- 5 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01Hi, Linda.
00:02Hi, Linda.
00:03Thank you, Chad.
00:04Thank you, Chad.
00:06Thank you, Chad.
00:06Chad is the person I would be with for the rest of my life.
00:11At some points, I felt like this was too good to be true.
00:16How can I have such a great life?
00:20Chad Skipper faces felony charges.
00:23His face popped up, and it was just like,
00:26that's impossible.
00:29He was really in over his head,
00:33trying to keep up with all the lies he was telling people.
00:36I could see a gun pointed at me.
00:38The police are in my house.
00:41You love me with serious charges?
00:43He lied to me about everything.
00:46It's all good.
00:48I do.
00:49Six children, married for 17 years.
00:52Did he ever even love me?
00:55I never thought he'd put anything inside me.
01:15I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most, and the deceptions that
01:23change everything.
01:24On today's show, we meet Danielle, who had dreams of marrying a man of faith and integrity.
01:29And she thought she had that with Chad.
01:31But after years together, a shocking truth was revealed.
01:35Danielle, it is so great to see you again.
01:37It's good to see you again, too.
01:39Tell me, what motivated you to reach out?
01:42I was listening to the Betrayal podcast, and it really helped me in my journey and in my story, where
01:50I'm actually finding out that this man that I was in love with wasn't even the man that he said
01:55he was.
02:01I grew up in California, in the Bay Area.
02:05My family's really close.
02:07I have one brother, he's older than me, and then two sisters younger than me.
02:12Danielle came from a Christian religious background, and she was homeschooled, but she was a typical teenager.
02:18She dated and had a boyfriend named Billy, but they had to break up because her dad was transferred and
02:24they moved out of state.
02:27We relocated to Illinois.
02:29That was a really hard time for me because I obviously didn't know anybody in Illinois.
02:34At that point, I was in college.
02:37My next youngest sibling, she was going to Black Hawk.
02:41She knew I was looking to find friends, and so she said, why don't you come to the Bible study,
02:46see if you can find a friend.
02:49There's this thing called InterVarsity.
02:51It was like a Christian fellowship group.
02:52We would study the Bible for a little while, pray, just sort of fellowship with people on campus that were
02:58like-minded religiously as we were.
03:02And Danielle came with me.
03:04Chad was at that Black Hawk Bible study.
03:10He was a really, really charismatic person, and I thought he was attractive.
03:15Chad was very cool and calm and collected all the time.
03:22He had a reputation of being very smart, very kind.
03:27I have this specific memory of a conversation where Chad started talking about finance and what he was studying.
03:35And of course, my 18-year-old self was just completely in awe.
03:39And I even remember having this brief thought pop into my head, like, should I be dating Chad?
03:46That's how impressive he was.
03:50Usually after the Bible study, we would go to a restaurant.
03:58And I remember wanting to sit next to him and feeling the electricity if our knees touched.
04:07He had the same kind of humor as me.
04:09I just felt comfortable and happy when I was around him.
04:14Our first date was a double date.
04:17It was actually with him and my sister and the guy she was interested in.
04:21And it was kind of not a usual date.
04:23It was just at our house.
04:24And we watched a couple movies.
04:26One was, so I married an ex-murderer.
04:30How many people have you brutally murdered?
04:32Brutal is a very subjective word.
04:35I mean, what's brutal to one person might be totally reasonable to somebody else.
04:41And then I made him lasagna and he changed the oil in my car.
04:46Very romantic.
04:47She thought that was amazing because he was showing that he was going to take care of her.
04:52It was very obvious that both Chad and Danielle were very into each other.
04:59I actually was very excited for her when they got engaged.
05:03We were happy for her.
05:06Hi, everybody.
05:07Thank you for throwing me the surprise shower in a box.
05:11Yeah, he has to close his eyes.
05:12What's your eyes?
05:14Chad, where's your orange?
05:16Chad!
05:16You can't see it until it's on.
05:18The white lingerie that we opened, we didn't know who it was from.
05:21I want to thank you especially very much.
05:27I really enjoyed my wedding.
05:28I was a typical girl that thought about, okay, when I get married,
05:32I'm going to have this kind of dress.
05:34I'm going to have these kinds of flowers.
05:37These are the colors I'm going to have.
05:38Hi, Danielle.
