Amber | Betrayal Weekly

After overcoming extraordinary hardship, Amber dedicated herself to helping other survivors. What begins as a story of healing and purpose takes a shocking turn when the organization she trusts becomes the center of a criminal investigation.

If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal team by emailing us at [e-mail]. You can also find us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts.

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If you are currently in crisis, please reach out to organizations that offer immediate support. We are including a few US-based resources here:   

988 Lifeline. If you or someone you know is in crisis or need to talk to someone immediately, please call or text 988 – the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline available 24/7/365.  

National Domestic Violence Hotline. They offer 24/7 phone and chat support to help you create a personalized safety plan and connect you with local support.  

For resources on sexual violence, visit rainn.org/betrayal. You can also get free, confidential, 24/7 support through RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline. Text HOPE to 64673 or call 1-800-656-HOPE.  

Every state has a domestic violence coalition. If you’re looking for help in the US, search the web for your state’s domestic violence coalition. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
My reality is being ripped apart. This can't be real.
I'm trying to find any reason to make any of
this make sense.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about
the people we trust the most and the deceptions and
that change everything. In today's episode, we will be discussing
the realities of addiction, sexual violence, and sex trafficking. So
please be mindful when listening. Amber Keel grew up in

(00:49):
Salt Lake City, Utah in the 90s. As a kid,
Amber was curious about the world around her.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I was vibrant, just full of life, and wanted to
learn things my way. There was a part of me
that wanted to seek and know and do and figure
it out for myself.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
She and her friends spent their days roaming around Salt
Lake City together.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
We were just in the neighborhood all the time, you know,
hopping fences to take shortcuts. In the summer, we were
out until the sun came down, living on rollerblades and
hanging out in malls.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Those parts of childhood were a bright spot. But Amber's
childhood was also defined by a lot of hardships. She
lived with her mom. They've always been really close. But
Amber had a turbulent relationship with her stepdad.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Right in my prepubescent era, I had some issues at
home with my stepfather.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Because of that, Amber started spending as much time as
she could outside of the house. But the adults she
met there weren't safe either.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
There were some pretty dangerous men there. in the neighborhood
offering cigarettes and drugs and alcohol. And with my mindset
at the time, I really just wanted to experience everything,
including the underbelly of society.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
By the time she was 13 years old, she was
drinking and using drugs regularly.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
It was intriguing to me. I definitely knew the inappropriate
individuals in the neighborhood and would seek them for drugs, alcohol, cigarettes,
A place to hide.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Amber's mom was desperate to help her.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
I was in and out of juvenile systems, lockdown facilities,
ankle monitors, wilderness programs, ordered therapy, all levels of care.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
But each time she got out of a program, she
was pulled back into the same predatory dynamics.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Hanging out with all the wrong crowds and using drugs.
That became a part of my life.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Amber desperately wanted to escape. She was dependent on alcohol
and marijuana.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
I was running from life. I ran and ran and ran.
I didn't stop running until I got pregnant.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Amber had her first son at just 16 years old.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
I'm dropping out of school and desperately needed help in
raising him. And that came down to my mom and
my grandma helping me.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
She tried to build some stability. She got sober. and
poured any spare time outside of raising her son and
working into studying. Eventually, she got her GED. From the outside,
things looked better. But internally, Amber didn't feel normal.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
I felt so awful in my own skin. I was
buzzing on fire on the inside and didn't really know why.
I just knew that I needed to be normal. And
I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Amber's mom and stepdad had separated, but he had started
buying drugs for Amber, so she heard from him pretty regularly.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I remember not hearing from the stepfather for a few
days and wondering why. And I went over to his house.
No one answered the door. And so I broke in.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
She went upstairs and into his bedroom. Her stepdad was
there lying in his bed. The room was a mess.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
He was urinating in empty vodka bottles. And I remember
just yelling out, I'm like, get up. You're so gross.
Get your shit together.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Amber kept telling him to get up as she made
her way through the room. But her stepdad didn't budge.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
I went to go shake him to wake him up.
And as soon as I touched him, I actually realized
what was going on. He had passed away. The shock
took over my body and I just felt that feeling
of like, I need to run. I need to get
out of here.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Amber called 911. First responders showed up and her mom
was close behind. Amber was only 18. She was terrified
being in the house with her stepdad's body. So she
drove away and didn't look back.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
That was a tipping point for me. And I immediately
just spun out. And I couldn't get high enough at
that point. There was not enough drugs on the planet
that could have helped me escape from that. I was
full of rage and overstimulation in my body.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's when Amber met someone who offered her a new solution.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
And he's like, hey, do you want to get high?
And I was like, yeah. I think I just needed
to get out of my skin. And he introduced a
needle to me and methamphetamines. That was it for me.
I had obtained the outer body experience I was looking for,
so I just kept looking for it. I didn't continue

