May 18, 2023 • 34 mins
We meet Ashley Lytton, a suburban mother of three in Salt Lake City, Utah, who stumbles upon photos in her husband’s computer that she knows are going to change the course of her life. After a harrowing day of dramatic events, she reports him to the authorities.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Topics featured in this episode may be disturbing to some listeners.
Please take care while listening.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My husband and I were opening a business. His first
job was that very next day. One of the clients
had asked if they could bendmo him, so he'd called
me that morning September twenty ninth, twenty twenty one. He
was like, I need you to set up my business venmo,
and I was like, all right, use your name and
(00:33):
password for whatever email is connected to your venmo. So
he sent me the log in for his iCloud and
as I'm signing in, he frantically calls me back. He
was like, Oh, don't worry about it, we'll do it
together when we get home. Like, I'm sorry, it's going
to be too much, Like, don't do it. I knew
by the tenor of his voice that he was trying
(00:55):
to hide something. I thought maybe he bought something they
didn't want me to know about. There was nothing in
his photos, and then I scrolled down and that's when
I saw a hidden folder and I opened it. You know,
when you open your photos, it's going to show you
(01:16):
like a whole bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
At once. I slammed my computer shut. What the hell
did I just see?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I'm like, no, there's no way I saw that. My
first reaction was like, that was disgusting.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I need a shower.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I need to get that off of me. Unfortunately, you
can't scrub that out of your brain. When I was
in the shower, I said the most heartfelt prayer I
think I've ever said in my life. I was like, God,
(01:56):
something's wrong. Whatever you're about to hand to me, I'm ready.
I can do this. God, I'm ready for you.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm Andrea Gunning. This is Betrayal, Season two, Episode one Hidden.
When we set out to make season one, our goal
was simple. If we could help make one person feel
less alone, then we did our job. And the responses
we got from you guys, it was overwhelming. Thank you
(02:39):
all for sharing your thoughts and feelings. We value them
so much. In addition to feedback, we also heard from
people wanting to share their story. Some of them were heartbreaking,
some were inspiring. We received hundreds of emails, and several
of them revealed a betrayal that nobody wants to talk about.
I was surprised to see this issue reappear in email
(03:01):
after email. Would I be able to take this subject on.
I was nervous, but it was something I could not ignore,
especially since there was this one email I could not
stop thinking about. It was from the woman you just
heard that slammed her computer shut. She's based in Utah,
and in the winter of twenty twenty two, I flew
(03:23):
out to meet her. It was late when I landed
in Salt Lake and the roads were empty. It was
a twenty minute drive to the place we were staying.
It was dark. Looking out into the sky, there was
(03:45):
an outline that almost split the sky into two, two
black shapes gently resting against one another. What was that?
At first I didn't know what it was. They were
the Wasatch Mountains. It was breathtaking. I had never been
to Utah, and the mountains that surrounded me seeing the
(04:06):
best of nature. It provided a sense of comfort, almost
like a hug, almost as if the sky was saying, welcome,
You're safe here. The mountains were keeping watch. Despite the
sense of safety and the beauty, I was guarded, thinking
(04:27):
of what lies beneath. I was there to cover a story,
a story born in the darkness, the shadows, a story
about betrayal, invasion, and really the worst parts of humanity.
It's a story of Ashley Lytton, a mother of three
who lives in a town called Riverton, twenty five minutes
south of Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I grew up in West Valley City, Utah. It's a
suburb of Salt Lake City, and it's known locally as
being just a little bit rougher, rougher crowds, tougher kids,
and growing up a lot of us kids kind of
just around the streets because her parents worked a lot.
(05:10):
When I was a child, my mom got sick. She
has multiple sclerosis. My mom wasn't like super mobile. Instead
of like being a kid and being ten and like
playing at recess, that wasn't an option. The only option
was to go home and check on mom, make sure
she was okay.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Eventually, her mom needed more support.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
My mom at this point was no longer in her home,
and my dad worked tonights, and so I took care
of my little brother and sister, got them breakfast, and
I'd walk them to school every day, and then i'd
co to a junior high.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Just meeting with Ashley, I got the sense that she
was someone who had to grow up quickly. She put
her family's needs ahead of her own, She helped raise
her two younger siblings, managed a household. There was never
a question. Ashley just did what needed to be done.
Ashley's dad, John Trehillo.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
As she's spin the caregiver, and still more caregiver than
all the kids, as she's been the caregiver from day one.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
She told me that her only escape from all of
that responsibility was a boy she met at school.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I met Matt in seventh grade.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He was handsome and all the girls liked him, and
he just happened to notice me too. I wrote in
my journal the first day that I found out what
his name was, met the man I'm going to marry today,
And then I wrote his name on your book day
that year. This is gonna totally age me, but in
my yearbook he said, hey, give me a call some time,
(06:37):
gave me his number, and then he put ps, you're
pretty fly, and I was.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Like, oh my god, he thinks I'm fly.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I didn't even know what that meant, but I just
knew that it meant something like super cool.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
We all know this kid wild, unpredictable.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I'd see him, you know, getting in trouble all the time,
and I don't know I just I think I really
admired like how brave he was. It sounds brave, but
really it was probably reckless and stupid.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Matt wasn't exactly faithful to Ashley. Bad boys rarely are.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It was not an awesome relationship, and so I kind
of made traits with it more than anything else. It
was transactional. I guess I'd get rid of my respect
to have a safe place to go outside of my home.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
They were kids at first, but stay together for more
than ten years, and during that time, drugs became the
third partner in their relationship.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
He really started struggling with addiction when we were like
fifteen or sixteen. That's when he started like painkillers, ecstasy,
and I had never even really seen marijuana at that
point in my life.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
The drug addiction continued into adulthood, and so did their relationship.
They still felt like kids, but they had a girl fast.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I got pregnant with a vea when I was twenty
and she was not planned. So that was interesting because
I didn't want kids and I was using contraceptives and
it just still happened.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Three years later, a son came along, Ashley stepped up
to the plate determined to take care of her kids.