05:40I love you.
05:41Thank you, Chad.
05:42Thank you, Chad.
05:43Thank you, Chad.
05:44So good.
05:46I do.
05:49Everything was perfect.
05:50And now it's true.
05:59For the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Chad's perfect.
06:05It was just a fun, happy time.
06:11I was really in love.
06:18This was the person I would be with for the rest of my life.
06:25Hey, Bertie.
06:25I want to have a friend.
06:32We were so happy.
06:33I could never have imagined what was on the horizon.
06:40Danielle and Chad moved to Erie, Illinois, to a little small house.
06:45It was cute.
06:46Perfect for them.
06:53Erie is just this little small town.
06:58Everybody pretty much knows everybody else.
07:00It's just a really beautiful, quiet place to live.
07:04Chad's family was sort of like a big family in their church.
07:09Chad grew up in that church.
07:12They were very much involved in doing skits for different occasions to help younger kids learn in the church through
07:18comedy.
07:19Sorry, I didn't see you.
07:21Could I, could I not see you again sometime?
07:26Um, I guess I, I have to ask my mom and dad though.
07:32They were very much a great example of a Christian married couple involved in a church.
07:36Well, did you buy something else at Walmart?
07:39No, it was too difficult.
07:41I had to keep coming up all the time.
07:43Why was that?
07:44I was watching for falling prices.
07:46Danielle and Chad were never separated.
07:48They were always lovey-dovey, holding hands, kissing, being together.
07:54He was an awesome husband to her.
07:57He treated her with so much respect and kindness and was loving towards her.
08:02I'm gonna comb my hair.
08:04Look at this.
08:05There was no question that Chad and Danielle were going to have a bright future.
08:09So, gonna be later tonight, huh?
08:12After they got married, Chad decided to become a financial advisor and start his own business.
08:19And he did really well.
08:20The family had everything they wanted.
08:23At some points, I felt like this was too good to be true.
08:27How can I have such a great life?
08:31One day, Chad came home.
08:35And he sat me down on the couch and he was like, I have to tell you something.
08:40Danielle didn't know what to expect.
08:42But what Chad said next blew Danielle's world apart.
08:53Danielle and Chad were at the beginning of a perfect marriage.
08:58And one day, Chad came home and said he needed to talk.
09:03And he admitted to having an encounter in a bathroom with a man.
09:09At first, I was shocked.
09:13I didn't really know the true Chad.
09:17I felt betrayed.
09:19Why are you telling me this?
09:21Why is this happening at the beginning of our marriage?
09:24And I never really got like a full answer to that.
09:28It was always just vagueness.
09:33But he seemed to me like he was really sad about it and that he was really distraught.
09:41And he said he wanted to make it better.
09:44I felt like anything that's going on, I want to help him with, not just throw him away.
09:49For Danielle, it was an internal struggle between her head and her heart.
09:54There was what she should do after learning about Chad's infidelity, which was leave,
09:58and what her heart wanted, which was to stay.
10:02We ended up going to marriage counseling.
10:05And in one of my sessions, I remember the counselor saying,
10:07you are not in any way obligated to stay in this marriage.
10:11In fact, I would advise you to not stay in this marriage.
10:14But I was adamant that I wanted to stay in the marriage
10:17because I had made a vow, I had made a promise.
10:22It was just a couple of months later when I found out I was pregnant.
10:27It's a baby's heartbeat.
10:29It's beating up again.
10:30Yeah, just take me right here.
10:34I was jumping for joy.
10:36My daughter was born, and her name is Grace.
10:40When Donnie and Chad got pregnant with Grace, they'd been trying for a while,
10:44and she'd been getting really discouraged because we all wanted to have kids really bad.
10:49And so I know it was a very big deal for her.
10:52I found out that I was pregnant again with Christopher very soon after Grace was born.
10:58That was always my dream, to be a mom.
11:01Somebody told me when I was little, they remember me saying that,
11:04when I got married, I wanted to have 12 kids.
11:07You know?
11:08My dad is one of 12, so that's probably where I got it from.
11:12But I had six kids with Chad.
11:16Chad was a good dad.
11:17He played with his kids.
11:19He held the babies all the time.
11:22Look her dad.
11:22How are they swimming?
11:24That was her daddy.
11:26And what?