(06:05):
shooting it, but I did continue smoking meth for several months.
That was absolutely devastating for me and everyone who loved me.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Amber's mom and grandmother took over the care of her son.
Her meth addiction quickly spiraled into other criminal behavior.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
This tornado of meth use. I had accumulated several more
charges after that. Forgery and theft and possession. And, like,
you know, I was 19 years old and accumulating felonies. Like,
they were candy.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Then one day, Amber found out she was pregnant again.
She knew that she needed support to stay sober through
her pregnancy. So she checked into a rehab facility. Being
there was a big help. But at her next doctor's appointment,
she received devastating news. her baby had passed away.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
I had a placental abruption and I had to give
birth to him and bury him. And it was just
like trauma after trauma after trauma.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
After that, she stayed at the rehab facility. That community
helped her through her grief.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
And that facility kept me there for like six months.
They supported me and they loved me and they knew
that I had a fire inside of me that just
needed to be harnessed properly.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Receiving long-term care was a turning point for Amber.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
And then things really started looking up for me. I
was feeling kind of stable and acclimated.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
She went back to school and met the man who
would become her husband. For a while, things were good.
They decided to have a baby together, and their son
was born, safe and healthy. For the first time, stability
didn't feel suffocating.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
It was my first experience of a real normal life
and enjoying it without substance. I've known what it feels
like to come up for air and live on earth
with some sense of happiness and satisfaction.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
But her husband had his own history of addiction. He
was sober on and off through their relationship. And when
their baby was just a couple months old.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
My husband was struggling. And there was a situation at
the home where he had kicked down the bedroom door,
just like shattered it into pieces. And I was just
there with these two little boys and so much fear.
This was a turning moment for me where I fell
out of love with him. He showed a side of
himself that I couldn't unsee.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
So she left her husband and moved back in with
her mom. She was now trying to raise two young kids,
work full time, and most of all, stay sober.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
I was working at this job and paying for these bills,
and that feeling started to creep up again.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
That suffocating feeling that she couldn't handle this, that she
needed to escape her body.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
It was overwhelming, and of course I did what my
system knew to do. I reached out to what was
my husband's drug dealer.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
She started doing cocaine.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
I felt like Supermom, doing cocaine in the morning to
go to work and come home and do a little
bit more cocaine to make dinner. I was like, I
could do this, you know? Of course I can manage
a cocaine habit.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Amber's family quickly noticed a change in her. They realized
she was using drugs again.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
And of course the boundary is, you don't let the
drug addict come home. You don't give them money. You
set up really firm boundaries. You protect the kids. I
was unwilling to stop using. And that was it. I
was out.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Her son stayed with her mom and grandmother. Amber left
the house, and her struggle with addiction spiraled further.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
As long as I could keep a drug in my system,
I could avoid the devastation of being this piece of
shit mother.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Her drug dealer said she could live at his house.
She was out of options, so she agreed. Amber quickly
became dependent on him. He was providing her drugs, shelter,
and the closest thing to stability she had at the time.
But one day, he told her, they were short on
money for the week.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
And he positioned it like, hey, I just need you
to get us by this one time. Like, I just
need you to do this one thing. You're just going
to go give this guy a handjob and that's it.
He's going to pay you this much and we're going
to be fine.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Amber felt trapped, like she had no choice. She didn't
want to do it, but her addiction came first. She
was already dealing with withdrawal symptoms. So she agreed.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
I was like, okay, you know, I was disgusted by it.
And I remember the first time doing it, just this
ability to just check out of myself, just get it done,
get it over with, and never do it again.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
But not long after that, he told her they were
facing another financial crisis.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
I'm going to need to do it again. And there
was a few times there where I consented. And then
I remember the day that I didn't consent.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
She told the man she was living with She didn't
want to do this anymore. As a note to listeners,
Amber is going to describe an experience of graphic violence.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
I said no. And that was my first real experience
of extreme violence.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
He attacked her and sexually assaulted her. Amber lost consciousness.
The next thing she remembers... It.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Was dark and I just remember the lights breezing past
me like he's driving really fast and end up in
an emergency room.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Amber was rushed into the hospital, still fighting for consciousness.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
It wasn't until I got an IV that I found
out what was happening. I had been penetrated with something
and I was bleeding out in the emergency room.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Amber went into emergency vaginal reconstructive surgery.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Right after surgery, he's right there and We're taking IVs
out of my hand and hospital staff is pleading for
me not to leave.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
But he had called a cab. She knew if she
didn't leave with him, she could be in even greater danger.
As Amber walked out of the emergency room, the severity
of the situation sunk in. She was being forced to
perform non-consensual sex acts. She was being coerced and threatened.
And when she didn't comply, she was met with severe violence.

(12:42):
the man she'd turned to for drugs and for housing,
was sex trafficking her.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
You know, in that moment, I knew I was being
sex trafficked. And that went on for five years. Five
years of just intense brutality, all while having this brutal addiction.
I'm on cocaine and heroin. So many times I tried

(13:10):
to get away from him. I would try and leave
and run away and he's stalking me, threatening my family. Like,
it was incredibly intense.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Her addiction was used to control her.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I'm catching felonies of my own and I'm just completely
desensitized to incarceration.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
In 2016, Amber was on probation for a few different felonies.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
I'm in a lot of trouble. I'm at the bottom
of the barrel.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
One day, she was at a scheduled check-in with her
probation officer.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
During that time, you know, I'd had broken ribs and
broken arm and black eyes and all sorts of issues, stitches.
But this is the first time I'd finally gotten a
female probation officer. And she just looks at me and says,
no one gets hurt this much. Tell me what's going on.

(14:01):
She was the first one to kind of notice it.
Now she positioned the question was not what's wrong with you.
It was like, what's happening to you?

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Finally, someone saw beyond the drug use and her felonies
to the horrific abuse that was driving it all. Amber
felt seen, but she was terrified. If her trafficker found
out she had told the cops what was happening, it
could be life-threatening for her.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
I felt so suicidal. In my mind, I'm like, you
know what? I'm just going to tell the truth, and
my life's going to be over. And I told her.
I told her what was happening to me. And she's like,
I know. This man is dangerous. He's been dangerous. Many
women have press charges, but he's always gotten away with