Ashley's sister Anna.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
She tried to be a devoted partner and he just
wasn't that person. He wasn't ready to be a father,
and the resulted in a lot of dysfunction and instability
that my sister did a really good job trying to
shield the children from.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
He would settle down for months on end, but never
like super consistent. But I was like, maybe this will
be it, you know, because I saw so much potential
in him, and I just thought he was meant for
so much more than what he was doing.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Then Matt disappeared on a three day bender.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I just knew that I was done, So I took
his shit and dumped it on his brother, his brother
front lawn like a crazy lady, and I left him.
I had to because of his addiction. I was like,
I need to give these kids a chance.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Ashley spent her whole life prioritizing others. Leaving Matt meant
she needed to come first. Leaving a relationship where you're
so emotionally invested in your partner so young can be scary,
but she did it. She got herself out of an
unhealthy relationship and went to work for herself and for
her two kids. She took a waitressing job and hustled.
(09:32):
She was finding independence. While in the job, one customer
kept coming in over and over.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So one day I'm at work and I saw him
and he smiled at me.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
He was Jason Linton, and he looked familiar.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I recognized him at that point because my sister went
to high school with him, and I thought he was GTL.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I was like, oh, this idiot, Ashley.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I remembered him being such a meadhead. But he was undeterred.
He made a point of coming into Ashley's workplace often.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
He was flirty with me, and he'd come in like
two or three times a week. He'd always get a shake,
a chocolate shake, but.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I'd give him like an extra large shake, but I'd
only charge him for small.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Everyone at work always were like, oh, hey, ash your
shake boyfriends here.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Ashley was surprised when Jason changed jobs and started working
at the same restaurant and she was assigned to train him.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
We're sitting there and he kept trying to like talk
to me while I was training him, and I was like,
what do you want to know about me?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I like to work and be a mom. What do
you like to do?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
And I was kind of being an asshole because I
wanted to get past this and train him and get
it done out with.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Jason was determined to impress.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Her, and he's like, well, I can sing, and I'm like,
you can sing? And I'm not a mean girl, but
I was going to shut this down real quick, so
I was like, all right.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Let's see what you can do.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Took him in the back friends with all the cooks
and all the waitresses, and I was.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Like, hey, everyone can reckon this. New guy says he
can sing.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
What did he saying?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Rascal Flat song, God bless the Broken Road or something.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
It's a song about broken paths leading you to your future. Soulmate.
Ashley certainly had a broken road. She could relate the
lyrics look back on decisions made things not working out
but inevitably for the better. And it struck a chord
and Jason could really sing it.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
My jaw was on the floor and I was like, okay,
I'll have lunch with you here.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
After the shift, Ashley started to look at Jason differently.
He wasn't the goofy guy his sister knew in high school. Anymore.
He was serious. He was also fun, sweet and talented.
He could sing and had a great sense of humor.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
It was pretty quick that we met him.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I thought, Wow, she just found a good guy, real respectful,
very mannerally.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
He was like night schiming armor. I was like, here's
this normal dude that wants to be with me. Like
what I even told.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Jason when we first dating, I'm like, you're crazy, Like
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You are handsome, you are young, I have baggage, I
have debt, I have a crazy ex, you know, like
I had all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
And he is like, no, I'm gonna stay. I'll take
a chance on you. And I thought how lucky I was.
And my family told me how lucky I was.
Speaker 6 (12:35):
My name is Kathy Trihio and I am Ashley's stepmom.
I love Jason. You could just see how nice and
kind he was to her. He's really funny. He has
a really great personality, can cut up the room pretty
quick with laughter and jokes.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
If we're comparing my old relationship to this relationship, Jason
was normal. Jason came from a good family. He was charming,
he was kind, he was a hard worker.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You wouldn't meant a person that didn't like Jason.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The sweetest part was how much he seemed to love
Ashley's children.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
He was really super good with her kids.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Her daughter, Avea was only two when Ashley met Jason.
Her son was still a baby.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It was so natural and they loved him and my son.
He did all of his firsts in front of Jason,
his first words, first time crawling, first time walking, first
time giggling.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
I think Avea was probably like five when they got married.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
The wedding was August twelfth, twenty eleven, and they eventually
had a child together, a daughter.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
And it just seemed to make their family complete.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
We moved to Riverton. I hate to use the word bougie,
but it is more bougie than West Valley. And you know,
ten fifteen years ago, before we moved out here, that
was a big dial.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
It was cleaner, it looked safer.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
The house, a good school, district, safety, a promising future.
She had achieved her dream. I met Ashley at our
house in Riverton. She was finishing work.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So, yeah, this is our living room.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Your house is adorable. It's so homey.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, it's fun. The kitties stay away from it. Now,
we had no no kitty spread, just like, put the
spray bottle right there and they're like.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The first thing I noticed about Ashley is how full
of life she is and how dedicated she is to
her three children. Oh and she's also really short and
always has heels.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
On a typical day in our household was insanely busy.
Avea played competitive soccer and had practice for two hours.
My son played little league football, and then my youngest
danced and had to go to dance once or twice
(15:03):
a week as well. So I spent the majority of
my days being a taxi driver for two hours. I'm
a free taxi. That's what I call it. I'm a
free taxi.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Ashley and Jason have been married for eleven years. The
two little ones she had when she first met Jason
they're teenagers now, and the baby they had together is nine. Aveya,
her oldest, has a driver's license and a job. All
marriages have ups and downs. They've struggled making ends meet.
Mortgage payments were almost missed, but this new business they
(15:39):
were launching was going to be a game changer.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Park City is a very well established, very rich area
of Utah. I mean your movie stars hang out up there.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's also a ski resort town, only about forty miles
from Riverton. Jason would have a lot of business opportunity
in Park City.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
He had a lot of work up there. He was
working on three and four million dollar homes.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Jason's former employer, Steve Ihausen, was selling Jason and another
contractor his business.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
He's very personable. The contractors especially really liked him because
he was very organized and was able to talk with
the customers and kind of show them what needed to
be done.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It was all starting the next day. Jason just needed
to set up a business Vemo account, and he asked
Ashley for assistance.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I knew by the tenor of his voice that he
was trying to hide something.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
There was nothing in his photos.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And then I scrolled down and that's when I saw
a hidden folder and I opened. It plays like slow
motion in my brain when I think about it. You know,
when you first pull up your photos, it gives you
I don't however, many like thirty photos or something, you know,
(17:15):
and it gives you like little squares, so you can't
really see unless you click on it. But those little
squares I could tell weren't women. I think my brain
went to what I could recognize, like what made sense,
and so I went to what I thought.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Was explicit adult photos.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So I saw the adult and then I saw that
this adult woman's face was superimposed on a female child's
nude body.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Did you ever see something and think this isn't real?
