August 28, 2025 • 47 mins
Brandi agrees to help the police with a crime, only to find herself at the center of their case.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Never ever did I see that coming. Ever, I truly
thought I was going in to help someone else. And
then I'm the in question, what do you mean? I'm
his wife, This isn't a crime. We weren't a crime.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm Andrea Gunning. And this is Betrayal, a show about
the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
change everything.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hindsight's a powerful thing, and we share the stories so
that hopefully somebody will see it. The light bulb might
go off.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That's Brandy Dredge. Her story is unlike anything we've ever
heard before, and she's never found anyone with the same experience.
It's about a betrayal that only came into focus with hindsight,
and it's the story of a surprising legal intervention that
forced Brandy to reconsider her entire life. As you're listening,
(01:25):
you may think you know where the story is going,
but everything here is a little more complicated than it seems.
So let's start at the beginning. When she was growing
up in the eighties in Missouri, you know, a lot of.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Home cooked mails, a lot of plan in the neighborhood
until the street lights came on and then you had
to come home.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Growing up, her parents struggled to make ends meet.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
My dad was a hunter. I mean, you grew up
rural country, so you went out and got the deer
and the rabbits and the squirrel and that's what filled
our freezer as far as meat.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
As a treat, her parents would take her and her
brother to Dairy Queen, but to afford it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
We had to go out and collect night crawlers, the
worms from the ground. So we'd go out and we'd
collect night crawlers and then you'd fill him up in
the folder's can. Mom would drive us to the bait
shop and then you'd watch them get weigh out, and
then that determined how much money you were gonna get.
So it was always good if you could get like
twenty dollars, because then that meant we would be able
to get blizzards.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
She grew up in a culture where wives served their husbands,
and that was the dynamic she observed in her own household.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
My dad, by the time he got home, he you know,
expected his mills to be there. When his tea glass
would be empty, you know, you just tap the tea
glass on the counter, and then that meant I need
more tea and then she would go fill up the tea.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
She absorbed important lessons from her parents' relationship. The biggest
one was that her purpose in life was to make
a man happy.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Just all the performance based love. That isn't really love,
but it is what I felt that you were supposed
to do.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Most of Brandy's childhood was spent playing outside with the
neighborhood kids, playing house or recreating TV shows like The
Dating Game.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And we'd have the boys get on the one side
of the house is beyond the other corner and kind
of ask them questions.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In high school, she joined the cheerleading squad. It made
her feel like somebody and like she was part of something.
Brandy had a lot of time to herself because her
dad worked double shifts and her mom was busy managing
the household.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Some of us were more rebellious than others and did
the sneaking around behind her parents' backs.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Brandy would sneak out with her high school boyfriends.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I seemed to kind of gravitate towards that bad boy image.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
In her sophomore year, she met a boy who wasn't
like the rest.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
He was not a bad boy at all. Man just
really treated me like I was gold and special. I
never felt like he wanted just a body. I felt like, Wow,
he really cared about me as a person.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
When he left and went off to college, Brandy still
had another two years of high school.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And then one day I was getting ready to go
to a cheerleading game and he had called and said
that he wanted to break up with me and Ma
and I was devastated, so devastated because I, yeah, I
kind of thought that he's the one. But my friends
were there to pick me up for the game, and
they were like trying to cheer me up. You know,
(04:50):
it's okay, We're going to go to this party afterwards
at this apartment.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
She agreed to go with her friends, even though on
the inside she was crushed about the breakup. She felt abandoned.
The party was at an apartment where two high schoolers
were living with an older guy.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I would hear about this apartment because some boys at
our school had lived with this man, and these boys
had kind of rebelled from their parents and so they
were living with him. So I would hear these rumors
about this apartment, but up until this point I had
never been there.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The rumors were about a good looking older guy who
lived there, and she was curious, but.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
It was kind of almost like the celebrity.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
When she got there, she met Gary Richard, a man
so infamous he had two first names.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When he walked in, I mean he was stunning. Yeah,
black hair and it's like hung to his dolline, and
he was muscular and had these blue eyes that ah
very physically fit everything. When I saw him, like that
was it. I just wanted to keep knowing more about him,
(06:06):
and I wanted to interact with him.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
The sting of her breakup was still so fresh, but
all of a sudden, the prospect of this older guy
made her forget the pain for a minute. She was
instantly intrigued. Her eyes followed him.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And I could see from where I was setting in
the living room he was in the bathroom and he
was starting to shave his face, and so I went
down there and was like, I want to shave your face.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It was forward, flirtatious even, but Brandy was reeling from
the rejection of the first guy who treated her well,
the one she thought she would spend the rest of
her life with. Now Gary Richard was making her feel
seen and wanted.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
That attraction was just something I couldn't fight against. I
guess I didn't want to fight against it. I mean
I just wanted him no matter what. Age didn't even
come into the equation. I knew he was older, but
I didn't know what that age was.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
She was sixteen, and she found out later Gary Richard
was twenty four. At the time, the age difference didn't
even cross her mind.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I mean, he just looked like he hung the moon
he was hmm.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
But whether she thought about it in the moment or not,
his age was a part of Gary Richard's appeal.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
When you come across somebody that seems like they've had
all these life experiences, you feel like, Wow, I haven't
did anything. I haven't even made it out of my hometown.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
He worked as a model for local businesses and bridle shows.
He had multiple jobs and a car for sixteen year
old brand He was the epitome of cool. After the
night they met, she and Gary Richard became an item.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It wasn't like a conversation of Hey, would you like
to go out? Would you like to be my girlfriend?
We were just together. I would lie to my parents
a lot about where I was going and I would
end up saying the night with him.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
When she was with him, she felt like a grown up.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
He DJ'ed at a club in town. He would get
me in and so I'd set up in the little
DJ booth and then he'd bring me these butterscotch drinks
from the bar and we would dance, and huh, we
had so much fun dancing.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
He always seemed in control, like he knew what to
do next and how to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I mean, he had this way about him, the way
he would talk to people. He had this charm, like
he could make people do whatever he wanted them to do.
The other thing about him was he always seemed like
he had wealth, Like he just carried hisself in a
way where money never seemed to be an object for
(09:10):
him and for me, as sixteen, coming from my home
where we're eating the deer and the squirrel out of
the freezer, I felt like I had struck gold.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
One night, Brandy's parents found out she'd been sneaking out
and lying about where she was, so she came clean
about Gary Richard.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'm declaring, you know that I love him, and at
this point, you know, we had only been together just
a few months, but you know, professing my love for him,
you know, and you're not going to be able to
keep me from him, and all these things.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Her parents disapproved, but they didn't try to stop the relationship.
What Brandy didn't tell them were the rumors she'd heard
about her new boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
He had gotten locked up, He didn't graduate from high school,
got his ged in prison, had ended up being in
prison a couple different times for just different things.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
He told Brandy that he had spent a few months
in prison, but it was on a trumped up theft charge,
and in the same breath, he explained he had a
hard life.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
His mom had abandoned him as a child, and his
siblings and their grandmother raised him.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
She felt for him most of all. She felt like
she could fix him.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And then four months after meeting him, I got pregnantje.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And Gary bought a pregnancy test to confirm it, and
it was positive. The whole time, he stayed calm and collected.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
He just so confidently, like he always does, just knew
what to do. He just always had a plan.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
His plan was to start a life together and build
a family. That's what Brandy Wan wanted to.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I knew as long as I had him, I would
be okay. Like I have you, I love you. This
will be our family, and we're gonna be okay. As
long as I have him, my life's gonna be good,
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Next. Brandy had to tell her parents. She wrote them
a note and left it on her nightstand.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I was scared because I thought they would disown me.