(14:50):
it because they're too scared to come to court. And
she's like, I want to help you.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
The probation officer contacted the Midvale City Police Department. A
detective joined them. He started asking Amber questions.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I'm starting to explain it. But at the time,
my phone starts blowing up and it's him.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Her check-in with her probation officer was taking longer than normal.
Her trafficker was demanding to know where she was.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
And so the detective's like, OK, I don't want to
tip him off. So I'm going to give you this
witness statement. I want you to start filling it out
into as much detail as possible. And as soon as
you have it filled out, quickly drop it off at
my office. We are ready for you. We're prepared for you.
We're going to help you.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
The detective handed Amber a blank witness statement.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I stuffed a little piece of paper in my pocket.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
And she headed home.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
I folded up into a little square and I hide
it in a piece of luggage under the stairs.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
One night, Amber could tell something was wrong.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
He found it. He found the witness statement and he
saw what I was doing and that I was getting
ready to tell. That night was horrifying.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Amber endured extreme physical and sexual violence. After a while,
her trafficker finally fell asleep.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
And while he was asleep, I called the police.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
But the officer on the other end of the line
didn't know who she was. He didn't know she'd been
working with their department to try and safely get away
from her trafficker.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
I tried to explain to him what was going on,
but he just wasn't listening to me.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Police were dispatched to Amber's house, not understanding the complexity
of the situation or how to help.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
They were there for all of like maybe two minutes.
And they actually took him to jail because he had
drugs and a scale in his pocket. They took him
on misdemeanor assault and felony possession.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
He bailed out immediately. Now, Amber was even less safe
than before she called the police.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
He comes right back and assaults me again. And I
get away again. And this is all before the detective
arrives to work.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Finally, at 9 a.m., the detective familiar with Amber's case
arrived at the Midvale City Police Department.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
And he responds immediately. And he's like, I'm so sorry.
This will never happen again.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
The police were sent back to Amber's house. Her trafficker
fled before they got there. He was now on the run.
The police stationed a patrolman outside her house to protect
Amber day and night.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Law enforcement would come in and they'd make sure I'd
have food and they'd see if I need a ride anywhere.
But I am out of my mind. Absolutely terrified. I
will not go to sleep.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Finally, one of the officers called Amber.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Amber, we got him. You can go to sleep. You're
going to be safe. Everything's going to be fine. But
the next morning... My story makes the news.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
The media hadn't named Amber, but they had named her trafficker.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
By proxy, everyone that was affiliated with him, gang affiliation
and drug affiliation, knew it was me.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
This reporting compromised her safety.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I'm having news people show up at my door asking
me if I want to give a statement. It was
absolutely horrifying.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Amber was given a small amount of crime victims reparations money,
but it wasn't much. She spent all of it on
three days at a detox center.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
And I wasn't even fully detoxed. I was still throwing
up because I had such a raging opiate addiction.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Law enforcement had put her trafficker behind bars, but that
was where their support ended. She was still living in
the same conditions that led to her being trafficked.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
And I didn't have a way out.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Eventually, it was time for her trafficker's preliminary hearing. Amber
was assigned a victim advocate.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
The advocate I had was like scared of this whole situation.
I think it was the first time she ever heard
anything like this in her life.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
This hearing would determine what charges her trafficker would face.
Amber had to describe her trauma in detail. Amber took
the stand and testified against her trafficker.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
I'm up on the stand for like hours and he's
looking right at me with pure evil in his eyes.
You could tell he is so angry now. And his
defense attorney is asking me the most horrible questions, right? Like,
you liked it and you wanted to do this and
I could not believe it.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Up on the stand, Amber felt a familiar feeling taking over.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
That overstimulation in my nervous system was happening again. I
wanted to get out of my skin.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
When the hearing ended, the charges against her trafficker went through.
People congratulated her.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
They're like, you did a great job. Congratulations. Let us
know if you need anything.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Their words floated through her. She could hardly hear them.
All she could feel was a suffocating feeling, swelling up
higher than before.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
I drove right to the block, bought the most heroin
that I could buy. I shot up and my intention
was to overdose. Hours later, Amber woke up in her car.
Of course, I didn't die. I wake up and I'm like,
God damn it. The sun is down. I'm like totally disoriented.

(20:27):
And I'm like looking around. I've been robbed. Like they've
ripped the stereo out of my car.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Utah doesn't have any residential facilities designated for survivors of
sex trafficking, and law enforcement had no idea what to
do either. There wasn't any infrastructure to properly support survivors.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Everyone's just like, oh God, we know that we messed up,
the system messed up, we almost had this girl killed.
Let's just leave her to her own demise.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Right when she needed someone to lean in and support
her through the trauma of testifying against her trafficker, everyone
backed off.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
The cops are like, we're going to support you. We're
not going to charge you anymore. And my PO is like,
we're just going to have you check in by email.
We're not going to have you drug test or anything. So,
of course, I just continued to use.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
When her trafficker's criminal trial finally came, Amber didn't return
to court to testify against him.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
And they had to drop charges because the victim wasn't
there to testify. And so they let him out of jail.
And he was a free man.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Knowing her trafficker was out of jail... Amber was on edge.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
I knew I couldn't go to sleep, so I'm just
doing as much cocaine as possible and trying to stay up.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Amber had been up for several days. She was in
her car driving around Midvale when she crashed.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I just remember like, boom, boom, crash, crash, crash. I
hit my head on the steering wheel and I sit
back and I try to open my eyes.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
She realized she was in front of the police department.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
I had sideswiped all of the cars in front of
Midvale City Police Department.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Amber was taken to the hospital and then to jail.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
And I thought they were just going to let me
out again. No, they didn't. I had been given way
too many chances and the judge had seen that. And
I was on my way to prison for the first time.
And I was going out there on some pretty serious charges.
Second degree distribution, an aggravated assault, a weapons violation by