It can't be real. It was too disturbing for words,
Why would her husband have this?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I clicked on one or two and screenshot at it
real quick, and then instantly slam it shut.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
What was all of this? She thought about Jason, her husband. Yes,
there were problems. This was not a fairy tale marriage.
He was far from perfect, but he wasn't this kind
of person. He wouldn't look at material like this. This
was criminal. Ashley knew she needed support quickly. Even with
(18:32):
what she had just seen, she didn't completely trust herself,
so she facetimed her younger sister Anna.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
For some reason, in my brain, even though my subconscious
knew it, my brain could not comprehend it, and I
was like, no, you need to call Anne.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Anna had a similar reaction.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
I remember just feeling like, what the fuck am I
looking at?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Anna tried to see the photos through the phone. At
the same time she was looking at Ashley.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
I just remember her gasping and putting her hands to
her face. She just kind of lost her shit. She
started hyperventilating.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Ashley works at home a few days a week. Jason
knew she'd be there, and his intuition started kicking it.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
He just started calling out the hook and texting me
and I wouldn't respond. So I was scared because I
knew he was coming home.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Jason sounded anxious when they spoke, and now he was
calling and texting with a frenzied energy.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
She started going into this really weird dark place where
she was like, oh my god, I got to get
out of the house. He's going to come back here.
He's going to find out that I've seen this. He's
going to come kill me.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Her mind immediately went to another well known case in
Salt Lake City where a husband kept secrets from his wife.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
My first thought was Mark Hacking and Laurie Hacking.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
In two thousand and four, the Hacking case made international
news and dominated the front page of Utah newspapers. Young
pregnant woman Laurie Hacking discovered that her husband had lied
about his education. As they were preparing to move across
the country from Mark to attend medical school, Laurie also
learned he had never been admitted.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And instead of being exposed, he killed her and they
had to look for her body in the landfill. I
instantly was terrified, and I was like, he's going to
kill me.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Neither Anna nor Ashley knew exactly what to do next.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And it's like, oh my gosh, I can't see it
really well, but from what I think I can see,
you need to go show Kathy. Kathy, she works at
the Department of Corrections for the State of Utah and
specifically has to deal with a lot of correspondents from
inmates in and out of the prison.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Her stepmom, Kathy would certainly recognize the content in the
hidden file.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
She was at the state prison. It's probably like a
twenty minute drive from Ashley. I wanted her to go
see her, to see if the images were as bad
as we thought they were. She's been around some bad people,
you know, and we trust her.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
And I got a phone call from Ashley's sister Anna
and she said, Hey, there's something really bad going on.
Ashley is headed your way. She needs help, okay. So
I went out in front of my building to look
out the window, and I seen her car pull in.
(21:35):
She said she'd seen images on Jason's phone, so I
wasn't sure what we were talking about. I just assumed
maybe it was having an affair or something. I knew
it was something, probably not great. But I went out and.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
She got out of the car. She was walking towards
me and Ashley's little.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
She wasn't able to.
Speaker 8 (21:55):
Hold herself up really well, and so I just grabbed
a hold of her and was hugging her and holding her.
We got back in her car and she showed me
a screenshot of it. I said, oh my god, he's
in so much freaking trouble. And we're back and forth crying,
both crying so hard because those girls were too young.
(22:20):
I'm not a age expert, but I do work at
the prison and sometimes people send inmates pictures that they're
not allowed to have, and I knew those girls were
too young.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
What happened next might be hard to understand unless you've
been in this situation. You know you're sitting on a
ticking time bomb. You have information that will blow up
your life as you know it. And you want some
control over how and when it will explode. Ashley had
someone in mind to help.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Send's older brothers, a police officer or one of the
bigger police departments here in Salt Lake, and I trust him.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Anna was concerned that Ashley's brother in law would be
a brother before a police officer.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I thought it was a terrible idea. It's a huge
conflict of interest. They were both convinced that he would
do the right thing. I don't want to like bash
his character or anything, but that's his brother, you know.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
She was reluctant. She was like, I don't know, I
don't know if I should call him. And I said, no,
he's going to help us. He's going to help you.
He's he's a good man, he knows the right thing,
he knows what to do.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
He'll help you. She thought of their kids, their home,
and their family. This was going to fundamentally change everything.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I knew something was going to come of whatever just
happened over the last hour and a half of my life.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Like I knew that Ashley called her brother in law.
Everyone in the family trusted him. He was a police officer,
so it didn't feel as scary to talk to him,
he would know what to do.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I said, I need to show you something. It's an emergency.
I just found something and I need to show you.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I don't want to tell you over the phone.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
They agreed to meet up right away at a local
grocery store.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I see his car, I pull on next to him,
and you know, we exchange pleasantries and I was physically shaking.
I remember feeling my body shaking. I pulled my phone
out and he glances at it and it was like, oh,
I don't want anything to do with that, get it
away from me, don't show me again.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
I'm like, what do I do with this?
Speaker 6 (24:39):
Like?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
What do I do?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And he's like, first of all, you need to calm down,
because we don't know what that is. Those girls are
probably eighteen, like barely eighteen, but they're probably eighteen. Before
you do anything. Let's talk to Jay and we're going
to figure this out, because this is definitely not what
it looks like.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Let's wait.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
The reality was it was exactly what it looked like,
pre pubescent naked girls who had been posed in a
sexually provocative manner.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I was like, he totally just gaslped me. I wanted
to get away from him, and so I got in
my car.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
The text from Jason kept coming in. We need to talk.
