June 6, 2024 • 37 mins
As Justin goes on the run, The Rutherford family is left to pick up the pieces. But just when they think they’ve reached the bottom, shocking new allegations come to light from one of the Rutherford children. Tyler, Stacey’s eldest son, breaks his silence.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
She would go sit outside and smoke, and she was
sitting on the phone talking to him, and I put
my ear to the glass on our sliding glass door
and listen. I caught conversations of them talking about if
I put this car in your name, she won't get it.
And at that point I was like, if you ain't
for me, you're against me.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm Andrea Gunning. This is Betrayal, Season three, episode three,
The Devil a listener. Note. Some names have been changed
to protect privacy. The Rutherford family was broken. Stacy threw
Justin out of the house after detective served a search
(00:54):
warrant to collect electronic devices from their home. Stacy learned
that a hitting camera had been placed in an upstairs bathroom.
The device recorded thousands of images of mostly children and
some adults using the bathroom and shower naked. Soon after
the raid, a teenage boy confided in Stacy's daughter, Mikayla,
(01:14):
that Justin Rutherford had sexually abused him during a sleepover.
Stacy and the littles were staying at Mikayla's apartment while
they got the house ready to sell so they could
move back to the Virginia area. Tyler Stacy's son was
already there, staying with his aunt, Heather, so that he
wouldn't miss his first day at his new school. Heather
(01:36):
received a call from Stacy that Justin may only be
charged with a misdemeanor for the hitting camera. Heather was
upset and was worried that there was more to this story.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
My sister had just called me and she's crying and
she's like, this is crazy, Like how are they gonna
let him go? And I'm like, I know, oh, you know,
God's got this. We're going to figure this out. Like
I do not believe in my heart of hearts of
disman is.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Going to walk free.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And Tyler's listening to this.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I got phoned and he was helping me fuld laundry
and I said, man, buddy, I said.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
We gotta do some serious pray.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
And he's like, why, what's up.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I said, they were talking about only charging Justin with
the cameras and he goes, well, what does that mean?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And I said, well.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
That probably means that your little brother will have visitation
with his father.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
In due time. And he just looked at me with
the look I will never forget, and his eyes welled
up with tears, and Tyler says he'll never see the
outside of a prison when I tell them what I know.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
A couple hours later, Stacy received a cryptic message from
her sister, Heather.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
We were sitting there eating dinner and I get a
text message from my sister that said, I need you
to video chat me. We need to talk about some things.
Mikayla and I went to the bedroom and we called.
I could tell Heather had been crying.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I was just sick. There was an awkward silence. Tyler
was quiet that.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I could have never looked at my mom on the
face and said it.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
And even I would say even a good year after that,
it was like hard to look at my mom.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So Heather broke the news to her sister.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
She said he's been doing it to Tyler too for
six years.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And there it was what Stacy had feared. Her husband
had been abusing her son since he was ten. I
went to visit with Stacy and Tyler in West Virginia.
They told me what it was like in the days
after Tyler disclosed his abuse. It was a shock.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I remember just saying, you know, I'm so sorry, Like
I just kept saying I'm so sorry because I didn't
know what else.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Tuesday, I could just see the go on her face
looking at me. I wish she could have hit it
from me. I just wanted to act like everything was normal.
I don't want her to act like she could have
done anything different, because she couldn't have.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It was very hard in the beginning to not feel
every single thing you know of like how could you
let this happen to him? I still to this day
feel like I failed on so many levels. The hardest
thing for me is to just not feel like.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It's I love you. You know that it's not your fault.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Stacey felt responsible that this was all her fault, and
on top of that, she continues to worry about the future.
How will Tyler feel in a year or three years
when he is older and has had time to process
what happened to him.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
My greatest fear and still to this day, is that
someday You're going to be mad at me and never
talked to me, and I couldn't go to the rest
of my life without that, Like that was always my fear, was,
like God, just don't let him stop talking to me,
you know, because I just was like, I can't lose
one of my kids.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Tyler was left with more than any adult, much less
any teenager should have to handle. There was the weight
of the secret for six years, and then there was
the weight of the destruction.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
There was no relief, but in that specific moment, it
was just that out of body feeling.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Like everyone knows and they're.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Just staring at you, and you feel like jumping out
of your skin again. You feel like the same way
you feel when it all first starts.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
When it all first started. Well, that was a long
time ago, about two years before Stacy and Justin got married.
As I said, he was only ten years old then,
and their wedding day.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
That ring on the finger. I felt like that was
like sealing the fate. I was standing in that courthouse
trying to hold in my tears while everyone else is
trying to hold in theirs for joy mine or not joy.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
But Tyler opening up to his family wasn't enough. He
knew he needed to take this information to the police.
Justin was still a free man, and in fact, he
was even checking in with Tyler in Virginia.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
He was trying to act like everything was normal and
check in on me, ask how school was going, ask
how life was going in Virginia. I guess to see
if I was going to open up my mouth or
say anything. I just kind of played along, played the part.
I acted like everything was normal as well, just to
keep him not suspicious that people were coming for him.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
A few days after Tyler disclosed everything to his family,
he would have to endure one of the hardest days
of his life. He would finally sit with law enforcement.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
It was an awful feeling, like a like a mountain
sitting on your chest. Pretty much the whole day. My
school was right next to the Sheriff's office. I could
look out the window at my doom the whole eight
hour day, just sitting there looking at it, knowing it's coming.
(07:37):
It was like I almost couldn't breathe.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Heather picked Tyler up and brought him to the Sheriff's
office for an official forensic interview.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
They just put me in the room and it was
mean and two detectives, and they had like a whole
drawing board for me. They had me draw like layouts
of our house and like real crazy stuffs.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Any sergeant Detective Mike Thick.
Speaker 7 (08:03):
It's difficult because a lot of boys don't want to
disclose that they were sexually abused, especially when they're in
their teen years, because a lot of them will disclose
to me and say when he did this or that
to me, he made me do that to them. But
then they'll say that you know, I'm not gay. You
got to realize these are kids and embarrasses them.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
That was probably the most uncomfortable fulk I ever had
in my life, was that one.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Right there.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
They ask you some of the most vulgar questions. They
need so much detail, like so specific, to the point
where it doesn't even seem like how they can make
any difference out of.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
That very specific fact, like.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
Such minute details that seem like they wouldn't even make
a difference.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
They just cut really deep with those questions.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
He took advantage of these kids, especially Tyler, like from
a young age up.
Speaker 8 (08:59):
He groomed them.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
Tyler thought, that's my stepfather. It's someone I can go
to and trust. Sometimes it's people closest to you.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
And that was right after just admitting it had happened.
