Chad is the person
I would be with
for the rest of my life.
[laughs]
At some points,
I felt like this was
too good to be true.
How can I have
such a great life?
[dramatic music]
BROADCASTER: Chad Schipper
faces felony charges.
DONIELLE:
His face popped up,
and it was just like,
that's impossible.
- He was really
in over his head
trying to keep up with
all the lies
he was telling people.
DONIELLE: I could see
a g*n pointed at me.
The police are in my house.
DONIELLE: He lied
to me about everything.
DONIELLE: Six children,
married for 17 years.
Did he ever even love me?
[suspenseful upbeat music]
♪ ♪
ANDREA: I'm Andrea Gunning,
and this is Betrayal,
a show about the people
we trust the most
and the deceptions
that change everything.
On today's show,
we meet Donielle,
who had dreams of marrying
a man of faith and integrity.
And she thought
she had that with Chad.
But after years together,
a shocking truth was revealed.
Donielle, it is so great
to see you again.
- It's good
to see you again too.
ANDREA: Tell me, what
motivated you to reach out?
DONIELLE: I was listening
to the Betrayal podcast,
and it really helped me in
my journey and in my story,
where I'm actually
finding out that this man
that I was in love with
wasn't even the man
that he said he was.
[dramatic acoustic music]
I grew up in California
in the Bay Area.
My family is really close.
I have one brother.
He's older than me.
And then two sisters
younger than me.
- Donielle came from
a Christian,
religious background,
and she was homeschooled,
but she was a typical teenager.
She dated and had
a boyfriend named Billy,
but they had to break up
because her dad
was transferred
and they moved out of state.
DONIELLE:
We relocated to Illinois.
That was a really hard time
for me because
I obviously didn't know
anybody in Illinois.
At that point,
I was in college.
My next youngest sibling,
she was going to Black Hawk.
She knew I was looking
to find friends, and so
she said, "Why don't you
come to the Bible study,
see if you can find a friend?"
[chuckles]
RANDLIN: There's this thing
called InterVarsity.
It was like a Christian
fellowship group.
You would study the Bible
for a little while,
pray, and just
sort of fellowship
with people on campus
that were like-minded
religiously as we were.
And Donielle came with me.
- Chad was at that
Black Hawk Bible study.
[bright music]
He was a really, really
charismatic person.
And I thought
he was attractive.
- Chad was very cool and calm
and collected all the time.
He had a reputation of being
very smart, very kind.
I have this specific memory
of a conversation
where Chad started
talking about finance
and what he was studying.
And, of course,
my 18-year-old self
was just completely in awe.
And I even remember having
this brief thought pop
into my head like,
should I be dating Chad?
That's how impressive he was.
DONIELLE: Usually
after the Bible study,
we would go to a restaurant.
♪ ♪
And I remember wanting
to sit next to him
and feeling the electricity
if our knees touched.
He had the same kind
of humor as me.
I just felt comfortable and
happy when I was around him.
Our first date
was a double date.
It was actually with him
and my sister
and the guy
she was interested in.
And it was kind of
not a usual date.
It was just at our house,
and we watched a couple movies.
One was So I Married
an Axe m*rder*r.
[laughs]
- How many people have you
brutally m*rder*d?
- Brutal is a very
subjective word.
I mean, what's brutal
to one person might be
totally reasonable
to somebody else.
- And then I made him lasagna,
and he changed
the oil in my car.
Very romantic.
- She thought that was amazing
because he was showing
that he was gonna
take care of her.
- It was very obvious
that both Chad and Donielle
were very into each other.
RANDLIN: I actually
was very excited for her
when they got engaged.
We were happy for her.
- Hi, everybody.
[laughs]
Thank you for throwing me
this surprise shower in a box.
Yeah, he has to close his eyes.
FRIEND: Close your eyes.
- I don't think so.
- FRIEND: Chad.
Chad, close your eyes. Chad.
GUEST: You can't see it
until it's on.
- The white lingerie
that we opened,
we didn't know who it was from.
- I want to thank you
especially very much.
[laughter]
[Wagner's "Bridal Chorus"]
DONIELLE:
I really enjoyed my wedding.
I was a typical girl that
thought about, okay,
when I get married, I'm gonna
have this kind of dress,
I'm gonna have
these kinds of flowers,
these are the colors
I'm gonna have.
