02x01 - Knight in Shining Armor

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[breathes deeply]

[crying]

♪ ♪

[sobbing]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[sobbing]

♪ ♪

[sobbing]

♪ ♪

ASHLEY:
September 29, 2021.

♪ ♪

My husband called me
and asked me

to set up
a Venmo account for him.

♪ ♪

I didn't do it right away,

but he called me back
pretty frantic.

[phone rings]

I could tell
he was really anxious.

So I was like,
what's he hiding?

♪ ♪

Then I saw the hidden folder.

I opened it.

♪ ♪

And I couldn't believe
my f*cking eyes.

♪ ♪

My name's Ashley Lytton,

and I had
a really terrible experience

happen to the kids and I.

♪ ♪

I just felt alone.

And then I found Betrayal,
the podcast.

♪ ♪

And it was something
that I recognized,

and I was so grateful for that.

I needed to be heard also.

♪ ♪

I decided to write
to the podcast team.

When I wrote, I felt like,

if I was having
such a hard time finding

my people to talk to
about this, my groups,

there has to be other women
out there like me as well.

♪ ♪

ANDREA: One of my favorite
things from that letter is,

"Perhaps another is in my shoes
and really needs a friend

"like I have found
in all the podcast episodes

I listened to."

It's true.

♪ ♪

- Ashley didn't want to live
a life of feeling embarrassed.

She wanted to take control
of her story.

And so it started out as that

and kind of grew
into this bigger thing.

I had the opportunity
to give a voice to victims

and spotlight how our
criminal justice system works.

And here we are.

♪ ♪

I live here in Utah.

I had a very wonderful
childhood.

♪ ♪

- I had three daughters
and a son,

but she was always
rambunctious.

♪ ♪

- She was just always
getting in trouble

and always a little wild child.

- We were just
really adventurous and had fun.

♪ ♪

ASHLEY:
When I was about nine

is when Mom was first diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis.

And the disease
hit her so quickly.

♪ ♪

ANNA: Her whole left side
of her body quit working.

She was all
but maybe 90 pounds.

That made it so Ashley
and Maranda had to, you know,

raise us.

ASHLEY: I don't know
if there was really, like,

an outlet until I was 14

and I got a boyfriend.

♪ ♪

I remember the first time
that I saw Matt.

He and his friend
were getting in trouble

outside of my math class.

And I was like, he's handsome.

♪ ♪

We began dating.

I was a different person
when I was with him.

He was my outlet.

He was my reprieve.

♪ ♪

After we got out
of high school,

we were young
and reckless,

and that's how we got pregnant
with Avaya.

♪ ♪

So we had Avaya, and it was
such a beautiful time for us.

♪ ♪

I think he really flourished
in that role as my partner

and Avaya's father.

♪ ♪

But it became
a little bit too much,

just the pressure of all of it,

and he had started
using drugs.

♪ ♪

I was getting ready
to leave Matt,

and then we...

accidentally got pregnant
with my son.

♪ ♪

So he kind of sunk deeper
and deeper into this,

like, depression.

♪ ♪

He kind of cracked.

♪ ♪

I had a choice,

you know, either him
or my children,

and I chose my kids.

So at this point in my life,
I'm 23

and a single mom
with two children.

So I took on full-time work
as a waitress.

And after
every Saturday night rush,

this really handsome guy
would come in and get a shake.

♪ ♪

And I'm terrible at flirting,

but I always felt like
he was flirting with me.

♪ ♪

EMMY: So every time
he would come in,

Ashley's coworkers
would--would tease

that her
milkshake boyfriend was--

[laughs] Was in.

- For him, he didn't get
a small shake.

He got a large shake
for the small shake price.

♪ ♪

Sometime later,
when I walked in for my shift,

I awkwardly made eye contact

with the new guy
I was gonna be training.

♪ ♪

Then it dawned on me
I knew who he was.

I'm like, oh, my gosh,
you're my shake boyfriend.

♪ ♪

He'd went through,
like, a huge glow-up.

Lost, like, 60 pounds
and started working out.

But he looked like a meathead.

I mean, he had spiky hair,

and he was, like,
super muscly,

and, like, you could tell
he, like, pinned his shirt

around his muscles,
and super tan skin.

And I was, like, automatically
just annoyed with his presence.

His name was Jason.

So over the next
probably, like, week or so,

Jason wouldn't leave me alone.

Like, he just would
follow me around.