You know, my dad was scary. Of course, they were upset,
but it wasn't the reaction that I had expected.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Her dad offered to get her on his insurance plan
and help her through the pregnancy in exchange for staying
at home, but Brandy wanted to be with Gary Richard.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I wanted to move in with Gary Richard. I just
wanted this perfect little family. We'll all be together, and
that was all I wanted anyways, was just to be
with him. So I did. But I still promised my
dad I would finish high school and then I would graduate.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Brandy started her senior year while she was pregnant with
her son.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
The summer before my senior year, I turned in my
cheerleading uniforms and then I turned seventeen.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
After that, she moved in with him at his apartment.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
And then a few months later, when I was eight
months pregnant, I heard a knock at the door, and
so I went to the door and there were two
detectives standing there. They asked me if Gary Richard was home.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They were investigating Gary Richard for theft. Not knowing what
to do, Randy let them in where they collected evidence
and thanked her for her cooperation.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You see that stuff on the movies, but to have
that happening right before your eyes, it's just shocking. And
Gary Richard comes home and he's not scared like I am.
He's just calm and confident.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
He denied he'd stolen anything, and Brandy didn't hear from
the police again about the theft, so she assumed they
closed the case and life moved on in a big way.
A few weeks later, their son was born.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Holding him, it just incredible. It's that kind of love
that you can't I can't. It's hard to describe. It's
like my heart's setting on outside of my body and
I'm holding it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, she made her son a promise.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
What I did know then, you know, even at that
young age, was that I was going to be the
best mom I could be for him, that I was
always going to be there for him, and that I
just wanted him to be safe.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Sitting in that hospital room holding her new baby, Brandy
was blissfully unaware of the chaos that would follow them.
A few days after they got home from the hospital,
Gary Richard was charged with theft. He told Brandy he
was innocent, but he was already on probation, so his
lawyer wanted to show the judge that Gary Richard was
(14:19):
now a family man. They all went to the courthouse together,
where he entered a not guilty plea.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
The attorney then proceeds to say, if we had got
married before the court date, it would really help kind
of show the judge, you know that he's this change man,
new baby, new wife, can hopefully help lessen any sentence
or anything. That was the plan. The plan was we
were going to get married before he would go in
(14:47):
front of the judge. So the wedding planning began.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
She started calling around to churches in their area.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And when I had called one of the churches, the preacher'
anybody that's under the age of eighteen.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Randy was baffled. Before this moment, she hadn't given any
thought to their age difference.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That didn't make any sense to me because I'm thinking, Okay,
you know, you're just being kind of closed minded. And
she didn't want to get married at your church anyway.
I didn't realize in our state, to get married under
the age of eighteen, you had to have parental consent.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
So she went to her parents.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I begged my parents to sign. I used all stops
when I'm banging a complete and you know that this
is the right thing to do for my family. So
then finally my mom gave in. She went up there
and signed the marriage license, and we got married.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Randy was seventeen. After Brandy had her son, she and
(16:16):
Gary Richard got married. They hadn't planned on it, but
on his attorney's advice, they decided it would be the
best thing for the family. Brandy also worked hard to
graduate high school. She wanted to make sure she had
a degree and could make money to provide for her family.
She didn't want to become another statistic about teenage pregnancy.
She wanted to defy the odds.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
It just kind of felt like this challenge of yeah,
I'm going to show you that that's not going to be.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Me but despite her efforts to start a new life together,
Gary Richards's old habits followed them. He ended up taking
a plea deal on the theft charge. When it came
to sentencing, their plan to get married and show that
Gary Richard was a family man one favor with the judge.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
The ploy worked and it did give him a supervised probation,
which is what we had wanted. We didn't want him
to go to prison, so that was a win. And
the attorney did his job, you know, he kept him
from going back to prison. It's like, okay, this time,
we're done. Now my family's done with all this and
we can move forward.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
But as time went on, Brandy noticed that Gary Richard
was still hanging out with teenagers.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And it's like, I'm at home and what are you doing,
you know, hanging out with them. Oh well, you know
so and so, and they wanted to hang out after work.
When some of those kids were younger than myself at
the time. It was never people his own age, I
guess I'll say it like that, very few people were
his own age. I think you kind of believe what
(17:52):
you you want to believe, you know, when you're looking
at somebody through the rose colored glasses. Red flags are invisible.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
For Brandy, their relationship had become bigger than the two
of them. Now it was about their son and what
was best for him. Four years into their marriage, they
had saved enough money to move out of the apartment
where they met and buy a house together.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I was just shy of twenty two and started working
at the local hospital. That I was excited about because
that kind of felt like a big girl job.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Gary Richards seemed to be growing up too. Their new
home became a place for them to host family celebrations
and start traditions of their own.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
We used to host Halloween parties, We hosted New Year's party.
He DJ'ed our parties. You know that they made the
best funnest garage house parties. Everybody loved our parties and
loved decorating. You know. My mom and sister would come
over and help that. I mean, it was just the
whole production.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Gary Richard even organized Halloween hay rides for all the
kids in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
He would hook up the little trailer thing and we
would do the bell the hey and have the hot
chocolate and drive the kids around the neighborhood that was
cool and everybody loved it.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
And he really showed up as a father to their son,
like volunteering as a little league coach and teaching him
how to ride a bike.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I remember watching him run up the road, you know,
like when they do that where they hold the back
of the seat, or one time he built him a
bunk bed. My son had always wanted that, and so
that was yeah when I saw that, like him being
this dad that almost seemed picturesque, the dad liked that
would be on the TV. All I ever wanted was
(19:45):
my family to look like that.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
In those first few years their marriage felt strong.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
He would say like, you're the only one for me,
and he would tell me how much he loved my family.
You know that it felt like the family he never had.
You know, That's why I stayed. That's why I loved him.
That's why because it was my family. No matter how
it looked or what else happened, you stay because that's
your person and you just do life with them.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
The main struggle in their marriage was around money. The
couple was constantly under financial stress. When they had first
started dating, he'd made it seem like he had money
but she quickly discovered that wasn't really the case.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Okay, he doesn't have the kind of money he's making
it out to seem.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Their bills and loans were piling up.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Everything's robed Peter to pay Paul, and then he would
jump jobs, and there wasn't that consistent income always. So
then it was like me trying to kind of figure out, Okay,
how are we going to pay this one this disconnect notice,
and so then I'm trying to research and find the ways,
you know, always kind of to survive.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
As their marriage progressed, Gary Richards started putting Brandy down, insulting.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Her the snide little comments. You know, you make fun
of my voice, you make fun of my stretch marks,
you know, the different little jabs here and there that
I accepted it as that's just who he is. You
either love him or you hate him. That's just who
he is. You know, like he's he's gonna make jokes
about me. This is the sacrifice that we make for
(21:28):
the family. This is the sacrifice that you make as
his person.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
This wasn't the same guy she met when she was
sixteen who made her feel like the center of his world.
Brandy was always trying to get that version of him back.
One day, nine years into their marriage, they were taking
their son and his friend, I'll to celebrate The kids
had gotten straight a's in the fourth grade. As the
(21:54):
family van was backing out of the driveway, they were interrupted.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
There was two sheriff cars blocking hard drive. And you know,
so I look at him obviously, you know, like what
are they? You know, but you got kids in the
car looking at you, so you know, it's like some
of our communication was more like just looking at each other,
you know, saying stuff without saying stuff because you're trying
to now not want to scare these kids.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Gary Richard got out of the car to speak with
the police while Brandy stayed with the kids.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And then he walked back towards the car, and then
I got out and he told me that they were
serving him a restraining order and that there was some
allegations made against him and they wanted him to go
to the station because they needed to ask him some questions.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Gary Richard told Brandy he had no idea what this
was about, but he was willing to cooperate. He loved
Brandy and the kids, and headed to the police station.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
He called from the gel later and told me the
teenager had accused him of touching her inappropriately and had
told her mom. Her mom went to file the restraining
order against him, and then that's what started this investigation.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
The allegations came from a fifteen year old girl. Gary
Richard denied it. He told Brandy it was a misunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
He told me that he didn't know why she said it.
