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00:00Why did I know?
00:01What was it?
00:02Thank you, Chad.
00:04Thank you, Chad.
00:05Chad is the person I would be with for the rest of my life.
00:10At some points, I felt like this was too good to be true.
00:15How can I have such a great life?
00:19Chad Skipper faces felony charges.
00:22His face popped up, and it was just like, that's impossible.
00:28He was really in over his head,
00:32trying to keep up with all the lies he was telling people.
00:35I could see a gun pointed at me.
00:37The police are in my house.
00:42He lied to me about everything.
00:48Six children, married for 17 years.
00:51Did he ever even love me?
01:14I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most, and the deceptions that
01:22change everything.
01:23On today's show, we meet Danielle, who had dreams of marrying a man of faith and integrity.
01:28And she thought she had that with Chad.
01:30But after years together, a shocking truth was revealed.
01:34Danielle, it is so great to see you again.
01:36It's good to see you again, too.
01:38Tell me, what motivated you to reach out?
01:41I was listening to the Betrayal podcast, and it really helped me in my journey and in my story, where
01:49I'm actually finding out that this man that I was in love with wasn't even the man that he said
01:54he was.
02:00I grew up in California, in the Bay Area.
02:04My family's really close.
02:06I have one brother, he's older than me, and then two sisters younger than me.
02:11Danielle came from a Christian religious background, and she was homeschooled.
02:16But she was a typical teenager.
02:17She dated and had a boyfriend named Billy, but they had to break up because her dad was transferred and
02:23they moved out of state.
02:26We relocated to Illinois.
02:28That was a really hard time for me because I obviously didn't know anybody in Illinois.
02:34At that point, I was in college.
02:36My next youngest sibling, she was going to Blackhawk.
02:40She knew I was looking to find friends, and so she said, why don't you come to the Bible study?
02:45See if you can find a friend.
02:48There's this thing called InterVarsity.
02:50It was like a Christian fellowship group.
02:51We would study the Bible for a little while, pray, just sort of fellowship with people on campus that were
02:57like-minded religiously as we were.
03:01And Danielle came with me.
03:03Chad was at that Blackhawk Bible study.
03:09He was a really, really charismatic person, and I thought he was attractive.
03:14Chad was very cool and calm and collected all the time.
03:21He had a reputation of being very smart, very kind.
03:26I have this specific memory of a conversation where Chad started talking about finance and what he was studying.
03:33And, of course, my 18-year-old self was just completely in awe.
03:38And I even remember having this brief thought pop into my head, like, should I be dating Chad?
03:45That's how impressive he was.
03:49Usually after the Bible study, we would go to a restaurant.
03:57And I remember wanting to sit next to him and feeling the electricity if our knees touched.
04:06He had the same kind of humor as me.
04:08I just felt comfortable and happy when I was around him.
04:13Our first date was a double date.
04:16It was actually with him and my sister and the guy she was interested in.
04:20And it was kind of not a usual date.
04:22It was just at our house.
04:23And we watched a couple movies.
04:25One was, So I Married an Axe Murderer.
04:29How many people have you brutally murdered?
04:31Brutal is a very subjective word.
04:34I mean, what's brutal to one person might be totally reasonable to somebody else.
04:40And then I made him lasagna and he changed the oil in my car.
04:45Very romantic.
04:46She thought that was amazing because he was showing that he was going to take care of her.
04:51It was very obvious that both Chad and Danielle were very into each other.
04:58I actually was very excited for her when they got engaged.
05:02We were happy for her.
05:05Hi, everybody.
05:07Thank you for throwing me this surprise shower in a box.
05:10Yeah, he has to close his eyes.
05:11I don't think so.
05:12Chad!
05:13You can't see it until it's on.
05:17The white lingerie that we opened, we didn't know who it was from.
05:20I want to thank you especially very much.
05:26I really enjoyed my wedding.
05:27I was a typical girl that thought about, okay, when I get married, I'm going to have this kind of
05:32dress.
05:33I'm going to have these kinds of flowers.