So I finally looked at Jason,
and I was like,

what do you want?

He was like, I--I just want
to get to know you.

And I was like,
well, let's get to know you.

What do you like?
What can you do?

And Jason goes,
well, I can sing.

And I was like, perfect.
[snaps fingers]

I thought,
I'm gonna embarrass him

and, like, knock his ego down,
and then he'll leave me alone.

And he busts out
a beautiful song.

- ♪ It's a cold
and it's a broken hallelujah ♪

[light applause]

- I just looked at him,
and I was like,

I'll have lunch with you
right now, today.

[light applause]

[indistinct chatter]

We sat there
for hours and hours.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

It turns out,
he knew my sister Maranda.

MARANDA: She was like,
hey, there's a kid

that works at my restaurant
that knows you.

She told me his name,
Jason Lytton.

I was like, oh.
Oh, my gosh, yeah.

PERSON 1:
Oh, get off the field, Ash.

PERSON 2:
Yeah!

PERSON 3: Jason's like,
I'm gonna get you.

PERSON 1:
Whoo!

[indistinct chatter]

MARANDA: Jason and I met
in junior high.

We all kind of ran around
with the same crowd.

He played football,

and he was friends
with all the cool kids.

♪ ♪

He was always really nice.

Everybody liked
being around him.

ASHLEY: Her first reaction
was, marry him.

Marry him.

He comes from a good family,
and he's a good person.

♪ ♪

We began to date.

It was really, like, natural.

♪ ♪

There was one night
in particular--

it was probably
our third date--

I'd invited him over
to my house to watch a movie.

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

It was the first night
the children met Jason,

and my ex, Matt,
showed up at my house.

[tense music]

And at this point, Matt is not
in a good place mentally,

and I was scared of him.

♪ ♪

He was banging on my windows.

[banging]

And Jason was holding me,

and I was, like,
physically shaking.

And he told me,
I'll never leave you.

♪ ♪

You never have to be
afraid of him again.

You deserve to be happy too.

And I think that was
the first time, like,

I'd really considered, like,

I could actually be happy.

♪ ♪

Jason moved in with me
two weeks later.

- Hi, guys.
My name's Jason Lytton.

I was born
in West Valley City, Utah.

I've lived
in the United States

my entire life,

and I have lived in Utah
my entire life.

[dynamic music]

♪ ♪

JOHN:
Ashley calls me and tells me,

I've met this real cool guy,
you know?

Don't bring him home
unless you're pretty serious,

you know?

Well, we met him pretty quick.

♪ ♪

ANNA: We all just thought
the world of him.

Like, wow, he's coming
into this, like, relationship

with this ex who's unstable

and still is loving my sister.

JOHN: I started thinking,
oh, my gosh,

this is her knight
in shining armor.

When Jason moved in with me,

he was phenomenal
with my children.

♪ ♪

Jason's goofy and silly
and is a prankster,

so he won Avaya over
real quick.

She was just over
two years old.

He would let her, like,
put her crowns on him

or put lipstick on him,

or, you know,
he would chase her around.

♪ ♪

My son at this point
is about five months old,

so he's still a baby.

So all Jason had to do

was have my son's
special bottle

and feed him.

Becoming a father for him
was just second nature.

He was wonderful at it.

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

This is close to the time
when, um,

Jason and I had started--

we'd maybe been dating for
less than a year at this point,

but she just was--

ANDREA:
Look at her holding his head.

ASHLEY:
Yeah.

She really loved him.

- When you think
about moments like that

and knowing
what a father he was

to those kids, your kids...

[dramatic music]

Could you ever imagine
that he would

ultimately do what he did?

♪ ♪

Absolutely not.

♪ ♪

[bright music]

♪ ♪

JOHN:
Jason came to me

and told me
that he loved Ashley.

He was asking me
for permission:

is it OK for me
to marry your daughter?

And I told him, I'd be honored
to be your father-in-law.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

ASHLEY:
We take a trip out to Moab.

♪ ♪

We went out
on a ten-hour Jeep safari.

And we all pulled
into this cove-looking thing.

♪ ♪

Beautiful.
I mean, stunning.

Stunning, beautiful.

♪ ♪

And Jason was like,
Ashley, come here.

And when I turned back around,
he was down on one knee.

♪ ♪

And I think I said
something like, shut up.

And he asked me
if I would be his wife.

And I said, hell yes.

♪ ♪

[light music]

♪ ♪

The wedding was so much fun.

