Pod Insights Betrayal Leona | Betrayal Weekly About this episode On the eve of Leona’s wedding, disturbing messages from an unknown number threaten to derail everything. What starts as a nuisance soon becomes a mystery that consumes her hometown.
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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.
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Transcript 10,314 words · 8 speakers
0:00 Speaker 00 Hi, everyone. We have some exciting news to share. ABC News Studios has turned Caroline Borrega's story from Betrayal, season four, into a docu-series. You'll get to meet the people involved, you'll hear from people who have never spoken before, and you get to see where this story took place. We are so proud and excited to share it with you all. Stream Betrayal: Dirty Secrets now on Hulu or Hulu for Disney+. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
0:28 Speaker 01 My name is Jessa. One of the things I love the most about working for United Healthcare is that everybody matters. Every moment matters. There's a person behind every problem. I care because it's what I was put on this earth to do.
0:44 Speaker 02 I'm Ben, and I work at United Healthcare. I am just one piece of a larger puzzle, but every piece matters. It's more than just work. We want to make the healthcare system better for everyone. I care because I want to make a difference. That's what committed to care means to me.
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1:39 Speaker 00 to help you with everything, 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.
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2:59 Speaker 04 I just lost my mind. It felt like someone opened my brain and it was spilling onto the floor. Everything I had known to be true was just not.
3:26 Speaker 00 I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything.
3:38 Speaker 00 For this episode, we've anonymized all the names and locations.
3:45 Speaker 00 Leona grew up in the Midwest, in a town where nobody was a stranger.
3:50 Speaker 04 This town is tiny. There's less than 5,000 people here, so everybody knows everybody.
3:56 Speaker 00 Her family has lived there for four generations.
4:00 Speaker 04 It's hard to go anywhere and not be running into somebody that I know or know someone in my family.
4:06 Speaker 00 Just outside of town, the landscape gives way to huge fields of corn and soybeans. It's a big farming community. Lots of kids at Leona's school were part of a youth organization called FFA, Future Farmers of America.
4:22 Speaker 04 During FFA Week, everyone drove their tractors to school.
4:27 Speaker 00 Growing up, Leona spent a lot of time with her younger sister. They were close, and Leona was protective of her. She's an oldest child to her core.
4:37 Speaker 04 I am definitely type A personality. I want everything to be perfect. I'm a black and white person. I do not do well with gray, so I have to follow the rules.
4:48 Speaker 00 Her family didn't have a lot of money. And if Leona wanted to go to the movies, grab dinner with friends, or go on class field trips, she had to come up with the money herself.
4:59 Speaker 04 I started working pretty much full-time at 16. And so I would go to school till 3:00, get to work at 3:30, be there till 10:00.
5:09 Speaker 00 After high school, Leona stayed in her hometown and lived with her parents. She was still a teenager and was saving up money to move out. She dreamed of moving to a bigger city one day, but she needed more financial stability.
5:24 Speaker 04 Nobody in my family has been to college, so all I had known was you start working.
5:31 Speaker 00 At 18, Leona started working at her state's Department of Revenue.
5:36 Speaker 04 Shortly after I started that position, I got a friend request on Facebook.
5:41 Speaker 00 It was from a guy she went to high school with. His name was Eden. They had never been close, and she only remembered a couple of vague things about him.
5:51 Speaker 04 He was a grade above me. He was in theater. And I remember seeing him on stage when I would go watch the performances, but I wasn't going to see him.
6:02 Speaker 00 She accepted his friend request. Then Eden sent her a message, asking her how she was doing. The two started chatting.
6:11 Speaker 04 Where are you living? Things like that, catching up about what life looked like for the last couple of years.
6:18 Speaker 00 Eden told her that he had joined the military and was living a few states away. She told him about her new job and caught him up on what was happening back home. She started to look forward to Aiden's messages.
6:31 Speaker 04 It was exciting because I was getting attention and it was from someone who got out of our town. So I was like, okay, maybe I have some chance of getting out of this tiny town.
6:44 Speaker 00 They messaged back and forth for months, then the holidays rolled around.
6:49 Speaker 04 In December, he said, hey, I'm back home with love to get together and have dinner.
6:55 Speaker 00 Leona agreed and a few days later.
6:58 Speaker 04 We went on our first date.
7:05 Speaker 00 Leona still remembers walking into the restaurant and seeing Aiden.
7:09 Speaker 04 He was in the military, so he was clean shaven, all the things. We sat and we talked for hours, just laughing and having such a good time. I was enthralled with him.
7:21 Speaker 00 If you had seen them at the restaurant that night, you wouldn't have believed it was their first date.
7:27 Speaker 04 We were just making jokes like we had known each other forever, just instant connection.
7:34 Speaker 00 Leona and Aiden stayed in their booth, talking and laughing long after they finished their meal. Even after four hours had gone by, Leona didn't want the date to end.
7:46 Speaker 04 It was such a significant moment for me. I can tell you exactly what booth we were sitting in. That's how vivid this memory is.
7:54 Speaker 00 As soon as she left the restaurant, she told her friends about the date.
7:59 Speaker 04 I'm not good at keeping secrets, so I can't at all. When something exciting happens in my life, like I just have to tell.
8:05 Speaker 00 Aiden was equally as excited about her.
8:08 Speaker 04 We went on the next date within the next few days.
8:12 Speaker 00 They went to the movies and saw Flight with Denzel Washington. It's an action movie about a pilot who is forced to crash land an airplane. Leona and Aiden were gripping their armrests the whole time.