11:27Did he tickle you?
11:28Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle.
11:31Should I wave?
11:33Yay!
11:36OK, is that good?
11:38Danielle was a stay-at-home mom.
11:40That meant Chad was the sole provider for the family, which was fine because he was doing so well.
11:45The house that we were living in at that time, it was good.
11:48It had the right amount of rooms for everyone.
11:51But Chad always liked it bigger and better.
11:54And he had his eye on a big house that had quite a bit of land attached to it.
12:00He really wanted that property.
12:03All right.
12:04This is our new house.
12:06The living room.
12:09Big kitchen.
12:10Lots of cupboard space.
12:12Chad's in the work area back there.
12:16He had an office downstairs.
12:19His office was where he conducted his financial advising business.
12:24And he would work long hours to the point that he'd be in that office until way into the night.
12:30And I'd ask him, why are you in here so late?
12:33What he told me was that he was dealing with clients.
12:37I was like, how are you dealing with clients in the middle of the night?
12:41Aren't they sleeping?
12:42Shouldn't you be sleeping?
12:45And so there were a lot of nights where I would be alone in bed.
12:48He was in his office downstairs.
12:51And I would be wondering why I'm not having a husband sleeping next to me.
12:56But when I would approach him with it, it almost seemed like he was annoyed that I was approaching him
13:01about it.
13:03He just said, well, maybe I'll just stay out longer.
13:05Maybe I'll just come to bed less than that.
13:09And it really, really hurt me because I felt like if you really love someone, why in their time of
13:14crying to you, saying that they want you, would you say, well, I'm going to do that less than?
13:19It didn't really make any sense to me and it really hurt.
13:22What was more important than spending time in the night with Danielle?
13:27Never in her wildest dreams could she imagine what he was actually doing.
13:37Danielle and Chad went through a lot in their marriage.
13:40First, there was the infidelity.
13:42And now he was no longer sleeping in their bed and he was sleeping in his office.
13:46So she went to her church for comfort.
13:51Danielle and Chad were members of the Erie Christian Church.
13:54Chad had been going to this church since he was a kid.
13:57So he knew everybody so well, including Larry and Connie Van Usten.
14:01And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him and who have
14:06been called according to his purpose.
14:08The Van Ustens were elders in the church.
14:11They ran Sunday school.
14:13Make sure you get a relationship with Jesus Christ.
14:17They were prominent members of the community.
14:20They had a number of businesses and they had just sold one and were coming into a lot of money.
14:26And that was of interest to Chad.
14:27I found out that he was trying to get them to be his client.
14:31Chad really wanted the Van Ustens as clients.
14:34And they met a couple of times and he made a presentation.
14:37But ultimately they decided to not go with him because he was too new to the financial world.
14:43Based on interviews with Larry and Connie, his plan didn't make sense.
14:48Having the Van Ustens and their money would have been a great financial win for Chad's business.
14:53But since he didn't get the deal, he started looking for additional ways to generate income.
14:58So then Chad decided to get into real estate.
15:00And he took all of his money, started buying properties, renovating them, and then renting them out.
15:08All of his rental properties were things that he purchased without me.
15:13He went and found them.
15:15He decided whether he would purchase them or not.
15:17And so often I didn't like know anything about it other than the fact that he had purchased it.
15:27Honestly, I didn't even need to worry about it.
15:29We had everything that we would ever want.
15:32I enjoyed life.
15:34I felt like I was finally living the life that I wanted to live.
15:38I mean they had this huge house.
15:41Cars, lawn equipment.
15:43So doing very well.
15:45That's when a lot of times he would be gone longer than I had expected.
15:49When I would question him, where were you?
15:51There were several times he told me, oh, this rental property had a sewage problem and so I had to
15:57go deal with that.
15:58Or the washing machine broke down so I had to fix it.
16:00Oh, my phone must have lost its battery.
16:02Or, you know, I forgot to plug my phone in.
16:05Or I shut my phone off and so I didn't hear it ringing.
16:08Or I left it in the car.
16:09There was always a reason.
16:11By this point, Chad and Danielle had been married for almost two decades.
16:16They'd been through a lot, but things were about to get weird.
16:27One time, it was the middle of the night, and one of my kids, Christopher, saw a car pull up
16:34into our driveway that he didn't recognize.
