 years. I have been married to Victoria's brother for 34 years and I have probably been friends with Ted for I'm going to say 20 to 25 years. When I first met Ted I actually did not like him. I thought he was arrogant, kind of conceited, and fooled himself. And my husband, who has been friends with Ted for probably 51 years, said you don't know him that well. You need to get a chance to know him. And I was just not going to have any of that. And I can remember one night, I don't couldn't tell you when it was. We were at a family

get together at Victoria's sister's house and Ted was complaining about his backbeams. The pieces I need to walk. He said, you want to walk with me? I said, sure. And they live in a kind of a small burrow. And so we were walking, just started walking and we started talking. And obviously all of a sudden I discovered that we had a whole lot of things in common. Obviously what we did, we were both in public safety. His political views were very similar to mine. And his belief to them was the same as mine. And I was thinking myself, why didn't I really like him? I didn't know where that impression, initial impression came from.

Other than probably part of it was, we were probably 10 or 12 years older at that point too, from our first meeting. So to describe him as a husband back then, he was a good husband. He was very attentive, he was a good husband. He was very attentive and he was very didn't miss anniversaries, didn't miss birthdays, kind of went over the top sometimes I thought for those things and maybe that

was just because my husband didn't do that stuff but and as a father his kids were everything. I mean they were. They were absolutely everything. So at that time, he was a very good husband and father. I had heard, um, Victorian Ted talk about Patty and Kurt, but I had never met them. And we were down there for a graduation party in the early 2000s. And I, there was a lot of family from up north

that were down there just for the party. And I walked into the kitchen and I saw an interaction between Ted and Patty. And I mean my radar went off, my bells and whistles. I thought, what the heck is this? And it probably lasted maybe a minute, a minute and a half. And I don't think they thought I was watching. And mind you, everybody was getting ready for this party. We were helping getting ready.

And I don't, there were other people in the kitchen that probably they obviously didn't see this. But I saw it, you know, like loud and right up in my face. And then it ended. And I thought there's something's going on here. I don't know what's going on here. So probably I never said a word about it. And again, Ted and I were becoming close as friends.

I mean, he was in public safety. I was in public safety. And there were a lot of times that I had bad calls. He had bad calls. And we would call each other and discuss that. Or one of those things, oh, you're not going to believe this yet. You know, just what people in public safety do, how we deal with stuff. So probably about nine months went by to the following February. And there was a Super Bowl, and he had called afterwards because his team won, and he was obviously had been pranking.

And we got to talking, and you know, we were always kind of busting on each other you know making fun of each other you know he was what he did you know super fireman and i was you know in the other end of it the dispatch end of it and i can't remember what he said now but i something to be effective all i don't know him as well as i thought i did and i said yeah i do know you actually better than you think i do but what are you talking about and i said, what's going on with you and Patty? His reaction was, what do you mean? I said, there's something going on.

I sought with my own eyes. What did you see? And I told him what I saw. He was kind of quiet for a second. And he's like, if you saw that, how many other people saw it, I said, I don't know. I said, what's going on? And he confessed that they were having an affair.

To justify having a affair with Patty, I don't know if he ever really justified it other the fact that he wasn't happy at home. You know, Victoria did this, Victoria did that. I, you know, I didn't live there. I kind of, you know, her Patty was engaging and she was, what's the word, very, like almost over the top nice, kind of sickening nice, I guess, that's where you want to put it, and she was very

social, so I guess maybe that was part of the attraction for him, I'm not sure actually, I never really understood it uh... i don't probably i didn't have a lot of contact with them and we would go down there to visit if i saw them it would be in a situation where there might have been like a graduation party or something to that effect in my interaction with her was not a lot i mean i her and her husband seemed i guess loving but again we were in a social situation,

so there wasn't a lot of, everybody's interacting with other people, and there was friends and family there. And I would say, she seemed like a best friend to Victoria. Victoria would tell me how they went shopping together or they went and did this together. The families would get together and have dinner together. They, you know, that kind of stuff. So it seemed like it was normal other than the fact that I knew that Ted and

Patty had this thing going on, you know, under behind the scenes. At that point in time, that can early 2000s, we would vacation together, we would go to the other banks together, we did some other trips together to Cedar Point and some places in Ohio, and rather abruptly I would say after that probably, I don't know, 2007, 2008 somewhere in there, we didn't vacation together. It was all about the O'Brien and the Bishops vacationing together to the Outer Banks. We just sort of were, you know, not including that anymore. And I guess I thought that was a little odd, but at the time, you know, there were things going on in our lives. We were, you know, I had children graduating. you know, there were things going on in our lives. We were, you know, I had children graduating.

You know, we had moved into a new home. There was a lot of stuff that went on with that. I guess I didn't really, at the time, think it was that odd. And so again, I didn't have a whole lot of interaction with Patty other than at events where there were lots of other people. Over time, when Ted told me that you

know he loved Patty and he couldn't stand Victoria and there was time, there was a period of time when he was getting ready to talk about retirement. I guess that's when this kind of escalated is when Ted was talking about retiring and how he had gotten to this program which was called the drop program and you know you have to retire to a certain age. You can't back out of that once you sign the papers to do that. You can't back out of that. And his whole thing was that he was going to get the drop program. He was going to retire after Patty's triplets graduated from high school. She was going to you know, or Ted was going to leave Victoria, then after the trip was

graduated, high school, Patty was going to leave Kirk, and essentially they were going to get together and ride happily off into the sunset and move probably, he said about 30 miles away from where they lived, and I said to him, so you're going to be sure retirement on the fact that you think she's going to leave her husband and he said yes I said do you really want to do that because I don't think she is going to leave her husband. And he said oh yes yes you know we're in love this is what we're going to do. I just told him I said this is not a good idea you, this is not a good idea. You know, this is not a good idea. And over that time, Framed, there too, also, you know, he, Ted had convinced my husband and I that Victoria was

crazy. She, you know, and there were a lot of issues between Victoria and my husband and I. And I know that she thought I was having an affair with Ted. And I told her, and I told her numerous times. You know, that's not the case. That's not the case at all. I live almost 200 miles from them.

So that was not what was going on. And she obviously knew something was going on because, you know, something he was changing and acting different at home. And it just escalated from that time on. It just escalated. What if you were trafficked into a cult over shot nine times, or fell in love with a vampire,

or went into a minor surgery and woke up one week later, paralyzed. What would you do? I'm Whit Missildine, the creator of this is actually happening, a podcast from Wondry that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events, told by the people who lived them. From a young man that dooms his entire future with one choice, to a woman who survived a notorious serial killer. You'll hear their first-person account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances.

Each episode is an exploration of the human spirit and personal discovery. These haunting accounts sound like Hollywood movies, but I assure you this is actually happening. Follow this is actually happening wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Add Free on the Amazon Music or Lundery app. You know listening to the podcast and looking back and reflecting now, there were just little seeds, little things that were planted over the course of years. It wasn't like a bang, that's it, this is what's going on. It was so subtle that none of us realized what she was doing.