8:24 Speaker 04 After we left, he was like, why in the hell did you pick that movie?
8:28 Speaker 00 They laughed about it as Aiden drove Leona home. He walked her to her front door.
8:36 Speaker 04 It was freezing outside because it was December and I remember him just shivering because he was so cold. And I remember having our first kiss on my parents' porch that night.
8:49 Speaker 00 Aiden was changing jobs within the military and was transferred to the reserves. He moved into a place an hour outside of their hometown and made the drive to see Leona whenever he had free time.
9:01 Speaker 04 He's taking me to his favorite restaurants in this town and we're just hanging out constantly. We're texting all the time, calling each other.
9:10 Speaker 00 That initial spark of attraction kept growing. Pretty soon, they were inseparable.
9:17 Speaker 04 This is a person I want to spend all my time with because I'm having so much fun. Like, we're talking about whatever, we're laughing, and I had never experienced anything like that before. So I'm like, okay, well, this is obvious that this is the person I'm supposed to be with.
9:32 Speaker 00 Aiden introduced her to his family.
9:35 Speaker 04 His dad's a preacher, his mom is a nurse. I loved them.
9:41 Speaker 00 Aiden's family loved her, too.
9:43 Speaker 04 I immediately became a part of their family. I was hanging out at their house. We were always doing stuff together.
9:51 Speaker 00 In some ways, Aiden and Leona were very different.
9:54 Speaker 04 Aiden was a very private person, and I'm the complete opposite. I'm an open book.
9:59 Speaker 00 Aiden planned everything out carefully, while Leona was spontaneous. But in many ways, they were similar. Growing up in the same town meant they understood each other's childhoods.
10:12 Speaker 04 We both were raised in a situation where our families didn't have a lot of money. So the movies were like a gift. You get one piece of candy and it was like a luxury.
10:22 Speaker 00 She and Aiden were just barely adults, not even 21, but they both made their own money and could indulge in little luxuries. These dates felt exciting.
10:34 Speaker 04 We went to the movies. That was our thing. We got to do that together and kind of heal that smaller version of the both of us that like, we didn't get to do that when we were kids, but now as adults, we get to choose to do that.
10:47 Speaker 00 It was December of 2012. A new movie had come out that they both wanted to see. The Hobbit. So they grabbed their favorite snacks and settled into their seats. Then Aiden turned to Leona and told her he had a question to ask her.
11:04 Speaker 04 He said, "Do you want to go steady with me?" I remember being like, "Absolutely. There's no question about this."
11:12 Speaker 00 It was so exciting. But in a few weeks, Aiden was leaving for the East Coast, where he'd complete his next round of military training.
11:20 Speaker 04 And so we knew our time together was gonna go by quick. And so any moment we could, we would spend time together. He ended up staying at my parents' house with us during a snowstorm.
11:33 Speaker 04 We were just hanging out in my room, and I decided to tell him that I loved him.
11:39 Speaker 00 As the snow swirled outside, Aiden told Leona that he loved her too.
11:46 Speaker 00 The next week, the day they had both been dreading arrived. It was time for Aiden to leave for the East Coast to start his new position in the military. He would fly there from a military base a few hours away from their hometown. Leona came with him to drop him off.
12:03 Speaker 04 And it was pouring rain. It was the kind of rain where the car fogs up and you don't know which temperature to put it on to figure it out.
12:13 Speaker 00 But nothing would stop them from savoring those last hours together.
12:17 Speaker 04 We were singing at the top of our lungs. We're taking pictures while we're driving, like just being in that moment of like, "We're not gonna see each other for a very long time, so we're gonna just be in it."
12:28 Speaker 00 When they said goodbye, they were both crying. The drive back home without him felt so empty.
12:35 Speaker 04 I drove home on these curvy-ass roads while it's raining, and I'm on the phone with my best friend, just bawling because I was just so sad, just crying because I'm like, "I just dropped the person off that I love."
12:46 Speaker 00 Because Aiden was switching jobs within the military, he had to go through basic training again.
12:52 Speaker 04 And because of that, he was not allowed to have a cellphone for the first several weeks. We would write handwritten letters back and forth. So very like, he's in the military, we're writing letters.
13:03 Speaker 00 In those letters, they began to dream of what they wanted their future together to look like.
13:08 Speaker 04 We knew we wanted to have kids. We were gonna live on the East Coast. We're getting married before I'm 21. You know, there was this very detailed plan.
13:16 Speaker 00 Their letters back and forth became a penciled in, hopeful blueprint for their life. When Leona missed Aiden, she reread his letters and imagined their future together. Finally, Aiden got a phone.
13:31 Speaker 04 And so Aiden had called me to like, kind of fill me in on what was going on. And then he says, "I think we should get married."
13:41 Speaker 00 Leona was overjoyed. She didn't hesitate.
13:45 Speaker 04 This is how it's supposed to be. I found my person, so why waste any more of my time?
13:50 Speaker 00 She was ready to run full speed towards the life they dreamed of. They decided to get married that Christmas. That gave them just over six months to plan the wedding.
14:01 Speaker 04 All the things started happening very quickly. When we were doing wedding planning, his mom and his sister were involved. His sister was one of my bridesmaids. I went that next week and bought my wedding dress.
14:11 Speaker 00 While they were apart, Aiden and Leona sent photos and intimate messages back and forth on Facebook Messenger.