He said that maybe she thinks I'm cute, Maybe she
made up a story about me to look cool in
front of her friends.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
She believed him, even though she had a gut feeling
that something was wrong.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It's not normal. None of this is normal.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Then Thanksgiving ruled around. They had planned to spend the
holiday with Brandy's Anne.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
And he acted very different. He didn't want to come,
he didn't want to go.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
That night, Gary Richard called Brandy and told her he
was camping out for Black Friday deals. So Brandy was
home alone with the house to herself.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And some that I can only describe is just this
divine kind of guidance. I started to replant all the
ways he didn't seem like hisself.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Brandy's intuition told her to check his laptop.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I was able to get into his computer, and when
it pops up, there are communications with teenage girls, and
there's photos of people.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
She was seeing evidence with her own eyes. Suddenly, the
allegation from the fifteen year old girl no longer seemed
like a misunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I can no longer believe. So at the time, I thought, Okay,
I'm going to print out these papers because if I
have this, he can't deny it. So I printed all
those things out and knew that at that point, Okay,
now my exit plan is going to begin of how
to get him out of our lives.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
She hid the printed pages in a cabinet. Then she
gathered up all his belongings, packed them into her car,
and drove to his workplace.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And pulled up outside the door. And then I unloaded
his stuff, and then I called him and told him
it was starting to rain and he might want to
get his stuff. And so for me, powerful moment, because
usually he would have been able to talk me out
of that, and he didn't. He didn't at all. And
I told him he wasn't coming back to our house.
You know, I was firm in it. I was powerful,
and you know, it felt like for one of the
(25:29):
first times, you know, like I'm actually in control.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And she finally had the proof. She had the pictures
of what he was doing online, but when it came
time for her to bring that evidence to the police,
she went to grab the pages and found that they
were missing.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I don't know where the papers went. He had came
back into the house and slit the water bed and
those papers were gone.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
While she was out, Gary Richard went to the house,
found the photos she'd hidden, and destroyed her bed. She
needed to figure out her next move. Even with him
out of the house, she no longer felt safe.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I come out of work one day, my tires flat.
Later I would find out he flattened the tire.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Another time, she was driving through a busy intersection when
her car seized up and died in the middle of
the road.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Only to find out that he had put metal shavings
into the oil, which then caused the engine to cease up. Yeah,
cast our car to break in. We could have been
severely injured.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Her son was in the car with her that day.
They could have been killed. It proved that Gary Richard
would do anything to hurt Brandy. The final straw was
a night when Gary Richard came over and threatened to
hurt himself in front of Brandy.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That night escalated so quickly. Thank god, my son was
with Sleeps and he slept with fans, and I'm very
thankful because he never ever hurt.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
That night, he had a box cutter in his hand.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Then he would slice his wrist. And you know, now
he's going to be back in control, and I'm going
to watch him do this because I'm the reason he's
doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
She was afraid for her life. He took her phone
and he wouldn't let her leave the house.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
At one point, you know, I tried to get away.
I don't know where I was trying to run to,
but I crouched down like at the corner of the
couch and like he doesn't coming into me when I
could fill his breath, nuzzling in my face, like with
his scratchy hairs.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
He was mad, and she told herself that if she
made it through the night, she'd go to the police
station in the morning.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And so the next day I did exactly what I say.
I went to the police station. They asked me if
I wanted to press charges against him for domestic assault
and I said yes, so I gave him a statement
and then they had me get a restraining order.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Because of the domestic violence charges, they were able to
arrest Gary Richard again, and this time his bail was
much higher. After his arrest, the police reached back out
to Brandy. The investigation into the fifteen year old girl's
allegation was still ongoing. The police wanted to talk to
Brandy about it.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
So he asked if I would come give a statement
to help, and so I said absolutely so if I
could help them, but again, never thinking anything else other
than I'm just going in there to help. At this point,
I believe her, and I'm going to go in and
I'm going to do all I can to help. So
I go in there. He tells me to start from
(28:54):
the beginning, asked me when I met him, and we
go through all of that, and then he tells me that,
including the teen who initially had came forward, there were
five girls who were willing to testify that he had
victimized them in some way.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Four more girls were willing to testify the Gary Richard
had sexually assaulted them while they were underage, but the
police were struggling with the case. Because they didn't have
any physical evidence to support their allegations. Without those photos
and online chats that had gone missing, Randy couldn't offer
them much.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I leave and I didn't get very far from the station,
and my phone rings and he said, you know, can
you come back. You forgot to find your statement, Okay, yep,
And so I went back. When I go back in there,
he tells me that they spoke to the prosecutor and
that they're going to charge him, but not for what
I thought.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
She thought the police would be charging him for assaulting
the five underage girls, but she was wrong.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
And he said they're going to charge him for you.
I went white. And then he said something that's still
to this day will forever sick with me. He said,
I have something that they don't. I have evidence of
the crime. I have a son.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
After nine years of marriage, Randy went to the police
to file domestic violence charges against her husband. At the time,
he was already the suspect of another investigation. Five girls
accused him of sexually assaulting them. Gary Richard was the five.
There was no physical evidence, and the cops hoped Brandy
(31:04):
could help their case by providing a statement. She agreed.
Shortly after, the cops called Brandy back in they would
be charging Gary Richard with two counts of statutory rape,
one count for one of the five girls and another
for the statutory rape of Brandy. When she heard this,
(31:28):
she was in shock. The officer's words didn't make sense
to her.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Clearly, what he did to other people was wrong. I
just couldn't see it for me. I thought, I'm not them,
you know, like he's my son's father.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
But the police were very direct with Brandy.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Then he told me that they were charging him for
me because I had evidence of the crime. I have
a son it's DNA, and that with the other girls,
it was their word against him.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
She wanted Gary Richard to go to prison for what
he'd done to the other girls and for the domestic
violence against her, but a statutory rape charge in her
case didn't make sense to her. She tried to reason
with the detectives and they said.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
That I could take it up with the prosecutor. But
with child sex crimes like statutory rape, the state can't
choose to prosecute without me because they don't need the
victim's consent, and they have up to twenty years from
your eighteenth birthday to do so.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Brandy left the station with her heart pounding in her ears.
All she could think about was her son and.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Those words just crime, victim evidence son, crime victim evidence, son.
And then it felt like as a mom, you're seeing
my son shouldn't be here, like you were saying, my
son's a crime, and you know he's not evidence, he's
my son.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
She said. It was the most destabilizing moment she's ever experienced.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
This is my life that they're planned with, You know,
this is my life. It's not a game.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Brandy's whole world was built around her role as a mother,
a wife, so for the origin of those roles to
be deemed a crime completely shattered her sense of reality.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
It just felt like, man, you just erased like my
whole life and that it was all wrong.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
It reduced her identity to a simple story, a crime,
something that was done to her by him. She'd lost
control of the narrative of her life. Brandy called the
prosecutor to ask why she and her son had to
be at the center of Gary Richards's case. The prosecutor
(33:51):
explained that her son's DNA evidence was the only way
to guarantee a conviction against Gary Richard. If Brandy wasn't
willing to give her son's DNA voluntarily, they could get
a warrant for it. By the end of the call,
Brandy had agreed to work with the police.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
They were going to send a sheriff out to do
the swab, and I said I didn't want to do
it at my house, so I had arranged to meet
them at my brother and sister in law, and so
we did.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Her son was nine at the time. Randy felt like
he was too young to hear the facts of the case.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I told my son that his dad was sick at
the jail and that they just needed to swab him
to make sure that he wasn't sick too.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
After they processed the evidence, they were able to get
two counts of statutory rape, one with me sixteen when
he was twenty four. In the end, that second charge
wasn't for the fifteen year old's case, the one that
started the investigation into Gary Richard. It was for one
(34:54):
of the other girls, a fourteen year old who said
Gary Richard groomed and sexually assaul her when he was
twenty six. That meant it happened two years into Brandy's marriage.