05:35These are the colors I'm going to have.
05:37I got help.
05:39I got help.
05:40Take your chin.
05:41Take your chin.
05:42Take your chin.
05:43Tell them.
05:45I do.
05:48Everything was perfect.
06:04It was just a fun, happy time.
06:11I was really in love.
06:17This was the person I would be with for the rest of my life.
06:23Hey, Bertie.
06:25Oh, they're in the front.
06:30We were so happy.
06:32I could never have imagined what was on the horizon.
06:39Danielle and Chad moved to Erie, Illinois, to a little small house.
06:44It was cute, perfect for them.
06:52Erie is just this little small town.
06:57Everybody pretty much knows everybody else.
06:59It's just a really beautiful, quiet place to live.
07:03Chad's family was sort of like a big family in their church.
07:08Chad grew up in that church.
07:11They were very much involved in doing skits for different occasions
07:14to help younger kids learn in the church through comedy.
07:18Sorry, I didn't see you.
07:20Could I, could I not see you again sometime?
07:25Um, I guess I, I have to ask my mom and dad though.
07:31They were very much a great example of a Christian married couple involved in a church.
07:35Well, did you find the nails at Walmart?
07:38No, it was too difficult.
07:40I had to keep coming up all the time.
07:42Why was that?
07:43I was watching for falling prices.
07:45Danielle and Chad were never separated.
07:47They were always lovey-dovey, holding hands, kissing, being together.
07:53He was an awesome husband to her.
07:55He treated her with so much respect and kindness and was loving towards her.
08:01I'm gonna comb my hair.
08:02Miss, look at this.
08:04There was no question that Chad and Danielle were going to have a bright future.
08:08So, gonna be later tonight, huh?
08:11Thank God!
08:13After they got married, Chad decided to become a financial advisor and start his own business.
08:18And he did really well.
08:19The family had everything they wanted.
08:22At some points I felt like this was too good to be true.
08:26How can I have such a great life?
08:30One day, Chad came home.
08:34And he sat me down on the couch and he was like, I have to tell you something.
08:39Danielle didn't know what to expect.
08:41But what Chad said next blew Danielle's world apart.
08:55Danielle and Chad were at the beginning of a perfect marriage.
08:59And one day, Chad came home and said he needed to talk.
09:04And he admitted to having an encounter in a bathroom with a man.
09:11At first, I was shocked.
09:15I didn't really know the true Chad.
09:18I felt betrayed.
09:21Why are you telling me this?
09:23Why is this happening at the beginning of our marriage?
09:26And I never really got like a full answer to that.
09:29It was always just vagueness.
09:35But he seemed to me like he was really sad about it and that he was really distraught.
09:42And he said he wanted to make it better.
09:46I felt like anything that's going on, I want to help him with, not just throw him away.
09:51For Danielle, it was an internal struggle between her head and her heart.
09:55There was what she should do after learning about Chad's infidelity, which was leave.
09:59And what her heart wanted, which was to stay.
10:04We ended up going to marriage counseling.
10:06And in one of my sessions, I remember the counselor saying,
10:09you are not in any way obligated to stay in this marriage.
10:12In fact, I would advise you to not stay in this marriage.
10:16But I was adamant that I wanted to stay in the marriage because I had made a vow.
10:20I had made a promise.
10:24It was just a couple of months later when I found out I was pregnant.
10:28It's a baby's heartbeat.
10:30It's beating up again.
10:32Yeah, just take me right here.
10:35I was jumping for joy.
10:37My daughter was born and her name is Grace.
10:42When Donnie and Chad got pregnant with Grace, they'd been trying for a while.
10:46And she'd been getting really discouraged because we all wanted to have kids really bad.
10:50And so I know it was a very big deal for her.
10:54I found out that I was pregnant again with Christopher very soon after Grace was born.
11:00That was always my dream, to be a mom.
11:03Somebody told me when I was little, they remember me saying that when I got married, I wanted to have
11:0812 kids.