- Everything was perfect.
[laughter]
[applause]
- It was just
a fun, happy time.
[laughter, applause]
- I was really in love.
[laughter, chatter]
This was the person I would be
with for the rest of my life.
[laughs]
We were so happy.
I could never have imagined
what was on the horizon.
RANDLIN: Donielle and Chad
moved to Erie, Illinois,
to a little small house.
It was cute.
Perfect for them.
[upbeat piano music]
♪ ♪
DONIELLE: Erie is just
this little small town.
Everybody pretty much
knows everybody else.
It's just a really beautiful,
quiet place to live.
- Chad's family was sort of
like a big family
in their church.
TIM: Chad grew up
in that church.
They were very much
involved in doing skits
for different occasions
to help younger kids learn
in the church through comedy.
- Sorry.
I didn't see you.
Could I--could I not
see you again, sometime?
- Um, I guess.
I--I'd have to ask
my mom and dad, though.
TIM: They were very much
a great example
of a Christian married couple
involved in a church.
- Well, did you find
anything else at Walmart?
- [as Arnold Schwarzenegger]
No, it was too difficult.
I had to keep looking up
all the time.
- Why was that?
- I was watching
for falling prices.
TIM: Donielle and Chad
were never separated.
They were always lovey-dovey,
holding hands, kissing,
being together.
♪ ♪
BARBIE: He was
an awesome husband to her.
He treated her with so much
respect and kindness
and was loving towards her.
- I gotta comb my hair.
A mess. Look at this.
- There was no question
that Chad and Donielle
were going to have
a bright future.
- So maybe later tonight, huh?
- [laughs]
Get off me.
- After they got married,
Chad decided
to become a financial advisor
and start his own business.
And he did really well.
The family had everything
they wanted.
- At some points, I felt like
this was too good to be true.
How can I have
such a great life?
[tense music]
One day, Chad came home,
and he sat me down
on the couch,
and he was like,
I have to tell you something.
- Donielle didn't know
what to expect,
but what Chad said next
blew Donielle's world apart.
[tense music]
ANDREA: Donielle and Chad
were at the beginning
of a perfect marriage,
and one day, Chad came home
and said he needed to talk,
and he admitted
to having an encounter
in a bathroom with a man.
DONIELLE:
At first, I was shocked.
I didn't really know
the true Chad.
I felt betrayed.
Why are you telling me this?
Why is this happening at
the beginning of our marriage?
And I never really got,
like, a full answer to that.
It was always just vagueness.
But he seemed to me like
he was really sad about it
and that he was
really distraught.
♪ ♪
And he said he wanted
to make it better.
I felt like,
anything that's going on,
I want to help him with,
not just throw him away.
- For Donielle,
it was an internal struggle
between her head and her heart.
There was what she should do,
after learning about
Chad's infidelity,
which was leave,
and what her heart wanted,
which was to stay.
DONIELLE: We ended up
going to marriage counseling.
And in one of my sessions,
I remember the counselor
saying, you are not
in any way obligated
to stay in this marriage.
In fact, I would advise you
to not stay in this marriage.
But I was adamant that I wanted
to stay in the marriage
because I had made a vow.
I had made a promise.
It was just a couple
of months later
when I found out
I was pregnant.
[ultrasound device whooshing]
I was jumping for joy.
My daughter was born,
and her name is Grace.
RANDLIN: When Doni and Chad
got pregnant with Grace,
they'd been trying
for a while,
and she'd been getting
really discouraged
because we all wanted
to have kids really bad.
And so I know it was
a very big deal for her.
DONIELLE: I found out
that I was pregnant again
with Christopher very soon
after Grace was born.
That was always my dream,
to be a mom.
Somebody told me
when I was little,
they remember me saying
that when I got married,
I wanted to have 12 kids.
[laughs]
You know, my dad is one of 12,
so that's probably
where I got it from.
But I had six kids with Chad.
Chad was a good dad.
- He played with his kids.
He held the babies
all the time.
- Tuckered out,
hard day swimming.
DONIELLE: [chuckles]
She loves her daddy.
- And you want daddy
to tickle you?
[gasps]
Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle.
Everybody wave.