16:37He said it was silver.
16:39Christopher saw Chad briefly and his reaction was one of surprise, like, what are you doing up?
16:45And I found out later that Chad texted my daughter to wrap dark electrical tape around the handle of a
16:56sledgehammer.
16:58And he asked me to wrap until there's no yellow showing.
17:03I was like, okay, that's a little weird, but you know what?
17:07I'm going to wrap that sledgehammer the best I can.
17:10So I did.
17:12And then I sent him a picture when I was finished.
17:15He told me that I did a good job and that I was going to get a special treat.
17:20Why would you need your 14-year-old to wrap a sledgehammer in black electrical tape?
17:30Just a few days afterwards, in the middle of the night, I heard a really loud bang, bang, bang.
17:35And I thought I heard glass breaking too.
17:39Then I heard police, hands up in the air.
17:45I had my glasses off, so I could not see very well.
17:49And as I walked down my hallway from my bedroom, I could see a gun pointed at me.
17:56I just remember just being so scared and so confused.
18:08So my whole body was shaking.
18:10And they wouldn't even let me wake up my kids.
18:12They had to go wake them up.
18:16I remember the knocking.
18:17It was really loud.
18:19And then they kicked the door and I was absolutely terrified.
18:27And then they said, do you know who your husband is?
18:32No, I think he's sleeping downstairs.
18:35He's not?
18:36Do you have a hiding place in your house?
18:38Do you know the Van Ustens?
18:43Why are you questioning me about the Van Ustens?
18:46Why are you in my house with a gun at my head?
18:59It was the middle of the night, and the police are in my house, and I could see a gun
19:05pointed at me.
19:08I felt like I was watching or in some kind of awful horror movie.
19:17When they had started asking me lots of questions about the Van Ustens, that didn't make sense to me.
19:22Why would you be asking me about my Sunday school teachers?
19:28They took me over to the police station into an interrogation room, and they were asking me all kinds of
19:33weird questions like, do you know what kind of business your husband was in?
19:38I knew that he was in the financial business, but I didn't understand how that related to the Van Ustens,
19:45and they would never give me an answer to any of those questions.
19:50At this point, the Van Ustens were missing for three days, and the rumor around town was that they were
19:55victims of a crime.
19:59My name is Chris Endres.
20:01I'm a retired captain with the Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation, and I was the lieutenant of major
20:07crimes for the state police at the time.
20:10Larry and Connie Van Usten, they're certainly the least likely people that would ever be victims of a violent crime.
20:19However, the only thing that did elevate their risk was their finances.
20:26According to police, in the middle of the night, a masked intruder with a device to disguise their voice breaks
20:32into the Van Ustens' home, kidnaps them, and drives them to the bank.
20:39Once the kidnapper arrived at their bank, he took the blindfold off of Connie and told her to go get
20:47a check from their bank for $350,000, and if she didn't, he threatened to kill Larry.
20:57While she's in the bank, Connie pulls out a church flyer from her purse.
21:01Despite her and her husband being in grave danger, Connie has the presence of mind to slip a note to
21:08the teller saying that she's in trouble.
21:10And if she doesn't give this a try, she doesn't know if she and Larry will ever live through this.
21:21After she had safely left the bank with a cashier's check, those bank employees had called the police.
21:27And that is when a whole abduction alert is put in place for Connie and Larry.
21:36When this thing kicks off, we know who our victims are.
21:40We have no idea who the suspect is.
21:44We found some surveillance footage that showed a good picture of the car that he was driving.
21:50It was an early 90s Chevy Caprice.
21:53We had a suspect vehicle.
21:54We didn't have a license plate, but we did have the name of the LLC that was put on the
22:00cashier's check.
22:02It was called the Store Edge.
22:05The registered owner of the Store Edge was Chad Skipper.
22:13So then we just ran his name through the databases and found out that he owned a 1992 Chevy Caprice.
22:18So then we knew our head had a suspect.
22:21And once we had Chad identified, we learned that he owned several properties.
22:27We started deploying surveillance at all those properties.
22:31The police have multiple homes that they could search for the Van Ustens, and they didn't know which one they
22:37were at.
22:38And even if they did find them, they didn't know if they would be dead or alive, because Chad already
22:44had the money.
22:46And we also have investigators at the Van Ustens' home.