The K's brought shock after shock. The local news got
a hold of the story, making it even worse for Brandy.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Our local news did a broadcast when he was going
to court and they even said he would be going
to court today for charges on statutory rape with the
sixteen year old whom he later married.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Facing the two counts and the DNA evidence, Gary Richard
took a plea deal with.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
The DNA evidence. That was kind of the plea, if
you do that, we'll roll the two up into one
and then give you the seven year For the two counts.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
He was sentenced to seven years and had to register
as a sex offender. As for the domestic violence charge,
he got fifteen days. Brandy's divorce was expedited. It happened
at the same time as his criminal proceedings.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Our divorce hearing was right the day before he was
scheduled to be sentenced.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
That was the first time Brandy had seen him since
the charges, and when he walked into the courtroom, she
felt a pang of guilt. She understood that he was
her abusive ex husband and that he was a predator
who had sexually assaulted teenage girls. But when it came
to her own experience of statutory rape.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
My mind just could not go there. And I think
in some ways, yeah, it's probably your you know, trauma
and your body trying to just protect you know, you're
trying to rationalize a lot of bad things. And I
think part of that is the survival mechan you know,
it is survival.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
The tipping point for Brandy came later when she received
a letter Gary Richards sent her from prison.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So then I got this letter from him, and in
it was a five page letter, but the first page
he said that there isn't a man that doesn't look
at a teenage girl and want to have sex with her.
And then it starts clicking that like if you think
all people think this, this is not right, and it's
(37:16):
like no, no, no letters, and I'm not accepting the
calls from you know, the prison, and just I'm done.
I'm done. There's no contact, and there's you know, never
been Since.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Then, with Gary Richard in prison, she became the sole
provider for her household.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
At this point, you got to really buckle up your bootstraps.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
She trained to get a better job at the hospital
where she worked, and relied on her community for support.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
But once he went away, just amazing things unfolded, as
far as like the kindness of people. My sister and
brother in law found a place that we could fix
up up. It was a little, tiny, half bedroom house
and we turned it into three and we all worked
on that. It was a labor of love.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Even though he was in prison, she struggled to escape
Gary Richard. His voice was still in her head, telling
her that this was all her fault.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
I was listening to a Brenee Brown. She was saying,
guilt is I did something bad? And shame is I
am bad? And man? When I heard that, I was like, ah, yeah,
it is shame. Psychological abuse particularly is so hard to overcome.
(38:51):
You don't realize it's happening. You don't realize how slowly
pieces of yourself are fading out, and you're losing pieces
little by little until there's not really a you left.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
She needed more emotional support, so she started going to
a women's group better church.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
The ladies that I thought had these perfect lives because
of what they're wearing or just you think they have
it all together. And when they would open up and
share about the common threads that run through us all
the ways they feel insecure, the way they feel like
not enough. Just hearing that come out of their mouths
(39:38):
that was so eye opening and freeing at the same time, like, Wow,
we're just human beings trying to figure this out.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
It took years of meetings and conversations like this for
Brandy to fully understand and accept what she had gone through.
She had to go back to when she first met
Gary Richard.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Now looking back, even from the very beginning, the fact
that kids from my high school lived with him, that
very first thing, you know what I mean, It's not normal.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
She now sees this from an adult lens as unhealthy
and inappropriate. She became grateful for the prosecutor and police
officers who decided to include her in the charges.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Now I applaud them because I think they one hundred
percent did the right thing, because that took him off
the street, that protected other girls, And I am so
thankful that they could see what I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
And she's become an advocate. She works on raising the
minimum age required for marriage.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I'm part of a national coalition to end child marriage
as a survivor Ally, I'm actually getting ready to go
speak at jeff City at our capital for the ending
the child marriagecause they're getting ready put that on the bill.
So I'm gonna go next week and give testimony.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Looking back on her decision to get married at seventeen,
she sees how that legitimized their relationship and made her
legitimize it too. Gary Richard's attorney suggested that if they
got married, the judge might go easier on him. To Brandy,
that looks different today.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I can see the manipulation now, even when the attorney
suggested getting married I can see grooming. That is a
form of forced marriage that I would have never seen
until literally, now that I've been doing this work, it's
like ah, kind of light bulb moment of you know,
I can see the manipulation.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
In twenty twenty five, Missouri changed the state laws to
require all parties to be over eighteen, regardless of parental consent.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
So had that law been on the books at the time,
my marriage would have never been able to happen.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
She started using new words when talking about her experience.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
It took me a long time, first of all, to
say that I'm child marriage, sex crimeate, domestic violence survivor,
like to even say those words took a long time
because I felt like I didn't have the right to
call myself that. When I'm going to go speak next week,
I'll say that I married my rapist. Hindsight's a powerful thing.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Brandy wanted to reclaim her story and tell it publicly,
so she started reaching out to publishers to find a
way to write a book about her life.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
And then I just thought, you know what, Life's too short.
This is an investment I want to make into myself.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
She found the perfect copy editor for the job.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
And then I ended up working with gender Coldbaba. She
agreed to copy edit, and she said, we'll go chapter
by chapter because if we don't, you'll quit, you know,
just because it's going to get real. And she was right.
Best advice ever.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
She connected with. She Writes Press, an independent publisher that
focuses on women's stories. Her book was published in fall
twenty twenty four and it's titled Girl Uncoded. This is
the last passage from her book.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I was no longer ashamed of my life, my home,
or the choices I had made. I saw the happy
ending from the beginning. I saw how the DNA of
my son was the indisputable evidence to hold Gary Richard
accountable for his actions and bring justice to all the
survivors of his crimes, including me. I leaned into the
(43:28):
pool of sunlight on the windowsill, closed my eyes as
a smile splashed across my face and flooded my body
with joyful thoughts of being free. I'm proud of it,
proud of me.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
We end every weekly episode with the same question, why
do you want to share your story?
Speaker 1 (43:52):
It's to help somebody see what I couldn't. To help
somebody see sooner, to be able to change their circumstances.
If this can help one person see abuse in a
different way, see manipulation in a different way, grooming in
a different way. To help somebody see what I could
(44:14):
not see, what has taken me so long to see.
That's why.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
He would tell some of them that he was there
sold me and that they were twin flames and they
had a deeper connection. And then I realized, Wow, he
is not a mentor. He's pretty much a monster. I
probably should shut the studio down immediately.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Before we end the episode. I have some exciting news.
Betrayal will be doing our first ever live show as
part of the Virgin Voyages True Crime Cruise, we'll be
answering listener questions and discussing them live on stage with
Stacy and Tyler from Betrayal season three, as well as
Caroline from season four. So if you have a question
(45:14):
for us, please email us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot
com with the subject line listener question And if you
want to join us on the Caribbean cruise, there are
still spots available. Search Virgin Voyages dot com slash true crime.
If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email
(45:36):
us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod
at gmail dot com, or follow us on Instagram at
Betrayal Pod. To access our newsletter, view additional content, and
connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack at Betrayal
dot substack dot com. If you love the show. One
way to support it is by subscribing to our show
(45:57):
on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Five star reviews go a long way. A 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 was executive produced by
Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
(46:18):
Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced
by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Caitlin Golden, Olivia Hewitt,
and Kristin Melcurie. Casting support from Curry Richmond. Our iHeart
team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Audio editing by
Matt Doavecchio, Mixing and mastering on this episode by Dave Saya.