14:20 Speaker 00 That summer, Aiden flew Leona out to visit him on the East Coast. Seeing each other in person, they were even more giddy about their wedding. They talked through every detail together. Because Aiden proposed over the phone, Leona didn't have a ring yet.
14:36 Speaker 04 And he's like, can you explain to me like, what you want your ring to look like? What do you want the band to look like? And so I'm explaining this and I'm kind of leaned up against him and he was like, "Do you want it to look like this?"
14:48 Speaker 00 Aiden pulled a ring out of his pocket.
14:51 Speaker 04 And he slid it onto my finger. And I was like, oh my God, it was bigger than I expected it to be. It was like a full carrot. It was better than I had dreamed of.
15:02 Speaker 00 She called her family right away and they celebrated with her. The rest of her visit was just as magical. They watched fireworks burst through the dark sky and explored the city.
15:14 Speaker 04 We were kind of getting a feel for what our life was gonna look like.
15:19 Speaker 00 Finally, their wedding week arrived and Aiden traveled back home.
15:25 Speaker 04 The night of our rehearsal dinner, everyone, all the bridesmaids, all the groomsmen, we went bowling afterwards.
15:34 Speaker 00 They piled into the bowling alley, ordered food and laughed watching their friends get competitive with each other.
15:41 Speaker 04 We're just having like the best time, enjoying each other's company, laughing, cutting up. No care in the world because tomorrow, we're gonna be married.
15:51 Speaker 00 But then, in the middle of the celebration, something disturbing happened.
15:56 Speaker 04 My sister starts receiving these text messages from an unknown number.
16:03 Speaker 00 Leona's little sister went pale.
16:05 Speaker 04 She was receiving pictures of someone's penis.
16:11 Speaker 00 The photos were accompanied by a slew of graphic questions.
16:15 Speaker 04 What is her opinion of the way this is shaped or sized? What do you think about this? Do you think this would be pleasurable to you?
16:23 Speaker 00 Leona was horrified. Her sister was only 17.
16:29 Speaker 04 It was just like the wind got knocked out of me and I was like, oh my God, like I'm so sorry. I mean, she's underage at this point.
16:35 Speaker 00 More and more messages flooded her sister's phone.
16:39 Speaker 04 Incessantly, we're bowling and we're immediately not having fun because my sister and I are having to deal with this. My sister's like, what the hell's going on?
16:48 Speaker 00 Nobody in their friend group recognized the number.
16:52 Speaker 04 No idea who it is. None whatsoever.
16:55 Speaker 00 Leona pulled Aiden aside to tell him what was going on. He looked disturbed.
17:01 Speaker 04 Aiden was like, "Oh, that's really bizarre."
17:04 Speaker 00 They were starting to think it was just spam, but then the messages got personal.
17:10 Speaker 04 They know who I am and they know who Aiden is. The person had hacked into my Facebook account and got all of these photos and these very specific details about our sex life.
17:25 Speaker 00 Leona thought of all the intimate exchanges she'd had with Aiden over the last few months. The thought of someone reading them made her sick. Then the text to her little sister took a turn. It started to sound like blackmail.
17:40 Speaker 04 If you don't send us nudes, then we're gonna send out these pictures and release this information about your sister and her husband's sexual relationship.
18:10 Speaker 00 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
18:51 Speaker 00 to help you with everything, 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.
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21:58 Speaker 00 On the night before Leona and Aiden's wedding, they went to a bowling alley with their friends. Everyone was having a great time, until Leona's sister started receiving disturbing text messages from an unknown number. The texts revealed that they had hacked into Leona's Facebook account and accessed hundreds of sexual images and text messages sent between her and Aiden. And now, they were threatening to release these photos and texts if Leona's sister didn't comply with their demands.
22:31 Speaker 04 If you don't send us nudes, then we're gonna send out these pictures and release this information about your sister and her husband's sexual relationship.
22:40 Speaker 00 She made her way through the bowling alley to Aiden and told him what happened.
22:45 Speaker 04 Aiden was like, "Oh, that's really bizarre."
22:47 Speaker 00 He left his circle of friends and came over to see the texts himself. When he saw the messages, his concern heightened. Aiden was a private person. Hearing that someone accessed intimate details about their sex life clearly disturbed him.
23:03 Speaker 04 You could immediately feel the air in the room just leave.
23:08 Speaker 00 Aiden told Leona's sister to ignore the messages for now. They didn't know who they were dealing with. And they needed to treat this with caution.
23:17 Speaker 04 We'll just ignore it. Let's just deal with this at a later time.
23:20 Speaker 00 They all stayed at the bowling alley until late that night and tried to have fun. Leona did her best to put it out of her mind and taken all the joy and excitement around her. But it was hard to ignore what happened. The next morning, Leona woke up and it was her wedding day.
23:38 Speaker 04 I was just so excited to like get down that aisle and see him and be with my husband like, I'm ready to start our life.
23:46 Speaker 00 Leona, Aiden, their families and friends packed into a church in their hometown. Leona walked down the aisle and met Aiden at the altar. When their eyes locked, she felt the same certainty she'd felt on their first date.
24:01 Speaker 04 I remember knowing that this was the right decision. I'm just crying and like I'm wiping a tear off my face and I was just so happy. Cause he was my best friend. He was someone I could confide in. We had these plans for our future and it was just so exciting to get it started. Let's start our life. Why are we waiting another second?