- Yay!
[laughs]
- Okay, is that good?
ANDREA: Donielle was
a stay-at-home mom.
That meant Chad was
the sole provider
for the family, which was fine
because he was doing so well.
DONIELLE: The house
that we were living in
at that time, it was good.
It had the right amount
of rooms for everyone.
But Chad always liked
bigger and better.
[soft upbeat music]
And he had his eye
on a big house
that had quite a bit of land
attached to it.
He really wanted
that property.
He had an office downstairs.
His office was where
he conducted
his financial
advising business.
And he would work long hours
to the point
that he'd be in that office
until way into the night.
And I'd ask him,
why are you in here so late?
What he told me was that
he was dealing with clients.
I was like, how are you
dealing with clients
in the middle of the night?
Aren't they sleeping?
Shouldn't you be sleeping?
[chuckles]
[tense music]
And so there were a lot of
nights where I would be
alone in bed, he was
in his office downstairs,
and I would be wondering
why I'm not having
a husband sleeping next to me.
♪ ♪
But when I would
approach him with it,
it almost seemed like
he was annoyed
that I was approaching him
about it.
He just said, "Well, maybe
I'll just stay out longer.
Maybe I'll just come to bed
less than that."
And it really, really hurt me
because I felt like
if you really love someone,
why in their time
of crying to you,
saying that they want you,
would you say, well,
I'm gonna do that less then?
It didn't really make any sense
to me, and it really hurt.
ANDREA:
What was more important
than spending time
in the night with Donielle?
Never in her wildest dreams
could she imagine
what he was actually doing.
ANDREA:
Donielle and Chad
went through a lot
in their marriage.
First there was the infidelity,
and now he was no longer
sleeping in their bed,
and he was sleeping
in his office.
So she went to her church
for comfort.
[soft music]
Donielle and Chad were members
of the Erie Christian Church.
Chad had been going to this
church since he was a kid,
so he knew everybody so well,
including Larry
and Connie VanOosten.
- And we know that,
in all things,
God works for the good
of those who love Him
and who have been called
according to His purpose.
ANDREA: The VanOostens
were elders in the church.
They ran Sunday school.
- Make sure you get a
relationship with Jesus Christ.
- They were prominent members
of the community.
They had a number
of businesses,
and they had just sold one
and were coming into
a lot of money.
And that was of
interest to Chad.
DONIELLE: I found out
that he was trying
to get them to be his client.
ANDREA: Chad really wanted
the VanOostens as clients.
And they met a couple times,
and he made a presentation,
but ultimately
they decided to not go
with him because
he was too new
to the financial world.
Based on interviews
with Larry and Connie,
his plan didn't make sense.
Having the VanOostens
and their money
would have been
a great financial win
for Chad's business.
But since
he didn't get the deal,
he started looking
for additional ways
to generate income.
So then Chad decided
to get into real estate.
And he took all of his money,
started buying properties,
renovating them,
and then renting them out.
♪ ♪
DONIELLE: All of his rental
properties were things
that he purchased without me.
He went and found them.
He decided whether he would
purchase them or not.
And so often, I didn't,
like, know anything about it,
other than the fact that
he had purchased it.
Honestly, I didn't even
need to worry about it.
We had everything that
we would ever want.
I enjoyed life.
I felt like I was finally
living the life
that I wanted to live.
- I mean, they had
this huge house, cars,
lawn equipment.
So they're doing very well.
DONIELLE:
That's when a lot of times,
he would be gone longer
than I had expected.
When I would question him,
where were you?
There were several times
he told me, oh,
this rental property had
a sewage problem, and so
I had to go deal with that,
or a washing machine
broke down, so I had to fix it.
Oh, my phone must have
lost its battery,
or, you know, I forgot
to plug my phone in,
or I shut my phone off, and so
I didn't hear it ringing,
or I left it in the car.
There was always a reason.
- By this point, Chad and
Donielle had been married
for almost two decades.
They'd been through a lot,
but things were
about to get weird.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
DONIELLE: One time, it was
the middle of the night,
and one of my kids,
Christopher,
saw a car pull up
into our driveway
that he didn't recognize.
Said it was silver.
Christopher saw Chad briefly,
and his reaction
was one of surprise.
Like, what are you doing up?
