S3: E1 – Storybook Romance
2024-05-23 00:39:26
<p>The Betrayal community is growing. From the producers that brought you the critically acclaimed Betrayal limited run series, a new always on docuseries will hit the feed every week. Our lives are all built on an invisible force: trust. But sometimes, the people we trust the most can turn out to be complete strangers. Every week, <em>Betrayal: Weekly </em>will share first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds.</p> <p> </p> <p>Go back and listen to Betrayal Seasons 1, 2, and 3!</p> <p> </p> <p>In Season 1 we follow Jenifer Faison's journey after discovering her husband Spencer Herron's hidden life. A reality TV producer, Jen moved across the country to be with Spencer, a beloved soccer coach and award-winning teacher in Acworth, Georgia. Their seemingly idyllic seven-year marriage abruptly ended when Spencer was arrested under shocking circumstances. Jenifer's quest for closure leads her to confront the truth about her husband through candid interviews with his victims and other affected women. Through these conversations, Jen begins to heal and reclaim her life from the shadow of betrayal.</p> <p> </p> <p>In Season 2, Ashley Lytton, a suburban mom of three in Utah, faces a life-altering revelation about her husband. His shocking crime not only jeopardizes their safety but thrusts Ashley into a relentless quest for justice and protection for her daughter. Through Ashley's harrowing journey, the season exposes a pervasive issue affecting families nationwide, shedding light on a betrayal that undermines our core values and communities.</p> <p> </p> <p>In “Betrayal” Season 3, Stacey Rutherford thought she met her soulmate when she laid eyes on Dr. Justin Rutherford. They fell in love, and it was better than she ever imagined. But this family doctor, beloved father, and cherished husband had dark secrets. He had sworn to do no harm but would resort to any means necessary to save himself. </p>
I'm John Walczak, host of the new podcast, Missing in Arizona.
And I'm, Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world.
We cloned his voice using AI. In 2001...
Police say I killed my family and rigged my house to explode.
before escaping into the wilderness. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. Join me... I'm going down in the cave. ...as I track down clues.
I'm going to call the police and have you removed. Hunting. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world.
Robert Fisher.
Do you recognize my voice?
Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.
Back in 96, Atlanta was booming with excitement around hosting the Centennial Olympic Games. And then, a deranged zealot willing to kill for a cause lit a fuse that would change my life and so many others forever. Rippling out for generations.
Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In the early morning hours of September 6th, 2016,, St. Louis rapper and activist Darren Seals was found murdered.
Every day, Darren would tell her, Alright, Ma, be prepared.
They are going to try to kill me.
All episodes available now. Listen to After the Uprising, The Murder of Darren Seals on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Stacey, would you please read this document?
Okay. This is a court document, affidavit of probable cause from Berks County, Pennsylvania.
On or about Thursday, January 5th, 2023, a detective received information that the defendant, Justin Rutherford, was requesting to have someone murder a juvenile male.
Detectives in Rutting, Pennsylvania, learned that a Justin Rutherford had concocted a scheme to take the life of a teenager who was set to testify against him in a criminal case. Rutherford told his hitman to use gloves and to wear layers of clothing, so no DNA would be found.
Rutherford said he could be buried in the forest somewhere, or he could be burned in a barrel. This would be a good way to get rid of any evidence.
Stacey, do you know Justin Rutherford? The man who was planning the murder?
I do.
And who is he?
My husband.
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Season 3 of Betrayal. Episode 1, Storybook Romance.
A listener note, some names have been changed to protect privacy.
I'm so grateful to be back for another season of Betrayal. When we started this project with Jennifer Faison's story back in 2019, we really didn't know where it would go. Thanks to you, we're back for Season 3.. And there's even more big news. If you loved Betrayal, this summer, our podcast will become a weekly series addressing all kinds of betrayal, from relationships to financial deception and more.