24:25 Speaker 00 The rest of the day was filled with dancing, speeches and wedding cake. Everything was joyful. She tried to stay in the moment and not let the text from the unknown number ruin the day.
24:38 Speaker 04 I put it out of my mind. This is my day. I'm not gonna let whatever it is interfere with that. We had so much fun. We're all having a good time, but there also is this like lurking chaos in the background that you can't quite ignore.
24:54 Speaker 00 Aiden only got a few days off for the wedding. They didn't have time for a honeymoon. In fact, two days after they got married, he had to return to the base. Leona had been so focused on the wedding that she didn't account for how hard the goodbye would be.
25:11 Speaker 04 The reality hit me at that point. I'm like, oh my God, this man that I love so much is about to leave. And I just immediately start crying.
25:19 Speaker 00 They said a tearful goodbye and Aiden reported back to his base on the East Coast. Leona stayed in their hometown. With the wedding over, she focused her energy on helping her sister deal with the blackmailer.
25:34 Speaker 04 I just remember being so concerned about it because it was my responsibility to take care of this.
25:42 Speaker 00 She started with the most obvious solution.
25:44 Speaker 04 I had told my sister to just block the number, but that didn't stop it. We would block the one number and then almost immediately, it would be coming from a different phone number.
25:57 Speaker 00 Then, to her horror, her little sister started receiving screenshots of Leona and Aiden's private conversations.
26:06 Speaker 04 The person had all of these photos and these very specific details about our sex life.
26:15 Speaker 00 Leona felt sick. They really had hacked into her Facebook. They'd seen everything. It was an unthinkable violation. The messages to her little sister all had the same disturbing tone. They were cruel and emasculating towards her husband. They said,
26:35 Speaker 04 I've seen photos of Aiden and he's tiny. Can you believe that your sister is with somebody like that? How embarrassing.
26:43 Speaker 00 When ignoring the messages didn't work, Leona's sister texted one of the numbers back.
26:49 Speaker 04 She would say, "Leave me alone. Stop texting me. Stop doing this." And they would just still pile in.
26:54 Speaker 00 Nothing she said made the sender back off. She refused to send intimate photos of herself and tried to just keep blocking the numbers, but it was hard to manage. After her sister had been dealing with this for three months, Leona got a text herself.
27:12 Speaker 04 They said, "Your sister isn't doing this. Now we're escalating it."
27:23 Speaker 00 After that, they sent Leona a photo, an intimate image of herself, one that she'd sent to Aiden. It was clear, this image was a bargaining chip, a threat. The messages kept coming.
27:38 Speaker 04 They were just making fun of our sex life.
27:43 Speaker 04 How embarrassing for you that you have to ask your husband to do this so you can be completely satisfied. This is embarrassing.
27:51 Speaker 00 She wanted to report it, but the idea of showing these messages to the police mortified her. The fear kept her silent, so she ignored them and blocked the number each time they sent her something new. The next month, she went to visit Aiden at his military base. It would be their last time seeing each other before his upcoming deployment. He would be gone for nearly a year. Before he left, they had a peaceful week together.
28:21 Speaker 04 It was such a great time. I was hanging out with the people that were going to be my support system while he was deployed. We went to the movies all the time. We were hanging out with his friends. It felt like nothing could get in our way. But in the meantime, we're still receiving these messages and they're getting worse.
28:39 Speaker 00 Finally, Leona snapped. She texted the number back.
28:42 Speaker 04 I told the person, I'm like, "You're ruining my life. You're invading our privacy. What I do with my husband is none of your business. You need to get a different hobby."
28:53 Speaker 00 But it became clear, humiliating her and Aiden was the hacker's full-time hobby, and they had no plans of dialing it back.
29:02 Speaker 04 Whenever they would start messaging, it would just last for hours. Even if you weren't responding, they would just spam you with information or spam you with texts. And so I'm having to stand up for my husband to this person I don't even know, and also trying to figure out how to get them to stop messaging my sister.
29:22 Speaker 00 Leona felt alone in this. A few weeks later, Aiden was deployed to Afghanistan, and she was back at home, laying awake at night, thinking about who could be behind these messages. Was it one of their friends, someone else in town, or a random stranger hundreds of miles away?
29:44 Speaker 00 Even as the messages escalated, she tried not to burden Aiden with it.
29:49 Speaker 04 I was trying to keep his feelings in check because he is literally deployed in the Middle East. So he's got his own stuff going on. Like, I have to control all of this back home. And I'm failing as a wife. This is falling on me in every way.
30:05 Speaker 00 Leona had been trying to handle everything on her own, but nothing was working. In fact, it was only getting worse. She needed help.
30:15 Speaker 04 I'm gonna go to the police about this.
30:17 Speaker 00 Leona and her sister went to the police station together.
30:22 Speaker 04 I started explaining what's been going on and they're like, okay, well, we need you to write out everything. So we sit there and we write everything down and I'm like, what are the next steps on this? What can we do to resolve this? And that's when they said, unless you've been physically attacked, there's nothing we can do.
30:41 Speaker 04 And it just felt like, why did I just waste my time writing all of this down and reporting it to you?
30:49 Speaker 00 A few weeks later, Leona was scrolling through Facebook when she saw a post that made her stop in her tracks. A girl from her high school posted about receiving strange messages from an unknown number.
31:01 Speaker 04 She posted a screenshot of the messages that she got and the photo.
31:07 Speaker 00 Reading through the messages, Leona immediately recognized the jeering tone.