Then, you know, I, she started contacting me via email and I would email her back and I'm thinking, you know, if he is going to leave Victoria, this guy is one of my best friends. You know, this is a sounding board for me. When I go through bad stuff at work or I have bad calls and I don't want to lose my relationship with him because you know, he gets it. He gets what I do and I get what he does. And hopefully if this does happen and he leaves Victoria and he and Patty get together,

we can rebuild that relationship with Victoria. We can rebuild that. Maybe that's what she needs is to get away from him. If they're not happy, let's get separate. Get away from each other. But I can recall some of the emails between Patty and I how she was in love with him and she did care about him. I was like, okay, I believe, I did.

I bought the whole thing. But I recall incident. I was taking a class back in probably 2014, I believe it was, it was in February 2014. I was taking a class at a facility a few miles away from my home. And the class ran late one night. And I had no internet connection inside this building. I had no self service inside this building. So I came out and it must have been about 1030, quarter to 11.

And there was a text message from her on my phone that said, please pray for I don't remember which triplet had gotten injured at a volleyball game. And I did not call her. I didn't text her back. I thought, you know, and it was snowing and it was very bad. The roads were very bad. So it took me about 15 minutes to get home. And I got home shortly after 11 o'clock.

I thought, I'm not texting her now. She may be in the hospital with him or in bed or whatever, I will text her in the morning. And I did. I texted her next morning and said, I'm so sorry, didn't respond last night and you get your message to late. Blah blah blah blah. Well she called Ted that she saw what kind of friend I was. I didn't care about her or her kids or and I thought to myself, are you kidding me right

now? Really? And I thought, you know something? I don't know. There's this is not something wrong here. This isn't, this isn't make any sense. So after that, I didn't have a whole lot of contact with her because I thought, you know, this is so high school. I am not playing these games with you.

You know, I explained to you that I was inside of the facility. I did not have self-service. I got out late. I was not going to text you late that late at night. And I text you the next morning. So whatever. And I was just sort of done with her. And I knew at that point that this is going nowhere with them.

So when Victoria and Patty would convert the email work, a lot of things that Victoria would put in those emails would be about Ted, what Ted did last night, what he said to Victoria, you know, if she, whatever fight they might have had or whatever might have incident might have happened, she would email all that stuff, the patty, then patty would forward it to Ted, and then Ted would forward it to me and I'll pick it up myself. This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy. And it would start out with like, what did you get into last night when you got home? And it was stuff like, you know, I made dinner

and we had, you know, hot dogs and french fries. And patty would be like, oh, we had the same thing. Then she would tell Ted, well, she heard me saying that. So she's copying just exactly what I had for dinner. And I'm thinking to myself, who in the hell cares what who had for dinner last night? How was this important? I mean, it was insane stuff like that. Then it would be like after I had dinner, I did the dishes and I did a low laundry and then I ran over to whatever department store because they were having a sale on some shirts I wanted and Patty would forward to Ted.

See that? She's going to the same stores I go to to buy the same shirts I'm buying and I have to get her myself. Nobody does this. This is not normal. I have close friends and no one is emailing me and saying what did you get into last night? What did you have for dinner? What did you do after dinner?

What time did you go to the bathroom? That stuff does not go on with my close friends. And I just and I told Ted I said, your people are crazy down there. Absolutely crazy. You know they would come up here. They would come up here for a weekend and they'd have to rush home on Sunday because they had to get back because they were supposed to watch a football game with the O'Brien. And it was just like really their football game because they had to get back because they were supposed to watch a football game with the O'Brien. And it was just like really, their football game, you can listen to it on the radio, on the way home, and it was just all the time stuff like that. And in time, it seemed like Ted became obsessed with Patty and what she was doing, where they

were going. To the point where he ignored his own children, now mind you, at this time they were married and out of the house, but he ignored his own children now mind you at this time they were married and out of the house but he ignored his own children because he had to go to the triple swallow ball game you know across the state I can remember we had a friend his son Brad had a friend who is also a friend of my son who was graduating from the academy and we went down to see him graduate and I called tennis and hey we're gonna be down that way can we you know crash your house overnight oh we're not

gonna be here we have to go to wherever on the other side of the state to watch triplets play volleyball and I'm thinking of myself you gotta be kidding me because if you call me right now it's that hey we're coming up here and I had plans or something like that I would cancel them immediately open my door because I'd be so glad to see you. And I was kind of hurt over that. I really was. And I can remember towards the end of this whole thing in December when he, I told him, I said, you have got to, if you are not in love with your wife anymore, you've got to

tell her that and you've got to leave. Because at that time, you know, I said, you know, even though Victoria is, you say she's crazy, maybe she is crazy, maybe she's not crazy, she deserves to meet someone and be happy because she's got a long life ahead of her. And you need to move on too because this is not healthy, this whole thing is not healthy. And he was still hanging onto the fact that she was going to leave her husband and they were going to ride off into the sunset. And it was so painfully obvious that was not going to happen.

And we got in a horrible fight over that. And he wouldn't speak to me for about three or four weeks. He wouldn't conversely, wouldn't text, wouldn't call, wouldn't email, wouldn't anything. And I'd only call him one day and I basically said, listen, are you done acting like a little bitch? Because this is stupid. And that was in January. And after that, from January until when he took his life, our relationship was very superficial. Hey, how are you? Just know up there. Yep. How much did you get? About two inches. Oh, we only got an inch. Oh, okay. What else is going on? Oh, nothing.

All right, I'll talk to you later, and that's what it was like. It really was. I mean, I guess I'm really jumping forward, but I watched him become a shell of a human being for about the last, I'm going to say, year to a year or so. I literally watched him become a shell of a human being. No emotions.

The happiness, the sadness, no nothing, just going through the emotions. And I told him a week before he did this, I had gone with a, my son, who is also a first responder in public safety to a conference, a presentation by someone called Helping Those Who Help Others. And it's all about taking care of the people who are in public safety because nobody helps us. And how prevalent suicide is among that. And I'm not kidding, that was on a Tuesday night. And I called him on Wednesday morning.

I said, but I want to see the first night. And because when I come out at him, when my son that come out, I said, because anybody who's got that profile, there's like seven things. And my son looked at me like, yeah, Uncle Ted, I was like, yeah, exactly. And I called him next morning and said, man, you need to get some help. Go get some help. I'm fine.

I'm fine. Now what's gonna get in my head? I have root around and open those files. You know that I'm fine. I said, you are not fine. I said, I will come down there with you and go, please go get help. Nope.

What didn't want to hear about it? Not going to have any of it. And a week later, he took his life. So I kind of saw that one coming and tried to intervene, but he just, he didn't want to hear about it. And you know, I'm sure he had supposed traumatic stress syndrome from being in public safety all those years, but when he left and went to Iraq and he came back, it was so noticeable.

