May 18, 2026 • 43 mins
Girlfriends from all over the country finally converge on a house in Texas.
And they meet a woman who’s been waiting on answers from Derek Alldred, for decades.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Novel. Last time on the Girlfriends Trust Me, Babe. The
group chat has grown by one member. He got cut,
and Derek Aldred is finally in custody.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
He's gonna get what he deserves.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's early summer twenty seventeen and Laurie, Wendy's big sister
detective from episode one, is at home in Texas.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I am in my kitchen making dinner.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Laurie's barefoot, hair up in a ponytail, wooden spoon in hand.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Five o'clock news comes on on my little kitchen TV,
kind of in the background.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, I'm doing my thing.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
She's just stirring the orange chicken sauce into the walk
when her ears perk up.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I whip around and I'm thinking, surely I heard that wrong. Well,
that looks like him, and that's his name, Derek Aldred.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Wooden spoon still in one hand. Laurie turns the gas
stove off and pivots towards the TV.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I go over and I'm watching and it shows pictures
of him, pictures of him in like some navy uniform.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
She moves closer, leans her elbows on the kitchen counter
to get a better look. It really is that loser,
her sister Wendy dated back in twenty thirteen on the news.
But you know the weirdest part, this whole takedown of Derek,
It's all happened just down the road from where Wendy's
sister Laurie lives.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Literally about three miles from my house.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Laurie is immediately on the blower to Wendy.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I'm like, are you sitting You're not going to believe.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
This, and She's like, he was arrested.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And that's how Wendy, here's the news.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We are just going nuts.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
No way, I cannot believe all this is happening.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Sure, just a handful of miles from Laurie, we'll get more.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Couple, will take your caught off.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Derrek Audred has been marched to the County jail house
in Fort Worth. Well. He's now face to face with
Special Agent Mike, whose planned to catch Derek at the
hospital with Tracy's help. Has all fallen into place a Mike.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Anyway, we knew that we were never going to get
him to admit that he was doing anything. The strategy
was to confront him.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
And let me ask you, have you ever served in
the military, Have you ever been in law enforcement before. No, okay,
do you wear uniforms of military personnel? Don't? I don't.
Never I happened to pass, but I mean yeah, I
mean last week, last week, not last month, not last year.
Speaker 7 (03:13):
He had no idea that I had pictures of him
on Dorry's balcony wearing uniform, which was like literally a
week prior. And I remember putting that picture down and
his response was.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
I can tell you this much. I never wore this
in public anywhere. And that's a I don't even know
how that was taken. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
He's loosening his tie up. He's kind of sitting back.
You can see his demeanor change.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
Military ideas now even bake counterfeit anything like that.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
And think so now, every chance we confronted him on anything,
it was a denial or a lie or some sort
of story.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
You have these credentials here and you had this navy No, yeah, okay,
and what were you going to do with these here?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
No?
Speaker 6 (03:57):
I haven't done anything with.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
Him Nowhere was he remorseful for anything. No where did
he take responsibility for anything.
Speaker 8 (04:04):
In particular as the Rangers ticket, we were able to
pull some footage clearly you are showing idea and insisting
now you're military and gaining something, which is the equivalent
of stolen valor.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I didn't like.
Speaker 7 (04:22):
This is a guy who's a professional liar. He's a
professional con man.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
I think in the last twenty minutes you have lied
to our face about fifty times.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
Guys, I just told you, I told you the truth.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Special Agent Mike is looking for the truth, the whole truth,
but he's not going to find it in this interview room.
Speaker 9 (04:47):
Why would all of these people say this, Then there
is evidence of it happening. Then there's videos and pictures
of you doing it.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Guys, look look at.
Speaker 7 (04:59):
When I there's nothing that we're going to do inside
the interview room that's going to get him to have
an AHA moment. Go, you're right, I did do it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
But Mike's not going to give up that easily. He's
about to discover there's a whole army of women who've
been working on this case since long before he began.
Speaker 7 (05:20):
Every single one of them kept their records, kept documents,
kept pictures.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Oh and one more thing, Derek did, what are you
thinking they don't play in Texas? I'm Anna Sinfield and
from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts. You're listening
to the final episode of The Girlfriends Trust Me.
Speaker 10 (05:40):
Babe, Episode six, The Gold Bracelet.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Derek is arrested on June first, twenty seventeen, and over
the months that follow, Special Agent Mike and his team
continue their investigation. It takes them all over the country,
spans years of Derek's life, and as their evidence grows,
so does their charge list. Within a few months, the
(06:43):
indictment is ten charges long felon in possession of a firearm,
access to vice, fraud, aggravated identity theft, male fraud, and
the evidence looks pretty damning, so damning in fact, that
Derek takes a plea deal. He pleads guilty to just
(07:03):
three charges, and all three of them pertain to Dorry,
two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of
mail fraud for using Dorry's address and claiming it was his.
The question on everybody's mind now will the punishment fit
the crimes.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
Every reaction I got from almost everybody was he's going
to get out and he's going to do it again.
If you look over the years, he got a slap
on the wrist for every single thing he did, and
he never spent any significant amount of time in jail.
I can't blame them from being skeptical.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
But this time the prosecuting team have got a plan.
Those three charges are only about Derek's crimes against Dorry
in the colony, but when you look at all the evidence,
you can see plainly there's a pattern. It's the same
thing he did to so many women for years. The
(08:00):
prosecution thinks they can make the case that when it
comes time to decide on Derek's sentence, the judge should
take all of that history and loss into consideration. It's
a legal concept known as relevant conducts. If the judge agrees,
instead of the typical three years in prison for mail fraud,
(08:21):
Derek could get a sentence of up to twenty years.
But they won't know whether their plan has worked until
Derek Hall dreads sentencing hearing the moment his sentence is
handed down. So it's crucial that as many women as
possible are able to make it to Texas in person.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
For the victim to get up there and talk about
some things that were excrucially painful for them. That really
does sway what the judge.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Thinks It's Midsummer, a year after Derek's arrest in Fort Worth.
The prosecution's plan is in full swing.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
It was wild because all of us girls were together.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It's the evening before the sentencing hearing. Nearly a dozen
women who'd been scammed by Derek had gathered together in person,
women who otherwise would have never met but for the
deadbeat ex boyfriend. They all have in common. They're now
in a makeshift sorority house preparing for the big reckoning.
(09:30):
It was a huge, beautiful home. Tracy is there, the
country girl who is whined and dined by Derek on
Dorry's dime.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Everybody could pick where they wanted to sleep. I think
I slept down in the basement or something in a
god that was a bizarre time.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
That's Wendy our DIY detective from Hawaii who sussed out
Derek scuba diving lie.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Immediately there was an instant bonding. I felt like I
would do anything for these women.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And there's other women you haven't met yet. A doctor
from Hawaii, a neat clear scientist from Minnesota, a flight attendant.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
They were all delightful. Every woman I met I just
really liked.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And though they bond for some of the women. It's
a shock.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
That was the first time I started hearing about the PTSD.