And I found out later
that Chad texted my daughter
to wrap dark electrical tape
around the handle
of a sledgehammer.
GRACE:
And he asks me to wrap
until there's
no yellow showing.
I was like, uh, okay,
that's a little weird,
but you know what?
I'm gonna wrap that
sledgehammer the best I can.
[chuckles]
So I did.
And then I sent him a picture
when I was finished.
He told me that
I did a good job
and that I was gonna get
a special treat.
- Why would you need
your 14-year-old
to wrap a sledgehammer
in black electrical tape?
DONIELLE:
Just a few days afterwards,
in the middle of the night,
I heard a really loud
bang, bang, bang,
and I thought I heard
glass breaking too.
[glass shatters distantly]
Then I heard,
"Police. Hands up in the air."
[tense music]
I had my glasses off,
so I could not see very well.
And as I walked down
my hallway from my bedroom,
I could see a g*n
pointed at me.
I just remember just being
so scared and so confused.
♪ ♪
So my whole body was shaking,
and they wouldn't even
let me wake up my kids.
They had to go wake 'em up.
GRACE:
I remember the knocking.
It was really loud.
And then they kicked
the door in,
and I was absolutely terrified.
♪ ♪
DONIELLE: And then they said,
"Do you know where
your husband is?"
No, I think
he's sleeping downstairs.
He's not?
Do you have a hiding place
in your house?
Do you know the VanOostens?
Why are you questioning me
about the VanOostens?
Why are you in my house
with a g*n at my head?
[suspenseful music]
DONIELLE: It was
the middle of the night,
and the police
are in my house.
I could see a g*n
pointed at me.
I felt like I was watching
or in some kind of
awful horror movie.
And they had started
asking me lots of questions
about the VanOostens that
didn't make sense to me.
Why would you be
asking me about
my Sunday school teachers?
They took me over to
the police station
into a interrogation room,
and they were asking me all
kinds of weird questions like,
do you know what kind of
business your husband was in?
I knew that he was in
the financial business,
but I didn't
understand how that
related to the VanOostens.
And they would never
give me an answer
to any of those questions.
ANDREA: At this point,
the VanOostens
were missing for three days.
And the rumor around town
was that they
were victims of a crime.
[ominous music]
- My name is Chris Endress.
I'm a retired captain with
the Illinois State Police
Division of
Criminal Investigation,
and I was the Lieutenant
of Major Crimes
for the State Police
at the time.
Larry and Connie VanOosten,
they're certainly
the least likely people
that would ever
be victims of a violent crime.
However, the only thing
that did elevate their risk
was their finances.
ANDREA:
According to police,
in the middle of the night,
a masked intruder
with a device
to disguise their voice breaks
into the VanOostens' home,
kidnaps them,
and drives them to the bank.
MARISSA: Once the kidnapper
arrived at their bank,
he took the blindfold
off of Connie
and told her to go get a check
from their bank
for $350,000.
And if she didn't,
he threatened to k*ll Larry.
ANDREA:
While she's in the bank,
Connie pulls out
a church flyer from her purse.
Despite her and her husband
being in grave danger,
Connie has the presence of mind
to slip a note to the teller
saying that she is in trouble.
And if she doesn't
give this a try,
she doesn't know
if she and Larry
will ever live through this.
CHUCK: After she had
safely left the bank
with a cashier's check,
those bank employees
had called the police.
- And that is when
a whole abduction alert
is put in place
for Connie and Larry.
[tense music]
- When this thing kicks off,
we know who our victims are.
We have no idea
who the suspect is.
CHUCK: We found some
surveillance footage
that showed a good picture of
the car that he was driving.
It was an early '90s
Chevy Caprice.
CHRIS:
We had a suspect vehicle.
We didn't have
a license plate.
But we did have
the name of the LLC
that was put on
the cashier's check.
It was called the Store Edge.
The registered owner
of the Store Edge
was Chad Schipper.
♪ ♪
CHUCK: So then we just ran
his name through the databases
and found out that he owned
a 1992 Chevy Caprice.
So then we knew
we had our suspect.
CHRIS: And once
we had Chad identified,
we learned that he owned
several properties.
We started deploying
surveillance
at all those properties.