(22:31):
a restricted felon, and now this DUI.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
During her sentence, she kept to herself and stayed sober.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
And I just remember crying and realizing that I had
extreme mental health issues. And everything that I had learned
to survive these experiences, I was going to need to unlearn.
And I started becoming very angry.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
She thought about all the people that had harmed her,
all the systems that had failed her along the way.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
My brain is on fire and I'm just becoming more
and more pissed off.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
There was a goal coming together in Amber's mind. When
she got out of prison, she wanted to devote her
life to making a change for other survivors of trafficking.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
I knew that there was something growing in me that
was going to take me far. I felt like I
was obligated to turn what the hell I had been
through into some sort of purpose in order to make
sense of my life.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
When Amber's prison sentence ended, she went straight into treatment
for her mental health.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
I needed months and months of extreme trauma therapy at
every kind of level of care you can think of.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
After nine months, Amber was ready to leave treatment.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
I was in a place now where I felt stable
and strong and I knew I wasn't going to return
back to drugs.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
She started school working on a degree in computer science
and information systems. And she had a new purpose in life.
help survivors of sex trafficking in Utah. She knew something
had to change.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
I was pissed. I was really pissed. I had watched
a lot of people really, really destroy survivors with their rescues.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
The most glaring problem Amber saw was the lack of
support and resources for survivors after they were rescued by
law enforcement.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Because you can rescue survivors all day long. And then what?
The exact same thing that happened to me. You're still
in the same environment, same people, and they just end
up back into trafficking.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
She wanted to work with an organization that was focused
on long-term aftercare for survivors, like safe housing, mental health support,
addiction recovery programs, and financial aid. But she hadn't found
a nonprofit with that mission yet. So she jumped in
where she could and joined street outreach teams that offered
survivors immediate resources.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Like needle exchange, condoms, wound care, Narcan and Naloxone.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Amber kept close tabs on all the organizations doing anti-trafficking
work in Salt Lake City. Whenever she saw a new
one pop up, she reached out to make sure they
were working responsibly and understood the landscape of trafficking in Utah.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
We saw this new organization hit the street. It's called Exodus.
Exit us.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Amber reached out to the organization on Facebook.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Like, hey, I'm a survivor in Utah. I want to
find out what you're doing. I want to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
But she never got a response. She figured maybe the
organization never got off the ground. A little while later,
Amber attended a fundraising event. There were a few speakers there,
but one woman stood out from the rest.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
I remember listening to her and I'm like, gosh, she
is captivating.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Her name was Candace Rivera.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
And she happened to be the founder of Exodus. I
was like, oh, they're still on the scene.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
After the event, Amber sent Candace a message.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Hey, I see Exodus starting to like catch some traction here.
I want to meet you.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
This time, Candace responded and they hopped on a call.
Amber explained who she was and told Candace a bit
about the work she had been doing in Salt Lake City.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
And she was like, really? Wow. I would love to
meet you. I want you to just come over to
my house. We'll have a private meeting and we'll get
to know each other.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Candace lived in Alpine, Utah, one of the wealthiest suburbs
of Salt Lake. A few days later, Amber made the
30-minute drive out to her house.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
And I remember arriving to her house up on Alpine.
It was this huge, beautiful home. I remember just walking
into this home and I was like, whoa.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
The house was stunning. Amber looked around in awe. Candace
greeted her and encouraged her to sit down and make
herself at home. Then, Candace told Amber more about her
new nonprofit, Exodus.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
She was just getting started, you know, but she was
meeting the right people and talking to the right people
and also had this passion of bridging law enforcement with
nonprofit work.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
And I was like, oh shit, okay, this looks really promising.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Amber was impressed. That was exactly the kind of work
she was passionate about. She was excited to meet someone
who shared her goals. The two women kept talking and
Amber learned more about Candace's life.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
She's a single mom and she's a nurse and she's
raising two boys of her own. I was like, oh God,
she's kind of inspiring. You know, like she had that
super mom thing that I had only obtained while on cocaine.
She motivated me.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
And beyond that, Amber just liked talking to her. Candace
was bold, confident, direct.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Utah's very conservative. And to get my point across, I'm
really annoying and loud. And like, she was kind of
the same way.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
When she finished talking about Exodus, Candace asked Amber if
she'd be comfortable sharing more about her experiences as a
survivor of sex trafficking. Amber was used to people shying
away from the brutal realities of her story. But hearing
what she'd been through, Candace just leaned in.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Wow, you're incredible. You don't know how incredible you are.
I would love to coach you. Let's do this thing together.
Just totally supportive of me. I was like, man, this
feels like sisterhood.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
When Amber was getting ready to leave Candace's house, Candace
gave her a go bag, a bag of donations that
Exodus typically gave survivors. It was full of creature comforts,
brand new Nikes, makeup, a set of matching sweats.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
And it was such nice donations. And I was like, wow,
I would love for the girls on North Temple to
get a bag like this. This is like new stuff.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Driving back to Salt Lake that day, Amber finally felt
a sense of certainty. This is what she had been
looking for.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
I was like, OK, I've been looking for a nonprofit
that's will exercise a lot of funding into aftercare. And
so I'm going to align with this nonprofit. I'm just
going to put all my fire into it.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
She told Candace she was all in. She wanted to
volunteer as much as she could to help the organization grow.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
Let's get this thing going and let's do it right.
Let's get it up off the ground.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
And that's what they did. Together, Amber and Candace made
Exodus the first nonprofit for survivors of sex trafficking that
focused on providing aftercare services. Amber had a full-time job
and was raising her sons on her own again. So
she was busy, but she volunteered with Exodus whenever she could.
They gave her a title, Survivor Advocate.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Introducing our staff and volunteers to what adult survivors look like,
what a survivor needs in advocacy, what navigating the court
system looks like. And that's kind of my forte.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Amber began working directly with survivors.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Law officers would reach out to me and they'd be like, hey,
we've identified the survivor. She wants to get out. She's
identified her trafficker. She needs safe housing. She needs detox.
And I jump right in, like, okay, Candice, here's a survivor.
I'm going to utilize Polaris Project for flights, Safehouse Project
for placement, LDS Hospital for detox. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool,

(31:02):
do it all.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
As they began working closely together, Candice offered Amber one-on-one
coaching to help her achieve her goals. Amber was eager
to learn from Candice.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
I felt like there's this top-level executive, nurse, single mom,
boss babe that was taking me under her wing.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
They started spending more and more time together. Candice would
invite Amber over to her house. Amber met her two
young kids. And when they had their mentoring sessions, they'd
go on long drives up into the mountains. There, their
minds were clear, and Amber felt like she could talk
about anything.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
It really kind of led her into my most vulnerable
spaces inside my mind and my goals and what I
wanted and some of my secrets.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
After a few mentoring sessions, Candice told Amber that she
thought it would be really powerful if Amber shared her
story publicly.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
To promote what aftercare can do for a survivor and
how Exodus can be that organization.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Amber always had to fight hard to be heard, kicking
down doors herself. Now, Candace was offering her a powerful platform.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
I really wanted to utilize this and try to make
other survivors' voices heard. And I had an endless amount
of fire in me to do it.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
But if Amber was going to get on stage and
represent Exodus, Candace had some recommendations on how Amber presented herself.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
I cuss a lot. And for Utah women, it can
be really off-putting. She did explain that to break down
certain doors, you had to kind of present a certain way.
And I needed coaching on public speaking. And I was
open to this because I wanted to be the most
effective advocate that I could be.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
So Candace started coaching Amber on how to deliver her
story in the most impactful way. Candace had built an
impressive reputation for herself as a leader in the anti-trafficking space.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
She had.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
An entire series happening with KUTV, Channel 2 News here
in Utah about.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
What trafficking looks like in Salt Lake City. And we
would take these news broadcasters out on the streets at
night in these high crime areas and let them witness
it for themselves.