So it goes from not opening my mouth for years
to spilling the whole story.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Out during this interview, Tyler disclosed all the painful details
his family would never hear. He was smart enough to
know that the detectives interviewing him were collecting evidence. This
was excruciating, but it would matter.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
I knew my words in that conversation were going to
do a lot of damage. I knew it was the
main evidence they need on him.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The hard truth was law enforcement didn't have a strong case.
Tyler's bravery and coming forward helped corroborate the other victim story.
There was a good chance without this, Justin would walk
away with a misdemeanor, a slap on the wrist.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
I mean, they're brave and I just I mean, to me,
they're heroes.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Tyler didn't realize his stepdad was a predator.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
I just never thought he would do it to anyone else.
I'd like to have friends over because it was a
sense of security and protection that nothing was going to
happen to me. I just thought when there was a
group of US boys, everyone was safe.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And Justin took advantage of that access. The other victim
reached out to Tyler and shared his experience.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
My friend texted me and he's like, you remember that
night at your house when I had that crazy dream
and how a.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Sleepwalking and everything was all crazy. He was like, do
you think that was Justin?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Tyler deflected.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I was just like, that's crazy. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
I don't know, Just like think about it. Are you sure?
Because I'm still scared?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
He deflected, and was scared for good reason.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
He could monitor everything I did on my phone. He
read every word that went to another person through text.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Justin had been monitoring all of Tyler's communication for years.
There are apps that allow parents to see what kids
are doing on their cell phones, and Justin used one.
Stacy thought it was a good idea to help keep
kids safe, but for Justin it went beyond safety. He
used it to spy on Tyler. So he must have
known the House of cards was about to fall, and
(11:38):
he got a head start on law enforcement. Stacey had
to triage her crises. She now knew for certain that
Tyler and another child had been sexually abused. She was
(12:01):
filing for divorce, selling her house, and trying to get
back to Virginia where she could find more support. Meanwhile,
back at her house, Justin's godmother d or Nanny as
everyone calls her, was living there, but Stacy didn't know
where Justin was.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Nanny calls me, she's like, I just got home and
Justin left a letter. He's gone and everything is gone.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Of his.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And I was like, what what did he say? And
she read me the letter and it just basically said
something like I love you, Nanny. Tell the kids I
love them, you know, take care of them. I gotta leave.
I can't do this anymore. I'm leaving my car. I
won't be back. And I was like, huh. And she
(12:48):
wasn't like frantic, So I had a feeling that something
wasn't right.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Nanny lived with or near Justin since he was a child.
She even lived with him and his roommates in college.
She would never be so matter of fact about him disappearing.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I go to the house and his side of the
closet is gone. All of his stuff was gone. Anything
in that house that remotely was his was gone. But
his car was there. And I read the letter and
she's just like, I don't know, I don't know where
he's at.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Stacy had no idea where he'd gone, but eventually the
police would have enough for charges. Right when would they
come looking for him? She would also need Justin's signature
to finalize the house sale, and Stacy needed that money.
It felt like Justin fled, but without an arrest warrant,
he wasn't technically a fugitive. Stacy knew Justin packed up
(13:39):
his things and moved out of the house, but was
shocked when her credit card company started asking about charges overseas.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
He was charging things on one of my cars, and
then he would pay it off immediately, so it wasn't
showing a balance.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The charges were from Great Britain and Amsterdam. He was
in Europe. It turned out that Justin left the country
on August twenty eight. The first victim disclosed the abuse
to police on August thirty. First Tyler disclosed Justin's abuse
days later, so Justin bolted before either one of the
boys talked. Meanwhile, law enforcement was busy with their.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
Investigation some individuals sleep. I didn't think he was going
to leave for good. I mean his young children. I
don't know what he was.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Thinking, and neither did Stacy.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Annie would go sit outside and smoke and she was
sitting on the phone talking to him. She would have
video chats with him, and I'd like put my ear
to the glass on our sliding glass door and listen.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Nanny Dee had become an important part of the Rutherford household.
It was a tricky situation. Stacy knew that she loved
the kids, but she loved Justin fiercely. The two remained
close no matter what chaos ensued.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And I said, you know that if you know where
he's and if you took him to go there, the
police can come after you. And I don't want you
to get arrested. I really think that he's putting you
in some dangerous situations. He's making you believe that these
things are legal and okay, and Nanny, they're not. They're
not okay. And she flew off the hand or oh
now I'm doing a legal shit too, you and your
(15:19):
sister and your stories, and something just snapped in me
and I said, you know what, you can get the
fuck out of my house too.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Battle lines were drawn. Nanny didn't believe the accusations. She
was supporting Justin.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I caught conversations of them talking about if I put
this car in your name, she won't get it. And
at that point I was like, if you ain't for me,
you're against me.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Justin was busy enjoying Europe. Stacy was picking up the
pieces with him out of the country. It's stalled the
family's ability to move.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It stopped the house sale. He was emailing with the
underwriting people about the documents that he would supposed to
sign because he told them in an email, I'm out
of the country on business.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It took almost two months for law enforcement to build
their case.
Speaker 7 (16:08):
There was forends of work we had to do from
the items that we seized in the home, and also
Detective Weaver had to identify every person that was captured
on video and each person had to be interviewed. We
also received information that we had two victims out there
that were being sexually abused by Justin. The one individual,
(16:32):
I personally did a forensic interview and interviewed him and
he disclosed being sexually abused by Justin. The second individual
was Tyler, and he was out of state and he
made a disclosure of being abused.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Police were ready to issue an arrest warrant, and what
Justin didn't know was that law enforcement was watching his
every move.
Speaker 8 (16:59):
We had him on a watch list.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So on October second, when Justin flew back to the
United States, Sergeant Fick. Detective Weaver and their team were ready.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
They got word that he was boarding a plane.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Justin Fluenta Dulles International, right outside Washington, d C.
Speaker 8 (17:17):
They were watching him and they secured him at the
airport for US.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And then the next morning I wake up to a
message from Detective Weaver.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
We got him. The charges included multiple counts of invasion
of privacy, rape of a child, and rape of an
unconscious victim. Seeing that warrant in black and white, reading
those chilling words, Stacy faced the truth about her husband.
She thought she had married a wonderful life partner, but
(17:48):
he was a sick, depraved man. Now he was in
jail and she was trying to find solid ground after
a devastating event. The house sale was settled. Justin's lawyer
took the paperwork to the county jail and it was
signed there. Stacey had four children impacted by the divorce
(18:11):
and by Justin's crimes. They were all experiencing the loss
in different ways. First, there was Stacy's eldest daughter, who
was in college.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Mikaela had felt she had lost her dad. I had
to treat her a certain way when I talked about
things I had to be sympathetic. I'm so sorry that
you don't have your dad anymore. And Tyler, it was
I'm going to get you justice. I want him to
fry the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
All the littles knew is that Daddy had a sickness
in his head, but they didn't care about that. They
just missed him. Stacy allowed the two youngest to write
and receive letters from Justin.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
He sent color pictures, and they knew once or twice
a week it was going to be in the mailbox.