I just, and I told him, I said, man, you got to talk to somebody. I'm fine, I'm fine, blah, blah, blah. And I can remember when he came back, it was like in June, he came back. And we were up here at a restaurant eating breakfast. It was right before the 4th of July. If somebody on the other side of the restaurant dropped where there's a big thick kebab glasses, they put water in tea and I thought he was going to shump out of his skin. He was sitting right across me and I said,

but you better go talk to somebody and get your shit together because the 4th of July is coming up and you know what that means fireworks. And you know, I knew that he had been at a place where the bombings were relentless and you know, it was just all the time and his hearing was affected because of that. He had, you know, ringing in his ears, which was, you know, not repairable because of that. And you have, when he came back and I have to think that after he came back from my rack, that's when I seemed like she just patty just amped off her game, I guess, if you want to call it that. You don't think, I guess you don't, someone who's never experienced traumatic events like that, don't really get that and don't think it's real and it is. It's incredible

how those events mess with your head. It smells, it's noises, it's words that people say, the way they say them or it's crazy how that message was your brain and if you don't know how to process them and even sometimes you do know how to process them, how it just takes control of you and it causes problems not only in your life but the people who are and you know, the unfortunate thing is there is help out there, but people are too proud to go get it or don't think it's going to work. And it does work. I know I've been there. It does work. So you just got to find the right person.

No, she never alluded to that. Not one time, which kind of made my radar go off that she didn't talk about the end, what the outcome of all this would be, she never alluded to that. And it just seemed like after the trip was graduated from high school, it was always something else. Her mother was sick or her son got into trouble or it was always something that she did not leave her. It was always something and I was like, this is going nowhere, you know?

And then she was insanely jealous of CJ and Ted's relationship. I mean, they were close. They kind of had the same sense of humor. They kind of liked the same programs. They kind of, you know, and they would, you know, joke about that stuff and talk about things they had seen on TV episodes of movies or series that they followed. And it made her crazy. It made her crazy. So she started bashing. I guess her first victim was Victoria. And then she moved on to CJ. And she just, you know, she's, anytime it has some type of event, the Kurt and Patty and time, they had some type of event at their house which they

had a lot of, you know, stuff summer parties, whatever, winter parties. She would tell Ted how disrespectful CJ was and I don't, you know, I don't want her around and he bought into it. He bought right into it. And in order for her to keep Ted away from CJ, she had to work on him with Brad because as long as Ted and Brad were close as a father and son should be, CJ was always going to be around. She was always going to be around. And I think part of it too was, CJ started to see how Patty was and kind of called her out on some of that stuff because I saw some of those emails. And I can remember telling Ted, you know something, that is your son.

And to think that a 40 or 50 year old woman is jealous of a 20-some 30 year old girl is ridiculous. It is so high school and so immature, I came and wrapped my head around it. That is your daughter-in-law. The relationship between CJ and Brad became very strained with my husband and I as well. Honestly, Brad was like,

I have two sons on my own, but Brad was like a son to my husband. I mean, he was. I said, do you know something? He never did anything to me, Ted. I don't know what your issue is with him. But Brad has never done anything to my husband. I so, you know, and I can remember my husband on the phone saying to him, that is your flesh and blood, Ted.

How can you do this? This woman is not worth it. Stop what you're doing. That is your son. I can remember Ted saying, I'm not ready. I'm not ready to rebuild that relationship. How do seasons go by? That was a big thing with the two of them. They did all of that stuff together. anytime that Brad was around, would it be the holidays or whatever, he would twist everything that Brad said into what he wanted to hear, because I can remember him telling me, I was like, Ted, said it's not what he meant.

I know that's not what he meant. That doesn't sound like Brad. Oh, yes it is. Oh, yes it is. You know, I talked to Patty and she said the same thing. I'm thinking of myself. Wow. Wow.

Wow. This woman is, and I cannot tell you how many times I told Ted, I said, you think Victoria's crazy? I got news for you. Patty is off the charts insane. Which of course, you didn't like it. You know, that would start another whole conversation, but I know. I know. I just close my mind is like how she is able to insidiously control, she's evil. She has

to be because I just, she is the whole that she had on him and the way. It's just she alienated Victoria first, then she worked on C.D. and Brad, then she pretty much did a good job of alienating the relationship between my husband and I and Ted, and she was working on Ted's daughter. Next, that was that she definitely, I mean mean she had her fight set on his daughter I'm telling you what I was just like Holy shit and I told him I said do you see what's going on here? She is isolated you from everyone that you care about and love and loves you

She did it with your wife. She did it with your son. She's tried to do it with my husband and I and Now she's working on your daughter and it was the same thing his he had three grandchildren she's not a good mother did you see what she did did you see what she posted on facebook did you see when they were at the house how she pond off her responsibilities or the son-in-law how he didn't do this it it was so ridiculous so ridiculous and he brought. And he got right into it. He's like, oh, I know. I know. I know. And I told him that I said, so now your daughter's next.

Now she's going to start working on her. And she is. Well, she is. She is that way. This is your daughter. These are your grandchildren. Are you kidding me right now? It's just how I just don't understand how it was worth it for him.

You know what I mean? I don't know. And I don't know that anybody knows the answer. But at the end, when I told him, he said, she is not going to leave Kirk for you. You understand that. And I think he realized that. I think that might have had something to do with how it ended. He's like, I don't want to be alone in my own apartment, sitting around in my underwear,

in cheese balls, watching TV, reruns. I said, well, you know, you're going to have to make a choice here. Are you either going to have to go to counseling and rebuild your relationship with Victoria or you're going to have to leave her and move on? Oh yeah, right. And now I can see that, you know, birthday parties, obviously, in a one quarter and Victoria would be standing in the other corner. I said, oh, you created this monster, you know. I think he was concerned about Victoria getting half of his pension, the house they had, you know, bought and remodeled and, you know, there was a lot of,

you know, a mar asses and things there I think he was concerned about that because he said he's not gonna get half of my pension I said well she's gonna get half of your pension if you leave and you go with Patty you know and you know in the end he talked these circles because not it made any sense it just you know it just didn't make any sense part of the other thing too was, you know, there were, some of the questions that said, did we ever think about trying to tell, you know, the story about this? And, you know, there were parts that need that wanted to tell her, and her brother wanted to tell her as well, but it's like he said, my husband, he said, you know, she's not going to believe us that her best friend is having a affair with her husband.

And you and I are going to be the assholes because Ted will never talk to us again. She'll never talk to us again. They'll go merely on their way. And you and I will sit you sitting here up north with, you know, a strange family. And there were times over the course of those years that Victoria and I had conversations. We had ebbed out each other and she and I told her, I don't know how many times I told her, Victoria, I am not having a fair with your husband. You obviously don't know me.