ANNA:
It was beautiful,

her and my dad
walking down the aisle.

♪ ♪

They did a cute
little dance walk.

♪ ♪

JOHN: I remember
she was just so happy,

just so beautiful.

It was a happy moment
for everybody.

SINGER: ♪ Now walk it out,
walk it out ♪

♪ Walk it out, walk it out ♪

♪ West side, walk it out ♪

♪ South side, walk it out ♪

MARANDA:
Everything was, like, perfect.

There was a lot of dancing.

SINGER:
♪ Tonight, hey, hey ♪

♪ Hey-ey-ey-ey ♪

ASHLEY: There was a specific
moment during our wedding

that I looked at Jason

and I looked down
at my two children.

[light music]

It was at that moment that
I realized that this was real

and that was my husband
and this was our family.

♪ ♪

I just felt so--

so grateful and whole.

♪ ♪

JOHN:
I told him, it's official.

Now you're one of my sons.

He said, I love her, and I'll
take care of her, John.

And I thought,
this is it, you know?

You ain't gonna have to worry
about her no more, you know?

She'll be good.

♪ ♪

MARANDA:
When they were first married,

they seemed to navigate things
really well.

And then they moved
to Herriman.

♪ ♪

JOHN: I remember them
talking to me about a house

and how big it was.

ASHLEY: It was, like,
in this shiny, new, safe,

white picket fence area.

I was like, this is perfect.

This is what I want
for my kids.

[laughter]

[dance music playing]

- Jason was really engaging
with the family.

[upbeat music]

Whenever we went
to family activities,

Jason was always there.

We would play games together,
have fun, joke around.

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

♪ ♪

EMMY:
He's the life of the party.

[laughs]

- When he walks in,
the whole room

just kind of goes wild.

[cheers and applause]

- We made a decision that we
wanted to try to have a baby.

[light music]

We got pregnant right away--

like, right away.

♪ ♪

I was really happy that he
was able to experience it

and I was able
to experience it with him.

♪ ♪

When my daughter, our
youngest daughter, was born,

that was what was going to,
like, finish our circle.

♪ ♪

JASON:
Hi, Livvie.

ASHLEY: Hi, sweetie.
Daddy will get to hold you.

Yeah.
Welcome to our world.

After that, it was just busy.

We just stayed busy.

♪ ♪

Jason decided to pursue
a career being an electrician,

and I started working
a desk job.

♪ ♪

Go, Vee!

Good job!
Oh! Oh!

JASON:
[laughs]

[laughs]

- You know, the kids
are starting to grow up now.

They start getting
into athletics.

ASHLEY:
We put Avaya into soccer.

My Waya is number 21.

Oh, love that girl.

Vaya!

Vaya, wave at me!

♪ ♪

She won't wave at me, will she?

Whoo!

[laughs]

And we put my son
into football.

By our son's third year
in football,

Jason decided to become
the head coach.

- Everybody get in.
Everybody get in.

Hey!
[speaking indistinctly]

But everybody get in here.

JOHN:
Great coach.

Knew how to play football.

In fact, I think they won
a championship

for two years in a row
with him coaching.

- Are we gonna come back?
PLAYERS: Yeah!

- We gonna give


PLAYERS:
Yeah!

- That's what I want
to hear, guys.

Is football easy?
PLAYERS: No!

- But is it fun?
PLAYERS: Yeah!

ASHLEY: The boys really,
really respected him.

So did their parents.

ALL: Herriman!
ASHLEY: Whoo!

He was very patient
with those kids.

And those kids trusted him,

and he could hype them up.

[indistinct chatter]

Every single game, Jason would
huddle the kids all around,

and it would start out as,
like, this little chant.

JASON: Who are we?
PLAYERS: Sentinels!

JASON: How do we hit?
PLAYERS: Hard!

ASHLEY: And then he'd get
louder and louder and louder

with his different things,
and the boys were pumped.

PLAYERS: Yeah!
JASON: Who are we?

PLAYERS: Sentinels!
JASON: Who?

- And then the kids
would just take off

'cause Jason would be like,
go get 'em!

Go get em!

[cheers and applause]

ASHLEY:
It was electric.

[cheers and applause]

[somber music]

♪ ♪

This is the football field
that we were at, you know,

three or four times a week.

ANDREA:
And Jason coached here?

ASHLEY:
Yeah.

[indistinct shouting]

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

Um, you know, and we had built
such a family here with--

you know, with the boys
and with their families.