You know, nobody would know, you know how fast they
would run to the mailbox to get those every time.
And it was just color pictures. What could it hurt?
And that's what I told myself. So it was like,
you know, you're trying to parent four different ways and
(19:15):
do what's best for you, but still not hurt you.
It was just like ever see those things where they
juggle the plates and all the plates are spinning it once,
That's how I felt during that time.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It might be hard to digest that, but remember the
little ones had lost their home, a parent, their school,
everything familiar. Stacy was doing whatever she could to quell
their anxiety. Justin didn't just send letters to the kids,
he also sent them to Stacy. They were full of regret.
(19:50):
Sometimes he pledged his love for her, other times he
tried to cryptically explain his behavior. And then there were
the letters that leverage Stacy's faith.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
When everything first happened. I did send him a Bible
from the kids and I for Christmas the first year
he was in because he was talking about faith. In
one letter, he wrote, you were the best thing that
ever happened to me. We had two beautiful kids, and
I fucked everything up, I alone, and you didn't deserve that.
God what I wouldn't give to be with you again.
(20:24):
I would thank God every day if we could only
have a time machine.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Justin also acknowledged the deep connection they shared.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
We were soulmates. You were the only person on this
earth who had the same thoughts as me. Every time.
I feel like every time that happened, a jolt would
go through my soul Proverbs thirty one eleven through twelve.
Speaker 9 (20:47):
Her husband trusts her judgment.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
He does not lack income.
Speaker 9 (20:52):
She brings him profit, not loss, all the days of
her life. I should have been completely honest with you
every day of our lives. Together. I was selfish because
I was worried that.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
You would leave me. What did that mean? Honest about what?
That he was sexually abusing her son and would abuse
another boy, that he was a pedophile.
Speaker 9 (21:19):
I wish we somehow could have solved all of this
without the police, because then maybe we could still have
our family. But it's with God now. I pray for
you every day, just like you did for me all
those years. I pray for your healing and forgiveness. I
pray for God's mercy. I pray that you find happiness,
(21:43):
even if that means losing you. I'm sorry for my flaws.
I'm sorry I let the devil into our lives.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It was the devil's work, if only the police hadn't
been involved. Even as he laments the loss of their
life together, he skirts his responsibility as Justin spent more
time in jail and became more frustrated with his living conditions.
He sent another letter escalating his faith based manipulations.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
He was kind of like condemning me for not forgiving him,
coming at it like, well, I'm just worried, you know,
like you want to get into heaven, but Stacey, you
can't with unforgiveness. I was like, oh no, no, no, hold
up with your Bible vomit. I don't need you to
tell me how to get in with God, like I
already know that I'm okay, So you need to worry
about yourself. So he very much tried to appeal to
(22:46):
the faith side of me.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Stacy needed a safe place to grieve and plan her
next steps. Her sister Heather opened her door once again
and Stacy and the little ones moved in For about
six months. It was crowded, but they made it work
until Stacey could find a home of her own that
she could afford. In April of twenty twenty two, she
(23:10):
and the littles moved into an old farmhouse in Jared'stown,
West Virginia, just down the road from her friend Karen.
It wasn't the modern five bedroom place they've left in Pennsylvania,
but they would have a roof over their heads. Nanny
Dee also moved back to the Virginia area. She went
to live with her sister, and she still supported Justin.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I was working out and I don't know where she
comes in, which is really weird to see an old
lady like that in the gym who I know doesn't
work out, and she walks up to me and hands
me this note, and it's a note from Justin.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Justin was prohibited from communicating with the victims in his case.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
I read it while sitting on the machine at the gym,
and she's standing there right in front of me, in
the middle of every thing going on, everyone watching. I
get done reading it, and as soon as I lift
my head, she just snatches it out of my hand.
I was like, what are you doing. That's my letter.
Speaker 8 (24:12):
Can I have my letter?
Speaker 6 (24:13):
No? No, He told me that you couldn't keep it,
and I was like, it's noted to me, give it
to me, and she refused and then just left.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Tyler wrote down everything he could remember about the letter
to tell detectives. Later, we were able to find a
letter that Justin wrote to him in court records. Tyler
told us that it's not the same one, but its
content was similar to the one Nanny showed him.
Speaker 9 (24:37):
T first, I would like to say that I am
truly sorry. I wish there was a way I could
take it all back and prove to you how sorry
I am. All of the stems from the fact that
I hated who I was, my body, my sexuality. I'm
(25:00):
not making excuses, just explaining that all I ever wanted
was to be normal. Your generation doesn't give a shit
about normal, and I wish I was born later. I
know I fucked up, and if I could take your
pain away, I would. I don't deserve it from you,
but I am asking for your mercy. I'm asking for
(25:23):
me to not miss the littles whole lives and to
hopefully have some sort of semi normal life with them.
I'm not trying to make you feel sorry for me,
just asking for a small amount of grace and mercy.
I would still do several years in jail for the
other charges, but not their whole lives. I'm already in treatment,
(25:48):
and I one day hope to prove to you that
I am changed.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
What Justin was really asking Tyler to do was recant
his statement to police.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I immediately text Nanny and I was like, what in
the world were you thinking delivering a letter to my
son from him? Do you understand this is something that
you could get in trouble for. He used to have
no contact even through third parties. Third party being you,
and her response was, well, Justin said it was okay.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
It was hard to know what to do with Nanny.
Justin was like her child. She took Justin at his word.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
She is so manipulated by him that he tells her
it's okay and she doesn't even question it and goes.
Speaker 10 (26:36):
And does it.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
And there was a part of me that almost felt
sorry for her, because I'm like, you don't even realize
that you're breaking the law here.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Maybe she was ignorant, maybe she was biased. Eventually, however,
it would make her dangerous. When Justin couldn't get anywhere
with Tyler, he worked on Stacy. When the reality of
the prison time he was facing started to sink in,
he wrote another letter. Here are portions of it.
Speaker 9 (27:05):
Dear Stacy, I guess now you know what they're trying
to offer me is thirty years. I won't be able
to do that amount of time. Going to trial would
be worse and would result in even more time. I
have literally seen murderers get ten to twenty or seven
to fifteen, so I don't understand the logic here. Mine
(27:29):
is literally the worst offer, and I truly think it's
because they want to make an example of me, and honestly,
if it comes down to it. I guess I'll have
to take the pain away myself. I don't want it
to end that way, but I literally can't do it.