(46:40):
Additional audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Portrayals 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,
Never ever did I see that coming. Ever, I truly
thought I was going in to help someone else. And
then I'm the in question, what do you mean? I'm
his wife, This isn't a crime. We weren't a crime.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm Andrea Gunning. And this is Betrayal, a show about
the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
change everything.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hindsight's a powerful thing, and we share the stories so
that hopefully somebody will see it. The light bulb might
go off.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
That's Brandy Dredge. Her story is unlike anything we've ever
heard before, and she's never found anyone with the same experience.
It's about a betrayal that only came into focus with hindsight,
and it's the story of a surprising legal intervention that
forced Brandy to reconsider her entire life. As you're listening,
(01:25):
you may think you know where the story is going,
but everything here is a little more complicated than it seems.
So let's start at the beginning. When she was growing
up in the eighties in Missouri, you know, a lot of.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Home cooked mails, a lot of plan in the neighborhood
until the street lights came on and then you had
to come home.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Growing up, her parents struggled to make ends meet.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
My dad was a hunter. I mean, you grew up
rural country, so you went out and got the deer
and the rabbits and the squirrel and that's what filled
our freezer as far as meat.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
As a treat, her parents would take her and her
brother to Dairy Queen, but to afford it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
We had to go out and collect night crawlers, the
worms from the ground. So we'd go out and we'd
collect night crawlers and then you'd fill him up in
the folder's can. Mom would drive us to the bait
shop and then you'd watch them get weigh out, and
then that determined how much money you were gonna get.
So it was always good if you could get like
twenty dollars, because then that meant we would be able
to get blizzards.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
She grew up in a culture where wives served their husbands,
and that was the dynamic she observed in her own household.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
My dad, by the time he got home, he you know,
expected his mills to be there. When his tea glass
would be empty, you know, you just tap the tea
glass on the counter, and then that meant I need
more tea and then she would go fill up the tea.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
She absorbed important lessons from her parents' relationship. The biggest
one was that her purpose in life was to make
a man happy.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Just all the performance based love. That isn't really love,
but it is what I felt that you were supposed
to do.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Most of Brandy's childhood was spent playing outside with the
neighborhood kids, playing house or recreating TV shows like The
Dating Game.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And we'd have the boys get on the one side
of the house is beyond the other corner and kind
of ask them questions.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
In high school, she joined the cheerleading squad. It made
her feel like somebody and like she was part of something.
Brandy had a lot of time to herself because her
dad worked double shifts and her mom was busy managing
the household.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Some of us were more rebellious than others and did
the sneaking around behind her parents' backs.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Brandy would sneak out with her high school boyfriends.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I seemed to kind of gravitate towards that bad boy image.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
In her sophomore year, she met a boy who wasn't
like the rest.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
He was not a bad boy at all. Man just
really treated me like I was gold and special. I
never felt like he wanted just a body. I felt like, Wow,
he really cared about me as a person.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
When he left and went off to college, Brandy still
had another two years of high school.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And then one day I was getting ready to go
to a cheerleading game and he had called and said
that he wanted to break up with me and Ma
and I was devastated, so devastated because I, yeah, I
kind of thought that he's the one. But my friends
were there to pick me up for the game, and
they were like trying to cheer me up. You know,
(04:50):
it's okay, We're going to go to this party afterwards
at this apartment.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
She agreed to go with her friends, even though on
the inside she was crushed about the breakup. She felt abandoned.
The party was at an apartment where two high schoolers
were living with an older guy.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I would hear about this apartment because some boys at
our school had lived with this man, and these boys
had kind of rebelled from their parents and so they
were living with him. So I would hear these rumors
about this apartment, but up until this point I had
never been there.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The rumors were about a good looking older guy who
lived there, and she was curious, but.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
It was kind of almost like the celebrity.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
When she got there, she met Gary Richard, a man
so infamous he had two first names.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When he walked in, I mean he was stunning. Yeah,
black hair and it's like hung to his dolline, and
he was muscular and had these blue eyes that ah
very physically fit everything. When I saw him, like that
was it. I just wanted to keep knowing more about him,
(06:06):
and I wanted to interact with him.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
The sting of her breakup was still so fresh, but
all of a sudden, the prospect of this older guy
made her forget the pain for a minute. She was
instantly intrigued. Her eyes followed him.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And I could see from where I was setting in
the living room he was in the bathroom and he
was starting to shave his face, and so I went
down there and was like, I want to shave your face.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It was forward, flirtatious even, but Brandy was reeling from
the rejection of the first guy who treated her well,
the one she thought she would spend the rest of
her life with. Now Gary Richard was making her feel
seen and wanted.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
That attraction was just something I couldn't fight against. I
guess I didn't want to fight against it. I mean
I just wanted him no matter what. Age didn't even
come into the equation. I knew he was older, but
I didn't know what that age was.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
She was sixteen, and she found out later Gary Richard
was twenty four. At the time, the age difference didn't
even cross her mind.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I mean, he just looked like he hung the moon
he was hmm.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
But whether she thought about it in the moment or not,
his age was a part of Gary Richard's appeal.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
When you come across somebody that seems like they've had
all these life experiences, you feel like, Wow, I haven't
did anything. I haven't even made it out of my hometown.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
He worked as a model for local businesses and bridle shows.
He had multiple jobs and a car for sixteen year
old brand He was the epitome of cool. After the
night they met, she and Gary Richard became an item.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It wasn't like a conversation of Hey, would you like
to go out? Would you like to be my girlfriend?
We were just together. I would lie to my parents
a lot about where I was going and I would
end up saying the night with him.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
When she was with him, she felt like a grown up.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
He DJ'ed at a club in town. He would get
me in and so I'd set up in the little
DJ booth and then he'd bring me these butterscotch drinks
from the bar and we would dance, and huh, we
had so much fun dancing.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
He always seemed in control, like he knew what to
do next and how to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I mean, he had this way about him, the way
he would talk to people. He had this charm, like
he could make people do whatever he wanted them to do.
The other thing about him was he always seemed like
he had wealth, Like he just carried hisself in a
way where money never seemed to be an object for
(09:10):
him and for me, as sixteen, coming from my home
where we're eating the deer and the squirrel out of
the freezer, I felt like I had struck gold.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
One night, Brandy's parents found out she'd been sneaking out
and lying about where she was, so she came clean
about Gary Richard.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'm declaring, you know that I love him, and at
this point, you know, we had only been together just
a few months, but you know, professing my love for him,
you know, and you're not going to be able to
keep me from him, and all these things.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Her parents disapproved, but they didn't try to stop the relationship.
What Brandy didn't tell them were the rumors she'd heard
about her new boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
He had gotten locked up, He didn't graduate from high school,
got his ged in prison, had ended up being in
prison a couple different times for just different things.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
He told Brandy that he had spent a few months
in prison, but it was on a trumped up theft charge,
and in the same breath, he explained he had a
hard life.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
His mom had abandoned him as a child, and his
siblings and their grandmother raised him.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
She felt for him most of all. She felt like
she could fix him.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And then four months after meeting him, I got pregnantje.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And Gary bought a pregnancy test to confirm it, and
it was positive. The whole time, he stayed calm and collected.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
He just so confidently, like he always does, just knew
what to do. He just always had a plan.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
His plan was to start a life together and build
a family. That's what Brandy Wan wanted to.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I knew as long as I had him, I would
be okay. Like I have you, I love you. This
will be our family, and we're gonna be okay. As
long as I have him, my life's gonna be good,
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Next. Brandy had to tell her parents. She wrote them
a note and left it on her nightstand.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I was scared because I thought they would disown me.