There are betrayals you won't believe, but they happened. What we've discovered is that there are people everywhere, millions actually, who are struggling with loss and shame because something that they believed in turned out to be a lie. Sometimes the lie is so egregious, it's criminal. Other times it's just too painful to bear. We've also learned that hearing you aren't the only one that has been the victim of shocking deception is comforting.
There is something inherently therapeutic in sharing our stories. And that brings me to Stacey Rutherford.
I can talk to my best friends till I'm blue in the face, but not a single one of them have any idea what I feel like. And I hope none of them ever have to know what I feel like.
Stacey heard Ashley Linton's story from Season 2, and they had a lot in common.
Even parts of their story are similar.
It was kind of one of those things that it made me finally feel like I wasn't so abnormal for feeling some of the things that I felt about the situation and about grieving my marriage and everything. It was just for the first time. I felt like somebody knew what I felt like.
But there are some very big differences. The stakes for Stacey and her family are not like anything we've ever seen. When she first reached out to our team, it was from her home in a small rural spot called Jaredstown, West Virginia. It's about two hours west of D.C. She works in the area as administrative support for a federal agency.
She also spent many years working as a medical assistant. Her story spans three states, two husbands, two courts, four children, and 25 years in the making.
It's a lot, and not everybody can handle that, because it's a wild story. It's nothing like you think you're going to hear.
I found Stacey to be such a contradiction. She's a joyful, spiritual person with a great laugh. It's fun just being around her. But that laugh can turn to tears in a matter of seconds. It's a fragile line.
She's holding it together, but not by much. First, we need to look at where Stacey came from to see how she arrived here. Stacey was still a teenager when she got married and started a family. She still remembers the night she met her first husband, back in 1998.. We'll call him John.
My high school boyfriend and I broke up right after senior year. I went to a party, and just, we connected.
John was 23.
. Stacey was 18..
He was fresh out of the military. I got pregnant pretty quick. You know, my dad will always say, I think he did the noble thing.
Stacey and John married after an accelerated courtship in their hometown of Decatur, Illinois, but eventually moved to West Virginia. They had two kids together, Michaela and Tyler.
Honestly, we didn't spend a lot of time together. I know that sounds crazy, but he loved to fish. He could be out there for 12, 18 hours a day. So usually I would just stay home with the kids.
Stacey admits that the relationship wasn't perfect, but she was okay with that.
I knew we didn't have this fireworks and passion and all this, but I was comfortable. And I took a vow, and I took that seriously.
They were busy young parents.
He was a forklift operator, but he worked so many hours. He worked like 12 to sometimes 16 hours a day.
It never occurred to her that it wouldn't last forever.
Divorce was impossible to me. I was just like, no, nuh-uh. You know, like, we're going to be old sitting on a porch with our grandkids, because that's what my grandparents were and my parents were. Like, divorce wasn't in my family like that.
I had made a post on MySpace, remember MySpace? Like, thank you, God, for this life. And I just, I'm so blessed. And I have two great kids and a husband, you know. And two weeks later, he rolled over in bed, and he just said, I'm not happy, and I haven't been for a really long time.
I'm like, what the hell? I was like, shut up. And he was like, no, I'm serious. And I just started screaming.
Mikayla was eight, and she ran into the bedroom and started screaming, Daddy, don't hit her, don't hit her. She thought he was hitting me, because I was screaming, like, agony. He said it was nobody, that he just wanted to be alone, that we got married too young, you know, he was never going to get married again.
My sister calls me Angela Lansbury, because I won't find it out.
Within days, I knew he was seeing somebody. Ended up finding out it was a co-worker. That was August. I come home one day, and I had told him I was going to move back where our family was. And then I changed my mind, and I was like, I can do this, you know, we can try to work this out.
He was like, nope.
Stacey's daughter, Mikayla, remembers her mom confronting the other woman, though she didn't really know what was happening at the time.
One day, we were waking up for school, and we did not drive to school. We went to some random lady's house, and my mom gets out of the car, and is throwing gravel rocks at this lady. And I'm just in the back seat, like, I don't know what's happening. And my dad had come out without a shirt on.