So football's always
such a positive part

of our relationship
and our family

that to have something so ugly

almost, like, paint over--

you know, over the happiness
and the good,

you know, is--is kind of hard.

It's really hard to, like,
wash that ugly away

to remember, you know,
what good was done, you know,

like, on this field
with those boys.

♪ ♪

Everything felt right.

[cheers and applause]

Good job, guys!

Yeah!

What just happened?

I won the state championship.

- You won
the state championship.

How many state championships
is that for you?

Whoo!

We had been married
for six years

and together for ten.

And then...

he started...

kind of...

retreating into himself.

[tense music]

As Avaya began doing
competitive sports,

she got the opportunity
to travel with those sports,

and he didn't want
to go with us.

♪ ♪

ANNA: He wouldn't come
to family parties.

He wouldn't come
on family trips.

And he just, like,
kind of disappeared.

JOHN:
He was staying home.

We started going over
to Ashley's house.

He wouldn't come
out of the bedroom.

♪ ♪

He wasn't always working.

- He was telling, like,
these outlandish lies

about why he couldn't
go to work,

like, my daughter is
in the hospital with pneumonia.

- You know, he's not paying
attention to her, the kids.

♪ ♪

He was hiding something.

I started asking Ashley
questions about it.

I felt like, OK,
something's wrong here.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

ASHLEY: Jason's whole
mentality had shifted.

♪ ♪

I just thought
that he was really depressed,

and I really thought
that he was just really unhappy

that he chose me
to be his partner

and that this was our life.

And it made me really sad.

- When I noticed things
kind of changing,

I thought about how,
when we were in high school,

his father committed suicide.

I was worried about him.

♪ ♪

ASHLEY:
Jason was diagnosed with ADD.

He was prescribed Adderall.

And then to help
with his depression,

he was prescribed Prozac.

♪ ♪

ANNA:
Knowing the amount of stress

that comes with trying
to get a divorce,

it--it just wasn't worth it
to her.

I remember her telling me,
like, basically,

this is my bed.

I'm gonna sleep in it.

♪ ♪

ASHLEY: At this point,
he picked up some hobbies.

♪ ♪

One of them was,
he liked to stargaze,

and he had put
this star app on his phone

and would often go
in our muddy, gross backyard

to look at stars.

And I was not gonna go
in the backyard with him

to do that ever.

♪ ♪

- And he started making
all these weird drawings.

[pencil scratching]

♪ ♪

ASHLEY:
Like, sexual comics.

♪ ♪

The females, you could see,
like, their breasts

through the material
that he had drawn.

And he became obsessed with it.

♪ ♪

Like, my family would
come over, and it was awkward.

He followed Anna out the door

while she's, like,
trying to leave,

and he has his comic books.

♪ ♪

ANNA: I remember looking
at them and thinking, like,

what is this?

- She left,
and I finally was like,

you are being f*cking weird.

Like, what's wrong?
Like, why are you doing that?

And he was like,
I'm being weird?

And I think it was the first
time, like, he realized

that something
had shifted within him.

because he was
really self-conscious of that.

[pencil scratching]

♪ ♪

[exciting music]

NEWSCASTER:
Good evening.

As we come on the air
in the west tonight,

President Trump addressing
the American people

just a short time ago
as the toll of the coronavirus

widens here in the U.S.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

ASHLEY: Then the COVID
lockdown happened,

and something changed in Jason.

After two years
of not doing anything,

all the sudden,
the Jason I knew reappeared.

[indistinct chatter]

[blower whirring]

PERSON: God!
ASHLEY: Nothing? Nothing?

And he's like, listen,
this is what we're gonna do.

We need to go get food.
We need to go get water.

We need to go get toilet paper.

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

I saw this, like, leader
of our family all the sudden.

He was there.

Keep your feet up, sis.

And I was like, this is great.

- [grunts]
ASHLEY: Oh.

The COVID lockdown
made us be together.

[laughter]

[smooching]

ASHLEY: We had spent
so many years being apart

and doing sports
and doing this and doing that

that, like, now we were all
forced to, like,

really hang out again
for the first time

in a few years, you know?

And we enjoyed each other,
and it was fun.

[light music]

ASHLEY:
I was happy.

He seemed happy.

There was actually emotion
out of him,

because prior to this, like,

there was no emotion
out of him.

He wasn't happy.
He wasn't sad.