(27:53):
Psalms one O two, Verse twenty three and twenty four.
God sovereignly me to my knees. He cut me down
in my prime. Oh don't I prayed, Please don't let
me die. God has set me straight. First off, I
(28:14):
want you to know I already started treatment. We meet
two hours per week. I could have my lawyer go
back to preliminary hearings and ty could not show up
or recant his statement that would drop the mandatory ten
year charges.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And so he had arrived at the real meeting of
the letter. Tyler could recant, He could lie and say
it never happened. Justin had broken the law and tried
to get to Tyler. He had quoted Bible verses and
leveraged his children to get to Stacy. But neither God
nor guilt would work. Stacy and Tyler were after justice.
(29:06):
We first met Tyler and Stacy back in December of
twenty twenty three. Their story was really upsetting, and to
be perfectly transparent, we were pretty hesitant to move forward
with producing it. We weren't sure where Stacy and Tyler
were in their journey. Stacy was willing to share everything,
good and bad. She's also an adult with a lot
(29:27):
of experience. She's truly an amazing person. And then there's Tyler.
He's young and has had unimaginable trauma no one should
ever experience. He does receive therapeutic support, but this is
sharing on a very public level. So we had several conversations,
and Tyler advocated for himself to participate hard. He wanted
(29:50):
a platform he was not going to hide.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
So I was hoping by doing this podcast that somebody
like me could find it and let them know they're
not alone.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Tyler wants to normalize this conversation and make it less uncomfortable.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Guys don't really talk about our weaknesses. We just make
jokes about it, about trauma and whatnot. People make sly
comments about it, ask you questions that are highly uncomfortable,
but they think it's a joke just because they don't
see it out there. When they hear it happen to
(30:34):
a guy, they think, oh, that must be the only
guy in the world. But it's a lot more common
and there's no one that relates to you, and it's
really nice to have someone to relate to.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Tyler wants to be that someone for another male sexual
abuse victim who feels isolated and alone.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
I want to help other people. There's not really any
resources for men. That's really the biggest thing is being
a guy, and not many talk about it. And I
had to go through not really being able to relate
to many people. I mean, the most I found was,
like Tyler Perry, you know a few celebrities, but really
there's not much to go off of. And if I
(31:16):
can be that person that people can look up to,
that would be awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
He told us about the beginning when he was ten,
and as a trigger warning, some details may be difficult
to hear.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
For the most part, he was a good father figure.
But at night is when the monster came out. I'm
pretty sure I've said to you guys, and I've told
my mom and anyone who questions me. Without getting too vulgar,
the only way I can put it is if you
can imagine it, it happened. It started about six months
(31:55):
after he met my mom, maybe a little longer. That
was before they got married. That was before they even
lived together. It's one of those things, like you're so
young when stuff like that happens, it's hard to kind
of process something feels wrong and off, but like you
don't necessarily know how to go about it, what to do,
what to say, and you kind of just want to
(32:15):
keep that to yourself. You know, you're scared it just
you feel out of your own skin.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Tyler was a child weighing all the trade offs of
their relationship, not just for himself, but for his entire family.
What if you told someone.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
As a kid, I wouldn't see my mom happily married
and have younger siblings that I love. Without even saying anything,
He knew that was on the line for me. He
had definitely brought it up a few times. If it
wasn't for him, we wouldn't have this nice, big house.
We wouldn't be able to go to these fancy dinners.
(32:52):
We wouldn't have a pool, which I've wanted in my
whole life. They were at work, making the money, doing
their jobs, and I was doing my job, keeping my
mouth shut to keep the family together.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
There were many times that Justin gave Tyler drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
The first instance I remember that night vividly up until
blackout point.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Me.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
It was four locos and cinnamon moonshine. I do remember
that pretty much.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Tyler was way too young to be consuming alcohol, but
he was happy to drink it.
Speaker 6 (33:31):
The numbed everything, I mean not even numbed. It blurred everything.
I would just go robot mode and just kind of
let it happen.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
For all intents and purposes. This was Tyler's father. He'd
been conditioned and emotionally blackmailed since he was in fifth grade.
This was his life. While Stacy slept, Justin would stay
up late playing video games, eventually finding his way into
Tyler's room.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Every so often, I'd tell myself, Okay, it's clear he
likes little boys. I'll grow to be a teenager and
he won't want to do anything to me. So I'm
thirteen and it's still going on. So then I go, okay,
wait till I turned about sixteen, you know, a sixteen
year well into puberty. I thought, as I'd become to
(34:21):
be more of a man, he wouldn't want anything to
do with me. And then here I am fifteen and
a half coming close to sixteen, and here it is
still going It wasn't until I got around fifteen that
I started vocally saying stuff to him and like speaking
(34:42):
up for myself or trying to. He would never hit me,
but he would talk to me with like a real
stern voice and almost try to scare me and make
me shut up.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
It's infuriating to think a man would trap, manipulate, and
say actually abuse a child. But Tyler wants to turn
his pain into purpose, and he's thinking of other victims
and how he could help them.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
It doesn't make you less of a man, it doesn't
make you weak. And I think this podcast can do
a lot of good for a lot of heartbroken young
men out there, and even grown men, because I know
there's plenty out there who you know, followed through with
that plan of never opening up their mouth.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Tyler isn't a better place now where he is able
to process what happened to him. But before he could
get there, things for Stacey and Tyler would take an
even sinister turn. Even though Justin was behind bars, that
didn't mean they were safe. On the next episode of Betrayal,
(35:50):
Justin forms a plan to get out of prison.
Speaker 10 (35:53):
He knew he was looking at a very, very, very
long time in jail on the sex assault charges. I
want to believe somebody's like that. I think that people
can get desperate.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
If you're a man who has experienced sexual abuse or assault,
or you know someone who is seeking support, go to
one in six dot org. That's the number one I
n number six dot org. Find a path to a happier,
healthier future. If you would like to reach out to
the Betrayal team, email us at betrayalpod at gmail dot com.
(36:31):
That's Betrayal pod at gmail dot com. Also, please be
sure to follow us at Glass Podcasts on Instagram for
all Betrayal content, news and updates. 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. A
(36:53):
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 is executive produced
by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by
me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Kerry Hartman. Also
produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Christen Melcuriy and
(37:16):
Caitlin Golden. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck.
Voice acting by Andrew Dobby. Special thanks to Stacy Rutherford,
Tyler and the rest of Stacy and Tyler's friends and family.