At least allow me to talk to you. Please don't
go talking with people until you have at least spoken
with me. Ash. Please come home and let's talk. Please
don't give up on me, Ash. I know I'm a
better person than this. I will get the help I
need and quit ignoring my issues. I want to do
(25:50):
right by my family and give you guys a life
that you deserve. What was there to say? How could
he possibly explain?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I called my sister right when I left, and I
started crying and I can't breathe. I couldn't breathe. I
couldn't breathe. And then all of a sudden, like I
could feel I could feel my left side of my
face and like my shoulder in my arms, it just
(26:22):
went numb. Everything went numb. And I was like, Ann,
I can't move my arm. I can't move my arm.
My heart hurts because my heart physically hurt, like I
had a pain in my chest and it went to
the back of my shoulder. I was like, I think
I'm having a heart attack, and then it snapped in
my brain. I was like the kids. They can't lose
both of us on the same day. And so I
(26:44):
was like, Ann, I'm going to go to the hospital.
And she was freaking out. She's like, don't want me
to call nine one to one, and I'm like, no,
I'm right down the street from the hospital.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Anna had been in this with Ashley almost from the
first moments. She was really scared.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
I told her I'm going to come to you just
go and get checked out. And my husband was home
and I went upstairs and I told him she's going
to the ark. And I remember saying something like I
can't believe this is happening. How is this happening? And
he just gave me a hug and he said, you
gotta go.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Ashley is strong, resilient. She's a person who helps, not
a person who needs help. So I wasn't surprised when
I heard that she tried denying her own distress.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I parked my car like a normal person going to
a doctor's appointment. Walking in, I thought to myself, what
am I doing. There's really sick people here that really
need to be seen. And I went up to the
desk and this lady was super sweet and just happy,
and she's.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Like, what are you being seen for? And I just
lost it.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I sobbed so hard that there was no sound coming
out of me, and I just collapsed.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I remember hearing her being like, we need.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
A wheelchair, we need assistance of somebody came over and
kind of like grabbed me from underneath my arms to
pick me up and put me in a wheelchair. I
had my hands cupped over my eyes because I was
so embarrassed. I was like losing my bananas in front
of like all these people.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
One of the nurses was wheeling me back and she's.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Like, oh, honey, it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be
just fine. We're gonna take care of you. You're gonna
be just fine. Anna, at that point had got there.
Her heart rate was at one eighty eight when she
got there. My heart rate doesn't even get up to
one eighty eight when I'm like doing hardcore exercise, so
(28:49):
it was like incredibly high. I think they gave her
some medicine to calm down, and we just sat there
and cried together. I don't even remember what I told her.
I think I said I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I
was not having a heart attack. Apparently that's what a
panic attack is. I had no idea that's what a
(29:09):
panic attack was.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Once the physical stress subsided, Ashley couldn't help but think
about the cost.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It dawned on me how expensive this was going to be,
and that now I knew I was going to lose
Jason's income. Like there was no if sounds about like
whatever it was. I knew that he was no longer
going to be a part of it, and so I
was like, no, we're not doing any more tests.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Ashley's brother in law, the police officer, was working behind
the scenes and sent Ashley a text.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
He's like, I'm meeting Jason right now and he's going
to come to my house so he can give you
some space. I told my brother in law, I do
not want to speak to him. I don't want to
talk to him yet. Then he said, well, let's sleep
on it and figure out what to do.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
She thought of her brother in law as her brother too,
but he wasn't. He was Jason's. It was clear in
that moment blood relations were going to matter starting now,
and Anna had enough.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
I remember Lisa Michael, I'm like, there's nothing to fucking
talk through and I remember telling her he's not going
to report to ash He would have reported it by now.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Jason sent one more message. This one was a video.
Speaker 9 (30:25):
I'm sorry, Ash, I've been really really working hard on myself,
but this is a cloud that sung over me. I
don't want to be about my family. I just love
you so much and I'm sorry. I'm just sorry.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
His earlier tech said I will get the help I
need and quit ignoring my issues. Now. He said he
was working really really hard on himself, but it didn't matter.
Ashley never watched the video message. She didn't want to
hear it.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
The anger started setting in for you know, all those
little girls I saw too.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Anna intervened when one of the nurses came in.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
He was like, is there something we can do? Do
you need to speak to like a resource officer? And
I just remember cutting him off and I said, we
need to see a police officer. We need to report
a crime.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
On this season of Betrayal, Ashley learns her husband is
participating in a crime being perpetrated in every community in
our country. Finds out there's so much more.
Speaker 8 (31:44):
Not only was there child pornography that had been downloaded
but there was also homemade videos.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And we'll meet other families who had no idea they
were living with a perpetrator. I just started screaming.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I just dropped hm my knees and started screaming.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Betrayal of everything you value in your own home and community.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
They broke down the front door at our house and
came in on him going through all his hard drives,
trying to delete.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Stuff and learning that justice for a felony isn't what
you see on TV.
Speaker 8 (32:18):
His crime of conviction carries a penalty of one to
fifteen years in the Utah State Prison.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Did he get that No.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
On the next episode of Betrayal, Ashley and the police
concoct a plan to bring Jason into custody.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
You have the retromsil.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Me anything you say, Cana, We'll be used to sing
four as a disclaimer. Ashley told her story about her
conversation with Jason's older brother to police, and it was
included as part of the affidavit of probable cause that
led to Jason's arrest. His older brother's conduct as a
police officer was instigated by the authorities, and ultimately it
(33:02):
was determined that there was insufficient evidence of any violations
of law by him. If you would like to reach
out to the Betrayal team, email us at Betrayalpod at
gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com.
To report a case of child sexual exploitation, called the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's cyber Tipline at
one eight hundred the Lost. If you or someone you
(33:25):
know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children,
reach out to Stop it Now dot org. In the
United Kingdom go to stop it now dot org dot UK.
These organizations can help. We're grateful for your support, and
one way to show support is by subscribing to our
show on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and
review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A
(33:47):
big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is
a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment
Group and partnership with iHeartPodcasts. The show was executive produced
by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by
me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Kerry Hartman, also
produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producer Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart teams,
(34:10):
Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Special thanks to our talent
Ashley Litten and production assistant Tessa Shields. Audio editing and
mixing by Matt Alvecchio. Trails theme composed by Oliver Bains.