He wasn't mad.
He wasn't anything.

- Their relationship
did improve.

- He focused
on the family again

and being there for Ashley.

And Ashley saw him as who she
saw him as in the beginning.

ALL:
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

PERSON 1:
You realize we were singing

to the best singer
in the whole group.

[laughter]

PERSON 2:
But you look like a monkey.

Thank you.

ASHLEY: Love you.
JASON: Love you.

ASHLEY:
Right around that same time,

Jason had accepted a position

as an electrician
with a man who owned, like,

a smaller electrical business.

♪ ♪

JASON: The way that I would
describe myself is,

I'm very outgoing.

I like to have fun.

I'm a hard worker.

When I put my--my mind
to something,

I--I work as hard as I can

to achieve the goals
that I have.

I'm really big into teamwork,
and, you know,

I think that people need
to enjoy to be around you.

You need to be able to enjoy
the stuff that you do.

You need to be able
to go to work

and enjoy what you're doing,
and that's important to me.

ASHLEY:
When Jason's boss decided

he was going to retire,

he had asked Jason if he'd be
interested in his business.

♪ ♪

He wasn't selling it to him.

He was giving him his business.

♪ ♪

ANNA:
There were established clients

and different companies that
they would be working with,

you know,
residential and commercial.

- And we were like, hell yeah.
Hell yeah.

I mean, it was gonna be
a really great opportunity.

♪ ♪

I'd even been able
to do a forecast

of what potentially
we would make

for the first two years
based off of

his boss' financial records.

I had forecasted
our life changing.

[indistinct chatter]

Say, thank you
for coming to my party.

- Thank you
for coming to my party.

ASHLEY:
September 29, 2021.

[dramatic music]

I was working from home
off of my laptop,

and Jason called me...

[phone rings]

And let me know that he had
his first client the next day

and that client had requested
to pay via Venmo.

And so he asked me to set up
a business Venmo account.

But I kind of just
let it go for a minute

'cause I was doing
something different.

[keyboard keys clacking]

[phone rings]

He called back within minutes
and was frantic.

♪ ♪

It wasn't like the last call,

where he was just
kind of mundane about it.

It was more like,
don't worry about it.

It's fine.

We'll do this together
when I get home.

We can set it up together.

I knew something was weird.

Like, I could tell
that he was trying not to

let me on to the fact
that he was sh1tting his pants.

I was like,
I'm gonna figure out

what the hell
he's hiding from me.

And...

♪ ♪

[keyboard keys clacking]

I got into
his iCloud account.

♪ ♪

And then I saw
the hidden folder.

♪ ♪

I opened it.

I literally didn't believe
what I was seeing.

♪ ♪

I knew it was, like,
the beginning of something

really, really, really big.

♪ ♪

My life will never be the same.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- I found this--

really awful things
on my husband's

iCloud account.

♪ ♪

The hidden folder
had photos in it,

hundreds of inappropriate
photos of children.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I didn't look
at all of them,

but I did look
at the first few.

♪ ♪

The first photo
that I looked at,

there's a prepubescent child,

naked, and...

♪ ♪

[sighs]
I don't think I can say it.

I'm sorry.

I can't say it.

- It's--it's that terrible.

- Yeah, I can feel
my blood in my head.

I'm sorry.
I just need a break.

Wow.

- Yeah.
Thank you.

Felt like I was gonna
pass out for a second.

[sighs]

♪ ♪

SETE:
My name is Sete Aula'i.

I work for the
attorney general's office

for the state of Utah.

I'm a section chief

in the Internet Crimes
Against Children Unit.

Pictures found in Mr. Lytton's
iCloud account

are all CSAM,
child sexual abuse material.

♪ ♪

We don't use that term
"child p*rn*graphy."

In adult p*rn*graphy,
those are willing participants

who are consenting
to that act.

With child p*rn*graphy,
a child cannot consent.

In the United States
for the year 2023,

there were over 45 million
CSAM reports made.

ANDREA:
And of those reports,

only around 100,000
result in an arrest.

SETE:
It is an epidemic here

and across the world,
honestly.

This is terrible stuff.

♪ ♪

- I didn't look at it
long enough to even, like,

comprehend what I saw.

I slammed the computer shut

and instantly felt like

I was filthy;
I was dirty.

♪ ♪

I went and got in the shower
and said a prayer.

God, like, I'm ready.

♪ ♪

Whatever's happening
needs to end.

♪ ♪

And I got out of the shower
and called Ann.