11:09My dad is one of 12, so that's probably where I got it from.
11:13But I had six kids with Chad.
11:17Chad was a good dad.
11:19He played with his kids.
11:21He held the babies all the time.
11:23I heard that.
11:24Why are they swimming?
11:26He loves her daddy.
11:28And what?
11:29Did he even tickle you?
11:33Can I wave?
11:37Okay, is that good?
11:40Danielle was a stay-at-home mom.
11:41That meant Chad was the sole provider for the family, which was fine because he was doing so well.
11:46the house that we were living in at that time it was good it had the right amount of rooms
11:51for everyone but chad always liked bigger and better and he had his eye on a big house that
11:58had quite a bit of land attached to it he really wanted that property all right this is our new
12:06house he had an office downstairs his office was where he conducted his financial advising
12:24business and he would work long hours to the point that he'd be in that office until way into the
12:31night and i'd ask him why are you in here so late what he told me was that he was
12:37dealing with
12:38clients i was like how are you dealing with clients in the middle of the night aren't they sleeping
12:43shouldn't you be sleeping and so there were a lot of nights where i would be alone in bed
12:50he was in his office downstairs and i would be wondering why i'm not having a husband sleeping
12:55next to me but when i would approach him with it it almost seemed like he was annoyed that i
13:01was
13:02approaching him about it he just said well maybe i'll just stay out longer maybe i'll just come to
13:08bed less than that and it really really hurt me because i felt like if you really love someone
13:14why in their time of crying to you saying that they want you would you say well i'm going to
13:19do
13:19that less than it didn't really make any sense to me and it really hurt what was more important
13:25than spending time in the night with danielle never in her wildest dreams could she imagine what he
13:32was actually doing
13:42danielle and chad went through a lot in their marriage first there was the infidelity and now
13:47he was no longer sleeping in their bed and he was sleeping in his office so she went to her
13:52church for
13:55comfort danielle and chad were members of the erie christian church chad had been going to this
14:00church since he was a kid so he knew everybody so well including larry and connie van ousten and we
14:06know that in all things god works for the good of those who love him and who have been called
14:11according
14:11to his purpose the van oustens were elders in the church they ran sunday school make sure you get a
14:18relationship with with jesus christ they were prominent members of the community they had a
14:25number of businesses and they had just sold one and were coming into a lot of money and that was
14:30of
14:30interest to chad i found out that he was trying to get them to be his client chad really wanted
14:36the van
14:37oustens as clients and they met a couple times and he made a presentation but ultimately they decided to
14:43not go with him because he was too new to the financial world based on interviews with larry
14:49and connie his plan didn't make sense having the van oustens and their money would have been a great
14:55financial win for chad's business but since he didn't get the deal he started looking for additional
15:01ways to generate income so then chad decided to get into real estate and he took all of his money
15:06started buying properties renovating them and then renting them out all of his rental properties were
15:14things that he purchased without me he went and found them he decided whether he would purchase them
15:21or not and so often i didn't like know anything about it other than the fact that he had purchased
15:28it
15:31honestly i didn't even need to worry about it we had everything that we would ever want i enjoyed
15:37life i felt like i was finally living the life that i wanted to live i mean they had this
15:43huge house
15:45cars lawn equipment so very doing very well that's when a lot of times he would be gone longer than
15:52i had
15:52expected when i would question him where were you there were several times he told me
15:58oh this rental property had a sewage problem and so i had to go deal with that or washing machine
16:03broke down so i had to fix it oh my phone must have lost its battery or you know i
16:08i forgot to plug
16:09my phone in or i shut my phone off and so i didn't hear it ringing or i left it
16:12in the car there was
16:14there was always a reason by this point chad and danielle had been married for almost two decades
16:20they'd been through a lot but things were about to get weird
16:31one time it was the middle of the night and one of my kids christopher saw a car pull up
16:39into our