22:50While they're processing the crime scene, officers see what looks like the suspect vehicle drive past the property.
23:05White side, he's taken off.
23:07They pull out after his car, and that leads into a multi-county pursuit.
23:23Pursuit ends with a pretty bad crash.
23:26After the crash, Chad Skipper was taken by ambulance to the Illini Hospital.
23:31He had some internal injuries, broken ribs, dislocated elbow.
23:34I didn't have to press him hard at all.
23:36I just basically asked him, I said, what are we doing here today?
23:39And he just went right into, well, we're here today because I kidnapped the Van Ustens for money.
23:45If they're taking Chad at his word, the police know where Larry and Connie are.
23:49But they don't know what shape they're in.
23:51They've been missing for three days.
23:53It's crucial to find them as soon as possible.
23:58A group of FBI agents and our state police agents descend upon this home.
24:04They make entry into the house.
24:06They don't find Larry and Connie.
24:10In one of the spare bedrooms is a large TV monitor.
24:17They're looking at the screen.
24:19They can see Larry and Connie inside a concrete room.
24:23With no stairs.
24:29This monster built a soundproof prison cell.
24:35And he had Larry and Connie shackled standing up.
24:40The officers on scene, while they're wondering, they're under surveillance.
24:44Are they here somewhere?
24:46Are they somewhere else?
24:47We have no idea where the Van Ustens were.
25:00The officers on scene in the house, they can see Larry and Connie on the TV screen.
25:08And they start doing another search of the home.
25:10They open the hallway coat closet.
25:15The flooring in the closet doesn't match the flooring in the hallway.
25:22They lift up that flooring.
25:25And they find a big steel-plated door.
25:31They break this lock, lift the hatch that led to a soundproof prison cell.
25:40In the basement of the house.
25:43And find Larry and Connie.
25:45Bound and blindfolded.
25:49They were handcuffed to the wall.
25:51And they were standing there for a number of hours.
25:53One of them was just hanging by their wrist from the wall there.
25:57Because they couldn't stand anymore.
25:59There was cameras in every corner.
26:03And a microphone.
26:04So that he could listen to them and he could see them.
26:07And he could speak to them in the creepy, cryptic voice modulator that he had.
26:15This is my opinion.
26:16I don't think there's any way he's going to let them go.
26:20What's the benefit in releasing them?
26:25Get stuck in the car and they missed the walls of Doug Hayden.
26:29I was going to fix that.
26:33Obviously, you think this one, it throws a red flag most.
26:36Okay.
26:37Not really.
26:40My bonds are going to take this to me.
26:42Okay.
26:44No, I just wanted to fix them down.
26:48They were never going to get let go.
26:50And I'll always believe that.
26:53But what was important to me was that our victims are safe.
26:58They're alive.
26:59We have our suspect in custody.
27:01Now we can start putting the puzzle together.
27:03How did this happen?
27:06As detectives interview him, they learn step by step how disturbing this crime actually was.
27:13Chad entered the Van Usten's home using a sledgehammer.
27:18He broke into a basement window, walked inside, and sat at the kitchen table for hours.
27:26Chad enters a bedroom that Larry's sleeping in.
27:31He wakes up Larry, deploys his taser.
27:37He takes steps to control Larry first.
27:40He then grabs Connie.
27:43Has her handcuffed Larry.
27:46Puts duct tape on their mouth, duct tape on their eyes.
27:50He uses his voice box and says, where is your god now?
27:55Where is your god now?
28:04And that's when Chad drives Connie to her bank.
28:09Detectives learned Chad had been envisioning this crime for a long time.
28:13And he had planned every detail, down to his own daughter wrapping the sledgehammer.
28:20When I heard our dad had used the sledgehammer that he asked me to wrap to commit this crime,
28:28my whole world crumpled.
28:32That really hurt me.
28:39My husband has all of a sudden been arrested for kidnapping.
28:45It was his arrest that was the first thing on the news.
28:48The Geneseo man accused of kidnapping a Whiteside County couple.
28:52Skipper took the couple to their bank and forced them to get a cashier's check.
28:55They were later taken to a soundproof shelter in the basement of one of Skipper's rental homes.
29:01I was thinking, no, they've got the wrong Chad Skipper.
29:04That's impossible.
29:07My life is upside down.