♪ ♪

ANNA:
It was a workday.

I was at home in my office.

I FaceTimed her.

[device ringing]

- And she said, hey, I--I think
I saw something weird

on Jason's iCloud.

And I remember being like,
well, what do you mean?

- And I told her,
I don't even have

the words for what I found,

but I think I found
child p*rn*graphy.

And she was like, no.

On Jason's?

And I was like, yes.

♪ ♪

ANNA: She described a photo
that she had seen,

and it looked like it was
a little girl's body

with an adult woman's face.

♪ ♪

- And I told her, let me take
a couple screenshots,

and I'll send them to you,
and tell me,

like, what you see,
like, what you think.

ANNA: I saw her face,
and I just saw, like,

you know,
her brows furrow.

And then she put her hand
to her mouth and, like, gasped.

And she said something like,
there are so many, Ann.

- There are--
- So many photos.

♪ ♪

I just took three screenshots,
the first things that I saw.

[camera shutter snapping]

ANNA:
I saw some of them.

Um--

sorry, it's--it's hard to--

I--I don't like this part.

♪ ♪

Obviously, it's still
upsetting to me,

and it's one of those memories
that I hope I forget

and goes away in--in time,

that I can't even remember
what it looked like.

Um, but I remember it well
right now.

- She just said, Ash,
this is--this is really bad.

♪ ♪

ANNA: Ashley started
getting really upset.

♪ ♪

She started moving around
a lot and saying,

I got to get out of here.

- It dawned on me
in that moment

that Jason, like,
had been texting me

while I was on the phone
with Ann.

[phone dinging]

And then he started calling me
over and over and over.

[phone ringing]

I felt scared.

[ringing continues]

[phone dings]

I just went to this really
dark place where I was like,

I needed to get the f*ck
out of there.

♪ ♪

He would k*ll me
before he would let me

tell anyone this part of him.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

ASHLEY:
Jason's pride and his ego

meant so much to him
that there is no way in hell

that he was gonna let me
tell anybody his secret.

So in my head, I thought he was
gonna k*ll me or something.

♪ ♪

ANNA: She kept saying,
he's gonna find out

that I've seen these;
he's gonna k*ll me.

And I was like, OK, hold on.
Slow down.

Calm down. Calm down.
And she was not calming down.

♪ ♪

So I just told her,
go to Cat, our stepmom,

because she worked
at the prison,

which isn't that far
from here.

I wanted her to go to Cathie

so that Cathie
could look at them

and really determine, like, is
this as bad as we think it is?

And also, I just needed someone

to, like, be there
to calm her down.

I couldn't get to her quickly.

♪ ♪

ASHLEY: The children were
at school, and so I left

with my hair in a towel,
with slippers on.

I left the TV on.

I left everything
the way it was.

I just grabbed my keys,
and I left.

♪ ♪

I drove to Cathie's work,

and she was walking out
as I pulled in.

♪ ♪

CATHIE: For several years now,
I have worked

in the Department
of Corrections.

And so one of the reasons why
I have asked to be silhouetted

is because I just feel
like it's better for my--

my own safety
and my protection.

♪ ♪

Ashley had pulled in,
and she got out of her car.

♪ ♪

And she was--
she was crying,

and she was just walking
towards me,

but her legs
looked like rubber.

And her face looked
like she was devastated.

♪ ♪

ASHLEY: She was the first
other person

that, like, I physically saw,
you know?

And so she held on to me,
and I felt like I melted.

We both started crying.

She didn't even know what
the hell she was about to see.

♪ ♪

So we got in the car,
and I showed her the photos.

♪ ♪

- Where I work,
I have to screen photos

that would go in to inmates

of girls that appear
to be too young

or nudity,
those types of things.

So when Ashley showed me
the photos, the screenshots,

I could tell they were not 18,
no way.

♪ ♪

I was, like, so taken back.

I cared a lot about Jason.

I loved him.

I could not even believe
that he would have done that.

I'm like, oh, my God.

He is in so much
fricking trouble.

- I asked her--
I'm like, what do I do now?

- We both together started
talking about Jason's brother.

- She's like, well, I think
that you should call Justin.

♪ ♪

He works in law enforcement,

and he's somebody that I trust

and have often went to
for, like, advice.

It was a no-brainer for me.
That's what I was gonna do.

♪ ♪

- So in her car,
sitting in her car,

she called him.