So many of them had.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
They all had a different story. Some had lost everything
to Derek, some hadn't, but they all had one thing
in common. Every last one of them had been lied to.
Before long, they're cracking jokes, swapping war stories.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Didn't he wear those atrocious bike shorts? It leaves nothing
to the imagination.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And tearing their shared ex boyfriend a new one.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
The worst thing in his mind would be for a
bunch of women talking about how bad he was in bed.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
There you go, there's some justice right.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
There, and among them is Vanessa A'm Miley Californian. On
her first visit to Texas.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I felt that it was really important for me to
be involved.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
All the women gathered in that house will have wondered
at one time or another whether anything Derek told them
about himself was true and how did he become the
guy who ruined their lives.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He was more naive back then and maybe not so crafty.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's Vanessa who can give them some of those answers
because she's Derek's college sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I'm going to date myself, but we're going all the
way back to the nineties. I couldn't believe I got Intocla.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It's nineteen eighty nine and Vanessa is heading to college.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I was ecstatic when I found out.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Vanessa's dad owns a Mexican restaurant in La and he's
protective of her. Her mom passed away from cancer when
Vanessa was still just a kid, and she'll be the
first in her family to get a degree. So for
that first year she lives at home.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I was miserable. I had maybe made one or two friends.
It's hard to meet people on campus. People don't just
stop and talk to.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You, except for people like Derek Aldred.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And I think he said something, Have I seen you before? No? No, oh,
you go to school here.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Derek has walked past Vanessa while she's waiting for a
medical appointment on campus one day. He's young, handsome, presents
himself as a medical student at the same college.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He's wearing a white lab coat, his name embroidered. He
said he was studying cystic fibrosis. I didn't even know
what that was, and I still kind of don't.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
It's so strange to imagine Derek in his college years.
I can hear the same guy who've come to know
in these anecdotes.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
He really gave off a good impression. I really like
this guy.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Why they date for a year, and as far as
she's concerned, he's it nothing weird or of note to
report until this one thing happened. About six months before
(13:22):
she's due to graduate. Vanessa is walking up to Derek's
apartment near campus when she catches sight of him in
the third floor window.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
He was in his white lab coat with the French
doors open, and he was throwing everything that was in
his apartment out of the window.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Vanessa watches from the street below, obscured from view behind
a tree.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I see him throwing this Carrera marble top table out
the window.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Stuff her dad had lent him.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
This table that my dad loved. He must have spent like,
I don't know, thousand bucks on it, a lamp. I
gave him this antique typewriter because I felt like he
could use that for his studies.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Outflies the vintage typewriter.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
My mouth hits the floor. I'm frozen. I'm like, what
is going on? I left because I didn't know what
to do.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Vanessa sits in her car, trying to make sense of
what she's just saying, and I was like, what do
I do?
Speaker 6 (14:29):
What do I do?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Eventually, curiosity gets the better of her.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I come back to the front of his apartment and
I see him now, not in his apartment anymore, but
he's out in the front on the street talking to
these police officers. He said that someone broke in and
did that he was not taking responsibility for it. I
was even more perplexed, like what is going on.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
When Vanessa brings the subject up with Derek later, she
remembers that he doesn't admit to being the guy standing
on the ledge, and he still denies it was him
throwing the furniture out the window. He claims he even
went to court to testify against the man who broke
into his apartment, but so far we've been unable to
locate court records of this standing on the street that day,
(15:25):
Vanessa felt sure it was him.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I was so fond of him and so in love
with him, and I was so attached to the idea
of building a family with him that I let it go,
which was a mistake.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Vanessa finishes college six months later, graduates, and afterward it's
Derek that she wants to celebrate with.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I blew off all my friends, all the sorority girl,
even my dad, to be with him, just him.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It's after the graduation festivities are over that the other
shoe drops. They're sitting in his car. Derek is about
to leave Los Angeles to visit his parents.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I kiss from goodbye and he's like, I'll see you soon,
you know, when I get back. I never heard from
him again. Literally, he fell off the face of the earth.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
They've been dating for a year and a half, Vanessa's
first serious relationship, the guy she was in love with.
But one of the worst parts of all of this,
Vanessa soon realized, wasn't just the loss of her boyfriend
or the life she had been imagining with him. It
was something else Entirely.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
On the night of my graduation, Derek said, Oh, maybe
I'll borrow that, you know, to go with my suit.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
A gold bracelet. When Vanessa's mum died she was just
nine years old, her father gathered together all her mum's
gold jewelry, had it melted down and reformed into a bracelet,
a thick Cuban style chain.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It was kind of masculine, bracelet. A man or a
woman could wear it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
At first, Vanessa's dad intended to wear it, but in
the end he had gifted it to Vanessa. And now
Derek wondered if he could borrow it, and I.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Was happily just like, yes, borrow it, but don't forget
to give it back. Of course, he forgot to give
it back.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
When he left, the bracelet disappeared with him. For years,
she wondered what had happened, and then one day, about
twenty years later, bored at work.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I decided to google his name, you know, just out
of sheer curiosity. What's he doing? Where is he? Is
he married? You know, I'm expecting maybe a LinkedIn profile
or Facebook link, But instead I see a news article.
I was like, no, wonder he just disappeared.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Before she knows it, Like every woman in that group chat,
She's on the phone to Cindy.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Do I want to get on board with her and
the rest of the girls to try to fight together?
And at first I was like, no.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
There are a lot of reasons to leave this in
the past. But as she learns more and more about
Derek's trail of destruction.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I said, you know what, Yes, maybe I'll get my
bracelet back.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
And now here she is in a house in Texas,
surrounded by the women who came after her.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We bonded and we told stories. One girl was like, oh,
he told me he was an attorney, and then another
girl was like, no, no, no, he was a firefighter.
He was wearing a white lab coat with me, and
he was wearing a naval officer uniform with someone else.
There were like eight different names that he used for
(19:24):
each different girl.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Derek cool Right, Derek Cooldread, Richard Aldridge, Steel Aldridge, Richie Peterson,
Richie Taylor.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And even though maybe he was a different persona, it
was so relatable and being this persona that we thought
we were in love with, we had a lot of
spirit in us. We had a lot to fight for.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Tomorrow they'll learn whether it all pays off, and Vanessa
will get the chance to look Derek in the face.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
That was my moment of truth. This person has been
deceiving people since he was a young man, and it
needs to stop.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's the morning of August twenty second, twenty eighteen, in Sherman, Texas.