Speaker 4 (33:19):
Candice Rivera is the CEO and founder of Exodus. She
took us along on the community outreach work her teams
do nightly. It's around 10 o'clock on a weeknight downtown
Salt Lake City.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Candace had access to some really powerful spaces in Utah,
politically and culturally. And she was inviting Amber to share
that spotlight with her, to tell her story. She started
setting up media appearances for Amber.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
Different news agencies and executives in the Valley, wealthy individuals
who wanted to donate.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Even when they were surrounded by powerful people, Candace made
Amber feel like the most important person in the rooms.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
She would take me right to these individuals. And she's like,
this is the Amber I was telling you about.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
And then, with the cameras rolling, Amber would tell her story.
She'd explain the realities of what sex trafficking looked like
in Utah and how Exodus was working to change that.
Candace was right there with her, supporting her.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
She made me feel like surviving the horrors that I
had been through and some of these really embarrassing moments
in my life, like prison and rehabs and psychiatric stays
were not to be shame-based and that they can be
transmitted into this big, beautiful thing. It made me feel
really good inside.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
As a forward-facing advocate, Amber developed relationships with various law
enforcement agencies, including Homeland Security.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
They were looking to step into the arena of anti-trafficking
efforts and what that actually looks like in Utah.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Homeland Security told Amber they wanted to work with her
on an upcoming rescue. They knew their work would be
more effective if they partnered with a survivor and a
local nonprofit.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
They brought a lot of different nonprofits in, and they
ultimately asked me which one I wanted to work with.
And of course, I chose Exodus.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
During this time, the NBA All-Star Games were coming to Utah.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Anytime there's a large sporting event, we're going to see
an influx of all trafficking. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, gambling.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
So Exodus, Homeland Security, and other local law enforcement agencies
began to plan a large-scale sting operation. They would implement Exodus'
supportive exit strategies. Trained victim advocates would be present on scene,
as well as social workers and medical professionals.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
The goal is to take Candace out on site to
the hotels because she's a medical professional. And I'll stay
at headquarters at Homeland Security for when they bring the
survivor back if they've decided to exit. Each assessment requires
to be looked at individually, and it's very unique.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
The operation was successful. They exited multiple survivors and arrested
their traffickers. The sting operation was covered on the news,
highlighting Candace's leadership.

Speaker 5 (36:16):
She's already got other law enforcement agencies across the country
that she's going to start training with some of these
methods now that she says this proof of concept has
been proven so successful.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Exodus had a lot of eyes on them, and not
just locally. Candace's work was gaining traction across the country
and internationally. Candace was also leading international rescue operations, one
in Afghanistan and one in Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
She would leave and take our international ops teams to
different areas.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Amber wasn't involved in this work. She only knew the
basic details of what Exodus international teams were working on.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Afghanistan. We had our individuals that we were going to exit.
Whole generations of families, sometimes 40 people. There was safe
housing and transport and an ops team trying to escape
the Taliban.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Candace was really passionate about the work Exodus was doing internationally,
but it made Amber uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
I had no experience dealing with the Taliban, none, and
I wasn't going to pretend to know. What I do
know is Utah, sex trafficking, drug culture, gang culture. That's
what I do know, and I just stayed in my scope.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
For the last two and a half years, Amber had
been working with Exodus for free, volunteering her time on
nights and weekends. There was only one thing that would
make Amber consider coming on full-time and accepting a paycheck.
If they could get a joint task force signed with
law enforcement.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
I wasn't going to come on full-time until we had
this done. This was my dream.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
One day, Candace sent Amber a cryptic text telling her
she had big news and to prepare for a phone
call that evening. Amber's mind was racing all afternoon. Finally,
that night, Candace called.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
And she's like, we did it. Your dream has come true.
I'm signing the paperwork right here.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Law enforcement was on board. They were about to sign
the paperwork that would create Utah's first joint task force
to support survivors of sex trafficking. Amber was in disbelief.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Just tears of gratitude everywhere.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
All these extra curricular things I was doing with Exodus
were worth it. Putting on the representative and out in
the middle of the night doing outreach. This is what
I've been praying and working tirelessly for and all that
is paying off.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Things were about to change, not just for Exodus, but
for Amber too. Now that the task force was in place,
she told Candace that she was ready to come on
full time as a paid employee.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
I've already been working so hard at this. Like, I
can imagine that the work now that I'm being paid
for it is going to be exponentially bigger. I'm expecting
it to be a really big deal.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Finally, her first day arrived.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Okay, I'm here. I'm full-time. I'm getting a paycheck. Now,
let's do this.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
She was ready to hit the ground running. But to
her surprise.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Those first couple of days, it was really lax.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Nobody was reaching out to her to tell her what
to do or where to jump in.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Like, okay, well, maybe I just need to be more assertive.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
So she reached out to Candice and her personal assistant, Ora.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
I'm like, hey, I'm going to get a meeting. I
need to have access to SharePoint.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
SharePoint is the platform where Exodus stored all of their
documents and files. Candice responded right away.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, let's do it, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
But then, for three days, it was just more silence.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
I'm feeling so guilty. I'm taking a paycheck and now
I'm twiddling my thumbs. Like, what in the hell? That
can't be what the leadership position is.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
So she reached out to Candice again. She told her
she needed to be fully on boarded.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
This is an organization that's been into different nations across
the world. I'm expecting there to be some very streamlined
systems in place. Candace's like, oh yeah, Aura has access
to all of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
So Amber reached out to Aura.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
And Aura's like, oh, okay. Well, let me talk to
Candace first because I haven't heard that. It's like this
weird communication's happening and it's stalling. Red flags are going off.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Inside of me. I'm like, what in the hell is
going on?