31:12 Speaker 04 Look at this person's penis. What do you think about the size or the shape? Do you think this would be satisfying to you?
31:18 Speaker 00 This was clearly Leona's hacker. Her high school classmate turned to Facebook for help. She asked,
31:25 Speaker 04 Has anyone else heard from this person? Like, what is going on?
31:29 Speaker 00 Leona clicked on the comment section of the post. What she saw stunned her. Dozens of comments from other people in her town saying that they too had been getting harassing texts from an unknown number.
31:43 Speaker 04 There were so many people commenting on the post that were like, yeah, I'm also receiving these.
31:48 Speaker 00 Leona was shocked. She thought she and her sister were alone in this.
31:56 Speaker 00 Over the course of that spring, the hacker tightened their grasp on Leona's town. She saw more friends from high school post about the harassment online. No one knew who it was or how to stop them.
32:10 Speaker 04 They were using email, Facebook, text messages. It was just all the time. You never knew where it was going to come from.
32:20 Speaker 00 When Leona saw her friends or ran into her old high school classmates, the unknown number texts always came up. Their entire town was on edge.
32:31 Speaker 04 And then my close friends started getting messages. And email addresses were being spammed with this stuff. It was just encompassing every aspect of my life. Like, it was everywhere all of a sudden.
32:45 Speaker 00 More and more people came forward saying that they had received disturbing messages.
32:51 Speaker 04 I'd say everyone included probably like 20 or so people. We all went to the same high school.
32:58 Speaker 00 Leona's town is a hard place to hide. Remember, it's home to just 5,000 people. This had to be someone they all knew. Everyone was trying desperately to figure out who was lurking behind the unknown number.
33:16 Speaker 04 April, May, June, and July were just very intense with the amount of text messages. People in my community are getting stuff. People are posting about it on Facebook. Like, who else is getting these messages?
33:31 Speaker 00 For some people in their community, the messages died off or only happened once. But for Leona, they were constant.
33:40 Speaker 04 It felt so personal. What did we do?
33:44 Speaker 00 Eden and Leona were exhausted trying to figure it all out. Instead of talking about their plans for a family, all of their energy was taken up by the unknown number.
33:56 Speaker 04 Our connection is definitely strained because he's working. And, you know, the times we are talking, we're bickering about money or this person that's harassing us. He was irritated that every time we talked on the phone, we were having to deal with this. And so it was like, can I just call you and talk to you about literally anything else? We were just trying to make it till November because that's when he would come home.
34:20 Speaker 00 They began to argue more. The hacker was ruining everything in her life, and she worried her relationship with Aiden would be next.
34:30 Speaker 04 I remember just bawling my eyes out, like, I'm gonna get a divorce in less than six months because of this shit. What is going on?
34:39 Speaker 00 The harassment drove Leona into a state of constant paranoia and exhaustion.
34:44 Speaker 04 It was just chaos all the time. Everything around me, I was failing at because I couldn't figure out who this person was. I couldn't protect my sister, couldn't protect my husband.
34:56 Speaker 00 Then, the texts took a new turn. The hacker seemed to be watching her and her sister.
35:04 Speaker 04 They would know details about our comings and goings, comments about seeing us out and about. We are always looking over our shoulder.
35:15 Speaker 04 It felt like a stalker-type vibe.
35:18 Speaker 00 But she couldn't protect herself because she didn't know what or who to look for.
35:23 Speaker 04 I was panicking because I had no idea who it was.
35:27 Speaker 00 This was the last straw. Something had to change. She already knew the police couldn't help, but they needed protection. Finally, Aiden had an idea.
35:40 Speaker 04 He knows people in the military world that can figure this out. He was gonna reach out to his friends in the private investigation world, and they were gonna figure this out because of an IP address, especially if they're using a Facebook.
35:53 Speaker 00 Aiden contacted one of his friends who worked as a private investigator. Leona agreed to give it a try. Finally, Aiden called her one day with good news. The private investigator was able to trace the text messages back to an IP address.
36:10 Speaker 04 Based on these text messages, his PI people had said that they were two hours away. So it's like, okay, he's not in our community, so that seems like we're fine there.
36:21 Speaker 00 For the first time in six months, Leona felt relief. This invisible, omnipresent force had finally been pinpointed to one location, one IP address. This felt like a fixable problem.
36:37 Speaker 04 His PI then had to step in and take control of it and say something to him to just like make it stop.
36:46 Speaker 00 Sure enough, after the PI intervened, the messages from the unknown number went from a constant stream to a slow trickle. And then one day, the messages stopped entirely.
37:00 Speaker 04 This person disappeared. I don't know how this person disappeared, but they stopped.
37:05 Speaker 00 The entire town seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Her Facebook feed turned from screenshots of harassing texts back to engagement posts and photos from family reunions. Slowly, people went back to their own lives.
37:22 Speaker 00 That summer, Leona packed up and moved to a town on the East Coast near Aiden's military base. For the first time in her life, she was living 1,000 miles away from her hometown. She was 21 now, and Aiden was 23. Aiden was coming home from deployment that fall, and they were going to start their life living together for the first time. Leona wanted everything to be perfect when he got there.
37:50 Speaker 04 I decorated the house. I hung balloons. I hung photos of us, welcome home banners. I just made this whole big deal about it because I was so excited to like really start our life.
38:00 Speaker 00 Finally, the day arrived. Aiden was coming home.
38:04 Speaker 04 It was the classic movie of the guy coming home from deployment. You're in the hangar and you're waiting for him.