The women arrive at the old, very pretty courthouse.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
We took a little bus together. I don't think anybody
ate any breakfast or anything because we were all on
pins and needles.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
They step out onto the stairs that lead up to
the entrance, and inside.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
You've got all the old woodwork, the old flooring, church pews.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's all I saw. It was church pews. The women
are sitting together in solidarity across two rows, waiting, and
then the judge has arrived. When you hear those three
loud bangs, it's like suddenly everything goes completely silent. William Tatum,
(21:20):
the Assistant United States Attorney in Texas, is the legal
brain behind the big plan.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
You could hear a pin drop at that moment.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
He's sitting up front with his team as the proceedings
get underway. Then out comes Derek.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Just the sight of him, ugh, oh, it just made
me sick.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
He did not look our direction at all.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
He's not in a pilot's uniform, not dressed as a
fireman or a doctor. This time he's in a uniform
he's qualified to wear.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Derek was shackled, his feet were shackled, his arms were shackled.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
An orange jumpsuit. Derek has already signed a plea agreement
admitting to the three charges, but it's a judge, he'll
hand down a sentence, and so the lawyers duke it
out over what should factor in and what shouldn't. They
(22:21):
argue over whether Derek has really accepted responsibility for his actions.
Despite his guilty plea, Derek is still claiming that he
did in fact have authorization to use some of the
credit cards. Not him personally, of course, but his alter ego, Richie.
His defense lawyer, even disputes the idea that Derek used
(22:44):
sophisticated means to conduct his scams. He argues, there was
nothing particularly complex about any of it.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
He had to have spent hours and hours to have
created those documents and details and on trucks. I just
wanted the judge to know this guy was incredibly calculated.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Before long, Wendy and the others will be offered just
that opportunity.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
They started calling us to read our victim impact statements.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
First off is Cindy, who's been leading the way for years.
Then Dorry steps up.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
I was the second one to read my impact statement.
May seventeenth, twenty seventeen, was the last day I would
be the trusting, loving, giving person that I had been
for fifty plus years.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Derek is forced to listen.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
It was a day that I uncovered that my boyfriend
Ritchie Taylor, who I now know is Derek Aldred, had
conned and manipulated me.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Statement after statement.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I want my voice to represent those women victims whose
lives have been turned upside down due to Derek the socio.
I believe that swindling for Derek is like a drug.
Every time he gets away with it, he has a
deeper desire to do it again.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
He's a master manipulator. He will go to unimaginable links
to steal money from women.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I don't think that Derek understands the fundamental difference between
lies and the truth.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
I've seen in the history that over and over again
the justice system has let us down.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
As soon as he's free, he will just do this again.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
He must be stopped from ruining other lives.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
No matter what sentence he's given, it's not going to
compare to the one he's given me. I remember, I
felt real powerful when I said it, like, listen to me,
you know you're not in charge anymore. I wanted him
(24:59):
to look me in the face so I could just
give him that you discussed me. Look, he never even looked.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
When the women finish, the judge turns to Derek and
ask if there's anything he'd like to say. There is.
After a bit of waffle to his honor, Derek says
to say, I'm mortified, and I'm embarrassed, and I'm shamed,
and I'm sorry. Doesn't begin to capture really how I feel.
(25:32):
You know, the harm that I've caused some of the
people behind me. I know the money is really inconsequential
to a degree. I never wanted to hurt someone's trust
like that to where they would leave me and move
on about life and have that type of deficit. You know,
that's the cross that I'm going to carry, and to
(25:56):
those people, I'm very very sorry.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I hope at this point that the victims behind me
can have some peace now, go back home and move
on about their lives with a little more a little
more peace than they've had the past three four five years.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Then he brings up my name or.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Even in someone like Vanessa's case, where it's been twenty
five years, hopefully this brings some closure to that. So
I'm sorry, and that's all I have to say. There's
something about that tone of surprise that's jarring to Vanessa.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I just wanted to laugh at him and like, you know,
be like you know what really?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And then it's over. The women have said their peace,
even Derek's spoken of apologized satisfyingly or not. It's finally
time for this decade long saga to come to an end.
The women are lined up in rows knots in their stomachs.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
The judge was getting ready to give his sense, and
you can hear a pin drop.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Derek sits in the courtroom in his orange jumpsuit and
a judge cloaked up is ready to deliver the moment
they've all been waiting for.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
The judge said it, I sentenced you to to eighty
eight months. We're all like, how many years is that?
How many years is that? You can't have your phone
in there? So we're all like, how many years is that.
One of the ladies in front of us had a
calculator and she held it up and it's a twenty four.
(28:22):
You got the maximum twenty four years, no parole.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
There was a collective sigh of relief.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
All of us were just like silently high fiving and
clapping and just like smiles so big.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
You could just feel everybody's shoulders just lower a little bit,
like we've been fighting to get somebody to pay attention.
And this judge got the.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Memo alongside the sentence. Derek is ordered to pay two
hundred and fifty four thousand, eight hundred and ninety two
dollars and sense. The judge tells Derek, if he could
have given him a higher sentence, he would have. I
can't get them their money back. I can't give them
(29:12):
any other solace. But all I can do is protect
society for as long as I can do so, so
that's what I'm doing. The bottom line for the court
is I have full belief that if you get out
of jail, you're going to commit these same crimes again.
That's what your history and your pattern has been. All
(29:34):
the court can do is try to protect society from
your criminal acts, provide adequate punishment for the entirety of
your conduct. You have assumed identities and personalities to defraud
the individuals out of some of them large amounts of money.
In all likelihood, the totality of your criminal conduct has
yet to even be discovered. You have a pattern, or
(29:57):
it looks like the inability to ever tell tell the
full truth the courtroom empties, the news begins to spread
to those who weren't there in person, like Lisa, our
hockey loving nurse who decided not to go to Texas.
I was so excited that those don't like jumping for joy.
Lisa can hear the girls celebrating in the background of
(30:19):
her phone call.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Like we did a girls, we did it, Like he's
going to Gail now.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
All the women we interviewed for the series were among
those who gave statements to NCIS investigators, and most gave
victim impact statements at Derek Aldred's sentencing hearing too. In total,
NCIS investigators were able to link Derek or dread to
at least twenty five victims, women from Hawaii, Minnesota, Texas, Nevada,
(30:59):
calif Women who consider themselves hopeless romantics, don't right ballbusters
that done it. Dorry was elated.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
By seeing all these girls and how good they were doing,
and he had gotten through it and we're talking about
it without, you know, getting real upset. Really helped me
see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
and I'm not a fool. It can happen anybody seeing
(31:34):
this group of women who are very diverse, but you know,
all had one thing in common and we just wanted
to be loved.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
In the years since, there are various relationships with Derek.
Some of the women have found romantic love again and
some haven't.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Like Vanessa, I'd say that Derek really kind of kind
of screwed it up for me and made me not
really want to trust people. I feel like being a
part of his big lie really took away the potential
opportunity for me to be with the right person. My
(32:17):
sorority sisters, most of them are married, and they're married
to people that they dated during the time that I
dated Derek, and had I met someone else who was
a real, genuine person, not faking to be someone else,
you know, I could have actually fallen in love with
(32:38):
someone and maybe had a family, and I feel like
Derek kept me from that.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
But Vanessa and I also share a fundamental belief the
love and joy is not something that you can only
get from romantic relationships. Vanessa lives a beautiful life that's
filled with love. She has so many friends, close family,
a big garden which is often absolutely filled to the
(33:11):
brim with dogs, her own and others.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I'm a pet sitter on the side. I've been doing
that for about ten years, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
She's happy with the trajectory her life has taken since Teric.