Mikayla was too young to understand.
Stacey knew exactly what was going on.
It was soul-crushing. I said, just tell me what it is and what I can do. And I remember. he did tell me, you know, well, you got big, and I didn't like to look at you. Then it was like, oh, it's my fault.
This moment, it fractured her. So many people know this feeling, not feeling enough. That haunted Stacey.
I had no self-worth.
No self-worth.
I mean, I had never in my life been suicidal, and I remember, I knew I wanted to be alive for my kids, but I just had this attitude of, like, I'm not going to take my life, because I'm a Christian, and I don't, you know. But if you don't wake me up in the morning, that would be okay.
Stacey kept her pain hidden. Her children only saw her beauty and strength.
Anything could happen to her, and nothing would faze her.
She's great, and I want to be her when I grow up. Mom actually worked two jobs, and so a lot of the time, it would be Tyler and I at home by ourselves, and I'd be watching him. And even when I would go hang out with friends in a neighborhood down the street, he would always tag along with me.
Although Mikayla is six years older than Tyler, they formed a close bond during those years.
I mean, honestly, I loved it. I loved being around Tyler when Mom was a single mom, and it was just him and I a lot.
Mikayla has grown up a lot since looking after Tyler. She's a master's candidate and a newlywed. But when she was a kid, she admits to being a bit of a wild child.
Like, I was a hot mess to express.
Stacey says. Tyler, on the other hand, was a happy kid who adored his mom.
When my first husband and I divorced, he was two. So Tyler and I have always had a huge bond, and he's always been a mama's boy. He loved the Kardashians, and he'd be like, when's Sister Wives on? And, you know, there was so much estrogen in that house at that time. Like, the poor guy had no chance.
But it made him the sweetest soul. He will die if I tell you this, but, like, I am a Bath and Body Works nut. Like, I probably need a 12-step program. But I always, like, have it. And so he would lay in bed when he was little, and he'd smell my arm, and he'd say, oh, mama, you smell so beautiful.
Seventeen years later, Stacey has acquired the wisdom to view the end of her first marriage with a different lens.
I didn't know what I was doing. You know, I'm a young mom, I'm a young wife, not knowing how to manage money. So I completely accept that I had a hand in the demise of my marriage, too.
Still, the loss of her dream. left Stacey wounded.
I can honestly say that I've never been the same since my first marriage ended.
In a quiet suburb.
Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. They won't tell you anything. I'm going down in the cave.
They were thinking that I picked him up and took him somewhere.
If you keep asking me this, I'm going to call the police and have you removed.
Searching for Robert Fisher.
One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Do you recognize my voice?
Join an exploding house.
The hunt.
Family annihilation.
Today.
And a disappearing act.
Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.
It started with a backpack at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. A backpack that contained a bomb. While the authorities focused on the wrong suspect, a serial bomber planned his next attacks. Two abortion clinics. And a lesbian bar.
But this isn't his story. It's a human story. One that I've become entangled with.
I saw, as soon as I turned the corner, basically someone bleeding out.
The victims of these brutal attacks were left to pick up the pieces. Forced to explore the gray areas between right and wrong. Life and death. Their once ordinary lives, and mine, changed forever.
It kind of gave me a feeling of pending doom.
And all the while, our country found itself facing down a long and ugly reckoning with a growing threat. Far-right, homegrown, religious terrorism. Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
New from Double Asterisk and iHeart Podcasts, a 10-part true crime podcast series. In the early morning hours of September 6, 2016,, St. Louis rapper and iconic Ferguson activist, Darren Seals, was found shot dead.
Every day, Darren would tell her, they are going to try to kill me. A young man in 2016 was killed on this block. I'm a podcast journalist.
I'm a former state senator, Maria Chappell-Nadal. I was in the movement with Darren, and I've spent two years with co-host Ray Novoshelsky investigating his death.
Even if I did want to tell you something, that's a dangerous game to play. The FBI did this to myself. They've been following him for months. That's enough proof right there.