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Salvechio. Editing support from
Nico Ruka. The Trayals theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music
(37:38):
library provided by Mob Music and For more podcasts from iHeart,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
She would go sit outside and smoke, and she was
sitting on the phone talking to him, and I put
my ear to the glass on our sliding glass door
and listen. I caught conversations of them talking about if
I put this car in your name, she won't get it.
And at that point I was like, if you ain't
for me, you're against me.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm Andrea Gunning. This is Betrayal, Season three, episode three,
The Devil a listener. Note. Some names have been changed
to protect privacy. The Rutherford family was broken. Stacy threw
Justin out of the house after detective served a search
(00:54):
warrant to collect electronic devices from their home. Stacy learned
that a hitting camera had been placed in an upstairs bathroom.
The device recorded thousands of images of mostly children and
some adults using the bathroom and shower naked. Soon after
the raid, a teenage boy confided in Stacy's daughter, Mikayla,
(01:14):
that Justin Rutherford had sexually abused him during a sleepover.
Stacy and the littles were staying at Mikayla's apartment while
they got the house ready to sell so they could
move back to the Virginia area. Tyler Stacy's son was
already there, staying with his aunt, Heather, so that he
wouldn't miss his first day at his new school. Heather
(01:36):
received a call from Stacy that Justin may only be
charged with a misdemeanor for the hitting camera. Heather was
upset and was worried that there was more to this story.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
My sister had just called me and she's crying and
she's like, this is crazy, Like how are they gonna
let him go? And I'm like, I know, oh, you know,
God's got this. We're going to figure this out. Like
I do not believe in my heart of hearts of
disman is.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Going to walk free.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And Tyler's listening to this.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I got phoned and he was helping me fuld laundry
and I said, man, buddy, I said.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
We gotta do some serious pray.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
And he's like, why, what's up.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I said, they were talking about only charging Justin with
the cameras and he goes, well, what does that mean?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And I said, well.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
That probably means that your little brother will have visitation
with his father.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
In due time. And he just looked at me with
the look I will never forget, and his eyes welled
up with tears, and Tyler says he'll never see the
outside of a prison when I tell them what I know.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
A couple hours later, Stacy received a cryptic message from
her sister, Heather.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
We were sitting there eating dinner and I get a
text message from my sister that said, I need you
to video chat me. We need to talk about some things.
Mikayla and I went to the bedroom and we called.
I could tell Heather had been crying.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I was just sick. There was an awkward silence. Tyler
was quiet that.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I could have never looked at my mom on the
face and said it.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
And even I would say even a good year after that,
it was like hard to look at my mom.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So Heather broke the news to her sister.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
She said he's been doing it to Tyler too for
six years.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And there it was what Stacy had feared. Her husband
had been abusing her son since he was ten. I
went to visit with Stacy and Tyler in West Virginia.
They told me what it was like in the days
after Tyler disclosed his abuse. It was a shock.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I remember just saying, you know, I'm so sorry, Like
I just kept saying I'm so sorry because I didn't
know what else.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Tuesday, I could just see the go on her face
looking at me. I wish she could have hit it
from me. I just wanted to act like everything was normal.
I don't want her to act like she could have
done anything different, because she couldn't have.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It was very hard in the beginning to not feel
every single thing you know of like how could you
let this happen to him? I still to this day
feel like I failed on so many levels. The hardest
thing for me is to just not feel like.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It's I love you. You know that it's not your fault.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Stacey felt responsible that this was all her fault, and
on top of that, she continues to worry about the future.
How will Tyler feel in a year or three years
when he is older and has had time to process
what happened to him.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
My greatest fear and still to this day, is that
someday You're going to be mad at me and never
talked to me, and I couldn't go to the rest
of my life without that, Like that was always my fear, was,
like God, just don't let him stop talking to me,
you know, because I just was like, I can't lose
one of my kids.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Tyler was left with more than any adult, much less
any teenager should have to handle. There was the weight
of the secret for six years, and then there was
the weight of the destruction.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
There was no relief, but in that specific moment, it
was just that out of body feeling.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Like everyone knows and they're.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Just staring at you, and you feel like jumping out
of your skin again. You feel like the same way
you feel when it all first starts.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
When it all first started. Well, that was a long
time ago, about two years before Stacy and Justin got married.
As I said, he was only ten years old then,
and their wedding day.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
That ring on the finger. I felt like that was
like sealing the fate. I was standing in that courthouse
trying to hold in my tears while everyone else is
trying to hold in theirs for joy mine or not joy.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
But Tyler opening up to his family wasn't enough. He
knew he needed to take this information to the police.
Justin was still a free man, and in fact, he
was even checking in with Tyler in Virginia.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
He was trying to act like everything was normal and
check in on me, ask how school was going, ask
how life was going in Virginia. I guess to see
if I was going to open up my mouth or
say anything. I just kind of played along, played the part.
I acted like everything was normal as well, just to
keep him not suspicious that people were coming for him.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
A few days after Tyler disclosed everything to his family,
he would have to endure one of the hardest days
of his life. He would finally sit with law enforcement.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
It was an awful feeling, like a like a mountain
sitting on your chest. Pretty much the whole day. My
school was right next to the Sheriff's office. I could
look out the window at my doom the whole eight
hour day, just sitting there looking at it, knowing it's coming.
(07:37):
It was like I almost couldn't breathe.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Heather picked Tyler up and brought him to the Sheriff's
office for an official forensic interview.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
They just put me in the room and it was
mean and two detectives, and they had like a whole
drawing board for me. They had me draw like layouts
of our house and like real crazy stuffs.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Any sergeant Detective Mike Thick.
Speaker 7 (08:03):
It's difficult because a lot of boys don't want to
disclose that they were sexually abused, especially when they're in
their teen years, because a lot of them will disclose
to me and say when he did this or that
to me, he made me do that to them. But
then they'll say that you know, I'm not gay. You
got to realize these are kids and embarrasses them.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
That was probably the most uncomfortable fulk I ever had
in my life, was that one.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Right there.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
They ask you some of the most vulgar questions. They
need so much detail, like so specific, to the point
where it doesn't even seem like how they can make
any difference out of.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
That very specific fact, like.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
Such minute details that seem like they wouldn't even make
a difference.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
They just cut really deep with those questions.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
He took advantage of these kids, especially Tyler, like from
a young age up.
Speaker 8 (08:59):
He groomed them.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
Tyler thought, that's my stepfather. It's someone I can go
to and trust. Sometimes it's people closest to you.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
And that was right after just admitting it had happened.