She's put the experience behind her, and I am in
complete support of that, which is why I'm going to
let her go back to her sweet poaches and sweet tea.
Just after one question, what do you think he did
with your bracelet?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
By the way, I'm guessing he ponned it for money.
I doubt he kept it.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I'll ask him about the bracelet if I do manage
to get through.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Oh MG, please, I would love that. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
I agree with Vanessa. Derek is best put behind all
of us. What are ways of energy? However, as a journalist,
of course, I will give him a writer of reply
to some of the allegations that have been made against him,
which means getting in touch with him in prison. And
if I'm going to email this guy, I might as
(34:18):
well ask about that bracelet. Hey, who knows he might
have a sudden rush of conscience. Anna, I just got
an email from a prison from Derek. Oh fuck, each
of the women we have spoken to for this series
have told us about their individual experiences, so we ask
(34:40):
Derek to respond to some of their allegations. Derek denies
that he spiked any drink in Hawaii in twenty fifteen.
He denies that he filed a false police report over
furniture thrown out of his window in the mid nineties.
Despite the plea agreement the twenty four year sentence the
unequivocal words of the Derek also denies the idea that
(35:02):
he stole money from all of these women. One thing
Derek does admit is that he lied and cheated while
dating some of these women. Deplorable behavior is how he
describes it. Remember how Dorri's bank refused to refund the
money Derek had stolen once his sentencing hearing was over.
(35:23):
She sent them a long and feisty letter, and she
tells us they promptly reverse their decision on that. Most
of the women have made some kind of peace with
the idea that they're unlikely to get their money back.
But the bracelet, the one made from gold jewelry belonging
to Vanessa's mother, who died of cancer when she was
(35:43):
just a child, the one that went missing right around
the time Derek disappeared from her life in the nineties
without explanation. That's a bit harder to make peace with.
Here's what Derek has to say about that highly owner.
Vanessa seems to have a very different view of how
we broke up and the relationship ended. Let me give
(36:05):
you some very clear details of our breakup. And this bracelet,
which is in quotation marks the only bracelet I am
familiar with, is basically Derek says he can't remember that bracelet.
I sense that the foundation that's being established is that
I took off with this bracelet, never to be seen again.
This is just categorically not true. I mean, really, what
(36:28):
man wears a woman's bracelet for starters? Maybe Derek really
doesn't remember Vanessa's bracelet. I can tell you though I've
read his case file. It's obviously not the first time
he's been accused of stealing or lying. It's not even
the first time he's been accused of taking a beloved
(36:50):
piece of family jewelry from a woman he was dating.
And for what it's worth, the only time I've ever
been able to find an example of Derek copping to
his behavior is when he's had absolutely no other choice,
and sometimes not even then. Derek has said countless times
that he's sorry for the pain he's caused, and maybe
(37:11):
he really is if that were true. One way he
could have made amends practically, tangibly would be to finally
give a woman who's been waiting thirty years a few answers.
But hey, because you never know your luck, and because
(37:33):
I'm an unrelenting optimist, and because stranger things have happened,
particularly on this show, I have a quick request. If
you happen to hang out around UCLA in nineteen ninety five,
if you worked at a gold trader or a pawn
shop in Los Angeles at that time, and you have
a particularly sharp memory, or if you knew Derek aordread
(37:56):
back then, or you knew someone who did, do you
have any idea what could have happened to Vanessa's bracelet?
It was gold, It had a chain link in a
Cuban style, kind of masculine looking, not to be a
total true crime, tragic, but someone must know something, so
if you do get in touch, it belonged to someone
(38:17):
who really treasured it and it's missing. It's important we
are honest about the damage These con artists cause, because
only then will the victims be taken seriously by the
law and by the rest of us. These kinds of
experiences do leave scars.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
I think after going through all this, I'm no longer
the hopeless romantic.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
As for Dorry, she used to read Danielle Steele books,
She watched the occasional Hallmark movie. Then she met Derek
and brought his scamming spree to a screech halt. She's
changed a lot since then.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
It's not my life goal to meet mister perfect and
have the happily ever after. I'm really at peace with myself.
I love myself, I love who I am. I'm perfectly
fine me and my dogs. I really value my friendships.
I have some really, really really solid good friends of
my life that really really helped me through this, and
(39:34):
so I'm trying, Oh.
Speaker 11 (39:40):
I'm trying now to make up to my friends that
were there for me, Be there for them and whatever
they may need. Be the best friend that I can
to people that stop their lives to help me, help
(40:01):
you through it.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Well, it's tough for her, still, Eventually those scars harden.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
I'm definitely stronger now. It's like I'm steel. It's like
you could say whatever you want. I know who I am.
I'm happy with me.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
They remind you daily who was there all along. Sure
you got duped, hurt terribly, but you also mocked up
the pieces survived it.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
I just hope people learn, particularly girls that might be
in a sticky situation. We women have to look out
for each other.
Speaker 5 (40:44):
The number one lesson I learned from all of this
is to trust my gut.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
Really trusting yourself, not second guessing yourself like I did.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Always go with your gut feeling.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
It will never steer you wrong.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
I think women are still good at having these instincts
and being able to recognize them. We're not always good
at listening to them.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Girlfriends. If I you're lesbian, agony arms can leave you
with one message from this series. It's this, know you're
worth You're better off without any loser making you second
guess yourself. Trust me, babe, So listen to your gut.
(41:31):
But for some reason you can't hear it. Here's some
other advice for you.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
We always say that trust your girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
There we go coming up in the next Bone episode
(42:00):
of the Girlfriends Trust me, babe.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
I can't describe the bashing that the public gave us.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Oh, I'm smarter than this. I wouldn't file for it.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
People are very powerful behind their computers.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Truly, these techniques they really work.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
They can work on any of us.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
The Girlfriends Trust Me Babe is produced by Novel for
iHeart Podcasts. For more from novel, visit novel dot Audio.
The series is hosted by me Anna Sinfield, is produced
by Leona Hamid. Our assistant producer is Valeria Rocker. Our
editor is Joe Wheeler. Production management from Sharie Houston, Joe Savage,
(42:46):
and Charlotte Wolfe. Fact checking by Dania Suleman, Sound design,
mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. The
Girlfriend's theme was composed by Daniel Kempson and Luisa Gerstein
and performed by Daniel Kempson with vocals by Luisa Gerstein.
Music supervision from Daniel Kempson and Anna Sinfield. The series
(43:07):
artwork was designed by Christina Lemcol. Story development by Susie
Baker and Olivia Smart. Novel's director of development is Selena Metta.