All episodes available now. Listen to After the Uprising, Season 2, The Murder of Darren Seals, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Even after the demise of her marriage, Stacey hoped to find love and a partner to share her life with. She was cautious. She had to be.
I didn't want to be that mom that just had random different men coming in and out of her home. And then for the kids to, like, lose that person. That was always my fear.
The divorce was in 2007.
. Stacey has had a few long-term relationships and some forgettable dates. Stacey's son, Tyler, recalls one boyfriend that left an impression.
He was a real bad drunk and would just scream and yell, so he wasn't too much of a good guy either. He was just good to us kids. She always kind of had bad experiences with men.
And Stacey's daughter, Mikayla, harbored the fantasy of many children of divorce.
I want my mom and dad back together. still, so I was also like, who are you coming into my house? I was always mean to, like, every boyfriend she had. Anytime, she would tell me she was on a date, something was dying or my toenail was falling off and she had to come home because, like, F, that guy. And then, like, there would be times if she had, like, a boyfriend over and they were in the living room, I would purposely interrupt and, you know, be an annoyance.
Then, in 2015,, a new man came into Stacey's life.
My name is Karen, and I met Stacey when my son dated her daughter in high school, and we've been close friends ever since. I met Justin when he was doing, like, a round or rotations. I worked at a lab at the doctor's office, and he was a student there, and we just started chit-chatting.
Justin was in medical school.
I knew he was single, and I'm like, I feel like you and my friend would really hit it off. He had a good sense of humor, and she had a good sense of humor. So I'm not sure if I gave her his number or if I gave him her number, but either way, he ended up reaching out and they met up.
Him and I met at Olive Garden. Right off the bat, we started joking. Our whole entire meal was joking, and he just kind of said to me, you know, I'm a poor med student. I don't have time for anyone. I don't have any money.
I can't really take you on dates like this. You know, he actually, our biggest joke was he used a coupon on our first date, and he was mortified to bring it out of his pocket. He's like, you know, I got, like, a buy one, get one half off, kind of thing going on. And he was just like, you know, so do you want to adopt a poor med student? And I was like, yeah, I mean, like, why not add another kid to it?
You know, I'm all for it.
Our joke for years was that who wants a ready-made family? He was like, woo, me, you know, and that's kind of how our relationship started. Telling me he had no time for me, and then ended up. we were together all the time.
He said that she was nice, but I think that he was attracted to her sense of humor, because that's what makes her really beautiful, because she's so funny.
Stacey and Justin were vibing. They just loved being together.
I had butterflies. When driving home from our first date, I remember calling my dad and I was like, dad, I think I just met my husband. And he was like, oh, my God, did you tell him that? And I said, no, I didn't tell him that. Like, why would I tell him that?
He's like, oh, thank God, because he would have run.
Her dad didn't need to worry. The affection was mutual.
They hit it off, and I was pretty proud of myself for being a matchmaker.
All the years I had dated between my first husband and him, it was so just, ugh, a cesspool, really. People felt like they had an agenda or there was something that they wanted from me. But Justin, it was just wholeheartedly, I never felt there was anything that he wanted from me. He just wanted to be with me. And for me, I was like, wow, that's the first time, you know, I've ever felt like that.
When it was time for Justin to meet Stacey's kids, 15-year-old Mikayla had every intention of giving the new guy the same treatment. every other man had received. Unwelcome.
They had been dating for a couple months. And I remember I was at my dad's house when my mom was like, Justin, was coming over, and I was going to meet him. The whole time, I'm talking shit. I'm like, dad, F him. I already don't like him.
He's probably fat and ugly. And my dad's like, Mikayla, be nice. And I'm like, I don't care. I don't want to know you. And then, when we walked in the house, it was immediately like, hi, I'm Justin.
And like open arms, super talkative, asking me like what I want to do when I grow up, how high school is, you know, just like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, talking to me. And I was still kind of standoffish because I'm like, hmm, can you take the heat?
I remember the first day. we met him very vividly, actually.