You know, my dad was scary. Of course, they were upset,
but it wasn't the reaction that I had expected.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Her dad offered to get her on his insurance plan
and help her through the pregnancy in exchange for staying
at home, but Brandy wanted to be with Gary Richard.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I wanted to move in with Gary Richard. I just
wanted this perfect little family. We'll all be together, and
that was all I wanted anyways, was just to be
with him. So I did. But I still promised my
dad I would finish high school and then I would graduate.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Brandy started her senior year while she was pregnant with
her son.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
The summer before my senior year, I turned in my
cheerleading uniforms and then I turned seventeen.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
After that, she moved in with him at his apartment.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
And then a few months later, when I was eight
months pregnant, I heard a knock at the door, and
so I went to the door and there were two
detectives standing there. They asked me if Gary Richard was home.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They were investigating Gary Richard for theft. Not knowing what
to do, Randy let them in where they collected evidence
and thanked her for her cooperation.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You see that stuff on the movies, but to have
that happening right before your eyes, it's just shocking. And
Gary Richard comes home and he's not scared like I am.
He's just calm and confident.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
He denied he'd stolen anything, and Brandy didn't hear from
the police again about the theft, so she assumed they
closed the case and life moved on in a big way.
A few weeks later, their son was born.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Holding him, it just incredible. It's that kind of love
that you can't I can't. It's hard to describe. It's
like my heart's setting on outside of my body and
I'm holding it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, she made her son a promise.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
What I did know then, you know, even at that
young age, was that I was going to be the
best mom I could be for him, that I was
always going to be there for him, and that I
just wanted him to be safe.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Sitting in that hospital room holding her new baby, Brandy
was blissfully unaware of the chaos that would follow them.
A few days after they got home from the hospital,
Gary Richard was charged with theft. He told Brandy he
was innocent, but he was already on probation, so his
lawyer wanted to show the judge that Gary Richard was
(14:19):
now a family man. They all went to the courthouse together,
where he entered a not guilty plea.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
The attorney then proceeds to say, if we had got
married before the court date, it would really help kind
of show the judge, you know that he's this change man,
new baby, new wife, can hopefully help lessen any sentence
or anything. That was the plan. The plan was we
were going to get married before he would go in
(14:47):
front of the judge. So the wedding planning began.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
She started calling around to churches in their area.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And when I had called one of the churches, the preacher'
anybody that's under the age of eighteen.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Randy was baffled. Before this moment, she hadn't given any
thought to their age difference.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That didn't make any sense to me because I'm thinking, Okay,
you know, you're just being kind of closed minded. And
she didn't want to get married at your church anyway.
I didn't realize in our state, to get married under
the age of eighteen, you had to have parental consent.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
So she went to her parents.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I begged my parents to sign. I used all stops
when I'm banging a complete and you know that this
is the right thing to do for my family. So
then finally my mom gave in. She went up there
and signed the marriage license, and we got married.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Randy was seventeen. After Brandy had her son, she and
(16:16):
Gary Richard got married. They hadn't planned on it, but
on his attorney's advice, they decided it would be the
best thing for the family. Brandy also worked hard to
graduate high school. She wanted to make sure she had
a degree and could make money to provide for her family.
She didn't want to become another statistic about teenage pregnancy.
She wanted to defy the odds.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
It just kind of felt like this challenge of yeah,
I'm going to show you that that's not going to be.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Me but despite her efforts to start a new life together,
Gary Richards's old habits followed them. He ended up taking
a plea deal on the theft charge. When it came
to sentencing, their plan to get married and show that
Gary Richard was a family man one favor with the judge.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
The ploy worked and it did give him a supervised probation,
which is what we had wanted. We didn't want him
to go to prison, so that was a win. And
the attorney did his job, you know, he kept him
from going back to prison. It's like, okay, this time,
we're done. Now my family's done with all this and
we can move forward.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
But as time went on, Brandy noticed that Gary Richard
was still hanging out with teenagers.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And it's like, I'm at home and what are you doing,
you know, hanging out with them. Oh well, you know
so and so, and they wanted to hang out after work.
When some of those kids were younger than myself at
the time. It was never people his own age, I
guess I'll say it like that, very few people were
his own age. I think you kind of believe what
(17:52):
you you want to believe, you know, when you're looking
at somebody through the rose colored glasses. Red flags are invisible.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
For Brandy, their relationship had become bigger than the two
of them. Now it was about their son and what
was best for him. Four years into their marriage, they
had saved enough money to move out of the apartment
where they met and buy a house together.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I was just shy of twenty two and started working
at the local hospital. That I was excited about because
that kind of felt like a big girl job.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Gary Richards seemed to be growing up too. Their new
home became a place for them to host family celebrations
and start traditions of their own.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
We used to host Halloween parties, We hosted New Year's party.
He DJ'ed our parties. You know that they made the
best funnest garage house parties. Everybody loved our parties and
loved decorating. You know. My mom and sister would come
over and help that. I mean, it was just the
whole production.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Gary Richard even organized Halloween hay rides for all the
kids in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
He would hook up the little trailer thing and we
would do the bell the hey and have the hot
chocolate and drive the kids around the neighborhood that was
cool and everybody loved it.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
And he really showed up as a father to their son,
like volunteering as a little league coach and teaching him
how to ride a bike.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I remember watching him run up the road, you know,
like when they do that where they hold the back
of the seat, or one time he built him a
bunk bed. My son had always wanted that, and so
that was yeah when I saw that, like him being
this dad that almost seemed picturesque, the dad liked that
would be on the TV. All I ever wanted was
(19:45):
my family to look like that.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
In those first few years their marriage felt strong.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
He would say like, you're the only one for me,
and he would tell me how much he loved my family.
You know that it felt like the family he never had.
You know, That's why I stayed. That's why I loved him.
That's why because it was my family. No matter how
it looked or what else happened, you stay because that's
your person and you just do life with them.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
The main struggle in their marriage was around money. The
couple was constantly under financial stress. When they had first
started dating, he'd made it seem like he had money
but she quickly discovered that wasn't really the case.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Okay, he doesn't have the kind of money he's making
it out to seem.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Their bills and loans were piling up.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Everything's robed Peter to pay Paul, and then he would
jump jobs, and there wasn't that consistent income always. So
then it was like me trying to kind of figure out, Okay,
how are we going to pay this one this disconnect notice,
and so then I'm trying to research and find the ways,
you know, always kind of to survive.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
As their marriage progressed, Gary Richards started putting Brandy down, insulting.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Her the snide little comments. You know, you make fun
of my voice, you make fun of my stretch marks,
you know, the different little jabs here and there that
I accepted it as that's just who he is. You
either love him or you hate him. That's just who
he is. You know, like he's he's gonna make jokes
about me. This is the sacrifice that we make for
(21:28):
the family. This is the sacrifice that you make as
his person.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
This wasn't the same guy she met when she was
sixteen who made her feel like the center of his world.
Brandy was always trying to get that version of him back.
One day, nine years into their marriage, they were taking
their son and his friend, I'll to celebrate The kids
had gotten straight a's in the fourth grade. As the
(21:54):
family van was backing out of the driveway, they were interrupted.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
There was two sheriff cars blocking hard drive. And you know,
so I look at him obviously, you know, like what
are they? You know, but you got kids in the
car looking at you, so you know, it's like some
of our communication was more like just looking at each other,
you know, saying stuff without saying stuff because you're trying
to now not want to scare these kids.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Gary Richard got out of the car to speak with
the police while Brandy stayed with the kids.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
And then he walked back towards the car, and then
I got out and he told me that they were
serving him a restraining order and that there was some
allegations made against him and they wanted him to go
to the station because they needed to ask him some questions.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Gary Richard told Brandy he had no idea what this
was about, but he was willing to cooperate. He loved
Brandy and the kids, and headed to the police station.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
He called from the gel later and told me the
teenager had accused him of touching her inappropriately and had
told her mom. Her mom went to file the restraining
order against him, and then that's what started this investigation.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
The allegations came from a fifteen year old girl. Gary
Richard denied it. He told Brandy it was a misunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
He told me that he didn't know why she said it.