Max O'Brien is the executive producer for Novel. Katrina Norvell
and Nikki Etoor are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts,
and the marketing lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to
(43:29):
Carrie Leeberman and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, Julie Sansulo,
Ann Langston, Carolyn sher Levin, Katie Gillis, Kelly Hunt, Rachel Munroe,
Tom Oldag and Tad Wesner
Novel. Last time on the Girlfriends Trust Me, Babe. The
group chat has grown by one member. He got cut,
and Derek Aldred is finally in custody.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
He's gonna get what he deserves.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's early summer twenty seventeen and Laurie, Wendy's big sister
detective from episode one, is at home in Texas.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I am in my kitchen making dinner.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Laurie's barefoot, hair up in a ponytail, wooden spoon in hand.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Five o'clock news comes on on my little kitchen TV,
kind of in the background.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, I'm doing my thing.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
She's just stirring the orange chicken sauce into the walk
when her ears perk up.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I whip around and I'm thinking, surely I heard that wrong. Well,
that looks like him, and that's his name, Derek Aldred.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Wooden spoon still in one hand. Laurie turns the gas
stove off and pivots towards the TV.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I go over and I'm watching and it shows pictures
of him, pictures of him in like some navy uniform.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
She moves closer, leans her elbows on the kitchen counter
to get a better look. It really is that loser,
her sister Wendy dated back in twenty thirteen on the news.
But you know the weirdest part, this whole takedown of Derek,
It's all happened just down the road from where Wendy's
sister Laurie lives.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Literally about three miles from my house.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Laurie is immediately on the blower to Wendy.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I'm like, are you sitting You're not going to believe.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
This, and She's like, he was arrested.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And that's how Wendy, here's the news.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We are just going nuts.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
No way, I cannot believe all this is happening.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Sure, just a handful of miles from Laurie, we'll get more.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Couple, will take your caught off.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Derrek Audred has been marched to the County jail house
in Fort Worth. Well. He's now face to face with
Special Agent Mike, whose planned to catch Derek at the
hospital with Tracy's help. Has all fallen into place a Mike.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
Anyway, we knew that we were never going to get
him to admit that he was doing anything. The strategy
was to confront him.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
And let me ask you, have you ever served in
the military, Have you ever been in law enforcement before. No, okay,
do you wear uniforms of military personnel? Don't? I don't.
Never I happened to pass, but I mean yeah, I
mean last week, last week, not last month, not last year.
Speaker 7 (03:13):
He had no idea that I had pictures of him
on Dorry's balcony wearing uniform, which was like literally a
week prior. And I remember putting that picture down and
his response was.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
I can tell you this much. I never wore this
in public anywhere. And that's a I don't even know
how that was taken. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 7 (03:33):
He's loosening his tie up. He's kind of sitting back.
You can see his demeanor change.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
Military ideas now even bake counterfeit anything like that.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
And think so now, every chance we confronted him on anything,
it was a denial or a lie or some sort
of story.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
You have these credentials here and you had this navy No, yeah, okay,
and what were you going to do with these here?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
No?
Speaker 6 (03:57):
I haven't done anything with.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
Him Nowhere was he remorseful for anything. No where did
he take responsibility for anything.
Speaker 8 (04:04):
In particular as the Rangers ticket, we were able to
pull some footage clearly you are showing idea and insisting
now you're military and gaining something, which is the equivalent
of stolen valor.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I didn't like.
Speaker 7 (04:22):
This is a guy who's a professional liar. He's a
professional con man.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
I think in the last twenty minutes you have lied
to our face about fifty times.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
Guys, I just told you, I told you the truth.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Special Agent Mike is looking for the truth, the whole truth,
but he's not going to find it in this interview room.
Speaker 9 (04:47):
Why would all of these people say this, Then there
is evidence of it happening. Then there's videos and pictures
of you doing it.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Guys, look look at.
Speaker 7 (04:59):
When I there's nothing that we're going to do inside
the interview room that's going to get him to have
an AHA moment. Go, you're right, I did do it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
But Mike's not going to give up that easily. He's
about to discover there's a whole army of women who've
been working on this case since long before he began.
Speaker 7 (05:20):
Every single one of them kept their records, kept documents,
kept pictures.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Oh and one more thing, Derek did, what are you
thinking they don't play in Texas? I'm Anna Sinfield and
from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts. You're listening
to the final episode of The Girlfriends Trust Me.
Speaker 10 (05:40):
Babe, Episode six, The Gold Bracelet.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Derek is arrested on June first, twenty seventeen, and over
the months that follow, Special Agent Mike and his team
continue their investigation. It takes them all over the country,
spans years of Derek's life, and as their evidence grows,
so does their charge list. Within a few months, the
(06:43):
indictment is ten charges long felon in possession of a firearm,
access to vice, fraud, aggravated identity theft, male fraud, and
the evidence looks pretty damning, so damning in fact, that
Derek takes a plea deal. He pleads guilty to just
(07:03):
three charges, and all three of them pertain to Dorry,
two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of
mail fraud for using Dorry's address and claiming it was his.
The question on everybody's mind now will the punishment fit
the crimes.
Speaker 7 (07:24):
Every reaction I got from almost everybody was he's going
to get out and he's going to do it again.
If you look over the years, he got a slap
on the wrist for every single thing he did, and
he never spent any significant amount of time in jail.
I can't blame them from being skeptical.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
But this time the prosecuting team have got a plan.
Those three charges are only about Derek's crimes against Dorry
in the colony, but when you look at all the evidence,
you can see plainly there's a pattern. It's the same
thing he did to so many women for years. The
(08:00):
prosecution thinks they can make the case that when it
comes time to decide on Derek's sentence, the judge should
take all of that history and loss into consideration. It's
a legal concept known as relevant conducts. If the judge agrees,
instead of the typical three years in prison for mail fraud,
(08:21):
Derek could get a sentence of up to twenty years.
But they won't know whether their plan has worked until
Derek Hall dreads sentencing hearing the moment his sentence is
handed down. So it's crucial that as many women as
possible are able to make it to Texas in person.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
For the victim to get up there and talk about
some things that were excrucially painful for them. That really
does sway what the judge.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Thinks It's Midsummer, a year after Derek's arrest in Fort Worth.
The prosecution's plan is in full swing.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
It was wild because all of us girls were together.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It's the evening before the sentencing hearing. Nearly a dozen
women who'd been scammed by Derek had gathered together in person,
women who otherwise would have never met but for the
deadbeat ex boyfriend. They all have in common. They're now
in a makeshift sorority house preparing for the big reckoning.
(09:30):
It was a huge, beautiful home. Tracy is there, the
country girl who is whined and dined by Derek on
Dorry's dime.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Everybody could pick where they wanted to sleep. I think
I slept down in the basement or something in a
god that was a bizarre time.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
That's Wendy our DIY detective from Hawaii who sussed out
Derek scuba diving lie.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Immediately there was an instant bonding. I felt like I
would do anything for these women.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And there's other women you haven't met yet. A doctor
from Hawaii, a neat clear scientist from Minnesota, a flight attendant.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
They were all delightful. Every woman I met I just
really liked.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And though they bond for some of the women. It's
a shock.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
That was the first time I started hearing about the PTSD.