16:39driveway that he didn't recognize he said it was silver christopher saw chad briefly and his reaction was
16:47one of surprise like what are you doing up and i found out later that chad texted my daughter to
16:55wrap dark electrical tape around the handle of a sledgehammer
17:02and he asked me to wrap until there's no yellow showing i was like uh okay that's a little weird
17:10but
17:11you know what i'm gonna wrap that sledgehammer the best i can so i did and then i sent him
17:17a picture
17:18when i was finished he told me that i did a good job and that i was gonna get a
17:22special treat
17:24why would you need your 14 year old to wrap a sledgehammer in black electrical tape
17:34just a few days afterwards in the middle of the night i heard a really loud bang bang bang and
17:40i
17:40thought i heard glass breaking too then i heard police hands up in the air
17:49i had my glasses off so i could not see very well
17:53and as i walked down my hallway from my bedroom i could see a gun pointed at me
18:01i just remember just being so scared and so confused
18:12so my whole body was shaking and they wouldn't even let me wake up my kids they had to go
18:17wake them up
18:20i remember the knocking it was really loud and then they kicked the door in and i was absolutely terrified
18:31and then they said do you know what your husband is
18:36no i think he's sleeping downstairs he's not do you have a hiding place in your house
18:42do you know they're new students
18:47why are you crushing me about the van houston's why are you in my house with a gun at my
18:53head
19:05it was the middle of the night
19:09and the police are in my house and i could see a gun pointed at me
19:15i felt like i was watching or in some kind of awful horror movie
19:24and they had started asking me lots of questions about the van houston's that didn't make sense to me
19:29why would you be asking me about my sunday school teachers
19:35they took me over to the police station into an interrogation room and they were asking me all
19:40kinds of weird questions like do you know what kind of business your husband was in
19:45i knew that he was in the financial business but i didn't understand how that related to
19:50the van houston's and they would never give me an answer to any of those questions
19:56at this point the van houston's were missing for three days and the rumor around town was that they
20:02were victims of a crime my name is chris andrus i'm a retired captain with the illinois state police
20:10division of criminal investigation and i was the lieutenant of major crimes for the state police at the
20:16time larry and connie van houston they're certainly the least likely people that would ever be victims
20:22of a violent crime however the only thing that did elevate their risk was their finances
20:33according to police in the middle of the night a masked intruder with a device to disguise their
20:38voice breaks into the van houston's home kidnaps them and drives them to the bank
20:46once the kidnapper arrived at their bank he took the blindfold off of connie and told her to go get
20:53a check from their bank for 350 000 and if she didn't he threatened to kill larry
21:03while she's in the bank connie pulls out a church flyer from her purse despite her and her husband
21:10being in grave danger connie has the presence of mind to slip a note to the teller saying that she's
21:16in trouble and if she doesn't give this a try she doesn't know if she and larry will ever live
21:23through
21:27this after she had safely left the bank with a cashier's check those bank employees had called
21:33the police and that is when a whole abduction alert is put in place for connie and larry
21:42when this thing kicks off we know who our victims are we have no idea who the suspect is
21:50we found some surveillance footage that showed a good picture of the car that he was driving
21:56when it was the early 90s chevy caprice we had a suspect vehicle we didn't have a license plate
22:02but we did have the name of the llc that was put on the cashier's check
22:09it was called the store edge the registered owner of the store edge was chad skipper
22:19so then we just ran his name through the databases and found out that he owned a 1992
22:24sheddy caprice so then we knew our head had a suspect and once we had chad identified we learned
22:31that he owned several properties we started deploying surveillance at all those properties
22:38the police have multiple homes that they could search for the van ustens and they didn't know which
22:44one they were at and even if they did find them they didn't know if they would be dead or
22:48alive
22:49because chad already had the money and we also have investigators at the van ustens home while
22:57they're processing the crime scene officers see what looks like the suspect vehicle drive past the property