I would never do that to my family and I would never do that to yours. It's not me. It's not me. I am not having an affair with your husband. I can't tell you how many times I repeated that to her. And after she found out what obviously was going on and she looked at me, she said, Diane, I don't know how many times she said to me, she said, Diane, I don't know. How many times she said to me, it's not me,

because I never got it. I never picked up on that. So I wonder if Patty was planting that seed. And yes, I do believe she was. I do. And I said to Victoria, and said, I said, what were they saying to you about me that made you think it was me and she said, you know, it was just little things. It was when I would see you and Ted together. It seemed like when they would come up here or we would go down there, we hadn't seen each other for a month, six months longer. Or it was like, and I looked at her and I said to her,

there are only three people in this world that have reassuring hugs. And that was Ted, my husband and another person who I am very good friends with. It's a hug that's going to be okay. You're safe here. This is a shelter. I don't know if you've ever experienced that before, but Ted was one of those people when he gave you that hug. That was very, it was a safe place. Just playing everybody against each other. It's just like you said, period evil. And what was your impression of hurt like their dynamic, if you can speak to that at all? Um, recall. like they're dynamic. If you can speak to that at all.

I didn't know him well. I really did more of my interaction to emails with Patty. So I really can't say, he just seemed like a dud. He was just sort of there. You know what I mean? If we were at any function, just kind of talk like it was just mundane, you know, oh yeah, oh yeah, the Steelers played the other night and did you see that tack, or did you see that touchdown? He just didn't seem like he had a lot to say for the most part. I can't say that I ever sat down and had a meaningful or lengthy conversation with him because I did not. The interesting thing is that the Johnson's are they were I love this function too and Mr. Johnson, he was sort of in your face.

What do you be part of the conversation? What a note was going on. What do you be part of the conversation, what I know was going on, how are you, I'm good, oh yeah, what's been going on, I know what you do, what your profession is, and what's been going up there in the north, and it's just like, dude, that's awful little bit, you know, he just came on so strong, and I will never forget he left his employment with the fire department and became an employee of the state in the fire commissioner's office or whatever he does. And there was something going on up here with one of the fire departments that were getting some type of a loan. I don't know exactly what happened, but he was up here for that signing of paperwork. It was kind of a big event.

And he showed up at my place as employment. He walked the door and I initially, I recognized him, I put a name to the face and he was like, I have to bend you know, and I was like, oh my God. This was after I knew it was going on and I had a confirmation and I was dead. It was pretty certain that Patty was nothing around with Mr. Johnson too. And I mean my radar went off, my hair stood up on the back of my neck, my gut is sick, killing in my stomach. I was like, what the hell is this and why are you here? And he wanted to be all chummy, chummy, and fortunately for me, I was busy. I said, listen, I'm not trying to be rude, but I am really busy right

now. It's good to see you. And he went on and talked to several other people in my office who were kind of involved in this fire department thing too. But it was just like, I called Ted. I said, what the hell? And he said to me, are you kidding me? He showed up, but where you work? I said, yeah, yeah. He showed up here where I'm working.

He said, did you talk to him? And I said, no, not. No, I said, virtually nothing. He said, he's efficient for information. I said, well well I don't know what he's doing here but I'm telling you what my spidey senses are going off and this is this is not cool no he thought that and he thought initially it was flirting there was a lot of flirting going on but at the end he did he suspected that there was some messing around going on there he absolutely did and I told him called him. I said, well, she was messing around.

He was. She should, what makes you think she wouldn't do the same thing with him? And they come on. She's a cheater and a liar. So, you know, one thing it made it easy was these guys worked shift work. So when the husband was working, Ted was off. And when Ted was working, the husband was off. So it was shift work.

So it was easy for Ted to have interaction with her because Kurt would be on shift. And they worked opposite. So that made it easier. And it's like they said, it was so subtle over time that it seemed normal. It seemed normal. Ted was very smooth. He was very

charismatic. He was charming. And he was flirtatious. He was flirtatious. I saw him do that with other women, you know. And it was a kid state. It was harmless. You know what I mean? It wasn't. He'd meet someone and he'd be like, oh, you know, I don't know, I'll bubbly, and that would be the last interaction. That last interaction, you know, he'd never see that person again. You know, I look at this fat right now, it looks like a bad Jerry Springer episode. I swear to God. I don't think this is the first time the Ted was the first one.

I don't think so. I think that he is used to this and for the sake of his family. And obviously, the marital assets there, pensions, as well. I think he just puts up with it in toleration. I honestly believe that I really do because he's very passive. I would yeah that would be the word I used to describe Kurt passive. He just take tolerate and takes it. I had told my husband I said listen one of these things and I had said this for probably through a four month. I said we one of these days and I had said this for probably three or four months and we're going to get a call and he said no because you know

as public safety we went we dealt with suicide. We dealt with this on a daily basis what it was intentional and unfortunately our way of dealing with it we joked about it we joked about it and you know like my husband said, he doesn't, anyone knows what a weapon will do. It's Ted and he, because he owns so many and he fired so many. I mean, he was very familiar with weapons, all kinds, handguns, long guns, assault rifles, whatever. He was very familiar with what they could do. So that Wednesday, I was in a meeting with my boss and one of the other employees came back and said, hey, your husband is called.

You need to call him right away and I thought, oh, that's not good, you know. And in my head immediately, my parents are elderly. I'm thinking, okay, something happens to my parents my parents? Or, wow, you know, then why would they call it a lot? Why not me? Something's happened to one of my kids, you know? My oldest son works in construction and is on buildings and on high places. And my other son is a state employee. And you know, is on the road all the time driving big trucks

and stuff. And then my boss is flying, starts ringing. And he answers that that and he says, you know, it's your husband. I said, okay, and I said, hello, and he said, you know, um, excuse me, he said, I'm coming up to get you. I'm taking myself, what do you need to come up to? You may say, what's wrong? And I could tell by force something was wrong. He said, I'm just coming up to get this, you come up to get, you need to be ready to? You may say what's wrong? And I could tell by force something was wrong He said I'm just coming up to get this you coming up to get you need to be ready to leave work. I said what is going on? And he told me he said you know, Ted killed himself and

I couldn't even Process that I drop the phone and fell into the floor. And my boss got on the phone and asked what happened and he told him he said, okay, she'll be ready to go. And he was up there and about maybe five minutes, I don't know, I'm kind of a blur. And he got ready and we knew it, we came home and threw a bunch of stuff

in a closed basket and was on our way down there and I told him, I said, are you sure that he's dead? And he said, yes Brad, call me and he's gone. And I said, are you sure that he did it? Are you sure that God forgave me? Victoria didn't come home and find him in patty and she did it. He said, no, he said that he did it. And then I said, are you sure patty didn't do it?

And he said, I don't know. I don't know. We're going to have to get these answers. I'm going to get down there. So, you know, about a two and a half or two hour and 45 minute drive was about, I don't know, maybe two hours and 10 minutes. And as we got closer to Brad and she, C.J. Towell, if I told my husband, I said, you need to get your shit together. I said, I don't know what we're walking into here, but I'm telling you right now, he's like, well, I'm going to tell him what's going on. I said, no, we cannot tell them that right now. I said, we cannot tell what we know.

