Amber | Betrayal Weekly

After overcoming extraordinary hardship, Amber dedicated herself to helping other survivors. What begins as a story of healing and purpose takes a shocking turn when the organization she trusts becomes the center of a criminal investigation. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal team by emailing us at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram at @betrayalpod https://www.instagram.com/betrayalpod/ and @glasspodcasts https://www.instagram.com/glasspodcasts/. To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal community, join our Substack at betrayal.substack.com. If you are currently in crisis, please reach out to organizations that offer immediate support. We are including a few US-based resources here: 988 Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/ If you or someone you know is in crisis or need to talk to someone immediately, please call or text 988 – the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline available 24/7/365. National Domestic Violence Hotline https://www.thehotline.org/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=domestic_violence. They offer 24/7 phone and chat support to help you create a personalized safety plan and connect you with local support. For resources on sexual violence, visit rainn.org/betrayal. You can also get free, confidential, 24/7 support through RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline. Text HOPE to 64673 or call 1-800-656-HOPE. Every state has a domestic violence coalition. If you’re looking for help in the US, search the web for your state’s domestic violence coalition. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Andrea Gunning?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:05Andrea Gunning?

  You know the saying, "Knowledge is power"? Well, it's a lot more than that. Knowledge can be growth, security, opportunity. And no one knows that better than Southern New Hampshire University. That's why they offer over 200 online degree programs designed to help you reach your goals. Set yourself up for success, or get ready to pivot into something new. No matter your program, you'll learn practical, career-focused skills you can use on the job. And don't worry, getting your degree online doesn't mean doing it alone. Southern New Hampshire University has some of the best student support in online education. From day one to graduation, you'll have friendly, knowledgeable people to help you with everything,

• 0:47Andrea Gunning?

  from applying and financial aid, to tutoring and career development. At Southern New Hampshire University, knowledge can be life-changing. Get started at SNHU.edu/Betrayal. That's SNHU.edu/Betrayal. You need credit to buy, well, pretty much anything. So how do you get started? Easy, the OnePay Builder Card. It's simple and smart. OnePay is the banking app trusted by millions of Americans. And the OnePay Builder Card is an easy way to build credit. Just use it to make everyday purchases, build your credit history, and then you can work up to the big milestones, buying a new car or a new house. When you finally make that big purchase, like buying a house, it's such an incredible feeling of accomplishment.

• 1:31Andrea Gunning?

  You know how much work and how many little steps went into getting there. So finally reaching that milestone just feels amazing. Those moments start with small, consistent steps with the OnePay Builder Card. Download the OnePay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  OnePay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Builder Card results may vary and aren't guaranteed. Learn more about banking through OnePay at onepay.com/podcast.

• 2:03Andrea Gunning?

  Some people never expected their lives to change in an instant. Most of us don't. That's why I want you to know about Saber Smart Pepper Spray. Yes, it helps protect you, but what makes it different is the connected app. If you're ever forced to use it in an emergency, it can alert your emergency contacts and share your location. So the people who love you aren't left searching. They're not left guessing, they know where to start. Visit saberred.com/Betrayal. That's saberred.com/Betrayal.

• 2:36Speaker 02

  My reality is being ripped apart. This can't be real. I'm trying to find any reason to make any of this make sense.

• 2:59Andrea Gunning?

  I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. In today's episode, we will be discussing the realities of addiction, sexual violence, and sex trafficking. So please be mindful when listening.

• 3:21Andrea Gunning?

  Amber Keel grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the 90s. As a kid, Amber was curious about the world around her.

• 3:29Speaker 02

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

• 3:42Andrea Gunning?

  She and her friends spent their days roaming around Salt Lake City together.

• 3:47Speaker 02

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

• 4:00Andrea Gunning?

  Those parts of childhood were a bright spot. But Amber's childhood was also defined by a lot of hardship. She lived with her mom. They've always been really close. But Amber had a turbulent relationship with her stepdad.

• 4:15Speaker 02

  Right, my prepubescent era. I had some issues at home with my stepfather.

• 4:23Andrea Gunning?

  Because of that, Amber started spending as much time as she could outside of the house. But the adults she met there weren't safe either.

• 4:32Speaker 02

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

• 4:46Andrea Gunning?

  By the time she was 13 years old, she was drinking and using drugs regularly.

• 4:52Speaker 02

  It was intriguing to me. I definitely knew the inappropriate individuals in the neighborhood and would seek them for drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, a place to hide.

• 5:06Andrea Gunning?

  Amber's mom was desperate to help her.

• 5:09Speaker 02

  I was in and out of juvenile systems, lockdown facilities, ankle monitors, wilderness programs, ordered therapy, all levels of care.

• 5:21Andrea Gunning?

  But each time she got out of a program, she was pulled back into the same predatory dynamics.

• 5:28Speaker 02

  Hanging out with all the wrong crowds and using drugs. That became a part of my life.

• 5:35Andrea Gunning?

  Amber desperately wanted to escape. She was dependent on alcohol and marijuana.

• 5:41Speaker 02

  I was running from life. I ran and ran and ran. I didn't stop running until I got pregnant.

• 5:49Andrea Gunning?

  Amber had her first son at just 16 years old.

• 5:52Speaker 02

  I'm dropping out of school and desperately needed help in raising him. And that came down to my mom and my grandma helping me.

• 6:02Andrea Gunning?

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

• 6:20Speaker 02

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

• 6:34Andrea Gunning?

  Amber's mom and stepdad had separated. But he had started buying drugs for Amber. So she heard from him pretty regularly.

• 6:42Speaker 02

  I remember not hearing from the stepfather for a few days and wondering why. And I went over to his house, no one answered the door. And so I broke in.

• 6:56Andrea Gunning?

  She went upstairs and into his bedroom. Her stepdad was there, lying in his bed. The room was a mess.

• 7:04Speaker 02

  He was urinating in empty vodka bottles. And I remember just yelling out, I'm like, "Get up, you're so gross. Get your shit together."

• 7:14Andrea Gunning?

  Amber kept telling him to get up as she made her way through the room. But her stepdad didn't budge.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  I went to go shake him to wake him up. And as soon as I touched him, I actually realized what was going on. He had passed away.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  The shock took over my body. And I just felt that feeling of like, I need to run, I need to get out of here.