So many of them had.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
They all had a different story. Some had lost everything
to Derek, some hadn't, but they all had one thing
in common. Every last one of them had been lied to.
Before long, they're cracking jokes, swapping war stories.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Didn't he wear those atrocious bike shorts? It leaves nothing
to the imagination.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And tearing their shared ex boyfriend a new one.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
The worst thing in his mind would be for a
bunch of women talking about how bad he was in bed.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
There you go, there's some justice right.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
There, and among them is Vanessa A'm Miley Californian. On
her first visit to Texas.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I felt that it was really important for me to
be involved.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
All the women gathered in that house will have wondered
at one time or another whether anything Derek told them
about himself was true and how did he become the
guy who ruined their lives.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He was more naive back then and maybe not so crafty.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's Vanessa who can give them some of those answers
because she's Derek's college sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I'm going to date myself, but we're going all the
way back to the nineties. I couldn't believe I got Intocla.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It's nineteen eighty nine and Vanessa is heading to college.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I was ecstatic when I found out.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Vanessa's dad owns a Mexican restaurant in La and he's
protective of her. Her mom passed away from cancer when
Vanessa was still just a kid, and she'll be the
first in her family to get a degree. So for
that first year she lives at home.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I was miserable. I had maybe made one or two friends.
It's hard to meet people on campus. People don't just
stop and talk to.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You, except for people like Derek Aldred.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And I think he said something, Have I seen you before? No? No, oh,
you go to school here.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Derek has walked past Vanessa while she's waiting for a
medical appointment on campus one day. He's young, handsome, presents
himself as a medical student at the same college.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He's wearing a white lab coat, his name embroidered. He
said he was studying cystic fibrosis. I didn't even know
what that was, and I still kind of don't.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
It's so strange to imagine Derek in his college years.
I can hear the same guy who've come to know
in these anecdotes.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
He really gave off a good impression. I really like
this guy.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Why they date for a year, and as far as
she's concerned, he's it nothing weird or of note to
report until this one thing happened. About six months before
(13:22):
she's due to graduate. Vanessa is walking up to Derek's
apartment near campus when she catches sight of him in
the third floor window.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
He was in his white lab coat with the French
doors open, and he was throwing everything that was in
his apartment out of the window.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Vanessa watches from the street below, obscured from view behind
a tree.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
I see him throwing this Carrera marble top table out
the window.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Stuff her dad had lent him.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
This table that my dad loved. He must have spent like,
I don't know, thousand bucks on it, a lamp. I
gave him this antique typewriter because I felt like he
could use that for his studies.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Outflies the vintage typewriter.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
My mouth hits the floor. I'm frozen. I'm like, what
is going on? I left because I didn't know what
to do.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Vanessa sits in her car, trying to make sense of
what she's just saying, and I was like, what do
I do?
Speaker 6 (14:29):
What do I do?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Eventually, curiosity gets the better of her.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I come back to the front of his apartment and
I see him now, not in his apartment anymore, but
he's out in the front on the street talking to
these police officers. He said that someone broke in and
did that he was not taking responsibility for it. I
was even more perplexed, like what is going on.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
When Vanessa brings the subject up with Derek later, she
remembers that he doesn't admit to being the guy standing
on the ledge, and he still denies it was him
throwing the furniture out the window. He claims he even
went to court to testify against the man who broke
into his apartment, but so far we've been unable to
locate court records of this standing on the street that day,
(15:25):
Vanessa felt sure it was him.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I was so fond of him and so in love
with him, and I was so attached to the idea
of building a family with him that I let it go,
which was a mistake.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Vanessa finishes college six months later, graduates, and afterward it's
Derek that she wants to celebrate with.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I blew off all my friends, all the sorority girl,
even my dad, to be with him, just him.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It's after the graduation festivities are over that the other
shoe drops. They're sitting in his car. Derek is about
to leave Los Angeles to visit his parents.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I kiss from goodbye and he's like, I'll see you soon,
you know, when I get back. I never heard from
him again. Literally, he fell off the face of the earth.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
They've been dating for a year and a half, Vanessa's
first serious relationship, the guy she was in love with.
But one of the worst parts of all of this,
Vanessa soon realized, wasn't just the loss of her boyfriend
or the life she had been imagining with him. It
was something else Entirely.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
On the night of my graduation, Derek said, Oh, maybe
I'll borrow that, you know, to go with my suit.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
A gold bracelet. When Vanessa's mum died she was just
nine years old, her father gathered together all her mum's
gold jewelry, had it melted down and reformed into a bracelet,
a thick Cuban style chain.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It was kind of masculine, bracelet. A man or a
woman could wear it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
At first, Vanessa's dad intended to wear it, but in
the end he had gifted it to Vanessa. And now
Derek wondered if he could borrow it, and I.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Was happily just like, yes, borrow it, but don't forget
to give it back. Of course, he forgot to give
it back.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
When he left, the bracelet disappeared with him. For years,
she wondered what had happened, and then one day, about
twenty years later, bored at work.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I decided to google his name, you know, just out
of sheer curiosity. What's he doing? Where is he? Is
he married? You know, I'm expecting maybe a LinkedIn profile
or Facebook link, But instead I see a news article.
I was like, no, wonder he just disappeared.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Before she knows it, Like every woman in that group chat,
She's on the phone to Cindy.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Do I want to get on board with her and
the rest of the girls to try to fight together?
And at first I was like, no.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
There are a lot of reasons to leave this in
the past. But as she learns more and more about
Derek's trail of destruction.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I said, you know what, Yes, maybe I'll get my
bracelet back.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
And now here she is in a house in Texas,
surrounded by the women who came after her.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We bonded and we told stories. One girl was like, oh,
he told me he was an attorney, and then another
girl was like, no, no, no, he was a firefighter.
He was wearing a white lab coat with me, and
he was wearing a naval officer uniform with someone else.
There were like eight different names that he used for
(19:24):
each different girl.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Derek cool Right, Derek Cooldread, Richard Aldridge, Steel Aldridge, Richie Peterson,
Richie Taylor.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And even though maybe he was a different persona, it
was so relatable and being this persona that we thought
we were in love with, we had a lot of
spirit in us. We had a lot to fight for.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Tomorrow they'll learn whether it all pays off, and Vanessa
will get the chance to look Derek in the face.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
That was my moment of truth. This person has been
deceiving people since he was a young man, and it
needs to stop.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's the morning of August twenty second, twenty eighteen, in Sherman, Texas.