This funeral has got to be dignified for this family. I said, you, John, we can't do this. We can't do this to this family right now. No, this is not the time to do this. No. So as we pull in the driveway, I looked at them and said, you got your shit tight. And that's the one thing people in public safety.

You know, you better have your shit tight. You better have it tight. And you know, there's no time for emotions. It's a process. There's a checklist in your head and stuff you gotta do because you gotta get this job done. And that's how he and I went in there. And it was hard. It was really hard. Victoria was sitting on a couch a mess and she was explaining herself. She says, I was pressuring in this morning to go to counseling with me and I told her, my husband told her, no, it's not your fault, it's not your fault, it's not your fault, this is not your fault and Brad.

It absolutely broke my heart. It was his fault because he was estranged from his father and he didn't try to rebuild. And he just kind of said, you know, I've tried everything. I don't know what else to try and kind of threw his hands up in the air and I said, this is not your fault. I am telling you and he is just such a mess. And I, you know, he's not hearing me. I could tell you what was going to be to me because he was just, you know, and I finally got his attention.

I said, this is not your fault. I promise you, this is not your fault. Do you understand me? And he kind of looked at me like, why am I talking about you know, and then it was gone, that moment was gone and it was, it was um, it was bad you know. And I knew he was going to do this. I just didn't think he would. Does that make sense? I totally know what you mean. It's like you weren't surprised, but you also are shocked.

Yeah, yeah. Right. And I think a lot of times people who do this, I, you know, I'm hurting and nothing makes the hurt go away and this is the only way out and whether it's hanging, pills, a gun. I don't sometimes state that they completely understand what is going to happen when you put that rope around your neck and you kick the chair out from under any of you or if you take that bottle of pills or if you pull that trigger but Ted knew. I know he knew what was going to happen when you pulled that trigger.

He saw it in his job so he knew what was going to happen and I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that he was okay with that. This will be okay. This is the way I'm going to do this. I just freaking cannot accept that. I just was like, this is not real. This is not real. I am going to wake up and this is not going to be real.

This is just not real. You know, but it was. It was real, you know. The Thursday, that was on a Wednesday third day morning they were making getting ready to go to the funeral home to make arrangements for his funeral and um... Victoria was in the bedroom speaking to her employer about the days off that she

needed and uh... detective showed up at the house to speak with her and let me back up that's's not right. She was a bedroom talking to her employer, she got the phone and she said to me, she was looking at the sign, I want you to read this and tell me what you think of this. Because the 29 I had kind of mended our fans was a little bit, we weren't super

close, but we had kind of a conventate or a discussion after in the summer of 2014. And I said to her, I apologize for some of the stuff I had said about her, some of the stuff I did. And I felt really bad about it. I had to self-reflection. And I just was like, this is not right. What I did to her, this is just not right. So we were not in a great place, but we were in a better place than we had been.

So when she said to me, I want you to look at myself and look at this message from Patty to me. And it said something to the fact of Kurt found text messages between me and Ted and me and Mr. Johnson that weren't exactly what they should have been. I can't remember the wording exactly but essentially saying that's what I'm going on here. There was something that there was things going on between Ted and Patty that were not right and she's admitting this to Victoria and I looked at her and I said to her She's like, what are you thinking that I said?

Um, I don't really know what to think. What do you think about it? She's like, well, I don't you know I don't know I just you know I just do you think they're we're having do you think they were having an affair? I said well the more important thing is do you think they were having an affair if she looked at me She's like no no, I'm thinking myself. Oh my god. So the doorbell rang, the detectives came in, he came into the bedroom to speak to Victoria. I went out and brought him in to her and she said, we don't go and want you to stay in here, I'm thinking myself, oh please, why do I have to, you know, I don't want to do this.

And so he's asking her all these questions and one of the things he asks is you guys having medical problems and she said, yeah, there were some medical problems and you think he was having an affair and she said, no, I don't. And I'm thinking to myself, holy hell, you have the proof. Any text message on your phone and my brain is screaming. Victoria, wake the hell up. What else do you need, you know, and I'll take care of myself.

Oh my God, she is not gonna believe us when we tell her this. So they went to the funeral home, I can't, and I could not wrap my head around the fact that she had the proof on her phone. She didn't either, she didn't read it right or she didn't interpret it right, which I'm sure, you know, at that point in time she was a wreck.

So my husband went with her and some other family members to the funeral home. And I remember that she said to me, I need you to go over to the house and I need you to get the gun that's in Ted's truck out of there. And there was something in the house she needed. I said, okay, she OK, I can't go over there and do this. I said, fine. Well, this other friend of the family who was friends with my son and her son, who was a firefighter there, he was there. I said, you're going with me. So we get in the car, and we're driving

into short distance. And he can't wrap his head around this, because Ted was this kid's assistant. He was his supervisor on the shift he was on. He was on Ted's trick, as they called it. He was like, I can't believe he did this, I can't believe he did this. Why would he do this, D? Why would he do this?

I just can't believe he did this. And he's rattling around and I finally looked at him and I said, I knew why you offended it. And I how tired why you offended it. And I unloaded on that poor kid about the whole affair thing I said and you need to keep your fucking mouth shut until this is over because me and my husband need to be the one to tell him this. He's a sitner like holy shit and he looks at me.

He goes so much makes sense now that I haven't delivered it. Go to volleyball games. Her stop and bind drop and off pot roast. Him leaving to go do something and we see him over by the place where she worked. He's like, oh my god. I was like, huh. Amazing, isn't it? And I mean, I felt bad after I looked at him and I unloaded on this kid. He just looks at me like, oh, you know, he looks at me like, wow, wow, wow, I got nothing else over, wow. I said, yeah, yeah, you know, crazy.

So we get back to the house in that evening, the wives were coming over to bring some stuff, food and some things like the customary do when you know someone in your family has died. And she was gonna be, Patty was gonna be with him. And I looked at my husband, he's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I am going to spill my guts. I said, you are not gonna do anything, not right now. No, this can't happen right now.

And I remember her coming in, and she always had that look on her face like, poor me. Oh my gosh, this is gonna affect my kids so bad. And she's got a shoulder's hump that hunched up but she's just like, oh, you know, she went to my husband first and hugged him and said, I'm sorry, and he just looked at her. And then she came to me and she hugged me.

She tried to hug me. And I mean, my body was me. She tried to hug me. And I mean, my body was rigid. There was no hugging back. There was no. I wanted to throw up. I was so sick to my stomach. I thought I was going to throw up.

I mean, I absolutely thought I was going to vomit when she touched me. I could have spued venom on her. I swear to God I was so upset and so angry and blaming her for going this because I knew she had something to do with this. And you know, they come in with all this stuff and she's standing here laughing and talking about her. And you've grandda dog that was born in. And I'm just seeing her looking at her like,

you are unfriggin believable. What a piece of work. I couldn't process that. I just could not process that in my head. I mean, Friday morning, I told my husband, I said, we need to get the hell out of here. I mean, Friday morning I told my husband, I said we need to get the hell out of here. I said I gotta go home. I have got to go home.