ANDREA: The police
have multiple homes
that they could search
for the VanOostens,
and they didn't know
which one they were at.
And even if they did
find them,
they didn't know if they
would be dead or alive,
because Chad already
had the money.
CHRIS: And we also
have investigators
at the VanOostens' home.
While they're processing
the crime scene,
officers see what looks like
the suspect vehicle
drive past the property.
[suspenseful music]
OFFICER:
Whiteside, he's taking off.
CHRIS:
They pull out after his car,
and that leads into
a multi-county pursuit.
[sirens blaring]
[indistinct radio chatter]
The pursuit ends with
a pretty bad crash.
CHUCK: After the crash,
Chad Schipper was taken
by ambulance
to the Illini Hospital.
He had some internal injuries,
broken ribs,
a dislocated elbow.
I didn't have to press him
hard at all.
I just basically asked him.
I said,
"What are we doing here today?"
And he just went
right into, well,
we're here today
because I kidnapped
the VanOostens for money.
ANDREA: If they're
taking Chad at his word,
the police know where
Larry and Connie are.
But they don't know
what shape they're in.
They've been missing
for three days.
It's crucial to find them
as soon as possible.
[tense music]
CHRIS: A group of FBI agents
and our state police agents
descend upon this home.
They make entry
into the house.
They don't find
Larry and Connie.
♪ ♪
In one of the spare bedrooms
is a large TV monitor.
They're looking at the screen.
They can see Larry and Connie
inside a concrete room
with no stairs.
♪ ♪
This monster built
a soundproof prison cell,
and he had Larry and Connie
shackled standing up.
The officers on scene
are wondering,
if they're under surveillance,
are they here somewhere,
or are they somewhere else?
We have no idea where
the VanOostens were.
[tense music]
CHRIS: The officers on scene
in the house,
they can see Larry and Connie
on the TV screen.
And they start doing
another search of the home.
They open
the hallway coat closet.
The flooring in the closet
doesn't match
the flooring in the hallway.
They lift up that flooring,
and they find a big,
steel-plated door.
They break this lock,
lift the hatch that led
to a soundproof
prison cell in
the basement of the house,
and find Larry and Connie
bound and blindfolded.
CHUCK: They were
handcuffed to the wall,
and they were standing there
for a number of hours.
One of them was just hanging
by their wrist
from the wall there
'cause they
couldn't stand anymore.
CHRIS: There was cameras
in every corner
and a microphone
so that he could
listen to them,
and he could see them,
and he could speak to them
in a creepy, cryptic
voice modulator that he had.
♪ ♪
This is my opinion.
I don't think there's any way
he's gonna let them go.
What's the benefit
in releasing them?
CHRIS: They were never
gonna get let go.
And I'll always believe that.
But what was important to me
was that our victims are safe.
They're alive.
We have our suspect in custody.
Now we can start putting
the puzzle together.
How did this happen?
ANDREA:
As detectives interview him,
they learn step-by-step
how disturbing
this crime actually was.
- Chad entered the VanOostens'
home using a sledgehammer.
[suspenseful music]
He broke into
a basement window,
walked inside, and sat
at the kitchen table for hours.
Chad enters a bedroom
that Larry's sleeping in.
CHRIS: He wakes up Larry,
deploys his Taser.
[electricity crackling]
He takes steps
to control Larry first.
- He then grabs Connie,
has her handcuff Larry,
puts duct tape on their mouth,
duct tape on their eyes,
uses his voice box and says,
"Where is your God now?"
INTRUDER: [distorted]
Where is your God now?
♪ ♪
- And that's when Chad
drives Connie to her bank.
- Detectives learn Chad
had been envisioning this crime
for a long time, and he had
planned every detail,
down to his own daughter
wrapping the sledgehammer.
GRACE: When I heard our dad
had used the sledgehammer
that he asked me to wrap
to commit this crime...
[sighs]
My whole world crumbled.
That really hurt me.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- My husband has
all of a sudden
been arrested for kidnapping.
It was his arrest that was
the first thing on the news.
BROADCASTER: A Geneseo man
accused of kidnapping
a Whiteside County couple.
Schipper took the couple
to their bank
and forced them to get
a cashier's check.
They were later taken
to a soundproof shelter
in the basement of one of
Schipper's rental homes.