The women arrive at the old, very pretty courthouse.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
We took a little bus together. I don't think anybody
ate any breakfast or anything because we were all on
pins and needles.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
They step out onto the stairs that lead up to
the entrance, and inside.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
You've got all the old woodwork, the old flooring, church pews.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's all I saw. It was church pews. The women
are sitting together in solidarity across two rows, waiting, and
then the judge has arrived. When you hear those three
loud bangs, it's like suddenly everything goes completely silent. William Tatum,
(21:20):
the Assistant United States Attorney in Texas, is the legal
brain behind the big plan.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
You could hear a pin drop at that moment.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
He's sitting up front with his team as the proceedings
get underway. Then out comes Derek.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Just the sight of him, ugh, oh, it just made
me sick.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
He did not look our direction at all.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
He's not in a pilot's uniform, not dressed as a
fireman or a doctor. This time he's in a uniform
he's qualified to wear.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Derek was shackled, his feet were shackled, his arms were shackled.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
An orange jumpsuit. Derek has already signed a plea agreement
admitting to the three charges, but it's a judge, he'll
hand down a sentence, and so the lawyers duke it
out over what should factor in and what shouldn't. They
(22:21):
argue over whether Derek has really accepted responsibility for his actions.
Despite his guilty plea, Derek is still claiming that he
did in fact have authorization to use some of the
credit cards. Not him personally, of course, but his alter ego, Richie.
His defense lawyer, even disputes the idea that Derek used
(22:44):
sophisticated means to conduct his scams. He argues, there was
nothing particularly complex about any of it.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
He had to have spent hours and hours to have
created those documents and details and on trucks. I just
wanted the judge to know this guy was incredibly calculated.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Before long, Wendy and the others will be offered just
that opportunity.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
They started calling us to read our victim impact statements.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
First off is Cindy, who's been leading the way for years.
Then Dorry steps up.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
I was the second one to read my impact statement.
May seventeenth, twenty seventeen, was the last day I would
be the trusting, loving, giving person that I had been
for fifty plus years.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Derek is forced to listen.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
It was a day that I uncovered that my boyfriend
Ritchie Taylor, who I now know is Derek Aldred, had
conned and manipulated me.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Statement after statement.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I want my voice to represent those women victims whose
lives have been turned upside down due to Derek the socio.
I believe that swindling for Derek is like a drug.
Every time he gets away with it, he has a
deeper desire to do it again.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
He's a master manipulator. He will go to unimaginable links
to steal money from women.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I don't think that Derek understands the fundamental difference between
lies and the truth.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
I've seen in the history that over and over again
the justice system has let us down.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
As soon as he's free, he will just do this again.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
He must be stopped from ruining other lives.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
No matter what sentence he's given, it's not going to
compare to the one he's given me. I remember, I
felt real powerful when I said it, like, listen to me,
you know you're not in charge anymore. I wanted him
(24:59):
to look me in the face so I could just
give him that you discussed me. Look, he never even looked.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
When the women finish, the judge turns to Derek and
ask if there's anything he'd like to say. There is.
After a bit of waffle to his honor, Derek says
to say, I'm mortified, and I'm embarrassed, and I'm shamed,
and I'm sorry. Doesn't begin to capture really how I feel.
(25:32):
You know, the harm that I've caused some of the
people behind me. I know the money is really inconsequential
to a degree. I never wanted to hurt someone's trust
like that to where they would leave me and move
on about life and have that type of deficit. You know,
that's the cross that I'm going to carry, and to
(25:56):
those people, I'm very very sorry.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I hope at this point that the victims behind me
can have some peace now, go back home and move
on about their lives with a little more a little
more peace than they've had the past three four five years.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Then he brings up my name or.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Even in someone like Vanessa's case, where it's been twenty
five years, hopefully this brings some closure to that. So
I'm sorry, and that's all I have to say. There's
something about that tone of surprise that's jarring to Vanessa.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I just wanted to laugh at him and like, you know,
be like you know what really?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And then it's over. The women have said their peace,
even Derek's spoken of apologized satisfyingly or not. It's finally
time for this decade long saga to come to an end.
The women are lined up in rows knots in their stomachs.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
The judge was getting ready to give his sense, and
you can hear a pin drop.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Derek sits in the courtroom in his orange jumpsuit and
a judge cloaked up is ready to deliver the moment
they've all been waiting for.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
The judge said it, I sentenced you to to eighty
eight months. We're all like, how many years is that?
How many years is that? You can't have your phone
in there? So we're all like, how many years is that.
One of the ladies in front of us had a
calculator and she held it up and it's a twenty four.
(28:22):
You got the maximum twenty four years, no parole.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
There was a collective sigh of relief.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
All of us were just like silently high fiving and
clapping and just like smiles so big.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
You could just feel everybody's shoulders just lower a little bit,
like we've been fighting to get somebody to pay attention.
And this judge got the.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Memo alongside the sentence. Derek is ordered to pay two
hundred and fifty four thousand, eight hundred and ninety two
dollars and sense. The judge tells Derek, if he could
have given him a higher sentence, he would have. I
can't get them their money back. I can't give them
(29:12):
any other solace. But all I can do is protect
society for as long as I can do so, so
that's what I'm doing. The bottom line for the court
is I have full belief that if you get out
of jail, you're going to commit these same crimes again.
That's what your history and your pattern has been. All
(29:34):
the court can do is try to protect society from
your criminal acts, provide adequate punishment for the entirety of
your conduct. You have assumed identities and personalities to defraud
the individuals out of some of them large amounts of money.
In all likelihood, the totality of your criminal conduct has
yet to even be discovered. You have a pattern, or
(29:57):
it looks like the inability to ever tell tell the
full truth the courtroom empties, the news begins to spread
to those who weren't there in person, like Lisa, our
hockey loving nurse who decided not to go to Texas.
I was so excited that those don't like jumping for joy.
Lisa can hear the girls celebrating in the background of
(30:19):
her phone call.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Like we did a girls, we did it, Like he's
going to Gail now.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
All the women we interviewed for the series were among
those who gave statements to NCIS investigators, and most gave
victim impact statements at Derek Aldred's sentencing hearing too. In total,
NCIS investigators were able to link Derek or dread to
at least twenty five victims, women from Hawaii, Minnesota, Texas, Nevada,
(30:59):
calif Women who consider themselves hopeless romantics, don't right ballbusters
that done it. Dorry was elated.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
By seeing all these girls and how good they were doing,
and he had gotten through it and we're talking about
it without, you know, getting real upset. Really helped me
see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel,
and I'm not a fool. It can happen anybody seeing
(31:34):
this group of women who are very diverse, but you know,
all had one thing in common and we just wanted
to be loved.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
In the years since, there are various relationships with Derek.
Some of the women have found romantic love again and
some haven't.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Like Vanessa, I'd say that Derek really kind of kind
of screwed it up for me and made me not
really want to trust people. I feel like being a
part of his big lie really took away the potential
opportunity for me to be with the right person. My
(32:17):
sorority sisters, most of them are married, and they're married
to people that they dated during the time that I
dated Derek, and had I met someone else who was
a real, genuine person, not faking to be someone else,
you know, I could have actually fallen in love with
(32:38):
someone and maybe had a family, and I feel like
Derek kept me from that.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
But Vanessa and I also share a fundamental belief the
love and joy is not something that you can only
get from romantic relationships. Vanessa lives a beautiful life that's
filled with love. She has so many friends, close family,
a big garden which is often absolutely filled to the
(33:11):
brim with dogs, her own and others.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I'm a pet sitter on the side. I've been doing
that for about ten years, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
She's happy with the trajectory her life has taken since Teric.