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Finally, Aura had an update.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
She's like, meet me over at Candace's house. I found
a laptop for you. I go over to Candace's house
and I get this laptop and I get the login
to the SharePoint for Exodus company-wide.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
What she saw next stunned her.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
I'm looking at it and it isn't enough documentation to
fill a short story for a children's novel. I'm literally shocked.
Something is wrong.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
There was no intake paperwork for the survivors they were
working with. No medical paperwork. The work they were doing
was high stakes, high risk, and needed to be tightly controlled.
But there was hardly any documentation of any of it.
Amber felt like it was her responsibility to fix this.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
So I'm immediately in Google Docs, creating documents, intake paperwork,
confidentiality agreements, releases of information, like just the basic ass
stuff that you would need, uploading, uploading everything into SharePoint.
But I'm trying to find any reason to make any
of this make sense.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
She asked Candace why all these documents were missing.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
And Candace, like some of this stuff is confidential and
a lot of this stuff would have to be redacted.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Amber couldn't make sense of it. But she didn't have
much time to worry about the paperwork because Candace had
a big new project she needed help with. She wanted
to turn her house in Alpine into transitional housing for survivors.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
We're going to turn this house into a survivor house.
Downstairs will be level one.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
They'll need medical. They'll need detox.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Upstairs will be girls that are a little bit more stabilized,
just need continuing case management.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
This was a much-needed resource. Amber was surprised that Candace
was willing to turn her own home into survivor housing.
It was so generous.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
This house is phenomenal. This house is huge. It's got
a hot tub in the backyard. It is right on
the front of the Wasatch Mountains. Like, it's stunning.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Candace asked Amber to take the lead on the redesign
and decoration.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
She's like, I want you to be able to decorate
it all. I want you to pick out the paint schemes,
the beds, the linens, all of it.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Candace told her she'd hire decorators to implement Amber's design choices.
Amber could hardly believe it.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Of course, I'm super excited about this. I'm already working
with several survivors in Utah that could absolutely benefit from this.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
But there was a lot to do to make this
dream a reality. First, Amber would have to clear out
Candace's stuff that was in the basement and first floor
of the house. Candace told her.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
I want you to start cleaning out the basement, and
organize all the donations, all the medical supplies, get it
ready for these decorators to come in.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Around this time, Candace mentioned to Amber that she was
having a dispute with one of the vendors at a
gala she'd put together. Some minor financial miscommunication.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Because he said that she didn't pay entirely for the stage.
I never dealt with this type of stuff with Exodus,
and nor did I really want to.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
So Amber just focused on getting Candace's house ready.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
I'm working my butt off, taking things off the walls,
patching holes, taking trash to dumps, grinding it out nine,
ten hours a day.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Exodus had worked with the Attorney General's office on a
few rescue operations. But then one day, Amber heard that
one of their projects had been abruptly called off.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
As victims were identified sitting right there, perps were in handcuffs.
They walked off the off. It was shocking.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
At the time, this decision to call off the operation
didn't make sense to Amber. She chalked it up to
internal politics, maybe a disagreement over direction between Candace and
the authorities. One morning, Amber was getting ready to go
over to Candace's house.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
I'm getting my coffee, getting ready to go pull trash out.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
Of this house.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Then her phone rang. It was Candace.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
She's panicking. Amber. Amber. I'm being arrested. And I'm like,
for what? And she's like, it's the attorney general's office.
The attorney general's office is arresting me. I'm at my bank.
I need you to come get my car and my gun.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
One morning, Candace called Amber panicking.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Amber, I'm being arrested. And I'm like, for what? And
she's like, it's the attorney general's office. The attorney general's
office is arresting me. I'm at my bank. I need
you to come get my car and my gun. Amber,
they've made up so much stuff. They're coming after me.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Amber sprang into action.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
I know this area, right? I know charges. I know jails.
I know how to bail out. Now we're talking. I
can manage this part.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
She called one of her friends, and together, they drove
to Candace's bank. Sure enough, a law enforcement officer was
standing by Candace's car. He gave Amber the keys, and
they took the car back to Candace's house. There, she
made a group chat with Ora and a few other
employees from Exodus.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
And I'm like, listen, the AG's office just arrested Candace.
We got to get her out of there, you guys.
This is bullshit. Something's going on. And Aura's like, well,
I just don't know who to trust anymore. And I'm like, what?

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Amber had always known Aura to be Candace's best friend.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
What do you mean you don't know who to trust anymore?

Speaker 3 (46:53):
You're going to jump ship right when your boss's best
friend needs you the most?

Speaker 1 (47:00):
What the hell is going on?

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Then Amber's phone started ringing again. It was Candace.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
She's devastated, crying. She's like, Amber, there's so many charges.
I'm like, Well, what is it? She's like, Amber, they
just made up so much stuff about me. It's all lies, Amber.
It's all lies. I was like, I know, Candace. Like,
I know. We're going to get you out of there.
Don't worry.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
I'm still in rescue mode. I'm like, I got to
get my girl out of there. I'm contacting Bella.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Bosman to see if they can see anything on booking sheets.
They can't see anything yet. So we just have to wait.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Amber started making arrangements, finding someone to pick up Candace's
kids from school. She even took Candace's dog back to
her place. She went to sleep that night, feeling on edge.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
I didn't sleep at all. I had some crazy nightmares.
My hands were shaking. I'm starting to have my own
trauma responses. The next morning, I wake up and still
nobody has called me.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
One of her friends suggested that they drive up into
the mountains to get some fresh air and space from
the situation. He was renovating an old cabin and could
use the extra help. Happy for the distraction, Amber hopped
in his car.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
And on our ride up there, the story makes the news.

Speaker 6 (48:19):
Founder of anti-human trafficking nonprofit faces more than 30 felony charges,
including theft, fraud, and forgery. Candace Alexandria Leard, also known
as Candace Rivera, 37, claims to be a physician. a
physician's assistant and a nurse, but she was never licensed
or registered in Utah. Repeatedly made false representations to donors