• 7:42Andrea Gunning?

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

• 7:55Speaker 02

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

• 8:13Andrea Gunning?

  That's when Amber met someone who offered her a new solution.

• 8:17Speaker 02

  And he's like, "Hey, do you want to get high?" And I was like, "Yeah." I think I just needed to get out of my skin. And he introduced a needle to me and methamphetamines.

• 8:30Speaker 02

  That was it for me. I had obtained the outer body experience I was looking for. So I just kept looking for it. I didn't continue shooting up, but I did continue smoking meth for several months. That was absolutely devastating for me and everyone who loved me.

• 8:48Andrea Gunning?

  Amber's mom and grandmother took over the care of her son. Her meth addiction quickly spiraled into other criminal behavior.

• 8:55Speaker 02

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

• 9:10Andrea Gunning?

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

• 9:29Speaker 02

  I had a placental abruption. And I had to give birth to him and bury him. And it was just like trauma after trauma after trauma.

• 9:40Andrea Gunning?

  After that, she stayed at the rehab facility. That community helped her through her grief.

• 9:47Speaker 02

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

• 9:58Andrea Gunning?

  Receiving long-term care was a turning point for Amber.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  And then things really started looking up for me. I was feeling kind of stable and acclimated.

• 10:08Andrea Gunning?

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

• 10:24Speaker 02

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

• 10:37Andrea Gunning?

  But her husband had his own history of addiction. He was sober on and off through their relationship. And when their baby was just a couple of months old.

• 10:47Speaker 02

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

• 11:05Andrea Gunning?

  So she left her husband and moved back in with her mom. She was now trying to raise two young kids, work full-time, and most of all, stay sober.

• 11:16Speaker 02

  I was working at this job and paying for these bills and that feeling started to creep up again.

• 11:22Andrea Gunning?

  That suffocating feeling that she couldn't handle this, that she needed to escape her body.

• 11:28Speaker 02

  It was overwhelming. And of course, I did what my system knew to do. I reached out to what was my husband's drug dealer.

• 11:38Andrea Gunning?

  She started doing cocaine.

• 11:40Speaker 02

  I felt like super mom, doing cocaine in the morning to go to work and come home and do a little bit more cocaine to like make dinner. And I was like, I could do this, you know? Of course I can manage a cocaine habit.

• 11:51Andrea Gunning?

  Amber's family quickly noticed a change in her. They realized she was using drugs again.

• 11:57Speaker 02

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

• 12:13Andrea Gunning?

  Her sons stayed with her mom and grandmother. Amber left the house and her struggle with addiction spiraled further.

• 12:22Speaker 02

  As long as I could keep a drug in my system, I could avoid the devastation of being this piece of shit mother.

• 12:32Andrea Gunning?

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

• 12:51Speaker 02

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

• 13:05Andrea Gunning?

  Amber felt trapped, like she had no choice. She didn't want to do it, but her addiction came first. She was already dealing with withdrawal symptoms, so she agreed.

• 13:18Speaker 02

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

• 13:33Andrea Gunning?

  But not long after that, he told her they were facing another financial crisis.

• 13:38Speaker 02

  I'm gonna need to do it again. And there was a few times there where I consented.

• 13:45Speaker 02

  And then I remember the day that I didn't consent.

• 13:50Andrea Gunning?

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

• 13:59Speaker 02

  I said no.

• 14:02Speaker 02

  And that was my first real experience of extreme violence.

• 14:07Andrea Gunning?

  He attacked her and sexually assaulted her. Amber lost consciousness. The next thing she remembers.

• 14:14Speaker 02

  It was dark and I just remember the lights breezing past me like he's driving really fast and end up in an emergency room.

• 14:23Andrea Gunning?

  Amber was rushed into the hospital, still fighting for consciousness.

• 14:28Speaker 02

  Wasn't until I got an IV that I found out what was happening. I had been penetrated with something and I was bleeding out in the emergency room.

• 14:40Andrea Gunning?

  Amber went into emergency vaginal reconstructive surgery.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Right after surgery, he's right there and we're taking IVs out of my hand and hospital staff is pleading for me not to leave.

• 14:53Andrea Gunning?

  But he had called a cab. She knew if she didn't leave with him, she could be in even greater danger. As Amber walked out of the emergency room, the severity of the situation sunk in. She was being forced to perform non-consensual sex acts. She was being coerced and threatened. And when she didn't comply, she was met with severe violence. The man she'd turned to for drugs and for housing was sex trafficking her.

• 15:22Speaker 02

  You know, in that moment, I knew I was, I knew I was being sex trafficked. And that went on for five years. Five years of just intense brutality, all while having this brutal addiction. I'm on cocaine and heroin. So many times I tried to get away from him. I would try and leave and run away and he's stalking me, threatening my family. Like, it was incredibly intense.

• 15:50Andrea Gunning?

  Her addiction was used to control her.

• 15:53Speaker 02

  I'm catching felonies of my own and I'm just completely desensitized to incarceration.

• 16:01Andrea Gunning?

  In 2016, Amber was on probation for a few different felonies.

• 16:05Speaker 02

  I'm in a lot of trouble. I'm at the bottom of the barrel.

• 16:10Andrea Gunning?

  One day, she was at a scheduled check-in with her probation officer.

• 16:14Speaker 02

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

• 16:34Speaker 02

  She was the first one to kind of notice it and how she positioned the question was not what's wrong with you. It was like, what's happening to you?

• 16:45Andrea Gunning?

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

• 17:02Speaker 02

  I felt so suicidal. In my mind, I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna tell the truth and my life's gonna be over. And I told her. I told her what was happening. And she's like, I know. This man is dangerous. He's been dangerous. Many women have press charges, but he's always gotten away with it because they're too scared to come to court. And she was like, I want to help you.

• 17:29Andrea Gunning?

  The probation officer contacted the Midvale City Police Department. A detective joined them. He started asking Amber questions.

• 17:38Speaker 02

  And I'm starting to explain it, but at the time, my phone starts blowing up and it's him.