She's put the experience behind her, and I am in
complete support of that, which is why I'm going to
let her go back to her sweet poaches and sweet tea.
Just after one question, what do you think he did
with your bracelet?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
By the way, I'm guessing he ponned it for money.
I doubt he kept it.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I'll ask him about the bracelet if I do manage
to get through.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Oh MG, please, I would love that. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
I agree with Vanessa. Derek is best put behind all
of us. What are ways of energy? However, as a journalist,
of course, I will give him a writer of reply
to some of the allegations that have been made against him,
which means getting in touch with him in prison. And
if I'm going to email this guy, I might as
(34:18):
well ask about that bracelet. Hey, who knows he might
have a sudden rush of conscience. Anna, I just got
an email from a prison from Derek. Oh fuck, each
of the women we have spoken to for this series
have told us about their individual experiences, so we ask
(34:40):
Derek to respond to some of their allegations. Derek denies
that he spiked any drink in Hawaii in twenty fifteen.
He denies that he filed a false police report over
furniture thrown out of his window in the mid nineties.
Despite the plea agreement the twenty four year sentence the
unequivocal words of the Derek also denies the idea that
(35:02):
he stole money from all of these women. One thing
Derek does admit is that he lied and cheated while
dating some of these women. Deplorable behavior is how he
describes it. Remember how Dorri's bank refused to refund the
money Derek had stolen once his sentencing hearing was over.
(35:23):
She sent them a long and feisty letter, and she
tells us they promptly reverse their decision on that. Most
of the women have made some kind of peace with
the idea that they're unlikely to get their money back.
But the bracelet, the one made from gold jewelry belonging
to Vanessa's mother, who died of cancer when she was
(35:43):
just a child, the one that went missing right around
the time Derek disappeared from her life in the nineties
without explanation. That's a bit harder to make peace with.
Here's what Derek has to say about that highly owner.
Vanessa seems to have a very different view of how
we broke up and the relationship ended. Let me give
(36:05):
you some very clear details of our breakup. And this bracelet,
which is in quotation marks the only bracelet I am
familiar with, is basically Derek says he can't remember that bracelet.
I sense that the foundation that's being established is that
I took off with this bracelet, never to be seen again.
This is just categorically not true. I mean, really, what
(36:28):
man wears a woman's bracelet for starters? Maybe Derek really
doesn't remember Vanessa's bracelet. I can tell you though I've
read his case file. It's obviously not the first time
he's been accused of stealing or lying. It's not even
the first time he's been accused of taking a beloved
(36:50):
piece of family jewelry from a woman he was dating.
And for what it's worth, the only time I've ever
been able to find an example of Derek copping to
his behavior is when he's had absolutely no other choice,
and sometimes not even then. Derek has said countless times
that he's sorry for the pain he's caused, and maybe
(37:11):
he really is if that were true. One way he
could have made amends practically, tangibly would be to finally
give a woman who's been waiting thirty years a few answers.
But hey, because you never know your luck, and because
(37:33):
I'm an unrelenting optimist, and because stranger things have happened,
particularly on this show, I have a quick request. If
you happen to hang out around UCLA in nineteen ninety five,
if you worked at a gold trader or a pawn
shop in Los Angeles at that time, and you have
a particularly sharp memory, or if you knew Derek aordread
(37:56):
back then, or you knew someone who did, do you
have any idea what could have happened to Vanessa's bracelet?
It was gold, It had a chain link in a
Cuban style, kind of masculine looking, not to be a
total true crime, tragic, but someone must know something, so
if you do get in touch, it belonged to someone
(38:17):
who really treasured it and it's missing. It's important we
are honest about the damage These con artists cause, because
only then will the victims be taken seriously by the
law and by the rest of us. These kinds of
experiences do leave scars.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
I think after going through all this, I'm no longer
the hopeless romantic.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
As for Dorry, she used to read Danielle Steele books,
She watched the occasional Hallmark movie. Then she met Derek
and brought his scamming spree to a screech halt. She's
changed a lot since then.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
It's not my life goal to meet mister perfect and
have the happily ever after. I'm really at peace with myself.
I love myself, I love who I am. I'm perfectly
fine me and my dogs. I really value my friendships.
I have some really, really really solid good friends of
my life that really really helped me through this, and
(39:34):
so I'm trying, Oh.
Speaker 11 (39:40):
I'm trying now to make up to my friends that
were there for me, Be there for them and whatever
they may need. Be the best friend that I can
to people that stop their lives to help me, help
(40:01):
you through it.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Well, it's tough for her, still, Eventually those scars harden.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
I'm definitely stronger now. It's like I'm steel. It's like
you could say whatever you want. I know who I am.
I'm happy with me.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
They remind you daily who was there all along. Sure
you got duped, hurt terribly, but you also mocked up
the pieces survived it.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
I just hope people learn, particularly girls that might be
in a sticky situation. We women have to look out
for each other.
Speaker 5 (40:44):
The number one lesson I learned from all of this
is to trust my gut.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
Really trusting yourself, not second guessing yourself like I did.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Always go with your gut feeling.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
It will never steer you wrong.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
I think women are still good at having these instincts
and being able to recognize them. We're not always good
at listening to them.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Girlfriends. If I you're lesbian, agony arms can leave you
with one message from this series. It's this, know you're
worth You're better off without any loser making you second
guess yourself. Trust me, babe, So listen to your gut.
(41:31):
But for some reason you can't hear it. Here's some
other advice for you.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
We always say that trust your girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
There we go coming up in the next Bone episode
(42:00):
of the Girlfriends Trust me, babe.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
I can't describe the bashing that the public gave us.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Oh, I'm smarter than this. I wouldn't file for it.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
People are very powerful behind their computers.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Truly, these techniques they really work.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
They can work on any of us.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
The Girlfriends Trust Me Babe is produced by Novel for
iHeart Podcasts. For more from novel, visit novel dot Audio.
The series is hosted by me Anna Sinfield, is produced
by Leona Hamid. Our assistant producer is Valeria Rocker. Our
editor is Joe Wheeler. Production management from Sharie Houston, Joe Savage,
(42:46):
and Charlotte Wolfe. Fact checking by Dania Suleman, Sound design,
mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. The
Girlfriend's theme was composed by Daniel Kempson and Luisa Gerstein
and performed by Daniel Kempson with vocals by Luisa Gerstein.
Music supervision from Daniel Kempson and Anna Sinfield. The series
(43:07):
artwork was designed by Christina Lemcol. Story development by Susie
Baker and Olivia Smart. Novel's director of development is Selena Metta.
Max O'Brien is the executive producer for Novel. Katrina Norvell
and Nikki Etoor are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts,
and the marketing lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to
(43:29):
Carrie Leeberman and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, Julie Sansulo,
Ann Langston, Carolyn sher Levin, Katie Gillis, Kelly Hunt, Rachel Munroe,
Tom Oldag and Tad Wesner
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