(48:41):
who gave money to support the fight against human trafficking.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
I'm having this outer body experience. They're saying impersonating a
nurse and my reality is being ripped apart. It feels
like I'm having a mental breakdown. And then my phone
starts blowing up.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
It seemed like everyone she knew had heard the news
and wanted an answer about what was going on. But
Amber had no idea. She couldn't handle this right now.
So she turned off her phone. She stared straight ahead
as the car climbed higher and higher and higher. into
the Utah mountains.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
None of this is making sense to me.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Then she and her friend arrived at his cabin. Her
friend handed her a sledgehammer and asked her to help
him work on the renovation. Finally, some relief. A physical
outlet for all of the anxieties. All she had to
focus on was tearing a wall down.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
I just started banging on the walls. And then I
started to come alive a little bit. I'm just beating
the shit out of this house with a sledgehammer. Raging.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Eventually, they had to go back home. It was time
to face whatever dark reality was unfolding in the canyon below.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
And as we hit the point where we get service
coming down Parley's Canyon... I turn the phone on and
it's Instagram messages, 100 text messages, 14 voicemails. And I'm
obsessively going through all of them. I'm calling people.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
She got on the phone with one of her contacts
in politics who worked for a congressman.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
And she's like, I'm so sorry. I wish I could
have told you. And I'm like, what? What? What do
you mean? She's like, Amber, just know that I wanted
to tell you and we just had to pretend like
everything was normal.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
It turned out there had been an active investigation into
Candace for months. Many people Amber worked with in politics
and law enforcement knew. Desperate for answers, Amber googled Candace's name.
And up came the 34 charges. Fraud, theft, forgery. She
read through them all.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
I'm scrolling and scrolling and scrolling through all of them.
And I'm like, this cannot be real. This can't be real.
These people have it wrong.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Amber called another one of her contacts in Homeland Security.
They already knew.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
And they're like, we're so sorry.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
We respect you and we love you and we'll do
anything we can to help you through this.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
And it's still not sticking. I'm still just angry.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Then Amber got another alarming call from one of her
law enforcement contacts.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
And they're like, Amber, I can't get a hold of
anybody from Exodus. Where is our survivor?

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Exodus still had open cases, and law enforcement needed Amber's
help locating one of their survivors and making sure she
was safe.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Okay, just relax, calm down, breathe. I got to lock in.
I've got to identify, locate, and we got to figure
this out. There's real cases that are happening and being
jeopardized right now.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Reporters were also reaching out to Amber, asking for comment.
But she didn't know what to tell them.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
I'm starting to crash out. This feels a lot like
when I was rescued from trafficking. The press, the articles,
the phone calls, all these different narratives from different people.
And people believe Candace. They don't believe Candace. It's too
much information at once.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
So she reached out to the attorney general's office. She
wanted to hear the information straight from the source. An
investigator got on the phone with Amber and started walking
her through the charges.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
He's trying to be calm with me and I'm being
really assertive. Like, tell me the truth. Where did you
get the information? How do you know? Tell me your proof.
I need to know what is going on.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
First, there were financial crimes. Candace had been embezzling money
from Exodus. She stole the money that they had raised
that was supposed to go towards supporting survivors. and spend
it on herself. For instance, she stole $ 200, 000 of donations
and used them for the down payment of her house
in Alpine. Amber felt sick.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
I'm like, oh God, I remember that.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
She remembered Candace talking about how she'd been able to
afford the down payment. At the time, Candace told.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Her, She had explained she was dating the heir to
Hallmark and he had given her money for a down
payment on her house.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
The down payment was just one example out of many.
For years, Candace used the nonprofit's donations as her personal
bank account to fund a lavish lifestyle. She went on
international vacations, drove multiple luxury cars, ate at the most
expensive restaurants, bought designer clothes.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Hundreds of thousands of dollars would be coming in from
donors that went to her own personal expenses.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Candace repeatedly preyed on the most vulnerable groups. She took
a large donation from the Navajo Nation, which she claimed
she would use to locate missing and murdered Indigenous women. Instead,
Candace spent that money on herself. Candace Rivera was not
who she said she was. Even her name was a lie.
Her legal name is Candace Leard. She created a false

(54:12):
persona and fabricated medical credentials.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
I learned that she was never a nurse.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Candace gave trafficking survivors prescription medications, evaluated wounds... and made
medical recommendations. It was later reported in outlets like Us
Weekly and Yahoo News that in her international work, Candace
performed medical procedures and administered drugs to sick children, all
without having a license. The darkest part of her crimes

(54:41):
don't even appear on her long list of charges. Unicorn Girl,
a recent investigative podcast about Candace's crimes, reported on her
international work. Candace reportedly connected with families trying to flee
Afghanistan and promised them she could be the one to
facilitate their evacuation. She gave them a specific location where

(55:02):
they would need to meet her. She insisted she and
her team would be there to bring them to safety.
But she wasn't.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
She never went into Afghanistan. She flew to Dubai and
spoiled herself. Bought new Rolexes and clothes and treated herself.
to the finer things that Dubai has to offer where
people were dying, waiting to be exited. Some of them
lost their lives. Sometimes an entire family were killed by
the Taliban.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
The investigator took his time explaining all of this to
Amber and answered her questions.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
He's being very patient with me.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
He's explaining to me where some money came from, where
it went, where she spent it. And I'm starting to
come to terms with, oh my God, This sounds real.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Amber got off the phone with the investigator. The world
around her felt unsteady and shaky. The organization she poured
years of her life into was a fraud, and Candace
was a dangerous person.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
And then I get a call from Candace from the jail.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
I'm like, Candace, I just got off the phone with
the AG's office, and they're saying this and this.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
They said that no one was ever even rescued from
And she's like, Amber, they're lying.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Amber started pressing her about specifics, like the $ 200, 000 donation
that Candace stole to pay for the down payment of
her house.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
I was like, Candace, what did you do with this
$ 200, 000 that was sent? She's like, that was a mistake.
And I just immediately could recognize the lie.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Amber kept pressing her, demanding answers.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
And she's like, Amber, I did all of this for you.
I remember feeling so disgusted in that moment. Like, you
did all these horrifying things for me? Don't put this
on me.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
For the rest of the phone call, Candace insisted that
she was innocent.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
And that was the last time she ever called? It
was the last time she ever called. I think she
knew she had been caught.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Amber started looking back on the years she spent volunteering
and working with Exodus. Since the very beginning, Candace asked
her to be a big part of their fundraising effort.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
I was trying to transmute my experience into something good
for the better, for a spiritual purpose.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
It wasn't easy to tell her story, but she had
done it, thinking that the money that they were raising
would help support survivors. But now, she found out Candace
had stolen that money for herself.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Candace took my story and made millions off of it
for herself. Living this lavish lifestyle and utilizing my story
for credibility and for her own personal gain.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Candice even coached Amber to tell her story in a
very specific way, a way that would encourage people to
open their pocketbooks.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
And would work on how I spoke and how I
delivered things. And I did feel like she was was
genuinely invested in me. Unusually so. I mean, looking back,
it was grooming.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
In retrospect, everything looked different. Was Candace ever planning on
turning her house into transitional housing for survivors? Or had
Amber just been sent to do busy work?