Tyler was about 10 at the time. He was impressed.
He really just seemed like such a great guy from the start. He came over. We're looking at it. Oh, mom's got a new boyfriend. Here's another asshole.
And then, surprisingly, he was one of the first guys to ever have an interaction with me. And like I actually played football with me. So to me, I was like, OK, he's actually a pretty good guy. That was the first time I really saw her with another man, truly happy. And Michaela thought it, too.
I liked him a lot. And I was like, OK, I won't scare him away. Yeah, they had a good relationship. Like, I thought they were good together.
We started dating in March. And Thanksgiving, we went to Myrtle Beach with his family. And I was like, oh, this is so great. We spent a lot of time with family and friends.
Time together was precious then. Medical school was all-encompassing for Justin. But they made it work.
I also would help him when he would study. Because I was in the medical field, too. So when he was studying prescription med names, we would go back and forth. It was kind of like a game.
Stacey didn't need to be wined and dined. She wanted kindness and connection and someone to be part of her family.
It just never felt complex. We spent a lot of time with family and friends. And if we weren't, we were studying. You know, we didn't do a whole lot in our first year.
Justin was also willing to be a father figure. And wanted to be involved in the kids' lives.
He was really nice to me and would do stuff with me. He was a big video gamer. He helped me build my first big gaming computer, which was really cool. And he was very tech-savvy. If I wanted to play games, he was the guy to play games with.
So I was happy to have what I thought would be a father figure.
It was like a dad and best friend in one.
There was sleet and hail and snow coming down. They found my wife's SUV. Right on the reservation boundary. And my dog flew.
All I could think of is him going to sniper me out of some tree.
But not me.
Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. For two years.
They won't tell you anything.
I've traveled the nation. I'm going down in the cave. Tracking down clues.
They were thinking that I picked him up and took him somewhere.
If you keep asking me this, I'm going to call the police and have you removed.
Searching for Robert Fisher.
One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Do you recognize my voice?
Join An Exploding House.
The Hunt. A Family Annihilation. Today. And A Disappearing Act.
Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.
It started with a backpack at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. A backpack that contained a bomb. While the authorities focused on the wrong suspect, a serial bomber planned his next attacks. Two abortion clinics. And a lesbian bar.
But this isn't his story. It's a human story. One that I've become entangled with.
I saw, as soon as I turned the corner, basically someone bleeding out.
The victims of these brutal attacks were left to pick up the pieces. Forced to explore the gray areas between right and wrong. Life and death. Their once ordinary lives, and mine, changed forever.
It kind of gave me a feeling of pending doom.
And all the while, our country found itself facing down a long and ugly reckoning with a growing threat. Far-right, homegrown, religious terrorism. Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
New from Double Asterisk and iHeart Podcasts, a 10-part true crime podcast series. In the early morning hours of September 6, 2016,, St. Louis rapper and iconic Ferguson activist, Darren Seals, was found shot dead.
Every day, Darren would tell her, they are going to try to kill me. A young man in 2016 was killed on this block. I'm a podcast journalist.
I'm a former state senator, Maria Chappell-Nadal. I was in the movement with Darren, and I've spent two years with co-host Ray Novoshelsky investigating his death.
Even if I did want to tell you something, that's a dangerous game to play. The FBI did this to myself. They've been following him for months. That's enough proof right there.
All episodes available now. Listen to After the Uprising, Season 2, The Murder of Darren Seals, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
It was now 2016.
. Stacy and Justin had been together about a year, but he was on the medical track and needed to relocate to continue his training. Stacy and Justin's relationship was getting serious. Sometimes he'd stay at her place for several days at a time, or she'd spend the weekend at his apartment. They couldn't imagine being apart.
So the couple decided that Stacy and her kids would move with him for his residency. It was the last stage of training before becoming a doctor.
It was just kind of like our, not really silent deal, but our deal that he was going to take care of me and I was going to take care of him.