• 17:43Andrea Gunning?

  Her check-in with her probation officer was taking longer than normal. Her trafficker was demanding to know where she was.

• 17:51Speaker 02

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

• 18:07Andrea Gunning?

  The detective handed Amber a blank witness statement.

• 18:11Speaker 02

  I stuffed a little piece of paper in my pocket.

• 18:13Andrea Gunning?

  And she headed home.

• 18:16Speaker 02

  I folded up into a little square and I hide it in a piece of luggage under the stairs.

• 18:20Andrea Gunning?

  One night, Amber could tell something was wrong.

• 18:24Speaker 02

  He found it. He found the witness statement and he saw what I was doing and that I was getting ready to tell. That night was horrifying.

• 18:33Andrea Gunning?

  Amber endured extreme physical and sexual violence. After a while, her trafficker finally fell asleep.

• 18:41Speaker 02

  And while he was asleep, I called the police.

• 18:46Andrea Gunning?

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

• 18:56Speaker 02

  I tried to explain to him what was going on, but he just wasn't listening to me.

• 19:02Andrea Gunning?

  Police were dispatched to Amber's house, not understanding the complexity of the situation or how to help.

• 19:10Speaker 02

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

• 19:25Andrea Gunning?

  He bailed out immediately. Now Amber was even less safe than before she called the police.

• 19:32Speaker 02

  He comes right back and assaults me again. And I get away again. And this is all before the detective arrives to work.

• 19:41Andrea Gunning?

  Finally, at 9:00 AM, the detective familiar with Amber's case arrived at the Midvale City Police Department.

• 19:48Speaker 02

  And he responds immediately. And he's like, I'm so sorry. This will never happen again.

• 19:54Andrea Gunning?

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

• 20:07Speaker 02

  Law enforcement would come in and they'd make sure I'd have food and they'd see if I need a ride anywhere. But I am out of my mind, absolutely terrified. I will not go to sleep.

• 20:17Andrea Gunning?

  Finally, one of the officers called Amber.

• 20:21Speaker 02

  Amber, we got him. You can go to sleep. You're going to be safe. Everything's going to be fine.

• 20:28Andrea Gunning?

  But the next morning.

• 20:29Speaker 02

  My story makes the news.

• 20:32Andrea Gunning?

  The media hadn't named Amber, but they had named her trafficker.

• 20:37Speaker 02

  By proxy, everyone that was affiliated with him, gang affiliation and drug affiliation, knew it was me.

• 20:44Andrea Gunning?

  This reporting compromised her safety.

• 20:47Speaker 02

  I'm having news. People show up at my door asking me if I want to give a statement. It was absolutely horrifying.

• 20:55Andrea Gunning?

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

• 21:04Speaker 02

  And I wasn't even fully detoxed. I was still throwing up because I had such a raging opiate addiction.

• 21:11Andrea Gunning?

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

• 21:21Speaker 02

  And I didn't have a way out.

• 21:23Andrea Gunning?

  Eventually, it was time for her trafficker's preliminary hearing. Amber was assigned a victim advocate.

• 21:31Speaker 02

  The advocate I had was like scared of this whole situation. I think it was the first time she ever heard anything like this in her life.

• 21:38Andrea Gunning?

  This hearing would determine what charges her trafficker would face. Amber had to describe her trauma in detail. Amber took the stand and testified against her trafficker.

• 21:49Speaker 02

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

• 22:06Andrea Gunning?

  Up on the stand, Amber felt a familiar feeling taking over.

• 22:11Speaker 02

  That overstimulation in my nervous system was happening again. I wanted to get out of my skin.

• 22:16Andrea Gunning?

  When the hearing ended, the charges against her trafficker went through. People congratulated her.

• 22:23Speaker 02

  They're like, you did a great job. Congratulations. Let us know if you need anything.

• 22:27Andrea Gunning?

  Their words floated through her. She could hardly hear them. All she could feel was the suffocating feeling swelling up higher than before.

• 22:37Speaker 02

  I drove right to the block, bought the most heroin that I could buy. I shot up and my intention was to overdose.

• 22:48Andrea Gunning?

  Hours later, Amber woke up in her car.

• 22:52Speaker 02

  Of course, I didn't die. I wake up and I'm like, God damn it. The sun is down. I'm like totally disoriented and I'm like looking around. I've been robbed. Like they ripped the stereo out of my car.

• 23:06Andrea Gunning?

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

• 23:19Speaker 02

  Everyone's just like, oh, God, we know that we messed up. The system messed up. We almost have this girl killed. Let's just leave her to her own demise.

• 23:27Andrea Gunning?

  Right when she needed someone to lean in and support her through the trauma of testifying against her trafficker, everyone backed off.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  The cops are like, we're going to support you. We're not going to charge you anymore. My PO is like, we're just going to have you check in by email. We're not going to have you drug test or anything. So of course I just continued to use.

• 23:47Andrea Gunning?

  When her trafficker's criminal trial finally came, Amber didn't return to court to testify against him.

• 23:54Speaker 02

  And they had to drop charges because the victim wasn't there to testify. And so they let him out of jail and he was a free man.

• 24:03Andrea Gunning?

  Knowing her trafficker was out of jail, Amber was on edge.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  I knew I couldn't go to sleep. So I'm just doing as much cocaine as possible and trying to stay up.

• 24:13Andrea Gunning?

  Amber had been up for several days. She was in her car driving around Midvale when she crashed.

• 24:20Speaker 02

  I just remember like boom, boom, crash, crash, crash. I hit my head on the steering wheel and I sit back and I try to open my eyes.

• 24:29Andrea Gunning?

  She realized she was in front of the police department.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  I have sideswiped all of the cars in front of Midvale City Police Department.

• 24:39Andrea Gunning?

  Amber was taken to the hospital and then to jail.

• 24:43Speaker 02

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

• 25:09Andrea Gunning?

  During her sentence, she kept to herself and stayed sober.

• 25:14Speaker 02

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

• 25:31Andrea Gunning?

  She thought about all the people that had harmed her, all the systems that had failed her along the way.

• 25:37Speaker 02

  My brain is on fire and I'm just becoming more and more pissed off.