Music library provided by my Music and For more podcasts
from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts
Topics featured in this episode may be disturbing to some listeners.
Please take care while listening.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My husband and I were opening a business. His first
job was that very next day. One of the clients
had asked if they could bendmo him, so he'd called
me that morning September twenty ninth, twenty twenty one. He
was like, I need you to set up my business venmo,
and I was like, all right, use your name and
(00:33):
password for whatever email is connected to your venmo. So
he sent me the log in for his iCloud and
as I'm signing in, he frantically calls me back. He
was like, Oh, don't worry about it, we'll do it
together when we get home. Like, I'm sorry, it's going
to be too much, Like, don't do it. I knew
by the tenor of his voice that he was trying
(00:55):
to hide something. I thought maybe he bought something they
didn't want me to know about. There was nothing in
his photos, and then I scrolled down and that's when
I saw a hidden folder and I opened it. You know,
when you open your photos, it's going to show you
(01:16):
like a whole bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
At once. I slammed my computer shut. What the hell
did I just see?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I'm like, no, there's no way I saw that. My
first reaction was like, that was disgusting.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I need a shower.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I need to get that off of me. Unfortunately, you
can't scrub that out of your brain. When I was
in the shower, I said the most heartfelt prayer I
think I've ever said in my life. I was like, God,
(01:56):
something's wrong. Whatever you're about to hand to me, I'm ready.
I can do this. God, I'm ready for you.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm Andrea Gunning. This is Betrayal, Season two, Episode one Hidden.
When we set out to make season one, our goal
was simple. If we could help make one person feel
less alone, then we did our job. And the responses
we got from you guys, it was overwhelming. Thank you
(02:39):
all for sharing your thoughts and feelings. We value them
so much. In addition to feedback, we also heard from
people wanting to share their story. Some of them were heartbreaking,
some were inspiring. We received hundreds of emails, and several
of them revealed a betrayal that nobody wants to talk about.
I was surprised to see this issue reappear in email
(03:01):
after email. Would I be able to take this subject on.
I was nervous, but it was something I could not ignore,
especially since there was this one email I could not
stop thinking about. It was from the woman you just
heard that slammed her computer shut. She's based in Utah,
and in the winter of twenty twenty two, I flew
(03:23):
out to meet her. It was late when I landed
in Salt Lake and the roads were empty. It was
a twenty minute drive to the place we were staying.
It was dark. Looking out into the sky, there was
(03:45):
an outline that almost split the sky into two, two
black shapes gently resting against one another. What was that?
At first I didn't know what it was. They were
the Wasatch Mountains. It was breathtaking. I had never been
to Utah, and the mountains that surrounded me seeing the
(04:06):
best of nature. It provided a sense of comfort, almost
like a hug, almost as if the sky was saying, welcome,
You're safe here. The mountains were keeping watch. Despite the
sense of safety and the beauty, I was guarded, thinking
(04:27):
of what lies beneath. I was there to cover a story,
a story born in the darkness, the shadows, a story
about betrayal, invasion, and really the worst parts of humanity.
It's a story of Ashley Lytton, a mother of three
who lives in a town called Riverton, twenty five minutes
south of Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I grew up in West Valley City, Utah. It's a
suburb of Salt Lake City, and it's known locally as
being just a little bit rougher, rougher crowds, tougher kids,
and growing up a lot of us kids kind of
just around the streets because her parents worked a lot.
(05:10):
When I was a child, my mom got sick. She
has multiple sclerosis. My mom wasn't like super mobile. Instead
of like being a kid and being ten and like
playing at recess, that wasn't an option. The only option
was to go home and check on mom, make sure
she was okay.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Eventually, her mom needed more support.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
My mom at this point was no longer in her home,
and my dad worked tonights, and so I took care
of my little brother and sister, got them breakfast, and
I'd walk them to school every day, and then i'd
co to a junior high.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Just meeting with Ashley, I got the sense that she
was someone who had to grow up quickly. She put
her family's needs ahead of her own, She helped raise
her two younger siblings, managed a household. There was never
a question. Ashley just did what needed to be done.
Ashley's dad, John Trehillo.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
As she's spin the caregiver, and still more caregiver than
all the kids, as she's been the caregiver from day one.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
She told me that her only escape from all of
that responsibility was a boy she met at school.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I met Matt in seventh grade.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He was handsome and all the girls liked him, and
he just happened to notice me too. I wrote in
my journal the first day that I found out what
his name was, met the man I'm going to marry today,
And then I wrote his name on your book day
that year. This is gonna totally age me, but in
my yearbook he said, hey, give me a call some time,
(06:37):
gave me his number, and then he put ps, you're
pretty fly, and I was.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Like, oh my god, he thinks I'm fly.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I didn't even know what that meant, but I just
knew that it meant something like super cool.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
We all know this kid wild, unpredictable.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I'd see him, you know, getting in trouble all the time,
and I don't know I just I think I really
admired like how brave he was. It sounds brave, but
really it was probably reckless and stupid.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Matt wasn't exactly faithful to Ashley. Bad boys rarely are.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It was not an awesome relationship, and so I kind
of made traits with it more than anything else. It
was transactional. I guess I'd get rid of my respect
to have a safe place to go outside of my home.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
They were kids at first, but stay together for more
than ten years, and during that time, drugs became the
third partner in their relationship.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
He really started struggling with addiction when we were like
fifteen or sixteen. That's when he started like painkillers, ecstasy,
and I had never even really seen marijuana at that
point in my life.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
The drug addiction continued into adulthood, and so did their relationship.
They still felt like kids, but they had a girl fast.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I got pregnant with a vea when I was twenty
and she was not planned. So that was interesting because
I didn't want kids and I was using contraceptives and
it just still happened.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Three years later, a son came along, Ashley stepped up
to the plate determined to take care of her kids.
Ashley's sister Anna.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
She tried to be a devoted partner and he just
wasn't that person. He wasn't ready to be a father,
and the resulted in a lot of dysfunction and instability
that my sister did a really good job trying to
shield the children from.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
He would settle down for months on end, but never
like super consistent. But I was like, maybe this will
be it, you know, because I saw so much potential
in him, and I just thought he was meant for
so much more than what he was doing.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Then Matt disappeared on a three day bender.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I just knew that I was done, So I took
his shit and dumped it on his brother, his brother
front lawn like a crazy lady, and I left him.