He said that maybe she thinks I'm cute, Maybe she
made up a story about me to look cool in
front of her friends.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
She believed him, even though she had a gut feeling
that something was wrong.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It's not normal. None of this is normal.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Then Thanksgiving ruled around. They had planned to spend the
holiday with Brandy's Anne.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
And he acted very different. He didn't want to come,
he didn't want to go.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
That night, Gary Richard called Brandy and told her he
was camping out for Black Friday deals. So Brandy was
home alone with the house to herself.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And some that I can only describe is just this
divine kind of guidance. I started to replant all the
ways he didn't seem like hisself.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Brandy's intuition told her to check his laptop.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I was able to get into his computer, and when
it pops up, there are communications with teenage girls, and
there's photos of people.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
She was seeing evidence with her own eyes. Suddenly, the
allegation from the fifteen year old girl no longer seemed
like a misunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I can no longer believe. So at the time, I thought, Okay,
I'm going to print out these papers because if I
have this, he can't deny it. So I printed all
those things out and knew that at that point, Okay,
now my exit plan is going to begin of how
to get him out of our lives.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
She hid the printed pages in a cabinet. Then she
gathered up all his belongings, packed them into her car,
and drove to his workplace.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And pulled up outside the door. And then I unloaded
his stuff, and then I called him and told him
it was starting to rain and he might want to
get his stuff. And so for me, powerful moment, because
usually he would have been able to talk me out
of that, and he didn't. He didn't at all. And
I told him he wasn't coming back to our house.
You know, I was firm in it. I was powerful,
and you know, it felt like for one of the
(25:29):
first times, you know, like I'm actually in control.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And she finally had the proof. She had the pictures
of what he was doing online, but when it came
time for her to bring that evidence to the police,
she went to grab the pages and found that they
were missing.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I don't know where the papers went. He had came
back into the house and slit the water bed and
those papers were gone.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
While she was out, Gary Richard went to the house,
found the photos she'd hidden, and destroyed her bed. She
needed to figure out her next move. Even with him
out of the house, she no longer felt safe.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I come out of work one day, my tires flat.
Later I would find out he flattened the tire.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Another time, she was driving through a busy intersection when
her car seized up and died in the middle of
the road.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Only to find out that he had put metal shavings
into the oil, which then caused the engine to cease up. Yeah,
cast our car to break in. We could have been
severely injured.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Her son was in the car with her that day.
They could have been killed. It proved that Gary Richard
would do anything to hurt Brandy. The final straw was
a night when Gary Richard came over and threatened to
hurt himself in front of Brandy.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That night escalated so quickly. Thank god, my son was
with Sleeps and he slept with fans, and I'm very
thankful because he never ever hurt.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
That night, he had a box cutter in his hand.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Then he would slice his wrist. And you know, now
he's going to be back in control, and I'm going
to watch him do this because I'm the reason he's
doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
She was afraid for her life. He took her phone
and he wouldn't let her leave the house.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
At one point, you know, I tried to get away.
I don't know where I was trying to run to,
but I crouched down like at the corner of the
couch and like he doesn't coming into me when I
could fill his breath, nuzzling in my face, like with
his scratchy hairs.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
He was mad, and she told herself that if she
made it through the night, she'd go to the police
station in the morning.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And so the next day I did exactly what I say.
I went to the police station. They asked me if
I wanted to press charges against him for domestic assault
and I said yes, so I gave him a statement
and then they had me get a restraining order.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Because of the domestic violence charges, they were able to
arrest Gary Richard again, and this time his bail was
much higher. After his arrest, the police reached back out
to Brandy. The investigation into the fifteen year old girl's
allegation was still ongoing. The police wanted to talk to
Brandy about it.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
So he asked if I would come give a statement
to help, and so I said absolutely so if I
could help them, but again, never thinking anything else other
than I'm just going in there to help. At this point,
I believe her, and I'm going to go in and
I'm going to do all I can to help. So
I go in there. He tells me to start from
(28:54):
the beginning, asked me when I met him, and we
go through all of that, and then he tells me that,
including the teen who initially had came forward, there were
five girls who were willing to testify that he had
victimized them in some way.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Four more girls were willing to testify the Gary Richard
had sexually assaulted them while they were underage, but the
police were struggling with the case. Because they didn't have
any physical evidence to support their allegations. Without those photos
and online chats that had gone missing, Randy couldn't offer
them much.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I leave and I didn't get very far from the station,
and my phone rings and he said, you know, can
you come back. You forgot to find your statement, Okay, yep,
And so I went back. When I go back in there,
he tells me that they spoke to the prosecutor and
that they're going to charge him, but not for what
I thought.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
She thought the police would be charging him for assaulting
the five underage girls, but she was wrong.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
And he said they're going to charge him for you.
I went white. And then he said something that's still
to this day will forever sick with me. He said,
I have something that they don't. I have evidence of
the crime. I have a son.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
After nine years of marriage, Randy went to the police
to file domestic violence charges against her husband. At the time,
he was already the suspect of another investigation. Five girls
accused him of sexually assaulting them. Gary Richard was the five.
There was no physical evidence, and the cops hoped Brandy
(31:04):
could help their case by providing a statement. She agreed.
Shortly after, the cops called Brandy back in they would
be charging Gary Richard with two counts of statutory rape,
one count for one of the five girls and another
for the statutory rape of Brandy. When she heard this,
(31:28):
she was in shock. The officer's words didn't make sense
to her.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Clearly, what he did to other people was wrong. I
just couldn't see it for me. I thought, I'm not them,
you know, like he's my son's father.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
But the police were very direct with Brandy.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Then he told me that they were charging him for
me because I had evidence of the crime. I have
a son it's DNA, and that with the other girls,
it was their word against him.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
She wanted Gary Richard to go to prison for what
he'd done to the other girls and for the domestic
violence against her, but a statutory rape charge in her
case didn't make sense to her. She tried to reason
with the detectives and they said.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
That I could take it up with the prosecutor. But
with child sex crimes like statutory rape, the state can't
choose to prosecute without me because they don't need the
victim's consent, and they have up to twenty years from
your eighteenth birthday to do so.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Brandy left the station with her heart pounding in her ears.
All she could think about was her son and.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Those words just crime, victim evidence son, crime victim evidence, son.
And then it felt like as a mom, you're seeing
my son shouldn't be here, like you were saying, my
son's a crime, and you know he's not evidence, he's
my son.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
She said. It was the most destabilizing moment she's ever experienced.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
This is my life that they're planned with, You know,
this is my life. It's not a game.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Brandy's whole world was built around her role as a mother,
a wife, so for the origin of those roles to
be deemed a crime completely shattered her sense of reality.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
It just felt like, man, you just erased like my
whole life and that it was all wrong.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
It reduced her identity to a simple story, a crime,
something that was done to her by him. She'd lost
control of the narrative of her life. Brandy called the
prosecutor to ask why she and her son had to
be at the center of Gary Richards's case. The prosecutor
(33:51):
explained that her son's DNA evidence was the only way
to guarantee a conviction against Gary Richard. If Brandy wasn't
willing to give her son's DNA voluntarily, they could get
a warrant for it. By the end of the call,
Brandy had agreed to work with the police.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
They were going to send a sheriff out to do
the swab, and I said I didn't want to do
it at my house, so I had arranged to meet
them at my brother and sister in law, and so
we did.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Her son was nine at the time. Randy felt like
he was too young to hear the facts of the case.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I told my son that his dad was sick at
the jail and that they just needed to swab him
to make sure that he wasn't sick too.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
After they processed the evidence, they were able to get
two counts of statutory rape, one with me sixteen when
he was twenty four. In the end, that second charge
wasn't for the fifteen year old's case, the one that
started the investigation into Gary Richard. It was for one
(34:54):
of the other girls, a fourteen year old who said
Gary Richard groomed and sexually assaul her when he was
twenty six. That meant it happened two years into Brandy's marriage.