• 25:41Andrea Gunning?

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

• 25:51Speaker 02

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

• 26:28Andrea Gunning?

  If you've ever tried to find a psychiatrist who takes your insurance, you know how frustrating it can be. Long wait lists, no availability, or finding out they don't accept your insurance at all. That's why I'm excited to tell you about Talkiatry. Talkiatry is a 100% online psychiatry practice that provides comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, and ongoing medication management for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, and more. Unlike therapy-only platforms, Talkiatry connects you with licensed medical providers who can diagnose mental health conditions and prescribe medication when it's appropriate. Their 800-plus clinicians are in-network with major insurers. And getting started is simple.

• 27:12Andrea Gunning?

  Just complete a short online assessment, get matched with a clinician who fits your needs, and you can schedule your first appointment in days, not months. Plus, you'll continue seeing the same provider so your treatment can grow with you over time. Head to talkiatry.com/betrayal to complete this short assessment and get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in just a few minutes. That's T-A-L-K-I-A-T-R-Y.com/betrayal to get matched in minutes. Talkiatry.com/betrayal. Talkiatry.com/betrayal. One thing I've learned from producing true crime these past few years is that life can change in an instant. Most people never expect to find themselves in a dangerous situation.

• 27:57Andrea Gunning?

  They're heading home from work, walking the dog, meeting a friend, traveling alone, and they assume it's just another ordinary day until it isn't. That's why I want you to know about Saber Smart Pepper Spray. Yes, it's designed to help protect you, but what makes it different is the connected app. If you're ever forced to use it in an emergency, it can alert your emergency contacts and share your location. So when every second matters, the people who care about you most aren't left wondering where you are. They're not left searching. They're not left guessing. They know where to start. We can't always predict the unexpected, but we can be prepared for it. Learn more at saberred.com/betrayal. That's saberred.com/betrayal.

• 28:42Andrea Gunning?

  You know the saying, "Knowledge is power"? Well, it's a lot more than that. Knowledge can be growth, security, opportunity. And no one knows that better than Southern New Hampshire University. That's why they offer over 200 online degree programs designed to help you reach your goals. Set yourself up for success or get ready to pivot into something new. No matter your program, you'll learn practical, career-focused skills you can use on the job. And don't worry, getting your degree online doesn't mean doing it alone. Southern New Hampshire University has some of the best student support and online education. From day one to graduation, you'll have friendly, knowledgeable people to help you with everything,

• 29:25Andrea Gunning?

  from applying and financial aid to tutoring and career development. At Southern New Hampshire University, knowledge can be life-changing. Get started at SNHU.edu/betrayal. That's SNHU.edu/betrayal.

• 29:43Andrea Gunning?

  When Amber's prison sentence ended, she went straight into treatment for her mental health.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  I needed months and months of extreme trauma therapy at every kind of level of care you can think of.

• 29:56Andrea Gunning?

  After nine months, Amber was ready to leave treatment.

• 29:59Speaker 02

  I was in a place now where I felt stable and strong, and I knew I wasn't going to return back to drugs.

• 30:05Andrea Gunning?

  She started school, working on a degree in computer science and information systems. And she had a new purpose in life, to help survivors of sex trafficking in Utah. She knew something had to change.

• 30:19Speaker 02

  I was pissed. I was really pissed. I had watched a lot of people really, really destroy survivors with their rescues.

• 30:28Andrea Gunning?

  The most glaring problem Amber saw was the lack of support and resources for survivors after they were rescued by law enforcement.

• 30:36Speaker 02

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

• 30:50Andrea Gunning?

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

• 31:10Speaker 02

  Like needle exchange, condoms, wound care, Narcan and naloxone.

• 31:16Andrea Gunning?

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

• 31:30Speaker 02

  We saw this new organization hit the street. It's called Exodus. Exit us.

• 31:36Andrea Gunning?

  Amber reached out to the organization on Facebook.

• 31:39Speaker 02

  Like, hey, I'm a survivor in Utah. I want to find out what you're doing. I want to talk to you.

• 31:45Andrea Gunning?

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

• 32:00Speaker 02

  I remember listening to her. I'm like, gosh, she is captivating.

• 32:04Andrea Gunning?

  Her name was Candace Rivera.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  And she happened to be the founder of Exodus. I was like, oh, they're still on the scene.

• 32:14Andrea Gunning?

  After the event, Amber sent Candace a message.

• 32:18Speaker 02

  Hey, I see Exodus starting to like catch some traction here. I want to meet you.

• 32:24Andrea Gunning?

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

• 32:35Speaker 02

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

• 32:45Andrea Gunning?

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

• 32:55Speaker 02

  And I remember arriving to her house up on Alpine. It was this huge, beautiful home. I remember just walking in this home, and I was like, whoa.

• 33:03Andrea Gunning?

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

• 33:17Speaker 02

  She was just getting started, you know? But she was meeting the right people and talking to the right people and also had this passion of bridging law enforcement with nonprofit work. And I was like, oh, shit. Okay, this looks really promising.

• 33:34Andrea Gunning?

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

• 33:46Speaker 02

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

• 34:03Andrea Gunning?

  And beyond that, Amber just liked talking to her. Candace was bold, confident, direct.

• 34:10Speaker 02

  Utah's very conservative, and to get my point across, I'm really annoying and loud. And like, she was kind of the same way.

• 34:17Andrea Gunning?

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

• 34:35Speaker 02

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

• 34:49Andrea Gunning?

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

• 35:04Speaker 02

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

• 35:14Andrea Gunning?

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

• 35:21Speaker 02

  I was like, okay. I've been looking for a nonprofit that will exercise a lot of funding into aftercare. And so I'm going to align with this nonprofit, and I'm just going to put all my fire into it.

• 35:37Andrea Gunning?

  She told Candace she was all in. She wanted to volunteer as much as she could to help the organization grow.

• 35:43Speaker 02

  Let's get this thing going, and let's do it right. Let's get it up off the ground.

• 35:48Andrea Gunning?

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

• 36:11Speaker 02

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

• 36:23Andrea Gunning?