38:12 Speaker 04 It's the middle of the night and there's a room full of people were just waiting for our loved ones to come home and spotting him from across the room and just like wanting to run directly to him.
38:23 Speaker 00 For Leona and Aiden, this was a fresh start, a chance to refocus on their marriage and each other. They had made it out of their hometown and the stress of the unknown number felt far away. Leona hadn't received any disturbing messages in months.
38:41 Speaker 04 It was so incredible. There was no deployments on the horizon. We have our home together and we do our favorite things. We go to the movies. We have date nights.
38:53 Speaker 00 Before long, Leona found out that she was pregnant. They were both thrilled.
38:58 Speaker 04 I quit my job and just started preparing for our oldest daughter to be born.
39:05 Speaker 00 When their daughter was born, it felt like everything was clicking into place. This was how she had always envisioned their life together.
39:15 Speaker 00 As Leona settled into her new home, she made friends with other military wives.
39:20 Speaker 04 And we're hanging out with each other all the time. I become really close with one of the other wives and we're hanging out almost daily. And then, right before my oldest first birthday, I find out I'm pregnant again.
39:35 Speaker 04 When our daughter turned one, we had this big party. We invited all of our friends over.
39:40 Speaker 00 Everything seemed normal, but then, something bizarre happened.
39:46 Speaker 04 Everyone disappeared after that party. I stopped hearing from everybody after that.
39:52 Speaker 00 All of her new friends suddenly stopped talking to her, even her closest friend, who she saw almost every day.
40:01 Speaker 04 I don't understand what happened. We just stopped communicating and she doesn't answer my text messages.
40:08 Speaker 00 She told Aiden about how all of the women seemed to be ghosting her.
40:12 Speaker 04 And he's like, I think it's probably best you just distance yourself. I had a lot of things going on, so I was just like, I'm just gonna focus on my family.
40:22 Speaker 00 Leona gave birth to their second daughter. She and Aiden savored all of their time with their two girls. But their time together as a family was limited.
40:32 Speaker 04 He is gearing up for another deployment. Then he deploys six weeks after she's born, and he's gone for six months.
40:41 Speaker 00 Leona's mom stayed with her during Aiden's deployment to support her and her kids. It was hard being away from Aiden, and Leona looked for things to fill her days. She started filming makeup tutorials.
40:55 Speaker 04 I'm doing these videos of live doing makeup, and this friend that I was really close with starts popping up on my lives making comments and like, reaching back out to me.
41:06 Speaker 00 It was her close friend, who hadn't replied to her in months.
41:10 Speaker 04 And so I'm like, so excited to hear from her. So I called her, and I'm like, "I'm so excited to hear from you, but what the hell? Where have you been the last year?" And she tells me, she's like, "Well, you need to talk to your husband."
41:25 Speaker 04 And I'm like, "What do you mean?" And so she proceeds to tell me that he had been harassing all the women in the group, and all the wives of the group.
41:36 Speaker 00 Leona was confused. Aiden would never harass women. But then her friend said something chilling. Over the past year, some of the military wives had been getting strange harassing messages from an unknown number.
41:50 Speaker 04 It was the same stuff that had been happening. And they have proof that it's Aiden.
42:02 Speaker 00 That's why everyone ghosted her. Leona was still in disbelief. Her friend sent her all the screenshots they'd gathered.
42:11 Speaker 04 It took me three hours to read through all of these screenshots. They were emails, they were Facebook messages.
42:17 Speaker 00 As she read through the messages, her stomach dropped.
42:21 Speaker 04 "What do you think about this? Isn't this embarrassing?"
42:24 Speaker 00 It was the exact same language her hacker used.
42:28 Speaker 04 It felt unreal. I felt like I was looking at myself, watching myself receive this information.
42:36 Speaker 00 In that moment, everything clicked.
42:38 Speaker 04 Oh my God. It was Aiden the entire time. It was right in front of my face, and I didn't see it. He did all of this.
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47:01 Speaker 00 For six months, Leona and her husband Aiden dealt with sexually threatening texts from an unknown number. By the time they moved to the East Coast for Aiden's job in the military, the texts had stopped. But after a few years, one of Leona's friends told her the military wives had been receiving disturbing messages from an unknown number. And when she saw the messages, Leona was horrified. The texts were identical to the ones she had received back in her hometown. The pattern had repeated, even though they were 1,000 miles away. The only constants were her and Aiden. Suddenly, it was horrifyingly clear.
47:43 Speaker 04 Oh my God, it was Aiden the entire time. He did all of this.
47:51 Speaker 00 The military community figured out it was him because one of the men who works with Aiden was able to recognize him in the photos. In the military, there are often communal showers. That's how he recognized parts of Aiden's body. When Leona saw the photo, she recognized it too. It was Aiden. When this happened the first time, Leona believed her private messages with Aiden had been hacked. But now, there was no reason why these women would be receiving nude images of Aiden. Unless, he was the one sending them.
48:27 Speaker 04 This seems like a joke. What the hell is going on? I was just so pissed. And I had to wait hours before I could confront him because he was in the Middle East again. And so I had to wait almost 24 hours before I could talk to him about it.
48:42 Speaker 00 Those 24 hours crawled by slowly. Leona's reality was coming apart at the seams.
48:48 Speaker 04 I just lost my mind. It felt like someone opened my brain and it was spilling onto the floor. Everything I had known to be true was just not.