23:11white side he's taken off they pull out after his car and that leads into a multi-county pursuit
23:30the pursuit ends with a pretty bad crash after the crash chad skipper was taken by ambulance to the
23:36illini hospital he had some internal injuries broken ribs a dislocated elbow i didn't have to press them
23:42hard at all i just basically asked him i said what are we doing here today and he just went
23:46right into
23:47where we're here today because i i kidnapped the van ustens for money if they're taking chad at his
23:54word the police know where larry and connie are but they don't know what shape they're in they've
23:58been missing for three days it's crucial to find them as soon as possible
24:04a group of fbi agents and our state police agents descend upon this home they make entry into the
24:12house they don't find larry and connie
24:17in one of the spare bedrooms is a large tv monitor
24:23they're looking at the screen they can see larry and connie inside a concrete room with no stairs
24:35this monster built a soundproof prison cell
24:42and he had larry and connie shackled standing up
24:46the officers on scene while they're wondering they're under surveillance are they here somewhere
24:53are they somewhere else we have no idea where the van ustens were
25:09the officers on scene in the house they can see larry and connie on the tv screen
25:17and they start doing another search of the home they open the hallway coat closet
25:25the flooring in the closet doesn't match the flooring in the hallway
25:32they lift up that flooring and they find a big steel plated door
25:41they break this lock lift the hatch that led to a soundproof prison cell
25:50in the basement of the house and find larry and connie bound and blindfolded
25:58they were handcuffed to the wall and they were standing there for a number of hours one of them
26:03was just hanging by their wrist from the from the wall there because they couldn't stand anymore
26:09there was cameras in every corner and a microphone so that he could listen to them he could see them
26:16and he could speak to them in a creepy cryptic voice modulator that he had
26:24this is my opinion i don't think there's any way he's gonna let them go
26:30what's the benefit in releasing them
26:57they were never gonna get let go
26:59and i'll i'll always believe that but what was important to me was that our victims are safe
27:07they're alive we have our suspect in custody now we can start putting the puzzle together how did this happen
27:15rupt emails
27:16as detectives interview them they learn step by step how disturbing this crime actually was
27:22Chad entered the Van Usten's home using a sledgehammer.
27:27He broke into a basement window, walked inside,
27:31and sat at the kitchen table for hours.
27:35Chad enters a bedroom that Larry's sleeping in.
27:40He wakes up Larry, deploys his taser.
27:46He takes steps to control Larry first.
27:49He then grabs Connie.
27:53Has her handcuffed Larry.
27:55Puts duct tape on their mouth, duct tape on their eyes.
28:00Uses his voice box and says, where is your God now?
28:05Where is your God now?
28:13And that's when Chad drives Connie to her bank.
28:19Detectives learned Chad had been envisioning this crime
28:21for a long time, and he had planned every detail,
28:25down to his own daughter wrapping the sledgehammer.
28:29When I heard our dad had used the sledgehammer that he asked me to wrap to commit this crime,
28:38my whole world crumpled.
28:42That really hurt me.
28:49My husband has all of a sudden been arrested for kidnapping.
28:54It was his arrest that was the first thing on the news.
28:57The Geneseo man accused of kidnapping a Whiteside County couple.
29:01Skipper took the couple to their bank and forced them to get a cashier's check.
29:05They were later taken to a soundproof shelter in the basement of one of Skipper's rental homes.
29:10I was thinking, no, they've got the wrong Chad Skipper.
29:14That's impossible.
29:16My life is upside down.
29:21When she said he kidnapped someone, we were just shocked.
29:25None of us had any clue that he would be capable of doing anything like that.
29:35It was really difficult because it was like everything that I had known and thought I'd known
29:43of this person that I loved with all my heart was not that person.
29:51Six children, married for 17 years.
29:56Did he ever even love me?
29:58I had a really hard time figuring out what reality was as opposed to what I thought reality was.
30:10Chad was living a life that his spouse and children knew nothing about.
30:22I had some properties here and there.
30:25I got big ideas and they just get under water and I owe more than they're worth.
30:31It's funny that she'll be facing with all this chaos kicked off with her name.
30:35I was just trying to buy time.
30:37It's been kind of kicked off.
30:38I sense urgency bullets.