DONIELLE:
I was thinking, no,
they've got
the wrong Chad Schipper.
That's impossible.
My life is upside-down.
RANDLIN: When she said
he kidnapped someone,
we were just shocked.
None of us had any clue
that he would be capable
of doing anything like that.
♪ ♪
DONIELLE:
It was really difficult
because it was like
everything that I had known
and thought I'd known
of this person
that I loved with all my heart
was not that person.
Six children.
Married for 17 years.
Did he ever even love me?
I had a really hard time
figuring out what reality was,
as opposed to what
I thought reality was.
- Chad was living a life
that his spouse
and children
knew nothing about.
DONIELLE: From the point
where my kids were taken
out of the house
and I was interrogated,
my kids never stepped
into that house again.
I didn't want them
to go back into the house.
I had to go in the house
and get things cleaned up.
ANDREA: Finally,
after all these years,
Donielle could go
into Chad's office
where he had been
isolating himself
and dig through his secrets.
- We learned
how seriously bad
he was at managing
people's finances.
Chad was sort of
a failed businessman.
He wasn't doing well.
And he had borrowed
a lot of money
and taken on a lot
of credit card debt.
- Chad wasn't just lying to
Donielle about their finances.
He was embezzling money
from his clients.
And over time,
the theft grew and grew.
[suspenseful music]
TIM: When we went through
everything in his office,
he had credit cards
from more people
than you can shake a stick at.
DONIELLE: We had found
a credit card
that he had
fraudulently gotten
from his parents,
like signed his name
on his parents' credit card.
TIM: His parents had
paid their house off.
He forged paperwork to borrow
money against that house,
a lot of money.
- His parents ended up
suing him for almost $400,000.
- He stole money
from his parents,
from his grandma,
his uncle, my brother,
from somebody in the church.
- Chad had stolen so much
money from his clients,
and they wanted to see returns.
And so that's where
the VanOostens come into play.
Because according to Chad's
interview with police,
he needed $350,000
to pay back his clients.
When they decided not to work
with him, he got desperate
and decided to kidnap them.
- We found notes at the house.
He had been planning this,
writing out every detail
for a very long time.
DONIELLE: Turns out,
there was planning
for that dungeon
that he built.
There was just some weird notes
on there about, you know,
soundproofing
and different items
to shop for
that didn't make sense.
Everything that we had found
in the office
was just a complete betrayal.
CHRIS: We've dealt with
a lot of violent crime,
but this one was bizarre.
It was almost like an episode
of Criminal Minds,
where it's like,
it's taken up a notch,
you know to make it extreme,
that it seemed like
it was a movie,
but it was real.
- Chad not only betrayed
his wife, his family.
He betrayed the entire
community of Erie.
People thought
they knew who he was,
and he was someone completely
different in the end.
DONIELLE: I remember
pulling off my wedding ring
and throwing it.
That's it.
I'm done.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
DONIELLE: Being married
to somebody like that,
obviously, my whole life
has been turned upside-down.
Life isn't what
you thought it was.
I had a really hard time
trusting people.
Going through
the process of divorce
was very difficult for me
because of my strong faith
and because when I made
those vows, that was it.
[somber music]
- But I knew that it was the
only way I could move forward,
and it was the only safe option
for me and for my kids.
During one of our
divorce proceedings,
Chad actually wanted
custody of the kids.
How would that work
with him in jail?
But I don't know.
Typical narcissist,
like textbook.
- Chad was charged
with felony home invasion,
aggravated kidnapping,
and unlawful restraint.
- The evidence was
overwhelming against Chad.
It would be difficult
for him to go to trial.
REPORTER:
It was an emotional day
for the VanOostens,
but in the end,
they got the justice
they were looking for.
42-year-old Chad Schipper
sentenced to 60 years,
the rest of his life
in prison.
TIM: We couldn't cheer.
It was in a courtroom.
But when we got outside
the courtroom, we did.
[soft piano music]
It was glorious.
He was 42 at the time.
He ain't coming home.
GRACE: When I heard that
his sentence was 60 years...
I was glad
because that meant
that if he was angry
about being in jail,
if he was angry about
my mom divorcing him,
he wouldn't be able
to act on it.
DONIELLE: I specifically
do remember being
in the courtroom with him.