I had to because of his addiction. I was like,
I need to give these kids a chance.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Ashley spent her whole life prioritizing others. Leaving Matt meant
she needed to come first. Leaving a relationship where you're
so emotionally invested in your partner so young can be scary,
but she did it. She got herself out of an
unhealthy relationship and went to work for herself and for
her two kids. She took a waitressing job and hustled.
(09:32):
She was finding independence. While in the job, one customer
kept coming in over and over.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So one day I'm at work and I saw him
and he smiled at me.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
He was Jason Linton, and he looked familiar.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I recognized him at that point because my sister went
to high school with him, and I thought he was GTL.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I was like, oh, this idiot, Ashley.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I remembered him being such a meadhead. But he was undeterred.
He made a point of coming into Ashley's workplace often.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
He was flirty with me, and he'd come in like
two or three times a week. He'd always get a shake,
a chocolate shake, but.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I'd give him like an extra large shake, but I'd
only charge him for small.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Everyone at work always were like, oh, hey, ash your
shake boyfriends here.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Ashley was surprised when Jason changed jobs and started working
at the same restaurant and she was assigned to train him.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
We're sitting there and he kept trying to like talk
to me while I was training him, and I was like,
what do you want to know about me?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I like to work and be a mom. What do
you like to do?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
And I was kind of being an asshole because I
wanted to get past this and train him and get
it done out with.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Jason was determined to impress.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Her, and he's like, well, I can sing, and I'm like,
you can sing? And I'm not a mean girl, but
I was going to shut this down real quick, so
I was like, all right.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Let's see what you can do.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Took him in the back friends with all the cooks
and all the waitresses, and I was.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Like, hey, everyone can reckon this. New guy says he
can sing.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
What did he saying?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Rascal Flat song, God bless the Broken Road or something.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
It's a song about broken paths leading you to your future. Soulmate.
Ashley certainly had a broken road. She could relate the
lyrics look back on decisions made things not working out
but inevitably for the better. And it struck a chord
and Jason could really sing it.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
My jaw was on the floor and I was like, okay,
I'll have lunch with you here.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
After the shift, Ashley started to look at Jason differently.
He wasn't the goofy guy his sister knew in high school. Anymore.
He was serious. He was also fun, sweet and talented.
He could sing and had a great sense of humor.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
It was pretty quick that we met him.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I thought, Wow, she just found a good guy, real respectful,
very mannerally.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
He was like night schiming armor. I was like, here's
this normal dude that wants to be with me. Like
what I even told.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Jason when we first dating, I'm like, you're crazy, Like
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You are handsome, you are young, I have baggage, I
have debt, I have a crazy ex, you know, like
I had all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
And he is like, no, I'm gonna stay. I'll take
a chance on you. And I thought how lucky I was.
And my family told me how lucky I was.
Speaker 6 (12:35):
My name is Kathy Trihio and I am Ashley's stepmom.
I love Jason. You could just see how nice and
kind he was to her. He's really funny. He has
a really great personality, can cut up the room pretty
quick with laughter and jokes.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
If we're comparing my old relationship to this relationship, Jason
was normal. Jason came from a good family. He was charming,
he was kind, he was a hard worker.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You wouldn't meant a person that didn't like Jason.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The sweetest part was how much he seemed to love
Ashley's children.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
He was really super good with her kids.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Her daughter, Avea was only two when Ashley met Jason.
Her son was still a baby.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It was so natural and they loved him and my son.
He did all of his firsts in front of Jason,
his first words, first time crawling, first time walking, first
time giggling.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
I think Avea was probably like five when they got married.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
The wedding was August twelfth, twenty eleven, and they eventually
had a child together, a daughter.
Speaker 6 (13:42):
And it just seemed to make their family complete.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
We moved to Riverton. I hate to use the word bougie,
but it is more bougie than West Valley. And you know,
ten fifteen years ago, before we moved out here, that
was a big dial.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
It was cleaner, it looked safer.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
The house, a good school, district, safety, a promising future.
She had achieved her dream. I met Ashley at our
house in Riverton. She was finishing work.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So, yeah, this is our living room.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Your house is adorable. It's so homey.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, it's fun. The kitties stay away from it. Now,
we had no no kitty spread, just like, put the
spray bottle right there and they're like.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The first thing I noticed about Ashley is how full
of life she is and how dedicated she is to
her three children. Oh and she's also really short and
always has heels.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
On a typical day in our household was insanely busy.
Avea played competitive soccer and had practice for two hours.
My son played little league football, and then my youngest
danced and had to go to dance once or twice
(15:03):
a week as well. So I spent the majority of
my days being a taxi driver for two hours. I'm
a free taxi. That's what I call it. I'm a
free taxi.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Ashley and Jason have been married for eleven years. The
two little ones she had when she first met Jason
they're teenagers now, and the baby they had together is nine. Aveya,
her oldest, has a driver's license and a job. All
marriages have ups and downs. They've struggled making ends meet.
Mortgage payments were almost missed, but this new business they
(15:39):
were launching was going to be a game changer.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Park City is a very well established, very rich area
of Utah. I mean your movie stars hang out up there.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's also a ski resort town, only about forty miles
from Riverton. Jason would have a lot of business opportunity
in Park City.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
He had a lot of work up there. He was
working on three and four million dollar homes.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Jason's former employer, Steve Ihausen, was selling Jason and another
contractor his business.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
He's very personable. The contractors especially really liked him because
he was very organized and was able to talk with
the customers and kind of show them what needed to
be done.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It was all starting the next day. Jason just needed
to set up a business Vemo account, and he asked
Ashley for assistance.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I knew by the tenor of his voice that he
was trying to hide something.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
There was nothing in his photos.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And then I scrolled down and that's when I saw
a hidden folder and I opened. It plays like slow
motion in my brain when I think about it. You know,
when you first pull up your photos, it gives you
I don't however, many like thirty photos or something, you know,
(17:15):
and it gives you like little squares, so you can't
really see unless you click on it. But those little
squares I could tell weren't women. I think my brain
went to what I could recognize, like what made sense,
and so I went to what I thought.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Was explicit adult photos.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So I saw the adult and then I saw that
this adult woman's face was superimposed on a female child's
nude body.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Did you ever see something and think this isn't real?