Justin matched with a hospital system in Pennsylvania. So Stacy, Michaela, and Tyler packed up their life and moved with Justin. This was the beginning of their next chapter as a growing family. Stacy's sister, Heather. It was like the storybook romance.
My sister wanted more children. He had happy children. He loved her kids. And Justin wanted kids too. A year after the family moved to Pennsylvania, the couple had a baby girl together.
And shortly after, Stacy became pregnant again. She shared an amazing family moment with me. A video where Justin opens a gender reveal envelope.
Oh God, thank you Jesus.
It actually says it's a boy.
Oh, wow.
I was about two seconds away from actually dropping to the ground. Yay! Little brother!
Their baby boy was born in 2019.
He delivered both of our kids. My OB, right when the baby was about to come out, she stepped to the side and let Justin deliver the babies. I remember I made a Facebook post like after it, and I said, I didn't think I could love this man anymore. But when I saw him with his babies, it made me love him in a whole different way. You know, on a different level.
He was just so happy. Like you could tell. he just was so excited to be a dad.
They had their love, their children, their family was complete. As they set their sights on the future, Justin received a full-time job offer. It was official. They were staying in Pennsylvania.
After residency was over, he accepted a position with their family med office in Exeter, Pennsylvania.
My sister worked extremely hard to bring in enough money to take care of her kids and still try to give them a life that they deserved.
But Justin offered her a sense of freedom. I mean, the salary.
And Stacey also had support. When the family moved to Pennsylvania, Justin's godmother moved with them. Her name is Deborah, and she helped Stacey with the little ones.
We called her Nanny McD, like the Nanny McPhee movie. She was a part of our family.
D was living with Justin's mom since he was a baby.
When his mother died tragically. during his college years, Nanny continued to maintain a close relationship with him. Here's Justin's college friend, Stacey Hayden.
Justin's mom got cancer and passed away.
And her best friend was D. And she had promised to always take care of Justin. As soon as they moved to Pennsylvania, D was living with them in like a taking care of role.
So she was a live-in nanny and helped around the house.
The extra set of hands made a huge difference. D could watch the kids while Justin and Stacey worked. Although the couple were financially comfortable, Stacey learned a lot from her first marriage. Finally, those hectic years would pay off.
He made, basically like what I make right now. So we lived tight during that time. And then, once he graduated from residency, I was going to continue working for the next five years instead of being a stay-at-home mom. Like he, gave me that option. But I was like, no, I want to work.
Stacey carried a lot of baggage from her divorce and old debt. So Justin stepped in to help get control of her financial life.
He was real focused on making sure that I was out of debt and that I was in a good financial position. He paid off my student loans. He got my credit score back up to where it was actually a normal, decent credit score.
Justin didn't just look out for her well-being. He looked out for the kids.
He was more active in my life than my biological dad. And I felt closer to him.
Stacey's father, Rodney.
I saw the good impact Justin had on Michaela. Because Michaela was not a great student in school. You know, I hope Michaela doesn't mind me saying this, but the joke of the family was always, thank God, she's cute. If you had told me she was going to be going for her master's degree, I would say, well, I don't know what you're smoking, but I'll take some of it. And I think Justin helped her, inspired her even, to go farther than even I think she thought she could go.
I had two dads. Like, they were both great, and I loved them equally. But, I mean, he was a great dad. Like, I called him dad. I didn't say stepdad.
I had everything I wanted. He took care of us. He gave us the life that, you know, I always wanted my kids to have.
It was the life they both wanted.
It was in a card or something like that, where he said something to the effect of, thank you for giving me the family that I never thought I would have.
And eventually, they made it official.
Our plan was, get married this year at the courthouse, and then the following year, on our actual anniversary, have a big reception.
In 2018, Justin and Stacey were married in a civil ceremony with just family in attendance. She had waited so long for this moment.
I remember just saying to him, if I knew that I had to go through eight years of shitty relationships and devastation to get to you, I would do it all over again.