  Amber began working directly with survivors.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  Law firms would reach out to me, and they'd be like, hey, we've identified this survivor. She wants to get out. She's identified her trafficker. She needs safe housing. She needs detox. And I'd jump right in, like, okay, Candace, here's a survivor. I'm going to utilize Polaris Project for flights, Safe House Project for placement, LDS Hospital for detox. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, do it all.

• 36:50Andrea Gunning?

  As they began working closely together, Candace offered Amber one-on-one coaching to help her achieve her goals. Amber was eager to learn from Candace.

• 37:00Speaker 02

  I felt like there's this top-level executive, nurse, single mom, boss babe, that was taking me under her wing.

• 37:08Andrea Gunning?

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

• 37:26Speaker 02

  I really kind of let her into my most vulnerable spaces, inside my mind and my goals and what I wanted and some of my secrets.

• 37:33Andrea Gunning?

  After a few mentoring sessions, Candace told Amber that she thought it would be really powerful if Amber shared her story publicly.

• 37:42Speaker 02

  To promote what aftercare can do for a survivor and how Exodus can be that organization.

• 37:49Andrea Gunning?

  Amber always had to fight hard to be heard, kicking down doors herself. Now Candace was offering her a powerful platform.

• 37:58Speaker 02

  I really wanted to utilize this and try to make other survivors' voices heard. And I had an endless amount of fire in me to do it.

• 38:06Andrea Gunning?

  But if Amber was going to get on stage and represent Exodus, Candace had some recommendations on how Amber presented herself.

• 38:15Speaker 02

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

• 38:34Andrea Gunning?

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

• 38:46Speaker 02

  She had an entire series happening with KUTV, Channel 2 News, here in Utah, about what trafficking looks like in Salt Lake City. And we would take these news broadcasters out on the streets at night in these high-crime areas and let them witness it for themselves.

• 39:04Andrea Gunning?

  Candace Rivera is the CEO and founder of Exodus. She took us along on the community outreach work her teams do nightly. It's around 10 o'clock on a weeknight downtown Salt Lake City.

• 39:17Andrea Gunning?

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

• 39:31Speaker 02

  Different news agencies and executives in the valley, wealthy individuals who wanted to donate.

• 39:39Andrea Gunning?

  Even when they were surrounded by powerful people, Candace made Amber feel like the most important person in the room.

• 39:46Speaker 02

  She would take me right to these individuals. And she's like, this is the Amber I was telling you about.

• 39:52Andrea Gunning?

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

• 40:07Speaker 02

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

• 40:28Andrea Gunning?

  As a forward-facing advocate, Amber developed relationships with various law enforcement agencies, including Homeland Security.

• 40:38Speaker 02

  They were looking to step into the arena of anti-trafficking efforts and what that actually looks like in Utah.

• 40:44Andrea Gunning?

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

• 40:56Speaker 02

  They brought a lot of different nonprofits in, and they ultimately asked me which one I wanted to work with. And of course, I chose Exodus.

• 41:06Andrea Gunning?

  During this time, the NBA All-Star Games were coming to Utah.

• 41:11Speaker 02

  Anytime there's a large sporting event, we're going to see an influx of all trafficking, drug trafficking, human trafficking, gambling.

• 41:19Andrea Gunning?

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

• 41:37Speaker 02

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

• 41:51Andrea Gunning?

  The operation was successful. They exited multiple survivors and arrested their traffickers. The sting operation was covered on the news, highlighting Candace's leadership.

• 42:01Speaker 03

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

• 42:15Andrea Gunning?

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

• 42:31Speaker 02

  She would leave and take our international ops teams to different areas.

• 42:38Andrea Gunning?

  Amber wasn't involved in this work. She only knew the basic details of what Exodus' international teams were working on.

• 42:45Speaker 02

  Afghanistan. We had our individuals that we were going to exit, whole generations of families, sometimes 40 people. They were safe housing and transport in an ops team trying to escape the Taliban.

• 42:57Andrea Gunning?

  Candace was really passionate about the work Exodus was doing internationally, but it made Amber uncomfortable.

• 43:04Speaker 02

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

• 43:18Andrea Gunning?

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

• 43:35Speaker 02

  I wasn't going to come on full-time until we had this done. This was my dream.

• 43:40Andrea Gunning?

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

• 43:53Speaker 02

  And she's like, "We did it. Your dream has come true. I'm signing the paperwork right here."

• 44:03Andrea Gunning?

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

• 44:15Speaker 02

  Just tears of gratitude. All these extracurricular things I was doing with Exodus were worth it. Putting on the representative and out in the middle of the night doing outreach. This is what I've been praying and working tirelessly for, and all of it is paying off.

• 44:35Andrea Gunning?

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

• 44:47Speaker 02

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

• 44:56Andrea Gunning?

  Finally, her first day arrived.

• 44:59Speaker 02

  Okay, I'm here. I'm full-time. I'm getting a paycheck. Now, let's do this.

• 45:04Andrea Gunning?

  She was ready to hit the ground running, but to her surprise...

• 45:09Speaker 02

  Those first couple of days, it was really lax.

• 45:12Andrea Gunning?

  Nobody was reaching out to her to tell her what to do or where to jump in.

• 45:17Speaker 02

  Like, okay, well, maybe I just need to be more assertive.

• 45:22Andrea Gunning?

  So she reached out to Candace and her personal assistant, Aura.

• 45:26Speaker 02

  I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to get a meeting. I need to have access to SharePoint."

• 45:30Andrea Gunning?

  SharePoint is the platform where Exodus stored all of their documents and files. Candace responded right away.

• 45:37Speaker 02

  "Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, let's do it. Let's do it."

• 45:41Andrea Gunning?

  But then, for three days, it was just more silence.

• 45:46Speaker 02

  I'm feeling so guilty. I'm taking a paycheck, and now I'm twiddling my thumbs, like, what in the hell? That can't be what the leadership position is.

• 45:54Andrea Gunning?

  So she reached out to Candace again. She told her she needed to be fully on-boarded.

• 45:59Speaker 02

  This is an organization that's been into different nations across the world. I'm expecting there to be some very streamlined systems in place. Candace is like, "Oh, yeah, Aura has access to all of that stuff."

• 46:13Andrea Gunning?