It can't be real. It was too disturbing for words,
Why would her husband have this?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I clicked on one or two and screenshot at it
real quick, and then instantly slam it shut.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
What was all of this? She thought about Jason, her husband. Yes,
there were problems. This was not a fairy tale marriage.
He was far from perfect, but he wasn't this kind
of person. He wouldn't look at material like this. This
was criminal. Ashley knew she needed support quickly. Even with
(18:32):
what she had just seen, she didn't completely trust herself,
so she facetimed her younger sister Anna.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
For some reason, in my brain, even though my subconscious
knew it, my brain could not comprehend it, and I
was like, no, you need to call Anne.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Anna had a similar reaction.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
I remember just feeling like, what the fuck am I
looking at?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Anna tried to see the photos through the phone. At
the same time she was looking at Ashley.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
I just remember her gasping and putting her hands to
her face. She just kind of lost her shit. She
started hyperventilating.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Ashley works at home a few days a week. Jason
knew she'd be there, and his intuition started kicking it.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
He just started calling out the hook and texting me
and I wouldn't respond. So I was scared because I
knew he was coming home.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Jason sounded anxious when they spoke, and now he was
calling and texting with a frenzied energy.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
She started going into this really weird dark place where
she was like, oh my god, I got to get
out of the house. He's going to come back here.
He's going to find out that I've seen this. He's
going to come kill me.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Her mind immediately went to another well known case in
Salt Lake City where a husband kept secrets from his wife.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
My first thought was Mark Hacking and Laurie Hacking.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
In two thousand and four, the Hacking case made international
news and dominated the front page of Utah newspapers. Young
pregnant woman Laurie Hacking discovered that her husband had lied
about his education. As they were preparing to move across
the country from Mark to attend medical school, Laurie also
learned he had never been admitted.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And instead of being exposed, he killed her and they
had to look for her body in the landfill. I
instantly was terrified, and I was like, he's going to
kill me.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Neither Anna nor Ashley knew exactly what to do next.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And it's like, oh my gosh, I can't see it
really well, but from what I think I can see,
you need to go show Kathy. Kathy, she works at
the Department of Corrections for the State of Utah and
specifically has to deal with a lot of correspondents from
inmates in and out of the prison.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Her stepmom, Kathy would certainly recognize the content in the
hidden file.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
She was at the state prison. It's probably like a
twenty minute drive from Ashley. I wanted her to go
see her, to see if the images were as bad
as we thought they were. She's been around some bad people,
you know, and we trust her.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
And I got a phone call from Ashley's sister Anna
and she said, Hey, there's something really bad going on.
Ashley is headed your way. She needs help, okay. So
I went out in front of my building to look
out the window, and I seen her car pull in.
(21:35):
She said she'd seen images on Jason's phone, so I
wasn't sure what we were talking about. I just assumed
maybe it was having an affair or something. I knew
it was something, probably not great. But I went out and.
Speaker 8 (21:47):
She got out of the car. She was walking towards
me and Ashley's little.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
She wasn't able to.
Speaker 8 (21:55):
Hold herself up really well, and so I just grabbed
a hold of her and was hugging her and holding her.
We got back in her car and she showed me
a screenshot of it. I said, oh my god, he's
in so much freaking trouble. And we're back and forth crying,
both crying so hard because those girls were too young.
(22:20):
I'm not a age expert, but I do work at
the prison and sometimes people send inmates pictures that they're
not allowed to have, and I knew those girls were
too young.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
What happened next might be hard to understand unless you've
been in this situation. You know you're sitting on a
ticking time bomb. You have information that will blow up
your life as you know it. And you want some
control over how and when it will explode. Ashley had
someone in mind to help.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Send's older brothers, a police officer or one of the
bigger police departments here in Salt Lake, and I trust him.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Anna was concerned that Ashley's brother in law would be
a brother before a police officer.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I thought it was a terrible idea. It's a huge
conflict of interest. They were both convinced that he would
do the right thing. I don't want to like bash
his character or anything, but that's his brother, you know.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
She was reluctant. She was like, I don't know, I
don't know if I should call him. And I said, no,
he's going to help us. He's going to help you.
He's he's a good man, he knows the right thing,
he knows what to do.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
He'll help you. She thought of their kids, their home,
and their family. This was going to fundamentally change everything.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I knew something was going to come of whatever just
happened over the last hour and a half of my life.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Like I knew that Ashley called her brother in law.
Everyone in the family trusted him. He was a police officer,
so it didn't feel as scary to talk to him,
he would know what to do.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I said, I need to show you something. It's an emergency.
I just found something and I need to show you.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I don't want to tell you over the phone.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
They agreed to meet up right away at a local
grocery store.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I see his car, I pull on next to him,
and you know, we exchange pleasantries and I was physically shaking.
I remember feeling my body shaking. I pulled my phone
out and he glances at it and it was like, oh,
I don't want anything to do with that, get it
away from me, don't show me again.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
I'm like, what do I do with this?
Speaker 6 (24:39):
Like?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
What do I do?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And he's like, first of all, you need to calm down,
because we don't know what that is. Those girls are
probably eighteen, like barely eighteen, but they're probably eighteen. Before
you do anything. Let's talk to Jay and we're going
to figure this out, because this is definitely not what
it looks like.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Let's wait.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
The reality was it was exactly what it looked like,
pre pubescent naked girls who had been posed in a
sexually provocative manner.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I was like, he totally just gaslped me. I wanted
to get away from him, and so I got in
my car.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
The text from Jason kept coming in. We need to talk.