I would tell him that all the time. I would walk through every bit of it again to find you. And, you know, when I was single, I would think of, like, I wonder what his name's going to be. You know, and like, I remember, I tell him one time, like, I just love saying your name. Because I wondered for so long, like, what your name would be.
She finally knew her person. And she was now Mrs. Justin Rutherford.
Life got even sweeter when they bought their five-bedroom dream house, complete with a pool. The kids were in heaven. They had made it. Cynthia worked with Justin and went to his home for parties.
They seemed like the best American family. They had a beautiful home. They had a pool. They had the space for the kids to run around. They had a beautiful life.
The Rutherford house was always a hub for social activity. Tyler and Michaela's friends spent a lot of time there. The pool, a movie theater, and all the video games. It was a big draw. And Stacey thrived playing hostess.
I loved when Tyler had all of his friends over in the summertime. He never had to ask to have friends over. It was just all such and such a stay of the night. Four of them are, and, you know, here I am cooking eight pounds of food. You know, but we loved it.
I joke that I was going to claim some of his friends on my taxes because they were there so much. Their home life is something that I strive for. Pure happiness.
For the better part of six years, that's how Stacey viewed her life too. Pure happiness. That was until August 10, 2021, when she returned from work in the afternoon.
When I first walked up to the house, I just saw a bunch of like vans and SUVs. And I thought that he had like a bunch of Tyler's hockey people over.
But there were no cars, she recognized. Stacey quickly learned that these were unmarked police cars. Her house was being raided.
The detective came out. He was like, ma'am, calm down. Your family's, OK. Just come with us.
I walked into the house. He was sitting at our kitchen table. The cops were on, like each side of him, guarding him.
Detective Weaver said, well, I'm sure you know why we're here. And I looked at him and I was like, no, I absolutely don't know why you're here.
There was such a deep feeling of knowing. This is going to be bad. And our life is never going to be the same.
The police then wanted to meet with Stacey privately.
I went downstairs into the man cave with the detectives and Detective Weaver had kind of laid everything out on the couch.
I was sick. It was a sickness that I felt as soon as I saw it.
Why were the police surrounding Justin? And what did they show Stacey?
It was just like, what is going on here? What in the world is going on?
That's next time on Betrayal.
On this season of Betrayal, a family is thrown into chaos.
I mean, I was going to shoot, to kill if he was coming after me and my kids.
A husband, doctor and father shocks his family.
There's no way that he could have done this.
And his patients.
It was a totally different man. I said, I don't know who that idiot was, but it clearly was not Dr. Rutherford.
As they learn who Justin Rutherford really is. And what he is capable of.
He, to me, is scarier than Jeffrey Dahmer. You know, the level of manipulation was like a serial killer.
If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team, email us at BetrayalPod at gmail.
com. That's BetrayalPOD at gmail.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. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison. Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning.
Written and produced by Carrie Hartman. Also produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristen Mulcury and Grace Bollinger. Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Special thanks to Stacey Rutherford, Tyler, and the rest of Stacey and Tyler's friends and family.
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Salvecchio. Editing support from Nico Arruca. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by Mybe Music. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm John Walczak, host of the new podcast, Missing in Arizona.
And I'm, Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world.
We cloned his voice using AI. In 2001,. police say I killed my family and rigged my house to explode. Before escaping into the wilderness. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere.
Join me. I'm going down in the cave. As I track down clues. I'm going to call the police and have you removed.
Hunting. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Robert Fisher. Do you recognize my voice?
Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.
Back in 96, Atlanta was booming with excitement around hosting the Centennial Olympic Games. And then, a deranged zealot willing to kill for a cause lit a fuse that would change my life and so many others forever. Rippling out for generations.
Listen to Flashpoint on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In the early morning hours of September 6, 2016,, St. Louis rapper and activist Darren Seals was found murdered.
You know what they gonna learn? I went for death, I went for nothing. Every day, Darren would tell her, alright, ma, be prepared, they are going to try to kill me.
All episodes available now. Listen to After the Uprising, The Murder of Darren Seals on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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