  So Amber reached out to Aura.

• 46:15Speaker 02

  And Aura is like, "Oh, okay. Well, let me talk to Candace first because I haven't heard that." It's like this weird communication's happening, and it's stalling. Red flags are going off inside of me. I'm like, what in the hell is going on?

• 46:30Andrea Gunning?

  Finally, Aura had an update.

• 46:33Speaker 02

  She's like, "Meet me over at Candace's house. I found a laptop for you." I go over to Candace's house, and I get this laptop, and I get the login to the SharePoint for Exodus, company-wide.

• 46:45Andrea Gunning?

  What she saw next stunned her.

• 46:48Speaker 02

  I'm looking at it, and it isn't enough documentation to fill a short story for a children's novel. I'm literally shocked. Something is wrong.

• 47:01Andrea Gunning?

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

• 47:20Speaker 02

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

• 47:37Andrea Gunning?

  She asked Candace why all these documents were missing.

• 47:40Speaker 02

  And Candace, like, some of this stuff is confidential, and a lot of this stuff would have to be redacted.

• 47:48Andrea Gunning?

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

• 48:02Speaker 02

  We're going to turn this house into a survivor house. Downstairs will be Level 1. They'll need medical. They'll need detox. Upstairs will be girls that are a little bit more stabilized, just need continuing case management.

• 48:15Andrea Gunning?

  This was a much-needed resource. Amber was surprised that Candace was willing to turn her own home into survivor housing. It was so generous.

• 48:25Speaker 02

  This house is phenomenal. This house is huge. It's got a hot tub in the backyard. It is right on the front of the Wasatch Mountains. Like, it's stunning.

• 48:35Andrea Gunning?

  Candace asked Amber to take the lead on the redesign and decoration.

• 48:39Speaker 02

  She's like, "I want you to be able to decorate it all. I want you to pick out the paint schemes, the beds, the linens, all of it."

• 48:48Andrea Gunning?

  Candace told her she'd hired decorators to implement Amber's design choices. Amber could hardly believe it.

• 48:55Speaker 02

  Of course, I'm super excited about this. I'm already working with several survivors in Utah that could absolutely benefit from this.

• 49:02Andrea Gunning?

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

• 49:12Speaker 02

  I want you to start cleaning out the basement and organize all the donations, all the medical supplies. Get it ready for these decorators to come in.

• 49:23Andrea Gunning?

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

• 49:33Speaker 02

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

• 49:43Andrea Gunning?

  So Amber just focused on getting Candace's house ready.

• 49:47Speaker 02

  I'm working my butt off, taking things off the walls, patching holes, taking trash to dumps, grinding it out, nine, 10 hours a day.

• 49:58Andrea Gunning?

  Exodus had worked with the Attorney General's Office on a few rescue operations, but then one day, Amber heard that one of their projects had been abruptly called off.

• 50:08Speaker 02

  As victims were identified sitting right there, perps were in handcuffs, and walked off the op. It was shocking.

• 50:16Andrea Gunning?

  At the time, this decision to call off the operation didn't make sense to Amber. She chalked it up to internal politics, maybe a disagreement over direction between Candace and the authorities.

• 50:30Andrea Gunning?

  One morning, Amber was getting ready to go over to Candace's house.

• 50:34Speaker 02

  I'm getting my coffee, getting ready to go pull trash out of this house.

• 50:39Andrea Gunning?

  Then, her phone rang. It was Candace.

• 50:43Speaker 02

  She's panicking. "Amber, I'm being arrested." And I'm like, "For what?" And she's like, "It's the Attorney General's Office. The Attorney General's Office is arresting me. I'm at my bank. I need you to come get my car and my gun."

• 51:20Andrea Gunning?

  One thing I've learned from producing true crime these past few years is that life can change in an instant. Most people never expect to find themselves in a dangerous situation. They're heading home from work, walking the dog, meeting a friend, traveling alone, and they assume it's just another ordinary day until it isn't. That's why I want you to know about Saber Smart Pepper Spray. Yes, it's designed to help protect you, but what makes it different is the connected app. If you're ever forced to use it in an emergency, it can alert your emergency contacts and share your location. So when every second matters, the people who care about you most aren't left wondering where you are. They're not left searching. They're not left guessing. They know where to start.

• 52:04Andrea Gunning?

  We can't always predict the unexpected, but we can be prepared for it. Learn more at sabered.com/betrayal. That's sabered.com/betrayal. One morning Candace called Amber panicking.

• 52:20Speaker 02

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

• 52:41Andrea Gunning?

  Amber sprang into action.

• 52:43Speaker 02

  I know this area, right? I know charges. I know jails. I know how to bail out. Now we're talking. I can manage this part.

• 52:53Andrea Gunning?

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

• 53:10Speaker 02

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

• 53:25Andrea Gunning?

  Amber had always known Aura to be Candace's best friend.

• 53:28Speaker 02

  What do you mean? You don't know who to trust anymore? You're gonna jump ship right when your boss, best friend needs you the most? What the hell is going on?

• 53:42Andrea Gunning?

  Then Amber's phone started ringing again. It was Candace.

• 53:46Speaker 02

  She's devastated, crying. She's like, Amber, there's so many charges. I'm like, well, what is it? She's like, Amber, they just made up so much stuff about me. It's all lies, Amber. It's all lies. I was like, I know Candace. Like, I know. We're gonna get you out of there. Don't worry. I'm still in rescue mode. I'm like, I gotta get my girl out of there. I'm contacting Bell Bonds, but seeing if they can see anything on booking sheets. They can't see anything yet. So we just have to wait.

• 54:13Andrea Gunning?

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

• 54:23Speaker 02

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

• 54:37Andrea Gunning?

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

• 54:50Speaker 02

  And on our ride up there, the story makes the news.

• 54:58Speaker 04

  Founder of anti-human trafficking nonprofit faces more than 30 felony charges, including theft, fraud, and forgery. Candace Alexandria Leard, also known as Candace Rivera, reportedly made claims to be a physician, a physician's assistant, and a nurse, but she was never licensed or registered in Utah. Repeatedly made false representations to donors who gave money to support the fight against human trafficking.