30:40I felt that's true.
30:44From the point where my kids were taken out of the house and I was interrogated,
30:49my kids never stepped into that house again.
30:52I didn't want them to go back into the house.
30:55I had to go in the house and get things cleaned up.
30:58Finally, after all these years,
31:01Donyell could go into Chad's office where he had been isolating himself and dig through his secrets.
31:08We learned how seriously bad he was at managing people's finances.
31:16Chad was sort of a failed businessman.
31:19He wasn't doing well and he had borrowed a lot of money and taken out a lot of credit card
31:24debt.
31:25Chad wasn't just lying to Donyell about their finances.
31:28He was embezzling money from his clients.
31:31And over time, the theft grew and grew.
31:36We went through everything in his office.
31:38He had credit cards from more people than you should stick at.
31:42He had found a credit card that he had fraudulently gotten from his parents,
31:47like signed his name on his parents' credit card.
31:50His parents had paid their house off.
31:54He forged paperwork to borrow money against that house.
32:00A lot of money.
32:04His parents ended up suing him for almost $400,000.
32:08He stole money from his parents, from his grandma, his uncle, my brother, from somebody in the church.
32:19Chad had stolen so much money from his clients and they wanted to see returns.
32:23And so that's where the Van Ustens come into play.
32:26Because according to Chad's interview with police, he needed $350,000 to pay back his clients.
32:33When they decided not to work with him, he got desperate and decided to kidnap them.
32:40We found notes at the house.
32:44He had been planning this, writing out every detail for a very long time.
32:51Turns out there was planning for that dungeon that he built.
32:54There was just some weird notes on there about, you know, soundproofing and different items to shop for that didn't
33:05make sense.
33:07Everything that we had found in the office was just a complete betrayal.
33:14We've dealt with a lot of violent crime, but this one was bizarre.
33:19It was almost like an episode of Criminal Minds where it's like it's taken up a notch, you know, to
33:26make it extreme.
33:27That it seemed like it was a movie, but it was real.
33:34Bad not only betrayed his wife, his family, he betrayed the entire community of Erie.
33:40People thought they knew who he was and he was someone completely different in the end.
33:45I remember pulling off my wedding ring and throwing it.
33:48That's it.
33:49I'm done.
34:02Being married to somebody like that, obviously my whole life has been turned upside down.
34:08Life isn't what you thought it was.
34:10I had a really hard time trusting people.
34:14Going through the process of divorce was very difficult for me because of my strong faith
34:18and because when I made those vows, that was it.
34:23Mom was with all that and I had to walk beside you.
34:26To walk beside you.
34:31But I knew that it was the only way I could move forward
34:35and it was the only safe option for me and for my kids.
34:42During one of our divorce proceedings, Chad actually wanted custody of the kids.
34:47How would that work with him in jail?
34:49But, I don't know, typical narcissist, like textbook.
34:54Chad was charged with felony home invasion,
34:58aggravated kidnapping and unlawful restraint.
35:01The evidence was overwhelming against Chad.
35:04It would be difficult for him to go to trial.
35:07And it was an emotional day for the Banuistons,
35:09but in the end, they got the justice they were looking for.
35:1242-year-old Chad Skipper sentenced to 60 years, the rest of his life in prison.
35:21We couldn't cheer.
35:23It was in a courtroom.
35:24But when we got outside of the courtroom, we did.
35:30It was glorious.
35:32He was 42 at the time.
35:34He ain't coming home.
35:38When I heard that his sentence was 60 years,
35:44I was glad because that meant that if he was angry about being in jail,
35:52if he was angry about my mom divorcing him, he wouldn't be able to act on it.
35:59I specifically do remember being in the courtroom with him.
36:02And I remember at one point he was looking over at me and mouthing the words,
36:06I love you.
36:07And I remember thinking, no, you don't love me.
36:11It's just another lie.
36:13And it made me feel really gross for him to be mouthing that to me.
36:16Like, how dare you say that to me?
36:21Chad got a hefty penalty, 60 years without parole.