29:11When she said he kidnapped someone, we were just shocked.
29:16None of us had any clue that he would be capable of doing anything like that.
29:26It was really difficult because it was like, everything that I had known and thought I'd known of this person
29:35that I loved with all my heart,
29:38was not that person.
29:42Six children, married for 17 years.
29:46Did he ever even love me?
29:49I had a really hard time figuring out what reality was as opposed to what I thought reality was.
30:01Chad was living a life that his spouse and children knew nothing about.
30:13I had some properties here and there, properties that got big ideas and they just get under water and I
30:20owe more than they're worth.
30:22It's funny that she was facing all this, this chaos kicked off with her name.
30:25I was just trying to buy time.
30:27So I kind of kicked off, I sense urgency bullets.
30:31I felt cashed out.
30:35From the point where my kids were taken out of the house and I was interrogated, my kids never stepped
30:41into that house again.
30:43I didn't want them to go back into the house.
30:46I had to go in the house and get things cleaned up.
30:49Finally, after all these years, Danielle could go into Chad's office where he had been isolating himself and dig through
30:56his secrets.
30:59We learned how seriously bad he was at managing people's finances.
31:06Chad was sort of a failed businessman.
31:10He wasn't doing well and he had borrowed a lot of money and taken out a lot of credit card
31:15debt.
31:16Chad wasn't just lying to Danielle about their finances.
31:19He was embezzling money from his clients.
31:22And over time, the theft grew and grew.
31:27We went through everything in his office.
31:29He had credit cards from more people than you can shake a stick at.
31:33He had found a credit card that he had fraudulently gotten from his parents, like signed his name on his
31:39parents' credit card.
31:41His parents had paid their house off.
31:45He forged paperwork to borrow money against that house.
31:51A lot of money.
31:54His parents ended up suing him for almost $400,000.
31:59He stole money from his parents, from his grandma, his uncle, my brother, from somebody in the church.
32:09Chad had stolen so much money from his clients and they wanted to see returns.
32:13And so that's where the Van Ustens come into play.
32:17Because according to Chad's interview with police, he needed $350,000 to pay back his clients.
32:24When they decided not to work with him, he got desperate and decided to kidnap them.
32:31We found notes at the house.
32:35He had been planning this, writing out every detail for a very long time.
32:41Turns out there was planning for that dungeon that he built.
32:45There was just some weird notes on there about, you know, soundproofing and different items to shop for that didn't
32:55make sense.
32:57Everything that we had found in the office was just a complete betrayal.
33:04We've dealt with a lot of violent crime, but this one was bizarre.
33:10It was almost like an episode of Criminal Minds where it's like it's taken up a notch, you know, to
33:17make it extreme.
33:18That it seemed like it was a movie, but it was real.
33:25Dad not only betrayed his wife, his family, he betrayed the entire community of Erie.
33:31People thought they knew who he was and he was someone completely different in the end.
33:36I remember pulling off my wedding ring and throwing it.
33:39That's it. I'm done.
33:50Being married to somebody like that, obviously my whole life has been turned upside down.
33:56Life isn't what you thought it was.
33:58I had a really hard time trusting people.
34:02Going through the process of divorce was very difficult for me because of my strong faith and because when I
34:07made those vows, that was it.
34:19But I knew that it was the only way I could move forward and it was the only safe option
34:25for me and for my kids.
34:30During one of our divorce proceedings, Chad actually wanted custody of the kids.
34:35How would that work with him in jail? But I don't know. Typical narcissist like textbook.
34:43Chad was charged with felony home invasion, aggravated kidnapping and unlawful restraint.
34:49The evidence was overwhelming against Chad. It would be difficult for him to go to trial.
34:55And it was an emotional day for the Banuistons, but in the end they got the justice they were looking
35:00for.
35:0042 year old Chad Skipper sentenced to 60 years, the rest of his life in prison.
35:09We couldn't cheer.
35:11We couldn't cheer. It was in a courtroom.
35:12But when we got outside of the courtroom, we did.
35:18It was glorious. He was 42 at the time.
35:22He ain't coming home.
35:27When I heard that his sentence was 60 years, I was glad because that meant that if he was angry
35:37about being in jail, if he was angry about my mom divorcing him, he wouldn't be able to act on
35:44it.