We have got to go home. Take care of our dogs, get them to the kennel because we had to come back down for the funeral in the beginning of the next week. And I said we gotta get out of here. We gotta get out, I can't do this, we gotta get out of here. And it was, I mean, we literally ran out of there to get the hell out of there because I just needed to get away from it and

Yeah, so the whole way home we just you know, we just talked about what had happened and you know And the more you talk about it the less sense it made does that does that make sense? Yes, I knew that he had taken his life. I absolutely knew that but I knew That morning I text him and he did not text me back. Usually if we texted the morning, you know, hey, how's it going today, you know, whatever. Usually he would text back and say, hey, I'm busy, I'll talk to you later. Okay, fine. Or, hey, I'm in need of today, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Okay, fine whatever. There was nothing and I got very busy at work And I thought it was a little odd that I didn't hear back from him. So I texted him again. It must have been around

10 30 11 o'clock, you know some Jam like hey at home, you know You so busy you can't at least say hey and I got nothing and again. I was busy at work that morning and I you know but I knew I knew there was something triggered this, something happened that night or that morning that triggered this. And I am 100% certain. I would bet everything I own that she had something to do with this that morning.

He talked to her. I know, I know, I know she talked to him and did said something because it wouldn't have been the first time that she said to him, I wish you were dead. I know that she said that to him in the past and I know that she said that. I'm willing to bet a large amount of money that she said that to him that morning. I wish you were dead. You ruined my life because she told him that for you ruined my life, you turned me into somebody I didn't want to be. I hate you, I wish you were dead. I guarantee that some type of that conversation happened that morning. I'm almost 100% certain of it. And he said,

okay, okay, fine, you want me dead, I'll be dead. Almost like a bully thing. I don't believe he did this funny shirt. I believe he did this because she wanted him to. She put that, she played at that seed. He realized he had, he caused so much damage between him and his son and himself. He caused so much damage with his wife. He caused so much damage with his daughter. There was starting to be things there Uh with my husband and I I think I know I I think that the fact that they were having a affair was going to come out and he couldn't face that I think that the fact that they were having a affair was going to come out and he couldn't face that From the people that he worked with. I think he was getting you retired Because I'm gonna retire at the end of that year and he was going to lose his identity I mean, let's face it people are probably safe to have huge egos. That's part of our problem

And he was gonna lose identity. He wasn't gonna be the hero fireman anymore, you know I think there were so many things that played into it, but I am 100% certain she played at that scene that money said, I hate you. I hate what she's done to my life. You've turned me into someone I don't even know, and I wish you were dead because she said that to him before. And he told me she said that to him. I don't know what he recognized at the end.

I don't even know who he was at the end. The last four or five months, he was, I don't know who he was. He was, he was, he looked like a walking skeleton with sunken eyes just going through the movements of going to work, coming home, taking the garbage out, eating dinner, and just doing the things, doing it because they were so ingrained in his brain. You know, you start your car, you don't think about that process, it's just something you do because you've done it so many times. So his life at the end was like that. He just did it because that's what he did every day for the past 30 years. And I told him that, I said, you have no emotions. They were appearing in January for a funeral, his uncle or someone died. And he came in my house and he sat here

and he offered nothing to the conversation. He just kind of was there sitting, you know, and he had his parents with him because it was his mother's brother. And there was, he just was like, okay, but the look here was the right thing to do because a brother died, okay, and it's time to leave the other back, you know, and it was just nothing. There was just no emotions, nothing. That's almost like you turned into a Kurt. Turned into a, um, it's probably worth.

Probably worth. Yes, I think that was suddenly morning. She called me and she was hysterical and she said that they were there and the O'Brien's were there and how Patty was going on about she, you know, how her son is gonna deal with this because he looked up to Ted so much with Brad standing there who's been a stranger

and his father for a well over a year, possibly longer now, and she was crying and she said, Diane, there's something, please tell me Please tell me, do I have a rat in my house? I said, you absolutely do have a rat in your house. And if I were you, I'd throw her ass out. She's like, how am I going to do that? I said, go in there, tell them. Get out.

This is not the time for you. This is all a family. Get the hell out of my house. And that's not who CJ is. I mean she's not scheduled to she did that. I think she was you know respectful and I you know I said yeah you got to rat in your house you absolutely do. Then shortly after that Brad called and said we weren't supposed to come back down until anyway Brad called and said but you please come back down now please come back down now. I was like, okay, when should I get my dog

into the cattle, unfortunately I was. So again, at least through our stuff in a suitcase it went flying down there. And he and my youngest son went down with us. And we got there in Brad. And my son went out in the garage, out back. And that was kind of the place that the guys went to deal with it, I guess.

There were some houses that came from the FDNY and spoke with them, and my husband went out there that evening. And CJ and I were in the house, and Victoria had gone to bed, and it was late. It was very late. And her and I were talking. And her and Brad's bedroom, we were sitting here on the bed talking and she said, do you tell me what is going on? Because she knew that my husband and I knew something and I told her, I said, you cannot

repeat any of this until after this is a funeral is over. And I told her what was going on and she just sat there like, oh my, and she's like, I know it. You know, like all these things that she had been thinking or feeling, but couldn't put a finger on it or confirm it or didn't have confirmation of it. And she said, you have to tell Brad and Victoria, I said, we're going to, we are going to,

but it has to be after this funeral. This has to be a dignified event for this family. It just has to be for the department, for the community, for the friends that has to be dignified at that. It absolutely, you know, it's you-gray, you know. So I remember at the calling hours on that evening, on Monday evening, the O'Brien finally showed up. And CJ and I were standing next to each other. And I could see her whole body stiffening up.

And my body got very rigid and stiff. And like, oh my God, how are we going to get through this? And my youngest son, who was also where, what had happened? Because I had told him about the whole thing. He came over and he basically positioned himself between me, CJ, and the O'Brien, and the line of the people who were coming through and he looked at both of us and said, not now. This is not happening right now.

And CJ and I were both sort of like, okay, okay, okay, okay, you know, and she came through and her husband came through and my husband had to leave the room because he was so upset. He left the room and went outside. And after it was all over and the people would kind of clear it out and you were talking, it was just my youngest son and my husband and I. He was so furious. And he said, did you see what Kurt did? I said, apparently, I didn't. I wasn't paying attention. He said, there was honor guards on each side of his casket. He said he turned his back to that casket. He goes, you don't ever do that. Turn your back on your comrade

who has died. Because you don't ever do that in the military and the fire department. You don't ever do that. And he's like, what a piece of shit. And you know, we were kind of like, wow, I obviously didn't see that or I was like, I didn't pay attention or did see it, didn't realize it was going on. And he was absolutely furious about that. So the next day, we went to, you know, we did the funeral thing and we were getting going into the chapel there where the funeral was going to be. And Victoria was all about having their brides up there. They gotta be up here, they're like family, they gotta be up here.