36:24And the DA decided not to bring any other charges against Chad
36:27because he was already serving essentially a life sentence.
36:31And the Banuistons got justice.
36:34So I have not spoken with him since his arrest.
36:37But Chad wrote me a lot of letters from jail.
36:41All of them were full of manipulations.
36:46So Danielle was receiving letters from Chad for a while.
36:49And then she started getting letters from an individual named Eloisa May.
36:54Eloisa May was a character that Chad created.
36:58Like this southern lady that was really proper.
37:03Here's a sample of what was written in those letters.
37:06Danielle, it is good to be a-talking with you again, Missy.
37:10I pray you are doing well.
37:12I hope your little ones are refined in time to be kids in this world we are living in.
37:17This Eloisa May character, her husband had been arrested or had done something for which Eloisa May did not forgive
37:25him.
37:26And because of that, her husband had killed himself.
37:29And this Eloisa May was really concerned for Danielle because she felt that Danielle might be going down that path.
37:36And if she didn't forgive Chad and take him back as her husband, then Chad might kill himself.
37:41Enough chit-chat.
37:43Down to brass tacks, Sugar Plum.
37:45What Charlie did caused our family to suffer.
37:48But what I did destroyed our family.
37:51I thought I was being brave when I ended our marriage.
37:54But I was still being a coward.
37:56What I really needed to do was to forgive.
38:01Which was obviously Chad saying, you better take me back or I'm going to do something.
38:07How she should grant him forgiveness.
38:10When you're writing, even if you have that accent, you don't write it as the accent.
38:16He's writing these letters, trying to pull on their heartstrings that this woman went through a similar experience.
38:24And she found it in her heart to forgive.
38:27And these letters are trying to convince them to have some sympathy.
38:32What I really think is I don't think he thought very highly of Danielle and her intellect.
38:37And I think that Chad thought that he could manipulate Danielle into doing whatever.
38:40Or it just shows that he's completely divorced from reality.
38:45A lot of the time that I spent right afterwards was trying to understand my healing process.
38:52And how am I going to move forward from this?
38:56I did a lot of self-help reading.
38:58And in the midst of that, I also think that God gave me peace.
39:04It's an indescribable quiet that I felt in my soul.
39:08It's going to be okay.
39:09And over time, I moved on.
39:13Danielle and I had, every once in a while, we would talk about love.
39:16And whether or not she would ever find love again.
39:19And she was always, absolutely not.
39:21I have no interest.
39:22I cannot trust anyone again.
39:24And then, actually not that long later, she pulled me aside.
39:28And she said, so, I've sort of been talking to Billy.
39:32And I was like, Billy, that's awesome.
39:36Billy and I met when we were teenagers.
39:40But we were really young.
39:41And our lives just kind of went separate ways.
39:45And then after all of this happened, we started talking through text.
39:50And the talks got longer.
39:53I had started having feelings for him.
39:55Turns out he also had feelings for me.
39:59Our relationship just developed.
40:01And he ended up asking me to marry him.
40:07And I'm now married to the first love of my life, Billy.
40:18Our mom has grown so much.
40:21She's a stronger person.
40:23She's more confident.
40:25She laughs more now.
40:27Especially now that Billy is in our house.
40:31I see so much happiness in her that I never saw before.
40:36I love her laugh so much.
40:39Danielle is a much stronger person since this whole thing happened.
40:45She's so strong now.
40:51Danielle, I'm so grateful that you reached out to us.
40:55It was really important for me.
40:56I want people to know that even if they don't find love again, they can still find joy again.
41:02I was finding joy in lots of things.
41:04My children, lots of things that I really, really enjoyed.
41:08And then finding Billy again was just like icing on the cake.
41:13Yeah.
41:13It's such a cute love story, I have to say.
41:16And I want people to know that they can build themselves up and have a happy life again.
41:34Live in a beautiful place.
41:34Bye-bye.
41:34There's a baby in a small way.
41:34I think you've made it up and you've made it nice without you.
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