• 55:25Speaker 02

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

• 55:43Andrea Gunning?

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

• 56:01Speaker 02

  None of this is making sense to me.

• 56:04Andrea Gunning?

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

• 56:21Speaker 02

  I just started banging on the walls. And then I started to come alive a little bit. I'm just beating the shit out of this house with a sledgehammer, raging.

• 56:32Andrea Gunning?

  Eventually, they had to go back home. It was time to face whatever dark reality was unfolding in the canyon below.

• 56:39Speaker 02

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

• 56:59Andrea Gunning?

  She got on the phone with one of her contacts in politics who worked for a congressman.

• 57:04Speaker 02

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

• 57:18Andrea Gunning?

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

• 57:38Speaker 02

  I'm scrolling and scrolling and scrolling through all of them. And I'm like, this cannot be real. This can't be real. These people have it wrong.

• 57:49Andrea Gunning?

  Amber called another one of her contacts in Homeland Security. They already knew.

• 57:54Speaker 02

  And they're like, we're so sorry. We respect you. We love you. And we'll do anything we can to help you through this. And it's still not sticking. I'm still just angry.

• 58:04Andrea Gunning?

  Then Amber got another alarming call from one of her law enforcement contacts.

• 58:09Speaker 02

  And they're like, Amber, I can't get a hold of anybody from Exodus. Where is our survivor?

• 58:20Andrea Gunning?

  Exodus still had open cases and law enforcement needed Amber's help locating one of their survivors and making sure she was safe.

• 58:28Speaker 02

  Okay, just relax. Calm down, breathe. I gotta lock in. I've gotta identify and locate and we gotta figure this out. There's real cases that are happening and being jeopardized right now.

• 58:41Andrea Gunning?

  Reporters were also reaching out to Amber, asking for comment, but she didn't know what to tell them.

• 58:47Speaker 02

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

• 59:03Andrea Gunning?

  So she reached out to the Attorney General's office. She wanted to hear the information straight from the source. The investigator got on the phone with Amber and started walking her through the charges.

• 59:13Speaker 02

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

• 59:24Andrea Gunning?

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

• 59:45Speaker 02

  I'm like, oh, God, I remember that.

• 59:49Andrea Gunning?

  She remembered Candace talking about how she'd been able to afford the down payment. At the time, Candace told her.

• 59:55Speaker 02

  She had explained she was dating the heir to Hallmark and he had given her money for a down payment on her house.

• 1:00:04Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:00:22Speaker 02

  Hundreds of thousands of dollars are gonna be coming in from donors that went to her own personal expenses.

• 1:00:29Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:00:54Speaker 02

  I learned that she was never a nurse.

• 1:00:57Andrea Gunning?

  Candace gave trafficking survivors prescription medications, evaluated wounds, and made medical recommendations. It was later reported in outlets like Us Weekly and Yahoo News that in her international work, Candace performed medical procedures and administered drugs to sick children, all without having a license. The darkest part of her crimes don't even appear on her long list of charges. Unicorn Girl, a recent investigative podcast about Candace's crimes, reported on her international work. Candace reportedly connected with families trying to flee Afghanistan and promised them she could be the one to facilitate their evacuation. She gave them a specific location

• 1:01:41Andrea Gunning?

  where they would need to meet her. She insisted she and her team would be there to bring them to safety. But she wasn't.

• 1:01:48Speaker 02

  She never went into Afghanistan.

• 1:01:52Speaker 02

  Flew to Dubai and spoiled herself, bought new Rolexes and clothes and traded herself to the finer things that Dubai has to offer when people were dying, waiting to be exited. Some of them lost their lives, sometimes an entire family were killed by the Taliban.

• 1:02:10Andrea Gunning?

  Investigator took his time explaining all of this to Amber and answered her questions.

• 1:02:16Speaker 02

  He's being very patient with me. He's explaining to me where some money came from, where it went, where she's spent it. And I'm starting to come to terms with, oh, my God, this sounds real.

• 1:02:30Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:02:45Speaker 02

  And then I get a call from Candace from the jail. I'm like, Candace, I just got off the phone with the agency's office and they're saying this and this. They said that no one was ever even rescued from Afghanistan. And she's like, Amber, they're lying.

• 1:03:04Andrea Gunning?

  Amber started pressing her about specifics, like the $200,000 donation that Candace stole to pay for the down payment of her house.

• 1:03:12Speaker 02

  I was like, Candace, what did you do with this $200,000 that was sent? She was like, that was a mistake. And I just immediately could recognize the lie.

• 1:03:22Andrea Gunning?

  Amber kept pressing her, demanding answers.

• 1:03:26Speaker 02

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

• 1:03:40Andrea Gunning?

  For the rest of the phone call, Candace insisted that she was innocent.

• 1:03:44Speaker 02

  And that was the last time she ever called. It was the last time she ever called. I think she knew she had been caught.

• 1:03:55Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:04:06Speaker 02

  I was trying to transmute my experience into something good for the better, for a spiritual purpose.

• 1:04:13Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:04:27Speaker 02

  Candace took my story and made millions off of it for herself, living this lavish lifestyle and utilizing my story for credibility and for her own personal gain.

• 1:04:44Andrea Gunning?

  Candace even coached Amber to tell her story in a very specific way, a way that would encourage people to open their pocketbooks.

• 1:04:52Speaker 02

  And would work on how I spoke and how I delivered things. And I did feel like she was genuinely invested in me, unusually so. I mean, looking back, it was grooming.

• 1:05:07Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:05:18Speaker 02

  Just to get me off her back of asking questions of what the hell was going on with the paperwork? What is going on with the officiality of this organization?

• 1:05:31Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:05:56Speaker 02

  Our values and what we were doing were completely different. And my face was attached to it. And a lot of people had trusted her because I asked them to. It was the most disgusting feeling, knowing that I had taken some part in all of this. Oh, it shattered my soul.

• 1:06:16Andrea Gunning?

  Amber endured so many betrayals of trust in her lifetime by her stepfather, her trafficker, as well as institutional betrayals that left her to fall through the cracks when she needed support the most. It took years of hard work to open herself up to trust again. And then Candace, the person that she let in, betrayed her too. In the days after Amber learned the truth, her mental health took a turn for the worse. After a few days without sleep, she knew she needed help. She arranged for childcare and checked herself into a residential mental health treatment facility.