The K's brought shock after shock. The local news got
a hold of the story, making it even worse for Brandy.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Our local news did a broadcast when he was going
to court and they even said he would be going
to court today for charges on statutory rape with the
sixteen year old whom he later married.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Facing the two counts and the DNA evidence, Gary Richard
took a plea deal with.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
The DNA evidence. That was kind of the plea, if
you do that, we'll roll the two up into one
and then give you the seven year For the two counts.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
He was sentenced to seven years and had to register
as a sex offender. As for the domestic violence charge,
he got fifteen days. Brandy's divorce was expedited. It happened
at the same time as his criminal proceedings.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Our divorce hearing was right the day before he was
scheduled to be sentenced.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
That was the first time Brandy had seen him since
the charges, and when he walked into the courtroom, she
felt a pang of guilt. She understood that he was
her abusive ex husband and that he was a predator
who had sexually assaulted teenage girls. But when it came
to her own experience of statutory rape.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
My mind just could not go there. And I think
in some ways, yeah, it's probably your you know, trauma
and your body trying to just protect you know, you're
trying to rationalize a lot of bad things. And I
think part of that is the survival mechan you know,
it is survival.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
The tipping point for Brandy came later when she received
a letter Gary Richards sent her from prison.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So then I got this letter from him, and in
it was a five page letter, but the first page
he said that there isn't a man that doesn't look
at a teenage girl and want to have sex with her.
And then it starts clicking that like if you think
all people think this, this is not right, and it's
(37:16):
like no, no, no letters, and I'm not accepting the
calls from you know, the prison, and just I'm done.
I'm done. There's no contact, and there's you know, never
been Since.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Then, with Gary Richard in prison, she became the sole
provider for her household.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
At this point, you got to really buckle up your bootstraps.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
She trained to get a better job at the hospital
where she worked, and relied on her community for support.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
But once he went away, just amazing things unfolded, as
far as like the kindness of people. My sister and
brother in law found a place that we could fix
up up. It was a little, tiny, half bedroom house
and we turned it into three and we all worked
on that. It was a labor of love.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Even though he was in prison, she struggled to escape
Gary Richard. His voice was still in her head, telling
her that this was all her fault.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
I was listening to a Brenee Brown. She was saying,
guilt is I did something bad? And shame is I
am bad? And man? When I heard that, I was like, ah, yeah,
it is shame. Psychological abuse particularly is so hard to overcome.
(38:51):
You don't realize it's happening. You don't realize how slowly
pieces of yourself are fading out, and you're losing pieces
little by little until there's not really a you left.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
She needed more emotional support, so she started going to
a women's group better church.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
The ladies that I thought had these perfect lives because
of what they're wearing or just you think they have
it all together. And when they would open up and
share about the common threads that run through us all
the ways they feel insecure, the way they feel like
not enough. Just hearing that come out of their mouths
(39:38):
that was so eye opening and freeing at the same time, like, Wow,
we're just human beings trying to figure this out.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
It took years of meetings and conversations like this for
Brandy to fully understand and accept what she had gone through.
She had to go back to when she first met
Gary Richard.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Now looking back, even from the very beginning, the fact
that kids from my high school lived with him, that
very first thing, you know what I mean, It's not normal.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
She now sees this from an adult lens as unhealthy
and inappropriate. She became grateful for the prosecutor and police
officers who decided to include her in the charges.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Now I applaud them because I think they one hundred
percent did the right thing, because that took him off
the street, that protected other girls, And I am so
thankful that they could see what I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
And she's become an advocate. She works on raising the
minimum age required for marriage.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I'm part of a national coalition to end child marriage
as a survivor Ally, I'm actually getting ready to go
speak at jeff City at our capital for the ending
the child marriagecause they're getting ready put that on the bill.
So I'm gonna go next week and give testimony.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Looking back on her decision to get married at seventeen,
she sees how that legitimized their relationship and made her
legitimize it too. Gary Richard's attorney suggested that if they
got married, the judge might go easier on him. To Brandy,
that looks different today.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I can see the manipulation now, even when the attorney
suggested getting married I can see grooming. That is a
form of forced marriage that I would have never seen
until literally, now that I've been doing this work, it's
like ah, kind of light bulb moment of you know,
I can see the manipulation.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
In twenty twenty five, Missouri changed the state laws to
require all parties to be over eighteen, regardless of parental consent.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
So had that law been on the books at the time,
my marriage would have never been able to happen.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
She started using new words when talking about her experience.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
It took me a long time, first of all, to
say that I'm child marriage, sex crimeate, domestic violence survivor,
like to even say those words took a long time
because I felt like I didn't have the right to
call myself that. When I'm going to go speak next week,
I'll say that I married my rapist. Hindsight's a powerful thing.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Brandy wanted to reclaim her story and tell it publicly,
so she started reaching out to publishers to find a
way to write a book about her life.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
And then I just thought, you know what, Life's too short.
This is an investment I want to make into myself.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
She found the perfect copy editor for the job.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
And then I ended up working with gender Coldbaba. She
agreed to copy edit, and she said, we'll go chapter
by chapter because if we don't, you'll quit, you know,
just because it's going to get real. And she was right.
Best advice ever.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
She connected with. She Writes Press, an independent publisher that
focuses on women's stories. Her book was published in fall
twenty twenty four and it's titled Girl Uncoded. This is
the last passage from her book.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I was no longer ashamed of my life, my home,
or the choices I had made. I saw the happy
ending from the beginning. I saw how the DNA of
my son was the indisputable evidence to hold Gary Richard
accountable for his actions and bring justice to all the
survivors of his crimes, including me. I leaned into the
(43:28):
pool of sunlight on the windowsill, closed my eyes as
a smile splashed across my face and flooded my body
with joyful thoughts of being free. I'm proud of it,
proud of me.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
We end every weekly episode with the same question, why
do you want to share your story?
Speaker 1 (43:52):
It's to help somebody see what I couldn't. To help
somebody see sooner, to be able to change their circumstances.
If this can help one person see abuse in a
different way, see manipulation in a different way, grooming in
a different way. To help somebody see what I could
(44:14):
not see, what has taken me so long to see.
That's why.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
He would tell some of them that he was there
sold me and that they were twin flames and they
had a deeper connection. And then I realized, Wow, he
is not a mentor. He's pretty much a monster. I
probably should shut the studio down immediately.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Before we end the episode. I have some exciting news.
Betrayal will be doing our first ever live show as
part of the Virgin Voyages True Crime Cruise, we'll be
answering listener questions and discussing them live on stage with
Stacy and Tyler from Betrayal season three, as well as
Caroline from season four. So if you have a question
(45:14):
for us, please email us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot
com with the subject line listener question And if you
want to join us on the Caribbean cruise, there are
still spots available. Search Virgin Voyages dot com slash true crime.
If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email
(45:36):
us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod
at gmail dot com, or follow us on Instagram at
Betrayal Pod. To access our newsletter, view additional content, and
connect with the Betrayal community, join our substack at Betrayal
dot substack dot com. If you love the show. One
way to support it is by subscribing to our show
(45:57):
on Apple Podcasts and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Five star reviews go a long way. A 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 was executive produced by
Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
(46:18):
Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced
by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Caitlin Golden, Olivia Hewitt,
and Kristin Melcurie. Casting support from Curry Richmond. Our iHeart
team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Audio editing by
Matt Doavecchio, Mixing and mastering on this episode by Dave Saya.
(46:40):
Additional audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Portrayals 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,
Host
Andrea Gunning
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