At least allow me to talk to you. Please don't
go talking with people until you have at least spoken
with me. Ash. Please come home and let's talk. Please
don't give up on me, Ash. I know I'm a
better person than this. I will get the help I
need and quit ignoring my issues. I want to do
(25:50):
right by my family and give you guys a life
that you deserve. What was there to say? How could
he possibly explain?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I called my sister right when I left, and I
started crying and I can't breathe. I couldn't breathe. I
couldn't breathe. And then all of a sudden, like I
could feel I could feel my left side of my
face and like my shoulder in my arms, it just
(26:22):
went numb. Everything went numb. And I was like, Ann,
I can't move my arm. I can't move my arm.
My heart hurts because my heart physically hurt, like I
had a pain in my chest and it went to
the back of my shoulder. I was like, I think
I'm having a heart attack, and then it snapped in
my brain. I was like the kids. They can't lose
both of us on the same day. And so I
(26:44):
was like, Ann, I'm going to go to the hospital.
And she was freaking out. She's like, don't want me
to call nine one to one, and I'm like, no,
I'm right down the street from the hospital.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Anna had been in this with Ashley almost from the
first moments. She was really scared.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
I told her I'm going to come to you just
go and get checked out. And my husband was home
and I went upstairs and I told him she's going
to the ark. And I remember saying something like I
can't believe this is happening. How is this happening? And
he just gave me a hug and he said, you
gotta go.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Ashley is strong, resilient. She's a person who helps, not
a person who needs help. So I wasn't surprised when
I heard that she tried denying her own distress.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I parked my car like a normal person going to
a doctor's appointment. Walking in, I thought to myself, what
am I doing. There's really sick people here that really
need to be seen. And I went up to the
desk and this lady was super sweet and just happy,
and she's.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Like, what are you being seen for? And I just
lost it.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I sobbed so hard that there was no sound coming
out of me, and I just collapsed.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I remember hearing her being like, we need.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
A wheelchair, we need assistance of somebody came over and
kind of like grabbed me from underneath my arms to
pick me up and put me in a wheelchair. I
had my hands cupped over my eyes because I was
so embarrassed. I was like losing my bananas in front
of like all these people.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
One of the nurses was wheeling me back and she's.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Like, oh, honey, it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be
just fine. We're gonna take care of you. You're gonna
be just fine. Anna, at that point had got there.
Her heart rate was at one eighty eight when she
got there. My heart rate doesn't even get up to
one eighty eight when I'm like doing hardcore exercise, so
(28:49):
it was like incredibly high. I think they gave her
some medicine to calm down, and we just sat there
and cried together. I don't even remember what I told her.
I think I said I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I
was not having a heart attack. Apparently that's what a
panic attack is. I had no idea that's what a
(29:09):
panic attack was.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Once the physical stress subsided, Ashley couldn't help but think
about the cost.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It dawned on me how expensive this was going to be,
and that now I knew I was going to lose
Jason's income. Like there was no if sounds about like
whatever it was. I knew that he was no longer
going to be a part of it, and so I
was like, no, we're not doing any more tests.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Ashley's brother in law, the police officer, was working behind
the scenes and sent Ashley a text.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
He's like, I'm meeting Jason right now and he's going
to come to my house so he can give you
some space. I told my brother in law, I do
not want to speak to him. I don't want to
talk to him yet. Then he said, well, let's sleep
on it and figure out what to do.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
She thought of her brother in law as her brother too,
but he wasn't. He was Jason's. It was clear in
that moment blood relations were going to matter starting now,
and Anna had enough.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
I remember Lisa Michael, I'm like, there's nothing to fucking
talk through and I remember telling her he's not going
to report to ash He would have reported it by now.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Jason sent one more message. This one was a video.
Speaker 9 (30:25):
I'm sorry, Ash, I've been really really working hard on myself,
but this is a cloud that sung over me. I
don't want to be about my family. I just love
you so much and I'm sorry. I'm just sorry.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
His earlier tech said I will get the help I
need and quit ignoring my issues. Now. He said he
was working really really hard on himself, but it didn't matter.
Ashley never watched the video message. She didn't want to
hear it.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
The anger started setting in for you know, all those
little girls I saw too.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Anna intervened when one of the nurses came in.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
He was like, is there something we can do? Do
you need to speak to like a resource officer? And
I just remember cutting him off and I said, we
need to see a police officer. We need to report
a crime.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
On this season of Betrayal, Ashley learns her husband is
participating in a crime being perpetrated in every community in
our country. Finds out there's so much more.
Speaker 8 (31:44):
Not only was there child pornography that had been downloaded
but there was also homemade videos.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And we'll meet other families who had no idea they
were living with a perpetrator. I just started screaming.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I just dropped hm my knees and started screaming.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Betrayal of everything you value in your own home and community.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
They broke down the front door at our house and
came in on him going through all his hard drives,
trying to delete.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Stuff and learning that justice for a felony isn't what
you see on TV.
Speaker 8 (32:18):
His crime of conviction carries a penalty of one to
fifteen years in the Utah State Prison.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Did he get that No.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
On the next episode of Betrayal, Ashley and the police
concoct a plan to bring Jason into custody.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
You have the retromsil.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Me anything you say, Cana, We'll be used to sing
four as a disclaimer. Ashley told her story about her
conversation with Jason's older brother to police, and it was
included as part of the affidavit of probable cause that
led to Jason's arrest. His older brother's conduct as a
police officer was instigated by the authorities, and ultimately it
(33:02):
was determined that there was insufficient evidence of any violations
of law by him. If you would like to reach
out to the Betrayal team, email us at Betrayalpod at
gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com.
To report a case of child sexual exploitation, called the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's cyber Tipline at
one eight hundred the Lost. If you or someone you
(33:25):
know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children,
reach out to Stop it Now dot org. In the
United Kingdom go to stop it now dot org dot UK.
These organizations can help. We're grateful for your support, and
one way to show support is by subscribing to our
show on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and
review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A
(33:47):
big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is
a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment
Group and partnership with iHeartPodcasts. The show was executive produced
by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by
me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Kerry Hartman, also
produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producer Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart teams,
(34:10):
Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Special thanks to our talent
Ashley Litten and production assistant Tessa Shields. Audio editing and
mixing by Matt Alvecchio. Trails theme composed by Oliver Bains.
Music library provided by my Music and For more podcasts
from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts
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