35:47I specifically do remember being in the courtroom with him.
35:51And I remember at one point he was looking over at me and mouthing the words, I love you.
35:55And I remember thinking, no, you don't love me.
35:59It's just another lie.
36:01And it made me feel really gross for him to be mouthing that to me.
36:04Like, how dare you say that to me?
36:09Chad got a hefty penalty, 60 years without parole.
36:12And the DA decided not to bring any other charges against Chad because he was already serving essentially a life
36:18sentence.
36:19And the Van Ustens got justice.
36:22So I have not spoken with him since his arrest.
36:25But Chad wrote me a lot of letters from jail.
36:30All of them were full of manipulations.
36:34So Danielle was receiving letters from Chad for a while.
36:38And then she started getting letters from an individual named Eloisa May.
36:43Eloisa May was a character that Chad created.
36:46Like this southern lady that was really proper.
36:51Here's a sample of what was written in those letters.
36:54Danielle, it is good to be a-talking with you again, Missy.
36:58I pray you are doing well.
37:00I hope your little ones are a-finding time to be kids in this world we are living in.
37:05This Eloisa May character, her husband had been arrested or had done something for which Eloisa May did not forgive
37:13him.
37:14And because of that, her husband had killed himself.
37:17And this Eloisa May was really concerned for Danielle because she felt that Danielle might be going down that path.
37:24And if she didn't forgive Chad and take him back as her husband, then Chad might kill himself.
37:30Enough chitchat.
37:31Down to brass tacks, Sugar Plum.
37:34What Charlie did caused our family to suffer.
37:36But what I did destroyed our family.
37:39I thought I was being brave when I ended our marriage.
37:42But I was still being a coward.
37:44What I really needed to do was to forgive.
37:49Which was obviously Chad saying, you better take me back or I'm going to do something.
37:55How she should grant him forgiveness.
37:58When you're writing, even if you have that accent, you don't write it as the accent.
38:04He's writing these letters, trying to pull on their heartstrings that this woman went through a similar experience and she
38:13found it in her heart to forgive.
38:15And these letters are trying to convince them to have some sympathy.
38:20What I really think is, I don't think he thought very highly of Danielle and her intellect.
38:25And I think that Chad thought that he could manipulate Danielle into doing whatever.
38:29Or it just shows that he's completely divorced from reality.
38:33A lot of the time that I spent right afterwards was trying to understand my healing process and how am
38:41I going to move forward from this.
38:44I did a lot of self-help reading.
38:46And in the midst of that, I also think that God gave me peace.
38:52It's an indescribable quiet that I felt in my soul.
38:56It's going to be okay.
38:57And over time, I moved on.
39:01Danielle and I had, every once in a while, we would talk about love and whether or not she would
39:06ever find love again.
39:07And she was always, absolutely not.
39:09I have no interest. I cannot trust anyone again.
39:12And then, actually not that long later, she pulled me aside and she said, so, I've sort of been talking
39:19to Billy.
39:20And I was like, Billy, that's awesome.
39:24Billy and I met when we were teenagers.
39:28But we were really young and our lives just kind of went separate ways.
39:33And then after all of this happened, we started talking through text and the talks got longer.
39:41I had started having feelings for him.
39:43It turns out he also had feelings for me.
39:47Our relationship just developed and he ended up asking me to marry him.
39:55And I'm now married to the first love of my life, Billy.
40:06Our mom has grown so much. She's a stronger person. She's more confident.
40:13She laughs more now, especially now that Billy is in our house.
40:19I see so much happiness in her that I never saw before. I love her laugh so much.
40:27Danielle is a much stronger person since this whole thing happened.
40:33She's so strong now.
40:39Danielle, I'm so grateful that you reached out to us.
40:43It was really important for me.
40:44I want people to know that even if they don't find love again, they can still find joy again.
40:50I was finding joy in lots of things.
40:52My children, lots of things that I really, really enjoyed.
40:56And then finding Billy again was just like icing on the cake.
41:01Yeah.
41:02Such a cute love story, I have to say.
41:04And I want people to know that they can build themselves up and have a happy life again.
41:08I love you, too.
41:12And I'm so glad you're going with me.
41:12And I love you.
41:14I love you.
41:16And I'm so glad.
41:22I love you.
41:23Everybody, my heart.
41:24You
Comments