ASHLEY: I was serious,
and I was like,

I need you
to meet me right now.

And he was on duty.

♪ ♪

So we met not too far away
from where I was.

He's like,
well, what's going on?

I was like,
you just have to see this.

♪ ♪

So I showed him,
and he instantly just, like,

looked and was like,
oh, OK, OK.

Like, he didn't want to even--
didn't want to look at it.

Like, he looked at it
for a split second.

And he's like,
OK, well, calm down.

You don't even know
what that is.

Those girls are all
probably 18.

He was saying, like,
they were legal

but they're probably
just barely 18,

and you don't know
what you're seeing.

And then he said,
don't go jump off the deep end

and go tell your whole family.

Let me talk to Jason first,

because this is definitely
not what it looks like.

Let's wait.

And I was like, OK.

You know, OK.

And then I thought,
he totally just gaslit me.

♪ ♪

It was a conflict of interest
for Justin, really.

I mean, this is his brother,
but then he has his job.

♪ ♪

I wanted to get away from him.

♪ ♪

Justin gets in his car
to leave,

and I go to get in my car
to leave,

and I'm hyperventilating.

And I start feeling
really, really numb,

like, and tingly,
like, that feeling you get

when you feel like
you're gonna pass out

but you're not sure.

And my shoulder hurt, and,
like, my chest physically hurt.

♪ ♪

And then my left side
of my body

kind of just went, like, limp.

So I called Anna,
and I'm like,

I think I'm having
a heart attack.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

ANNA: Ashley called me
and told me

she was having pain
in her chest.

And she asked me,
what--what do I do?

And I said, just go to the ER,
and I'll meet you there.

♪ ♪

So I went to the hospital,

and I just walked up
to the gal

that was sitting there,
and I'm like,

I think I'm having
a heart attack.

♪ ♪

So they wheeled me back
to my own room.

♪ ♪

And that's about the time
that Anna showed up.

♪ ♪

[monitor beeping]

♪ ♪

ANNA: I found her, and we both
just started crying,

and I hugged her.

♪ ♪

At that point,
a nurse came in and said

her heart rate was, like, 188.

It was really high.

[monitor beeping]

They gave her meds
to try to calm her down.

ASHLEY: But the doctor
was pretty positive

it was just a panic attack.

♪ ♪

- At the same time,
Jason was also texting her.

♪ ♪

[phone dinging]

She's sitting in this hospital
bed, and he's texting her.

[phone dinging]

♪ ♪

I remember him texting
something like,

I know I've been
a terrible husband.

[phone dinging]

He was, like,
trying to acknowledge,

you know,
some of his misgivings.

♪ ♪

[phone dings]

[sobbing]

♪ ♪

I love you guys.

I love my family,
and I'm sorry.

[sobbing]

ANNA: It really did seem
like he was trying to just,

like, soften her up
so she wouldn't do anything,

you know, like report it
to the police.

Then my phone rang.

[phone ringing]

It was Justin,
Jason's brother.

And Ann was like,
you probably shouldn't--

like, don't answer it.

[ringing continues]

I text him, and I told Justin--

I said, I can't
answer my phone.

I'm actually
at the hospital.

♪ ♪

And I don't want
to talk to Jason.

♪ ♪

So tell him to please quit
calling me and quit texting me.

[phone dings]

Justin wrote back, are you OK?

I'm gonna meet Jason
at your house.

He's gonna grab
a couple things,

and he's gonna come
stay with me for the night

to give you some space,
to let you cool down.

♪ ♪

[phone dings]

♪ ♪

I was pissed.

I really thought that he
was gonna, like, tell me,

this is what you do next.

♪ ♪

About that time, a police
officer walked into the room.

[monitor beeping]

He's like, I understand
there's some type

of domestic issue in here.

And Anna and I
looked at each other.

♪ ♪

And Ann's like, no,
but we need to report a crime.

♪ ♪

And I told him what I found.

♪ ♪

So the police officer notified
the proper jurisdiction.

♪ ♪

I discharged myself, and we
walked out of the hospital.

♪ ♪

I received a phone call
from Detective Ruch

as I was leaving the hospital.

He asked me if we could meet

around 9:00 p.m.
at the station.

♪ ♪

While I was there, I found out
that Jason's behavior

was more deviant
and way worse

than I ever
could have imagined.

♪ ♪

EMMY:
Never in a million years

did I ever think that Jason
was capable

of doing something
so horrific.

♪ ♪