49:04 Speaker 00 She thought back to the moment this all started. A celebration the night before their wedding, when her teenage sister received graphic messages. Aiden was standing right there, pretending to be horrified.
49:17 Speaker 04 While we're all together, we're all in the same room. I mean, it was right in front of my face and I just didn't even see it.
49:24 Speaker 00 Aiden watched Leona and her sister suffer. He even pretended to hire a private investigator to stop the hacker. All the while, he was the one orchestrating all of the chaos. He was the source of their pain.
49:41 Speaker 04 He knew everything, every step of the way. How have I been duped like this?
49:47 Speaker 00 The Aiden she knew was calm, rational, and private. The texts were volatile, humiliating, and violated their privacy on every level.
49:58 Speaker 04 I don't even know who he was. My vision of who he was in the moment was just so wildly disconnected.
50:06 Speaker 00 Aiden felt like a stranger now, and a dangerous one.
50:10 Speaker 04 It's such an evil, lack-fog feeling. I don't know what love feels like. Because I thought that was it, but someone who loves you doesn't treat you like that.
50:21 Speaker 00 The next day, Leona finally got the chance to video chat with Aiden. She knew she had to be strategic.
50:28 Speaker 04 I got on the Skype call with him, trying to just stay as calm as possible. Because he can just hang up and be done. So I wanted to lull him in before I said anything to him. So we were just talking about our normal day. He's asking about the girls. And then I told him that I had talked to my friend. And he's like, oh, how'd that go? And I was like, is there anything that you want to tell me that she would be upset about? And he was like, no, I can't think of anything. And I was like, you wouldn't know why she's upset? And he was like, no, I have no idea. I said, okay, I'm gonna ask you one more time. And this time, when I ask you, I'm gonna make sure that you know that I have hundreds of screenshots that tell me otherwise.
51:12 Speaker 04 So, again, is there anything that you would like to tell me?
51:18 Speaker 00 Aiden had been calm before this moment, relaxed, but in a split second, his face rearranged into an expression she had never seen.
51:28 Speaker 04 This look on his face that has just seared into my brain forever. A deer in headlights look. He starts panicking.
51:39 Speaker 00 She asked him one last time. Did he do this?
51:44 Speaker 04 And he said, yes.
51:46 Speaker 04 I'm like, what do you mean? How could you do this to me? I have no idea who you are. And he was just so like, I'm so sorry. You mean everything to me. He's begging me not to leave him, trying to make it better.
52:02 Speaker 00 There was one question Leona wanted an answer to. Why did he do this? She couldn't understand the degrading, humiliating messages about his own body. He told her.
52:15 Speaker 04 He has low self-esteem. But he also enjoys being talked down to. This was his outlet. He likes to be humiliated.
52:25 Speaker 00 Then Aiden told her he had an explanation for everything. A medical issue.
52:31 Speaker 04 He's pretty sure he has a brain injury and he just can't control himself when it comes to that type of stuff because his brain is messed up from this deployment that he went on.
52:42 Speaker 00 Specifically, Aiden said he had a TBI, a traumatic brain injury. He got it during combat in Afghanistan when an explosion threw him against the side of a mountain. Leona remembers the call from his commanding officer when it happened. How worried she'd been. But this was the first time she learned the accident had caused a TBI. Severe TBIs can cause changes in personality, out of character, even inappropriate behavior. Aiden told Leona that his brain injury was the root of all of his behavioral issues. But this wasn't who he really was. He wanted to get help.
53:21 Speaker 04 I took some time over the next few days to like, just leave me alone. I need to process all of this.
53:28 Speaker 00 Leona felt pressure to make her marriage with Aiden work. She had put all of her eggs into this basket. They had two young kids together. She didn't have her own source of income and was completely dependent on him financially.
53:43 Speaker 04 I'm really good at compartmentalizing things and I was just grasping at every straw to like, be okay.
53:50 Speaker 00 While Aiden finished his deployment, she weighed her options.
53:55 Speaker 04 I can't leave because this is my entire life. This is my one job to make this work and I can't even do that. So I'm gonna double down and do what I can.
54:06 Speaker 00 But when Aiden came home, nothing about their relationship was the same.
54:11 Speaker 04 I didn't want to be around him. I would sleep in a different room. It felt like living with a stranger.
54:18 Speaker 00 The only thing she could hold on to was the hope that Aiden's behavior really was stemming from a brain injury, that this was a medical issue beyond his control. So she asked Aiden to get a professional opinion.
54:32 Speaker 04 And so we start down this path of getting these diagnoses.
54:38 Speaker 00 Aiden went in for imaging and testing. When the results came back, they confirmed he had a traumatic brain injury and PTSD. Leona began doing research about the diagnosis and some of the information she learned lined up with Aiden's explanation. TBIs can lead to impulsivity, disinhibition, even inappropriate sexual behavior.
55:02 Speaker 04 The day he got his brain injury diagnosis, I was like, okay, I can breathe. That's what this was. This was just how the military has shaped him and this is not his fault. I put all of my weight on that.
55:17 Speaker 00 Aiden was medically retired from the military. Leona felt like she needed to be there for him. She'd made the vow, in sickness and in health. And she clung to that. But deep down, she knew their relationship was broken.
55:32 Speaker 04 I think in the underlying, I was working on my way out. I was preparing myself.
55:39 Speaker 00 But while she was finding a way out,
55:41 Speaker 04 he starts acting just super bizarre again.