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Just to get me off her back of asking questions
of what the hell was going on with the paperwork?

Speaker 3 (58:46):
What is going on with the officiality of this organization?

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Exodus really did provide support to survivors and connect them
with aftercare services. Their contracts with law enforcement were real.
All the work Amber did connecting survivors with resources was real.
But for Candace, all that work was just a front
for her larger cash grab. Amber cares deeply about improving
the systems that failed her. And Candace exploited that passion.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Our values and what we were doing were completely different.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
And my face was attached to it. And a lot
of people had trusted her because I asked them to.
It was the most disgusting feeling knowing that I had
taken some part in all of this. Oh, it shattered
my soul.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Amber endured so many betrayals of trust in her lifetime
by her stepfather, her trafficker, as well as institutional betrayals
that left her to fall through the cracks when she
needed support the most. It took years of hard work
to open herself up to trust again. And then Candace,
the person that she let in, betrayed her too. In

(59:59):
the days after Amber learned the truth, her mental health
took a turn for the worse. After a few days
without sleep, she knew she needed help. She arranged for
childcare and checked herself into a residential mental health treatment facility.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
They took care of me until I re-acclimated back into
my body.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Amber had to reset her life. The list of people
she trusted had shrunk dramatically. she stayed updated with Candace's
trial by communicating directly with the investigators. In the end,
Candace pled no contest to nine felony charges, including theft
by deception, communications fraud, and second-degree felonies for a pattern

(01:00:43):
of unlawful activity. The only hearing Amber attended was the
one where they set the date for Candace's sentencing hearing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
And we're sitting there and we're determining the day that
she's going to be sentenced. And they set it on
the presidential election day.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
The outcome of Candace's sentencing would never make the news
on the day of a presidential election, which would be
convenient for a lot of the politicians who had trusted Candace,
endorsed her, worked with her. Now it seemed like they
were trying to sweep it all under the rug. Amber
wasn't going to let that happen.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Her attorney's like, yeah, that's fine with me. And the
judge looks at the prosecutor. Yeah, that's fine with me, too.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
I'm like, stand up. And I'm like, well, it ain't
fine with me. Just at the top of my lungs.
And the judge snaps her head up and locks.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Eyes with me. And she could tell she's just angry.
And I'm like, oh, shit.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
The judge was not pleased. But Amber's complaint worked. Candace's
sentencing hearing was rescheduled for October 22nd, 2024. Amber watched
the sentencing via Zoom.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
And when she got up to speak, I took my
headphones off, walked away from my desk because I didn't
want to hear anything else coming from her.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
That day, Candace Leard was sentenced to three to 15
years in prison.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
She was shocked herself. Her ability to speak her way
in and out of things had worked all across this globe.
I think she thought that it was going to work again.
And it didn't. And she was sent to prison on
consecutive sentences.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
At the time I'm recording this, Candace is still serving
a prison sentence. Some people who knew her have tried
to make excuses for her, saying that Candace meant well
and she just got carried away with the financials. But
Amber knows the truth.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
I don't know if people can really conceptualize how dangerous
she is. Because it just looks like money crimes, like
white collar crimes, and that's not true. It's actually a
lot deeper than that. People were hurt.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Since the truth about Exodus and Candace has come out,
law enforcement is reticent to collaborate with anti-trafficking nonprofits in Utah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Nobody trusts anybody. Survivors don't trust law enforcement, don't trust nonprofits.
Everyone's fallen through the cracks.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
In society, we think we know what a dangerous person
looks like.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
The people that I'm used to and the people that
I was in prison with, it was very obvious we
were criminals, right?

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
But perpetrators like Candace?

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
They present very well. These ones are like snakes in
the grass. They go unnoticed and unseen for a long
time and do a lot more damage. It is terrifying.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Today, Amber works full-time at a treatment facility. She's taken
a step back from forward-facing advocacy, but she still steps
in to help law enforcement on select cases where they
need her guidance. She's tossed aside Candace's advice about how
to be more polished and well-spoken.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
I was no longer trying to present as articulate and
position myself in a professional manner, be within the bounds.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
I'm an out-of-bounds kind of girl now.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
We end every weekly episode with the same question. Why
do you want to share your story? For Amber, there's
one very specific reason. Candace has a parole hearing coming
up in November 2026. She wants to remind people about
the damage Candace caused.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
I've been pretty quiet about my experience, but I don't
want anyone else to get hurt. I ultimately want to
stop her and I want to stop people exploiting the
anti-trafficking community. And so in preparation for this tentative hearing,
I wanted to make sure.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
That my story got out.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
And I hope that that information gets accurately portrayed and
that the Board of Pardons and Parole can understand the
complexity of who they're dealing with and how dangerous she
is to our society. I don't want to go quietly
into the night.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
My mind is racing. We have another person who is
absolutely trying to sabotage this. But why?

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
If you'd like to share your story on betrayal, please
email BetrayalPod at gmail.com. That is BetrayalPOD at gmail.com. Please
note that we are not a mental health organization. If
you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we
encourage you to seek local help or dial 911. Please

(01:06:06):
contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes,
we've included a list of U.S.-based resources. You can follow
us on Instagram at BetrayalPod or find me at It's
Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter and additional content and
to connect with the Betrayal community, join our Substack at Betrayal.Substack.com.

(01:06:30):
We're grateful for your support. 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. Big thank you to all of our listeners.
Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of
Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show

(01:06:51):
is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison. Hosted
and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. Written and produced by
Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique Laborde. Also produced
by Ben Fetterman. Our associate producer is Leah Jablow. Production
management by Kristen Malkuri. Booking support by Curry Richman. Our

(01:07:13):
iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Audio editing
by Tanner Robbins with additional editing and mixing by Matt Dalbecchio.
Voice acting by Carrie Hartman. Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Baines.
Music library provided by MyMusic.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
And for more

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.