And Brad is like, mom, my husband, they're gonna sit behind us, that's what they're gonna be. Now just to be a bride, just to be a bride. And my husband looked, he said, the O'Brien can sit back there. We're family, now sit down and let's do this. And you know, we did the whole service. And she said back there, not the ciderhugs, but not the side-curt, with a couple people between them. Afterwards, she basically, I don't know where she disappeared to because when we were

leaving, there was a fire truck with, you know, leaving the procession with her behind it. And there were people lying along the sidewalk. She was nowhere to be found. I thought, what? What? So typical. Go run and hide the other way.

Because I'm pretty sure she knew what was coming. She absolutely knew what was coming. So we get up here up north and he was buried in the cemetery up here and I thought it was very interesting that they did not come. For as close as they were and she said they were, the family's bittersing vacation, you don't come up for the final services at the cemetery. Are you kidding me? Really? kidding me, really?

And you know, it was snowing, it was snowing and blowing, it was so cold at that cemetery which is on top of the hill and I saw to myself, you know, this is so fitting, just a cold, terrible, cold day day your life ended this way You alone now you're gonna get to the top of the hill alone in the ground This is this is I Pouredic justice like ask you know, I don't know it was We came back to the house and I don't know even what transpired, I don't know. But the next thing I knew, Brad and CJ and Victoria and their sister, their daughter was staying

here and Brad and CJ had come up to the second floor of my house for the better than they were staying and Brad called. It's like, can you come here and said, yeah, I come up. He's like, what the hell is going on? And I told him, he's like, we need to help my mom. He's like, I know that. I know that. I know that.

And there were some other people here, and they left. And it must have been, I don't know, probably seven o'clock at night. And we went down on our basement, which was like a man cave, a wooden birder down there, it's very cozy and comfortable down there. And she came, Brad came down, his daughter came down and her husband and their grandchildren had been in bed already.

It was been a long day. And we're sitting down there and my husband said that Victoria is like, you need to get to the next day down. He doesn't talk to you. She can go and sit down and she's crying. And he's like, put his arm around and he's like, you know, I guess we have to tell you and she's like, what's that? And he said, you know, this is not your fault. She just, yeah, I think it might have been my fault.

He's like, no, it wasn't. No, this is not your fault. And Brad said to mom, you need to listen to what I'll go, you know, he's going to say to you, you need to listen to this. And he told her, he said, you know, Ted and Patty have been having a fair for years. And she just looked at him. She looked at him. She's like, you know, they were.

And he's like, yes, they were, Victoria. Yes, they were. It's been going on for years. Is she kind of sat there? She looked at him. She looked at me and I shook my head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

She took her cell phone to try and she was, I'm calling her right now and Brad's like, no, you're not. You're never going to have any contact with her again. And she just kind of sat there and she, you could see the anger coming over her. It was like coming from the bottom of her feet, up through her legs her stomach into her face and her face got red and she just lost her shit and whipped her cell phone across the room and bounced it off the wall and started screaming and bawling and carrying on and it was like let her get it out. You know you just gotta let her, you gotta let, you've got to let this happen. She's gotta get this out and. And after she calmed down a little bit,

she said, how do you know this? And John told her, some of the stuff that we knew. And she's like, I can't believe this. I can't believe this. And she looked at me. And I had obviously access to all kinds of emails, stuff that she had told Patty, that only Patty would know that I knew.

And she looked at me. She's like, how in the hell do you know that? I said because you told Patty, Patty told Ted, Ted told me. She's like, oh my god. I was like, yeah, everything you told Patty, she told Ted and everything if you came home from work one night and Ted was nice to you and you told Patty that, Ted paid help for the next day. If you came home and that one night and Ted was nice to you and you told patty that Ted paid help for the next day If you came home and that evening you and Ted were romantic in the bedroom You told patty you thought there was hope for your Mary and then Ted suffered the wrath of that

She's like oh my god. I was like yeah, and I mean I think we were up before five o'clock in the morning discussing this stuff it was there was so much energy and so much truth that was expelled and that basement that night. It was just like, it was, I don't know about them, but it was healing for me because I had had all that shit ball of up inside of me and had been accused for so long that I was the one that I finally was able to say I wanted the one, you know, I wanted me. Have you had any contact with Patty or Mr. Johnson or anybody aside from your family within the situation after the services? The only contact I had with Patty was the detectives told me to send a text message to him to Brad, to Patty, and to Kirk saying that there would be no other communication, all

communication would cease, no social media, no nothing. And if there were any type of communication that there would be consequences for that, there would be legal steps taken to so that, you know, she, because we didn't know what Patty was capable of, what she was going to, you know, Victoria was in such a fragile state. At that point, right then, we didn't know what she would try because we all realized it's what she was. That was the last conversation. I received no reply from Patty or Kurt on that, nothing. Other than a confirmation to be detected, yes, at the message one out. I can't even put into words, you know, and I always told my husband, I said, you know, something is going to be in you telling her this story. He said, I said, you know, something is gonna be here and you tell in her this story. And he said, I know, you know, I know.

But I know that my husband was so torn between that, but the biggest thing that stuck with him is he's like, she is not gonna believe us. And she wouldn't have. I don't think she would have believed us. I really don't think she would have, because Patty would have never done that to her. Patty was her best friend in the whole world.

And Patty was there for her all the time. And I listened to that. And I'm thinking myself, Bullshit, you know. And she didn't, you know, her relationship with my husband and I wasn't good. So she would have, I'm sure that I don't know what she would have done. But I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have believed this. I do. I look back on this whole thing now. And I can remember saying to myself after we called Brad and CJ and their daughter and Victoria would happen and all the absolute gory details because I had to put emails from my email work and send it to detective. I had to talk to detective about what was going on and Brad alluded to all that stuff that detective, computer and she admitted and all that stuff. But I honestly, and I've had this conversation with Victoria, she should hate me and she doesn't. And I have said to myself, the three times I've been up

to the cemetery, I said to Ted, I just, you definitely underestimated Victoria because I think Ted thought she would go crawl up and go all somewhere and just with her way to nothing. I really do, I think he thought she would go crawl up and go somewhere and just with her way to nothing. You know, I really do. I think he thought that and she, she hasn't. I have watched Victoria absolutely come to life again. She walked into my house here. It's been, I don't know, it's been months ago. I can't give you a fact that she walked in. She was smiling. I looked at her and I thought, oh my God, she's going to be okay.

She was happy. She was living life. She was enjoying life. She was doing what she wanted, when she wanted, how she wanted, and Ted wasn't at home telling her, you can't do that. I don't like how you're doing that. You're not doing that right. You're crazy.

You're insane. You do the counselor. That all ended. That all ended. It was like the bond that the two of them had on her was cut. And all of a sudden, she realized like, I can breathe again.