55:46 Speaker 00 He became incredibly possessive about his phone. When she asked him about it,
55:51 Speaker 04 I'm like, "Just tell me if you're cheating on me." And he looks me dead in the eyes and he goes, "Yes, I'm cheating on you."
55:58 Speaker 00 The next chapter was tumultuous. Getting out of Aiden's grasp was not a straightforward path, as is often the case with abusive relationships.
56:09 Speaker 04 While you're going through this, you're just doing anything and everything to just survive. And you're just outside of your body the entire time.
56:18 Speaker 00 Leona feared leaving Aiden on his own, with no one to care for him with his TBI. He was an expert at playing the victim, of seeming so terrified of his own behavior that somehow she ended up trying to protect him from himself.
56:37 Speaker 00 Leona would often sleep on the couch. Then, one night, after Leona fell asleep,
56:43 Speaker 04 I woke up to him choking me. And I remembered just like getting him off of me. And he gets down into the fetal position and starts crying. And he was like, "Oh, my God, I was asleep. I'm so sorry."
56:58 Speaker 00 She looked at Aiden sobbing on the ground. In that moment, it became clear to her. It didn't matter if he was sick or hurt. Either way, she was in danger.
57:11 Speaker 04 Would I want my children to stay in this situation? No.
57:15 Speaker 00 So after that, she faced Aiden. And she told him,
57:19 Speaker 04 "I'm done with this. You are not going to treat me like this. I made the decision to leave and I packed up all my stuff. And my mom and my sister came to get me in the middle of the night and get the girls."
57:32 Speaker 00 When she was out of their house, the full weight of the situation caught up with her. She was 28 years old and had two young kids.
57:41 Speaker 04 I just went off the deep end. Like, I was just so distraught. I didn't sleep for 50 hours after that. I didn't know what was up and what was down. My life exploded in front of my face. What the hell do I do next?
58:00 Speaker 00 Leona decided to divorce Aiden.
58:03 Speaker 04 We did an uncontested divorce. I agreed to anything and everything to just get it done. I needed to just get out of it alive. I was just concerned that it was either going to be me or him.
58:16 Speaker 00 Then she hired an attorney to fight for custody of her daughters.
58:20 Speaker 04 When I hired my attorney to hear her tell me that I was an abuse victim,
58:28 Speaker 04 this was the first time anyone had said that to me.
58:32 Speaker 04 I was just like, oh, my God. This really was abuse. This is very serious what I went through, and I'm lucky to be alive.
58:42 Speaker 00 Aiden's abuse severely impacted Leona's mental health. She struggled with suicidality, and it was a long road to regain stability.
58:52 Speaker 04 I just like had to pull up my bootstraps and be able to afford to take care of my children.
58:58 Speaker 00 Aiden's abuse extended beyond Leona. Her sister was very much a victim of his, too.
59:04 Speaker 04 I still struggle with that guilt to this day of like, I brought this person into our world at my family level. I brought this person into our life, and he caused so much turbulence.
59:17 Speaker 00 Leona's sister endured abuse and harassment at the hands of Aiden, starting when she was a minor. His abuse has had lasting impacts on their relationship as sisters. Growing up, Leona and her sister were close. But now?
59:34 Speaker 04 We have a very strained relationship. We've had conversations about it that have been very tearful. I would love for it to be resolved, and I know she would too, but we're just completely different because of this. You know, we were essentially abused by the same person.
59:51 Speaker 00 As far as Leona knows, Aiden really did have a TBI. But the incident that caused it happened after he had already started his online harassment. And he never mentioned the impact the TBI had on his behavior until he was caught.
1:00:08 Speaker 00 This betrayal is recent. As of today, Aiden has not been charged with any crimes. Their daughters live with Leona nearly full-time, but Aiden still sees them some weekends. Leona is still fighting for full custody of her daughters, and she plans to tell the court the full story of Aiden's harassment and abuse.
1:00:30 Speaker 04 I will make sure my children are raised in a way that they will not be abused this way. But it's hard to do when they still have to have communication with their dad. I give them the pieces to be able to recognize when things are not right. I can't ever get away from it as much as I would like to, but now how I handle him is much different.
1:00:55 Speaker 00 She's slower to trust others.
1:00:58 Speaker 04 I really have trouble giving my full trust to anybody. Having to remind myself that not every single person is out here to try to take advantage of me, learning to trust yourself, as well as a completely different piece of this puzzle that I still haven't figured out.
1:01:17 Speaker 00 She has fought hard for her independence and stability. She savors the life she's built.
1:01:22 Speaker 04 I learned how to be grateful for the little things, like curling up in bed next to my children while we're reading, the time that I spend with the people around me. Those moments hit way harder, and I'm not just blasting through life trying to survive.
1:01:43 Speaker 00 We end every weekly episode with the same question. Why do you want to share your story?
1:01:50 Speaker 04 Because this podcast changed the view that I had with what I was going through. And it finally got me to the point where I felt healed enough and came out the other end.
1:02:04 Speaker 04 It feels like a poison when you are not talking about it. The more you talk about it, the better it gets.
1:02:14 Speaker 00 On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.
1:02:17 Speaker 06 I was crying, wailing, sobbing. I didn't think that he could take anything else from me, but I was wrong. That was the last thing that he could do to me.
1:02:35 Speaker 00 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 @BetrayalPod or find me @It'sAndreaGunning. To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal
1:03:17 Speaker 00 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 Lea Jablow.
1:04:00 Speaker 00 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 Del Vecchio. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by MyMusic. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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