So it goes from not opening my mouth for years
to spilling the whole story.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Out during this interview, Tyler disclosed all the painful details
his family would never hear. He was smart enough to
know that the detectives interviewing him were collecting evidence. This
was excruciating, but it would matter.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
I knew my words in that conversation were going to
do a lot of damage. I knew it was the
main evidence they need on him.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The hard truth was law enforcement didn't have a strong case.
Tyler's bravery and coming forward helped corroborate the other victim story.
There was a good chance without this, Justin would walk
away with a misdemeanor, a slap on the wrist.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
I mean, they're brave and I just I mean, to me,
they're heroes.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Tyler didn't realize his stepdad was a predator.
Speaker 6 (10:15):
I just never thought he would do it to anyone else.
I'd like to have friends over because it was a
sense of security and protection that nothing was going to
happen to me. I just thought when there was a
group of US boys, everyone was safe.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And Justin took advantage of that access. The other victim
reached out to Tyler and shared his experience.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
My friend texted me and he's like, you remember that
night at your house when I had that crazy dream
and how a.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Sleepwalking and everything was all crazy. He was like, do
you think that was Justin?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Tyler deflected.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I was just like, that's crazy. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
I don't know, Just like think about it. Are you sure?
Because I'm still scared?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
He deflected, and was scared for good reason.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
He could monitor everything I did on my phone. He
read every word that went to another person through text.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Justin had been monitoring all of Tyler's communication for years.
There are apps that allow parents to see what kids
are doing on their cell phones, and Justin used one.
Stacy thought it was a good idea to help keep
kids safe, but for Justin it went beyond safety. He
used it to spy on Tyler. So he must have
known the House of cards was about to fall, and
(11:38):
he got a head start on law enforcement. Stacey had
to triage her crises. She now knew for certain that
Tyler and another child had been sexually abused. She was
(12:01):
filing for divorce, selling her house, and trying to get
back to Virginia where she could find more support. Meanwhile,
back at her house, Justin's godmother d or Nanny as
everyone calls her, was living there, but Stacy didn't know
where Justin was.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Nanny calls me, she's like, I just got home and
Justin left a letter. He's gone and everything is gone.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Of his.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And I was like, what what did he say? And
she read me the letter and it just basically said
something like I love you, Nanny. Tell the kids I
love them, you know, take care of them. I gotta leave.
I can't do this anymore. I'm leaving my car. I
won't be back. And I was like, huh. And she
(12:48):
wasn't like frantic, So I had a feeling that something
wasn't right.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Nanny lived with or near Justin since he was a child.
She even lived with him and his roommates in college.
She would never be so matter of fact about him disappearing.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I go to the house and his side of the
closet is gone. All of his stuff was gone. Anything
in that house that remotely was his was gone. But
his car was there. And I read the letter and
she's just like, I don't know, I don't know where
he's at.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Stacy had no idea where he'd gone, but eventually the
police would have enough for charges. Right when would they
come looking for him? She would also need Justin's signature
to finalize the house sale, and Stacy needed that money.
It felt like Justin fled, but without an arrest warrant,
he wasn't technically a fugitive. Stacy knew Justin packed up
(13:39):
his things and moved out of the house, but was
shocked when her credit card company started asking about charges overseas.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
He was charging things on one of my cars, and
then he would pay it off immediately, so it wasn't
showing a balance.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The charges were from Great Britain and Amsterdam. He was
in Europe. It turned out that Justin left the country
on August twenty eight. The first victim disclosed the abuse
to police on August thirty. First Tyler disclosed Justin's abuse
days later, so Justin bolted before either one of the
boys talked. Meanwhile, law enforcement was busy with their.
Speaker 7 (14:17):
Investigation some individuals sleep. I didn't think he was going
to leave for good. I mean his young children. I
don't know what he was.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Thinking, and neither did Stacy.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Annie would go sit outside and smoke and she was
sitting on the phone talking to him. She would have
video chats with him, and I'd like put my ear
to the glass on our sliding glass door and listen.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Nanny Dee had become an important part of the Rutherford household.
It was a tricky situation. Stacy knew that she loved
the kids, but she loved Justin fiercely. The two remained
close no matter what chaos ensued.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And I said, you know that if you know where
he's and if you took him to go there, the
police can come after you. And I don't want you
to get arrested. I really think that he's putting you
in some dangerous situations. He's making you believe that these
things are legal and okay, and Nanny, they're not. They're
not okay. And she flew off the hand or oh
now I'm doing a legal shit too, you and your
(15:19):
sister and your stories, and something just snapped in me
and I said, you know what, you can get the
fuck out of my house too.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Battle lines were drawn. Nanny didn't believe the accusations. She
was supporting Justin.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I caught conversations of them talking about if I put
this car in your name, she won't get it. And
at that point I was like, if you ain't for me,
you're against me.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Justin was busy enjoying Europe. Stacy was picking up the
pieces with him out of the country. It's stalled the
family's ability to move.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It stopped the house sale. He was emailing with the
underwriting people about the documents that he would supposed to
sign because he told them in an email, I'm out
of the country on business.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It took almost two months for law enforcement to build
their case.
Speaker 7 (16:08):
There was forends of work we had to do from
the items that we seized in the home, and also
Detective Weaver had to identify every person that was captured
on video and each person had to be interviewed. We
also received information that we had two victims out there
that were being sexually abused by Justin. The one individual,
(16:32):
I personally did a forensic interview and interviewed him and
he disclosed being sexually abused by Justin. The second individual
was Tyler, and he was out of state and he
made a disclosure of being abused.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Police were ready to issue an arrest warrant, and what
Justin didn't know was that law enforcement was watching his
every move.
Speaker 8 (16:59):
We had him on a watch list.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
So on October second, when Justin flew back to the
United States, Sergeant Fick. Detective Weaver and their team were ready.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
They got word that he was boarding a plane.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Justin Fluenta Dulles International, right outside Washington, d C.
Speaker 8 (17:17):
They were watching him and they secured him at the
airport for US.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And then the next morning I wake up to a
message from Detective Weaver.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
We got him. The charges included multiple counts of invasion
of privacy, rape of a child, and rape of an
unconscious victim. Seeing that warrant in black and white, reading
those chilling words, Stacy faced the truth about her husband.
She thought she had married a wonderful life partner, but
(17:48):
he was a sick, depraved man. Now he was in
jail and she was trying to find solid ground after
a devastating event. The house sale was settled. Justin's lawyer
took the paperwork to the county jail and it was
signed there. Stacey had four children impacted by the divorce
(18:11):
and by Justin's crimes. They were all experiencing the loss
in different ways. First, there was Stacy's eldest daughter, who
was in college.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Mikaela had felt she had lost her dad. I had
to treat her a certain way when I talked about
things I had to be sympathetic. I'm so sorry that
you don't have your dad anymore. And Tyler, it was
I'm going to get you justice. I want him to
fry the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
All the littles knew is that Daddy had a sickness
in his head, but they didn't care about that. They
just missed him. Stacy allowed the two youngest to write
and receive letters from Justin.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
He sent color pictures, and they knew once or twice
a week it was going to be in the mailbox.