• 1:06:54Speaker 02

  They took care of me until I re-acclimated back into my body.

• 1:07:00Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:07:26Andrea Gunning?

  The only hearing Amber attended was the one where they set the date for Candace's sentencing hearing.

• 1:07:32Speaker 02

  And we're sitting there and we're determining the day that she's going to be sentenced. And they set it on the presidential election day.

• 1:07:40Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:08:02Speaker 02

  Her attorney's like, yeah, that's fine with me. And the judge looks at the prosecutor, yeah, that's fine with me too. I'm like, stand up. And I'm like, well, it ain't fine with me. Just at the top of my lungs. And the judge snaps her head up and locks eyes with me. And she could tell she's just angry. And I'm like, oh, shit.

• 1:08:21Andrea Gunning?

  The judge was not pleased, but Amber's complaint worked. Candace's sentencing hearing was rescheduled for October 22, 2024. Amber watched the sentencing via Zoom.

• 1:08:33Speaker 02

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

• 1:08:43Andrea Gunning?

  That day, Candace Leard was sentenced to three to 15 years in prison.

• 1:08:50Speaker 02

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

• 1:09:06Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:09:22Speaker 02

  I don't know if people can really conceptualize how dangerous she is because it just looks like money crimes, like white collar crimes. And that's not true. It's actually a lot deeper than that. People were hurt.

• 1:09:36Andrea Gunning?

  Since the truth about Exodus and Candace has come out, law enforcement is reticent to collaborate with anti-trafficking nonprofits in Utah.

• 1:09:44Speaker 02

  Nobody trusts anybody. Survivors don't trust law enforcement, don't trust nonprofits. Everyone's fallen through the cracks.

• 1:09:51Andrea Gunning?

  In society, we think we know what a dangerous person looks like.

• 1:09:55Speaker 02

  The people that I'm used to and the people that I was in prison with, it was very obvious we were criminals, right?

• 1:10:01Andrea Gunning?

  But perpetrators like Candace?

• 1:10:03Speaker 02

  They present very well. These ones are like snakes in the grass. They go unnoticed and unseen for a long time and do a lot more damage. It is terrifying.

• 1:10:24Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:10:41Speaker 02

  I was no longer trying to present as articulate and position myself in a professional manner, be within the bounds. I'm an out-of-bounds kind of girl now.

• 1:10:54Andrea Gunning?

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

• 1:11:11Speaker 02

  I've been pretty quiet about my experience, but I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I ultimately want to stop her and I want to stop people exploiting the anti-trafficking community. And so in preparation for this tentative hearing, I wanted to make sure that my story got out. And I hope that that information gets accurately portrayed and that the Board of Partisans of Parole can understand the complexity of who they're dealing with and how dangerous she is to our society. I don't want to go quietly into the night.

• 1:11:57Andrea Gunning?

  On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.

• 1:12:01Andrea Gunning?

  My mind is racing. We have another person who is absolutely trying to sabotage this.

• 1:12:10Andrea Gunning?

  But why?

• 1:12:21Andrea Gunning?

  If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please email [email protected]. That is [email protected]. Please note that we are not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help or dial 911. Please contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes, we've included a list of US-based resources. You can follow us on Instagram at BetrayalPod or find me at It's Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal

• 1:13:04Andrea Gunning?

  community, join our Substack at betrayal.substack.com. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five-star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason. Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. Written and produced by Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique LaBord. Also produced by Ben Fetterman. Our associate producer is Leah Jablow.

• 1:13:47Andrea Gunning?

  Production management by Kristin Melchurey. Booking support by Curry Richmond. Our iHeart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krychek. Audio editing by Tanner Robbins with additional editing and mixing by Matt Talbekio. Voice acting by Carrie Hartman. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by MyB Music. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:14:22Andrea Gunning?

  Okay, so buying a new car or new home starts by building credit, right? So how do you start building credit? Easy, with OnePay's Builder Card. There's no credit check and no monthly or annual fees. Just a card that helps you build credit to reach goals like buying a car or a home. When you finally make that big purchase, like buying a house, it's such an incredible feeling of accomplishment. You know how much work and how many little steps went into getting there, so finally reaching that milestone just feels amazing. Download the OnePay app or visit onepay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters.

• 1:14:58Speaker 01

  OnePay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Builder Card results may vary and aren't guaranteed. Learn more about banking through OnePay at onepay.com/podcast. Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 1:15:43Speaker 01

  In business, there's the easy way with Staples or the hard way. Hard means... Hey, did you proof the signs before having them printed? I think so. Because we're having a clearance sale, not a Clarence sale. Oh, big difference.

• 1:15:55Speaker 03

  Easy means professional-looking prints every time. Don't choose hard, choose Staples. And now at Staples, get 25% back in points on all custom prints. That was easy. Shop Staples online, in-store, or in the app. Ends 10/31, limit $250 and earn points. $100 minimum purchase. Exclusions apply. See app for details. Sprained wrist, ankle twist, broken thumb can't make a fist, busted knee, surgery, that patch of ice you didn't see. Where pain starts, Gernavix's estrogen begins. Gernavix is a non-opioid 50-milligram prescription tablet for adults with moderate to severe acute pain that reduces pain signals before they reach the brain. Tendon tear, nose repair, tripping on that broken stair, dislocation, operation, moped crash while on vacation.

• 1:16:40Speaker 03

  Do not take Gernavix with SIP3A inhibitors. Avoid use with grapefruit or liver problems, as these may increase side effects. Tell your doctor about all your medicines if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Gernavix may make certain medicines and birth control less effective. Side effects include itching, muscle spasms, rash, and elevated muscle enzymes.

• 1:16:57Andrea Gunning?

  Joint displacement, knee replacement, fell on marbles in the basement, ladder slip, broken hip, that rock climb where you lost your grip.

• 1:17:06Speaker 03

  To learn more about Gernavix, ask your doctor, call 1-833-589-PAIN, or visit gernavix.com.

• 1:17:13Andrea Gunning?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.