I can breathe again. And I am so, I am so proud of her. I am thankful that she and I and my husband have a great relationship. It's incredible. It really is incredible. It is. It's amazing.

And that Brad and CJ are back in our life again, because the interesting thing is, is Teddy Patty successfully drove a wedge between Brad and CJ and me and my husband. He successfully drove a wedge between my boys and Brad and CJ. And I don't even know how the hell that happened. I don't. She wanted him to hurt herself. She wanted to suck the life out of him and isolate him. You talk about abuse. wanted to suck the life out of him and isolate him. You talk about abuse. It's, she is a master.

I mean, I fucking master at this. And which leads to the belief this is not the first time she's ever done it. And it's certainly not gonna be the last. Yeah, she's still doing it. Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson is the new Victoria. And now she's probably got more energy than ever

to be sucking the life out I am, you know? And who knows who else she's dating. But like you said, it's like the thing you said about the shifts, oh my God, like the way you put that just like really helped my brain understand it because with a narcissist or a sociopath, these types of people, they need constant stimulation and constant attention for their ego. And she had that, she had somebody stroking her ego all hours of the day, she had them in shifts.

Right. Literal shift. And the unfortunate thing too is I think that Ted was kind of the same way. When I look back now about how I was used, I question my own, I question my people skills, so to speak. Yeah, I am a friend believer that there are people on this earth who are just absolute evil. There, the devil has got control of them and they're walking this earth, wreaking havoc, and she is one of them. She's not using a weapon, she's not using a weapon she's not using a gun she's not you know she's she is

absolute evil i i there's no other words to be say and i you know i thought a million times if i ever see her what i would say to her and i honestly got to tell you right now i don't know what i would say to her i don't know if i say anything i don't i'm not one to just kind of turn my back and walk away I think I would

probably just say to her you know what you might not have pulled the trigger but she got your blood on your hands and you have to deal with that every day you are going to rot in hell I assure you of that which I'm not God I don't make those judgments but I'm you know there's just no way. And, you know, the bad thing about it, she is a predator. And, you know, who's her next victim? It's one of the stories that's not an ending. The ending is you see her looking at some guy going, hmmm. And that's the end of the story.

And, you know what, he may be a show of the human being too, because she has completely sucked the life out of him and he's just going through the motions. And I probably, he probably is. I mean, if she's willing to say to Ted, I wish you were dead and so forth the thing. I mean, it usually abusers, if they're saying it, one of their victims, they're saying it to all of them,

because that's just how they operate. What is transformed you or changed you as a person from this? I look at suicide completely different now because you know, before this happened, other people who didn't happen in my family. It just didn't happen in my family because we were stronger than that and obviously we apparently were not. So it has definitely changed my outlook on suicide. I have become more entuned to the people I work with and situations that are going on,

bad calls would have happened and we've had some really bad ones and I have reached out and gotten counseling for some of my folks I work with. There are other people in the community who I have reached out to and have reached out to me that were in the public safety community, not that I, you know, not that are employees of my agency, but in the fire department that have gotten help because they were struggling with stuff and I will say that I become much more suspicious of people who want to be my friend. Why do you want to be my friend. Why do you want to be my friend?

I am not quite as, you know what, I can't say I'm not quite as trusting because I've never been a, I'm not really easy to people who want to be my friends. I'm not a person who is, oh sure, okay, let's be friends. It's, I'm very selective about my friends and I'm always questioning what people say things that make my Summit go bumper my back of my neck kind of tango. It's like wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?

What you know, I just know So I'm very suspicious. I guess of people I guess the biggest thing is You know your family comes first, your husband, your kids, when outside people are paying attention to you and there's a lot of infidelity that goes on to public safety. You know the grass is not always green on the other side, it absolutely is not greener on the other side. It absolutely is not greener on the other side. You need to remember the person who you're with, why you married them, or why you got involved

with them, and what you have together, you need to protect that. You absolutely need to protect that because it's precious. It really is precious, especially in today's world. And if someone is struggling with something, you know, reach out to them, try to go the extra mile. And I think that the Ted, I did go the extra mile, that you can't, you can't force someone to get help even if they don't want to, because I would have had to literally have tied him up and carried him, which I would have never been able to do, and thrown him in a car and taken him to a counselor. That was the only way that was going to happen. And then when he got there, he did to set their stone face, not send anything. I know he wouldn't have talked. But, um, yeah. around you, if someone's not acting right, you know, try to find out what's going on. And again, don't let people come in your life

in your relationships who seem too good to be true. These are the costs of that. Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time and for speaking with me. And I really, really appreciate it. And yeah, I'm really sorry for your guys' loss as well and I just appreciate you being open.

You know, when I heard this, I, what, this is a podcast and when CJ contacted me last week and asked me if I'd be willing to do this, she was kind of apprehensive about asking me, I said, yes, absolutely, there are some things I need to say and get out there too. So I appreciate the fact that you do this kind of stuff because I don't know, I guess I didn't realize this type of thing was out there. I'm kind of not a computer savvy as some folks are. I'm computer savvy in other ways because things I do at work, but not this side of podcast and stuff.

So yeah thank you for what you do and keep on doing what you're doing. Thank you so much. Well I hope you have a good rest of your day. All right. All right. Take care. Thank you. Thanks bye bye. Bye. Thank you again to Diane and the Bishop family for sharing with us this season. Also, I'd like to thank you for listening to something was wrong this year. It's been an action-packed whirlwind of an experience that I am forever grateful for. I'm looking forward to sharing 2020 with all of you, diving into more stories, and growing through it all.

Also, I'm really excited to share that next year we'll be having a fun opportunity for our listeners that are musicians. If you're musically inclined, submit an MP3 cover of our theme song, you think you, by the band Glad Rags, in its entirety, too. Something was wrong podcast at gmail.com.

When you send over your MP3, please include a paragraph about your musical background or current music projects so we can send listeners your way to hear more. All styles of music are welcome and encouraged. So get creative. I'm so excited to hear what y'all come up with. Thank you so much and happy holidays friends. Something was wrong, is written, recorded, edited and produced by me, Tiffany Reese. Music on the show, by the band, Gladraggs. You can find them on iTunes, band camp, all over the place. They're also on Instagram, so check them out. I'd like to thank the Bishop family for being so vulnerable and brave.

If you wanna hang out some more, you can add me on Instagram. I am at LookyBoom. L-O-O-K-I-E-B-O-O. We also have a hashtag, something was wrong. Pod on Instagram. Also, if you are interested in any of the materials, sources, sponsors mentioned of the materials, sources, sponsors,

mentioned on the podcast, you can check them out under the episode and show notes. Thank you so much. I never think of the things that don't make me Don't know me well I don't know what I'm going to be I don't know what I'm going to be I don't know what, you don't know me, you don't know me You think you know me, you don't know me well You think you know me, you don't know me well Let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go You don't know anybody, you don't to something was wrong early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

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