You know, nobody would know, you know how fast they
would run to the mailbox to get those every time.
And it was just color pictures. What could it hurt?
And that's what I told myself. So it was like,
you know, you're trying to parent four different ways and
(19:15):
do what's best for you, but still not hurt you.
It was just like ever see those things where they
juggle the plates and all the plates are spinning it once,
That's how I felt during that time.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It might be hard to digest that, but remember the
little ones had lost their home, a parent, their school,
everything familiar. Stacy was doing whatever she could to quell
their anxiety. Justin didn't just send letters to the kids,
he also sent them to Stacy. They were full of regret.
(19:50):
Sometimes he pledged his love for her, other times he
tried to cryptically explain his behavior. And then there were
the letters that leverage Stacy's faith.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
When everything first happened. I did send him a Bible
from the kids and I for Christmas the first year
he was in because he was talking about faith. In
one letter, he wrote, you were the best thing that
ever happened to me. We had two beautiful kids, and
I fucked everything up, I alone, and you didn't deserve that.
God what I wouldn't give to be with you again.
(20:24):
I would thank God every day if we could only
have a time machine.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Justin also acknowledged the deep connection they shared.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
We were soulmates. You were the only person on this
earth who had the same thoughts as me. Every time.
I feel like every time that happened, a jolt would
go through my soul Proverbs thirty one eleven through twelve.
Speaker 9 (20:47):
Her husband trusts her judgment.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
He does not lack income.
Speaker 9 (20:52):
She brings him profit, not loss, all the days of
her life. I should have been completely honest with you
every day of our lives. Together. I was selfish because
I was worried that.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
You would leave me. What did that mean? Honest about what?
That he was sexually abusing her son and would abuse
another boy, that he was a pedophile.
Speaker 9 (21:19):
I wish we somehow could have solved all of this
without the police, because then maybe we could still have
our family. But it's with God now. I pray for
you every day, just like you did for me all
those years. I pray for your healing and forgiveness. I
pray for God's mercy. I pray that you find happiness,
(21:43):
even if that means losing you. I'm sorry for my flaws.
I'm sorry I let the devil into our lives.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It was the devil's work, if only the police hadn't
been involved. Even as he laments the loss of their
life together, he skirts his responsibility as Justin spent more
time in jail and became more frustrated with his living conditions.
He sent another letter escalating his faith based manipulations.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
He was kind of like condemning me for not forgiving him,
coming at it like, well, I'm just worried, you know,
like you want to get into heaven, but Stacey, you
can't with unforgiveness. I was like, oh no, no, no, hold
up with your Bible vomit. I don't need you to
tell me how to get in with God, like I
already know that I'm okay, So you need to worry
about yourself. So he very much tried to appeal to
(22:46):
the faith side of me.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Stacy needed a safe place to grieve and plan her
next steps. Her sister Heather opened her door once again
and Stacy and the little ones moved in For about
six months. It was crowded, but they made it work
until Stacey could find a home of her own that
she could afford. In April of twenty twenty two, she
(23:10):
and the littles moved into an old farmhouse in Jared'stown,
West Virginia, just down the road from her friend Karen.
It wasn't the modern five bedroom place they've left in Pennsylvania,
but they would have a roof over their heads. Nanny
Dee also moved back to the Virginia area. She went
to live with her sister, and she still supported Justin.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I was working out and I don't know where she
comes in, which is really weird to see an old
lady like that in the gym who I know doesn't
work out, and she walks up to me and hands
me this note, and it's a note from Justin.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Justin was prohibited from communicating with the victims in his case.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
I read it while sitting on the machine at the gym,
and she's standing there right in front of me, in
the middle of every thing going on, everyone watching. I
get done reading it, and as soon as I lift
my head, she just snatches it out of my hand.
I was like, what are you doing. That's my letter.
Speaker 8 (24:12):
Can I have my letter?
Speaker 6 (24:13):
No? No, He told me that you couldn't keep it,
and I was like, it's noted to me, give it
to me, and she refused and then just left.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Tyler wrote down everything he could remember about the letter
to tell detectives. Later, we were able to find a
letter that Justin wrote to him in court records. Tyler
told us that it's not the same one, but its
content was similar to the one Nanny showed him.
Speaker 9 (24:37):
T first, I would like to say that I am
truly sorry. I wish there was a way I could
take it all back and prove to you how sorry
I am. All of the stems from the fact that
I hated who I was, my body, my sexuality. I'm
(25:00):
not making excuses, just explaining that all I ever wanted
was to be normal. Your generation doesn't give a shit
about normal, and I wish I was born later. I
know I fucked up, and if I could take your
pain away, I would. I don't deserve it from you,
but I am asking for your mercy. I'm asking for
(25:23):
me to not miss the littles whole lives and to
hopefully have some sort of semi normal life with them.
I'm not trying to make you feel sorry for me,
just asking for a small amount of grace and mercy.
I would still do several years in jail for the
other charges, but not their whole lives. I'm already in treatment,
(25:48):
and I one day hope to prove to you that
I am changed.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
What Justin was really asking Tyler to do was recant
his statement to police.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I immediately text Nanny and I was like, what in
the world were you thinking delivering a letter to my
son from him? Do you understand this is something that
you could get in trouble for. He used to have
no contact even through third parties. Third party being you,
and her response was, well, Justin said it was okay.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
It was hard to know what to do with Nanny.
Justin was like her child. She took Justin at his word.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
She is so manipulated by him that he tells her
it's okay and she doesn't even question it and goes.
Speaker 10 (26:36):
And does it.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
And there was a part of me that almost felt
sorry for her, because I'm like, you don't even realize
that you're breaking the law here.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Maybe she was ignorant, maybe she was biased. Eventually, however,
it would make her dangerous. When Justin couldn't get anywhere
with Tyler, he worked on Stacy. When the reality of
the prison time he was facing started to sink in,
he wrote another letter. Here are portions of it.
Speaker 9 (27:05):
Dear Stacy, I guess now you know what they're trying
to offer me is thirty years. I won't be able
to do that amount of time. Going to trial would
be worse and would result in even more time. I
have literally seen murderers get ten to twenty or seven
to fifteen, so I don't understand the logic here. Mine
(27:29):
is literally the worst offer, and I truly think it's
because they want to make an example of me, and honestly,
if it comes down to it. I guess I'll have
to take the pain away myself. I don't want it
to end that way, but I literally can't do it.