And I remember at one point,
he was looking over
at me and mouthing the words,
"I love you."
And I remember thinking,
no, you don't love me.
It's just another lie.
And it made me feel
really gross for him
to be mouthing that to me.
Like, how dare you
say that to me.
ANDREA:
Chad got a hefty penalty,
60 years without parole.
And the DA decided
not to bring any other charges
against Chad because he was
already serving, essentially,
a life sentence, and
the VanOostens got justice.
DONIELLE: So I have not spoken
with him since his arrest.
But Chad wrote me a lot
of letters from jail.
[tense music]
All of them were full
of manipulations.
ANDREA: So, Donielle
was receiving letters
from Chad for a while,
and then
she started getting letters
from an individual
named Elouisa Mae.
Elouisa Mae was a character
that Chad created,
like this Southern lady
that was really proper.
Here's a sample of what was
written in those letters.
"Donielle, it is good to be
"a-talkin' with you
again, missy.
"I pray you are a-doin' well.
"I hope your little ones are
a-findin' time to be kids
in this world
we are a-livin' in."
- This Elouisa Mae character,
her husband had been arrested
or had done something
for which Elouisa Mae
did not forgive him,
and because of that,
her husband had k*lled himself,
and this Elouisa Mae was
really concerned for Donielle
because she felt that Donielle
might be going down that path.
And if she didn't forgive Chad
and take him back
as her husband,
then Chad might k*ll himself.
ANDREA: "Enough chit-chat.
"Down to brass tacks,
sugar plumb.
"What Charlie did caused
our family to suffer,
"but what I did
destroyed our family.
"I thought I was being brave
when I ended our marriage,
"but I was still
being a coward.
What I really needed
to do was to forgive."
- It was obviously Chad saying,
you better take me back
or I'm gonna do something.
- How she should
grant him forgiveness.
- When you're writing,
even if you have that accent,
you don't write it
as the accent.
[laughs]
CHRIS:
He's writing these letters,
trying to pull on
their heartstrings,
that this woman went through
a similar experience,
and she found it
in her heart to forgive,
and these letters
are trying to convince them
to have some sympathy.
ANDREA:
What I really think is,
I don't think
he thought very highly
of Donielle and her intellect,
and I think that Chad thought
that he could manipulate
Donielle into doing whatever,
or it just shows that
he's completely divorced
from reality.
[somber music]
DONIELLE: A lot of
the time that I spent
right afterwards was trying to
understand my healing process,
and how am I gonna
move forward from this?
I did a lot of
self-help reading,
and in the midst of that,
I also think that
God gave me peace.
It's an indescribable quiet
that I felt in my soul.
It's gonna be okay.
And over time, I moved on.
RANDLIN:
Donielle and I had--
every once in a while,
we would talk about love
and whether or not
she would ever find love again.
And she was always,
absolutely not.
I have no interest.
I cannot trust anyone again.
And then, actually,
not that long later,
she pulled me aside
and she said,
"So, I've sort of been
talking to Billy."
And I was like, Billy?
That's awesome.
[gentle music]
DONIELLE: Billy and I met
when we were teenagers.
But we were really young
and our lives just
kind of went separate ways.
And then after
all of this happened,
we started talking
through text,
and the talks got longer.
I had started having
feelings for him.
Turns out, he also
had feelings for me.
Our relationship
just developed,
and he ended up asking me
to marry him. [laughs]
And I'm now married to the
first love of my life, Billy.
[laughs]
♪ ♪
GRACE:
Our mom has grown so much.
She's a stronger person.
She's more confident.
She laughs more now,
especially now that Billy
is in our house.
I see so much happiness in her
that I never saw before.
I love her laugh so much.
- Donielle is
a much stronger person
since this whole thing
happened.
She's so strong now.
ANDREA:
Donielle, I'm so grateful
that you reached out to us.
- It was really
important for me.
I want people to know that
even if they don't
find love again,
they can still find joy again.
I was finding joy
in lots of things,
my children, lots of things
that I really, really enjoyed.
And then finding
Billy again was
just like icing on the cake.
[laughs]
ANDREA: Yeah.
It's such a cute love story,
I have to say.
- And I want people
to know that they can
build themselves up
and have a happy life again.
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