(27:53):
Psalms one O two, Verse twenty three and twenty four.
God sovereignly me to my knees. He cut me down
in my prime. Oh don't I prayed, Please don't let
me die. God has set me straight. First off, I
(28:14):
want you to know I already started treatment. We meet
two hours per week. I could have my lawyer go
back to preliminary hearings and ty could not show up
or recant his statement that would drop the mandatory ten
year charges.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And so he had arrived at the real meeting of
the letter. Tyler could recant, He could lie and say
it never happened. Justin had broken the law and tried
to get to Tyler. He had quoted Bible verses and
leveraged his children to get to Stacy. But neither God
nor guilt would work. Stacy and Tyler were after justice.
(29:06):
We first met Tyler and Stacy back in December of
twenty twenty three. Their story was really upsetting, and to
be perfectly transparent, we were pretty hesitant to move forward
with producing it. We weren't sure where Stacy and Tyler
were in their journey. Stacy was willing to share everything,
good and bad. She's also an adult with a lot
(29:27):
of experience. She's truly an amazing person. And then there's Tyler.
He's young and has had unimaginable trauma no one should
ever experience. He does receive therapeutic support, but this is
sharing on a very public level. So we had several conversations,
and Tyler advocated for himself to participate hard. He wanted
(29:50):
a platform he was not going to hide.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
So I was hoping by doing this podcast that somebody
like me could find it and let them know they're
not alone.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Tyler wants to normalize this conversation and make it less uncomfortable.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Guys don't really talk about our weaknesses. We just make
jokes about it, about trauma and whatnot. People make sly
comments about it, ask you questions that are highly uncomfortable,
but they think it's a joke just because they don't
see it out there. When they hear it happen to
(30:34):
a guy, they think, oh, that must be the only
guy in the world. But it's a lot more common
and there's no one that relates to you, and it's
really nice to have someone to relate to.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Tyler wants to be that someone for another male sexual
abuse victim who feels isolated and alone.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
I want to help other people. There's not really any
resources for men. That's really the biggest thing is being
a guy, and not many talk about it. And I
had to go through not really being able to relate
to many people. I mean, the most I found was,
like Tyler Perry, you know a few celebrities, but really
there's not much to go off of. And if I
(31:16):
can be that person that people can look up to,
that would be awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
He told us about the beginning when he was ten,
and as a trigger warning, some details may be difficult
to hear.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
For the most part, he was a good father figure.
But at night is when the monster came out. I'm
pretty sure I've said to you guys, and I've told
my mom and anyone who questions me. Without getting too vulgar,
the only way I can put it is if you
can imagine it, it happened. It started about six months
(31:55):
after he met my mom, maybe a little longer. That
was before they got married. That was before they even
lived together. It's one of those things, like you're so
young when stuff like that happens, it's hard to kind
of process something feels wrong and off, but like you
don't necessarily know how to go about it, what to do,
what to say, and you kind of just want to
(32:15):
keep that to yourself. You know, you're scared it just
you feel out of your own skin.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Tyler was a child weighing all the trade offs of
their relationship, not just for himself, but for his entire family.
What if you told someone.
Speaker 6 (32:30):
As a kid, I wouldn't see my mom happily married
and have younger siblings that I love. Without even saying anything,
He knew that was on the line for me. He
had definitely brought it up a few times. If it
wasn't for him, we wouldn't have this nice, big house.
We wouldn't be able to go to these fancy dinners.
(32:52):
We wouldn't have a pool, which I've wanted in my
whole life. They were at work, making the money, doing
their jobs, and I was doing my job, keeping my
mouth shut to keep the family together.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
There were many times that Justin gave Tyler drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
The first instance I remember that night vividly up until
blackout point.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Me.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
It was four locos and cinnamon moonshine. I do remember
that pretty much.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Tyler was way too young to be consuming alcohol, but
he was happy to drink it.
Speaker 6 (33:31):
The numbed everything, I mean not even numbed. It blurred everything.
I would just go robot mode and just kind of
let it happen.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
For all intents and purposes. This was Tyler's father. He'd
been conditioned and emotionally blackmailed since he was in fifth grade.
This was his life. While Stacy slept, Justin would stay
up late playing video games, eventually finding his way into
Tyler's room.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Every so often, I'd tell myself, Okay, it's clear he
likes little boys. I'll grow to be a teenager and
he won't want to do anything to me. So I'm
thirteen and it's still going on. So then I go, okay,
wait till I turned about sixteen, you know, a sixteen
year well into puberty. I thought, as I'd become to
(34:21):
be more of a man, he wouldn't want anything to
do with me. And then here I am fifteen and
a half coming close to sixteen, and here it is
still going It wasn't until I got around fifteen that
I started vocally saying stuff to him and like speaking
(34:42):
up for myself or trying to. He would never hit me,
but he would talk to me with like a real
stern voice and almost try to scare me and make
me shut up.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
It's infuriating to think a man would trap, manipulate, and
say actually abuse a child. But Tyler wants to turn
his pain into purpose, and he's thinking of other victims
and how he could help them.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
It doesn't make you less of a man, it doesn't
make you weak. And I think this podcast can do
a lot of good for a lot of heartbroken young
men out there, and even grown men, because I know
there's plenty out there who you know, followed through with
that plan of never opening up their mouth.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Tyler isn't a better place now where he is able
to process what happened to him. But before he could
get there, things for Stacey and Tyler would take an
even sinister turn. Even though Justin was behind bars, that
didn't mean they were safe. On the next episode of Betrayal,
(35:50):
Justin forms a plan to get out of prison.
Speaker 10 (35:53):
He knew he was looking at a very, very, very
long time in jail on the sex assault charges. I
want to believe somebody's like that. I think that people
can get desperate.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
If you're a man who has experienced sexual abuse or assault,
or you know someone who is seeking support, go to
one in six dot org. That's the number one I
n number six dot org. Find a path to a happier,
healthier future. If you would like to reach out to
the Betrayal team, email us at betrayalpod at gmail dot com.
(36:31):
That's Betrayal pod at gmail dot com. Also, please be
sure to follow us at Glass Podcasts on Instagram for
all Betrayal content, news and updates. 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. A
(36:53):
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 is executive produced
by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by
me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Kerry Hartman. Also
produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Christen Melcuriy and
(37:16):
Caitlin Golden. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck.
Voice acting by Andrew Dobby. Special thanks to Stacy Rutherford,
Tyler and the rest of Stacy and Tyler's friends and family.
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Salvechio. Editing support from
Nico Ruka. The Trayals theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music
(37:38):
library provided by Mob 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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